8 Games that Have Amazing Stories
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*Jots down 'Planescape' in a mysterious, magnolia leather-bound notebook*
Ahh... 8 is just not a large enough number for some of these topics.
Ahh... 8 is just not a large enough number for some of these topics.
1) I don't know. I just...never got the appeal of Red Dead Redemption. I played it, beat it, but it never clicked with me. Even today, I can't really remember much of what happened.
2) Ah, yes. Nothing more to add. This game felt like Star Wars completely. A shame the sequel got gutted, but man, this game shines.
3) Again, yes. I loved this game. From the heartbreaking opening to the ending that wasn't exactly happy. The whole thing was a blast to play and a roller coaster to endure.
4) I've never played these games, but I've always been impressed that they have the nerve to take the hero of one and turn him into the villain in another, and then switch back to him being the hero in the next! I'm sure this series has a lot going for it.
5) Ah, Mass Effect. I love you. I had a blast playing all three of your games. You stumbled a bit here and there, but overall, you were great. If only there was a way to make it so The Citadel DLC was how the game ended for real, you would be perfect. Because that's where the series ends in my head.
6) I have nothing.
7) I'll be honest. I never beat this game. One, it frightened me too much when I started playing it. Two, I already knew about the twist, and that just ruined the whole desire to finish the story for me. I don't deny that it's amazing, but knowing what is happening before you've even beaten it once just sucks the fun out of it.
8) My friend keeps telling me I need to play this game. I keep saying no, because I don't want to cry like a little girl.
2) Ah, yes. Nothing more to add. This game felt like Star Wars completely. A shame the sequel got gutted, but man, this game shines.
3) Again, yes. I loved this game. From the heartbreaking opening to the ending that wasn't exactly happy. The whole thing was a blast to play and a roller coaster to endure.
4) I've never played these games, but I've always been impressed that they have the nerve to take the hero of one and turn him into the villain in another, and then switch back to him being the hero in the next! I'm sure this series has a lot going for it.
5) Ah, Mass Effect. I love you. I had a blast playing all three of your games. You stumbled a bit here and there, but overall, you were great. If only there was a way to make it so The Citadel DLC was how the game ended for real, you would be perfect. Because that's where the series ends in my head.
6) I have nothing.
7) I'll be honest. I never beat this game. One, it frightened me too much when I started playing it. Two, I already knew about the twist, and that just ruined the whole desire to finish the story for me. I don't deny that it's amazing, but knowing what is happening before you've even beaten it once just sucks the fun out of it.
8) My friend keeps telling me I need to play this game. I keep saying no, because I don't want to cry like a little girl.
Personally would drop Kotor 1 in favor of Kotor 2, always found Kotor 1 and to an extent Mass Effect to be playing into the BioWare Cliche, whereas 2 took things in a new direction especially with your influence beginning to slowly wear down your allies, turning characters from the light to the dark side and vice versa. I would especially choose 2 if you include the Restored Content Mod.
Also wish there was a nod to Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, an incredible story that comes close to reaching the heights of Planescape: Torment, its just such a shame that Neverwinter Nights 2 itself, the base game, is such a dull story.
I am always grateful to see Planescape: Torment get more love, such an amazing story that I still think has yet to be topped in gaming.
Also wish there was a nod to Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, an incredible story that comes close to reaching the heights of Planescape: Torment, its just such a shame that Neverwinter Nights 2 itself, the base game, is such a dull story.
I am always grateful to see Planescape: Torment get more love, such an amazing story that I still think has yet to be topped in gaming.
Actually Mary (James' wife) died three years before he received a letter from her, not one.
I'm not trying to be overly-critical but these tiny mistakes and inconsistencies really kill this gallery for me, and they seem to persist week-to-week.
I'm not trying to be overly-critical but these tiny mistakes and inconsistencies really kill this gallery for me, and they seem to persist week-to-week.
Very happy to see Silent Hill 2 up there, good list.
If we really want to get technical about it...Ebola_chan said:
James thinks Mary died three years ago, when in fact she convalesced for three years, and James killed her moments before the game begins. That scene in which he's washing his face in the bathroom is him phasing into self-denial and coming up with the imaginary letter from Mary.
