I just finished playing Triangle strategy and sometimes that games writing gets so good but feel what the very characters are feeling.
What about you? What have been those games that have gripped your hand and made you feel every turn of the page?
I actually didn’t like the first Plague Tale. I found it somewhat boring and quite bad. Fast forward to 1 or 2 years after that, I totally forgot about the first game and I’m browsing the PC gamepass library on my new gaming laptop and I see this cool looking game called A Plague Tale Requiem, I decide to try it and I’m instantly hooked. The story was the best video game story I had ever experienced, and the graphics were the best video game graphics I had ever seen, later I found out that this game was a sequel to the first Plage Tale that I didn’t bother completing because of how terrible it was. It’s astonishing how much better Requiem is, it’s like a totally different franchise, it’s like going from the first GTA to GTA5
A lot of games are written pretty ‘middle of the road’ to get as much of a broad base as possible. A few stand out though.
The Last of Us really hit hard when I played it. I came to the end of that game feeling a little bit like I had an adoptive daughter, and feeling guilty that I had, to my mind, let her down.
There wasn’t much ‘writing’ in it but Shadow of the Colossus also hit me pretty squarely in the chest.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was another that had some real power to the writing. Go listen to this setup (stop at 2:47)and tell me that isn’t made to give goosebumps.
Yeah, game writing gets thrown out the window 90% of the time because the writers far out pace the development team so it’s commendable seeing the game writing being given some priority
An info dump implies its giving too much info at once. Disco Elysium paces its story well, it just doesn’t conform to how you would normally tell a story within a game.
I would say that the story of DE kind of plays a back seat to the inner dialogue stuff imo… It’s not the kind of game that you just rush through so you can see what the plot is.
I wasn’t rushing and info dumps weren’t my only criticism. There were some things that I could chalk up to just personal preference like my distaste for almost every character I encountered in the first 5 hours, but when it did decide to start filling me in on how its world works, I found that to be well below the standards of the praise the game gets for its writing. That’s not to say that it’s easy to do it better, but I can point to a number of other works of fiction that show how it can be done. The inner dialogue could have been a great vehicle to do it more elegantly.
Oh I forgot about Oxenfree. Yeah, the story and voice acting were quite good, but the game had so many annoying design/UI decisions that it left me frustrated more than anything else :c
Freespace 2 is such an underated game, the desperate scramble to survive as an eldritch horror of a race slowly and surely eradicates everything in its path. Chilling…
I still get chills playing when the collosus jumps in-system first time and in subsequent scenes where your flying a incredibly tiny fighter vs capital ships that take up your entire screen.
I really haven’t felt that sense of awe in other space games oddly, and the story of both 1 and 2 was chilling.
Underrated for sure. But 99 was a amazing year for games (I’m a huge system shock 2 fan). But a cursory wiki look at 99 makes me feel so sorry for modern gen kids waiting over a decade for a new elder scrolls or GTA.
CrossCode was gifted to me and I went in knowing nothing about it. I don’t know if I would say it is the best written game story but the way it unfolds is emotionally gripping and managed to make a crusty jaded gamer like myself feel the full range of emotions. Highly recommended.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 and 2 have an awesome main story line with writing that makes me feel like I am playing video game sequels to A Knight’s Tale.
But then it also has some pretty yawn inducing stuff, too, that might be interesting to history buffs since it takes place in real life, during real historical events in Bohemia. A lot of politics and nobility dick-waving. I skipped through a lot of random side quest dialogue because it was just an hour of discussing politics. 🤣
Disco Elysium tho is hands down the best written game I’ve ever played. We need more video games to be written by actual authors. It also just has an insane amount of branching paths and differences in how you play that mostly appear in dialogue, but also just wearing different clothing can change things dramatically.
I also became entirely entranced by Horizon: Forbidden West. A death in that game hit me unexpectedly hard, and I had to take a couple days off from playing it to kind of deal with the grief. I tried the first Horizon, but I feel it didn’t get anywhere close to the depth in worldbuilding and character development of the second game
I didn’t like SpiritFarer. For how much time it takes, there wasn’t enough game there. There was a lot of waiting, and it gets worse as the stories progress. They stretched a decent story out 4x longer than necessary.
