Your favourite video game story?

Felgen

Well-known member
A lot of gamers (including me) want the stories in the video games to be good. The story is often the part of the game that makes it stick out from all it's competitors. :)

The rules in this thread are simple:

1. Only post the game you think has the best story, not the second best, third best and so on. You can have honorable mentions below it.

2. Post the game because you think it has the best story, not just because you think the game itself is great.

3. Explain why it has a great story.

927866558-00.jpg


In my honest opinion, The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery has the best story. It continues a year after the first game and starts after a little girl has been murdered by what was supposedly a wolf.

Later in the game, the main character finds out that it's not an ordinary wolf we're talking about. Unlike most other games of 1995, The Beast Within featured quite complicated characters and you never know who will help you and who will betray you. Nor do you know the motives of the killer until the last chapter.

To make the game more interesting, it also features a part with King Ludwig II of Bavaria and how he is ultimately linked to the killer. The game was quite controversial in it's time for it's use of swear words (the first game in the series was the first game to have a voice-actor say the f-word), realistic blood and depictions of cannibals.

All in all it's a great horror story. You have to play the first game in the series to be able to understand some of it, though.

YouTube - Gabriel Knight 2 - Intro

Honorable mentions:

  • The King's Quest games
  • The Curse of Monkey Island
  • Grim Fandango
  • The Gothic games
  • The rest of the Gabriel Knight trilogy
  • Mafia
  • Strife
  • The Broken Sword games
  • Sanitarium
  • Fallout 3
  • Heavy Rain
  • The Getaway
  • Shadow of the Colossus
 
Last edited:

hippiechild

Well-known member
Hello there! Welcome to the world of pokémon!

My name is Oak... People call me the pokémon Prof!

...This world is inhabited by creatures called pokémon!

For some people, pokémon are pets. Others use them for fights. Myself...I study pokémon as a profession...

...

Your own Pokemon story is about to unfold. A world of dreams and adventures with Pokemon awaits! Let's go!
 

Anomaly

Well-known member
The Geneforge series.

It's hard to lump the 5 games together as each one is distinct in its own way and deserves mention. Before I begin, I wish to clarify something.

2. Post the game because you think it has the best story, not just because you think the game itself is great.
In many games the storyline is limited in terms of flexibility. There are either two endings or one ending possible. When you play Geneforge, you make the story. Your actions, your sentiments, your betrayals, your use of canisters (more on that later) all come into account for the final ending scene. You can choose to plow through everything in your way or you can rely on stealth and fight only if necessary. You can be a double agent for two factions, playing them off one another and reaping the benefits, or you can be loyal to a faction from the start -- in some of the games in the series, you can even be a lone wolf.

On the game itself.
In Geneforge, you are free to choose what your overall goal is, and you can seek after it with your own horde of deadly, mutant monsters.

You are a Shaper, a member of the most powerful and secretive of the magical guilds. You have the power to create life and mold it to serve your own needs. For millennia, your world feared and respected the Shapers above all others. Their creations could go everywhere, do anything, all according to the wishes of the Shapers and no others.

If you need a servant, you simply create it, and it will gladly die for you.

The Shapers are arrogant, and others are jealous of their power. The Shapers are the elite -- they decide which town starves from famine and which town will be fortified with their citadel. Although the Shapers have strict regulations, some of their members experiment beyond those bounds. Their decision may ultimately lead to their demise (you can decide that, but the series story inevitably leads to war). From a barren isle, the roots of the greatest resistance the Shapers have ever witnessed arises. Though most of them are decimated initially, their legacy lives on with the Rebels, an organized resistance of humans and intelligent shaped creations.

The Rebels, stopping at nothing to gain power and overthrow the Shapers, in the name of virtue modify themselves by self-shaping magic and canisters (ancient relics that do the self-shaping automatically). Through the process, they become powerful, arrogant, and mad. The Shapers, in the name of protection and peace, annihilate towns they suspect of being sympathetic to the Rebels. Some Shapers succumb to the self-shaping and canister use of the Rebels. In the end, as the player progresses through the game, nobody is left who is innocent. All of the factions have their secrets, their guilts, and their virtues. The Rebels and Shapers, at the end of the day, become harder and harder to distinguish. Ultimately, new sects arise which base their principles on combinations of both Shaper and Rebel ideals. Yet, there is another movement that sees the chaos as a result of shaping itself, not different sects, and seek to abolish it -- they are hunted ruthlessly by both Shapers and Rebels.

The game itself isn't graphically flashy at all. The dialogue and narration is all done in text -- it's as if you're reading a novel instead of playing a game.
 

