Podcast: Bad games with a great story
Listen now to our great story
Sit down at the boiling pot, stranger. Let me tell you a tale. A sordid tale, full of fascinating lands and captivating characters. A story of wonder and flame, strangeness and warmth. Would you like to hear it? Great. Just play this rubbish cover shooter for a half hour. I’ll start the introduction when you hit the first checkpoint.
Welcome to the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. This week we’re discussing some great stories that come packaged with terrible games.
Last week we did the reverse, talking about good games with rubbish tales worked into them, like Far Cry 5. Now we’re praising storyline and grumbling about gamebits. John thinks Dreamfall had an amazing story full of moving scenes about faith, let down by an awful 3D adventure interface. Katharine hates looking at the wall in Soma, because the underwater robo-facility is so intriguing. And Brendan is sad that Pyre had a fiddly netball game attached to a warm tale of friendship and justice. Some say we should take a "holistic" view of games and stop splitting them into "story" and "what happens when you do the buttons". But forget that. Can't you see these awful tank controls?
You can listen above, or go straight to Soundcloud where you can download it for later.
You can also get the RSS feed here or find it on iTunes, Stitcher or Pocket Casts. Campfire music is by Jack de Quidt.
Want to write in with questions or suggest a theme for a future episode? Now you can, to podcast@rockpapershotgun.com.
Links:
Adam didn’t care for Soma as much as us :(
But here’s Steven Messner on its strengths
Soma’s safe mode lets you delete the monsters
Have you played… The Longest Journey?
Ragnar Tørnquist on Dreamfall and faith
You’re not the hero of Pyre’s revolution, and that’s the point
Zunless Zea Zubmariner lured Pip into the water
Alec’s choose-your-own-review of Torment: Tides of Numenera
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice review
The Walking Dead: Season One, Episode One review
Have you played… Spec Ops: The Line?