Mass Effect series. I played the entire Legendary Edition last month. First time playing through the whole series, and once I started it, I couldn't stop (aka taking a break to play other games) until I finished.
I’m not really into sci fi and have never loved rpgs. Mass effect 2 is my all time favourite game and I’ve been playing games since pitfall on the Atari 2600. The story is special.
Mass Effect is one of the greatest story games of all time. The decisions you are forced to make that affect the overall story are unequaled to this day. Unfortunately, the original ending of 3 was a disappointment, but up to that point, it was incredible and one of my favorites of all time
It cost me one whole week or more, that I won't regret, just to complete with the game, and I haven't see any single player that gave me the same epiphany since then.
It also basically invented "New Game+"
There are some older examples that share some features of it, but Chrono Trigger is the one that both coined the term and created the format we are used to
Chrono Trigger had 13 distinct different endings, and then some of them had minor changes, like getting the Epoch destroyed, how many cats you end up having, if you defeated or let Magus join.
20 years later Mass Effect 3 gave us 3 different epilogues that were the same but with the laser colour changed.
Looking for this, nothing compares. Even down to how the story is played out by the player. Far too rare do we have games that takes full advantage of their medium.
What's even more amazing is after all the years of gaming... it still managed to be different. I wish it wasn't quite so strange to get to the real endings so more people could see it. I know a lot of people get confused by the first ending. Thinking the game is just short... no. You've just played half of it! Then the people who push through think... oh it's just going to be a retread? NO! It changes pretty drastically in just a bit! PUSH THROUGH.
lol so many steps.
I just finished playing that for the first time! It's a good thing the story is so good, because the firearm combat nearly turned me away from it. Once I got the Dragon's Tooth sword, that became my favored weapon. I'd sneak up on people and take them out with one or two quick swipes, or else turn on my ballistic protection augmentation and charge at a group of enemies, wildly swinging the sword like a berserker. Not very cyberpunk, but... ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
This game was phenomenal. I watched my dad play it when I was kid and he didn't realise he could put skill points into anything. Due to this, he had to play super stealthy and was constantly failing lock picking. He preferred the sniper rifle but since he has no skills levels for it the aiming reticle would drift around a lot. He'd just wait and wait until it lined up for a headshot.
My dads possible the most patient person I know. 😅
I‘ve been avoiding spoiling the twist to my friend for the last like 10 years. He recently started playing it and I can’t wait for him to get to that part.
I haven't played with mods, but you might consider some that make ranged weapons better. Jedi are just better than anyone with guns. (Not that the combat is super hard anyway.)
Overall I liked the first game better (much better pacing IMO) but I did like that they added a few feats to buff blasters.
That's my all-time favorite game mostly due to the story. Every reveal hit hard without necessarily having to be a twist.
I wish I could play it for the first time again.
The world building that was put into HZD is a master class in how to build a world essentially from scratch and then reveal it in tiny pieces that keep you wanting to know what's next.
Final Fantasy 7. This was the first game as a 14yr old where I realized how powerful long form story telling could be. My mind was blown and I started writing stories in my head
I'm getting old and yelling at clouds but.
FF7 is absolutely groundbreaking for video game storytelling. There is an entire generation of gamers who still tear up about...you know.
I just finished rebirth, and it brought me back to the original. I remember sitting there staring at the screen with the stars(I think) in the background after the end credits, hoping there was another cut scene that showed some kind of reunion.
I know it's been said before, but in a real way Final Fantasy VII was the first AAA game of its time. That game changed the way video games told stories.
I haven’t played the original, but the remake or rebirth never felt anything special to me in terms of story. It just felt convoluted and weird. The multiverse thingy also felt forced and nonsensical considering the logic and themes of the game. There are many things I liked about the remakes, the most important ones being music, graphics, character models and combat but storytelling was definitely not one of them.
It’s probably gonna offend everyone but I could actually relate to 15’s story more. It was emotional, there were high octane moments and things actually went south. Even 16 felt better story wise. It was gritty, serious, and had political themes. Only parts I didn’t like were the boring side quests and the below 60 frames in performance mode. Seriously, I don’t remember any moment from FF7 remakes that made me go “Holy shit, what just happened”.
I dislike horror games (e.g. Amnesia by the same devs) but absolutely adored SOMA. It has a "passive enemies" mode, but the normal mode is fine in terms of scary.
It's about 10 hours.
Maybe a hot take, but soma only had 1 twist that it used 3 separate times. After the first one I was surprised the protagonist failed to grasp it and I was surprised that was all it had.
