What game has the best storytelling?

[Supergrunch]

I feel I should give this a special mention: Shadow of the Colossus's ending is a thing of beauty.

Up until the bit with the baby. It should have been the guy, dead, then the credits roll, and just as they end, he wakes up, but you can just see dark flickering in his eyes.

 

Screen abruptly cuts to a "fin".

[Shino]

Up until the bit with the baby. It should have been the guy, dead, then the credits roll, and just as they end, he wakes up, but you can just see dark flickering in his eyes.

 

Screen abruptly cuts to a "fin".

 

Thanks, really.

[Supergrunch]

Thanks, really.

Eh? if you're complaining about spoilers, then it happened absolutely nothing like that.

[Shino]

Oh, sorry then.

[Hellfire]

I have to agree that asides from MGS1 the storytelling borders on amateurish, it trires hard to be phylosofical and movie-ish. Still, apart from 2, great stories.

Metroid Prime, Echoes and Half Life (1 and 2) also are amazing for using unconventional means of storytelling.

Eternal Darkness and Killer 7 also rock the house with amazing narrative and storytelling.

[LukeLee]

I'm surprised it hasnt been mentioned, but Ocarina of Time. Granted the story is linear, but its so well done. Of course i've played many games, but none really caught my heart like the way i would lose my breath when i first saw Link transformed into an adult or when i first learned that Shiek was Zelda. That first feeling of failure looking at Hyrule town consumed by darkness and zombies, it didnt feel like a computer game world to save, but it felt like it was my world i was saving. I cant really think of any other games that have made me feel as connected as that.

[gaggle64]

Sam & Max and Eternal Darkness have the best game stories ever.

 

Sam & Max is easily one of the funniest games I've ever played, easily matching the great humour of their creator's comic and outstripping that of the cartoon.

 

Eternal Darkness is in my opinion the only game out there with a plot you could just transfere lock, stock and barrel to celluoid. Characters, plot, history, follore, conspiracy, sacrafice, you've got full bang and schpudle.

 

Deus Ex also has a good story, but sometimes the plot gets a little bogged down in itself, and other non-story related game elements (the punishing difficulty level mainly) sometimes hampered my enjoyment of it. Mention must also go to pretty much all the sections of Half-Life 2 where you don't get to shoot something, the play sequence with Dog in Black Masa in particular.

[Dan_Dare]

 

Mention must also go to pretty much all the sections of Half-Life 2 where you don't get to shoot something, the play sequence with Dog in Black Masa in particular.

 

but the genius of HL2 is that the game itself tells a story, rather than cutscenes or whatever. Those bits are still good but the real narrator is the world around you.

[gaggle64]

but the genius of HL2 is that the game itself tells a story, rather than cutscenes or whatever. Those bits are still good but the real narrator is the world around you.

 

I agree, but I feel you only ever really get the chance to explore in detail the characters and issues that make up this world when you're not expected to shoot them in the face.

 

My dream is one day for there to be a genre of games where you don't shoot, score, solve, find, quest, attack, defend or any of the other play objectives common throughout many modern games. Game where you just simply experience what's going on. Sort of like Animal Crossing, but with a serious face to it.

 

Imagine playing as a passenger on the Titanic for example. At first your only goal is simply to enjoy your cruise, read the paper, chat to your fellow passengers and so on. Three days later you're watching panicky crewmen desperately launching lifeboats as the ship starts to cave in on itself, and the only thing you can do about it is wonder where it all went wrong.

 

Now that's what I would call "edutainment".