Games with good gameplay but terrible story that made you stop playing

[Ilikemilkshake]

What the fuck.

Does someone ACTUALLY quit games than they THEMSELVES consider are good in gameplay (You know, the whole reason of why you are playing a videoGAME in the first place?) just for having a bad story?...

I mean... I just... wow. People cant be this stupid. I think... the only reason I MIGHT say this situation is legit is if they completly, UTTERLY destroy a history in a sequel of a great series... and even then I have a hard time trying to understand how this is even possible.



For the record; the inverse, aka good story but fail gameplay (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, all of those "art" games, looking at you. Althougt your story was/is usually as shit as your gameplay but whatever) dosnt appeals to me at all. Why play a horrible game gameplaywise just to see the story? Go watch it in youtube or something...

You do realise that people might play games for different reasons than yourself?

If I want to experience a fantastic story and the game doesn't satisfy me in that regard I'm going to stop playing because I've got no reason to care about the game, nothing to hook me in and keep playing it.

If I watch a film which is well directed and acted with good cinematography but terrible story should I keep watching because the CINEMA parts are good? No.. I'm gonna stop because unless I'm there to appreciate good cinematography it's a waste of my time.

Some games don't need a good story like say Chess because you don't play for a story. Other games the story is absolutely essential as the game becomes pointless without a story to give it context.

 

[ABLb0y]

Brutal Legend. Excellent gameplay, horrible unlikable main character whose every word disgusted me.

 

[IronMit]

Hitman absolution... I wasn't happy about the gameplay but the 'story' pushed me over the edge

 

[Mikeyfell]

Close as I came to that was Dishonored,

But that was more like a game with resoundingly "meh" gameplay turning me off with a shit story, and usually is something has a really really bad story (Like Gears of War 2) I'll play it out of spite just so I can always bring up how bad it is.

So there's even a case where a really bad story actually made me finish an otherwise bland pedestrian game...
I'm a masochist I know.


(Also Shadow Hearts Covenant BUT!!!! )
Let me explain...

Okay...
Here goes...

It was a really long time ago, and I didn't finish it because there was no voice over, so I had to read all the subtitles, and I was young enough to still think reading was boring.

So not really bad, the way I had to experience the story bored me.

 

[PunkRex]

Advance Wars: Days or ruin.

Also I couldn't get over the whole dark and edgy tone compared to the fun and colourful of the previous game despite I find those game to be unreal (war as hell didn't much apply to them) but I still enjoyed the hell of it.

Basically this, the originals were goofy but alot of fun, the story in the new one ground me down more than the enemy units.

 

[InfinityProject]

I would go as far as to say any of the prince of persia games.. brutal legend.. i couldnt get passed jack black screaming something about metal in my ear, every 5 seconds. Duke Nukem Forever. Maybe even Halo4. I wasnt really impressed with the story vs. the other halo franchises.

 

[Sectan]

EDIT: Just to be crystal clear, If a game has VERY GOOD gameplay, but shit story (Some examples posted so far are: Sonic 2006 (when its not gliching the fuck out), Dishonored, Mass Effect 3) then it should be mentioned here.

I..I liked the story in Dishonored... It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad enough to make me not put 100 hours into it... *Cries in Corner*

But seriously I thought Dishonored had a pretty good story. Maybe it was just really good atmosphere.

 

[Dan Steele]

Killzone 3. The ISA are so generic and uncharictarizing they have to make a Helghast campaign.

Fuck the ISA

 

[PeterMerkin69]

I've never stopped playing a game over a bad story but I've refused to play many games with allegedly great writing that had shit gameplay. Every Bioshock springs immediately to mind. And I almost skipped the original Deus Ex because the shooter mechanics were so awful in the beginning.

I say allegedly because if a game is truly well written then gameplay is complentary. Otherwise the gameplay is completely superfluous; at that point I'd be better off reading a book or watching a film. It's faster, easier and actually does what it's supposed to do.

 

[RedmistSM]

I... don't think this has ever happened. I don't believe that stories have no place in games. Many of my favourite games are driven by their stories (Planescape: Torment and Silent Hill 2 spring immediately to mind) but if a game has a crap story, I can live with it if it's enjoyable to play. I generally can't accept truly shit gameplay for the sake of a story, though. Torment is probably the absolute minimum standard of gameplay I can accept and that's really only because it weaves the narrative into the gameplay. If the story were more linear I'd have watched a longplay or something.

Max Payne 3 came close but, ultimately, all the shooty fun I was having out-weighed the fact that it was full of unskippable cutscenes telling a story that didn't interest me. Even then, it wasn't the story itself that nearly stopped me from playing, it was the fact that it wouldn't let me ignore it. As well as the fact that the frequent cutscenes ruined the pacing of the gameplay.

I don't I've ever stopped playing a game for the story either. If it was, it was because it was dragged out and the gameplay got increasingly tiresome. The only game I can think of is Mass Effect, in the sense that everything I know about the story og ME3 really makes me not want to play that game and continue on from 2.

I do need some context, though. I'm never good at games like Pacman that have no story because I need a little bit of story to keep me going. Not much, but it's the difference between Elite Beat Agents and Guitar Hero.