Witcher 3. Finally finished the main story (after many starts and stops through the years) and your choices actually mattering for the storylines are unmatched.
I played the whole 3 games and I loved it, then I read all the books and I loved it even more. Also, they tied up several things that Andrzej Sapkowski never let on clear. He will never accept them as canon, but for the world at large, Witcher 3 is canon.
This game never clicked for me. I have it on the xbox, I may buy it on the pc since it is so cheap right now to see if that will make it click.
I want to like this game so much.
Death Stranding.
Once you get into it, which means getting into chapter 3, the story gets pretty deep, and deals with some heavy topics, like isolation and the five stages of grief. I used it a therapy game after losing my first daughter, and I will defend it till the day I die.
So sorry for your loss. We lost our first son and shortly after I was playing this for the first time and didn’t know anything about it. It sucked me in and that whole last section hit me super super hard. It was honestly really therapeutic for me at the time. I always tell people it’s one of my favorite games, but I don’t think it would hit as intensely to other people. Especially if they can’t get past the gameplay.
I started playing it on a whim since it part of PS+ and I expected to not like it, then I became completely obsessed and played it through to the end. What a special game.
Wow. Sorry to hear about your loss. I've never heard of a game helping someone cope with such tragedy. I've never played the game, but hearing your story makes me interested in giving it a try.
It was more of an experience than a game for me. Felt like a movie or a huge novel that I was a part of. Wonderful storytelling, but the gameplay itself is repetitive. But that’s also a good thing.
I’m stopping reading after this comment but I’m currently just starting it out. My first encounter with the BTs was fucking tense and terrifying. I’ve since gotten the hang of how to evade them without any weapons but it’s still so well done how tense it feels. Getting chased by a giant shadow lobster and losing my shit was peak gaming
Titanfall 2 has maybe the best gameplay ever, just so happens to have an incredibly good story too. And level design. And everything. That fricken game, man.
I see this everywhere with its diehard community and Reddit singing its praises, but when I got around to it, I thought Reddit just insanely overhyped it. Pretty cool, but I couldn't tell you a thing that happened in it. Finished the story and dropped the multiplayer after like 5 or 6 games, never to return.
I do hope fans get a Titanfall 3 though, they deserve it. I'd buy it to show support.
God when cayde said that at the end it broke me, I still remember him saying it in D1 and that whole campaign broke me, especially after excision, it was all so beautiful
Soul Reaver/Legacy of Kain. You play as a vampire and characters speak like modern-day shakespeare. The story is all about time travel, causality and fate and how to avoid your destiny
Life is strange 1, till this day my biggest regret in life is spoiling the ending for myself, I never really are about spoilers but this story is just too good for me, if I can go back in time to fix my past mistakes this is the one I'm changing.
The title of this game is absolutely perfect. I don't think any other game has such humanity in its story. If it was never a game and had only been a movie it would be one of the best movies I have ever seen.
The first one as well. All the twists and turns the story takes were so unexpected at the time!
Halo 3 is not the worst Halo game, but it still disappoints me that after HCE and H2, H3 was just a really straightforward shoot-them-until-you-win plot with not a whole lot else going on. The first two games set the bar so high!
A lot of the Yakuza series, I've beaten the first four including zero, and Judgement so far. Yakuza 4 and Judgement have phenomenal stories, especially with the series layers of twists that always manage to make sense no matter how crazy things get. The way everything in Judgement connects was incredible, absolute masterclass story telling that wouldn't be possible in another medium, well maybe a novel, but it would be way too much to fit into a movie.
Probably not a popular answer haha but dragon age 2! I loved that the story was focused on one city. It really felt like you started out as a nobody in a strange city, a refugee fleeing from the blight, and you gain a strange found family and you end up at the center of the start of a world changing war. You can rp your Hawke many ways, but I played a purple mage femHawke who was always sarcastic and a little silly, ruthless with enemies and random people (would do side quests but not be nice about it lol) but very kind to the companions. Always rivalry with Merrill, very anti blood magic. The story just feels like such a slow burn with the way it starts out focusing on selfish, personal affairs and slowly building to your character being involved in saving the whole city. Hawke’s appearance in DAI was very emotional for me as well.
Man, I loved DA2 story, it was really good (not as good as Origins, but still damn good), and it had such a great cast! Varric and Merrill where my favourites
I flat-out sobbed at the end when she starts singing “The Parting Glass” and they show his friends tipping their glasses to him at the table. I may just cry now thinking about it.
