Games That Advanced the Art of Storytelling 121
monikersi writes "In October 2006, the editors of Gamasutra asked its readership of game industry professionals to chime in and vote for which game brought storytelling forward in the biggest way, from any genre (text adventure through action title to RPG or sim and beyond) — there are plenty of picks, and some surprising winners." From the article: "Forcing the user to build the story piecemeal through personal logs and snippets of information throughout the game created a varied experience for each user. This drove the player to fill the holes in the story with the next log and their own assumptions and imagination. I remember playing System Shock 2 years after playing it for the first time and had a markedly different reaction due to changes in my own perspective. Phenomenal."
First PLUGH (Score:2, Funny)
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Pacman (Score:1)
While I certainly agree with Deus Ex... (Score:1)
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Indigo Prophecy? Load of arse more like. (Score:2)
As for Facade, I have to confess I've never been so moved by a story as when Trip finally opened the door to his flat, my character said 'Hello Trip, you colossal faggot' and he silently slammed the door in my face. Sheer artistry. I'd say this list
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Come on. (Score:3, Insightful)
What about Zork [wikipedia.org]?
And what about all the Sierra games from the 80's? (King's Quest, Space Quest, et.al.)
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Agreed. Although I'm not a fan of King's Quest 1-4, I did love Kings Quest 5, 6, and 7.
Surprisingly, how could they leave off Leisure Suite Larry?
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Well, I know there's middle age spread and all, but I doubt he's turned into a three-piece couch set.
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What about Zork, then? It's fun, even atmospheric - but the prose is only so-so, and there isn't much of a story, is there? It's more of an intricate, geeky puzzlebox than an interactive fiction, and overshadowed (in that respect) by more or less every other text adventure Infocom ever released. A Mind Forever Voyaging is no ran
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But hey, the list actually mentioned Marathon although I think it shou
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Final Fantasy IV (2) didn't make the list?!? (Score:1)
Planescape: Torment was great, one of the first games to not have obvious "right" and "wrong" dialogue choices.
Baldur's Gate 2 was another solid choice.
I would have put Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in their as well, but I suppose they went with Jade Empire instead. Now, if only LA had wanted to actually build a game instead of just market
I was fairly content with this. (Score:3, Insightful)
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The Thief Series (Score:2)
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Mind you, I'd easily rank all 3 somewhere in my top-20, desert-island list of the best games of all time... but the storytelling part of them wasn't exactly revolutionary. Still images with a voiceover before each mission, and some text to read. Meh.
Maybe the best ending to a game trilogy ever, though. Damn satisfying.
Marathon (Score:3, Insightful)
Although modern FPS stories are more cinematic, Marathon did more with less.
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Zelda 2?? (Score:2)
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I'd have to look at it relative to other games such as FF, release dates and such, to really justify it though.
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See, I said I needed to check on release dates. That pretty much settles it.
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Pretty good list (Score:1)
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I think they "tell" more interesting "stories" in the characterizations of the worlds they portray, really, with their fantasy architectures and cultures. In any case, I'm still disapp
List is fine. (Score:1)
Syberia (Score:1)
Chrono Trigger!!! (Score:1)
One of the very best selling SNES games, and a blurring of the line between linear and non-linear storytelling.
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Metroid Prime (Score:2)
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Kanon (Score:1)
Another World (Score:2)
You're dropped onto an alien planet. There's absolutely no dialog (except that between aliens which is incomprehensible), but the emotional content is huge.
There's also an updated version that runs fine under XP if you want to experience it for the first time.
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(At least that's the dialog I heard in the second level when the big guy smacks you on the shoulder or whatever those blocky characters are doing...) Ah, the good ol' SNES.
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You're dropped onto an island. There is absolutely no intro or clues as to what you are doing there. In another world at least you know some experiment went wrong.
That Myst didn't make it to the list just says that the list is flawed and should not be used for anything. IMHO.
