Favorite stories in games?

[magnaangemon01]

Knights of the Old Republic

Rogue Galaxy

Skies of Arcadia (my most favorite RPG of all time. If I could figure out how to redesign the continents in Ace, use a parallax sky background on maps, and get the right kind of airships, I'd want to make an unofficial VX Ace sequel to this)

 

[Milkdud]

1. Planescape: Torment

2. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

3. Fallout

4. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

5. F.E.A.R.

6. Half-Life

7. StarCraft: Brood War

Yeah, that's about it.

 

[BVT]

My favorite story is from Planescape: Torment.  Not only is it a deep story, it gives the player choices that are far deeper then most games with choices (like all of them).

I've never played Planescape: Torment, but I did play Baldur's Gate, I and II. As you probably know, they recently rereleased the pair, and they announced last month that they're rereleasing Icewind Dale (and probably Icewind Dale 2, it only makes sense).

You can bet that Beamdog will rerelease Planescape: Torment as well!

And I'm going to play it.

As for my favourite storylines in games, I'll make a list of plots that stood out in recent years, in order of best to next-best:

1. The Last of Us

2. The Last of Us: Left Behind

3. Half-Life 2: Episode 2

4. Mirror's Edge

5. The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav

EDIT: And how could I have forgotten Portal 2? Portal 2 gets a place here as well — above Mirror's Edge, below HL2: EP2.

And as for old games with amazing plotlines:

1. Baldur's Gate

2. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

3. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

4. Final Fantasy IX

5. Final Fantasy VII

6. Final Fantasy VIII (I actually prefer VIII over VII, but VII has a stronger story, in my opinion)

7. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (I refuse to put OOT or MM because they have very little story to speak of)

8. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

9. Halo: Combat Evolved (Despised the rest of the Halo series, but I have fond memories of the first installment)

10. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (No, not Skyrim)

 

[Milkdud]

You can bet that Beamdog will rerelease Planescape: Torment as well!

Why not just buy it off of GoG now for $10 and install fan patches that adds widescreen support and restore cut content?

 

[BVT]

Why not just buy it off of GoG now for $10 and install fan patches that adds widescreen support and restore cut content?

Because no. 

 

[Napdevil]

I really digged the Portal series for its writing. The puzzles were good, but the lovable characters and the minimalist storytelling were definitely the highlights of those games for me.

The scene in Portal 2 where 

Spoiler

Wheatley betrays Chell

is one of my favorite moments in video games.

 

[bluebird]

My favorite game has always been Chrono Cross.  Keep in mind I never played the first one though...but while I missed out on the initial story, I felt CC did a great job in what it tried to tell with a completely new hero, and learning about all the connections between the two games just made me happy.

Shadow Hearts is another game, somewhat obscure, and very very random- but the story was delivered really well and there are very few games that really made me feel for each character.

 

[whitesphere]

I really like the first Final Fantasy, it's not deep, but is impressive for the 8-bit age.

I prefer not to think to much, so simple stories like Zelda work for me. But I do like FF6 and FF7.

I'm sure many of you probably know, but the original Final Fantasy was supposed to be the absolute last game ever made by Squaresoft.  They were near bankruptcy and decided to blow everything they had left on, well, their Final Fantasy.

It was a desperate chance but paid off handsomely, because until then, there weren't really any good RPGs on the NES (at least in the US --- I have no idea about the Japanese market)

 

[whitesphere]

I really digged the Portal series for its writing. The puzzles were good, but the lovable characters and the minimalist storytelling were definitely the highlights of those games for me.

The scene in Portal 2 where 

Spoiler

Wheatley betrays Chell

Spoiler

is one of my favorite moments in video games.

The Portal series shows very well how a good little physics puzzle game became a really engrossing cat vs mouse, without changing one iota of gameplay.  It was entirely the skill of the writers and voice actors that made Portal into the gem it is.

Without the excellent writing, Portal would have been a cute little puzzle game but probably wouldn't have been as immersive.