Best American Videogame Stories?

I'm teaching an American Lit course this semester and I want to end with a videogame, to show how storytelling is changing in the 21st century. I've taught videogames before, but never in an American Lit course. As I try to decide on a game (has to be PC so everyone will ahve access to it) it occurs to me that most of my previous choices were made by non-Americans. Beyond Good and Evil, Syberia, Indigo Prophesy--all foreign properties. So I need some help. What are the best American made PC games that have a great story? It seems like most of the very best videogame stories are created outside of the US--what gives!

Oh, and it has to be playable on an average entry level computer, which any non-gaming students tend to have, so no Oblivion.

Warcraft 3. Great story, american developer, would easily run on any junk system, and it was released in the 21st century.H3LLRaiseR

You know, I never thought of an RTS. This is one of my all time favorite games too. But I love it for the gameplay, not the story. Do you really think I can justify this game as a compelling story? I'm trying to remember back-does any story happen outside the cutscenes? To really capture what is new about videogames as a narrative medium, I'd like to find a game that combines the gameplay with the story as opposed to oscillates between them.

Just thinking about W3 makes me want to play it again though.

Starcraft, Halo, Warcraft 3, Command and Conquer 3, etc. Oh, and a little game series called Half-Life.

I'd choose Half-Life. It's not just a good story, but that game single-handedly redefined story telling in computer games. Also, it can run on anything because it's almost ten years old.

Starcraft, Halo, Warcraft 3, Command and Conquer 3, etc. Oh, and a little game series called Half-Life.

I'd choose Half-Life. It's not just a good story, but that game single-handedly redefined story telling in computer games. Also, it can run on anything because it's almost ten years old.

Sushbag88

Yes, I thought of Half-life, but one thing worries me. I'm a bit worried a FPS might require more skill than a non-gamer will have. Although, I suppose I can find out if there is a god mode. I used this when teaching Max Payne once (yet another non-American game).

Again, my very favorite genre is rts, but I just don't think people play them for the story--almost always, the story is a reward cutscene divorced from the gameplay. Halo might work--I'm pretty sure it must have some sort of God mode.

Oh, that's easy. Black Isle was a studio in California and they made a couple of the best story-oriented games of all time, sometimes with the help of Bioware, a Canadian company.

Fallout 1 & 2 and more prominently story wise, Planescape: Torment they made on their own though. One of the most critically acclaimed game plots of all time.

Knights of The Old Republic.

/thread

Knights of The Old Republic.

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majadamus

Canadian actually. Biowares office is in Edmonton, Alberta.

Although they did just open a new office in Texas, it's yet to have made any games.

Yeah, here's another nod to Planescape: Torment. Torment easily tells one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, stories in gaming. It uses a cliche "amnesia" plot device to start, but the rest of the story is anything but cliche. What clinches it, for me anyway, is the universe-spanning setting the game takes place in.Alaris83

Yes, I have heard very good things about Planescape. I have been meaning to find a copy for a long time. Is this game still commercially available? One of the great frustrations of teaching videogames is how difficult it is to find older games still in distribution. I would need to be able to ensure that 30-40 students would be able to obtain a copy of the game legally. I can't find Torment available in mass quantities online. Can anyone direct me to somewhere this game is still sold, that I could direct students to? I think it would work well.

Oh, that's easy. Black Isle was a studio in California and they made a couple of the best story-oriented games of all time, sometimes with the help of Bioware, a Canadian company.

Fallout 1 & 2 and more prominently story wise, Planescape: Torment they made on their own though. One of the most critically acclaimed game plots of all time.

the_mad_madman

Fallout 1 and 2 would work as well, I think. It is a shame these great games fall out of print--great novels get reprints, videogames should too (graphics be damned). It is also really frustrating that older games often have trouble running on newer computers.

I like your sig quote btw. Is that from his fiction or a quote from his nonfiction?

Planescape Torment can be pretty hard to find nowadays and probably near impossible to find in large quantities. Too bad, the story really is worth it and is probably the most impressive plotline I've ever experienced in a game, american or not. Fallout 1 & 2 you might have better luck with though, especially with all the hype over Fallout 3 coming out in the near future. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a collectors edition or compilation of the two put together to promote Fallout 3.

And thank you, the quote's from The Call of Cthulhu, Fiction. Full quote is:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Depressing guy really, but I'm a sucker for his writting all the same.

Oh, that's easy. Black Isle was a studio in California and they made a couple of the best story-oriented games of all time, sometimes with the help of Bioware, a Canadian company.

Fallout 1 & 2 and more prominently story wise, Planescape: Torment they made on their own though. One of the most critically acclaimed game plots of all time.

the_mad_madman

Yea, Black Isle is definitely the way to go.

Gabriel Knight easily. Perfect choice, not only the story is excelent, but unlike other games people mention it GK also has incredible writing quality and realistic, deep psychologicaly characters.

of course if you're going to do a class about videogame you might want to consider Dark Eye. It shows how the videogaming medium can be used for storytelling unlike other methods. I mean it takes Edgar Allan Poe's works and transfers it into interactive experiences. It's pure art, it tells every murder twice: once from perspective of a killer and second from a perspective of murderer. Not to mention it also had voice overs and poem readings by William Burrough(yes..THAT William Burrough). Plus Inscape went out of business long time ago, nobody now owns rights to that game, so everyone can download it from Underdogs legaly

Eventualy you might try FACADE, it's freeware and used dynamic language recognizion to allow you to interact with a couple fighting with eachother, not really deep or nicely written, but shows where videogames might take us in the future

Here's a suggestion, what about Max Payne? It had an amazing story, and the cutscenes were pretty cool. I'm not sure if you'd be turned off by the gore, but it's kind of a gritty noir storyline that fits well with America's obsession with police and mafia. It also fits well with some of the newer action ideals, because it basically created the slow motion action that we see in many games now a days. I think that's a great game if you ask me. It kind of fits into an american lit class too.

Good luck!

How about Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth and tie it together withh Call of Cthulhu and Shadow Over Innsmouth.

Nothing like having kids read H.P. Lovecraft then seeing the story translate over to vide games.

Freespace 2. The best story in any game ever. But this is good as something students play at home, if you don't play it, it wont work ( which is what a videogame story should be like, right?)hair001

You've got to be kidding me. FS2 is incredible game, but the storyline is just downright laugable, it's like they didn't even try, they took Wing Commander : Prophecy plot, thrown in Wing Commander IV bad guy, made it all much less cool and voila...FS2 storyline

[QUOTE="hair001"]Freespace 2. The best story in any game ever. But this is good as something students play at home, if you don't play it, it wont work ( which is what a videogame story should be like, right?)AdrianWerner

You've got to be kidding me. FS2 is incredible game, but the storyline is just downright laugable, it's like they didn't even try, they took Wing Commander : Prophecy plot, thrown in Wing Commander IV bad guy, made it all much less cool and voila...FS2 storyline

Just wondering, wouldn't it be ok to present a gamestory written by an american while the game is produced in another country?
Was just wondering as it might widen the horizon.
Though i've heard pretty good answers already.KungfuKitten

Yeah, it is hard to come up with a real cut off point for this--most American lit ****s deal with single author texts, but I may end up fudging it a bit if I can find a good gamethat fits with the American Lit themes I want to explore.