It’s an old text adventure from the 80’s with a particularly cool and oddly relevant concept: You take the role of an AI that’s been meticulously raised in a simulation to truly become a general intelligence. The reason this project was undertaken was to eventually send you, the AI, into other simulations based in the near future to test the outcomes of various political policies of the new republican government, record your interactions, and report back to the engineers who created you.
The game’s designer said that he created the game in response to the despair he felt from Ronald Reagan being elected.
I haven’t gotten super far in it, but it has an incredibly well written short story in the manual that details all the events leading up to the start of the game, and so far the game itself is unlike anything else I’ve ever played.
Disco Elysium helped me come to terms with my alcoholism and learn to move forward with my life instead of wallowing in self pity and loathing for the things I had done.
Really those are the two games that affected me most heavily in my life.
In the game, you play Edith Finch going back to her family home. It was home to multiple generations of the Finch family. This family has a serious case of bad luck, and most of them didn’t get very old. As Edith, you explore all of the rooms and see the final moments of the person who used to live there.
It is not a horror game - but it is haunting, in a sense. If you enjoy good stories and writing, give it a try. It’s only about 2 hours, and best played in a single sitting. It’s also on sale regularly.
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A Plague Tale Requiem
Oh, yeah, I’ve played the first one of a plague tale and it was kinda fun. I can see it.
I actually didn’t like the first Plague Tale. I found it somewhat boring and quite bad. Fast forward to 1 or 2 years after that, I totally forgot about the first game and I’m browsing the PC gamepass library on my new gaming laptop and I see this cool looking game called A Plague Tale Requiem, I decide to try it and I’m instantly hooked. The story was the best video game story I had ever experienced, and the graphics were the best video game graphics I had ever seen, later I found out that this game was a sequel to the first Plage Tale that I didn’t bother completing because of how terrible it was. It’s astonishing how much better Requiem is, it’s like a totally different franchise, it’s like going from the first GTA to GTA5
A lot of games are written pretty ‘middle of the road’ to get as much of a broad base as possible. A few stand out though.
The Last of Us really hit hard when I played it. I came to the end of that game feeling a little bit like I had an adoptive daughter, and feeling guilty that I had, to my mind, let her down.
There wasn’t much ‘writing’ in it but Shadow of the Colossus also hit me pretty squarely in the chest.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was another that had some real power to the writing. Go listen to this setup (stop at 2:47)and tell me that isn’t made to give goosebumps.
Yeah, game writing gets thrown out the window 90% of the time because the writers far out pace the development team so it’s commendable seeing the game writing being given some priority
The quarry, and until dawn were pretty good. A bit lacking in gameplay, but awesome stories.
Witcher 3 tells many stories that contribute to an overarching story.
Fallout new Vegas does it with the option of murder hoboing
Bg3 is pretty good story wise too ❤️
Disco Elysium is, without a doubt, the best written game I’ve ever played. That game had me experience the entire rainbow of emotions.
I honestly think it’s objectively the best written game ever.
At first I was like “haha look at the funny hobo cop, no pants”.
By hour 70 I decided to finally read Chomsky, 11/10 can recommend.
With the praise this game regularly gets, I was unpleasantly surprised to find that the story was inelegantly delivered by info dump.
An info dump implies its giving too much info at once. Disco Elysium paces its story well, it just doesn’t conform to how you would normally tell a story within a game.
It frequently gave too much info all at once about how its world works, yes.
It’s very text heavy, which isn’t for everyone.
It’s definitely for me. I ate it UP, and was still hungry for more.
I would say that the story of DE kind of plays a back seat to the inner dialogue stuff imo… It’s not the kind of game that you just rush through so you can see what the plot is.
I wasn’t rushing and info dumps weren’t my only criticism. There were some things that I could chalk up to just personal preference like my distaste for almost every character I encountered in the first 5 hours, but when it did decide to start filling me in on how its world works, I found that to be well below the standards of the praise the game gets for its writing. That’s not to say that it’s easy to do it better, but I can point to a number of other works of fiction that show how it can be done. The inner dialogue could have been a great vehicle to do it more elegantly.
Life is Strange
Spiritfarer
Titanfall 2
Hellblade
Red Dead 2
Hades
Oxenfree
Many more, but these stood out on actually caring about the characters and what happened to them.
