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

Jade Empire, has you going until the end.

There are amazing games with interesting story, such as:

God of War, Final fantasy (I think the VII and X , dont remember), Fable, Max Payne, GTA III, Warcraft III, Silent hill (Awesome the first one though), Hitman, a game I played for GBA, I think Fire emblem and Golden Sun, both amazing...also, Megaman, half life, Oblivion, C&C Red Alert (mostly because its just a very nice game lol), black and white....and alot of other games im missing, but the winner of all and with the best story and game and well all is METAL GEAR SOLID, alll of them, amazing.

definetly the original cnc storyline.simply because its not like star craft run of the mill story,its original and creative.Plus each charachter has their own unique personality and are awesome!!!zonetroperalpha

No, StarCraft was a direct parody of other Sci-Fi material, but warped and sarcasticly made their own. And if you don't know the "plot twist" of death, you will be shot. At least StarCraft was, you know, impratial in it's battles. C+C was boring, usual good vs evil.

C+C was (and still is) just a Dune II clone anyway. Different my butt.

As for my picks on the best story, I'd go with StarCraft, Super Robot Taisen (A GBA game, take that!), Star Control II, Halo, Half-Life, the works.

Though I must say that alone, Half-Life's story sucks. It's only good through the presentation.

KotOR, Jade Empire, Deus Ex, Half-Life, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Zelda: Majora's Mask, Elder Scrolls: Morrowind

Not surprisingly, all of those are among my favorite games of all time.

Indigo Prophecy Aka Fahrenheit

SHENMUE 1 and 2 for Dreamcast/Xbox respectively.

The KOTOR series was good too.

Lately Oblivion would be my vote.

wow.. there are a lot of games out there people like. Some of these I may end up buying because you guys are making them seem so good :P

KOTOR, I will admit, had a great story. one of the few Xbox RPGs I beat and than wanted to play again from the start. Oblivion... I couldnt really get into. The world was so 'free' that I always ended up doing other things, and I didnt like how the monsters levelled with you.

One game with a great story, I must say was... GRAW2. I simply loved the sotry for some reason. Vegas and the original GRAW were good too, but GRAW 2 stayed in my 360 until it was done, and than some.

best PC game though would have to be half life 2 or F.E.A.R.

Grim Fandango, Grim Fandango, Grim Fandango, oh and did I mention Grim Fandango? Seriously, I can't stress it enough, Grim Fandango has the greatest story ever to bless the interactive medium. The characters alone are some of the most memorable in all of gaming, plus the plotline that takes inspiration from many movie greats, such as Casablanca and The Petrified Forest. Anyone who doesn't believe Grim Fandango to be the greatest or one of the greatest game stories has probably never played it. If you enjoy story in games, you owe it to yourself and to the creators of this game to procure a copy of it.

KOTOR I was great
KOTOR II was also good but had a lot of issues with other things
Morrowind had excellent lore if you went into it
Planescape Torment was great as well

Bioshock... you guys must be playing a different version than I am cause in mine story is pretty linear and boring (granted the setting is great)

Homeworld (rumors on number 3!!)

half life

Command and Conquer

Halo 1, not 2.

Oblivion

I am playing Bioshock on hard, and al I can say is I am unimpressed and I more than half way through. I know I am going to get flak for this, but I think Bioshock for the PC is the biggest disappointment of the year. The game has more problems than STALKER.

Defenitly Final Fantasy VIII

Grim Fandango is an amazing adventure game that spans years, Dreamfall is a cinematic adventure game, Chrono Trigger was a great story, Fahrenheit (Indidgo Prophecy) wasan amazing story with simplistic gameplay (I really want to see what the company comes out with next, Heavy Rain), Aveyond has a great story from an independent female game designer. Half Life 2 definitely had a story to follow. Planescape: Torment had a good storyline... Knights of the Old Republic, Full Throttle, Conquests of Camelot, Outcast, Journeyman 2.....

I love looking for games with great stories (and I like reading actual books too)and a cinematic feel to it, the lists goes on...I look for independent games, old games, and polished big company games(all the way back to text-based games like the "Cave" and Zork series to the latest PC and console games), these games generally provide me with the most satisfaction (next to intense action/strategy games)

I'm glad that I've played most of the games that people have listed. Good to know that I haven't missed many of the games with great storylines. :D

Anyway, my favourite is probably Planescape: Torment, although it was great to see Gabriel Knight in the first post - nobody ever remembers that outstanding game.

Bioshock is definitely one of the best games (gameplay and storywise) that I've played in quite some time. You feel so immersed in the world that you feel like you're really there in Rapture. Some memorable stories for me were MGS3, FFX, and Max Payne.DerkaDerkaJihad

Yeah I think the voice acting really sealed the deal on Bioshock. However, I haven't seen a game that really blew my mind story-wise since Chrono Trigger/Cross. God, I wish Squaresoft would ditch Enix and come back to the light. Then again they didn't do so bad with FF12...I wonder how FF13 will be.

Still, I'd love to see another sequel on the Chrono series.

Has no one mentioned Baldurs Gate 2? That game had probably one of the greatest protagonists ever. It really was a truly stunning acheivement.

People are mentioning Bioshock a lot - I agree that the story is good and the twist really something but there's been better. KOTOR's twist had my jaw on the floor. It was the first game I had to put down in shock and go for a walk to clear my head purely based on the story.

MGS - Well the story really is too complicated and too much of a video game plot, it never grabbed me on a personal level.