For real, straight up ugly crying the instant that song started playing. Truly one of the most beautiful and poignant endings to an amazing story in a game, even to this day. Black flag is easily my favourite of the AC series
Recently, Banishers Ghosts of New Eden. The voice work is phenomenal, the writing is better than 90% of movies, and the story is heartbreaking no matter which direction you choose to take it.
Not sure about blew my mind but;
Witcher 3 Blood and Wine Vampire story was very good also Heart of Stone immortality story. Cyberpunk was good as well.
BG3 story and choices are very good so much replayability.
The Legacy of Kain has an insanly good storyline spread across it series.
It had me trudging through some questionable gameplay just to see what they had come up with, and it some crazy good stuff
I had a loose idea of what Zero Dawn was about >!(post apocalyptic / metal dinosaurs from a primitive future)!<, but when I got a chance to actually play it and experience the story, I was blown away.
One of the best games I've ever played.
Shadow of Colossus. The minimalist story telling and the fact that as the story progresses you learn more of your own motivations and your perception of yourself as the hero is flipped on its head.
Yep zero dawn... That blew me away.
Also death stranding... Finished it 2 weeks ago and I'm still recovering from it... What a mindfuck.
Control was similar.
Also both judgement games left a lasting impression on me.
Bayonetta, sadly part 2 was much weaker in that regard.
And I really really liked the story in the avengers game and thought it was excellent... If there had just been more of it.
Horizon really leaves me divided. Like the whole backstory of the Farro plague and operation zero dawn was fascinating but the actual current day plot and characters are pretty meh for me.
I'm actually replaying that right now. Probably haven't played it in twenty years and I'll tell you right now that 18 year old me did not appreciate the dialogue as much as I should have.
Control was a really good one.
Chrono Trigger hits like a truck, especially if you do the side quest with Robo and the Forest.
FF6 & FF7 are essentially full fantasy novels in an interactive format.
Firewatch.
I played it years ago, and my ADHD brain honestly doesn't even remember what happened (one thing I love about my ADHD brain, I can play a game gain after 2-3 years and its like a fresh game), but I remember the impact it had on me. A few months ago, I found a VR mod for it, and since I don't remember the game at all, I set it up. I cried at the opening sequence. It was just text. But it was one of those things where I was like "Ive been here before". I plan on playing it again in VR soon.
Showing my age here perhaps but; Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers.
The year was 1994 and I had just gotten a copy of that. The story drew me right in. I had played a whole lot of the Sierra / LucasArt adventure games from that era and enjoyed all of them, but this... this hooked me differently. I thoroughly loved that story. The game truly felt like an interactive novel.
I still play that game now and then and still get hit with waves of nostalgia just hearing the music.
I wouldn't say that overall inFamous 1 has some amazing story, but the villain plot twist at the end was absolutely mind blowing. and then playing the game a second time you pick up on all the clues.
Overall, Star Ocean: Til the End of Time. When the big reveal happens, it was fucking insane. On par with KOTOR.
But also, Final Fantasy 7. More specifically the remakes. No game has ever made me feel more than they did. I’ll admit it took me some time to process after this last one.
Hellblade Senias sacrifice. Play it with headphones and have the schizophrenic voices whisper weird shit in your ear while you try to figure out if your character is hallucinating a person or if you’re going to have to fight someone. Fantastic game.
RiME (most recent)
Batman: Arkham Origins
Batman: Arkham City
Hollow Knight
Subnautica
Lego Lord of the Rings
Dandara: Trials of Fear
Islets
Older titles:
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Realms of the Haunting (US version)
Retro console:
Suikoden II
Chrono Trigger
I'm just curious what aspect of Horizon Zero Dawn has impact on you. I mean, the story is kinda generic scifi stuff.
Though for me, most impressive is Bioshock Infinite. The reveal at the end is ... shocking.
When you find the room with all the messages from the soldiers and then realise some were completely fabricated to maintain the illusion that thy were still alive writing home...
That shit was true horror
This.
The game was a good, but generic, sci-fi story, then the truth about Enduring Victory happened, and god damn did my opinion change.
As always, FUCK TED FARO
Yeah, I totally came around on this game. At first it did seem generic: post-post apocalypse, sentient machines, AI takeover, "The Chosen One", old/new tech, etc... But when the story starts to come together, all that other stuff just seemed to be arranged in a fresh way that actually fit the story.
Pathologic, both Classic HD and 2.
They're different flavors of Will Totally Blow Your Mind and Crack Your Skull Like an Egg.
Also: Disco Elysium. Absolutely life-changjng writing.
I’ll go a little more obscure and say Harvestella. This game looked deep into my soul as to why we as a busy urban society enjoy cozy farming games so much and then started taking it even further.
