Link's Awakening.
I mean, seriously. The whole thing could actually have been solved by Navi yelling, "Hey, listen!" like in the beginning of OoT.

The Elder Scrolls II: Morrowind. While the plot that you play through is fairly standard, if you take the time out to go and do some poking around the libraries and talk to people, it's a lot deeper than you'd think.

I'll say the Metal Gear series.

I've honestly found Fallout 3 to have an amazingly deep and immersive story, especially considering that I tend to role play in most games anyway. GTA IV also has a great story, something quite rare for a GTA game.

And yes, KOTOR was awesome as well.

Baldurs Gate 2: Shadows of Amn.

captain awesome 12:

Areani:

captain awesome 12:

Areani:
I don't care what Yahtzee says: I still think that the plot in the Metal Gear Solid series is the best EVAR!

I'd have to agree that the basic plot to them is great. However it's the complicated filler and poor writing that pollutes an otherwise fantastic story.

Poor writing?

Actually I find it quite fun trying to figure out what the whole point of "the complicated filler" is.

Many consider the dialogue and such to be poorly written. It's been documented in detail in other threads so it wouldn't make sense to write it out now. The main point is that it takes an hour to explain something that could have only taken a few minutes, and the player isn't really allowed to discover the plot for themselves, they have to run around until another cut scene tells them everything. For most though, "the complicated filler", like having every character in the series make a cameo in MGS4, isn't fun for most people. I sometimes enjoy following it, but it can seem so oppressive. The one knock people can honestly give Metal Gear Solid is that its plot is overly complicated and twisted, and it's like that because of poor writing. If Hideo Kojima would stick to the main plot and keep it clean, throw in a few twists, and boot the 90 minute cut scenes out the door the game would have been more approachable by new players.

You forgot to mention the fact that gameplay is totally divorced from the plot. In my opinion, this is what truly disqualifies the MGS storyline from being the "best video game story" category. There's no thematic reason why it should have been a game as opposed to a movie or tv series.

Contrast this with a game like Bioshock and you'll see what I mean. Player interactivity was vital to the story of Bioshock, and it's what made the twist in the second part of the game so effective.

Edit: Nevermind, I fail at reading comprehension =)
"the player isn't really allowed to discover the plot for themselves, they have to run around until another cut scene tells them everything"

that game idea in the beginning of the Saints Row 2 Zero Punctuation review about being a Batman villain

XxFear ItselfxX:

Halo Fanboy:
Halo. Super soldier, aliens and stuff.

Halo's story was good until the second game. After that it went downhill.

Mass Effect, Bioshock, KotOR, and GTA 4 all had great plots. It won't get much better.

I don't necessarily think that the story for any of the actual Halo games were all that great, but I loved the universe that they created. It was essentially the Starship Troopers game that I'd been secretly wishing for. (Based off of the book, not the horrible movies.)

Personal favorite? Metal Gear Solid 2. It's convoluted, the pacing is awful and it requires sitting through Rose's BS, but it's the one I enjoyed the most in recent memory. All four times it took me to get everything out of the story and completely wrap my head around it.

It's hard to pick a favorite but the best plot I've finished recently is defiantly No More Heroes. It's very strange...but unlike anything else

The one where you are a yellow sphere and you eat little, duller yellow spheres!

Bioshock had the best twist in a video game that I have ever played.

My top 5 list probably goes something like this:

1. Jade Empire
2. Planescape: Torment
3. Baldur's Gate 2
4. Prince of Persia (Sands of Time)
5. Morrowind

If I decided to keep going, I'd also include Arcanum, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, Neverwinter Nights 2, and a few other games like the original Pool of Radiance despite their many flaws.

CoverYourHead:
The original KOTOR. Some of the best characters ever, and the plot was outstanding.

^This.

Although I did love the original Tales of Symphonia's story, but that was probably just because it was the only RPG my console-starved little hands could nab.

Blair Bennett:

I wouldn't be able to narrow it down to an individual storyline that I thought was better than all others. But the Silent Hill series is easily one of my all time favorites. In fact, I think that the entirety of SH 1-3 were all quite fantastic. But, as I said, I wouldn't be able to choose one game or series that I thought was far superior enough to justify them being my favorite. Not saying that none of them are good, by any stretch of the imagination, but some of my favorites are as follows:

Call of Cthulhu:Dark Corners of the Earth- My reason for this was, though the story was far from an accurate rendition of the original H.P. Lovecraft masterpiece, it was sort of mixed and matched with other novels of Lovecraft's in time for it's video game debut. Though, this could easily have been the biggest mistake the writers even made during production, somehow, it wasn't. This mixing of several of Lovecraft's novels didn't hinder the story as it very well could have, but instead, it had the appearance of making the entirety of the Lovecraft universe come together. It literally brought a great number of Lovecraft's novels to life, and God was it fun to finally see what the Shaggoth actually looked like.

This game story started alright. It died out after a while. I'm not really suprised by Jack's insanity.

As for me,
I liked Zelda Majora's Mask.
I loved Jade Empire.
I'm a Silent Hill kinda-fan.
Ogre Battle 64 is my all time champion though.

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2. Completely unique and incredibly immersive. I loved every second of these two games.

