Games with great stories.

[CastletonSnob | 5]

Video game stories have come a long way since the "Defeat the villain and save the princess" days.

What games would you say have great stories? I got all 5 main endings for NieR: Automata, and WOW, what a rollercoaster that game is.

[wongojack | 214]

I tend to think about this as a specific company coming out with a series of excellent stories. I think Bioware is my favorite VG storytelling company to date.  I really like Dragon Age, Mass Effect and KOTOR.  After that, there is a big gap for me with companies like Remedy Entertainment, Ninja Theory, and Obsidian coming in the top of the next group.

[The Count | 527]

Spiritfarer, but man it really gets you in the feels.

[NostalgicMachine | 235]

The early Mortal Kombat games have some of the best stories and lore.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,526]

Myth: The Fallen Lords is my favorite story of all time.

[Webhead123 | 675]

There are many kinds of storytelling in video games. RPGs are a classic example of games which usually have lots of "traditional" storytelling elements. While it has some minor stumbles of its own, it's honestly impressive just how well-constructed and deep the story of Baldur's Gate 3 gets at times. Not even counting the main story (which is still good), even just some of the individual companion character arcs are incredible. I dare say, a few moments tugged on the heartstrings a bit. I think it has some of the most well-developed characters in any RPG I've played.

I actually rather liked the way the story stitched together and circled back on itself in Eternal Darkness, managing to bridge characters across multiple points in history. It's been quite a while since I last played but I think it's about time to revisit.

Beyond Good & Evil also has a pretty intriguing story and some emotional character moments. It's sad that it's been over 20 years and we still don't have a follow-up to that game's ending.

Part of me wants to give a nod to the Bioshock series...but I think those games impress more through great atmosphere and world-building than strictly their stories. I mean, they're not bad at all but maybe not amazing.

Edited January 5 by Webhead123

[peg | 370]

Metal gear solid 2...

[Rhuno | 107]

22 hours ago, CastletonSnob said:

Video game stories have come a long way since the "Defeat the villain and save the princess" days.
 

I don't know, I think Double Dragon has the perfect story. A bunch of bums deck your girl, go beat 'em up! 

[Sumez | 2,951]

I don't know if video games have gotten much further since then, but I really dug the story in Grim Fandango. Soul Reaver 2 is the only other thing that really comes to mind. 

There's some great VNs too, but that feels like cheating to me

Edited January 5 by Sumez

[Gloves | 11,778]

15 hours ago, peg said:

Metal gear solid 2...

Remember that time one of the central characters to a massively popular game franchise fucked his stepmom while he was a minor, causing his dad to commit suicide and try to take his baby daughter with him?

I do!

[DarkTone | 984]

2 sides are at war. Many y5ears of some of the worst things imaginable. After death and casualties on both side, they decided the best way to settle it, was with 1 soldier from each side, battling it out but not to the death, but with skill. Highest points wins. 

My answer is Pong. 

Seriously, its Chrono trigger 

[RH | 4,903]

The greatest game story of all time...

[Webhead123 | 675]

1 hour ago, DarkTone said:

2 sides are at war. Many y5ears of some of the worst things imaginable. After death and casualties on both side, they decided the best way to settle it, was with 1 soldier from each side, battling it out but not to the death, but with skill. Highest points wins. 

My answer is Pong.

No joke, the instruction manual to Yars' Revenge had an 8-page comic explaining the backstory behind the game and, for the time, this was a pretty mind-blowing level of detail to give what is otherwise just a single-screen Atari game. At first, I thought this was the game you were describing...until the "highest points wins" bit. 

Edited January 5 by Webhead123

[CMR | 520]

2 hours ago, Gloves said:

Remember that time one of the central characters to a massively popular game franchise fucked his stepmom while he was a minor, causing his dad to commit suicide and try to take his baby daughter with him?

I do!

I thought Otocon's little sis was cute in her bike shorts.  I even managed to save her.  Sniped that douche vampire right off the pier.  Then the game cheated me.

I guess I'm partial to the weird and quirky storylines the most.  Blaster Master's story always made perfect sense to me.  I've always loved the earlier RE games especially. 

[wongojack | 214]

 

Watched this vid today.  I don't agree with all of the choices, and while he doesn't pick a Bioware game for #1, he picks a Black Isle game which is almost the same.

[Gloves | 11,778]

2 minutes ago, wongojack said:

while he doesn't pick a Bioware game for #1, he picks a Black Isle game which is almost the same.

[Webhead123 | 675]

1 minute ago, wongojack said:

Watched this vid today.  I don't agree with all of the choices, and while he doesn't pick a Bioware game for #1, he picks a Black Isle game which is almost the same.