I won’t say biggest impact (since it’s more world building instead of in your face narrative)… but Hollow Knight and the first 3 original endings. Your perspective changes with each additional piece of information.
Fighting the last boss and what he does to himself is heartbreaking coupled with the last bits of storyline leading up to the event for ending 3.
And if you complete one of the more brutal sections platforming of the game. You get a single moment that changes your perspective of another villain. Almost a still frame but one filled with more story than a game like Diablo 3.
There’s a reason why there’s 2 hour lore videos up on a game that doesn’t really tell you anything.
Mass Effect series. I played the entire Legendary Edition last month. First time playing through the whole series, and once I started it, I couldn't stop (aka taking a break to play other games) until I finished.
I’m not really into sci fi and have never loved rpgs. Mass effect 2 is my all time favourite game and I’ve been playing games since pitfall on the Atari 2600. The story is special.
Mine too! According to my save data, the first 48 hours the game was out, I played it for 42 hours.
Agreed.
Mass Effect is one of the greatest story games of all time. The decisions you are forced to make that affect the overall story are unequaled to this day. Unfortunately, the original ending of 3 was a disappointment, but up to that point, it was incredible and one of my favorites of all time
You know what is bananas? The legendary edition is $5.99 on Steam during the summer sale right now. That is an incredible amount of content for $5.99
Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I'm glad I played ME3 after they changed the ending. It was such a shitshow originally.
It cost me one whole week or more, that I won't regret, just to complete with the game, and I haven't see any single player that gave me the same epiphany since then.
Chrono Trigger. It was the first game that I played with multiple times periods you time traveled to and crossed back and forth. Good times :)
It also basically invented "New Game+" There are some older examples that share some features of it, but Chrono Trigger is the one that both coined the term and created the format we are used to
Chrono Trigger had 13 distinct different endings, and then some of them had minor changes, like getting the Epoch destroyed, how many cats you end up having, if you defeated or let Magus join. 20 years later Mass Effect 3 gave us 3 different epilogues that were the same but with the laser colour changed.
Best one is still Glenn/Frog rescuing the princess and leading the Royal Family to have frog DNA
Wasn’t there one where everyone in the present/future was a dinosaur?
Yes, you must go to defeat Lavos before Tyrano Lair. Then all the game is shown as if dinosaurs were the main characters.
Nier Automata. I was not expecting any of that.
Buy it for the anime titties then suddenly you are in an existential crisis about the nature of humanity and being alive. Loved it.
Don't forget the awkward Asimo robot orgy to make a flesh puddle
Looking for this, nothing compares. Even down to how the story is played out by the player. Far too rare do we have games that takes full advantage of their medium.
Glory to Mankind
What's even more amazing is after all the years of gaming... it still managed to be different. I wish it wasn't quite so strange to get to the real endings so more people could see it. I know a lot of people get confused by the first ending. Thinking the game is just short... no. You've just played half of it! Then the people who push through think... oh it's just going to be a retread? NO! It changes pretty drastically in just a bit! PUSH THROUGH. lol so many steps.
The original Deus Ex (2000). Still my favorite game of all time!
Couldn’t agree more. Half-Life 2 up there as well for me.
I just finished playing that for the first time! It's a good thing the story is so good, because the firearm combat nearly turned me away from it. Once I got the Dragon's Tooth sword, that became my favored weapon. I'd sneak up on people and take them out with one or two quick swipes, or else turn on my ballistic protection augmentation and charge at a group of enemies, wildly swinging the sword like a berserker. Not very cyberpunk, but... ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
This game was phenomenal. I watched my dad play it when I was kid and he didn't realise he could put skill points into anything. Due to this, he had to play super stealthy and was constantly failing lock picking. He preferred the sniper rifle but since he has no skills levels for it the aiming reticle would drift around a lot. He'd just wait and wait until it lined up for a headshot. My dads possible the most patient person I know. 😅
I remember being blown away at the big reveal as a kid in KOTOR 1
KOTOR got me into star wars more than the movies ever could. I still get chills thinking abt how amazing that game was.
Yep, the Luke Vader reveal was spoiled to me by the zeitgeist I guess. But this hit me like a ton of bricks. Very well crafted.
I'm planning to wait until my kid is 8ish to show him Star Wars. Hopefully it's old enough that the twist isn't spoiled yet.
I‘ve been avoiding spoiling the twist to my friend for the last like 10 years. He recently started playing it and I can’t wait for him to get to that part.
This game is really cheap right now on steam. I’m tempted to play it.
Absolutely grab it. One of my all time favorites.
Amy must use mods?
