Games with great story but bad gameplay

[BrotherRool]

Planescape: Torment -50% of the gameplay is bad. People are giving off the impression that gameplay is all combat/challenge based, but it's not and thinking of that hurts games in general because designers cram in unnecessary things so it "feels like a game". So the running around, collecting items and talking to people in Planescape was absolutely fantastic. The conversations were interesting, the responses were varied and allowed a lot of choice and expression (Which is why its gameplay. When was the last time you roleplayed a character in a film? It's like the Sims. Expression is a form of interaction). The items had these really intricate descriptions and could be used in lots of situations.

The combat was awful. Through the second half of the game I just ran through the levels instead of fighting anything.

KotoR 2 had a good dialogue system and an excellent influence gameplay mechanic that really helped connect with the characters. Combat was repetitive (animations were good though and lots of AoE spells)


And another vote for FFXIII. And no 50% business here either. 100% of the gameplay was bad and none of the story interconnected with the gameplay at all (barely even had boss fights or character expression through combat) which is I believe, why the really good story did not make up for the gameplay at all. It was like watching a film in the most awkward way possible.

And I don't think The Walking Dead should count because its gameplay was inspired. Last second choices? Having to actual decide who gets rations? Good dialogue options with a clever timing mechanic to make them seem natural? Fantastic gameplay decisions. The puzzles sucked a bit but I think what most people mean is that it didn't attempt to gratify people in a skill or challenge area, but thats not bad gameplay, its just different gameplay to how you were expecting

 

[namhorFnodroG]

Bastion perhaps? The gameplay was somewhat dull in my oppinion, It worked fine but It was pretty repedetive. The story was great thought

 

[spartandude]

Grand Theft Auto 4, well its not actually bad gameplay. just god aweful controls!

 

[RobotDinosaur]

I think the thread suffers from a lack of definition of 'bad gameplay.' I thought The Walking Dead was fantastic and the gameplay was great at supporting the story they were trying to tell. It was peculiar and different from other adventure games, but I wouldn't call it bad.

If you define this as games where the gameplay itself seriously gets in the way of enjoying a decent story... The Witcher 2 managed to get under my skin. Making combat more difficult and tactical than in the first is fine, but they might have swung it too far in that direction - the fight with Letho, and any encounter with more than 3 opponents, can be incredibly frustrating.

Also, Dragon Age: Origins. The Deep Roads quest is long and tedious enough that I almost gave up on the game rather than finish it.

 

[mateushac]

Probably all of Bioware's crap... I mean, I can only assume Mass Effect had a great story since I couldn't get myself to play it out because of the crappy gameplay

 

[Lunar Templar]

I would like to elect Soul Reaver from the Legacy of Kain series. I don't know about the rest of the series, but man, those were some weird control issues restricting the gameplay.

The rest of the series isn't much better.

and its said it took till page 2 to bring up LoK, it was the first thing i thought of

 

[Whispering Cynic]

The first thing that comes to mind is Mass Effect 2, changes made to combat system rendered it tedious, disappointing and overall boring. Biotics are pretty much useless (shielded or armored targets being immune to them is just bollocks), ammo system that makes no sense (all guns use the same clips, but they aren't interchangeable between weapons), the whole gameplay essentially being Tour de Chest-high-wall... fuck that.

The second one that stands out for me is Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon. A sequel to two point-and-click adventures, which doesn't utilise mouse on PC. If there ever was a shining example of horrid consolitis, it's this. Four directional keys for movement, four others for interaction. No accuracy whatsoever. The game itself isn't bad, but the controls are doing their best to kill the experience for you.

 

[Shadowcreed]

Gonna go out there and say The elder Scrolls: Morrowind.

I LOVE THAT GAME, do not get me wrong here. But if you actually look at the combat mechanics it's pretty horrid. Keep swinging, actually seem to hit the target but having an invisible dice roll to determine if you ''''actually''''''' hit the target is very frustrating. Magic system was fine though - again a dumb dice roll giving a chance to resist to the target but I suppose that's fair enough. Story is what really kept me playing it until the deep nights. That series has so many interesting characters, so many interesting locations and awesome storylines going with it. Especially Morrowind. I'm sure that anyone of you that played it can remember at least 10 characters from it. At the very least. To name a few myself:
Fargoth, Jiub, Vivec, Dagoth Ur, Caius, Yagrum Bagarn, Tarhiel, etc etc etc.. Yeah great game.

EDIT: I hereby nominate Bioshock as well.

Dunno about you guys but for me, the game started out so awesome with the water effects showing off and the promise of a great storyline about an underwater world. I was interested in the story but within the first 10 minutes of gameplay I just couldn't be arsed to play any longer. The game felt so tedious and gimmicky. I dunno why but I just never got into it.

 

[Xdeser2]

Heavy Rain

The Walking Dead

Mass Effect 1 (though I did enjoy the combat, its not what I would call 'good')

Planescape: Torment

Fallout 1/2
______________________________
Their stories make them worth playing over all the flaws

 

[wakeup]

lack of game play doesn't mean bad game play as that is what the developers intended. Bad game play is when the game play mechanics they do use aint solid enough. Saying i didn't like that it had QTE's doesn't work as a argument.

 

[alphamalet]

lack of game play doesn't mean bad game play as that is what the developers intended. Bad game play is when the game play mechanics they do use aint solid enough. Saying i didn't like that it had QTE's doesn't work as a argument.

