What's the best storyline in game history?

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stealthy123

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I ask for selfish reasons, my son is a gamer, but he tends to skip dialogue and goes for the action. His favorite game is TF2, just to give a baseline.

I would like to get him caught up in a game like I got caught up in them as a child. I would love to see him get lost in the story, and not just spam to get past the in game dialogues.
 
Have him try Baldur's Gate... they recently released an enhanced edition.
 
I won't declare a "best", but I'll throw in a few nominations in no particular order:

Betrayal at Krondor

The Longest Journey

Planescape Torment

Knights of the Old Republic
 
Mass Effect for me. Its the story and characters that keep me obsessed and addicted to that game. I love the idea of the Reapers.

Max Payne (including Max Payne 2) would be a close 2nd.

Bioshock's is pretty cool as well.

Resident Evil and Parasite Eve for honorable mention.
 
He doesn't want a story told to him. He wants to be the story.

So get him Just Cause 2. Of all the games I've ever played, THAT is the one that I would have wanted transported back in time to when I was a kid.
 
stealthy123 said:
my son is a gamer, but he tends to skip dialogue and goes for the action
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That's the problem right there.
You could throw Bioshock Infinite at him and he'd probably rather spend time shooting enemies and playing with Vigors than running around collecting the Voxophones and understanding the backstory and the secrets.
(And I mean no offense to your son, I'm just raising the point.)

RPG's are easy to throw out there as a story game, but usually they're not heavy on action. I would put up a shooter (such as BSI) and just see where he goes with it. Depends on his age though...BSI has some undertones that he probably doesn't really need to see (especially some racism but also some fairly high violence). BS1 would probably be a better choice if you're going to give him a BS game, just because BS1 (and BS2) are a lot less 'pushing the envelope'.

Half-Life series would be a very good one as well (if he's a PC gamer). Dishonored would probably be another one I'd say to try, and what's great about that one is there's a lot of ways to play (similar to the BS series).
 
stealthy123 said:
His favorite game is TF2
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Have you given him a stern talking to? :p

The reason why he spams past them might be because...since whenever every damned game has tried to be "movie-like" and sticks in soap opera crap at every 5 seconds. It's maybe ok the first 346 times, but after a while you know what is going to happen and really don't give a crap and want to get back to the actual game. :D
 
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idk about BEST per se, but for someone who typically skips stories might not be best to bog him down with well written dialogue and text, and rather pick a game which incorporated narrative and gameplay well like HL2 or Bastion
spec ops the line also had a pretty good narrative well integrated into gameplay
 
FF7 has a neat story for sure. Chrono Trigger, too.
I have to agree on Mass Effect trilogy as well. If you are interested in sci-fi yo cant go wrong with it.
My little bro who is less than half my age is the same way about games. I bought him Dead Space 2 the day it hit stores and 12 hours later hes almost done with it because he put it on the easiest difficulty and skipped so much dialogue.....havent made that mistake since lol.

What about Dragon Age: Origins? I feel like it did a good job with character creation/immersion. Lots of choices!

I like the roundabout way you get the story from Portal 2. (Level design, old audio, etc.)
 
StarCraft 1 and Brood War.

But honestly, I don't give a fuck about the story in any game. All I am interested in is the gameplay.
 
Eradan said:
The sentiment baffles me completely.
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Bay/Bol write about 63% of game plotlines, with Danielle Steele making up the rest.

To see why some people might not like this, take some crap film like...Armageddon and get it ready to watch. Then play a game you like for 30 minutes, pause it, alt tab and watch a 15 minute chunk, and repeat.

Now. Does that make the game better or worse?
 
The sequel wasn't as great but Siberia had one of the more impressive storylines and writing.
 
hmm.. out of my head.. silent hill 1 & 2, then: the witcher (1), neverwinter nights (1), parasite eve (both), gothic 2.. thats what i can remember right now :p
 
DeathPrincess said:
Bay/Bol write about 63% of game plotlines, with Danielle Steele making up the rest.

To see why some people might not like this, take some crap film like...Armageddon and get it ready to watch. Then play a game you like for 30 minutes, pause it, alt tab and watch a 15 minute chunk, and repeat.

Now. Does that make the game better or worse?
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Oh, I get it. You're a big Call of Duty fan.
 
Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (don't bother with Invisible War)

Bioshock 1 & 2 (I assume Infinite is good, but I haven't played it).
 
The Legacy of Kain series (Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, Legacy of Kain Defiance; in that order) is hands-down the best story. Sadly, it is still unfinished.

It does take some thought to fully understand it, though.
 
Zelda: Ocarina of Time got me a bit emotional at the very end.

FF6 and FF9 also got me a bit teary eyed during certain moments with certain characters. (Shadow, Vivi)

Although very minimal in story-telling, Ico and Shadow of Colossus did a great job making me care about the characters and pulling me through the (sometimes frustrating) game. Both had great memorable endings as well.

