Game With the Best Story? (For school assignment)

[Rathands]

Please don't start your paragraph like that, it leaves you with very little room to argue your case. D: Why not, instead of getting a subjective opinion from a website, use examples of games that take inspiration from artists, authors or even composers that your teacher may be more familiar with than a title they likely haven't heard of: Alan Wake is an ode to Steven King, Eternal Darkness was inspired by Lovecraft and (though I wouldn't recommend it for its story) Eternal Sonata is centred around the dying dreams of Chopin. Even a shitty game could be a good example providing you can research its concept.
After you've established games with links to other art, it shouldn't be too difficult to argue their own merits and influences on other forms of media .

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Shadow of the Colossus.

Your character is killing these creatures to save the soul of a girl, these creatures are not a threat, they only defend themselves, for you seek them out, and with every one you kill, you can see the toll it's taking on your character.

So much is told without words.

The best stories always are.

I knew this would be the first comment.

I think it depends greatly from game to game. SotC doesnt have all that deep a story, you summed it up in two and a half lines, its just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics.

I just have to comment on this one.

You pretty much told yourself what is so amazing about SotC: "[it's] just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics."

Isn't that the whole point?
Isn't that what we should be striving for? To create a means of storytelling that can't be copied by any other medium?

It's the interaction with your horse, the slaying of the gigantic creatures and the search in the desolate landscape...
If a picture is worth more than a thousand words, than an experience is worth more than a thousand pictures.

Yeah I mo, I didnt really state what I thought clearly did I.

I meant to ask the OP what he was looking for. Theres many aspects to a good story. Gaming does things well and other things not so well. SotC plays on gamings strengths and turns a story thats baically killing big boss monsters into something amazing. Theres a back story but it just doesnt really come up (your there because of what happened but your not told it), unless you want to start talking about ICO, or was that a sequel in story terms? Where as Bioshock maps out every little detail, YOU just have to look for it. Playing on another of gamings strengths.

They both work well but some would argue otherwise, is the OC talking about a story with a massive back story, where every little action and and detail leads up to this big emotional cluster cuse or a story that doesnt go anywhere past the moment but is so well told you dont really care... until youve completed it and MUST find out.

Im starting to sound like an ass hole so ill stop now.

EDIT: Oh one more thing, FF9 was the best of the lot, the parralel worlds, final boss mess was abit of a jar but the rest was epic, even if the story and the gameplay clashed abit. Training Steiner up after that long ass break he had from the story took looooooooooong!

Well, that explanation certainly helped.

And yeah, FF IX is awesome. Gameplay was indeed not the most inventive aspect, but at least it was solid. I just really liked it for all the things it did right: from Zidane's revelation to Vivi's arc as the child who overcomes his fear of death. Also, the women.

Beatrix as the female general who kicks major ass and has to find out if her loyalty outweighs the notions of right and wrong. Garnet as the princess character who actually becomes a queen halfway the games story - name one other game which does that! And last but not least, Freya as the female soldier looking for her boyfriend - not the other way around! - and staying strong even after her home gets overrun and many of her comrades die. She's probably the most amazing, since her story is all about love, yet she's not portrayed like some pretty-ass bimbo or sleazy cat-girl. No, she's a skinny rat wearing a raincoat. FF IX was both the first and the last game I ever played with such a strong female cast...

 

[Kathinka]

i have no mouth and i must scream.

the story was written by the same guy who made the original short story the game is based on, it's as brilliant as it is depressing and scary.

other good choice: system shock 2. having shodan, maybe the most remarkable antagonist any game ever had. bioshock is just a watered down version of the system shock story really.

Pfft. That sounds like something a pathetic creature of meat and bone would say, panting and swearing as it ran through some corridors.

T_T

guilty as charged^^

 

[foxlovingfreak]

The most recent ones for me that come to mind that I liked personaly are bioshock and red dead redmedption.

