Games With the Best Stories Ever

[wraggster]

These evergreen features are made for weekends: GamesRadar has a list of the 15 best video game stories of all time. It's good for a midafternoon bull session between the hours of whatever you're playing (still hammering on Bully, myself.)

I haven't played many on the list to be quite honest, as lots are PC games and I am one of those lifelong Mac users (sue me). In fact, the only Portal I played was the interactive novel on a Macintosh Plus back in 1987. Not sure if interactive novels qualify, they might be more novel than game, but that one was outstanding.

I'm also a little surprised that neither Sam & Max nor, for that matter, Full Throttle (an extremely underrated game) didn't make the list. Throttle especially, as it had one of the great finales of all time, when Ripburger goes into the chasm clutching a "Can't beat a Corley" license plate. Indeed.

I've put the full list after the jump, if you want to see what made it without going through the whole article, which has some nice YouTube and flash videos of game highlights.

In no order, the 15 best are:

Metal Gear Solid (1998, PlayStation, PC)
Grim Fandango (1998, PC)
The Longest Journey (2000, PC)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2, Xbox, PC, 2004)
Beyond Good & Evil (PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, 2003)
Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Game Boy Advance, 2004)
Portal (Xbox 360, PC, PS3, 2007)
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (PC, 1993)
Bioshock (Xbox 360, 2007)
Planescape: Torment (PC, 1999)
Fallout 2 (PC, 1998)
God of War (PS2, 2005)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox, PC, 2003)
Final Fantasy VI (Super Nintendo, 1994)
Silent Hill 2 (Xbox, PS2, PC, 2001)

http://kotaku.com/381799/games-with-...t-stories-ever

[**1_Man_Matrix**]

No Half-life? NO HALF-LIFE?

Fallout and GoW are fantastic choices, but c'mon... Half-life is the most epic saga!

pfft

[royvedas]

Yeah- where is Halfife 2?

And why is $#@!ty God of War on the list?

Sure it's nice graphics and stuff, but boring story, boring gameplay.

[Penguinator]

LOL!
San Andreas with best story?
That is just wrong. Where are all the Half Lifes?
And Deus Ex?
Some deserve their place but there's just too many lame ones.

[masterchief929]

there was a typo... FF7 was supposed to be on the top of the list! THEN HALO 1-3!!!!!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

[____anders____]

seiken densetsu 3?

[gold2040]

I'm not a hardcore video gamer but IMHO Metal Gear Solid pwns any other story, in any other game. It has action, emotion, love, pain, death, betrayal and has a movie quality feel, that no other games can breath. Only Final Fantasy, could probably be on the same level IMO to connect you with so many emotions.........this is only what i've played so far though

[robocelot]

Uh.... Halflife?

Snatcher?

[DarthPaul]

Lol @ San Andreas!

Metal Gear Solid has to be there for sure. God of War has an awesome story, and BioShock... extremely amazing story. But where's Kingdom Hearts?

From there, I've played:

- Star Wars: KOTOR - not so good story at all in my opinion.
- God of War: As mentioned, epic, awesome story
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Come on! A gangster who got his mom killed and is seeking for revenge? This is everywhere!
- BioShock - Unique, and amazing story.
- Metal Gear Solid - Simply the best video-games of all times.
- Portal - I really don't know about this story... I can't beat the 18th stage of the tutorial!

[goity]

This list is dreadful. The fact that Portal is on there makes it immediately obvious that it's just trying to bait the illogical fanboys of the internets. Where the hell are things like FFX, Heavenly Sword or Vagrant Story?