Games With the Best Stories Ever

[Pilot_51]

I don't entirely agree with the list.

Portal, while it's a great game, it doesn't have a deep storyline at all.

One of the first games I thought of before I even looked at the list was System Shock 2, the predecessor to Bioshock and possibly one of the most underrated games of all time.

I agree with MGS and Final Fantasy (even though I've never played through a FF game), but the rest I don't know enough about to form any conclusion.

At least one of the Zelda's deserve a spot on that list.

The list looks more like the favorite games for a single person than it does a list compiled by multiple people of games with the best storylines.

My list would look something like this:
Metal Gear Solid [PS1]
System Shock 2 [PC]
Zelda: Twilight Princess [Wii]
Command and Conquer [PC] (I can't decide on any one so I'll just say the whole series)
Half-Life [PC] (um... the series)
XIII [PC]
Golden Sun [GBA] (both of course since they form a single story)
Zelda: Phantom Hourglass [DS]

To fit in with the poor choices of the 'master list', here's some of my favorite games with weak storylines, most of them simply because the story doesn't blend with the gameplay:
Quake 2 [PC]
Battlefield 1942 [PC]
Unreal Tournament 2004 [PC]
Rogue Spear [GBA, PC]
Portal [PC]
Metroid Prime: Hunters [DS]
Zelda: Link's Awakening [GB] (not a bad storyline but I just didn't feel absorbed in it enough)
Steel Reign [PS1]
Nuclear Strike [PS1]

[Yrkoon]

planescape has the best story of any rpg i have ever played

[ReoEagle]

With all the reviews for a remake, I'm quite surprised that Star Control 2 isn't on here.
Though I'm more surprised that System Shock 2 isn't on there yet the inferior yet WAY prettier Spiritual successor. Do they not understand that there is no equalivent to anything as freaky as SHODAN in Bioshock. =(

[Yrkoon]

been a while since i played star control 2 but from what i remember the story is better than half the games on the list.

planescape torment beats all though for sick and twisted story that makes ff7 look like the teletubbies

i admit i have played a fair bit of bio shock and stopped playing it i have also done the same with system shock 2 a few times and found ss2 to be better :P

[Joe88]

Sigh,I love how no one even chooses to acknowledge that Star Control 2 isnt on this list.
But seriously,

Metal Gear Solid (1998, PlayStation, PC)--Good game,terrible story.
Grim Fandango (1998, PC)--Excellent
The Longest Journey (2000, PC)--Meh,so so.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2, Xbox, PC, 2004)--primitive and minimal story
Beyond Good & Evil (PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, 2003) --Meh,so so
Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Game Boy Advance, 2004)--What crack were these people smoking?
Portal (Xbox 360, PC, PS3, 2007) --Excellent
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (PC, 1993) --Ok,but too long and tedious
Bioshock (Xbox 360, 2007) --Excellent
Planescape: Torment (PC, 1999) --Crap
Fallout 2 (PC, 1998)--Great game
God of War (PS2, 2005) --No story,just slashing
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox, PC, 2003) --Evercrack for star wars fans
Final Fantasy VI (Super Nintendo, 1994) --Ok it was good.
Silent Hill 2 (Xbox, PS2, PC, 2001) --Meh,so so

MGS- just because you couldnt understand the story doesnt mean it has a bad story, I had to play MGS2 a few times before I full understood it, first time I was just left scratching my head in confusion???
the other ones was pretty easy to understand

GoW - where you even wacthing the cut scenes or just did you just skip them???, one of the reason GoW succeeded over DMC and most other games was because of its incredible story

Portal - so epic it didnt even need a story to get on a top 10 list for games for best in game story
lulz

[bluenewt]

No Ultima VII?

Tsk.

[IWantMyMTV]

List is weighted towards newer and console games so I'm not sure these work...

Sanitarium - PC Adventure...probably the best story I have ever come across in a game...very memorable...however, great story meant limited interactivity in the day...scroll all over the screen to find 'hot' objects and then solve the puzzle...little more interactive than 'Myst' bu what an awesome story...

Ultima III - I played it on a Commodore 64...The ultimate bad guy (gal) in Ultima III is a ???, the offspring of Mondain and Minax? Who saw that coming? Maybe not a whole lot of story driving you to the end conclusion, but a fully fleshed-out world...with towns and people that had history and references to the first two games...

Warcraft - PC...Look at what happened here...who needed a story for the first two? Orcs and trolls vs humans and elves...good enough...Warcraft 2 gave you some story and some personalities...and then Warcraft 3 hit and we had heroes to protect and level up and the heroes had stories...and then World of Warcraft came along...and voila...we have blogs, and internet sites, and youtube episodes, and novels devoted to the gameworld (story) of Warcraft...people even debating what's canonical and what's not as if there was some form of Blizzard scripture with apocryphal prophets out there suggesting that Illidan is tougher than Arthas...almost rivals Tolkien...excepted Tolkien did all his framework before writing his story not as he was writing the story...

Command and Conquer - PC...Bread and butter RTS play...but who didn't want to finish the next mission just to see the cheesy FMV? The computer generated cutscenes with military equipment always looked great...but to this day, even Michael Ironsides and the girl who plays 'Boomer' on Battlestar: Galactica continue the cheesy, but addicting story...and this was the first game where the installation routine already brought you into the story...

Return to Castle Wolfenstein - PC...FPS's always seem more like a series of chapters than a book meant to be read from start to finish...you're going to have to kill a bad guy/gal/thing...and you're alone for whatever reason but you're no slouch...find a weapon and off you go killing some minor and major baddies along the way to the apocalyptic final battle...Half-Life broke the mold with its in-game intro and 'just another day at work' feel with a wimpy scientist...but Return to Castle Wolfenstein had an awesome intro movie with demons and arcane magic...and then you throw in Nazis and super-weapons...hi-end tech alongside killer cyborgs and undead...and you have an everything but the kitchen sink sci-fi, horror approach to WW2 before 'Hellboy' the movie came out...still one of my favorite 'stories' for an FPS outside the already mentioned Half-Life/Half-Life 2...

[greenlight]

I am a player .
:thumbup: Share : how to convert dvd and video to psp

[darkeclipse7243]

The Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time and the Kingdom Hearts games have good stories too :thumbup:

[vetrox]

Most of these games doesn't gave that good stories imo, just a powerful way of conveying them.
That, or just a great amount of story, which most gamers seem to think is equal to a good story... of course, I don't mean all of the listed games! GTA: SA isn't hard to point at, though

A game with a great story, for example, would be the Marathon series. This would be as good a story I've seen in games, and that's just sci-fi without any greater message. It did, however, excel in plot, immersion and complexity. Especially towards the end of Infinity, the third and last game of the series.

Do they not understand that there is no equalivent to anything as freaky as SHODAN in Bioshock. =(

If you enjoy SHODAN in SS, you'll love Marathon. It features an AI almost as scary