I'm not sure I found any FPS game moving story-wise. Metro 2033 was the last one I played that was kinda interesting, but nothing grand. I guess HalfLife/HL2, but they kinda have this pretentious vibe about them that I'm not totally keen on. My favorites really were doom and quake, where the lack of story forced me to imagine more and "fill-in-the-gaps", and that was pretty rewarding.

How old is your son? Maybe he's just not ready for boring dialog yet, because he gets that so much in school/life ATM, and there's no need to fullfill any sort of need to escape reality. At least, that's how I was until I hit maybe 16 years. Someone else trying to get me to read a book or "care" about a story (like in school) was pretty much impossible. I learned I simply had to want it and make that choice for myself with no outside pressures - then and only then did I seem to really enjoy stories.

Anyways, good luck
 
To stay in the FPS genre, you could try Bioshock 1 or Infinite, the more recent Wolfenstein, or maybe ease him into storyline with something like Borderlands 2. That forces you to watch parts of the story, but they aren't very long. Not to say their stories are particularly good, its just better than none.

As far as other genres, if he's into fast paced (which TF2 is very much), then i would not go with a turn based or point+click RPG, instead go for a real time combat system one, where you're controlling at least one of the characters directly, not just giving them commands.
 
There are plenty of games with good stories. It all depends on if you are willing to put in the time.

Aome I enjoyed

Max payne 1/2
Bioshock 1/2
Interstate 76
Tie fighter
Deus ex
Experiment 112
Fahrenheit
Prince of persia series
Homeworld
Mass effect 1-3
Dragon age 1 (not 2)
If you have a good attention span then oblivion and skyrim
 
Played many games, but a good storyline with action that's easy to follow is the Mass Effect Series.
Also Mirrors Edge is a great game with story and action. I wouldn't go full RPG just yet. It could get quite boring coming from FPS games.

For the full effect. The Witcher and Deus Ex:HR are my choices.
 
I think a better approach would be to find a story he would enjoy as opposed to looking for the "best" story. The latter is going to highly opinionated and may not be what he actually ends up enjoying.

Does he enjoy a certain genre of films, TV shows, or fiction more for instance? Would he be more into comedy as opposed to something dramatic? Examples of things to consider instead.

Alternatively something like the Walking Dead I believe you can't skip dialogue :p
 
limitedaccess said:
I think a better approach would be to find a story he would enjoy as opposed to looking for the "best" story. The latter is going to highly opinionated and may not be what he actually ends up enjoying.

Does he enjoy a certain genre of films, TV shows, or fiction more for instance? Would he be more into comedy as opposed to something dramatic? Examples of things to consider instead.

Alternatively something like the Walking Dead I believe you can't skip dialogue :p
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Best advice you could offer.
 
Eradan said:
Oh, I get it. You're a big Call of Duty fan.
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I can't speak for her but I don't need someone else to justify for me what I enjoy to do in a game.

The very best actual games turn out that way because creative players are allowed to find ways to do all kinds of stuff no one designing the thing conceived possible or enjoyable.

Storytelling works in the exact opposite way as you're supposed to be a mere character in some else's play in order for the story to end up any good. Balance is impossible. There can never be water dust.
 
2 games I loved the storyline in.

1. Zeno-clash, only took me 3.5 hours to get through but the story was amazing
2. Call of Juarez: The first one quite literally almost put tears in my eyes.
 
The Shard of the Herald event in Asheron's Call.

It was up to the players to either attack or defend the shard that imprisoned the hopeslayer Bael'zheron.

On one server the defenders were so good the gm's had to intervene to eventually progress the month's story arc. Someone else said it better though...

Asheron's call was amazing for the open world it had where players could make choices to affect the world at large. Where GMs could log in as major lore characters and talk to players. Make them feel as if they actually mattered in the game world other.

Best event ever was Bael'Zharon release where players actually effected the outcome so much that Devs (as lore characters) had to step in to get the story to go where they wanted it to.

The Shard Vigil was comprised of PLAYERS that were defending the shard from being destroyed by other players. It was a 100% PVP event that happened across all servers. One server, Thistledown actually defended the shard for so long that GMs playing as Ler Rhan and Ferah along with Vidorian attacked to destroy the shard and release Bael'Zharon (think raid boss).

It was EPIC. If games could have events like this, that can pull a player into the game. Make them feel like they are part of the world other than logging in for dailies and thats it.. Greatest game ever.

It was funny, at one point Asheron (played by a GM) openly challenged Bael'Zharon (another GM) into combat as part of the story. Just as the fight started, Asheron was accidently one shot (forgot to buff). Same thing happened years later during another Story Arc where the players were buffing a GM for combat, when another player cast a "friendly" dispell that accidently removed ALL buffs (including GM buffs) and caused another GM to be one shot.
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Half-Life 1 and 2 and the episodes need I say more. Best game ever. period.:D

He likes TF2 so he's already a Valve junkie.
 
Definitely the Half-Life and Bioshock games.
Those games do a great job of telling the story with the game itself instead of game/cutscene/repeat.
 
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