Life is Strange 1 was good, a bit silly at points but I enjoyed the cringe.
The other games were kinda bad.
Bloom and Rage is HILARIOUSLY bad. In every way. It’s amazing.
I’m right with you on the other LiS series, except for the harbor one, I forgot the name of. None kept me engaged enough to finish.
Oh I forgot about Oxenfree. Yeah, the story and voice acting were quite good, but the game had so many annoying design/UI decisions that it left me frustrated more than anything else :c
Yeah, Oxenfree was great.
Outer Wilds for sure!
Freespace 2 is such an underated game, the desperate scramble to survive as an eldritch horror of a race slowly and surely eradicates everything in its path. Chilling…
I still get chills playing when the collosus jumps in-system first time and in subsequent scenes where your flying a incredibly tiny fighter vs capital ships that take up your entire screen.
I really haven’t felt that sense of awe in other space games oddly, and the story of both 1 and 2 was chilling.
Underrated for sure. But 99 was a amazing year for games (I’m a huge system shock 2 fan). But a cursory wiki look at 99 makes me feel so sorry for modern gen kids waiting over a decade for a new elder scrolls or GTA.
CrossCode. I won’t spoil anything, but Lea very quickly cemented herself as my favorite protagonist of all time.
CrossCode was gifted to me and I went in knowing nothing about it. I don’t know if I would say it is the best written game story but the way it unfolds is emotionally gripping and managed to make a crusty jaded gamer like myself feel the full range of emotions. Highly recommended.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 and 2 have an awesome main story line with writing that makes me feel like I am playing video game sequels to A Knight’s Tale.
But then it also has some pretty yawn inducing stuff, too, that might be interesting to history buffs since it takes place in real life, during real historical events in Bohemia. A lot of politics and nobility dick-waving. I skipped through a lot of random side quest dialogue because it was just an hour of discussing politics. 🤣
Disco Elysium tho is hands down the best written game I’ve ever played. We need more video games to be written by actual authors. It also just has an insane amount of branching paths and differences in how you play that mostly appear in dialogue, but also just wearing different clothing can change things dramatically.
SOMA still lives in my brain 10 years later.
Seconding Spiritfarer.
I also became entirely entranced by Horizon: Forbidden West. A death in that game hit me unexpectedly hard, and I had to take a couple days off from playing it to kind of deal with the grief. I tried the first Horizon, but I feel it didn’t get anywhere close to the depth in worldbuilding and character development of the second game
I didn’t like SpiritFarer. For how much time it takes, there wasn’t enough game there. There was a lot of waiting, and it gets worse as the stories progress. They stretched a decent story out 4x longer than necessary.
Horizon: Zero Dawn. Such a haunting, beautiful story.
Really gave me the feeling of reading a sci-fi novel.
Come on, noone mentioning Planescape Torment so far?!
What changes the nature of a man?
Goosebumps.
A Mind Forever Voyaging, by Infocom.
It’s an old text adventure from the 80’s with a particularly cool and oddly relevant concept: You take the role of an AI that’s been meticulously raised in a simulation to truly become a general intelligence. The reason this project was undertaken was to eventually send you, the AI, into other simulations based in the near future to test the outcomes of various political policies of the new republican government, record your interactions, and report back to the engineers who created you.
The game’s designer said that he created the game in response to the despair he felt from Ronald Reagan being elected.
I haven’t gotten super far in it, but it has an incredibly well written short story in the manual that details all the events leading up to the start of the game, and so far the game itself is unlike anything else I’ve ever played.
FFVII set me up to be an eco-Marxist.
Disco Elysium helped me come to terms with my alcoholism and learn to move forward with my life instead of wallowing in self pity and loathing for the things I had done.
Really those are the two games that affected me most heavily in my life.
What Remains of Edith Finch comes to mind for me.
In the game, you play Edith Finch going back to her family home. It was home to multiple generations of the Finch family. This family has a serious case of bad luck, and most of them didn’t get very old. As Edith, you explore all of the rooms and see the final moments of the person who used to live there.
It is not a horror game - but it is haunting, in a sense. If you enjoy good stories and writing, give it a try. It’s only about 2 hours, and best played in a single sitting. It’s also on sale regularly.