 

[bigredmnky]

it's plausible that I'll be crucified or buried, but I'm gonna go with brutal legend. the game has a great story, incredible scoring (I'm not a huge metal fan, but when Mr. crowley and that one dragon force song come on in the cut scene and game play moment respectively... that's magic, charles.)it's a really funny game, and it's accessible to almost everybody (pretend the pseudo RTS segments aren't there)

with visual flare, true dedication to subject matter, and the best sub story ever (the mythology of armagoeden or whatever the name was) it's a highly underrated game in every aspect and it's easier to explain than mass effect, dragon age, halo, call of duty, everything. explain to your teacher that you play a roadie for a terrible band who gets transported into a land that's a combination of lord of the rings and this is spinal tap, where a grand adventure unfolds.

I'd keep going but I'm gonna go play brutal legend

 

[Shirokurou]

Metal Gear Solid 3.
You can view it as a stand-alone from the series and the story itself stands great.
Also you can say it's an example of post-modernism and deconstruction.

 

[PunkRex]

it's plausible that I'll be crucified or buried, but I'm gonna go with brutal legend. the game has a great story, incredible scoring (I'm not a huge metal fan, but when Mr. crowley and that one dragon force song come on in the cut scene and game play moment respectively... that's magic, charles.)it's a really funny game, and it's accessible to almost everybody (pretend the pseudo RTS segments aren't there)

with visual flare, true dedication to subject matter, and the best sub story ever (the mythology of armagoeden or whatever the name was) it's a highly underrated game in every aspect and it's easier to explain than mass effect, dragon age, halo, call of duty, everything. explain to your teacher that you play a roadie for a terrible band who gets transported into a land that's a combination of lord of the rings and this is spinal tap, where a grand adventure unfolds.

I'd keep going but I'm gonna go play brutal legend

I agree, some of the gameplay clashed abit but the details made that game HEAVY!!!

 

[PunkRex]

Shadow of the Colossus.

Your character is killing these creatures to save the soul of a girl, these creatures are not a threat, they only defend themselves, for you seek them out, and with every one you kill, you can see the toll it's taking on your character.

So much is told without words.

The best stories always are.

I knew this would be the first comment.

I think it depends greatly from game to game. SotC doesnt have all that deep a story, you summed it up in two and a half lines, its just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics.

I just have to comment on this one.

You pretty much told yourself what is so amazing about SotC: "[it's] just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics."

Isn't that the whole point?
Isn't that what we should be striving for? To create a means of storytelling that can't be copied by any other medium?

It's the interaction with your horse, the slaying of the gigantic creatures and the search in the desolate landscape...
If a picture is worth more than a thousand words, than an experience is worth more than a thousand pictures.

Yeah I mo, I didnt really state what I thought clearly did I.

I meant to ask the OP what he was looking for. Theres many aspects to a good story. Gaming does things well and other things not so well. SotC plays on gamings strengths and turns a story thats baically killing big boss monsters into something amazing. Theres a back story but it just doesnt really come up (your there because of what happened but your not told it), unless you want to start talking about ICO, or was that a sequel in story terms? Where as Bioshock maps out every little detail, YOU just have to look for it. Playing on another of gamings strengths.

They both work well but some would argue otherwise, is the OC talking about a story with a massive back story, where every little action and and detail leads up to this big emotional cluster cuse or a story that doesnt go anywhere past the moment but is so well told you dont really care... until youve completed it and MUST find out.

Im starting to sound like an ass hole so ill stop now.

EDIT: Oh one more thing, FF9 was the best of the lot, the parralel worlds, final boss mess was abit of a jar but the rest was epic, even if the story and the gameplay clashed abit. Training Steiner up after that long ass break he had from the story took looooooooooong!

Well, that explanation certainly helped.

And yeah, FF IX is awesome. Gameplay was indeed not the most inventive aspect, but at least it was solid. I just really liked it for all the things it did right: from Zidane's revelation to Vivi's arc as the child who overcomes his fear of death. Also, the women.

Beatrix as the female general who kicks major ass and has to find out if her loyalty outweighs the notions of right and wrong. Garnet as the princess character who actually becomes a queen halfway the games story - name one other game which does that! And last but not least, Freya as the female soldier looking for her boyfriend - not the other way around! - and staying strong even after her home gets overrun and many of her comrades die. She's probably the most amazing, since her story is all about love, yet she's not portrayed like some pretty-ass bimbo or sleazy cat-girl. No, she's a skinny rat wearing a raincoat. FF IX was both the first and the last game I ever played with such a strong female cast...

