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Paperboy  Posts: 49 Joined: 3 Aug 2007    | |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 413 Joined: 11 Jan 2008   |
I owned it for the Dreamcast. I lost interest at a bit where the gang go through some sewers and come out of the middle of an arena/ colosseum and fight someone. I can't say I remember it being even remotely funny (although the bit at the colosseum where one of them rugby tackles an enemy to the ground, I do remember that bit vividly :D |
Beat Writer  Posts: 198 Joined: 5 Oct 2007   | Wow. No one has mentioned Beyond Good and Evil? Also God of War (not necessarily the sequel.) Although the stories are not completely fleshed out (told like legends from memory) Ico and Shadow of the Colossus should be mentioned. I also enjoy Devil May Cry 3, although that is really because of the Dante/Vergil relationship. |
Press Junketeer Posts: 413 Joined: 11 Jan 2008 | Beyond Good and Evil felt forced and contrived. Didn't feel natural. Especially as they held their main influence to high over their shoulder. I did enjoy it BTW, but I wouldn't list it in the 'greatest stories in gaming'. I don't know what to say about God of War. I would have hardly thought a hack and slash would have a good, original story, although Sword of Berserk was a really good storyteller. I sorta talked about Ico, but indeed Ico is up there. Shadow of the Colossus I'm not so sure about. It's a great game, but it doesn't really tell much at all. I might as well as have created my own ending. Are there any emotional stories out there? Beyond Good and Evil is a good start and it is original. But surely there's a more obscure version of Silent Hill 2 or Broken Sword out there? |
Paperboy Posts: 49 Joined: 3 Aug 2007 | This might not be up your alley, but there is a whole community of avid interactive fiction (text adventure) creators and fans active to this day. Some of the stuff they've created is absolutely brilliant. For a great emotional story, check out Photopia by Adam Cadre: http://adamcadre.ac/if.html His other games are good too, but Photopia is far and away the greatest. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1145 Joined: 23 Oct 2007    |
Yes, it still is worth tracking down System Shock 2. It's still powerful and it's scary as long as you don't play it in Easy. Medium at least, and try Hard. Don't do the whole "respawn, go back into combat" thing either - in SS2, it costs you nanites, and I'm not even sure if it works properly anyway. It's still the only game that I've played so far that's scared me, and I only picked it up a year ago.
Fallout is gritty, it's got great presentation and it has a lot of plot freedom, so you're free to explore as much or as little as you want. It has one of the best character creation systems ever known to a CRPG. It has one of the best intros and one of the best outros of any game. The voice acting, where it is relevant, is fantastic (Bethesda, take a hint). The combat system is well-constructed. I could keep going on, but I'll let Gamasutra do that for me: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061006/quantum_09.shtml |
Muckraker  Posts: 236 Joined: 6 Dec 2007  | If you liked Silent Hill, then original Resident Evil might be a good bet. It's made fun of for the cheesy stuff but is a good classic game with a solid "survival horror" feel. You liked Disgaea? If you don't mind that, then Final Fantasy Tactics will be a perfect fit for you, if you can live without it having voice since you had listed it. It's much loved for the mechanics but the story is great too. The original Blood Omen was a great game which is borderline RPG but is more of an action game. Frequently narrated dialogue, great, dark story, good anti-hero. |
Muckraker  Posts: 265 Joined: 17 May 2007    |
Jesus H Christ, man. Judgemental much? For someone who's so opposed to pretentiousness, you're an awful snob. This isn't in any way an FPS/RPG site. It's an intelligent gaming review site. The only reason we focus on FPSes and RPGs is that they're the bulk of what is new at the moment, but if you browse back issues of the Escapist magazine itself you'll find issues and articles about adventure games, writing in games, game narratives and the like. Most of my nominations have been said, so I'll suggest a game I haven't actually played but heard a lot about, and that's Psychonauts. Yahtzee, story-loving flower child that he is, gave it a glowing review: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/1368-Zero-Punctuation-Psychonauts |
BANNED Posts: 26 Joined: 4 Jan 2008 | i don't get how people think half life has a good story at all. i played it for what seemed like forever and the only trace of a story i found was the occasional scientist telling me to go to the something wing and interface the particle overdrive belt to repair the holes in the quantum guitar riff or something. most of the time, game stories are just the bits that were edited out of the instruction manual for being too boring, squeezed into the game the day before it's released. don't get me wrong, i think games with original and immersive stories are the best type. but unfortunatley, in this day and age they're about as rare as tv programmes that don't include the words "dance" or "big brother" in thier title. i googled system shock 2 the other week and found a torrent for it pretty easy. i don't know about story because i haven't played it hardly. it's rather terrifying though. i'm currently repairing a hole in my ceiling after i jumped out of my seat so quickly when a computer screen in front of me exploded and i thought it was the scary mutant man with a shotgun coming to get me. |
Paperboy Posts: 49 Joined: 3 Aug 2007 |
No, man, it's OBVIOUS we're a forum biased towards FPS, RPG, Adventure (Point-and-click as well as Text), Survival Horror, Action-Adventure, Beat-em-up, and Puzzle games, as well as many varied hybrids of the above. (And that's just based on what we actually recommended.) |
Muckraker Posts: 265 Joined: 17 May 2007 |
Oh sorry, I forgot our nefarious plan for a second there. Take that, Sim games and platformers!