Planescape: Torment is definitely deserving of high marks in the story department. What a uniquely weird and twisted game. I also can't believe I forgot about The Longest Journey. I never actually finished it (because my hard drive crashed and I lost my late-game save) but I remember being pretty blown away at the time.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

I distinctly remember getting Blackthorne for the SNES and opening up the manual to a giant wall of text that went on for page after page after page; I mean, it took up like the first half of the manual.  I'm not saying the story was spectacular or anything, but seeing a company go to that much trouble to set the backstory for the game they had created left an indelible impression on my teenage brain...

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

Good question. The Last of Us is an easy mention. Detroit: Become Human I also enjoyed a lot, though people's opinions on David Cage games can vary somewhat. I personally like them for the most part. Plus, in regards to Detroit, it was nice to finally have a protagonist with the same name as me, haha. I also personally really enjoyed the storyline in the newer DOOM games, even though that's not the focus. Always enjoyed reading through all the codex entries in DOOM Eternal and whatnot.

Other than that, let's see... The Binding of Isaac has an interesting, albeit very sad story. GTA IV and V both have excellent, very engaging stories IMO, but especially V. Skyrim's story I also always enjoyed, though I haven't played it in a long while. One of my favorite games, Payday 2, has a fucking batshit insane story which is entertaining in its own way, haha. Firewatch is another great one, albeit a bit short. Portal 2 is also pretty great. Undertale and Deltarune, both excellent IMO. The Half-Life series always had great stories, especially Half-Life 2 and it's episodes. Shadow of the Colossus is fairly light on story, but what is there is great. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag I always thought had a surprisingly engaging story for an AC game. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is another really good one actually, if you're looking for more of an immersive, individual character study. I personally enjoyed the story of Owlboy quite a bit, though that may be in part due to the fact that I could strongly relate to the main character. Subnautica's story and worldbuilding I always found very interesting, both the original and Below Zero. Stardew Valley actually has a pretty good story, in regards to having a lot of very well fleshed out characters you can interact with at will and at your own pace.

I could probably think of some more, but those are all the ones that come to mind for me personally. Little something for everyone in that list I think, all different genres and differing amounts of focus being placed on the story, some being explicitly story-driven and some barely having any story at all, though the little that is there is good. I know there's some like Red Dead Redemption or some of the Telltale games which I've heard have excellent stories, but don't spring to mind for me since I haven't personally played them.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

20 hours ago, Sumez said:

I don't know if video games have gotten much further since then

They definitely have. Depending on how much focus the developers and writers want to place on the story, video game stories can be more in depth and lengthy than entire TV shows or novels these days, let alone individual movies.

[Brickman | 3,986]

Some older games had a bit of a story but you had to read the manual because it wasn’t in the game. So it wasn’t always go kill this guy for no reason even if it seemed like it in the game.

Pretty much any BioWare, Black Isle, Blizzard game have great stores. Also the Warhammer and 40k universe has great lore. Some of them you have to read the manual though like for example Warcraft 2 has in game notes but a lot of the story is in the manual.

[Floating Platforms | 716]

I just got to the part in Powerwash Simulator where the client texted me to say "you smell like a stinky butt butt" and then informed me when they had to poop and then again to confirm "i did it."

Does that count?

[Sumez | 2,951]

5 hours ago, ZeldaFreak said:

They definitely have. Depending on how much focus the developers and writers want to place on the story, video game stories can be more in depth and lengthy than entire TV shows or novels these days, let alone individual movies.

It's easy to assume so, but I honestly can't think of a single example of that being that case! Usually the "best stories" in video games are as bland and derivative as most of the worst hollywood blockbusters coming out these days. Stories that just kinda write themself, and entirely fail to excite me, or affect me emotionally.

I specifically avoided mentioning TLOU2, because while it has some of the highest quality storytelling I've seen in any video game (and from a production standpoint does some extremely admirable things!), I think it's also really damn telling that if it'd been a movie I would have ranked at least a few hundred other much better stories above it.
The standard for video games is just really low - but given they are video games, that's not really a big problem to me either. The kind of story that benefits a game is just different, and Grim Fandango for example has the advantage that a creative and interesting settings and unique characters actually supports the game experience directly!

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

33 minutes ago, Sumez said:

1: It's easy to assume so, but I honestly can't think of a single example of that being that case! Usually the "best stories" in video games are as bland and derivative as most of the worst hollywood blockbusters coming out these days. Stories that just kinda write themself, and entirely fail to excite me, or affect me emotionally.

2: I specifically avoided mentioning TLOU2, because while it has some of the highest quality storytelling I've seen in any video game (and from a production standpoint does some extremely admirable things!), I think it's also really damn telling that if it'd been a movie I would have ranked at least a few hundred other much better stories above it.
The standard for video games is just really low - but given they are video games, that's not really a big problem to me either. The kind of story that benefits a game is just different, and Grim Fandango for example has the advantage that a creative and interesting settings and unique characters actually supports the game experience directly!

