The subject looks like a mistake, but I mean it in full honesty. There are games out there that have so much story depth, character progression and interesting dialogue that it's as close as you can come to taking part in a book. I can dredge up a few games that come close but fall just to either side: too much story and not enough gameplay equating to "why wasn't it just written," or the gameplay is solid and the story is on the right track, but never really reaches that point of perfection.

The closest I can think of are the likes of "Beyond Good and Evil" as well as "The Longest Journey." Any others come to mind?

emberage:
The subject looks like a mistake, but I mean it in full honesty. There are games out there that have so much story depth, character progression and interesting dialogue that it's as close as you can come to taking part in a book. I can dredge up a few games that come close but fall just to either side: too much story and not enough gameplay equating to "why wasn't it just written," or the gameplay is solid and the story is on the right track, but never really reaches that point of perfection.

The closest I can think of are the likes of "Beyond Good and Evil" as well as "The Longest Journey." Any others come to mind?

Those two you mentioned are two of my favorite games, the stories were perfect and I quite enjoyed the gameplay in Beyond Good & Evil. The gameplay in The Longest Journey was awful though.

So the last "good book" I played was probably The Longest Journey actually...or maybe "Still Life" which I loved but most people didn't like very much.

Metal Gear Solid 4. I really enjoyed it, but it's heavy exposition and dialogue really would have favoured being in a book.

An editor would still need to rip half the stuff to shreds, though.

TheBadass:
Metal Gear Solid 4. I really enjoyed it, but it's heavy exposition and dialogue really would have favoured being in a book.

An editor would still need to rip half the stuff to shreds, though.

I'd say it's better off as a Graphic Novel, also, there's a big elephant in the room that people don't notice when talking about the MGS series.

The video game comes from Japan, and suffers incredibly from Mistranslation.

Also, the fan service was a bit much in this one, but so is the side effect of trying to make a "magnum opus" to end a series that could easily go beyond 4 titles. I mean, we all know the intention of the nanomachines was just for giving the character a "radio".

I loved Mass Effect the story was brilliant and believable and the characters were so well thought out and distinct.

Too Human!

ElArabDeMagnifico:
I'd say it's better off as a Graphic Novel.

I doubt it, all the text bubbles would leave next to no room for the graphic part.

Oh snap. ;)

The Traveler by John Twelve-Hawks would make an awesome action-adventure game.

Syberia. One of the best ones out there to boot.

Planescape: Torment. I would nominate it for "Greatest Book Anybody Has Ever Played, Ever" if such an award existed.

Okami was pretty much myths in game form

Ripshot:
Okami was pretty much myths in game form

It was also Legend of Zelda in PS2 form. =D

I don't want to mention something that was already mentioned...Darwinia's story had some good book-like elements to it.

But, aside from some of the ones mentioned, the Monkey Island games felt more bookish than most of the games I've played in the last decade...some felt so much like books that I thought they actually were books (btw, the Escape from Monkey Island book has nothing to do with the games...)

I really got into the plot and dialog of Deus Ex. The fighting and shooting parts were mearly ok. It was the story and the way that you had a hand in changeing it that made the game great.

dukethepcdr:
I really got into the plot and dialog of Deus Ex. The fighting and shooting parts were mearly ok. It was the story and the way that you had a hand in changeing it that made the game great.

The amount of words in the game also made it a novel. They just kept on talking...

dukethepcdr:
I really got into the plot and dialog of Deus Ex. The fighting and shooting parts were mearly ok. It was the story and the way that you had a hand in changeing it that made the game great.

Despite Deus Ex being among my "Greates Games Ever Made" list, you didn't have much hand in how the story progressed.

You had to join the NSF, and pretty much everywhere you went had the same goal as every other time (although there were many, many different ways to make that goal). The only way different actions made the game seem different is by certain NPCs saying certain things, but very little actually affected later parts of the game. The end, though, was where you had a hand in what happened. That's really the only part.

The story was still awesome.

Yakuza

Tales of Symphonia

Bioshock, no question. Probably the greatest game that's actually managed to take themes and then integrate them into both gameplay and narrative.

