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?
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.
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
Brigador has surprisingly excellent writing. And moreover, I mean it literally.
Between maps, you have a config interface where you pick a pilot, guns and a vehicle to put it all on. But you also have a window with Intel. You have to pay ingame money to unlock this Intel, in the same you have to pay to unlock pilots, guns, vehicles, maps. They prices are not negligible.
I unlocked every single piece of Intel, many times before I unlocked other more useful things, because it was that good.
I wanted to read more. I wanted to know more. I should point out that most of the Intel was self sufficient : it wasn’t a huge story cut up in parts. I could read one Intel and there was no incentive to buy the next more expensive one to know the end.
But it was quality military sci-fi and so much lore building. And here and there, hints about cool equipment combos to try out in game (this pilot in that mech with those guns and gizmo).
It was a complete shock to find such quality in what is otherwise a shooter.
Yes, many action RPGs have encyclopedias worth of lore, disseminated freely throughout the world, on items, etc.
I think the presentation here helped. But I was genuinely surprised at how good and enjoyable it was to read. I literally sat down and few times spending like an hour reading through bits and pieces and going to play a map or two only so I’d have enough cash to unlock some more.
I hope I get to enjoy such surprisingly good writing in a game again in my gaming lifetime (and I’ve been playing for about 37 years, I should add).
I just played around 6 hours of it, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 intro made me cry. With everything going on in the world right now the sense of despair is very relatable.
Gone Home - when I finished the game I was legitimately sad that I couldn’t spend more time with the people whose lives I got to know so intimately from their environments. And yes, they didn’t feel like characters anymore, they felt like actual people. That’s one of the highest praises I can give to a game’s storytelling.
A Way Out. Highly recommend playing it with your closest friend. Fucking game made me feel stronger emotions than any other game I’ve ever played, because the motherfucker I was playing with is my best friend. I’m not going to spoil the ending, I’m just going to say: heavy fucking feelings
Don’t forget to try their other games if you haven’t already! It Takes Two is wonderful, and the recently released Split Fiction is my favorite of them all.
Blue Prince sure feels like it counts, our whole family is hooked, and has been playing it every day for about 2 weeks now. Even well after rolling credits.
In a similar vein, I’d have to say Hollow Knight and Outer Wilds. Together with Blue Prince, they all have a storytelling strategy of “you have to put some effort into getting the story out of it”, but the effort makes every new discovery or revelation feel super rewarding.
Celeste is the one that comes to mind for a more traditional story that REALLY hit.
Persona 5 comes to mind, too. I was ENGROSSED in that story for months. Even if it went off the rails a couple times.
I’m also gonna shout-out Tales of Symphonia. That game was formative for me.
Outer Wilds. The game isn’t very text-heavy, but what there is feels important and personal. With the way the story is told, it is quite possibly my favorite story overall. I don’t want to say too much, since knowledge is key in that game, but I would highly recommend it.
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.
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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.
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
Brigador has surprisingly excellent writing. And moreover, I mean it literally.
Between maps, you have a config interface where you pick a pilot, guns and a vehicle to put it all on. But you also have a window with Intel. You have to pay ingame money to unlock this Intel, in the same you have to pay to unlock pilots, guns, vehicles, maps. They prices are not negligible. I unlocked every single piece of Intel, many times before I unlocked other more useful things, because it was that good.
I wanted to read more. I wanted to know more. I should point out that most of the Intel was self sufficient : it wasn’t a huge story cut up in parts. I could read one Intel and there was no incentive to buy the next more expensive one to know the end. But it was quality military sci-fi and so much lore building. And here and there, hints about cool equipment combos to try out in game (this pilot in that mech with those guns and gizmo).
It was a complete shock to find such quality in what is otherwise a shooter. Yes, many action RPGs have encyclopedias worth of lore, disseminated freely throughout the world, on items, etc. I think the presentation here helped. But I was genuinely surprised at how good and enjoyable it was to read. I literally sat down and few times spending like an hour reading through bits and pieces and going to play a map or two only so I’d have enough cash to unlock some more.
I hope I get to enjoy such surprisingly good writing in a game again in my gaming lifetime (and I’ve been playing for about 37 years, I should add).
Been replaying FFXII, and now I notice it is extremely rich in plot and worldbuilding, including a lot of non-verbal details.
Spiritfarer did this to me, I was very much invested in every character (except the bird and the bull, they can fuck off)
I just played around 6 hours of it, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 intro made me cry. With everything going on in the world right now the sense of despair is very relatable.
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New Vegas, the writing of the dialoges are brilliant. Some of the funniest or straight up saddest stuff are both there.
Gone Home - when I finished the game I was legitimately sad that I couldn’t spend more time with the people whose lives I got to know so intimately from their environments. And yes, they didn’t feel like characters anymore, they felt like actual people. That’s one of the highest praises I can give to a game’s storytelling.
A Way Out. Highly recommend playing it with your closest friend. Fucking game made me feel stronger emotions than any other game I’ve ever played, because the motherfucker I was playing with is my best friend. I’m not going to spoil the ending, I’m just going to say: heavy fucking feelings
Don’t forget to try their other games if you haven’t already! It Takes Two is wonderful, and the recently released Split Fiction is my favorite of them all.
The Cat Lady is one I’d say stands out to me.
Blue Prince sure feels like it counts, our whole family is hooked, and has been playing it every day for about 2 weeks now. Even well after rolling credits.
In a similar vein, I’d have to say Hollow Knight and Outer Wilds. Together with Blue Prince, they all have a storytelling strategy of “you have to put some effort into getting the story out of it”, but the effort makes every new discovery or revelation feel super rewarding.
Celeste is the one that comes to mind for a more traditional story that REALLY hit.
Persona 5 comes to mind, too. I was ENGROSSED in that story for months. Even if it went off the rails a couple times.
I’m also gonna shout-out Tales of Symphonia. That game was formative for me.
I see Tales of Symphonia, I instantly upvote.
Outer Wilds. The game isn’t very text-heavy, but what there is feels important and personal. With the way the story is told, it is quite possibly my favorite story overall. I don’t want to say too much, since knowledge is key in that game, but I would highly recommend it.
Cyberpunk 2077. Years since I booted it for the first time I am still at it
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.
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.
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.
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.