Storylines

[TY]

Almost every game has them, at least the games with a single player campaign. What are your favorite storylines and why? Also what are your least favorite ones and what would you do if you could change that?

 

[BeefTaco]

Without going into any specifics my favorite storylines are usually the lighthearted ones. I do enjoy a well written drama with lots of emotion, but sometimes games like those can be a bit too stressful. For me the lighthearted stories are just the perfect way to relax and smile at the end of the day.

As for storylines I don't like, military game storylines are first on the list easy. I find most of them really boring and repetitive, if its not "Russians" did this is "World War 3" that and it happens in so many military games ive played that I often confuse which specific storyline belong to which military game.

 

[T!M]

The first Bioshock's story line was really great. And I've always respected Final Fantasy 7's from my youth up until now, in my 20s.

The stories I like that immerse the player, make you feel the character joy and pain, when he loses someone, you lose someone. I'm also a big fan of mysteries in a specific type of story. Not a mystery game alone. I mean like... for example, a story about 3 heroes that travel across the world where one of them has more to them than one would initially note.

Furthermore, I like stories that start linear but explode into this big ... like, "Holy crap, there's so much more!" or "It was much bigger than all of us!" and I like that to happen early to mid game as opposed to towards the end. I also appreciate a good twist not seen until the very end. Like "Bam!"... "Damn, that was unexpected!" or one that makes you just stare at the screen because it just... blows your mind.

Those are my bags.

 

[TwilightBlade]

The Uncharted series has such great dialogue and humor, as well as superb storytelling. Some of the scenes in UC3 still permeate my mind... The airplane/desert chapter from the game's cover, especially!

I also quite liked Final Fantasy XIII's story. I loved the interactions between Sazh and Vanille, Lightning and Hope, and the ending. It had some very pretty cutscenes, display the gameplay being basic.

Least favorite hmm... I loved Far Cry 3 until the latter half of the game. Fans should know why.

 

[Hiatus]

I really liked the storyline of Assassin's Creed II. You start off with a young guy known as Desmond, who, thanks to a machine known as "Animus," relives the memory of one of his ancestors—Ezio Auditore. Ezio is a guy who turns into an assassin to seek revenge on those who killed his father and brother. This leads him to a lot of trouble, and drags him deeper into the world of assassination. It's quite an interesting story! Other than that, I also liked the storyline of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

My least favorite would have to be Need for Speed: Undercover. I found the whole story to be pretty confusing; it wasn't elaborative enough. I wasn't such a big fan of Gears of War 2, either. :b

 

[Aeroblast]

Favorite: I really liked Persona 4. inb4 imaginary friends
Least favorite: Plumbers Don't Wear Ties. No other game even comes close to rivaling the pure abomination of the story that this "game" possesses. What would I do to change that? Tell everyone to burn the remaining copies of that horrid game visual novel.

 

[TY]

Least favorite hmm... I loved Far Cry 3 until the latter half of the game. Fans should know why.

I agree.. after that event the story had no power anymore.

 

[CliCliW]

I really liked the storyline of the Jak and Daxter Trilogy.

On my first playthrough of Ocarina of Time I was blown away too, I thought the storytelling in that is amazing.

I actually really like the storylines for black and white too, I just felt that it brought the most in terms of character development and whatnot.

Waaaaaay back I thought Kingdom Hearts had a nice story too. To an extent I still do; it is really heartwarming and stuff but after so many games it feels way too convoluted for me to properly enjoy it..

 

[Abnegation]

Storyline's have become increasingly more important in my eyes now. With the advancement of graphics, physics, and general engine quality, I look for games that have good narrative, storytelling (be it through dialogue, or through experience) is now what I look for in games. There's a lot of games I really enjoyed this year in that respect. One that immediately comes to mind is The Last of Us. Now, I'm not a console gamer, so I found the frame-rate a little clunky, and the detail a bit too strong for the GPU to translate perfectly, but that has little to do with how well both the world, and the dialogue really translated a beautiful story, one that justified a great journey.

Bioshock: Infinite is another great story, for other reasons. It was complex, but rewarding. It really felt like as a player, you were fighting for the truth, fighting for clarity. That was one of the best journeys I have ever gone through as someone who plays games. The art style, and the environment also told a story, there were nuggets of information to find all throughout the world, all of which pieced into the story one way or the other. The more I looked around, the more I learned, the more I experienced. The ending was both perfect and, well, infinite.

Far Cry 3 is another dark-horse for storyline acclaim, I mean, it was quite simplistic. It's the typical Stockholm Syndrome evolution you hear about, but... this is rare in games. There is actually a storyline, it's simplistic, but it shows you how much a person could go through (albeit a pretty radical world) to save the ones they love. At the same time, it shows you an insight to the mind of the characters around you, this game isn't just well written, it's well composed. This will stand out in my mind as one of the games I played this year which really showed how simplistic storylines can put you through desirable hell as you struggle through the world they create for you.