Warcraft 3 + The Frozen Throne, or basically all the Warcraft lore before WoW.

FURY_007:
Deus Ex was friggin amazing

Second.

Tales of Symphonia.

Darth Marsden:

Areani:
I don't care what Yahtzee says: I still think that the plot in the Metal Gear Solid series is the best EVAR!

You have to agree though - for an outsider, it's confusing as hell.

Personally, I'll go with the clichéd genius of Max Payne, the simplicity of Half-Life, the epic scope of Knights of the Old Republic and the utter brilliance of System Shock 2. Sequels/Prequels not included, but that doesn't mean they aren't any good.

Granted but they do cover almost if not everything for those interested in knowing about the story while also using elements from Real world events Metal Gear gets my vote as well.

bioshock, fallout 3, and resident evil 4

Random argument man:

Blair Bennett:

I wouldn't be able to narrow it down to an individual storyline that I thought was better than all others. But the Silent Hill series is easily one of my all time favorites. In fact, I think that the entirety of SH 1-3 were all quite fantastic. But, as I said, I wouldn't be able to choose one game or series that I thought was far superior enough to justify them being my favorite. Not saying that none of them are good, by any stretch of the imagination, but some of my favorites are as follows:

Call of Cthulhu:Dark Corners of the Earth- My reason for this was, though the story was far from an accurate rendition of the original H.P. Lovecraft masterpiece, it was sort of mixed and matched with other novels of Lovecraft's in time for it's video game debut. Though, this could easily have been the biggest mistake the writers even made during production, somehow, it wasn't. This mixing of several of Lovecraft's novels didn't hinder the story as it very well could have, but instead, it had the appearance of making the entirety of the Lovecraft universe come together. It literally brought a great number of Lovecraft's novels to life, and God was it fun to finally see what the Shaggoth actually looked like.

This game story started alright. It died out after a while. I'm not really suprised by Jack's insanity.

Ehh, true, but still, you have to admit that it was at least an ambitious endeavor.

C Lion:

fullmetalangel:
Portal :D

Love how a string of seemingly meaningless tasks evolves so damn well into a deep storyline.

I really liked Portal, but I wouldn't exactly call the plot deep. It might tie into Half-life 2 Episode 3, but that really only adds depth to Half-Life, not Portal.

The plot was plenty deep when you consider the game as a whole. On the surface it may seem like it's just a game about a crazy robot, but it's actually a pretty good allegory for a bad relationship. There are a couple essays about this on the web if you're interested.

Final Fantasy VII just because it sucks less than every other plot.

DOOM 1

You Space Marine

You in Martian Hell

You kill everything if want to live

BEST PLOT EVUR

naw but seriously, AHH its hard, every time i think of a game i like i think NO I liked that because of its gameplay..........

ahh i cant think of one lol, possibly oblivion, because they had mini plots that fit within the main plot IE the various guild quests all had their own plots, the main plot was basic ruler assinated, demons attacking world need saving, enter you........

I thought the story for Odin Sphere was a thing of beauty, well crafted and with many aspects.

Also, the plot for MGS3 TOTALLY made up for the crazy long-winded diatribes of its predecessor

Jandau:
To avoid repeating what others have already said: Legacy of Kain! Yeah, ok, Blood Omen 2 sucked big time, but the rest were good, at least as far as the plot goes.

Yay! Another LoK fan! I was beginning to think I was the only one. This series definitely occupies the soggiest spot in my "best story ever" wet dream. It isn't for everyone though. Like MGS, it relies completely on long-ass cutscenes and overcomplicated, wordy dialogue. I just love those things, however, and LoK pulls them off masterfully.

And yes, Blood Omen 2 did suck.

C Lion:

fullmetalangel:
Portal :D

Love how a string of seemingly meaningless tasks evolves so damn well into a deep storyline.

I really liked Portal, but I wouldn't exactly call the plot deep. It might tie into Half-life 2 Episode 3, but that really only adds depth to Half-Life, not Portal.

My favorite game story is definitely Grim Fandango. A great film noir story in a crazy setting, I always loved it.

Hm, I suppose you're right actually, I should say more of a solid storyline than deep. Either way, it was well done, and I liked it =D

Best story in a game? Well, once upon a time there was an ordinary worm. A space suit fell on him, he climbed into it and BAM! he's a superhero! You spend the entire game trying to get to princess Whta's-Her-Name (yes, this how she's called) and the moment you find her she gets crushed under a falling cow you launched back on the first stage!

That was epic! On the other hand I enjoyed Snake Eater's story too... Actually there are so many games that had a memorable story that I can't list them all in a single post.

N-Sef:
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2. Completely unique and incredibly immersive. I loved every second of these two games.

This or the MGS plot.

And I don't think that the story in MGS is poorly written like in Resident Evil it's just that some of the dialogue is useless.

Russian_Assassin:
Best story in a game? Well, once upon a time there was an ordinary worm. A space suit fell on him, he climbed into it and BAM! he's a superhero! You spend the entire game trying to get to princess Whta's-Her-Name (yes, this how she's called) and the moment you find her she gets crushed under a falling cow you launched back on the first stage!

I still own this game for the SNES. A really great game.

I recently played it on an emulator. Sure took me back some years ^^
Whatever happened to original game ideas? Although that's another topic...