Gaming Storylines

[loveme4whoiam]

Ooh, Nomad Soul, nothing like a wee bit of David Bowie to make a game extra odd. Although as I remember, that game was plenty odd enough on its own ;)

 

You raise a good point karkarinus, humour is underused in gaming or, worse, used criminally badly. The old Lucasarts games that I mentioned were brilliant in their humour, and the works of Mr Molyneux have recaptured that to a certain extent. I think humour is a brilliant tool in character development and just adding depth to a game if done well. For instance, the "What cat?" bit in HL2 (sorry to keep harping on about that game, I honestly don't love it as much as it might appear) brought a smile to everyone's lips - if it didn't, I'm soryr to say you are dead inside. Actually, that whole scene is packed with subtle humour that works really well - "Wow, I can see your MIT education is really paying off, throwing that switch and all."

 

The Thief games always looked good but I never got round to playing them - although I want to get Deadly Shadows just for the Cradle level - apparently one of the best designed levels since Dark Forces 2.

 

Tell me, what is a siht-oth game? ;D

[Malchik]

What features of a story line make it most interesting you ask? Well, for me, surprises, variety in types of puzzles and in npcs, humour, challenges to beat difficult foes, challenges in solving puzzles, a through story that constantly develops so that it logically flows one to the next. Like a book in a way, what makes you read on? But if it is all too repetitive that is very annoying.

 

For me Oblivion meets several of these criteria. Where it fails for me is in giving too much help with the journal entries, thus removing any mental challenge and in making cerain aspects too repetitive. (E.g. one Oblivion gate is very like the others and there is too much fighting when moving in the open country.) Look at Ultima 7. The game is old and the graphics of the period but the storyline is excellent.

[karkarinus]

"Siht-oth" was my feeble attempt at saying s.h.i.t h.o.t. without swearing. Oh moderators, forgive me! Wipe this post if need be, but may it not besmirch my impeccable posting history!

 

LoveMe, if you liked the cut scene in Nomad Soul where the girlfriend dies and the clandestine concert as much as I did, buy "Hours" by Bowie. I got it just for that and a couple of other songs from the game.

 

Thief-wise, I highly recommend you play them all ino order, as the storylines are consecutive. The Dark Project shows its age but is really good, and The Metal Age is "one of my all-time favourites of all time, mate," and the last level is certainly not for those of a dikky ticker. The games are also dotted with dry, cynical narration and comments from Garrett, the protagonist.

 

A well-told story makes you think that it has told you plenty, but leaves you thinking that there is really a helluva lot more to it. Take LOTR, Star Wars, Morrowind etc. The stories that we live are enormous, but are dotted with mentions of greater things - past empires, ancient lore, far-off lands that never even come into our story. All this makes for an enthralling experience and a sense of awe, and above all CREDIBILITY.

 

I won't rattle on any more in this post, but die-hard Tolkien fans who've read The Hobbit - LOTR Trilogy - The Silmarillion - Unfinished Tales in that order, will have seen how each successive book expands on the last, and answers unanswered questions, but in turns leaves even more, deeper questions roaming around in your mind.

 

It's hard to do this in a video game, but certainly Morrowind has managed it, and Thief and certain others in a scaled-down kind of way.

 

P.S. Haven't played HL2 yet. Any good?

[loveme4whoiam]

I've found the Oblivion Gates a bit samey too :( I haven't really progressed an enormous amount with the main storyline, although I am enjoying my time with Martin (woo Sean Bean :D), so I haven't been able to judge it yet.

 

I completely understand you karkarinus - the Star Wars story has spawned so many books and off-shoots its untrue, and for the precise reasons you mention. I haven't read the Tolkien books in that order (only LOTR and then the Silmarillion), but I totally understand what you mean.

 

Half-Life 2. Er. Well, by many it's hailed as the greatest game of all time. By me, I'd say that it's true of maybe the first play through (and even then Far Cry gives it a run for its money). It has zero replay value, apart from certain sections. Those certain sections are brilliant, but it is totally linear - a corridor shooter, I'm sad to say. However, the brilliance of the Source engine allowed for such amazing storytelling features, such as haven't been in a game before. The facial animations are sublime - I defy you to play through the game and not be hopelessly in love with Alyx by the end :)

 

Cheers for the posts gents and ladies, keep them coming please :D

[KzinistZerg]

Zork Grand Insquisitor had a good storyline, as I recall. Old. PC.