My Favorite Story-Heavy Games

Deus Ex
Mass Effect
Half Life Series
Guild Wars: Eye of the North
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Fable
BioShock
Homeworld and Homeworld 2
Supreme Commander

TheBadass:

ElArabDeMagnifico:
I'd say it's better off as a Graphic Novel.

I doubt it, all the text bubbles would leave next to no room for the graphic part.

Oh snap. ;)

If watchmen and V for Vandetta can do it, then I think we won't have that much to worry about, it may just be a little more..'spaced out'

Why has no one mentioned System Shock 2? WHY GOD DAMMIT!?

It remains one the greatest games of ALL time.

Aries_Split:
Why has no one mentioned System Shock 2? WHY GOD DAMMIT!?

Now that's strange... almost every other game mentioned in the thread I've owned, played or at least heard of from a close friend. This one, I've seen hide nor hair of. What is System Shock 2? Or System Shock for that matter?

emberage:
What is System Shock 2? Or System Shock for that matter?

Many have argued that System Shock 2 is Bioshock's spiritual predecessor.

Whoever said Morrowind is telling the dang truth.

And Indigo Prophecy, since I haven't seen that one tossed up yet.

Final Fantasy VI. I don't really get into story-based games, and I would hardly count the Elder Scrolls series as "good books" (although I did enjoy The Real Barenziah vols. 1-5).

Narrator:

Many have argued that System Shock 2 is Bioshock's spiritual predecessor.

Nothing arguable about it. They were developed by the same people, and they stated it was a successor to SS2.

Also, any gamer over 20 has absolutely no excuse to not have played System Shock 2.

The last really text heavy games I played were Fallout 1/2 and Final Fantasy 7 (I have a crap computer so I've been going through all the classics). I honestly spent probably twice as much time going through dialogue in Fallout than I did fighting, but it was worth it because it was all just so great! I wish I could say the same for FF7 though.

Also on a side note, Custom Robo had insane amounts of crappy dialogue for the kind of game it was.

What is System Shock 2? Or System Shock for that matter?

Please tell me you're kidding. If not, go find it. Right now. Find it, buy it and play it. No. Excuses.

Not knowing system shock or system shock 2 is like being an altzeimers patient in a whore house, Being constantly that you've been screwed and not wanting to pay for it. (This is not meant for offence to anyone who has altzeimers.)

Final Fantasy 7 plainly because if you turned it into a book, it would be GOD! althoah the fighting would be slightly monotonous.

I'm not really sure what you're looking for... you need loads of text/dialogue to develop a character properly and in that case, we're starting to move into the "should have been a book" category. I'm not sure the kind of game you describe exists, simply because books don't have gameplay and games aren't books.
But if I had to choose something, maybe Half-life 2, even though it doesn't really have a protagonist. They managed to do some decent character development "on the run" that is, without sacrificing or changing the gameplay in any way, such as pausing because the user has to read something.
Is that what you mean?

I would have to go with Vagrant Story, great dialoge and well done characters. It could work as a book, but it would fit better as a graphic novel.

Half-Life 2. Seriously, the story has such epic extents, even if it's followed by small amounts of somewhat lame dialogue lines. But overall plot - majestic.

Oh, and also Icewind Dale (played it some time ago).

perhaps indigo prophecy or alone in the dark... but then again they tried to be like movies.... hmmm

God of War, Mass Effect, KOTOR and Baldur's Gate are my picks (and series' thereof)

Was going to say Mass Effect, but I'm pretty sure that Alistair Reynolds' "Revelation Space" trilogy formed a large bulk of the erm, inspiration behind the game's plot. Cracking books though. Halo perhaps? Arg no, too Ian M Bainks-y. Fallout? Too late, Phillip K Dick got there first. Rez? Neuromancer. Hell, even Starcraft's been done (Forever War or even Starship Troopers perhaps).

Portal; it would be like the film Cube in book form. Oh wait, the central motifs of PK Dick's Maze of Death predates that too. I think that if we carry on like this we'll find that loads of the best games for a book have already, in part at least, been based on some pretty epic works already. I'll go with you on Good and Evil though, it's like the thinking-mans Citizen Kabuto. Ish.

Is that my coat?

Eternal Darkness - you literally play out a book in that one! It also had one of the most engaging stories and voice acting I've ever seen.