 

[Raine_sage]

Arc Rise Fantasia. The gameplay was solid and the visual were ok but oh lord that story. And even worse than the story, that voice acting. It was like, they found a bunch of stoned communication's majors and threw them in a recording both, the english dub is so painfully bad and the game didn't have an option to switch to the Japanese dub.

I had to stop playing, which is a shame because I normally enjoy jrpgs but this was just terribly written.

 

[Mikejames]

Probably Skyrim. I don't hate the game, I just couldn't find motivation to explore more places when all the inhabitants, enemies, and quests started to feel noticeably hollow.

Brutal Legend. Excellent gameplay, horrible unlikable main character whose every word disgusted me.

Hm, I usually hear the characters and gameplay described the other way around.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Brutal Legend. Excellent gameplay, horrible unlikable main character whose every word disgusted me.

Huh, this is the polar opposite of the most common complaint about the game. So, I have to ask, did you get up to the RTS segments?

 

[Frotality]

well the idea is that gameplay and story shouldnt be so easy to separate; the story should be told through the gameplay, otherwise its just an arcade game with cutscenes. i dont invite anyone to sever every aspect of a game into the "game" part and the "story" part because where the whole issue of people thinking video game narratives are invalid comes from: if youre actively thinking of a game as two entities, one the actual game and the other non-interactive writer-stuff, then youre missing the point of interactive fiction. the player's actions are meant to be a part of the living story, a level of artist-audience interaction that no other medium can provide.

skyrim and the elder scrolls games are my example: they have some of the best game narratives i have ever experienced. oh, the actual written plots were generally forgettable, but the games are designed to provide the environment and tools to experience your own amazing personal story purely through gameplay, and what YOU decide to do with what the developers have provided. i dare to say that bethesda doesnt really care for their own plotlines and just writes them because they know no game will sell without some kind of easily understood goal right from the start.

 

[ABLb0y]

Brutal Legend. Excellent gameplay, horrible unlikable main character whose every word disgusted me.

Huh, this is the polar opposite of the most common complaint about the game. So, I have to ask, did you get up to the RTS segments?

Yes, I did. I didn't really have much of a problem with them, to be honest. If they'd let us play as the Drowning Doom, I think it'd be an excellent game but nope. Have to make us play as Jack Black.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Well, I disagree with you on Jack Black's character, but I'm just glad to find someone that actually enjoyed those segments. And the Drowning Doom is available in multiplayer, if you have any interest in that.

 

[aguspal]

What the fuck.

Does someone ACTUALLY quit games than they THEMSELVES consider are good in gameplay (You know, the whole reason of why you are playing a videoGAME in the first place?) just for having a bad story?...

I mean... I just... wow. People cant be this stupid. I think... the only reason I MIGHT say this situation is legit is if they completly, UTTERLY destroy a history in a sequel of a great series... and even then I have a hard time trying to understand how this is even possible.



For the record; the inverse, aka good story but fail gameplay (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, all of those "art" games, looking at you. Althougt your story was/is usually as shit as your gameplay but whatever) dosnt appeals to me at all. Why play a horrible game gameplaywise just to see the story? Go watch it in youtube or something...

You do realise that people might play games for different reasons than yourself?

If I want to experience a fantastic story and the game doesn't satisfy me in that regard I'm going to stop playing because I've got no reason to care about the game, nothing to hook me in and keep playing it.

If I watch a film which is well directed and acted with good cinematography but terrible story should I keep watching because the CINEMA parts are good? No.. I'm gonna stop because unless I'm there to appreciate good cinematography it's a waste of my time.

Some games don't need a good story like say Chess because you don't play for a story. Other games the story is absolutely essential as the game becomes pointless without a story to give it context.

Yeah thats alright, but for games you are usually for the gameplay first... the rest comes after that. Unless you are really, REALLY damn interested on its history and ONLY on it, but then you could whatch a walkthougt in youtube as I said before.

I.. am I kinda clueless on how some people seem to belive this, I will admit. But either way. More power to them, who I am to stop them?

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I don't like the term 'story' because it basically entails 'plot'. The actual narrative weight of a game is made of more elements than just that. Graphic style, item descriptions, lighting, characterisation, monster and character designs, voice acting, word choice in dialogue...

But anyway, to answer your question, there are no games with above-par gameplay that I have put down because the narrative was poor. However, there are plenty of occasions where a good narrative has saved a game where the gameplay itself was mediocre or even bad. A good example might be the first Bioshock, which had clunky shooter mechanics but a fantastic setting and a good story.

 

[Cheesus Crust]

The Max Payne snip

Ehm, you COULD skip the MP3 cutscenes.

OT; Like most people here, i can't really care bout the story if the gameplay is alright. Take for example Bulletstorm. Story was a bit screwed, but i liked playing it i didn't care at all.

Stories for me get interesting when i am reading a book or watch a movie.

However, a game can have the most interesting and well designed story, but if the gameplay is fucked it will disappear off my Harddrive real quick.

Agree with everything you say.

OT: For me, he story doesn't have to be incredible so long as it avoids that plasticky half ass attempt at a story. Blizzard's stories seem to be heading this way. StarCraft II WoL's story was something I tolerated since "THE PROPHECY" schtick was being thrwon around every single fuckin IP they had (Cataclysm and Diablo III for example) but fine it was supposed to setup a trilogy. Then came HoTS and wow the story blew so much. To quote Gavin, "I'dve been less embarrassed if someone walked in on me while watching anal fisting."