Games with great stories

Cunning Alias

Over the last while I have been trying to play games with great stories that I have missed over the last few years and I am looking for suggestions. I don't care about the genre or graphics and I have access to every system (bar the 3ds and WiiU).

Recently I have really enjoyed:
Heavy Rain
To The Moon
Walking Dead
Spec Ops: The Line
Thomas Was Alone
Bioshock Infinite

The next one on my list is The Unfinished Swan.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

MitchKoobski

Deadly Premonition.

Through all the weird dialogue and annoying gameplay, the story kept me playing and properly gripped me.

r3nu4l

Resistance: Fall of Man on the PS3. The story was pretty good and the narrator's voice was fantastic.

Graphics are very, very dated and the gameplay is linear but it's one of the few games where I've actually looked forward to the cut-scenes between levels

keith16

Shadow of the Colossus

I was very taken in by it anyway.

I nearly cried when I thought I lost my horse and did cry when he came back!

robvondoom

Silent Hill 2. Not a pleasant story now mind you, but arguably one of the best.

Cunning Alias

MitchKoobski wrote: »

Deadly Premonition.

Cheers. I completely forgot about this. I remember looking at it around the time it was released.

r3nu4l wrote: »

Resistance: Fall of Man on the PS3. The story was pretty good and the narrator's voice was fantastic.

Iv always had a problem with 1st person shooters on the ps3 (concave sticks, Why!) I might pick it up anyway as it would be pretty cheap and I love the setting.

keith16 wrote: »

Shadow of the Colossus

Currently half way through the hd release

robvondoom wrote: »

Silent Hill 2. Not a pleasant story now mind you, but arguably one of the best.

I have a copy of this around. Always terrified me and I never finished it. It's one of those gaps in my gaming history.

Thanks everyone

weemcd

Final Fantasy X
Metal Gear Solid

fermanagh_man

Broken Sword Trilogy on PC

An all time favourite

Mickeroo

The mass effect trilogy are probably the most immersive games I've played in terms of story and characters.

Temptamperu

Knights of the Old Republic back in the day was amazing.

the groutch

Shenmue 2

and as mentioned above Final Fantasy X

Cunning Alias

Played the Final Fantasy series to death (at least up to X). Definitely a great story though.

Lost Odyssey is the next big RPG I am going to get into. Don't have as much free time as I would like so I tend to avoid RPG's a bit now.

Broken Sword is a great suggestion, thanks.

CrinkElite

Morrowind

MitchKoobski

Thoroughly enjoyed the story for Ni No Kuni : Wrath of the White Witch. Had it's slow parts now and then but the gameplay kept me going. When the big story moments did occur, I was glued.

Injustice : Gods Among Us tells a surprisingly interesting story for a fighting game.

keith16

Cunning Alias wrote: »

Currently half way through the hd release

Where did you get it? I'm considering picking up a copy but can't see it anywhere.

Mickeroo

Temptamperu wrote: »

Knights of the Old Republic back in the day was amazing.

Got both of those recently myself, looking forward to getting into them.

Cunning Alias

keith16 wrote: »

Where did you get it? I'm considering picking up a copy but can't see it anywhere.

I got it on amazon back when it was released. They have some at the mo:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ico-Shadow-Colossus-Collection-PS3/dp/B004T8C19W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369347593&sr=8-1&keywords=ico+and+shadow+of+the+colossus+ps3

The framerate is so much better. I had no idea how low it was in the PS2 version until I saw my mate playing it.

Deano7788

keith16 wrote: »

Where did you get it? I'm considering picking up a copy but can't see it anywhere.

If you have PS Plus it's free next month.

Captain Chaos

keith16 wrote: »

Where did you get it? I'm considering picking up a copy but can't see it anywhere.

If you have PS Plus account it's free this month along with Ico.

keith16

Deano7788 wrote: »

If you have PS Plus it's free next month.

Man, I'm not convinced about the PS Plus...basically when the sub runs out, I don't get to play the game anymore? That right?

Captain Chaos

Deus Ex 1. Good conspiracy story and take into account it came out just before 9/11 adds to it even more now.