Ignace

Well-known member
Prey ! :D

Story of a Cherokee garage mechanic and a former U.S.A army solder. He lives in a reservation owned by his girlfriend. He doesn't want to know anything about his heritage and tries to get his girlfriend, Jen, away from the reservation. After a bar fight, green lights come to 'pick up' Tommy, the Cherokee, Jen and Enisi, his grandfather. Fast Forward .. Tommy witnessess Enisi's cruel dead. (Spikes, splatter, .. use your imagination) He wants revenge. His motivation to stay alive is Jen and The Sphere/The Mother is blackmailing him with her. Unfortunately Jen became a product/monster of The Sphere and Tommy has to kill Jen. After some time as the story tells itself Tommy gets to know Elhuit and Hiders. He works together to get millions of people out of the spaceship used as food by aliens. Appearantly we are all a product made by them to harvest after an amount of years. So actually we're plants to them. :) Fast fast fast forward. Tommy defeats The Mother and became The Father.::p: Not for long, he has the power to steer the huge spaceship and he steers it to the sun. You all think he's dead huh ? Nope, a cutscene plays that it's not his time yet, told by Jen and Enisi. There are several cutscenes about their spirits in the world after death. You can also play there, in 1 mission you were followed by the bad guys and half the spiritual world gets destroyed. Did I miss something ? I'm not good in explaining things like this, but when you play it, you'll feel it.;)
 

Luke1993

Well-known member
Metal Gear Solid

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is my "honourable mention" :D

EDIT: Upon thinking further I've changed my mind and say Hotel Dusk is my favourite story, because everything fits together so well and the ending is much more satisfying.
 
Last edited:

IamThisOne

Well-known member
Well, I've never played it, but I know what it's like and I would have to say that WoW has the best story because everyone's experience is somewhat unique. Every WoW player probably has something different to talk about, different experiences and encounters.
 

AGR

Well-known member
Metal Gear Solid

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is my "honourable mention" :D

EDIT: Upon thinking further I've changed my mind and say Hotel Dusk is my favourite story, because everything fits together so well and the ending is much more satisfying.

I also say Metal Gear Solid,but I havent played games in years and most I played were sports or racing,honorable mention to warcraft 3 and the expansion.
 
I can choose only one? ;_;

Nah uh, I'll be here consulting with myself for days if I were to do that. D:

If I were to choose of the top of my head, with analyzing, I'd say ''The Darkness''. That's because I enjoyed playing that the most. Not sure why, though. But like I said, I like all my games equally. I either like a game allot, or I don't like them at all. ;3
 

Mr.Moon

Well-known member
I'd have to say Final Fantasy 4 is my pick for best story.

Why? Because it has such wonderful development and growth throughout it. Has everything, from romance to betrayal. Wide emotions and hidden agendas throughout the story. Sure its an old game and tons of people already know about it even if they ain't ever played. The first time I played it however I was amazed, each new thing that popped up was a surprise, I couldn't predict what was going to happen next, (unlike most games nowadays there's just -to- much foreshadowing and obvious hoaxes so every things predictable). Even when they sometimes do a short scene of what the enemy is up to its vague, but at the same time enjoyable and interesting to the player to were they just wanna keep going.

(If your wondering, FF4 is the one with Cecil, Rosa, etc..)
I don't have a Wii though so I can't play the sequel >_<
 

Jake123

Banned
I'd have to say Final Fantasy 4 is my pick for best story.

Why? Because it has such wonderful development and growth throughout it. Has everything, from romance to betrayal. Wide emotions and hidden agendas throughout the story. Sure its an old game and tons of people already know about it even if they ain't ever played. The first time I played it however I was amazed, each new thing that popped up was a surprise, I couldn't predict what was going to happen next, (unlike most games nowadays there's just -to- much foreshadowing and obvious hoaxes so every things predictable). Even when they sometimes do a short scene of what the enemy is up to its vague, but at the same time enjoyable and interesting to the player to were they just wanna keep going.

(If your wondering, FF4 is the one with Cecil, Rosa, etc..)
I don't have a Wii though so I can't play the sequel >_<

I loved FF4, but it almost seemed like a revolving door of suicidal party members lol "I'll sacrifice myself to save us!" "Oh god, not again"
 

fitftw

Well-known member
FF4 was amazing. Palom & Porom were such troopers, I shed a tear when they turned themselves into stone :(

I will agree with FF4. Best FF of all. Also coincidentally had the best music. Rydia...Theme of Love...every track was amazing.
 

vj288

not actually Fiona Apple
Legend Of Zelda anyone? I would say it's a toss up between Majora's Mask and Ocarina of time, oh and Link to the Past. They were all so good...
 

N0D

Banned
Ocarina of Time hands down. Majora's Mask was very fun to play, the repeating of the days and collecting the funny masks but the story was sort of boring. Ocarina of Time on the other hand was very fun to play AND the story was EPIC taking us all over the world and it was a long game so the story takes awhile to unfold.
 
Top