Best/Favourite Stories in a Game?

[Ajar]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Planescape: Torment. That's the hands-down winner for me. Off the top of my head, roughly in order:

Planescape: Torment
BioShock
Shadow of the Colossus
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2
Baldur's Gate
ICO
Portal
Okami
Killer7
WarCraft III
Psychonauts

Honourable mention for a series I didn't finish but that had a fantastic story: Marathon

[Added: Also, I've never played HL or HL2, but now that I have the Orange Box I'm looking forward to HL2+Ep1+Ep2.]

I'm playing The Darkness right now and I've really enjoyed the story so far. I have about 1.5 chapters left in the game, though.

 

[Archaeology Hat]

In no particular order:

Half-life
Baldur's gate 1 and 2
Fallout
Morrowind (I hunted down and read every book, read every bit of quest dialogue and still im not entirely sure which of the reasons I could have been doing the story is true)
Max Payne
I confess a fondness for the story of Arcanum too

 

[Cynopt]

Fallout
Definitely had a fantastic arc to it, in fact it's one of the few games that I can really recall the whole plot from, despite only playing it a couple of times back when it came out.

Full Throttle
Had a great little story, short but punchy and they managed to throw some decent twists in with the stock revenge/Road Warrior plotline. If Schafer (I think it was a Tim Schafer game anyway)ever gets around to a sequel, I will pee my pants with joy. And pee.

The Parasite Eve games
The series so far has a pretty decent story of body horror and killer mitochondria; there's the usual gaping holes in logic that seem to come with most Square games from the Playstation era, but that's usually localization's fault. It's a bit like Resident Evil, if RE's story had been written by David Cronenberg, instead of a sugar-addled 12 year old.

Wing Commander 1-4 and Privateer
All of them had basically good stories, although Wing Commander was a bit limited by the military space-opera setting. Privateer meanwhile, played off the open ended nature of the game from start to finish, but still kept you to a single narrative track, and served the gameplay as much as the actual plot all the while.

The Dawn of War series of 40k games
Deserves a nod just for not fucking up and deviating from the source material. Dark Crusade in particular had a very good plot, the endings would ahve been suitable for a couple Dan Abnett books at least.

Aand lastly, some titles that don't really need explaining: HL, Portal, Bioshock, Planescape: Torment, FFVII, Day of the Tentacle, and Sam and Max Hit the Road (more premise than plot, but meh)

 

[Hengst2404]

Wow, some great stories mentioned, particularly the Wing COmmander games, which I loved greatly. Some other ones I think are also worth mentioning would be:

The old Police Quest and King's Quest series of games. These were the graphic adventures which essentially relied upon storytelling in order for the games to properly function. Really there are so many Graphic Adventure games to point out, that it would take days to give them all their due.

I did enjoy the progression of the storyline for the original Thief game, as I like how it started as just a robbery simulator and then a storyline evolved in the game.

Another game that often gets lost in the shuttle was the under-appreciated games of Omikron and Anachronox which both had solid and engaging storylines.

 

[Harrie]

I'd like to add to the list:

Monkey Island 3: Guybrush just has the silliest things to say and pirates are great singers.

The Legacy of kain series (blood omen and soul reaver): The storyline stays solid even after bucketloads of time-travel. Won't be obvious if you haven't played several of the games tho'.

There are some others, nagging at the back of my brain, that i am missing.

 

[Pyrrian]

The Longest Journey has been one of my favorites since playing it. I've always thought that April Ryan was an interesting character without being the typical over-the-top sort of person you might find in a Japanese RPG. On the whole, I think the game feels a lot like a folk-tale, something the opening seems to reinforce. The backgrounds in the game also seem like something out of a storybook, which I think contributes to the overall atmosphere.

Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies does the whole indirect storytelling thing pretty well. Not only does it set it apart from most games, but it gives you a sense of scope while still keeping focus (lack of focus and bad VAs being the reason AC6 manages to get this indirect stuff all wrong). The narrating of stills tends to take a lot of the pressure off of the voice actor (no lip synching), so the speech doesn't feel out-of-place. The whole thing is pretty minimalist, and it doesn't get the try-hard feel that other games often create when attempting to do a "serious" storyline.

The Legend of Kyrandia: Book 2 does some great stuff in its story. Another point-and-click adventure game, this one. I like how it feels like a fable, where things are colorful, strange, and pun-filled. It's dirty without being dirty and silly without being slapstick. Gotta have the speech pack.

 

[zonkuya]

Legacy. of. Kain.

You mean, if thrown enough times, the coin will land... on its EDGE?!

 

[Harrie]

Kain: Thirty years hence, I am presented with a dilemma... let's call it a two-sided coin. If the coin falls one way, I sacrifice myself and thus restore the Pillars... but as the last surviving vampire in Nosgoth, this would mean the annihilation of our species... Moebius made sure of that. If the coin lands on the reverse, I refuse the sacrifice and thus doom the Pillars to an eternity of collapse. Either way, the game is rigged.

Raziel: We agree then that the Pillars are crucial and must be restored.

Kain: Yes, Raziel, that is why we've come full-circle to this place.

Raziel: So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die so that new Guardians can be born.

Kain: The Pillars don't belong to them, Raziel... they belong to us.

Raziel: Your arrogance is boundless, Kain.

Kain: There's a third option, a monumental secret hidden in your very presence here. But it's a secret you have to discover for yourself. Unearth your destiny, Raziel. It's all laid out for you here.

Raziel: You said it yourself, Kain... there are only two sides to your coin.

Kain: Apparently so, but suppose you throw a coin enough times... suppose one day, it lands on its edge.

 

[AartSnikkelbaard]

- Bioshock (ok, it may have been kind of recyclish, but I didn't play Systemshock 2 anyway).
- Half-Life (2 more than 1)
- Portal (splendid hal2000 like story. Good for laughs too)
- Warcraft III
- F.E.A.R. (more than just some scary shit)
- Deus Ex
- Max Payne

And probably some rpg I can't think of now.

 

[dee_dubs]

I want to throw in a few that have not been mentioned so far, so here goes.

American McGee's Alice - Alice returns to wonderland to find it a dark and broken world, enslaved by the Queen of Hearts. A wonderful trip through a tortured psyche.

Freespace - You're a space fighter pilot in a war against a vastly superior enemy, just one more cog in a huge machine and receiving updates on the war through command briefings. The game is not afraid to make you fail missions if it adds to the atmosphere.

Arx Fatalis - A first person RPG set in an underground world, you wake in a cell with no memory, and you have to explore this huge world to find out why you're here. This game also has a very fun magic system (Combine runes by drawing them with the mouse).

No-One Lives Forever - A brilliantly funny 60s spy spoof, you are the agencies first female operative, trying to prove yourself while everything around you goes horribly wrong. you can also overhear some of the best dialogue when you sneak up on the mooks. ("You look like you need a monkey.")

Beyond Good and Evil - I can't believe no-one has mentioned this yet. You fight off an alien invasion by exposing the conspiracy with a camera. The main characters are very well done and very believable, despite half of them being anthropomorphic animals, and the story is fantastic. I've never gotten tired of this game.

Granted, a lot of these are old games, but that doesn't stop the stories from being great. All of these games are worth trying if you haven't played them before.

