Poll: Can story save a bad game?

[Trivun]

Not that the 'gameplay' in visual novels is bad, per se, but rather that it doesn't really exist save for clicking repeatedly to move the text onwards. Visual novels account for some (obviously not all) of my favourite games at the moment, and they as a medium are held up purely by story. So yes, I'd say so.

Otherwise, it depends. I couldn't get into the latest Prince of Persia game at all purely because of the gameplay (the demo, admittedly, was all I played of it, but it was still enough to put me off getting the full game), whereas I greatly enjoyed exploring the storyline of the first Assassin's Creed game even though the gameplay was exceptionally reptitive and rather boring (the parkour was all that kept it going in gameplay terms, and even that was slower and clunkier compared to the sequels, which thankfully improved obscenely well to the point that the series is one of my favorite current game franchises)...

 

[Kilo24]

It depends.

How much of time and effort does getting through the gameplay require? If it's a quick cakewalk or optional, then you can easily just breeze through it to get to the story. If it's a tedious grind or forces many replays due to cheap difficulty, then suddenly the story needs to be a lot better to justify the effort.

The reverse is true for good gameplay and bad stories (especially pertinent if cutscenes are unskippable.)

 

[DrunkenMonkey]

Deadly Premonition is a game that comes to mind. Had a very interesting story coupled with the most atrociously bad mechanical gameplay to ever grace the current gen platforms. I literally couldn't get through the story as fresh as it was because of all the stupidity of the action sequences, driving, animations, etc. Also when you have detailed graphics together with some of the worst animation jobs ever, it tends to leave a bad taste in your mouth. This is one of those cases where gameplay was supposed to drive the story (not the other way around), but it just kind of blew up at the outset leaving the story nowhere, if that makes any sense.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

I have one: Mafia II.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Mafia II. It's just pretty bad from my point of view.

The gameplay has it's moments, but ultimately leaves much to be desired. I mean, for an open-world game, there is barely anything to do.

But the story makes up for the gameplay by a long shot.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Very rarely. A game that has truly awful gameplay can never be saved.

 

[Agayek]

It depends on precisely how bad the gameplay is, but in the vast majority of cases (for me at least), the answer is a resounding yes.

I'm a story fanatic, and as long as that is good, I can/will put up with almost any deficiency in gameplay. It needs to be almost physically painful for me to give up on a good story because of bad gameplay.

 

[Ron Alphafight]

For me, story is almost everything. I can endure bad mechanics or terrible cameras if the story is good enough. Games already mentioned that are great examples for me are Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect. Yeah it sucks that those games have pretty cruddy gameplay, but I get used to it and adapt. The same can't be said for games with superb gameplay but a bad story, like most modern shooters. I get bored, turn them off within two hours and never go back to them.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Wasn't that one of the things said about Alpha Protocol: it was a buggy, buggy mess but the story was good?

Speaking about games that have aged terribly (not saying its a bad game) Knights of the Old Republic and Sith Lords have excellent stories, especially compared to the prequel trilogy. Anyway, the games have aged terrible especially when compared to...well, maybe not Dragon Age or Mass Effect but compared to other RPGs but people would still play the two KotOR games because of the story.

Either way, it depends on the game. I hated Heavy Rain in every way, shape and form for example.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

With the exception of The Walking Dead, no, story cannot save a crap game. But on the other hand, no matter how bad a story is it cannot kill a good game.

 

[Teshi]

If you've got a good story but can't make a good game out of it, write a freaking book instead.

 

[TeletubbiesGolfGun]

I dont care about mainly story games because the gameplay tends to be dull.


Prime example: Dragon Age. FUCK YOU.