I finished Half Life 2 with very little idea of why anything was happening. I could see that there were alien stromtroopers enslaving a city of refugees, plus some zombies and some War of the Worlds tripods, but I didn't really know what their deal was, despite having played Half-Life 1. So I went and read all about it on Wikipedia, which told me a lot of stuff I would have liked to know during the game. Valve do very little story telling, but they occasionally do some subtle story-showing. Like, you see the ships and ports beached by the receding shoreline and the houses bricked up in the city, but you have to connect the dots yourself to realise the implications: that the Combine is slowly devouring the planet for resources. There are also some newspaper clippings and such scattered around which indicate the history of the Combine invasion, and the megaphone broadcasts of Dr Breen and Dr Kleiner imply a lot about the political state. Subtler hints: the make of cars and two or three street signs in the city indicate you're in Eastern Europe. It's all very clever, but it's also all easy to miss. Do they ever say where the Antlions are from? (I haven't played Episode 2 yet.) |
Press Junketeer Posts: 413 Joined: 11 Jan 2008 |
Yep, that's another Schafer game. I loved it. LOVED IT! I avoided that game when it was first released because I was quite angred that he'd left the adventure game scene, but I prefer to think now that if I ever bash my head against a wall by accident, it's my well-deserved karma for not picking the game straight up at first release. I'm still skeptical with Half Life 2 and I made the decision ages ago not to sign up to Valve. If I get an Xbox360 in the future then I'll go looking for it to see what all the fuss it about (assuming I don't have to sign up online with Orange Box). |
Anonymous Source  Posts: 1 Joined: 8 Nov 2007 | I finished Psychonauts only a few days ago, after buying it for the steal it was on Steam. It's quite simply the best platformer I've played. Because it has an ace in the hole called a /story/. Also, if you liked Max Payne, Terramax, why not give Max Payne 2 a shot? It picks up from the story of the first one and keeps it really interesting. Also very replayable due to the various small choices you can make during the game and an infinity of easter eggs and entertaining dialogue. I think they just added both Max Paynes to Steam recently, too. |
Anonymous Source  Posts: 7 Joined: 16 Jan 2008 | I'd like to suggest Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. If you disregard the bugs and the balance issues, you are going to enjoy this game. It is an incredibly subtle parody of traditional RPG storylines and is spectacularly well-written. Also the game's steampunk setting and the conflict between magic and technology are original and add a lot of depth to an already great game. You might also give the original Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption a spin. It's not a particularly deep game but I found that the game's story is the better of its kind. |
Anonymous Source Posts: 4 Joined: 19 Dec 2007 | Hmmm If you want a good story I would not go for Fallout or VtM:B, simply because the stroies in those games are not very good. Instead they are praised for things like writing, role-playing, atmosphere, setting and characters, the overreaching main plot in those games is only alright. I would reccomend PS:T but only if you do not mind a ton of reading. Also out of the many games that claim to be mature and grey it actually feels like one, not because there is nudity or that every choice you make is going to have a bad outcome but because... well I can't really describe it, you have to play it yourself. One moment that stuck with me (minor spoiler) was when an angel told me that 'those who truly believe their ideas are willing to betray them' and then he had his head chopped of by a walking suit of armour that embodies pure justice. After I finished the game I had to go sit down and just think about all the things that happend in the game. It also had the only 'moral' choice that I had trouble making simply because it was more of a personal and emotional one rather than simply idelogical/moral. |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 51 Joined: 10 Oct 2007 | Ill say it. Assassin's creed. If you can get past the "repetitive" game play and actually pay attention to what the characters are saying, you'll find a storyline that gets deeper as you play, the plot thickening like epoxy resin. The assassins are an interesting group, and the philosophy involved in their justification of their work really fascinated me. I've never played a game where I felt the impact of murder quite so deeply, especially in the actual assassinations. Just an idea. |
