Best/Favourite Stories in a Game?

[followthebird [deprecated]]

1. Planescape Torment (My absolute favorite story)
2. Grim Fandango (A very close second)
3. Indiana Jones and the fate of atlantis
4. Final Fanasty VII
5. Ultima 8
6. Bioshock
7. Longest Journey/Dreamfall
8. The World of Warcraft Series
9. Fallout
10. Chrono Trigger

I haven't played some of the games mentioned on the lists above but I will: Tales Of Symphonia, FFX/X-2, Half-Life2 and Shadow of Memorys

[Edit: LucasArts make adventure games again...please!!!]

 

[maxjae]

Why is everyone saying Half-Life and Half-Life 2?

In a world...where aliens have invaded earth...one man...has what it takes...to stop them. Now...he must do everything in his power...to save the planet he loves...before it's too late.

Sound familiar?

 

[LordOmnit]

Well, that kind of thing is the way that everyone complains about JRPG's and series like Zelda, by giving a basic idea of the struggle and then being like, "OH GEEZ, IT'S ALL THE SAME!" Yes, they start the same, but that way of thinking leads to everyone thinking everything is repetative and based off of something else, when in reality that is true some of the time, and others it is a rather glaring generalization about things that sound similar, but are different. Like there and their.

 

[maxjae]

I'm not generalizing. The story in the Half-Life series really is cliched. It's about aliens invading earth. That's it. There's no character development. There's no twists. There's very little story at all, actually.

 

[xbeaker]

Thank you bubba.. I was reading through these and about tho post that I can't believe no one listed Star Control II. Such a great back story for so many races.

 

[Drong]

well i can't believe that it appears to have avoided mention but Resident Evil, especially the second game but the whole series really (despite getting a little weaker towards the end) don't talk to me about the films though(except maybe the first one which is ok)....seriously all they had to do is make the games on the big screen but they really managed to F~*k that up!! still the films could have been worse, they could have been Doom.

 

[xbeaker]

I have to take a page from maxjae's book about Resident Evil. It is really a cookie cutter zombie movie plot. At least until you hit RE4. Which makes it all the more staggering that the movies were so bad. How do you make a bad movie about a game, that is basically a movie!? You can't even just blame Michelle Rodriguez because she was only in the first one.

 

[Katana314]

I'm not generalizing. The story in the Half-Life series really is cliched. It's about aliens invading earth. That's it. There's no character development. There's no twists. There's very little story at all, actually.

Well, I have to say I'm surprised more people don't say this. But remember that there's plot, and there's also storytelling. I would go on about how the vortigaunts seen in HL1 aren't the real threat and yada yada, but that stuff doesn't matter. What mattered to me is that all cutscenes were told in first person, and there are some good lines. "We're not gonna force you to do this, Gordon, but...I think you know that if you don't pull this off...there won't be much to come home to."
Half-Life's plot was relatively good for its time, and Half-Life 2's storytelling is still superior for this time. That's how I'm gonna say it...

 

[Fordo]

I'm all about the MMO's

Story wise,

FF 6 and 7 I especially liked 6. Great character development and really left me wanting more.

GTA3 - yea, that sounds wierd, but what little story there was, I really got into, and couldn't wait for the next mission - not bad for a game with a main character that never talks.

ChronoTrigger - Hugely fun, lots of endings, all of them cool

Earthbound - This game was so weird and imaginative. Who sets a RPG in the early 90s and gets away with it? One of the best game stories I played that I first brushed off as stupid as hell.

Halo - Best FPS story I've played (never got into half life before you all start)

Warcraft/Starcraft games - I've allways enjoyed going back and playing the single players on all these games sometimes just to get a feel for the story again

Command and Conquer series - Most of the early games had really cool stories, plus you could choose your side...wewt

Metal Gear Solid - ZOMG A NINJA!

Mega Man 3 / MegaMan X - Before you say there was no story in 3, this was back when you kind of had to get along with making up your own story based on what the game was giving you early on. this installment gave you PROTOMAN. Who didn't go through that game wondering what his angle was?...well, I thought it added a twist =P MegaMan X I thought really breathed some life in what I thought was a dead franchise with new bad guys and allies.

 

[GrowlersAtSea]

My favorite that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is the original Homeworld.

I loved it's method of storytelling (fairly simple, black and while animation) that told a story that ultimately I cared about. "Adagio for Strings" is used in such a great context in that game, if anyone who plays it remembers it (I won't say it for spoilers). The story was fairly simplistic, but I guess that's why it pulled me in, there was one goal ultimately, get to Higara.