Oh no, that's definitely a good thing.TheSYLOH said:
Mass Effect's story fell apart in game 2. It couldn't decide what wanted the direction it wanted to go, and for the third game they basically ignored the first two and went about how the lead designer wanted it to go. No, Mass Effect does not belong on this list.
The Walking dead doesn't either. It does have a tightly written story, but it's too tight. The choices you make have no consequence. Case in point, early on you have to decide who to save; A guy good with electronics or a woman good with a gun. I chose the woman because she is good with a gun and theoretically better in a fight. Nope, she dies any way. So you decided to save the guy? Nope, he dies anyway. What's the point in having a choice if the result will be the same?
It was a pretty ballsy lie for both EA and Telltale to say your choices will matter, they don't matter.
Knights of the Old Republic, that is an excellent example of making choices that matter. Granted the story for Light and Dark are almost identical. At least if you chose Light you save the galaxy, Dark and you conquer it.
The Walking dead doesn't either. It does have a tightly written story, but it's too tight. The choices you make have no consequence. Case in point, early on you have to decide who to save; A guy good with electronics or a woman good with a gun. I chose the woman because she is good with a gun and theoretically better in a fight. Nope, she dies any way. So you decided to save the guy? Nope, he dies anyway. What's the point in having a choice if the result will be the same?
It was a pretty ballsy lie for both EA and Telltale to say your choices will matter, they don't matter.
Knights of the Old Republic, that is an excellent example of making choices that matter. Granted the story for Light and Dark are almost identical. At least if you chose Light you save the galaxy, Dark and you conquer it.
>KotOR
>Legacy of Kain
>Planescape
Ron Whitaker, you are a gentleman and a scholar.
Knights of the Old Republic, while in hindsight is the first step towards "Standard BioWare RPG", was still the first game in which a plot twist made me legitimately shocked (although I played the game without prerendered cutscenes back then and missed half the foreshadowing, I admit). Even if I have beaten it a dozen times and saw each damn quest in the game, I still sometimes fire it up and go into the world of lightsabers and swoop bikes.
Planescape: Torment... I sadly haven't beaten it yet, because I kept dying at the final location - a really bad set of circumstances led to me being down to a single life and the Fortress being overrun with the shadow beasts. Still, most of the story was simply great and I will play the game again and beat it, to see how it plays out.
Now for the big one:
Legacy of Kain is... probably my favorite video game series of all time. It has it all - vampires (not sissy ones, but badass monsters), fantasy, time travel, flowery shakesperean dialog and a gripping story that has more twists and turns, than a Tim Burton pic. Kain and Raziel are two of the greatest anti-heroes of all time, both sympathetic, but not too much, as they carve up legions of enemies each with their own version of the Reaver sword. The series keeps playing with audience's perspective, challenging their view of past events and characters, only dropping the ball once for Blood Omen 2, but picking it back up and going for touchdown in Defiance. And they are beautifully voice acted to boot, with Simon Templeman (Loghain Mac-Tyr from Dragon Age, Dr. Gavin Archer from Mass Effect) providing Kain's voice for all five games and Michael Bell as Raziel. The great voice acting doesn't end with two leads though, as we have late great Tony Jay as The Elder God (games 2, 3 and 5) and Mortanius (1), Richard Doyle (all save for BO2) as Moebius and Anna Gunn (yes, of the Breaking Bad fame) as Ariel. The series is, simply put, a masterpiece and I'm in the middle of a LoK marathon right now, playing in parallel both Blood Omen and Blood Omen 2. To the PlayStation owners I suggest picking Blood Omen and Soul Reaver on PSN and the rest of the games on either Steam or GOG - you won't be sorry.
>Legacy of Kain
>Planescape
Ron Whitaker, you are a gentleman and a scholar.
Knights of the Old Republic, while in hindsight is the first step towards "Standard BioWare RPG", was still the first game in which a plot twist made me legitimately shocked (although I played the game without prerendered cutscenes back then and missed half the foreshadowing, I admit). Even if I have beaten it a dozen times and saw each damn quest in the game, I still sometimes fire it up and go into the world of lightsabers and swoop bikes.