Captain Chaos

keith16 wrote: »

Man, I'm not convinced about the PS Plus...basically when the sub runs out, I don't get to play the game anymore? That right?

It's only €50 a year, the price of one game and for that you get alot of free games and discounts on DLC and other games.

I don't know about you but that's very good value.

I'm waiting for the Vita price drop at E3 or a new model to come out before getting it. Thanks to PS Plus I have 3 games for it already for free sitting on my PS3 HDD.

Mr.Prodston

I got Telltale's The Walking Dead last week as it came out on disk for PS3 and the story is absolutely fantastic. It's leagues ahead of most shows on TV and the ending was brilliant. I'm quite happy to admit that I

was fighting back tears and almost losing

at the end.

The bond between Lee and Clementine is remarkable.

Cunning Alias

Captain Chaos wrote: »

It's only €50 a year, the price of one game and for that you get alot of free games and discounts on DLC and other games.

I don't know about you but that's very good value.

I'm waiting for the Vita price drop at E3 or a new model to come out before getting it. Thanks to PS Plus I have 3 games for it already for free sitting on my PS3 HDD.

If I had the time I would definitely have one. Take a look at this list someone did on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1dmz2i/what_does_one_full_year_4050_of_playstation_plus/

richymcdermott

Fragile dreams
Silent hill 2
Catherine
Xenoblade
Valkyria chronicles
Persona 3
Persona 4
Metal gear solid 1 and 3
Yakuza

GTR63

Loved The Walking Dead which I got on disc and played through it in a chapter a sitting, it was brilliant. Kenny and Clementine were such great characters.
Always love the bonkers cases and cast in the Phoenix wright games too.

Falthyron

In terms of story, I would rate Alan Wake and Max Payne very highly. Pure narrative, atmospheric, and great dialogue. Particularly in the case of Alan Wake, it felt like reading a book.

cherryghost

Persona 3 and 4

Cookie_Monster

Homeworld

K.O.Kiki

Surprised no-one has said Portal 1+2 yet!

Sarky

Planescape: Torment. Doesn't get said nearly enough around here.

Little Inferno may be cheap and cheerf- Well, cheap- but the plot is as gripping and emotionally manipulative as any big budget deal. Same goes for Hotline Miami. Amazing storytelling on a minimal budget.

jill_valentine

Silent Hill 2. Bonus points for how cleverly integrated the story's gradual reveal is to the gameplay. Incredible stuff.

Potential-Monke

Legacy of Kain Series. Haven't aged too well, but the narrative and voice acting is some of the best you will ever find!

Kiith

Baldurs Gate 2 and System Shock 2 for me stand out, as they have two of the best villians we've ever had in games. Irenicus and Shodan/Xerxes were brilliant, and having a proper enemy can really improve the story.

Penn

Portal 2 actually has a really great story underneath it all. So simple but kinda beautiful too.

The overall Assassin's Creed story is pretty good too, but especially Assassin's Creed 2.

And out of all the GTA games, The Lost and Damned DLC has a really great story. Great characters, a great theme, a very likeable protagonist. Just fantastic.

sin0city

Some of my favourite have already been mentioned but here's a few more:

Nier
Dragon Age
Red Dead Redemption
Sleeping Dogs
Fallout 3
Uncharted Series
Assasin's Creed (while Ezio was the protagonist)

Retr0gamer

More people need to play Nier.

More people also need to stop saying Heavy Rain had a good story. Same with Mass Effect, it was the same fantasy story of an ancient evil returning and nobody believing the protagonist until it's too late transposed into space. See Shining Force, Game of Thrones, Riftwar Saga, Final Fantasy IV etc.

MitchKoobski

Retr0gamer wrote: »

More people also need to stop saying Heavy Rain had a good story. Same with Mass Effect, it was the same fantasy story of an ancient evil returning and nobody believing the protagonist until it's too late transposed into space. See Shining Force, Game of Thrones, Riftwar Saga, Final Fantasy IV etc.

Sorry for enjoying them.

sweetie

The alan wake games and dlc had good story and the bundle is mega cheap on pc and xbox at the moment.

Retr0gamer

MitchKoobski wrote: »

Sorry for enjoying them.

Didn't say they weren't enjoyable, I enjoyed them, in particular Mass Effect but in no way was the story all that.