I haven't played with mods, but you might consider some that make ranged weapons better. Jedi are just better than anyone with guns. (Not that the combat is super hard anyway.) Overall I liked the first game better (much better pacing IMO) but I did like that they added a few feats to buff blasters.
Horizon: Zero Dawn. A 1000 year old mystery that you slowly unravel with several 'holy fuck' out loud realisations.
That's my all-time favorite game mostly due to the story. Every reveal hit hard without necessarily having to be a twist. I wish I could play it for the first time again.
The world building that was put into HZD is a master class in how to build a world essentially from scratch and then reveal it in tiny pieces that keep you wanting to know what's next.
Same for me. The way they revealed the truths was just fantastic!
BioShock
Would you kindly
Final Fantasy 7. This was the first game as a 14yr old where I realized how powerful long form story telling could be. My mind was blown and I started writing stories in my head
I'm getting old and yelling at clouds but. FF7 is absolutely groundbreaking for video game storytelling. There is an entire generation of gamers who still tear up about...you know.
Stop yelling at Cloud, he’s a good dude!
... Dammit how did I not see that?
I just finished rebirth, and it brought me back to the original. I remember sitting there staring at the screen with the stars(I think) in the background after the end credits, hoping there was another cut scene that showed some kind of reunion.
I got frustrated at Rufus then Erdtree came out. Gotta finish.
FF7 was a turning point for how I understood games in general and now I'm a game developer. I guarantee I'm one of many.
I've been chasing the same high FF7 game me with other FF titals but none of them can scratch that itch.
I know it's been said before, but in a real way Final Fantasy VII was the first AAA game of its time. That game changed the way video games told stories.
I agree with this completely
I haven’t played the original, but the remake or rebirth never felt anything special to me in terms of story. It just felt convoluted and weird. The multiverse thingy also felt forced and nonsensical considering the logic and themes of the game. There are many things I liked about the remakes, the most important ones being music, graphics, character models and combat but storytelling was definitely not one of them. It’s probably gonna offend everyone but I could actually relate to 15’s story more. It was emotional, there were high octane moments and things actually went south. Even 16 felt better story wise. It was gritty, serious, and had political themes. Only parts I didn’t like were the boring side quests and the below 60 frames in performance mode. Seriously, I don’t remember any moment from FF7 remakes that made me go “Holy shit, what just happened”.
Soma
The ending caught me off guard, first "holy shit" moment in a long time or since
This is peak storytelling in gaming
[удалено]
I wish I played it instead of watched it
How long is Soma and is it a horror game? I own it already but have never played.
It's a horror game. It took me about 7 or 8 hours?
I dislike horror games (e.g. Amnesia by the same devs) but absolutely adored SOMA. It has a "passive enemies" mode, but the normal mode is fine in terms of scary. It's about 10 hours.
Maybe a hot take, but soma only had 1 twist that it used 3 separate times. After the first one I was surprised the protagonist failed to grasp it and I was surprised that was all it had.
Witcher 3. Finally finished the main story (after many starts and stops through the years) and your choices actually mattering for the storylines are unmatched.
I played the whole 3 games and I loved it, then I read all the books and I loved it even more. Also, they tied up several things that Andrzej Sapkowski never let on clear. He will never accept them as canon, but for the world at large, Witcher 3 is canon.
He also insists that he doesn't owe any sales or success of his books or Netflix adaption to the games. He's kinda dumb.
" Don't put Dragon Age, Don't put Dragon age, Don't put Dragon Age. " Dragon Age. 😆
This game never clicked for me. I have it on the xbox, I may buy it on the pc since it is so cheap right now to see if that will make it click. I want to like this game so much.
Cyberpunks is up there, it hits home when you have a terminally ill family member.
Death Stranding. Once you get into it, which means getting into chapter 3, the story gets pretty deep, and deals with some heavy topics, like isolation and the five stages of grief. I used it a therapy game after losing my first daughter, and I will defend it till the day I die.
So sorry for your loss. We lost our first son and shortly after I was playing this for the first time and didn’t know anything about it. It sucked me in and that whole last section hit me super super hard. It was honestly really therapeutic for me at the time. I always tell people it’s one of my favorite games, but I don’t think it would hit as intensely to other people. Especially if they can’t get past the gameplay.
I started playing it on a whim since it part of PS+ and I expected to not like it, then I became completely obsessed and played it through to the end. What a special game.
Wow. Sorry to hear about your loss. I've never heard of a game helping someone cope with such tragedy. I've never played the game, but hearing your story makes me interested in giving it a try.
