What's the best story in a game you've played?

A good storyline helps you to be motivated to keep moving forward in a game. In my opinion if the game doesn't have a reason for why I'm solving puzzles, or shooting people then why bother continuing with the game.

Here are some of my favorite stories:

Gabriel Knight: Sins of Fathers

Mafia

Max Payne 2 (though it can be confusing)

King's Quest 6

What's a game that brings about the best in storytelling?

Kotor is number one.

Vice City, Dreamfall, Halo-series, System Shock 2, Fear + expansion. I also liked the lore of Morrowind. I want to say Planescape, but I never finished that game.

Not too many games with great stories out there. I hope Bioshock, Mass Effect, Assasin's Creed and Halo 3 deliver on that this year.

Deus Ex for its awesome and film-noir-ish near future conspiracy theory

C&C for its awesome story, characters, and FMVs...and the fact that theyve held a continuing story throughout the past 12 years.

Halflife series, simply because if you are observant, it offers a seamless and brilliant story that also leaves some holes, but also provides enough information so the player can fill in the holes with their imagination and still be somewhat accurate to the real story (which is still a lot of theory).

BioShock the immersion, gameplay and storyline is nothing short of history in the making. A1B2C3CAL

Out of curiosity, how long have you been playing it for?

I think RPGs probably have more room for better storyline since that is the basis of an RPG is to immerse you into that character. Action games are more centered on the action so that may be why less action games get a storyline budget. I have to agree with KOTOR, i haven't finished it yet, but I need to in order to see what the ending reveals. I definitely remember FF7, great storyline for sure. Bioshock? Didn't that just come out today, unless you cheated your way through it, I doubt anyone has beaten it yet, but keep me posted so I know if I need to get that game.

I personally like the storyline StillLife, but what can I say I'm an adventure game nut, shoot I still think Space Quest 4 was one of the best games ever made.

I think RPGs probably have more room for better storyline since that is the basis of an RPG is to immerse you into that character. Action games are more centered on the action so that may be why less action games get a storyline budget. I have to agree with KOTOR, i haven't finished it yet, but I need to in order to see what the ending reveals. I definitely remember FF7, great storyline for sure. Bioshock? Didn't that just come out today, unless you cheated your way through it, I doubt anyone has beaten it yet, but keep me posted so I know if I need to get that game.

I personally like the storyline StillLife, but what can I say I'm an adventure game nut, shoot I still think Space Quest 4 was one of the best games ever made.

serieus

Yeah, Still Life isn't bad.

And I'm still waiting for those damned graphical mods for Deus Ex. I want to play it so bad, but I'm willing to wait to enhance the experience.

H a l f L i f e a n d S e q u e l a n d E p i s o d e s
A L L M G S G A M E S
H i t m a n B l o o d M o n e y
B i o s h o c k
C & C 3 e x c e p t f o r N o d c a m p a i g n
C h r o n i c l e s o f R i d d i c k

I had to space them out since my words were being censored

BioShock the immersion, gameplay and storyline is nothing short of history in the making. A1B2C3CAL

Very well said and I could not agree more. Simply amazing.

In my opinion if the game doesn't have a reason for why I'm solving puzzles, or shooting people then why bother continuing with the game.serieus

Chrono Trigger/Cross. By the way, I feel the exact same way about a games storyline.

There are a lot, but my favorites are:

KOTOR

Prince of Persia The Sands of Time

Halo (Only the first one)

Starcraft

Final Fantasy VII

How about Grim Fandango? Great storyline.

Starcraft and Grim Fandango are great games. My girlfriend loved Grim Fandango, too bad Lucas sports only Star Wars games these days. There best was always story based adventure games like The Dig, Sam and Max, Grim Fandango, all great stories and great games.

Homeworld, without a doubt.
Half-Life in second place.
Doom_HellKnight

oh my lord, I forgot to mention homeworld. The narrator alone caused so muc emotion for me in that game, he had this old, eery voice that was so good at storytelling. And Karen Sjet had this depressed, monotone voice that really led you to believe she was this cold, logical human integrated with the mothership.

Homeworld for the win!

Kotor is number one.

artur79

I forgot about this one. Good call!

Deus Ex for its awesome and film-noir-ish near future conspiracy theory

mrbojangles25

Yeah, it was a good story and the setting was excellent. It really helped bring the story to life.

So far, Herrick's favorite video game story is the one in Planescape: Torment. I have not finished this game yet though.

Dreamfall for sure! 8)outlandos_nl

Dreamfall was good, indeed.

I didn't quite enjoy The Longest Journey though.. it was too.. cliché? I mean, not in a sense that you've seen it all before, but oyu just saw it comming, and everything just went too smoothly. I mean, two races who have been in war and despise eachother, you come and go "LETS BE FRENDS" they go "YAY"... It's just.. meh

Here is a sample of good plots in some of the games that I have played:

Starcraft + Broodwar

Descent: Freespace 1 & 2

Warcraft 1,2,3 + Exp

Homeworld, Cataclysm (Not HW2)

Dreamfall

LEgacy of Kain is the king when it comes to story & very compeling characters ...

Prince of Persia series

Splinter Cell series

Hitman series

Half-Life series

Kane & Lynch will surely have a great story ...

Tomb Raider allways had a great sotry

Bioshock has very good premise & i'm hopping for a good ennding or endings :D

Assassins Creed defenetly will have a great story beeing based on 1one of humanities most important times in history !

Final Fantasy VII.D9-THC

You read my mind.

Metal Gear Solid, 7th Guest, Half-Life, Silent Hill, Resident Evil 2 (minus the voiceacting)... Agh too many!

MGS for the console win. 7th Guest for the PC win.

Planescape Torment. Hands down easily best story history of video games. No you can't beat it. Sorry. koza_76

Ok...I'm going to play it now.

Way too many people have said it has a good story and I LOVE a good story...

Planescape Torment : the best story i ever saw in a game. besides the story its dialogues were also great.

Warcrfat 3 - So many elements like disgraced prince, outcast hero, TheMOR etc mixed togethar to give a higly enjoyable storyline

Thief series has my vote!

Half-Life and KOTOR series are great stories too. Although maybe not the best "story", Elder Scrolls has loads of lore amongst its games.

A good storyline helps you to be motivated to keep moving forward in a game. In my opinion if the game doesn't have a reason for why I'm solving puzzles, or shooting people then why bother continuing with the game.

Here are some of my favorite stories:

Gabriel Knight: Sins of Fathers

Mafia

Max Payne 2 (though it can be confusing)

King's Quest 6

What's a game that brings about the best in storytelling?

serieus

PC-wise, the best story I've played is probably either Elder Scrolls Oblivion or Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War. Still playing through Bioshock so I don't know.

However the best storyline out of all games I've played would probably be Chrono Cross for the Playstation hands down.

The Secret of Monkey Island Ibadash

I agree! Also KOTOR, Grim Fandango, Half-Life 2 and Dreamfall. It's really a shame that most games don't seem to include a very interesting story.

Hopefully as games' technology gets better then a good storyline will be a requirement for most games.