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[Melly]

A ton of games have stories. Few of them have good stories, really. It seems that the fact that you're immersed into the story makes up a bit for the actual quality of the narrative, so many companies and developers don't seem to put that much focus on plot, and even fewer seem to realize the potential that exists for using actual gameplay to direct and influence a story.

Since I didn't find any thread like this one, I wanted to start a thread about the best stories in gaming. Both completely linear and highly open-ended stories can be said to be great and each has their own reasons to strike a cord in us when we're playing through them.

So lets get this ball rolling. (By the way people, try not to spoil too much for those who haven't played the games and might be interested)

Planescape: Torment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape:_Torment

Yeah, half of you saw that coming 300 miles away, I know. But it has to be mentioned that Torment is one of the very few games I've played that captures a bit of the feeling of storytelling in a (good) tabletop RPG. Enough text to fill an encyclopedia, all wonderfully well written, ability to have active control over your own character's personality, alignment and choices, great dialogue, a plot that escapes from most of the usual RPG cliches, and quite possibly some of the most well developed, original and loveable characters I've ever seen. I mean, a floating skull that flirts with female zombies and a succubus who gave up on sex? Can you get better than that?

[Inane]

Immortal Defense!

[Tanner]

Katamari Damacy.

[Melly]

I'd like people to also talk a bit about why they think those stories are so great without giving too much away.

[Shoot-em-upper]

I don't know of any games with really great stories that I've played, but I think a good way to do it would be to get a story first, then translate it into a game (as long as it isn't a generic fantasy story, can't stand them)

The Neverhood.

[pkt-zer0]

There's (almost) no reason for the thread to continue after this:

Planescape: Torment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape:_Torment

Yeah, half of you saw that coming 300 miles away, I know. But it has to be mentioned that Torment is one of the very few games I've played that captures a bit of the feeling of storytelling in a (good) tabletop RPG. Enough text to fill an encyclopedia, all wonderfully well written, ability to have active control over your own character's personality, alignment and choices, great dialogue, a plot that escapes from most of the usual RPG cliches, and quite possibly some of the most well developed, original and loveable characters I've ever seen. I mean, a floating skull that flirts with female zombies and a succubus who gave up on sex? Can you get better than that?

Well, how about a miniaturized planet and a balding superhero that turned to booze?

Yes, it starts with a 'U'. It's Anachronox.

It might use standard jRPG mechanics, but it's witty and well-written. Kind of like a noir version of Monkey Island turned into an RPG. No reason not to play it.

[Melly]

There's (almost) no reason for the thread to continue after this:

Planescape: Torment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape:_Torment

Yeah, half of you saw that coming 300 miles away, I know. But it has to be mentioned that Torment is one of the very few games I've played that captures a bit of the feeling of storytelling in a (good) tabletop RPG. Enough text to fill an encyclopedia, all wonderfully well written, ability to have active control over your own character's personality, alignment and choices, great dialogue, a plot that escapes from most of the usual RPG cliches, and quite possibly some of the most well developed, original and loveable characters I've ever seen. I mean, a floating skull that flirts with female zombies and a succubus who gave up on sex? Can you get better than that?

Well, how about a miniaturized planet and a balding superhero that turned to booze?

Yes, it starts with a 'U'. It's Anachronox.

It might use standard jRPG mechanics, but it's witty and well-written. Kind of like a noir version of Monkey Island turned into an RPG. No reason not to play it.

Gotta check Anachronox out myself, it seems.

By the way, is your avatar the Circle of Zerthimon? Probably not, my head doesn't work right past 2 in the morning, but if it is, this is ironic.

[pkt-zer0]

By the way, is your avatar the Circle of Zerthimon? Probably not, my head doesn't work right past 2 in the morning, but if it is, this is ironic.

I don't really use large signatures anymore, but my user profile on another forum should answer your question.

[Drew]

pkt-zer0, You mean your avatar isn't a millstone? :D

On the topic of story, I liked Gothic I + II because they had cool recurring characters.  The story wasn't the best, but the characters were likable and interesting.  After finishing it, I felt like I would be right at home if I woke up and found myself in that world.

But to be honest, I don't think a game story has ever affected me as much as the Chrono Trigger story.  At the end of the game, you have the unshakable feeling that one person can have a tremendous impact on the world.

[Movius]

There's (almost) no reason for the thread to continue after this:

Planescape: Torment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape:_Torment

Yeah, half of you saw that coming 300 miles away, I know. But it has to be mentioned that Torment is one of the very few games I've played that captures a bit of the feeling of storytelling in a (good) tabletop RPG. Enough text to fill an encyclopedia, all wonderfully well written, ability to have active control over your own character's personality, alignment and choices, great dialogue, a plot that escapes from most of the usual RPG cliches, and quite possibly some of the most well developed, original and loveable characters I've ever seen. I mean, a floating skull that flirts with female zombies and a succubus who gave up on sex? Can you get better than that?

Well, how about a miniaturized planet and a balding superhero that turned to booze?

Yes, it starts with a 'U'. It's Anachronox.

It might use standard jRPG mechanics, but it's witty and well-written. Kind of like a noir version of Monkey Island turned into an RPG. No reason not to play it.

I'm a huge fan of anachronox.

but the fact that it's less than half-finished and it crashes every 5 minutes are fairly big reasons not to play it.