Some games I really enjoyed over the years in terms of storyline include The Witcher, and the Witcher 2. While these are adaptations of the book series, they have original storylines, set in the world defined by the books they derive from. This leads us into a world of strong characters and a beautiful landscape. The storyline is an intricate web within a basic concept, there's so much going on, so much diversity, and it's not just the main storyline which gripped me, it was the small things around it, which were affected by the main storyline. This is relevant for both games. This is yet another reason why I cannot wait for Wild Hunt, it's everything I've ever wanted in a game, I can only hope the storyline gets a lot of attention also.

I can hardly talk about storylines without mentioning Telltale Games. Naturally, their games are all for story, that's what they do. The Walking Dead is one of the most gripping, original, and immersive stories I have ever played through. Which is why I highly anticipate further releases of it, and of The Wolf Among Us (which I'm already beginning to prefer). When we talk about storylines, I just have to imagine how incredible the Game of Thrones game is going to be when Telltale release their first episode. As you imagine one of the best fantasy book series' of all time, adapted by a phenomenal game company that tell incredible stories, such as Telltale Games do, well... it does nothing but give me goosebumps.

 

[Andrew]

My favorite storylines are ones that get you emotionally invested. A story that sucks you in, makes you connect with the characters, and can evoke emotion in you are some of the greatest stories ever in my opinion.

For example, The Last of Us. For most people the game took anywhere from 10 to 16 hours to complete on a normal difficulty. I finished it in two sittings. The story was so good that I didn't want to put the game down. The only reason I did was because I was using my Dad's PS3 and had to stop when he wanted to use it. I was emotionally invested in the two main characters and there were points where I almost cried. If that's not a great story, then I don't know what is.

I'm not really a big fan of linear, repetitive, or confusing plots. I stopped playing the Call of Duty campaigns after Modern Warfare 2 because it was just boring. The story wasn't interesting and it was always just "Go here, shoot this guy, blow that up. Cool. Now do it again." I didn't care enough about any of the characters to even remember their names besides Ghost, and that was because he had a distinguishing feature (his mask)

 

[Sortiariux]

Some of the best storylines that I have experienced are the original Bioshock and the creepy way of finding out more of the story through the tape recordings that played while you were moving. Another favorite is that of Portal, with such a way to grasp the player with the right combination of story and humor.

 

[LoudSilence]

The Metal Gear Solid series, without a doubt.

Dark Souls also has an incredibly intricate, yet subtle story going for it, also. It's beautiful.

 

[«Chuckles»]

Chrono Trigger, the endings and how you can play a linear RPG so un linear its just a fantastic game with artwork by Akira Toryama.

 

[Arc]

Zero no Kiseki, even though it was never translated in English by using my sub-par Japanese reading skills and reading a synopsis, it now stands as one of my favourite storyline for a game of all time for me.

Zero no Kiseki starts off so simple in it's concept but gets ever so more interesting and complex. You play as Lloyd Bannings, a young up and coming cop who's investigating his brother's death by starting out in the city of Crossbell. The plot starts you off by doing menial task that's not befitting of a cop, but as you dig deeper you start becoming aware of the corrupt nature that exists in Crossbell. As you further investigate you discover a various amount of gangs and organizations that are operating covertly within Crossbell, and from there it just gets good.

A storyline I strongly dislike is the Kingdom Hearts series. Don't get me wrong I love Kingdom Hearts, but the story has really divulged into just a mess.

 

[Juno]

I used to love playing games with deep, emotional stories, but lately I just I don't have time for such games. I mean, I still love them, but they really suck you in and are impossible to play for just an hour or so every day, so it's hard for me to start those games because I know I won't be able to put them down.

That said though, I did play The Last of Us when it came out - easily one of my favorite games this year. It has a linear story but the game tells it really well and I loved the characters so much.

Growing up, I was a big fan of Final Fantasy, mainly for their stories. Getting the next cutscene or the next bit of story was kind of like a reward for clearing an area or defeating a boss, and I was always really emotionally invested in those games.

I'm also fond of games like the ones Quantic Dreams and Telltale Games make - heavily focused on the story with rather simple gameplay and mechanics, but with changing endings and different outcomes depending on the choices the players make. They're more like interactive movies at times, but I still really enjoy them.

 

[TY]

I think StarCraft 2 had a wonderful story, aswell as Borderlands 2.

Instead of Borderlands 1, 2 had a story you could follow. A guy who took power over Pandora with his army (Handsome Jack and Hyperion), the old characters made their appearance and what not.

StarCraft 2... i dont have to explain this, the story is quite awesome and huge plot twists aswell