Yeah Freya was hot ^v^... 0_0 wait, what?

 

[G-M0N3Y]

Psychonauts or the original Bioshock. Both games have deep stories that require the player to actually think about what is really going on. The way both stories mess with the mind, in different ways, leaves the player having to question everything they have experienced throughout the story.

 

[SpartanBlackman]

Knights of the Old Republic 2.
Since most of this site has a massive hardon for Bioware and assumes this game is bad just because they didn't make it, here is a rundown of the story

You are a Jedi who gets exiled for joining Revan. You lose your connection to the force and go traveling. You are picked up by the Harbinger in order to meet with Carth (Or another captain) where it is attacked by Sith. At the same time, a crimelord called Goto tries to capture the final jedi, believing that having one faction rule is OK, but when they fight they tend to fuck shit up. So, you meet the third person looking for you, an old woman named Kreia, who you have a connection to. She is fascinated by how you connected to the force, and is strongly neutral.
Lots of fun later, it is revealed that Kreia was a Sith lord and she kills the remaining Jedi masters, as they learned nothing despite what the Exile does for them. She invites the Exile to Malachor 5, where the Exile pretty much singlehandedly won the Mandalorian war. You get to her, and she fights you. Her plan WAS to use you to destroy the force, stopping the silly Jedi vs Sith thing forever. She wished to stop the violence and pain and manipulation caused by it OR to train you to fight with Revan to save the Galaxy...

BUT LOL NONE OF THAT MATTERS EVIL SITH LORD EVILFACE IS HERE 300 YEARS L8TR

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Shadow of the Colossus.

Your character is killing these creatures to save the soul of a girl, these creatures are not a threat, they only defend themselves, for you seek them out, and with every one you kill, you can see the toll it's taking on your character.

So much is told without words.

The best stories always are.

I knew this would be the first comment.

I think it depends greatly from game to game. SotC doesnt have all that deep a story, you summed it up in two and a half lines, its just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics.

I just have to comment on this one.

You pretty much told yourself what is so amazing about SotC: "[it's] just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics."

Isn't that the whole point?
Isn't that what we should be striving for? To create a means of storytelling that can't be copied by any other medium?

It's the interaction with your horse, the slaying of the gigantic creatures and the search in the desolate landscape...
If a picture is worth more than a thousand words, than an experience is worth more than a thousand pictures.

Yeah I mo, I didnt really state what I thought clearly did I.

I meant to ask the OP what he was looking for. Theres many aspects to a good story. Gaming does things well and other things not so well. SotC plays on gamings strengths and turns a story thats baically killing big boss monsters into something amazing. Theres a back story but it just doesnt really come up (your there because of what happened but your not told it), unless you want to start talking about ICO, or was that a sequel in story terms? Where as Bioshock maps out every little detail, YOU just have to look for it. Playing on another of gamings strengths.

They both work well but some would argue otherwise, is the OC talking about a story with a massive back story, where every little action and and detail leads up to this big emotional cluster cuse or a story that doesnt go anywhere past the moment but is so well told you dont really care... until youve completed it and MUST find out.

Im starting to sound like an ass hole so ill stop now.

EDIT: Oh one more thing, FF9 was the best of the lot, the parralel worlds, final boss mess was abit of a jar but the rest was epic, even if the story and the gameplay clashed abit. Training Steiner up after that long ass break he had from the story took looooooooooong!

Well, that explanation certainly helped.

And yeah, FF IX is awesome. Gameplay was indeed not the most inventive aspect, but at least it was solid. I just really liked it for all the things it did right: from Zidane's revelation to Vivi's arc as the child who overcomes his fear of death. Also, the women.

Beatrix as the female general who kicks major ass and has to find out if her loyalty outweighs the notions of right and wrong. Garnet as the princess character who actually becomes a queen halfway the games story - name one other game which does that! And last but not least, Freya as the female soldier looking for her boyfriend - not the other way around! - and staying strong even after her home gets overrun and many of her comrades die. She's probably the most amazing, since her story is all about love, yet she's not portrayed like some pretty-ass bimbo or sleazy cat-girl. No, she's a skinny rat wearing a raincoat. FF IX was both the first and the last game I ever played with such a strong female cast...

