Emotionally Powerful Games

[9of9]

It's a very valid question. Unfortunately there are very few if you look at the mainstream games - in fact, I daresay only Team ICO's really come to mind as games which trully do focus on the emotional side of the experience. On the whole, I find it rather hard to take action games very seriously in this respect - since the invariable gameplay of butchering hordes of bad-guys inevitably dulls the impact of whatever great narrative there is to the game.

Fortunately though, we're not restricted to the mainstream. There are quite a few independent games that are, actually, quite fantastic in that respect. Most notably within the realms of Interactive Fiction - Worlds Apart and Blue Lacuna spring to mind, though only because they are personal favourites.

 

[PaxCorpus]

Metal Gear Solid 1, hands down. The rest of those games lick my nose.

 

[weirdbros]

probably cod w@w

after the stalingrad mission i got past the communist thing and emotionally sided with the ussr and went out of my way to humiliatingly and sadistically kill every nazi i saw, ie hitting them in the face with molotoves, shooting them in the leg with a tokarev 10 times

 

[.Ricks.]

I agree fully with this, there are a number of emotionally powerful games out there, the ones that come to mind are, Metal Gear Solid, Okami and Shadow of the Colossus. Three great games full of emotion.

 

[Clashero]

No one has mentioned Dreamfall!
That story made me laugh, cheer, jeer and cry through the 8 hours it lasted. It was so powerful, so believable, and yet so fantastic. It felt familiar and foreign at the same time. There is one point in particular, after you listen to a certain recording and go into a little girl's room, the comments the character makes are heartbreaking.

 

[Erana]

The Path.
it fucks with your head, but not in a generic horror way. for $10, you really should get it if you like artsy games.

 

[WinterSoldier]

Final Fantasy VIII, Shadow of the Colossus, Metal Gear Solid.

 

[Spleenbag]

No one has mentioned Dreamfall!
That story made me laugh, cheer, jeer and cry through the 8 hours it lasted. It was so powerful, so believable, and yet so fantastic. It felt familiar and foreign at the same time. There is one point in particular, after you listen to a certain recording and go into a little girl's room, the comments the character makes are heartbreaking.

Considering that this game is recent, I must ask: would I need to play the 1998 original to understand this sequel? Or would reading a plot summary of that/not doing anything about it be okay?

 

[Clashero]

No one has mentioned Dreamfall!
That story made me laugh, cheer, jeer and cry through the 8 hours it lasted. It was so powerful, so believable, and yet so fantastic. It felt familiar and foreign at the same time. There is one point in particular, after you listen to a certain recording and go into a little girl's room, the comments the character makes are heartbreaking.

Considering that this game is recent, I must ask: would I need to play the 1998 original to understand this sequel? Or would reading a plot summary of that/not doing anything about it be okay?

You can play Dreamfall without playing the original and still understand everything perfectly. However, playing them in order makes Dreamfall a bit more enjoyable, because you see the return of some characters, the evolution of April Ryan, etc. So, you see, reading the summary wouldn't do you any good, but actually playing TLJ before Dreamfall leads to some "Hey! That's the guy from the last game! What's he doing here?" moments.
Personally, I preferred Dreamfall, even if the ending was too much of a cliffhanger for me. Every end was loose, and the worst part of all is that the developers are going to make episodical content for it. That's bad. Why? Because when you're writing episodes, the moment you write an ending, you've put yourself out of a job, so it'll dillute the excellence of the story.
Anyway, I'm rambling about something totally unrelated, as usual.
Play them in any order you like! It's an amazing experience either way.

 

[Fightgarr]

I'll have to go with good ol' chrono cross. The game was epic, both in story and in gameplay. And since it was an old RPG the dialogue wasn't ruined by terrible voice acting like so many are nowadays.

I agree with this so hard. Chrono Cross was, I felt an emotionally powerful game.
In fact I consider it to be a lot better than Chrono Trigger, so stick that your pipe and smoke it

 

[Spleenbag]

Thanks for the info. I probably won't end up playing TLJ simply because it's something like 10 years old now and I would probably have difficulty getting my computer to recognize what the hell it is. I'll keep an eye out. I'll definitely add Dreamfall to my wish list though. I've wanted a really, really good immersive game for a long time now.

 

[klarr]

to me silent hill had me by the neck the whole game.
and thats why its my fav game series.

 

[Zand88]

Silent Hill 2.
'Don't leave me, James.'
;_;