What games that you have played have genuinely great stories?

[SoranMBane]

Portal 1 & 2
Half-Life 2 and Episodes
Shadow of the Colossus
Call of Duty 4
Grand Theft Auto IV (would have been better if they hadn't made it a sandbox game, though)
Bioshock 1 (at least it was ambitious, even if it falls apart in quite a few places)
Assassin's Creed 1 & 2
Dead Space 2 (mostly found it engaging for personal reasons, though, and I can see how it might not have the same effect on everyone)
Red Dead Redemption
Iji (it's a freeware game, but a great one)
Mass Effect 1 & 2
Silent Hill 2
Fallout: New Vegas

That's just the ones I can think of and not counting all the great adventure games out there, or games that don't have a "story" in the usual sense, but still have powerful themes and a great sense of narrative all the same (Flower and Missile Command come to mind). Honestly, people don't give games enough credit in this area.

EDIT: Totally and utterly forgot about Echo Bazaar for some reason. Fallen London has to be one of the most interesting places any game has let me live in.

 

[MisterShine]

There's a massive lack of The Longest Journey and Planescape: Torment in this thread.

I'd also say Arcanum, I'm not sure I'd call it "great", but its definitely weird and there isn't much else like it in terms of theme and plot. So yeah, I'll go with that too.

Plus there's plenty of other examples that are already listed, I won't go over them again.

edit:

PERSONA FUCKING 3 I cried 3 times playing that game, and I almost never cry, NEVER.

Amen brotha'. Manly tears were shed :'(

 

[Brandon237]

Fallout: New Vegas, Mass Effect 1 and 2.
And I also thought the last line of Crysis 2 in relation to the story was... very chilling and brilliant. I was actually taken back at that, made that Quick Time thing at the end very much worth it.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Bioshock. It was the only game where the twist didn't seem both stupidly contrived or utterly predictable.

Shadow of the Colossus, for such amazing simplicity.

The Witcher 2. Wonderfully complex with shifting motivations and a decent enigma like mystery. Amnesia is never a good plot device though.

DA: O. A pretty epic tale, worthy of old school legend almost no matter how you played it.

ME though it got a bit worse in the second one.

I think that's about it for what I've played.

 

[sb666]

silent hill 1 2 3 and 4
shadow of the collosus and ico
okami
final fantasy 9
and metal gear solid 1
fallout new vegas
beyond good and evil

 

[hightide]

PERSONA FUCKING 3 I cried 3 times playing that game, and I almost never cry, NEVER.

Ninja'd, also finding out what happens to the main character in FES is pretty crazy.

SpiderWeb Software makes some really good games with great stories, otherwise, they couldn't sell their games with early 1990's level graphic.

 

[Jason Danger Keyes]

The story that got to me the most was in Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber. I teared up a couple times, and was generally on the edge of my seat for most of the story segments.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

PERSONA FUCKING 3 I cried 3 times playing that game, and I almost never cry, NEVER.

A few honorable mentions are Star Ocean 3, Samurai Warriors 1&2 (Lady Oichi's story is so god damn sad!) Disgaea Hour of Darkness, and Tales of Symphonia, my first tales game, and a damn good one.

Yeah, Star Ocean 3 had a pretty engaging story, or rather I found it pretty engaging. However, I get the feeling the writers kinda wrote themselves into a corner at the end there.

Spoiler

SO writer 1: "Ok so he just deleted the entire Universe how are we going to get out of this?"
SO writer 2: "I don't know..."
SO writer 3: "Whose idea was it to delete the whole Universe anyway?"
All: "Not mine!"
SO writer 3: "I know, why don't we just have all the main characters will themselves back into existence."
SO writer 1: "Yeah, I guess that works."
SO writer 2: "Sure, let's go with that."

 

[Cuppa Tetleys]

Portal 1 & 2
Half-Life 2 and Episodes
Shadow of the Colossus
Call of Duty 4
Grand Theft Auto IV (would have been better if they hadn't made it a sandbox game, though)
Bioshock 1 (at least it was ambitious, even if it falls apart in quite a few places)
Assassin's Creed 1 & 2
Dead Space 2 (mostly found it engaging for personal reasons, though, and I can see how it might not have the same effect on everyone)
Red Dead Redemption
Iji (it's a freeware game, but a great one)
Mass Effect 1 & 2
Silent Hill 2
Fallout: New Vegas

That's just the ones I can think of and not counting all the great adventure games out there, or games that don't have a "story" in the usual sense, but still have powerful themes and a great sense of narrative all the same (Flower and Missile Command come to mind). Honestly, people don't give games enough credit in this area.

I'm such an idiot - how in all Hell did I forget Portal 1 & 2!? I apologise for my incompetence, but this is good - thanks with all the replies everyone, I'm getting a list together, and remembering some of my own!

 

[Slash Joel]

Well thats tough i've spent quite a bit of time looking for a great story game.

The only one that sticks out in mind is Star Wars The Knights of the Old Republic.

When i played that for the first time i got so invested in it that i forgot i was playing a Star Wars game. It wasnt until i saw the end credits and heard the music that i remembered and was like "Holy shit of inlightenment ... this is a Star Wars game..."

 

[rayen020]

Kingdom hearts 2 has a really good story i would say. it uses the good message and lightheartedness of the first game without being overly preachy. The intertwining of the disney stories into the KH story was clever if nothing else.

I would be remiss to not mention the story of Elder Scrolls 3; Morrowind. As a story... maybe a bit too long and overly simple however the larger than life characters around every turn are, i think, a large part of what made this game a classic.

 

[LuckyClover95]

Heavy Rain, Modern Warfare 1.
Yeeeeaah!

 

[Cuppa Tetleys]

The Portals, the Half-Lives, the Halos, the Mass Effects, DA:O...Lots, if you look.

I have been looking, but it's also a matter of being subjective; no disrespect but I only consider The Portals and Mass Effects in that list to have good stories, so - the search goes on.

 

[Annoying Turd]

Planescape: Torment may not be the best on raw gameplay, but it's one of the best stories I've ever played.

 

[Cuppa Tetleys]

Heavy Rain, Modern Warfare 1.
Yeeeeaah!

Been meaning to play both of those, but I don't have a PS3 for Heavy Rain. Curse exclusivity!!!

 

[derob]

metal gear solid: twin snakes
resident evil (only the first two)
silent hill 2
super paper mario

 

[Cuppa Tetleys]

metal gear solid: twin snakes
resident evil (only the first two)
silent hill 2
super paper mario

Yes, Silent Hill 2, 3 and 4 (didn't much care for number 1), and you have reminded me of a whole list of the Mario RPG's!!