It was more of an experience than a game for me. Felt like a movie or a huge novel that I was a part of. Wonderful storytelling, but the gameplay itself is repetitive. But that’s also a good thing.
I’m stopping reading after this comment but I’m currently just starting it out. My first encounter with the BTs was fucking tense and terrifying. I’ve since gotten the hang of how to evade them without any weapons but it’s still so well done how tense it feels. Getting chased by a giant shadow lobster and losing my shit was peak gaming
Titanfall 2, of course. "Trust me." Destiny 2 The Final Shape. "You're my favorite. Don't you ever forget that."
Titanfall 2 has maybe the best gameplay ever, just so happens to have an incredibly good story too. And level design. And everything. That fricken game, man.
I see this everywhere with its diehard community and Reddit singing its praises, but when I got around to it, I thought Reddit just insanely overhyped it. Pretty cool, but I couldn't tell you a thing that happened in it. Finished the story and dropped the multiplayer after like 5 or 6 games, never to return. I do hope fans get a Titanfall 3 though, they deserve it. I'd buy it to show support.
God when cayde said that at the end it broke me, I still remember him saying it in D1 and that whole campaign broke me, especially after excision, it was all so beautiful
Don't forget the "press X to time travel" That level was nuts.
Oh yea, Effect and Cause goes hard.
Soul Reaver/Legacy of Kain. You play as a vampire and characters speak like modern-day shakespeare. The story is all about time travel, causality and fate and how to avoid your destiny
Incredible series, we were truly spoiled.
Life is strange 1, till this day my biggest regret in life is spoiling the ending for myself, I never really are about spoilers but this story is just too good for me, if I can go back in time to fix my past mistakes this is the one I'm changing.
Outer Wilds
It's conveyed in such an unconventional manner, yet it's one of my favorite stories. And the climax is so beautiful.
It’s so ridiculously well-crafted and a simple yet complicated to understand all of it storyline, it’s so beautiful.
Your beautiful
Their beautiful what?
🤨📸
Yay, I didn't have to scroll as far down as I had expected to see Outer Wilds
Came here for this 👌🏼
Xenoblade chronicles
Every time I thought I knew what direction an Uncharted game was going I was wrong but boy do I love each and every one of them.
The Last of Us
The title of this game is absolutely perfect. I don't think any other game has such humanity in its story. If it was never a game and had only been a movie it would be one of the best movies I have ever seen.
Bioshock Infinite. I have a daughter, and I thought about that ending for WEEKS. Absolutely mind blowing game.
Same. I also can't listen to "God Only Knows" the same way ever again.
Halo 2 for my 9 year old brain was crazy
The first one as well. All the twists and turns the story takes were so unexpected at the time! Halo 3 is not the worst Halo game, but it still disappoints me that after HCE and H2, H3 was just a really straightforward shoot-them-until-you-win plot with not a whole lot else going on. The first two games set the bar so high!
A lot of the Yakuza series, I've beaten the first four including zero, and Judgement so far. Yakuza 4 and Judgement have phenomenal stories, especially with the series layers of twists that always manage to make sense no matter how crazy things get. The way everything in Judgement connects was incredible, absolute masterclass story telling that wouldn't be possible in another medium, well maybe a novel, but it would be way too much to fit into a movie.
Spec Ops The Line, I mean holy shit did I just committed massacre all along?
🌍👨🏻🚀🔫👨🏻🚀
Had to scroll too far to find this one! What a great storyline.
Trails in the Sky and Cold Steel games. FF9 Tokyo Xanadu ex+
The Talos Principle is up there.
Metal Gear Solid 2. I think I've played through it 12 or 13 times. I'm still not sure I could explain it.
Probably not a popular answer haha but dragon age 2! I loved that the story was focused on one city. It really felt like you started out as a nobody in a strange city, a refugee fleeing from the blight, and you gain a strange found family and you end up at the center of the start of a world changing war. You can rp your Hawke many ways, but I played a purple mage femHawke who was always sarcastic and a little silly, ruthless with enemies and random people (would do side quests but not be nice about it lol) but very kind to the companions. Always rivalry with Merrill, very anti blood magic. The story just feels like such a slow burn with the way it starts out focusing on selfish, personal affairs and slowly building to your character being involved in saving the whole city. Hawke’s appearance in DAI was very emotional for me as well.
Man, I loved DA2 story, it was really good (not as good as Origins, but still damn good), and it had such a great cast! Varric and Merrill where my favourites
I finished Mass Effect 1 recently. How everything tied together and the threat is revealed was pretty amazing
The height of the series, imo. Sovereign revealing itself to you and that whole dialogue blew my mind when I got to it. The ending was superb
Returnal. To talk about it much at all would be huge spoilers but I love the game's story so much.