 

[LordOmnit]

I'm not sure if I will get blasted for something like this or not, but I'm only mentioning one game. Not to say there aren't a lot of games that I like, but I just wanted to extrapolate on a different type of game than I've seen mostly described in this thread.
Phantom Brave.
Despite having a somewhat cliched and sappy storyline, I liked how the main character was represented. She maintains her beliefs throughout the game, sometimes doubting herself, but remaining steadfast. In the end she is proved right, and it all works out, but this is not necessarily obvious if you aren't looking for something (I will admit that I've only realized this recently, when I completed it about half a year ago). Through the whole game everyone tries to say she's wrong, etc., but eveyone else learns that she was right, so she is a static character. Traditionally, main characters are dynamic, gaining some serious insight by the end of the story. Recently many main characters (even most characters in general) have become static characters that end up not changing, being only technically right in the end (mostly since they win), but not really learning anything worthwile or gaining some serious insight; frequently they are given it to begin with or never gain it, but it isn't a plot point, rather than having a massive effect on other people.

 

[Arbre]

Just adding to the games that were already cited:

Project Zero

Even the non canon ending made me cry. Games get stars in my book when they achieve that.

 

[FormanGreenman]

Great games listed in here - this is my few that i remember...

1) HL2 series - the sole reason my PC got upgraded a couple of years ago $3000 so far and counting..!
2) Fallout 1 & 2 - Zombies, wastelands, RPG'ing, wicked dialog script
3) Portal - Excellent quirky story, great humor as well.
4) King Kong - yeah kinda left field but this has a great story, this game got me all sorts of nervous in it
5) Act of War - Written by Dale Brown, its even a book.

Good to see Wing Commander in there. That was fantastic back in the day - at least this managed to pull of the 'Interactive Movie' bollocks that was being bandied around at the time. Bioshock was a decent story too, good game play and all that... I must have played too many FPS for the past few years - all of the stories are getting a little predictable for me now.

 

[Chilango2]

In no particular order, and trying to mention games I haven't seen mentioned yet (although some of the ones that *have* been mentioned are very good...)

Final Fantasy 2 American: What can i say, I played this game over and over, and learned to love every one of its characters.

Bully: This game made me laugh, repeatedly.

Destroy all Humans 2: Very clever dialogue, again made me laugh repeatedly.

Overlord: The twist ending that I Shall Not Spoil genuinely surprised me.

Among the ones already mentioned, I'd second,or third: both of the Fallouts, KOTOR (and 3/4ths of KOTOR 2...), and Morrowwind.

 

[Gaz-L]

Haven't finished FFIV but what I have done I really like, and I'm really looking forward to the DS remake.

 

[Ajar]

Yeah, Beyond Good & Evil is another solid one. Good call, dee_dubs.

 

[Jakester404]

I believe the greatest story of all times was the first Neverwinter Nights. I can honestly say that it was the first time ever playing a game where I was genuinely concerned for the well-being of the other characters, and I felt a desperate need to complete the game.

Some good runner-ups would probably be Twinsen's Odyssey, Max Payne 1&2, Star Trek: Armada (can't remember if it was #1 or 2 that had the great story), Baulders Gate, and the Icewind Dale series.

If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have put Starcraft in there too, but I have realized it has been stolen practically word for word from the Warhammer universe.

 

[BanalityDUFF]

Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines and System Shock 2 top my lists of favourite storys. Also from Troika is Arcanum, a game i really enjoyed.
WarCraft III (not Frozen Throne) was also really cool IMO, one of the best RTS storys out there (i haven't played Starcraft in so long now i forget what its campaign was, haha).

Jakester404; funny you mention Neverwinter Niights, i'm playing through Hordes of the Underdark at the moment and am really not enjoying the story, i'm just enjoying seeing my character getting decked out in sweet loot and becomming a walking death machine.
I did enjoy the original Neverwinter Nights campaign, but i played it a while ago now and can't really remember the story that well. The first chapter was lame though.

-edit-
just saw once i posted that i even have a Vampire avatar, forgot about that!
-/edit-

 

[Romaen]

Shame on you all, not one of you has said anything about Breakdown for the Xbox yet.

I'm also going to mention Eternal Darkness (GC), the Legacy of Kain series, the Silent Hill series, KotOR, Jade Empire, Clive Barker's The Undying, and Psychonauts as some favorites off the top of my head.