Also, about Half-Life. I don't think the story itself with Half-Life was so good, but how it was told more than made up for it. Virtually nothing is just spelled out for you and you don't sit through any cut scenes, what you know of the story you see first hand (you see G-Man slinking about and infer his involvement, when you first encounter the Marines and they open up on you). That counted for a lot to me...and like Homeworld, it was fairly simple and goal oriented (at least for most of the game, it's very simple, getting to the surface).

The Half-Life sequels have maintained some of that for me, but having the chatty Cathy Alyx along for the ride talking about things and explaining for parts of the newer episodes has taken away from it, for me.

 

[corronchilejano]

It's pretty hard. Most of my favorite games have a sucky storyline, so it´d be:
1.Final Fantasy VI: Shadow commits suicide. Period. You CANNOT see that elsewhere. He doesn't sacrifice himself, he didn't need to do it, he just does it. Every character has a different profile, and I love that.
2.EarthBound: I actually cried in the ending, and that was 3 years ago. I'm a melodramatic freak.
3.Crystalis: As in the original NES, not the GameBoy color remake. Direct and simple, and with a lot from imagination on your side.
4.Terranigma: It's the kind of game that just makes all your emotions go from one place to another. Kinda childish in the writing, but very mature to where it's headed.

No number five here. Even numbers are for pussies... as in cats. They´ve 4 pawfingers, and I like them, so it's a tribute.

 

[RidleyValiant]

Favorite stories hmm...

Final Fantasy 9
Baldur's Gate 2
Neverwinter Nights
Portal if you're willing to call it a story
Halo series

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

Baldur's Gate
Half Life 2
Jade Empire
Planescape: Torment
FEAR
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

 

[eggdog14]

1: Half-Life Saga: Begins as a creepy, original survival horror, transforms into an epic tale of human suffering, an alien holocaust, political corruption and quantum physics.

2: Conker's Bad Fur Day: Saving Private Ryan, The Matrix, Pissing on demons and Squirrel Porn. Absolutely Brilliant.

3: Perfect Dark: A hot young female spy, industrial espionage, and aliens. What's not to like?

4: Command & Conguer - Red Alert:"Hey, i got an idea. Lets go back in time and kill Hitler in order to start WWIII" Sure, why not?

5: Unreal Tournament: . . . huh.

 

[blackadvent]

-Freelancer: For all of you who never played the game (except the five of you who did), here's a brief rundown.

You play Edison Trent, or "Trent" as everyone calls him, who is kind of like a Han Solo clone who gets jipped out of a million credits after Freeport 7, the station he was making an illicit deal on, explodes. Although he's extremely cynical, he takes up a few jobs with the Liberty Security Force (equivalent of America), making a few friends along the way.

Tensions begin to mount between the four space empires, especially between Kusari (Japan) and Rhineland (Germany).

Without spoiling anything, that deal gets fucked up and you have to evacuate to Brentonia (Britain), and figure out what the hell just happened. The rest of the game involves trying to figure out why people are trying to kill you, why the empires are so pissy towards each other, and what really happened on Freeport 7. Along te way to the finale, you make even more friends, and all of these people who have survived help you fight the final battle, which is too damn cool for me to spoil.

What really kept me going was the main character. He started out as the Han Solo clone, but he ended up being less one-dimensional than that. His journal entries throughout the game (if you bothered to read them) help create a well rounded PC. And the girl he spends time with, Jun'ko Zane? Pretty damn 'strong' female protagonist. Not a damsel in distress, but a woman who uses her connections and skills to get the job done.

-Psychonauts: For reasons that have already been posted.

-Warcraft III & Frozen Throne: Did anyone else think that Ner'Zhul's manipulations helped add up to a kickass plot? Especially in regards to what happened with Prince Arthas?

 

[Necros_21]

The best story is in Deus Ex, I love it. The second one has a pretty good plot too. Other than these I should mention KOTOR 1-2, Fahrenheit, the Thief games and BioShock too. But there are some other really good ones I just can remember all of them, like Psychonauts for example.


Oh, and since when do Half Life games have a good story? Okay, Ep2 wasn't bad, it actually told you something.

 

[eggdog14]

the half life games have quite a good story, but its driven by the world it creates and not strictly written like a book, (see: BioShock)

the dystopia presented in HL2 is the most believable and emotionally driven gameworlds out there.

 

[Kikosemmek]

There are two ways in which I can answer this question, because there are two categories I'd sum games up in when it comes to plotlines: first is the actual plot being creative and interesting, and the second is the way the plot is presented/unravelled to the player.

For the former category I'd recommend Command and Conquer 1, Monkey Island (the whole series is a cute plotline), Psychonauts, and Grim Fandango.

For the latter category I'd definitely say Half-Life 1 and Portal, Diablo 1, and GTA 1&2.

The Baldur's Gate games and Bioshock stand out like sore thumbs in both categories.