All of bioware games I imagine. But mass effect at least apparently has some nice music and action here and there, Dragon Age was a big TROLL GAME and I was fooled by it.

i don't care that you don't like the game, but how the hell is it a troll game? the combat is clear as day for the most part on what they were going for, i never once was confused by what they were offering, they don't trick you into anything...

they didn't call it "baldurs gate spiritual successor" for nothing. (that point is arguable, but the relations are still there)

OT: yes, sometimes, there are some games where i just can't get past it but then again, there are some games where i barely remember i'm playing a game because i'm getting so damn into it with the story/characters, so just depends. (bioshock and half life i couldn't care less for, while kotor 2 and witcher and deus ex I could play for days on end)

 

[Fijiman]

It depends on how good the story is and how bad the controls/gameplay/something else is. Although, generally if a game is bad the story is part of the problem a good percentage of the time.

 

[Skin]

Yes. Witcher 2 prime example.

How the hell is The Witcher 2 a bad game? While I must admit I would have preferred a CRPG combat system to an ARPG one, it isn't a particularly bad ARPG in my eyes.

Entertaining combat that turns into a terrible rolling snooze fest and the fetch-questyness of it all was a great undoing for me.

 

[Bocaj2000]

Yes. A video game is more than its controls.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

It will stop me from playing a game but not reading the story on Wikipedia or something.

 

[Johnny Impact]

I think a bad game implies a bad story. It's part of the package.

As to whether good story can save an otherwise bad game, it depends on how otherwise bad it is. Ain't no level of storytelling could save Bad Mother Truckers.

 

[lacktheknack]

Yes, it can.

I would call DEFCON a "bad game", because it's short, repetitive and has less strategy to it than your might think. It's pretty shallow, and it wouldn't be worth mentioning...

...until you're actually playing it. Suddenly, you feel trapped in an underground bunker as you watch the whole world just go POP. Weeping woman included. It's a horrible and fantastic experience.

Sometimes, context is everything.

 

[lacktheknack]

Well it really depends on context.

For example, Fallout 3 versus Fallout: New Vegas. But for the purpose of this example we'll just have to imagine Fallout: New Vegas didn't make a rediculous amount of improvments to the gameplay, and combat, stealth, etc are the same.

In Fallout 3, all the characters are unlikable, the atmosphere is non-existant, the story is full of plot hole, and despite being so far away from the west coast, they STILL manage to rape the lore. And that's not even getting into the "gameplay".


In Fallout: New Vegas, without the gameplay improvements, the game is still much better because writing is so much better, especially because in an RPG, story IS a gameplay element.

That said, in truly bad game the story won't save the gameplay at all. Not to mention story certainly does make a game more enjoyable. Again, see Fallout 3, it's horrible plot holes, lack of anywhere to explore (no, copy-pasting the metro does NOT count), fucking grating characters, non-existant atmosphere, etc. Because quite frankly, the game is bad, and like other truly bad games, in addition to bugs, crashes, and bad designs decisions, is Twilight-like writing (complete with fucking vampires), reused antagonists, boring story, and unlikable characters.

Generally, if you have to repeat your arguments two or three times, you don't have much of an argument in the first place.

And "non-existent atmosphere"? Uh, wat? I MUCH preferred the atmosphere of Fallout 3 over what I played of Fallout: New Vegas.

 

[lord.jeff]

As long as the game is playable a story can save but there is a point when gameplay can be so terrible that no story could make the torture of playing worth it and that's when I go to youtube.

I dont care about mainly story games because the gameplay tends to be dull.


Prime example: Dragon Age. FUCK YOU.

I enjoyed playing all the openings for the different class/races but after that the game had no appeal to me story or gameplay wise.

There's really no point in playing a point and click adventure for anything but the story unless your idea of a good game is clicking stuff.

Or you enjoy puzzles. Any genre could be described as click stuff or press buttons.

 

[DementedSheep]

How bad are we talking here? bad gameplay will stop it from being a truly good game but it can be worth playing and memorable for the story alone just so long as the game play isn?t too painful. If its just boring a good story can make up for it some extent. If it?s frustrating and full of bugs it probably won't.