Yeah Freya was hot ^v^... 0_0 wait, what?

Hah, that's kind of the whole point isn't it?

She's not attractive, but they gave her a story dealing with love anyway.
I mean, they could make her a non-human and still make her "hot" - like Mass Effect did - but they didn't.
It's the exact opposite of what Bob was bitching about: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/4719-Gender-Games
If you ask me, it takes balls to make an unconventional move like that.

 

[INeedAName]

As some have already pointed out, you're asking for an objective answer to a subjective question, so there's no real right or wrong here.

Still some of my favourites would be Persona 4, story-wise, and BioShock and the Bastion narrative-wise.

BioWare games, as a general rule, also have pretty good writing.

P. S. talk about a topic exploding huh!? And Red Dead Redamption also had an unusually good story.

 

[Babitz]

This thread is kind of depressing because a lot of games mentioned here don't have a lot going for them both in terms of story and narrative.

I mean, God of War? Seriously?
Or creaming your collective pants over Bioshock which is basically System Shock 2 for dummies.
Or Mass Effect, the B-movie adaptation of SW: Kotor.

 

[PunkRex]

Shadow of the Colossus.

Your character is killing these creatures to save the soul of a girl, these creatures are not a threat, they only defend themselves, for you seek them out, and with every one you kill, you can see the toll it's taking on your character.

So much is told without words.

The best stories always are.

I knew this would be the first comment.

I think it depends greatly from game to game. SotC doesnt have all that deep a story, you summed it up in two and a half lines, its just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics.

I just have to comment on this one.

You pretty much told yourself what is so amazing about SotC: "[it's] just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics."

Isn't that the whole point?
Isn't that what we should be striving for? To create a means of storytelling that can't be copied by any other medium?

It's the interaction with your horse, the slaying of the gigantic creatures and the search in the desolate landscape...
If a picture is worth more than a thousand words, than an experience is worth more than a thousand pictures.

Yeah I mo, I didnt really state what I thought clearly did I.

I meant to ask the OP what he was looking for. Theres many aspects to a good story. Gaming does things well and other things not so well. SotC plays on gamings strengths and turns a story thats baically killing big boss monsters into something amazing. Theres a back story but it just doesnt really come up (your there because of what happened but your not told it), unless you want to start talking about ICO, or was that a sequel in story terms? Where as Bioshock maps out every little detail, YOU just have to look for it. Playing on another of gamings strengths.

They both work well but some would argue otherwise, is the OC talking about a story with a massive back story, where every little action and and detail leads up to this big emotional cluster cuse or a story that doesnt go anywhere past the moment but is so well told you dont really care... until youve completed it and MUST find out.

Im starting to sound like an ass hole so ill stop now.

EDIT: Oh one more thing, FF9 was the best of the lot, the parralel worlds, final boss mess was abit of a jar but the rest was epic, even if the story and the gameplay clashed abit. Training Steiner up after that long ass break he had from the story took looooooooooong!

Well, that explanation certainly helped.

And yeah, FF IX is awesome. Gameplay was indeed not the most inventive aspect, but at least it was solid. I just really liked it for all the things it did right: from Zidane's revelation to Vivi's arc as the child who overcomes his fear of death. Also, the women.

Beatrix as the female general who kicks major ass and has to find out if her loyalty outweighs the notions of right and wrong. Garnet as the princess character who actually becomes a queen halfway the games story - name one other game which does that! And last but not least, Freya as the female soldier looking for her boyfriend - not the other way around! - and staying strong even after her home gets overrun and many of her comrades die. She's probably the most amazing, since her story is all about love, yet she's not portrayed like some pretty-ass bimbo or sleazy cat-girl. No, she's a skinny rat wearing a raincoat. FF IX was both the first and the last game I ever played with such a strong female cast...

Yeah Freya was hot ^v^... 0_0 wait, what?

Hah, that's kind of the whole point isn't it?

She's not attractive, but they gave her a story dealing with love anyway.
I mean, they could make her a non-human and still make her "hot" - like Mass Effect did - but they didn't.
It's the exact opposite of what Bob was bitching about: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/4719-Gender-Games
If you ask me, it takes balls to make an unconventional move like that.