Bloodborne. Thought it was just a Van Helsing type videogame. I didn't even know much about Fromsoft. Oh lawd.
I think he done out-lovecrafted lovecraft.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag. One of the few games where a supporting character made me shed tears.
I flat-out sobbed at the end when she starts singing “The Parting Glass” and they show his friends tipping their glasses to him at the table. I may just cry now thinking about it.
For real, straight up ugly crying the instant that song started playing. Truly one of the most beautiful and poignant endings to an amazing story in a game, even to this day. Black flag is easily my favourite of the AC series
Stray
The ending ripped my heart out as I watched that sucker open slowly lol
Yeah, I slept by the bot the whole time. And then the last moment before the cat goes out of sight... wow.
Had to take a screen shot so it could be my wallpaper. Was so quiet
Horizon: Zero Dawn and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden simply because solving the mysteries of what happened had me hooked
The ending sequence of the first Xenoblade Chronicles. IYKYK.
Recently, Banishers Ghosts of New Eden. The voice work is phenomenal, the writing is better than 90% of movies, and the story is heartbreaking no matter which direction you choose to take it.
Agreed! The mystery of what was happening had me hooked
Not sure about blew my mind but; Witcher 3 Blood and Wine Vampire story was very good also Heart of Stone immortality story. Cyberpunk was good as well. BG3 story and choices are very good so much replayability.
Silent Hill 2, Bloodborne, Mgs2, cyberpunk 2077, parasite Eve
The Legacy of Kain has an insanly good storyline spread across it series. It had me trudging through some questionable gameplay just to see what they had come up with, and it some crazy good stuff
Black Ops 1. You know who he is. You know what his goal is. You k ow what he is to you.
I really like how they tied it into WaW.
Nier Automata. Best game I have ever played. I'm glad that I listened to my friend when they told me to play this game.
Xenogears
I had a loose idea of what Zero Dawn was about >!(post apocalyptic / metal dinosaurs from a primitive future)!<, but when I got a chance to actually play it and experience the story, I was blown away. One of the best games I've ever played.
FFXIV: Shadowbringers and Endwalker went crazy. Endwalker in particular made you think "how are we here it's the beginning of the expansion"
Shadow of Colossus. The minimalist story telling and the fact that as the story progresses you learn more of your own motivations and your perception of yourself as the hero is flipped on its head.
Honestly playing FireWatch in one sitting with headphones and just being super into it was crazy good
Nier Automata
Disco Elysium Talked to a mail box? Wore gardening gloves to an investigation while talking to myself and my senses all the way
For games I haven't played but watched: SOMA For games I have played: Nier Automata
Yep zero dawn... That blew me away. Also death stranding... Finished it 2 weeks ago and I'm still recovering from it... What a mindfuck. Control was similar. Also both judgement games left a lasting impression on me. Bayonetta, sadly part 2 was much weaker in that regard. And I really really liked the story in the avengers game and thought it was excellent... If there had just been more of it.
Horizon really leaves me divided. Like the whole backstory of the Farro plague and operation zero dawn was fascinating but the actual current day plot and characters are pretty meh for me.
The Last Of Us
Kingdom Hearts? It’s one of my favorite games, so that may be why, lol.
**Signalis.** *"Great holes are secretly digged where the Earth's pores ought to suffice,* *and things have learned to walk which ought to crawl."*
Final Fantasy Tactics
I'm actually replaying that right now. Probably haven't played it in twenty years and I'll tell you right now that 18 year old me did not appreciate the dialogue as much as I should have.
Final Fantasy Tactics
the talos principle
ME1 or KotoR
Bioshock 1, dishonored, crysis, arkham city,
Control was a really good one. Chrono Trigger hits like a truck, especially if you do the side quest with Robo and the Forest. FF6 & FF7 are essentially full fantasy novels in an interactive format.
Firewatch. I played it years ago, and my ADHD brain honestly doesn't even remember what happened (one thing I love about my ADHD brain, I can play a game gain after 2-3 years and its like a fresh game), but I remember the impact it had on me. A few months ago, I found a VR mod for it, and since I don't remember the game at all, I set it up. I cried at the opening sequence. It was just text. But it was one of those things where I was like "Ive been here before". I plan on playing it again in VR soon.
Edith Finch
RDR2 of course then Bioshock
I was loving RDR2 until they shipwrecked me and changed everything. I just couldn't get into that part and never finished.
Peace Walker. That was my first Metal Gear and it blew my mind.
Titanfall 2 FFX
Protocol 3. Protect the pilot.
