Games with great story but bad gameplay

[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.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Oh hi, every-Bioware-game-ever.

Oh alright, that's a little bit unkind, but with the exception of Mass Effect 2, where I rather enjoyed the combat as well, I've almost always viewed Bioware's actual gameplay as something to get through so I can enjoy the next conversation scene.

Just curious. How did you not like ME3's gameplay if you liked ME2's? Don't get me wrong, I liked ME2's a lot but I thought ME3's gameplay was amazing.

OT: It's kind of unfair to say this but The Walking Dead. I won't say it's bad but there's barely any of it and that's kind of a big deal to me.

Halo 2. It just felt... sticky. Dual Needlers was also a retardedly broken strategy, but the combat felt sluggish even with those pink spikes of death. Halo 1 combat was nothing to write home about, but it felt much smoother than Halo 2's oddly enough.

So this means you thought Halo 2's story was great? I guess it was alright but I never considered it great... Also, you wanna talk broken weapons? Energy sword. Infinite charge is just not fair.

 

[Fleetfiend]

I'm going to go ahead and say nearly every turn-based RPG. Mainly because of all the grinding involved.

 

[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".

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.

if that's what they want to make you cant stop them from doing that. What other medium would you suggest as TV and film have no interactivity at all. Heavy rain had game play elements where you walk around the environment. "does a disservice" how? heavy rain couldn't have been made any other way as it doesn't follow traditional game play tropes. Just because its different from what you normally expect doesn't mean it has any less merit. By my standards if i interact with it its a game. I hate the word game anyway, i prefer the term interactive entertainment.

 

[-Samurai-]

Both Kane & Lynch games. I love them to death, but they're sloppy as hell.

 

[Sixcess]

Just curious. How did you not like ME3's gameplay if you liked ME2's? Don't get me wrong, I liked ME2's a lot but I thought ME3's gameplay was amazing.

Fair question, but believe it or not I haven't actually played ME3 yet. Though I enjoy the series I never quite got around to the third game. No doubt I will one day.

 

[SpaceBat]

Spec Ops: The Li-

Spec Ops: the Line.

Spec Ops: The Line

I've been ninja'd to spec ops

Spec Ops

Spec Ops - The Line

Ah. Not that I didn't see this coming... But still.
I think the bad gameplay seemed almost deliberate. Upon first hearing this before playing I assumed it was a copout by fans who were trying to make excuses, but then I played it and suddenly it seemed a lot more clear.

Yeah, the gameplay is intentionally made to mimic the average modern military game. Creating something unique that was fun to play and different from all the other games would have completely missed the point. It saddens me to see that so many people completely missed the fact that it was trying to be the same as every other shooter in order to effectively fulfill its role as a commentary on the state of modern military shooters.

 

[RatherDashing89]

I'm going to go ahead and say nearly every turn-based RPG. Mainly because of all the grinding involved.

I'd agree for the most part, although I really did enjoy the gameplay in Suikoden 2 for Playstation. The story was phenomenal, but the gameplay was still fun. First off, there was an auto-attack option for when you were just fighting random trash and had optimized your build enough to take them. You could get a lot of variety and there were a lot of hidden stats to discover. You could easily beat the game without grinding or minmaxing, but if you did find those secret strategies it was hilariously easy at some parts. But most of the fun there was in the out-of-combat micromanagement. In combat you were pretty much just pushing buttons, but I'd prefer that to games that try to make the combat itself "fun" with ATB crap.