I do love a good love story, I just hate it when its over played. Freya was awesome because she loved Fratly but still saw the big picture... did I just make a pun?

I actually agree with alot of what Bob says, not everything mind you, ZODIAC WAS TERRIBLE!!! Which is always a big conflict for me as im a massive perv who loves him some sexy characters... sex doesnt belong with everything, yet it can pop up out of no where.

 

[Victor Cross]

MASS EFFECT 2.

That is all.

(Okay, I don't want to bore you with details, plus this post would be EXTREMELY long if I was to go into it, but look up some gameplay footage, or read stuff on the wiki. Look it up in general. It's one of the best games out there, sotry AND gameplay-wise.)

 

[honeybunch]

Except this is a thread on a 'game with best story', so it isn't unreasonable to assume that's what I meant.

It kind of is, actually.

If you write "the best stories are always told without words" it is absolutely unreasonable to assume you meant "the best stories in video games are sometimes told without words". A reader could assume the "video games" bit, but there's really no reason for you to expect them to, especially since this topic is partially about comparing the quality of video game stories to the stories found in other media. Not to mention that you've hedged about the "always" that was in your original statement and transformed it into a "sometimes".

So if you say that what you're saying now is what you meant all along I'll believe you, but in that case your original statement was confusingly broad and hyperbolic. If you make that kind of statement, you should not be surprised if it is misunderstood.

Ugh. I'm just going to let this go now. Daystar, if you want to think of me as some kind of misquoting, stubborn douchebag lacking basic reading comprehension, you are welcome to do so. We'll just have to disagree on that point. If you want to respond to this, feel free to. I don't mean to hog the last word.

To everyone else, my apologizes for cluttering up this thread with this pointless argument.

 

[WOPR]

Killer7... probably that, while it's story is up down and all around it's still really well done, either that or Metal Gear or Mass Effect (I didn't much enjoy mass effect but it's story is off the wall good)

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Except this is a thread on a 'game with best story', so it isn't unreasonable to assume that's what I meant.

It kind of is, actually.

If you write "the best stories are always told without words" it is absolutely unreasonable to assume you meant "the best stories in video games are sometimes told without words". A reader could assume the "video games" bit, but there's really no reason for you to expect them to, especially since this topic is partially about comparing the quality of video game stories to the stories found in other media. Not to mention that you've hedged about the "always" that was in your original statement and transformed it into a "sometimes".

So if you say that what you're saying now is what you meant all along I'll believe you, but in that case your original statement was confusingly broad and hyperbolic. If you make that kind of statement, you should not be surprised if it is misunderstood.

Ugh. I'm just going to let this go now. Daystar, if you want to think of me as some kind of misquoting, stubborn douchebag lacking basic reading comprehension, you are welcome to do so. We'll just have to disagree on that point. If you want to respond to this, feel free to. I don't mean to hog the last word.

To everyone else, my apologizes for cluttering up this thread with this pointless argument.

Some people may know that's what I meant, other won't (like you for instance).

I should have made the my point more conise, but I also don't appreciate someone coming along and being overly pedantic, but whatever, that's my problem and I'll deal with it.

 

[caffineking]

The single player game on Call of Duty Modern Warefare 2 really impressed me. Real Tom Clancy type stuff if you've ever read his books. Not sure if an 18 cert game would be suitable for a school assignment though....

 

[AlternatePFG]

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer. Easily the best game and story Obsidian has done, unlike many of their other games, it has a really solid Act 3. Some very complex and interesting companions and a story with actual themes.

I also really like KOTOR II's story, moreso than the first (Which is just a basic Star Wars story. Don't get me wrong, it's a well told Star Wars story, but it really isn't much past that) but it has the problem of being unfinished. It's a really thoughtful deconstruction of the Star Wars universe, but it's let down by the fact that it was never quite finished. It was building up to something great, but due to being rushed by Lucas Arts, the final level is a mess, gameplay and story-wise. (Even the Restoration Project doesn't fix everything.)

Obligatory Planescape: Torment mention here. It's really, really good.