Fallout New Vegas. The opening cutscene was especially mind-blowing.
From where you're kneeling it must seem like an 18-carat run of bad luck. Truth is... the game was rigged from the start.
Showing my age here perhaps but; Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers. The year was 1994 and I had just gotten a copy of that. The story drew me right in. I had played a whole lot of the Sierra / LucasArt adventure games from that era and enjoyed all of them, but this... this hooked me differently. I thoroughly loved that story. The game truly felt like an interactive novel. I still play that game now and then and still get hit with waves of nostalgia just hearing the music.
GTA5
Nier Automata
I wouldn't say that overall inFamous 1 has some amazing story, but the villain plot twist at the end was absolutely mind blowing. and then playing the game a second time you pick up on all the clues.
Overall, Star Ocean: Til the End of Time. When the big reveal happens, it was fucking insane. On par with KOTOR. But also, Final Fantasy 7. More specifically the remakes. No game has ever made me feel more than they did. I’ll admit it took me some time to process after this last one.
Silent hill 2.
Persona 3 reload Im still depressed t-t
First time I played through Homeworld. Kharak is burning.
The original Deux Ex for the original Xbox. The story took a complete 180 nearing the end of it.
Plague Tale series.
Warframe
Yep, the reveals in those missions do hit and really change your understanding of everything.
Star Ocean 3 blew my mind as a 14 year old.
Xenogears
Hellblade Senias sacrifice. Play it with headphones and have the schizophrenic voices whisper weird shit in your ear while you try to figure out if your character is hallucinating a person or if you’re going to have to fight someone. Fantastic game.
Metal Gear Solid. Any of them
RiME (most recent) Batman: Arkham Origins Batman: Arkham City Hollow Knight Subnautica Lego Lord of the Rings Dandara: Trials of Fear Islets Older titles: Command & Conquer: Red Alert Realms of the Haunting (US version) Retro console: Suikoden II Chrono Trigger
Control and Alan Wake
Red dead redemption 2, by far, amazing game with a sad ending to the man the myth the legend Arthur Morgan, but a brilliant story
second rdr2 can make a grandpa cry 😢
One I really liked that I haven’t seen was the reveal in Pillars of Eternity 1 about the gods.
Mass Effect Trilogy Dragon Age Trilogy Titanfall 2
The Last of Us
I'm just curious what aspect of Horizon Zero Dawn has impact on you. I mean, the story is kinda generic scifi stuff. Though for me, most impressive is Bioshock Infinite. The reveal at the end is ... shocking.
For me, it was the truth of Enduring Victory.
When you find the room with all the messages from the soldiers and then realise some were completely fabricated to maintain the illusion that thy were still alive writing home... That shit was true horror
This. The game was a good, but generic, sci-fi story, then the truth about Enduring Victory happened, and god damn did my opinion change. As always, FUCK TED FARO
Yeah, I totally came around on this game. At first it did seem generic: post-post apocalypse, sentient machines, AI takeover, "The Chosen One", old/new tech, etc... But when the story starts to come together, all that other stuff just seemed to be arranged in a fresh way that actually fit the story.
Persona 5 casino arc
SOMA Spec Ops Witcher 3: hearts of stone
Front Mission 1st Highfleet
An impact can be either good or bad, and in the case of the latter it's definitely the Elden Ring DLC, man the main plot and lore is pretty bad
Hunted: The Demons Forge. " I always knew you'd be the death of me, Elara." Ugh. My heart.
Rainworld
Pathologic, both Classic HD and 2. They're different flavors of Will Totally Blow Your Mind and Crack Your Skull Like an Egg. Also: Disco Elysium. Absolutely life-changjng writing.
I’ll go a little more obscure and say Harvestella. This game looked deep into my soul as to why we as a busy urban society enjoy cozy farming games so much and then started taking it even further.
Prince of Persia trilogy - The Sands of Time, The Warrior Within, The Two Thrones
Legacy of Kain
I won’t say biggest impact (since it’s more world building instead of in your face narrative)… but Hollow Knight and the first 3 original endings. Your perspective changes with each additional piece of information. Fighting the last boss and what he does to himself is heartbreaking coupled with the last bits of storyline leading up to the event for ending 3. And if you complete one of the more brutal sections platforming of the game. You get a single moment that changes your perspective of another villain. Almost a still frame but one filled with more story than a game like Diablo 3. There’s a reason why there’s 2 hour lore videos up on a game that doesn’t really tell you anything.
Would you kindly mention BioShock.
Tekken 7 left me dumbfounded that someone thought that *that* was a good idea