Planescape: Torment... I sadly haven't beaten it yet, because I kept dying at the final location - a really bad set of circumstances led to me being down to a single life and the Fortress being overrun with the shadow beasts. Still, most of the story was simply great and I will play the game again and beat it, to see how it plays out.
Now for the big one:
Legacy of Kain is... probably my favorite video game series of all time. It has it all - vampires (not sissy ones, but badass monsters), fantasy, time travel, flowery shakesperean dialog and a gripping story that has more twists and turns, than a Tim Burton pic. Kain and Raziel are two of the greatest anti-heroes of all time, both sympathetic, but not too much, as they carve up legions of enemies each with their own version of the Reaver sword. The series keeps playing with audience's perspective, challenging their view of past events and characters, only dropping the ball once for Blood Omen 2, but picking it back up and going for touchdown in Defiance. And they are beautifully voice acted to boot, with Simon Templeman (Loghain Mac-Tyr from Dragon Age, Dr. Gavin Archer from Mass Effect) providing Kain's voice for all five games and Michael Bell as Raziel. The great voice acting doesn't end with two leads though, as we have late great Tony Jay as The Elder God (games 2, 3 and 5) and Mortanius (1), Richard Doyle (all save for BO2) as Moebius and Anna Gunn (yes, of the Breaking Bad fame) as Ariel. The series is, simply put, a masterpiece and I'm in the middle of a LoK marathon right now, playing in parallel both Blood Omen and Blood Omen 2. To the PlayStation owners I suggest picking Blood Omen and Soul Reaver on PSN and the rest of the games on either Steam or GOG - you won't be sorry.
I'm sorry - I'm probably one of the few people who really didn't care for Last of Us, but when I think of solid story telling it does not pop up in my mind. I played it 3 times and I was bothered by the inconsistencies in the story throughout. Ellie's significance as an "immune" is huge, obviously, and the value of research on her is therefore massive. Giving her to a band of rebels who repeatedly demonstrate an inability to so much as hold a base vs. anything is? well completely stupid. The argument seems to be "well the government would shoot her on sight as "infected" so we can't give her to them, duh" - to which I say: "why the hell not?" since Joel, for at least the first two chapters of the game, has basically no attachment to her that would make him care about that fact. Of course, it's probably not that hard to let the government know, through some back-channel communication or some liaison with an agent or something that she is, in fact, immune and should be studied. Selling her off to the government would pretty much set him up for life, and whatever pay-day he's theoretically expecting from the rebels becomes a complete pipe dream (and obviously so) after, say, the second base of theirs we try to get her to and find completely overrun.
TLDR: playing out putting her into a science facility run by the government would have made far more sense than playing out trying to get her into the hands of incompetent rebels with no resources
Meanwhile, as you are on this magical mystery tour you run in to two more things that struck me as utterly ridiculous in a "realistic story" sense. In the city, where there are dwindling resources and food supply, you're attacked for your gear? which would be plentiful given the amount of Dick's Sporting Goods and whatnot about; whereas in the forest you're attacked by? cannibals? hunting a deer? obviously wildlife is plentiful enough, but? stuff? tools? things? Apparently they're set on that. No sense.
TLDR: playing out putting her into a science facility run by the government would have made far more sense than playing out trying to get her into the hands of incompetent rebels with no resources
Meanwhile, as you are on this magical mystery tour you run in to two more things that struck me as utterly ridiculous in a "realistic story" sense. In the city, where there are dwindling resources and food supply, you're attacked for your gear? which would be plentiful given the amount of Dick's Sporting Goods and whatnot about; whereas in the forest you're attacked by? cannibals? hunting a deer? obviously wildlife is plentiful enough, but? stuff? tools? things? Apparently they're set on that. No sense.
Came here to point out the same mistakeEbola_chan said:
I'm not being antagonistic but...Johnny Novgorod said:
...anyone who has played SH2 knows that. I think Ebola_chan's point was that the gallery description was giving an overview without spoiling the story however they still got it wrong because the information you are presented with at the game's beginning is 3 years, not one. One year is never even a factor in the game.