Half-life 2 (i never played the first) - the story was really too generic but told very well. On plot alone it was a simple go rescue/ go kill story with the man in black thrown in for mystery.

Arcanum - huge game , multiple endings dependant on player actions, plenty of plot twists and a great background and atmosphere.

Fallout - excellent setting, multiple endings dependant on player actions through out the game, interesting factions and loreand again the atmosphere was great.

Blood Omen Legacy of Kain (the original), playing a vampire was never so much fun, the story was dark bloody and fairly complex too bad it turns nearly incomprehensible in the sequels.

Silent Hill 2- a slower brooding game with a few twists throw into the mix trying to figure out what your characters actually done and how to leave the town of Silent Hill.

The Command and Conquer series has a rather decent storyline going for it considering its a real time strategy game, something quite unique given that in RTS's the story is very much an after thought.

and following on that line, how about a turn based strategy game with a decent story going for it? (and just happening to be the best civ game and one of the best games evar)Alpha Centauri, fantastic setting and as i said its got something of a storyline and various endings depending how you finish a game, and each faction is interesting.

Baldurs Gate 2- another huge game although there isnt much consequence as say in the better arcanum and fallout game(s) but the setting is great and the story is ok with a pretty interesting set of characters and antagonist.

Thief series has dark storylines and an interesting setting and presented fantastically aswell

System Shock 2 - good setting , a few twists and a memorable villain.

Mafia, fantastic storyline classic Godfather style.

There were a few games which I thought had good settings but pretty poor storylines, these were the likes of

Blade Runner pc game - way to obvious that your character would turn out to be ..well i wont spoil it.

Final Fantasy VII - setting and gameplay+music was good but the storyline was lacking, at least it was a hell of alot better than 8.

Metal Gear Solid series- near future black ops but ruined with the rather insane storylines that kick off and the (too) bizzare characters.

F.E.A.R - nice dark setting going for it....until you realise the little girl cant actually hurt you until right near the end

Condemned - tracking down an insane serial killer leads to fighting monsters/demon with no explanation!

Nexus Jupiter Incident, starts off interesting then goes abit too crazy and has a rather poor ending.

Quake IV - fun dark setting with what is quite literally a pat on the back for an ending.

Halo - excellent setting quite a few mysterys in the first game but somehow the sequel doesnt further the story in a good way and seems to rather spoil it.

MechWarrior series- fantastic setting offcourse ,but the storylines are hit and miss,

TOP 5

1. Metal Gear Solid
2. Metal Gear Solid 3
3. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
4. Indigo Prophecy
5. Metal Gear Solid 2

Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 _o_

Jade Empire

Mafia

This thread reads pretty much as a list of great games, and I'm happy to have played most of them. There are a lot of games that I have really enjoyed and picking out the "best" is very hard. So in no particular order a few of my faves:

Deus Ex
Planescape Torment
Morrowind
Monkey Island series
Fallout series
Thief series
Baldur's Gate
Arcanum

Well my favourite games are probably - The Splinter Cell Series,JadeEmpire,Morrowind-Since all these games just had a gameplay and storyline that is unforgetable and extremely deep

to the point where you dont play anything else...Those were just tremendous games with awesome storyliines..

MGS 1 & 2

Half-Life Series

The Longest Journey + Dreamfall

Soul Reaver 1 & 2

Fahrenheit

Max Payne 2

Siberia

Silent Hill series

Advent Rising

The game play may not have been to impressive for a lot of people, but the story is what helped drive the game forward for me. Hopefully, someday....Advent Rising trilogy will be completed.

In my own opinion the best story of a game ever has been Deus Ex.

Fantastic plot with different twists around every corner.

Other mentions: Fahrenheit, Mafia, FEAR, Any MGS Game, Fianl Fantasy (7)

Half Life games had fantastic settings: half life 1 a mysterious bunker where dangerous experiments were taking place

half life 2 a totalitarian regime run by the Combine and Breen

These two games had decent stories which were overshadowed by the stories of their gamesworlds in my opinion.

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

more like history in the remaking

play system shock 2, then comment on bioshock

the best game story i've ever experienced is silent hill 1 - granted, it's not a pc game - but screw your rules! it had very poor presentation, but the story itself - which you had to practically force out of the game by interpreting imagery and symbolism and piecing together the hammy dialogue was incredibly intelligent and satisfying

as a contrary, max payne has one of the best stories - not for the story itself, which is generc, perhaps even cliche - but for the way in which that story is presented... the voice acting is magnificent, the graphic novel panes are a joy to experience and the overall tone and mood are just great

MORROWIND.....If they where to make a movie after it it would win 10000 Oscars..If you haven't finished Morrowind do not reply to my post pls....Play and then talk.THNX

My Friends WHat We do in Gaming Echoes in Eternity,Jade

Top 5:

Grim Fandango

Fahrenheit

Final Fantasy VII

Maniac Mansion 2 - Day of the Tentacle

Metal Gear Solid

and to all of you who haven't played Grim Fandango. you should!! it's by far the best story I have ever seen in a game, and the voice acting is incredible.

It's a game made by Tim Schafer, and that alone is saying much :) The story is; different, intriguing, mysterious, funny and serious (in a good way :))

So if you like adventures like Monkey Island, Broken Sword, Maniac Mansion 2 - Day of the Tentacle .. You'll definitely love LOVE Grim Fandango.

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

max payne 2 is one of my favorite games. i thought that its story and atmosphere were incredible. it was a horribly under-appreciated game