Lack of gameplay is almost always unjustifiable as well. If extremely minimal gameplay is present, and doesn't add to the experience, you shouldn't be making a game.

 

[Cazza]

Dreamfall - The Longest Journey

Game play was probably the worst I've ever seen in a game. Story was among the best ever in a game.

 

[RatherDashing89]

Final Fantasy Nine. And not just because it's an RPG, I like JRPGs fine. Suikoden 2 had great gameplay along with it's fantastic story. But FF9 just had a story good enough to make me keep playing through atrocious combat. I got to the point where I literally sighed every time I hit a random encounter because every single fight was a chore. Real-Time turn based is just lame, and every other enemy would have some crazy immunity that meant you had to have all your materia slotted just right for that one trash mob, even when it was one of several random enemy types in an area. Not to mention abilities like "all your characters drop to one health" followed by a low-damage aoe, or "Level 5 Death" that flat-out kills any character with a level divisible by 5. Seriously?

I loved FF9 for the story and music alone, but the bad gameplay kept me from wanting to play any more Final Fantasy games. It still has kept me from playing the lauded FF7 (although part of that is the art style. I don't mind old graphics--one of my favorite games is still Super Metroid. But I feel like FF7 was just trying to do something its system couldn't handle. I don't mind the character models but the background literally makes my eyes hurt. I think games of that time that didn't reach as far, Ocarina of Time for instance, ended up looking a lot better as a result.) Where was I? Oh. Real Time Turn Based sucks.

 

[wakeup]

lack of game play doesn't mean bad game play as that is what the developers intended. Bad game play is when the game play mechanics they do use aint solid enough. Saying i didn't like that it had QTE's doesn't work as a argument.

Lack of gameplay is almost always unjustifiable as well. If extremely minimal gameplay is present, and doesn't add to the experience, you shouldn't be making a game.

not really that's whats great about games, there are no boundaries and you shouldn't try and define what a game can, cant do. for example heavy rain is a interactive experience and i love it for that and i also love its game play style. if you don't like that type of gameplay fine but that doesn't make it "bad".

 

[maconlon439]

Leisure Suit Larry Box Office Bust

I find this game tolerable and worth playng again even thought it has absolutly horrible gameplay, because unlike most of the Al Lowe Leisure Suit Larry games, it actually has some dimension to some of its characters, and stars Josh Keaton (My favorite voice actor), Jane Lynch, Dave Attell, Patrick Warburton (who is at his Patrickwarburtonest), and Jay Mohr. (as well as others.)

 

[alphamalet]

lack of game play doesn't mean bad game play as that is what the developers intended. Bad game play is when the game play mechanics they do use aint solid enough. Saying i didn't like that it had QTE's doesn't work as a argument.

Lack of gameplay is almost always unjustifiable as well. If extremely minimal gameplay is present, and doesn't add to the experience, you shouldn't be making a game.

not really that's whats great about games, there are no boundaries and you shouldn't try and define what a game can, cant do. for example heavy rain is a interactive experience and i love it for that and i also love its game play style. if you don't like that type of gameplay fine but that doesn't make it "bad".

There is a difference between interactivity and gameplay. Something can be interactive, and not be a game. Heavy Rain (from what I remember) has interactivity, not gameplay. If you are going to make a "game", then underutilizing gameplay does a disservice to what you are trying to make, and the medium as a whole. If you are making an interactive experience then fine, but stick to that and don't get bogged down with needless gameplay that will interrupt the pace of the experience.

Also, there are authorities on the subject matter that have defined gameplay, interactivity, and what constitutes a game. There is some grey area to it, but the quintessential component that is required for it to be a game is gameplay. To gloss over and disregard it is not the mark of a successful endeavor in the medium.

The point: Basically, if you want to make a game, then you need to give adequate focus to the gameplay. If something other than gameplay is the primary concern, then you need to rethink the medium that you have chosen.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Obviously Mass Effect but everyone has already said that.
What about Far Cry games? Especially 2, I found that game really stressful to play.
Oh and GTA4, not too sure if the story counts as good but the controls were painful.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

L.A. Noire. I loved the setting, and many of the cases are really engrossing and I continued playing solely to see what the next case was and how things unfolded. This was despite the vague, essentially broken "truth/doubt/lie" system, the ass car driving, and constant chases/GTA4 cover shooting. I also believe that the game was done a great disservice by being in a sandbox, as most of the freedoms enjoyed by sandbox players were kept at a distance.

Just let me move on to the next case, don't make me drive from place to place with your ass cars, and at a ridiculous pace to avoid hitting pedestrians and causing damage. A sandbox where I have to carefully avoid messing with any of the things around me. And yeah, I know you can let your partner drive, but I feel that a kitten dies somewhere when I give in to game suggesting that it play itself. If you keep recommending that the game play a portion itself, maybe that feature wasn't worth including in the first place?

 

[Semudara]

There are no videogames with good stories; there are videogames with good stories-for-a-videogame, which translates as nice/okay.
If you cannot make it as a novelist or a movie director, you can always impress gamers. A magnet for failures who would rather make movies, but couldn't make it; that's what the game industry is turning into.

Seriously? That's a ridiculous generalization. You have every right to be cynical, but just because you haven't personally experienced something does not mean IT DOESN'T EXIST, and no one on The Escapist is going to appreciate you putting such a judgment on an entire medium.

 

[darkcalling]

I gotta say Elder scrolls: oblivion and skyrim. i love the games I love the world but that is seriously some of the most dull mindless combat I've ever seen.