[moshboy]

I personally thought Max Payne told its story reasonably well, although its story probably wasn't as good as the way it was told though. I probably just liked the comic book noir-ish style.

[Pacian]

Resident Evil 2.

No, come back, sit down, listen.  Okay, so it may be a story ripped off from a million B-movies, but it's also a story with a varied cast of characters, all of whom (is it right to use 'whom' there?) have their own motivations and urgent problems.  That's what plot is, at its most basic level.

A big issue in games - including pretty much every other Resi game (maybe not 4? I haven't played it yet) - is that of characters just wandering around for no reason other than there's an around to wander.  You meet a character in a location because that's just where they are, and you bump into them later on because the developers maybe thought you'd be getting lonely or would need some help with the next boss.  It's the same for player characters, who often need to do apparently unrelated things in order to progress with an urgent, apocalyptic problem that would realistically override all other concerns.

On the other hand, plots aren't always necessary for a good story, as Virginia Woolf will attest.

[Melly]

I hear the Anachronox creator released a self-made patch for it even though he knew, like, 5 people would download it. I guess that's what you call loving your game.

On the more recent note, after playing Odin Sphere I thought it was a very well executed linear plot. Sure, practically all its themes are derived from something else (very hard not to be, really) but what made it for me were the characters (original japanese voices helped. The dubbing sounds so... forced and unnatural, even if it's of quality compared to 90% of voice acting in games). I felt they were all interesting and helped carry me through the game, even in some of its worst parts (Odette, Queen of the Lagstick, anyone?). It's also pretty tragic.

[skaldicpoet9]

I really liked the story in Morrowind. I liked the game when I first started playing but didn't quite know what to think of the story, due to the very cliche beginning (you wake up with no memory blah blah blah) but as I progressed through the main storyline I found out that I was pretty much Jesus and had to save Morrowind from their false idols. That whole concept is just about the coolest story I have played out in a game.

[wourme]

Shadow of Destiny (PS2)
Travel through time to prevent your own murder. This is the one game that I consider worth playing to see multiple plot branches and endings. Not only do you learn more the more you explore, but you can cause subtle changes in what actually happens.

Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2 (PS2)
Not pleasant games, but pretty deep as far as video games go. I thought I got the basic idea of the Silent Hill 1 story until I came upon an analysis of the game. Silent Hill 2 doesn't have quite as complex a story, but it's loaded with interesting subject matter, symbolism, and other things that you don't often see in video games.

Skies of Arcadia {DC,GC)
It does have quite a few cliches, but it uses them so well. Even a character I hated at first (Vigoro) I ended up liking by the end.

A few others that I'm too lazy to elaborate on at the moment: Out of This World/Another World, Beyond Good and Evil, Crystalis (NES version only), Steambot Chronicles/Bumpy Trot.

[J.W. Hendricks]

All of Ben Croshaw's Games

There is just something about those games that make you get  "into" it. Also, he got me into the adventure games. At first, I thought they were boring, but now, I like the suspense. Now, all I need to do is get into roguelikes and text-based games. I just can't seem to like those.

[Saint]

I liked the stories of the Suikoden games, especially the second one (although, I might've liked some of the worse ones just because of the references to the better ones) ... It had the odd Japanese fairytale-charm to it but was much more interesting than your average JRPG story due to the many sidequests, seemingly clichéd characters that turned out to be be much deeper than they seemed and the noticable character development. More importantly (or perhaps the reason it could do that), was that it gave a less subjective 'good versus evil' story than you usually get.

And while I'm on the topic of JRPGs, I loved the first few hours of the Grandia 2 story (not the fallout, though) because of the uncertainty of the outcome.

[Xotes]

I love DF, because its various stories can be so damn varied. Like when Empireshammer
got attacked by a herd of two-humped camels. A small party of military legendaries went up the gigantic cliff face in which stairs had been carved into. As they reached the top, the camels attacked. One dwarf took the one tile natural bridge and dodged out of the way as the first camel charged him, only to watch the camel fall 10-20 z-levels to a messy death. That dwarf himself later got knocked off and miraclously survived the fall.

I'm not gonna spoil the rest of it for ya, so the link for the full version of it is here.

http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=11&t=001569

[PHeMoX]

Mmmmm, the game with the best story? For me that's definitely 'Prince of Persia: Sands of Time'. I don't know if it's really very original plot-wise, but it's by far the best game out there in terms of telling the story, keeping you interested and the whole thing just feels like a movie. The cutscenes are out of this world, I've played a lot of games, but there are not many games that even have just a couple of cutscenes of this level, let alone an excellent direction/execution/whatever it's called for every cut-scene part. The overall cinematic feel is extraordinary. A must play title.

Max Payne is definitely among the best. Excellent story (although Max Payne 2 kinda ruined the story). The thing that's bothering me about Max Payne is the fact that eventhough the comic-style cut-scenes are very fresh and well done, sometimes even extremely cool .. it's just doesn't quite feel that uhm realistic in terms of story experience. Don't know how to explain it, but the Max Payne story doesn't quite makes it as personal as Prince of Persia Sands of Time did. The story of Max seems a lot more distant.

[frosty]

I seem to remember Bad Mojo having an interesting story -- if nothing else, it was fun being a cockroach.

Actually, I think the best stories for games are usually of the amnesiac variety: you start the game not knowing how you got into that situation, and the goal is to uncover that mystery. Examples would be Flashback and, of course, Amnesia.