The Most Weirdly Structured Games

[BrotherRool]

So I thought Alpha Protocol was a bit unique, intercutting the game with scenes from an interrogation at a point in the future, talking about the events going on in the game.

I had not played Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. In Peace Walker, you play the main game, the story ends, the credits roll and it looks like you get sent back for the normal opportunity to complete sidequests retry older missions etc.

Except when you start playing it and do a few missions, people start calling you and updating you about new events, it's clear the story is continuing from where it left off. New main missions appear, characters from the game proceed with the story arc and a new plot emerges with a new ending.


I haven't played a game close to this weirdly structured since MGS2 which has two separate segments of the game with their own plots and infamously, different protagonists and the order you played them depended on your knowledge of the franchise up till that point.

So any other games with really weird structures?

 

[StashAugustine]

I came to this thread with the express purpose of posting "Alpha Protocol! It does a framed narrative in a game that has a wildly divergent plot and..." yeah. Anyway, Hotline Miami does a similar thing to Peace Walker: there's a post credits level. And then another one. And then you kill the protagonist at the game's halfway point. And then there's two more missions and you get a different ending. And it's still pretty bad, but that's another story.

 

[silver wolf009]

I'm going to say the AVP games, at least for narrative aspects.

All three stories happen roughly at the same time, although the xenomorph story in AVP 2010 starts and ends earlier than the other two, and they intertwine.

For example, in AVP 2, during the predator campaign, you are captured at one point. You later see yourself, both as the xenomorph, and Frosty, the marine. Their meddling with your pod frees you.

That's really cool, seeing what your actions do for the other side of the affected parties.

 

[Zendervai]

Well, the first Ar Tonelico was kind of odd. The game has a proper ending, albeit a bittersweet one, complete with credits, and then it turns out like half the game is left.

Solatorobo is similar. It feels like the game and its sequel were bundled together. There's even a new gameplay mechanic added to the second half.

Oh, and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. The game has a normal setup, but the new-game plus adds a ton of extra story.

 

[sethisjimmy]

Killer7 is easily the oddest structure I've seen in a game. And it works extremely well IMO. I wouldn't even be able to begin to properly describe the bizarre, disjointed structure, but I can say it's well worth experiencing.

 

[InvaderTim]

I'm going to go for a certain moment in Batman Arkham City where you basically get the option to

Spoiler

refuse to save the day and end the game with credit sequence and everything, as you listen to news reports explaining the consequence of your decision, albeit before the credits end it all rewinds to before your curiosity got the best of you and lets you continue the story as normal.

Also Antichamber if that counts, that game is a labyrinth of non linearity.

 

[Innegativeion]

Oh, and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. The game has a normal setup, but the new-game plus adds a ton of extra story.

SMT seems to be good at this. The "do one thing per day, for x number of days, with certain events on certain days" as seen in Personas 3 and 4 is, to the best of my knowledge, unique to the franchise, at least in the way it was done there.

And going along with this theme of limited days, Majora's mask and its time travel/ groundhog day plot, 3 days-till-apocalypse cycle, and characters that follow a set schedule for all 3 days. Never really seen another game like it... Lightning returns might be rudimentary similar to it, with less time travel, but I doubt it'll be nearly as good.