Sony??? (Score:2)
#2 (Score:1)
I dunno about HL1 (Score:2)
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HL2 was a spectacular single player FPS experience, no doubt. And in comparison with most other shooters that have ever been made, HL2 stands far above them all regarding storyline. I feel that HL1 did a better job with the story, though. There was just more awe and mystery and speculation surrounding the entire ordeal and all the events that were going on within the game. My gripe with HL2 is that certain parts of the game just felt like they went on too long without being interesting or showing the player
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The former. I didn't really get much into HL1 at the time and thus never dived far into the storyline, so I'm forced to comment purely on HL2. As far as the suckage-of-sequels usually goes though, HL1 was (from what I heard) good, and HL2 even better, which is more than most sequel games every accomplish. It seems that for a time FPS's tend to age better (AVP, AVP2 were g
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Oh, well if you're talking about altogether, then yes, I would say that HL2 was a big improvement over HL1. It's more fun to play all around. Better multiplayer, better single player, better graphics, more fun physics engine, better gameplay, blah blah blah. The story of HL1 was just one of the few areas in which I think HL1 excelled.
I highly recommend playing the original sometime.I vote for.... (Score:2)
The Golden Sun Series for the GBA
The Ninja Gaiden Series for the NES
Both Legend of Zelda games for the N64.
Beneath a Steel Sky for the PC/Amiga
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Still in my top 5 RPG list, though.
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Ultima (Score:1)
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It's interesting. (Score:1)
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Ok list marred by obvious biased (Score:2)
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Uh, did you not see Marathon on the list? Marathon came out ages before Quake 2, and has a story better than Half-Life's. (At least in my opinion.)
I get the impression that you didn't read the list all the way through.
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From the little I saw of the game I saw no story, but maybe. Then again the perfect game wouldn't be perfect if no one played it, and that's one of the flaws of Marathon.
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Also, popularity != good, which is a major probl
Chronotrigger? (Score:2, Insightful)
Chronotrigger had both a main character unavoidably die, and a divergent story line. In fact when THE main character died, you could choose whether or not to resurrect him. There were many side
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Killing Aeris was unexpected and heartbreaking...
Killing Chrono and replacing with a doll later on made lots of people forget he even "died" in the story...
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Before Aerith (Score:1)
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Because FF7 was the first FF to be mainstream, and for the kids who are gamers now, FF7 was the first one they played. They won't play the older games because they're 2D, they're automatically inferior. Shallow, uninformed and uneducated gamers are the sole reason a mediocre game such as FF7 is remembered as this end-all-be-all of RPGs.
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Some games missing... (Score:2)
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I can't believe they myssed (Score:1)
I think Myst was the first ever 'storyline' type game that completely sucked me in. No mention of it anywhere...
Star Control 2... (Score:1)
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Also, there might not be characters as such, but the story of empires rising and falling throughout the Civ series should have gotten a mention. Who here hasn't had to warm their hands over a toaster at 4am because they want to see their city with just another wonder in it?
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There was nothing else like it in its time. The story was complex, deep, interwoven, and entirely surprising and shocking at times. It blew my mind many times over. The story was much cleverer than, say, Grim Fandango, which placed 5th in that list.
Interesting but a bit light (Score:1)
I really like to see someone talking about storytelling in video games since I've thought for a long while that it's still horribly lacking. I'm a bit disappointed though, not only because it's one of those "X things that ...", but also because the author doesn't even take time to define what he's talking about, like it's a given. And i feel that sometimes, storytelling is mixed/confused with just story.
Story is about what you say, storytelling is about how you say it. What happens at the end of Fallout i
Metal Gear Solid (Score:2)
I remember buying a ps2 just for the MGS2 demo.
Xenogears only gets HM? (Score:1)
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FFVI (III) (Score:1)
I've been there (Score:1)
One pick of mine... (Score:1)
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Subjective and Pointless (Score:1)
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starcraft on the list? (Score:2)
but really, was the campaign that much more compelling than any other rts of the period? all the story was, was an excuse to build a base and go blow up your opponent's base. sure there was the occasional non base building mission that seemed to show up in alot of rts games of the period but this certainly wasnt don
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Also, those were hardly compelling characters in starcraft.
AMFV (Score:2)
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Hahah final fantasy (Score:1)
How? (Score:1)
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I've got Overseer and I loved it. I don't think it was quite as good as the Pandora Directive but still an excellent game. My only complaint is that it was originally designed to be the first game in a trilogy but they never did make the other two games, so you kind of get left hanging at the end. Still I think those three are my favorite games of all time.