Paperboy  Posts: 44 Joined: 20 Nov 2007 | Now, Shadow Hearts 1&2 are nominally rpgs. However, the turn based combat, while... well, turn based, has some interesting mechanics in the judgement ring, plus in #2, the combos are pretty awesome/useful. But the stories in both are fairly decent, and in #2, the comedy is freakin' awesome. It's nice to see some meta, a game that doesn't take itself too seriously. On that note, there's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. While the story itself is on the surface, bare bones Michael Chriton schlock, the game, once again, doesn't take itself too seriously and is genuinely entertaining, combining Prince of Persia: Sands of Time style platforming and puzzles with a usable (if not terrific) combat/shooter system, and fantastic moments of humor. Like when the protagonist comes up against the giant jungle Doom Fortress, pauses, blinks up, stares and as the title reads "Chapter 5: Fortress" says, "You gotta be kidding me." Apart from that, well, everyone and their mother has undoubtedly recommended Bioshock, so go play that. Also, the person who recommended Skies of Arcadia is spot on. If you can find a copy, it is a worthy investment. |
Paperboy Posts: 44 Joined: 20 Nov 2007 |
I don't disagree, in fact. The thing is: I enjoy watching it being played more than playing it myself. But yeah, it's got a great story, and the sequels promise more fascinating developments to come. |
Paperboy Posts: 44 Joined: 20 Nov 2007 |
Finally. I cannot BELIEVE I forgot Psychonauts. Jesus Christ Almighty, single best story game ever, possibly best game ever, holy crap excellent. Go get it now! |
Paperboy Posts: 11 Joined: 3 Nov 2007 | well.. a Few games i enjoyed to the point that i would recomend them. i will jump all the way back to the NES. in a heart beat i would say Another Game i enjoyed with GREAT reverence, And when i say that i mean it's prolly the best of the series. Anyways, that was my two cents |
Anonymous Source  Posts: 9 Joined: 26 Nov 2007 | Anybody interested in great game stories needs to learn two names, and learn them well. a)Tim Schafer - http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,1365/ These two guys are responsible for writing nearly all of the greatest game stories, ever. The best stories are the ones they both contributed to, but Tim's solo stuff is also incredible. My favorite samples of their work include: Maniac Mansion |
Anonymous Source Posts: 4 Joined: 16 Jan 2008 | I value story and writing very highly, too, Terramax! Thanks for starting this thread. IMHO, the best stories are in the older adventure/puzzle games. If you like Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers you should definitely try the Tex Murphy games. Cleverly written mystery plots, with the wittiest dialogue trees you'll ever find. The old Sherlock Holmes adventure games are in the same mold as Gabriel Knight. I loved Shivers and Shivers2 - rendered screen puzzle games with an entertaining story to discover. Black Dahlia has an incredibly deep and well-researched historical plot, but extremely tedious game mechanics. Worth trying if you can find a copy. Bladerunner is also worth a look, bearing in mind that it's more like an interactive movie than a game (not really a lot of decisions to make, but tons of story). If you like the funny old LucasArt games, the best of them all is "Day of the Tentacle." It's sophomoric, but I couldn't stop laughing. Oh, and Dark Earth, which is sort of like Fallout (only completely different). Best of all, all of these games are dead cheap if you can find computers old enough to run them. So there's little to lose by giving them a try. Moving to action/adventure - for me Realms of the Haunting was an epiphany. I got so sucked in by the deeply creepy, very complex story that I overcame my fear of 1st-person shooters and eventually went on to things like Half-Life (which does not have much story at all, that I can see, but has one hell of a BACKSTORY). Other people have mentioned the sneaker-shooters from Looking Glass and its descendants (Thief, System Shock, Deus Ex). Deus Ex is the best game EVER. FPS fun in the Half Life mode, but with story and character development that leave Half Life in the dust. Deus Ex is better than its sequel, but both are great. Here's one final recommendation that nobody else is going to mention, but until I played Deus Ex it was my favorite game of all time: Azrael's Tear. It's an obscure DOS game from the mid-90's. It's a first-person adventure game with occasional easy action sequences. Mostly it's story, puzzle-solving and exploration. Lots of games use the Knights Templar mythology as a background, but this one gets it right. The last dozen or so survivors from the Templar massacre have been holed up in the caverns under a Scottish Rite temple for 600 years, and none of them are exactly playing with a full deck any more. You meet them one by one and hear different sides of the same story and eventually have to choose sides. The story unfolds in a non-linear fashion through conversations and scraps of parchment which can be discovered in any order as you complete side quests. There were times in playing this game when I could literally feel the hair rise on the back of my neck, and the denouement blew me away: all through story, not pulse-pounding action. If you can find this game somewhere, and dig up a machine antique enough to run it, you should play it! |
Anonymous Source Posts: 4 Joined: 16 Jan 2008 |
EXACTLY! It's obvious that somebody had put a lot of thought into the backstory, but for some reason the implementers of the game never get around to explaining any of it. The actual plot of Half-Life2 is a series of scenes that go more or less like this: "Gordon! Thank God you finally got here! Let me explain what's going on.... oh oh! Here they come! Quick! Take this thing and run THAT WAY with it!! Good luck and God bless!!" The scenery is fantastic and it's really a lot of fun, but kind of like watching X-Files for 7 seasons and finally realizing that you're never gonna find out what the deal is with The Black Oil, or where the Cigarette Smoking Man buys his Morleys. |
