What is the best written videogame ever?

[Zetona]

As far as "serious" games are concerned, Half-Life 2 and Far Cry 2 are my favorites. The latter especially does a good job of portraying the abuses laid upon the people by warring factions. Unfortunately, it's let down by the hurried voice acting and the fact that you don't actually see anyone getting screwed over by the APR's bid to blow up a dentist's nitrogen tanks or whatever.

As for funnier games? Portal and the Monkey Island games are both expertly written and hilarious.

 

[GodsAndFishes]

I'm going for the Legacy of Kain series. Its the only game series where I keep playing it, even after about 10 years, just for the plot. (And I love Kain's voice. God bless you Simon Templeman)

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

KOTOR 2 had some pretty good writing all things considered, too bad the rest of the game was such a mixed bag.

Did you ever play Planescape: Torment? Both games have the same head designer/writer I think.

Black Isle made Planescape and Obsidian made KOTOR 2. When Black Isle shut down, almost everyone from it went on to form Obsidian. Also, Chris Avellone!

 

[Admiral Stukov]

I prefer it when most of the technology is unexplained, purely so that you can always believe it *might* not be complete bullshit. I think the codex was best when it detailed the alien culture.

So do I, but the way Mass Effect do it is still a lot better then the "Heisenberg-compensators" and "Tachyon-Inverters" and whatnot found in the Star Trek technobabble.

 

[BreakfastMan]

You know, good writing is a rather subjective term (not completely subjective, but still). In that vain, I submit my game which I think has the best writing: KOTOR 2. While I did think KOTOR was the better game, I cannot deny that KOTOR 2 had a slightly better story (except, of course, for that awful ending).

 

[WorldCritic]

KOTOR
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy XII
Mass Effect
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Vagrant Story

 

[SmilingKitsune]

Fallout 1 and 2 had great writing, So does New Vegas for that matter.

 

[thenamelessloser]

KOTOR 2 had some pretty good writing all things considered, too bad the rest of the game was such a mixed bag.

Did you ever play Planescape: Torment? Both games have the same head designer/writer I think.

Black Isle made Planescape and Obsidian made KOTOR 2. When Black Isle shut down, almost everyone from it went on to form Obsidian. Also, Chris Avellone!

Well, I think more like split into two different companies, one is defunct now (Troika). Chris Avellone is awesome, I think he wrote most of the stuff in Torment, not sure how much he wrote in KOTOR II. I just make a mistake sometimes over emphasizing a role of a single person in designing/wrtiing a game and I'm hesitant to make that same mistake again.

 

[AlternatePFG]

KOTOR 2 had some pretty good writing all things considered, too bad the rest of the game was such a mixed bag.

Did you ever play Planescape: Torment? Both games have the same head designer/writer I think.

Nah, I never had, but from all the praise I've heard of that game, I'm not surprised that the writing is so good.

I think Obsidian (I am aware that many people from Black Isle went over to Obsidian) is a bit underrated when it comes to the writing aspect. For some of their games at least

 

[Magners]

Enslaved was well written in my opinion

 

[Serenegoose]

I found Assassin's Creed 2 to be unvelievably gripping. I struggled to stop playing because I was desperate to know what happened next (including The Truth bit, searched forever for those glyphs).

Me too! But eventually I had to resort to using guides to get the clues to solve them. They're pretty much unsolveable on a regular TV, you just can't make out half the tiny things they added. The first 50% are easy though, sometimes to the point of being unfailable.

 

[Sixcess]

Fear Effect 1 and 2. The characters are very well written, with fast and often funny dialogue that sounds natural rather than just plot exposition. It helps that the voice acting is the best I've ever come across in a video game.

 

[zidine100]

Legacy of Kain series.
Planescape torment
bg 2

i would mention some vns but i guess you dont really care all to much about them games (ok ill mention one or two naracissu (really loose definition of game on my part with this one here), or remember 11 (even if it got kind of convoluted towards the end).

 

[SageRuffin]

That I've played? Jade Empire.

Too bad the morality system was still the usual "good vs. evil" as opposed to, from what I could tell, ideally "lawful neutral vs chaotic neutral". Ah well.

 

[thenamelessloser]

That I've played? Jade Empire.

Too bad the morality system was still the usual "good vs. evil" as opposed to, from what I could tell, ideally "lawful neutral vs chaotic neutral". Ah well.

To relate this to other posts in this topic, I so much want Bioware to have Obsidan make Jade Empire 2. Imagine a Jade Empire game written/designed by Chris Avellone.

::drools::

 

[Good morning blues]

There seems to be a pretty huge consensus on this question that the answer is Planescape: Torment. I haven't played very much of it, but from what I have, it seems to be about right.

 

[blxtnsq]

Mass Effect 1 and especially 2
Dragon Age
KOTOR I and II. I really liked how the characters were written in KOTOR II. The game had its problems but instead of giving you a rag-tag bunch of happy misfits, it gives you a group of people who all pretty much hate the crap out of each other. It's a much more interesting dynamic.
Dark Messiah. Well, it's kept me interested, which is amazing. I was expecting a badly acted spin-off made just to suck the cash out of people, but it's actually keeping me interested so far. Especially how they can run with a cliche for several chapters and then completely turn around and rip it to shreds.

Spoiler

Okay, so I enjoyed watching Leana die early on. I thought she was invincible because she was set up as the innocent love interest.

 

[TheDragon13]

For me it's Suikoden V, there's some of the best twists ever in that game.

Special mention for all the real life parts of the Assassin's creed series like in the glyph's puzzle. The amount of research behind it and all the mix between real life and the Assassin's Creed universe is really amazing.