ConFurioso

keith16 wrote: »

Man, I'm not convinced about the PS Plus...basically when the sub runs out, I don't get to play the game anymore? That right?

If you have a playstation and 50 quid a year to spare, it's completely worth it. Especially if, like me, you like to play through a game and then shelve it.

I have a ridiculous backlog of games to play on it and couldn't be happier about it.

Sorry, off topic.

Prodigious

Halo?

Retr0gamer

Prodigious wrote: »

Halo?

sin0city

Retr0gamer wrote: »

More people need to play Nier.

More people also need to stop saying Heavy Rain had a good story. Same with Mass Effect, it was the same fantasy story of an ancient evil returning and nobody believing the protagonist until it's too late transposed into space. See Shining Force, Game of Thrones, Riftwar Saga, Final Fantasy IV etc.

Just because the overarching plot line has been done before doesn't make it any less great in my opinion. I know some / a lot of the plot can only be explained by space magic too but for me it's the quality of the characters, their interactions and the way the story's told that make it a great story. And as Mickeroo said, it's one of the most immersive games I've ever played.

The production values are ridiculously high too, I spent ages just watching the dancers in the citadel. And it's got Mordin Solus.

When he started singing it just blew me away.

Dacelonid

I would have to add another vote for Alan Wake. I started playing it, and treating it as just a generic run and gun type game and didn't really enjoy it but about half way through, I finally got it and understood that it wasn't a game as such, it was a novel. Started it from the start again and enjoyed it a lot more.
Haven't played the addon yet, want to go back and finish it on nightmare first

Mickeroo

sin0city wrote: »

Just because the overarching plot line has been done before doesn't make it any less great in my opinion. I know some / a lot of the plot can only be explained by space magic too but for me it's the quality of the characters, their interactions and the way the story's told that make it a great story. And as Mickeroo said, it's one of the most immersive games I've ever played.

The production values are ridiculously high too, I spent ages just watching the dancers in the citadel. And it's got Mordin Solus.

When he started singing it just blew me away.

Yeah lack of originality is irrelevant when the story is so well crafted imo. And it's the characters that really made the game for me.

Grimebox

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Homeworld

The first mission was spectacular, then nothing really happens after that to be honest

Burgo

Penn wrote: »

Portal 2 actually has a really great story underneath it all. So simple but kinda beautiful too.

The overall Assassin's Creed story is pretty good too, but especially Assassin's Creed 2.

And out of all the GTA games, The Lost and Damned DLC has a really great story. Great characters, a great theme, a very likeable protagonist. Just fantastic.

Assassins creed was ruined for by the

ALIENS!

and the terrible plot twist reveal.

While I enjoyed GTA 4 to an extent I didn't find any of the playable characters likeable at all they are all a bunch of psychotic murdering assholes!

Mickeroo wrote: »

Got both of those recently myself, looking forward to getting into them.

check out the mods, in particular the mods for kotor 2, a lot of cut content has been restored.

I'd throw metro 2033 in too.

NotorietyH

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Didn't say they weren't enjoyable, I enjoyed them, in particular Mass Effect but in no way was the story all that.

For me it was the side stories and individual character stories that made Mass Effect for me.

Same with Fallout 3. The main plot was no great shakes, but the side stories and some of the characters were great.

The worlds in both games were fascinating places to be and the back stories were very rich so I would classify them as having great stories.

sin0city

NotorietyH wrote: »

For me it was the side stories and individual character stories that made Mass Effect for me.

Same with Fallout 3. The main plot was no great shakes, but the side stories and some of the characters were great.

The worlds in both games were fascinating places to be and the back stories were very rich so I would classify them as having great stories.

Long time since I played Fallout 3 but I still remember Reilly's Rangers and that guy who was a tree. Think it had the best sense of exploring I've seen in a game too. Just didn't know what you were going to come across.

noodler

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Didn't say they weren't enjoyable, I enjoyed them, in particular Mass Effect but in no way was the story all that.

You can't really sum up Mass Effect's story like that.

They way the story was told was important. The history etc between the different races, the Prothean leagcy yada yada. Reducing the story to one sentence does not do it any justice.