Beat Writer  Posts: 220 Joined: 21 Nov 2007 |
Ok, to install HL2 you do need to make a steam account and download the updates, but that's it. Once you have it, you don't need to go online ever again to play it. Likewise, who ever told you you need to "hand out personal details regarding your pc information in order to play" is full of crap. Only thing you need to "give" to make a Steam account is a user name, password, and maybe email address. That's it. And as Melaisis said, you can download a slew of other games, from many different companies, some that you yourself want to/have played. If you're really are looking for originality, you can do a hell of a lot worse in pretty much any case than playing Half-Life 2 or Deus Ex. Especially as they fit every one of your definitions. I have to ask though, how can you say you dislike sci-fi, when you liked Metal Gear Solid AND are looking forward to playing Bioshock, System Shock 2, and Deus Ex? You say you want to play them only because they have "originality". Well, then avoid Bioshock. Bioshock is anything but "original". It's basically SS2 with a different paint job. Unsurprising as it's made by the same team. Sure the themes are different, but everthing else feels cloned. Once you played SS2, you won't care to finish Bioshock. As for other titles I'd suggest: can't think of any others that fit your descriptions off the top of my head, but I'll try. There are good, original games out there. They just like to hide. Only thing you can do is keep looking. Til you find them though, a good book is the better choice. (sans the voice acting and interaction of course) ;) |
Muckraker  Posts: 252 Joined: 14 Nov 2007 | I'm surprised no one mentioned the Baldur's Gate series. It's very much an RPG, but it's the single best storyline I've ever played through. If you play it, absorb it and learn its spirit, and don't just speed through it. |
Muckraker  Posts: 331 Joined: 3 Jan 2008 | I like Half-Life 2 allot and I think the reason why is that it's quick, and still leaves control to the user. It's a nice feeling and i can't imagine what would happen if it were all cut scenes. God Of War has an interesting plot that comes in so often in the game. I embrace the scenes with open arms since they generally come after pulse-pounding battles and adds emotional depth. It's good enough to make me wonder what happened. I don't know why but I really like the story from Paper Mario's and Final Fantasy X. I suppose that type of game play by it's lonesome would be dry. I also seem to take a liking to characters I know allot about and grow some weird kind of relation with. I do keep trying to ignore the fact that Tidus is a really unlikeable character. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1367 Joined: 12 Sep 2007   | My wife plays adventure games and LOVED Siberia and its sequel for their stories and graphics. And I love shooters, but I can't imagine wanting to shoot children and stray dogs. |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 73 Joined: 17 Jan 2008 | Half-life, in my option its the best game ever made. And i suggest Deus Ex (First version not Invisble war!!) too. The story is exciting and theres humour. Its like a ActionRPG game but theres only small rpg elements. Each gaming time is different. |
Beat Writer Posts: 177 Joined: 3 Jan 2008 |
You Gotta Give it to him, he took his situation fairly well, i would have snapped gone insane and mass murdered or committed suicide, all things taken in he took the entire 'My Homes been gone for 1000 year, i'm nothing more than a dream, my father is a giant whale killing people, my life as i knew it is gone and I'll never get it back, the chick i like is destined to die, if i succeed i'm going to disappear' after all that the guy did seriously take it rather WELL oh it doesn't make him any less hateable, i found his starting personality annoying and his one by end game much more endearing if the TC wasn't not wanting to play RPGs i would suggest Golden Sun 1 & 2 For some of the best Storytelling EVER Final Fantasy 6 for having a much better story and a much more likable cast than any other FF so if you wanna chekc out games that are RPGs with good storys those are two good ones] EDIT: if you have a Wii and dont mind games based of Anime give One Piece Unlimited Adventure a roll when it hits shores, Also not so much 'Good' as it is Quirky for Ratchet and Clank future |
Muckraker Posts: 331 Joined: 3 Jan 2008 | |
I couldn't finish The Vampire Lestat either. The Rice influence is pretty obvious in Bloodlines (and the Vampire: The Masquerade setting as a whole), as the story revolves around the protagonist as a vampire and struggling with the reality of having become a monster and making his way in the labyrinth of vampire society. The 'rules' of vampirism are pretty much exactly what Rice laid down in Interview with the Vampire (garlic and crosses don't do shit, but watch out for fire!).
Let's just say that I'm a fan of the Rice vampire mythology, but not of the books (though I love Interview). It's the mythology and the gothic tragedy that the game is influenced by, and gets right. So I wouldn't worry too much.