Games with great stories

[Wizardry]

Completely agree.

I think it's the great challenge of games now, to provide Ninjafoodstuff's point of a structured narrative while at the same time telling a story as only games can: with the player as the decision maker.

I can only see it as possible if you throw out all notions of traditional story-construction that informed the development of movies/novels/etc. and start with all together different standards and tools.

(Because much as an emergent narrative is great, sometimes experiencing a specific Story is even better again.) (Sez me.)

Yes. It's like when we had death animations for all those years but then made the switch to rag dolls. Or when rocket launchers blew holes in only specific wall sections, and then games like Red Faction came out. Making game narratives less rigid by loosening the developers' grip on them is key to progression on that front, especially in my favourite genre.

[gwathdring]

Interesting. I agree largely as far as specific narratives are concerned. But I would word it differently in that where games can really shine uniquely is less in making the player the decision maker and more in making the story gameplay. I've seen a lot of games where the story impacts gameplay, a handful of games where gameplay impacts the story, but very few where there is enough of a give-and-take between the two that it feels organic.

While one way to make the story gameplay is indeed to simply take away some of the direction and leave more (and more impacting) choices up to the player, I still think it can be done with linear design and/or with more consciously "gamey" design. Anyone with a better memory or broader experience have a good example of this?

Edti: By "story impacts gameplay" I mean in a way more meaningful than a change of setting and a re-skin of the enemies. I mean where the gameplay mechanics are altered or their balance is altered significantly in a way related to the narrative. Something like the discovery of the Dark Prince in Two Thrones, except that I feel like something that serves as a central gameplay conceit for most of the game shouldn't count. I don't think gadget collection as in Zelda and the Arkham games is quite right either. The escalation of armament in Arkham City (sorry, I played it recently so it's my freshest example for a lot of things), however, is a nice simple example. It doesn't especially matter that the story was probably designed to allow for a difficulty curve rather than the other way around--the story implies a proliferation of guns throughout Arkham City over the course of the game which changes the likelihood of running into armed thugs as you play and changes combat dynamics as a result.

[squareking]

Dark Reign had a pretty good story for an RTS, it was available as an ingame encyclopedy and was pretty interesting to read, there was lots of info on characters, historical battles, timeline etc etc. Mission briefings and debriefings had some interesting stuff too, and you could always play any mission as whatever faction you prefered.

A truly fantastic title that pretty much cemented my love for RTS. I was really partial to the Imperium's shredder and the hostage taker. Spent a lot of time with the map editor as well.

[JohnnyMaverik]

In light of a recent article (and the reaction to said article) I'm just guna say Katawa Shoujo, smirk, then run the f away.

[JackShandy]

The Void, for sure.

[Anthrage]

I'll definitely second System Shock 2, perhaps not so much the story itself, but the ways in which the game told the story...very memorable indeed.

Another title which I would say that about was Bungie's Myth, and to a lesser degree, the sequels. The narration in that game was simply outstanding.

FreeSpace wasn't bad actually, given it was a space combat game. Rise of the Dragon was unique and very well done. My personally favorite has to be Shadowbane...ironically the story never really manifest much in the game itself, but what was written, the amount of lore, the quality, was incredible.

[magnolia_fan]

FreeSpace was pretty good. I still remember the twist after "the new enemy appears"
I'm keeping it vague for those who haven't played it.

EDIT: as always, my vote for games with good stories always go to adventure games.