 

Mechwarrior itself didn't have a spec-tabulous storyline but was a great suppliment to the Battletech books. Old and new versions. PC.

 

Solaris. You're in a teeny ship trying to find Solaris, the North Star. This is the first ever game that popped up in a dream- and only the best games do that. VERY OLD. Atari.

 

Doom! So the storyline wasn't awesome, but it FIT! Far too few games have lines that fit but allow you to just enjoy the nitty-gritty action with a few lines of text to make it interesting and fairly self-explanitory and varied levels. Note: this is talking Doom 1 and 2. Not 3. Old. PC.

 

The Mata Nui Online Game was pretty good... Not that any of you have heard of it, blah. Old, but out there. Online.

[Dimon]

Anachronox has a very good storyline start to finish. It was made by the same people who made Deus Ex. It got bad reviews because of all the bugs in the game, but over the years, several players actually released many unofficial patches to fix all the bugs. Too bad the ending hints at another game in the series.

 

The hero is Sly, a dectective with his luck down. Other people who join you are a scientist from another planet, a superhero down in his luck, a "whole" world(they shrink themselves just to join you), and a bunch of others. What's neat is Sly's dead girlfriend is the Avator for his computer(and is the mouse pointer in the game).

 

I liked the storyline alot in that game.....

 

Another game is called Blaze and Blade. Originally, this was meant as a PS1 game. It's one of the few RPG's that allows multiple people to play on at the same time(this is not a MMORPG, but one that is like console). In fact, some of the puzzels can only be solved if 4 people play it. I never played with 4 people at the same time, but I played with 2 before. Unfortanetly, it's the usual "kill the demon king" story RPG.

 

And of course BG1 and BG2. Also ID1 and ID2.

 

Some of the no-name games on computer are decent also, such as Siege of Avalon, etc,etc...

 

There are even free ones on the internet that have good storylines. One such free one is "Laxius Power: Random Story"(the hero of the story is called Random). This game does involve "some" adult aspects, so it is 17+ for age(for storyline and violence). You may notice the music and some of the sprites from "SNES" games, but other than that, the quests are actually quite hard. There are also 4 sequals to it I have not even tried yet...

 

The FF series on computer is hard to find, but I got the ones for PC, such as FF7 and FF8.

 

There are many 3rd party games that have decent storylines that have come out a couple years ago, but I don't have loads of time to try them. If you have a store called "Half Price Books", by chance, near you, they sell old software from 3 years ago(but that is as far back as they will go).

 

P.S. Here are some decent RPG's that, at one time, were even able to be played online, but not anymore: Prince of Qinn, Blade and Sword(Samuri RPG), etc...

 

Anyways, I hoped this helped you out...

 

Zork Grand Insquisitor had a good storyline, as I recall. Old. PC.

 

Mechwarrior itself didn't have a spec-tabulous storyline but was a great suppliment to the Battletech books. Old and new versions. PC.

 

Solaris. You're in a teeny ship trying to find Solaris, the North Star. This is the first ever game that popped up in a dream- and only the best games do that. VERY OLD. Atari.

 

Doom! So the storyline wasn't awesome, but it FIT! Far too few games have lines that fit but allow you to just enjoy the nitty-gritty action with a few lines of text to make it interesting and fairly self-explanitory and varied levels. Note: this is talking Doom 1 and 2. Not 3. Old. PC.

 

The Mata Nui Online Game was pretty good... Not that any of you have heard of it, blah. Old, but out there. Online.

 

 

Haha, I remember Zork. I always hated that forest maze, that annoying plant you needed to carry all the time, those damn statues, and that annoying bridge at the end of the game you had to "weigh" properly with all your items...

 

Mechwarrior is boring. I didn't like it. Reminded me too much of a Xenogears wannabe in the days.

 

Doom, ah yes, doom. One of my favorite. I used to play this and Duke Nukem back to back.

 

Mata Nui Online...never played it, but I remeber seeing it sold in stores in the 90's(early 90's).

[KzinistZerg]

...Then we must be speaking of different games, since MNOLG wasn't sold in stores...

 

Or related games. Whatever.

 

As i said, Mechwarrior itself didn't ahve a good storyline but it is set in a very nice universe.

 

I forgot Starcraft. Starcraft has a VERY good storyline. Blizzard is too dumb to figure this out, though, and is still working on WarTrash 3 Gazillion.5: The Movie...

 

OK, Warcraft had an ok storyline too. But it wasn't as good as starcraft. then again, i've heard that much of SC is ripoff... whatever, it was good.