1: I mean... well, no offense meant when I say this, but you've always come across to me as a VERY critical person, whereas I'm the opposite, I'm pretty uncritical when it comes to entertainment, I just sit back and enjoy it. So it's possible I'm saying this due to that fact, I'm generally easy to please. But with that said, I feel like you haven't really experienced too many good video games stories if you feel they're mostly bland and derivative. Some of them are, yes, that's a given with any medium, but video games allow you to tell stories in very unique and different ways than you can with a non-interactive medium, and since video games have a much more flexible length and format than a film or even TV shows in which episodes need to be a specific length, the creators can take as much or as little time with telling the story as they want, and tell the story they want to tell in a number of different ways. Video games allow you to tell stories in fairly non-traditional ways that you just wouldn't be able to in any other medium.

One example would be games that have "databases" such as Subnautica and DOOM Eternal, in which things such as enemies or environments have their own entries within some sort of a database, which the player can choose to read to learn more about them, if they want. Firstly, it's optional, so if any given player doesn't care, they can just ignore it entirely, which is not a choice you have with something like a film. But in addition, it's a way to deliver worldbuilding, details, and exposition in a way that doesn't hamper the progression of the main story at all. It's a way to tell even MORE story for the players who want to hear it, but not get in the way for those who don't care. Optional storytelling is not a thing you can really do in any other medium, you either choose to experience the whole story, or not. One or the other. You don't normally get to pick and choose how much story you want. But, are those database entries still part of the story? Yes.

Another example would be something like Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, wherein the combination of the player being in control of Senua, plus seeing and hearing things from Senua's perspective (Senua being someone who suffers from psychosis and near constant auditory and visual hallucinations) offers a VERY unique experience that, whilst you could theoretically emulate it in a film, it just... wouldn't really work all that well I don't think. It only really works the way it's told if you, the player, are in direct control of Senua. Now, the stories of DOOM Eternal and Subnautica, while I did find them good and captivating, I wouldn't say they're absolutely groundbreaking, incredible stories or anything, but Hellblade was an experience that really stuck with me, and will continue to stick with me, especially as someone who's struggled with mental illness myself for the vast majority of my life. Both due to the content of the story itself, and the unique manner in which the story is told.

2: Eh, I don't think it's all that telling, personally. First of all, videos games are a much newer medium than film, and games which tell stories that complex and intricate, newer still. Films have had well over a century to perfect the medium, TV shows just under a century, and books have been around for, uh, awhile now, haha. Video games telling rich stories, in comparison, is still a relatively new frontier, and a task which I would argue is much more complex to successfully accomplish than something like a 2 hour long movie, with a fixed story allowing no interaction from the viewer. People are still to this day trying to work out what the best way to tell a complex story in a video game even is, whilst still having good gameplay as well. The storytelling is just one cog in a far greater machine for most video games. So, given that, I'm actually more inclined to give stories in video games a bit more leeway than normal due to how much taller of a task it is to tell a compelling story within a video game compared to pretty much any other medium, and how much newer the concept of telling a complex story within a video game is. It's not that the standards for video game stories are low, it's just that it genuinely is far more difficult to pull off than with other mediums if story is a focus of the game, and it's an art that's still being figured out and experimented with.

And then... I mean, I don't really think what you said is a great litmus test. Like, random example off the top of my head, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Does it have the most compelling, complex, unique story I've ever seen? No. Not by a long shot. In fact, you could argue a lot about it is VERY derivative. And, speaking to your point, I could name hundreds of other stories that I find more compelling than the story of Raiders of the Lost Ark. But is it still a damn amazing movie that I love, along with just about everyone else who's ever seen it? Yes. Just because something isn't in your top 10 (or 100) stories you've EVER experienced doesn't mean it's not good. There's a LOT of good stories out there, so much so that if you've consumed a good amount of entertainment throughout your life, your top 100 stories you've ever seen are probably ALL pretty goddamn incredible stories. Something not falling within that range really isn't as scathing as you seem to think, at least not to me it isn't, just due to the sheer quantity of good stories that exist.

Plus, (as has been proven with the very good HBO show) The Last of Us, while it's story is amazing, it's a story that could easily be told in any other medium, and it would work. Some of the best video game stories, IMO, are stories that simply WOULD NOT work if told in any other medium, or at least would not work nearly as well as within a video game.

But, obviously, that's all just my personal perspective on all this, as someone who isn't generally super critical of the objective quality of entertainment unless it really is quite bad. Plenty of people don't even like ANY story in video games, so this whole topic is very very subjective anyway. Like I said, just my own anecdotal perspective.

[CMR | 520]

I think the best video game stories are the ones that best facilitate the gaming experience.  Castlevania SOTN is a good example.  On it's own, it's subjectively crap, but when paired with the rest of the game, it becomes a great story for that game.