But you are completely right and I absolutely love this game
For the first time... Good list....
Glad to see planescape torment here.... Thought you would pick only popular ones only like the other lists...
I would also like to mention , Mafia : City of lost heaven.... Excellent story, music, game play, characters, great ending and the most important , atmosphere .
Here's the trailer....
Glad to see planescape torment here.... Thought you would pick only popular ones only like the other lists...
I would also like to mention , Mafia : City of lost heaven.... Excellent story, music, game play, characters, great ending and the most important , atmosphere .
Here's the trailer....
I don't think the entire Mass Effect franchise deserves to be on the list. The second game didn't have much of a story, it consisted almost entirely of recruiting missions and locality missions. There were a few things that were probably to set things up for the third game, but overall it was just a collection of anecdotes.
The third game is another thing. When I finished it originally I didn't think much about the stupidity of a major part of the story because of my frustration with the ending. Once I got over that I realized that the people in charge in the Mass Effect universe were written to be completely retarded. There is no way that any intelligent person would have believed building the crucible is a way to win the war. I mean, no one actually knows what the thing does. They are in a war and have to make sure to not waste their resources, so it's kind of unbelievable that they would use so many resources on a weapon that no one knows what it will do or how effective it actually will be.
The first game might fit into the list, but the entire franchise had some weaknesses and I think there are a lot of games or franchises with better stories.
The third game is another thing. When I finished it originally I didn't think much about the stupidity of a major part of the story because of my frustration with the ending. Once I got over that I realized that the people in charge in the Mass Effect universe were written to be completely retarded. There is no way that any intelligent person would have believed building the crucible is a way to win the war. I mean, no one actually knows what the thing does. They are in a war and have to make sure to not waste their resources, so it's kind of unbelievable that they would use so many resources on a weapon that no one knows what it will do or how effective it actually will be.
The first game might fit into the list, but the entire franchise had some weaknesses and I think there are a lot of games or franchises with better stories.
Glad to see someone's mentioned Mafia: City of Lost Heaven- because it really is pretty much the pinnacle of game storytelling. One thing though- that wasn't the good trailer. this is the good trailer...
If someone wants to play the Legacy of Kain Series:
At least on PC, skip the first Soul Reaver. No matter the story, the controls make it unplayable. Watch cutscenes and go on with Soul Reaver 2, which is far superior (and has more story).
At least on PC, skip the first Soul Reaver. No matter the story, the controls make it unplayable. Watch cutscenes and go on with Soul Reaver 2, which is far superior (and has more story).
Would've worked nicely as a non-Japanese games with great stories list, but Silent Hill is Japanese! And FAR from the best Japan has to offer.
Xenogears and the Xenosaga games are leagues above all of the listed games that I've played (still haven't played Planescape: Torment). The depth of the plot and characters is incredible.
As far as non-Japanese games go, though, you pretty much listed the best ones. Good job.
Xenogears and the Xenosaga games are leagues above all of the listed games that I've played (still haven't played Planescape: Torment). The depth of the plot and characters is incredible.
As far as non-Japanese games go, though, you pretty much listed the best ones. Good job.
Well, I did not use Xpadder but the game bugged completely out on my Xbox-Pad. I had to use Keyboard, and well, that is atrocious. In all cases, because you can't use mouse for camera. Maybe there was the possibility to fix more with the gamepad, but I did not find the solution online at the point I was playing.RealRT said:
Could be a very good addition to pcgamingwiki though.
Oh, but the lack of a map was what ultimately killed it for me. I had no orientation at all.
Whoops. That's on me. It's been forever since I played through SH2, and the only time I have seen it lately was in a Twitch playthrough we did at GameFront. I did a little reading, and found multiple places saying it was a year. Since I couldn't remember, I went with it.Ebola_chan said:
Feel free to nitpick, because I hate to make factual errors. I appreciate the correction.
I've adjusted the piece, and given you credit for catching the error.