Single player games that are good with a really trash story?

Like the topic implied. Games that you really enjoyed but had a terrible story!!!! One that comes to mind for me would be Rise of the Tomb Raider. I mean it was fun as hell but I kept skipping the cut scenes just to get to more gameplay. I'd like to put all of the Gears title here too but really I play for the multiplayer in that.

In before Champ says them all. ;)

Pretty much 99% of the games I play.

I say about 98% of them.

@timtheenchanter: lmao

@Legend002: I'm not looking for story in games. If I want a good story i watch a movie or read a book.

would actually go with

Since Silent Hill 2 is a thing.

But otherwise, yeah, eww at video game stories.

99.99% of video game stories are ridiculous.

Red Steel 2. The gameplay is amazing and unique (due to the wiimote motion plus gameplay) but the story is horrible.

Add Planescape Torment as well, otherwise I don't think I liked any other stories in games that i have played.

Eh honestly, Planescape can kind of **** of. For every good story beat it has, you have to remember that the philosophical bullshit that comes with that game is utter tripe.

Dragon's dogma, trash story, writing, horrible quests, awful characters, still great game.

@jg4xchamp: Oh yeah, nearly forgot it's a freshman high school student's understanding of philosophy.

Basically every shmup ever. Most games have cheesy stories, but I couldn't tell you what the hell DoDonPachi was about even if my life depended on it. I still love playing them though.

Vanquish and Gears of War come to mind.

@jg4xchamp: I love you, Honeybear. ;)

One day the medium will get there, won't it?

Play SOMA

My first thought was Bayonetta, but the more I think about it, that story is actually pretty good by video game standards.

Bayonetta without a doubt.

Okay, since Cainteo will get on my shit for having a high horse, let me be more detailed and explain my position.

It's not the game's stories are worthless, they don't have to be, it's a fucking medium that is mostly action shit. You don't need a complex story, John Wick, Commando, and fucking Cobra are a blast. And they are dumb as ****, when the game doesn't take itself seriously, even the silliest of set ups can be engaging, especially if the characters are fun: Titanfall 2, the better Uncharted games, the first Halo, in other cases the dev team does a solid enough job with the presentation and set up: Max Payne, Half Life (not the story for its sequel, because that's shit), Thief.

It's more so this though, when the gameplay is driving the experience, the story just has to provide context, and it's fine, it adds a bit of flavor n personality to the experience. If that stuff didn't matter, a lot of games would just be squares shooting each other n shit. It's when the story tries to be more serious and more of an active player in the experience that a lion's share of gamings "best" stories are complete garbage. They simply lack any sort of nuance and rarely thought provoking. That and fundamentally a game is not a linear story telling medium. It's flat out at odds with telling a story, it's why games have historically used another medium's language to convey, fucking anything.

It's why the Mirko's n Bigbois of the world who love making the "film is never compared to literature" defense, way back when, are fucking ignoring a pretty fundamental difference for why that line of thinking sucks balls. Film, adapted a lot of literary works, but strictly into the language of film. In film it's a show do not tell medium, shitty films, happen to be the ones people find to be excessively plodding with over done exposition n info dumps. Not that it isn't an annoyance in a book either, but less of an issue because of the nature of a book.

Games get compared to movies in a negative light, because shamelessly this medium has tried to ape cinema's language without recognizing it isn't fucking cinema. The very nature of a story in the classical sense, or in the way we consume them in theater or film or a book, is at odds with what a game is, and I no longer care for the pretense of pretending Dear Esther is a game. It fucking isn't. Just like I no longer care for the "games have all this potential", because that's just some snake oil shit.

More to it, art criticism, in any form of art naturally focuses on separating the best of the best, which happen to offer most depth given that craft. In games, that's not a story, that's the mechanics n systems of a game. Because story wise, The Witcher 3 is good, even one of the medium's best (and on balance, I'll take the game's writing over the books any day, those books are secretly kind of garbage), but when your best is fantasy pulp, that's not a high fucking bar to be proud of.

Otherwise on topic: Good game with the worst story I can think up, pfft God of War 2 I guess. It's genuinely well made, well paced, and the bosses are fun. It's dramatically inferior to much better beat-em ups of its era and the stuff Platinum does, as it's only really enjoyable for one playthrough, but it is an enjoyable game. The story is gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarbage. The rest of the genre is at least fun n cheesy, God of War takes itself seriously and then proceeds to give you a total dickbag for a main character whose entire decision making in the story isn't even remotely something the player can empathize with or accept if they are full functioning adult.

It's the epitome of adolescent male power fantasy, Pirates of the Dark Water has better characters n plot.

Is God of War 2 actually good? I didn't like the first game at all when i played it and haven't touched the others.

Probably Metal Gear Solid 3. Alot of it is preying on emo kids through emotion, it makes them feel like a bad ass who's tortured, in a gamers mind, they think they are that, so it inflates there sense of worth. When any logic is applied it falls to bits within about 30 minutes, almost on a line to line basis.

Shooting bee-hives is fun though.

Just Cause 2 was a great game with forgettable, b-grade like story. Haven't played Just Cause 3 yet.

It adds some more combo options, and it focuses less on being poor man's Zelda, and focuses more on the stuff it's actually good/competent at. Boss fights, spectacle, action. The puzzles are used more as a pacing mechanism, as opposed to an entire fucking stretch of that game that is mind numbing to sit through.

For games like that doesn't really matter since it's generally not the point.

Metal Gear Solids constant interruptions, pretty terrible.

I actually have been meaning to.

From what I've seen and heard, it sounds like Blade Runner but set underwater, and it's more horror instead of a thriller.

@uninspiredcup: Hey man it is what it is whether it was the "point" of just cause or not.

And honestly mgs? It has legendary story.

Roughly 40% of all games I have played. StarCraft 2 definately comes to mind. The story was soo bad, but the gameplay was some of the best I have seen in any RTS, especially Wings of Liberty.

I would have said more but games I play dont waste my time with their bad writing so they don't count. But less than 1% of all games have passable stories.

@Legend002:

Vanquish

Pretty great explanation of it. I do disagree however, that gaming has no potential to improve in this department. It's all about finding a balance, which is probably one of the hardest things to do in a medium whose stories' pacing will depend on the player. It's why a lot of more urgent sections in games either have timers or put you "on-rails" like Uncharted does. It makes it more practical and realistic for the story-telling part of the game, but typically fails to deliver on the "fun" factor as it strips away control from the player to emphasize the urgency of a problem or danger. Another flaw is that if you fail, there are little to no consequences, you go back and redo it whereas in a film or book everything is controlled and laid out plainly. That's why these moments have such an affect on the player.

It's also why most dramatic points or important story needs are reduced to cutscenes because it's simply easier to do. I honestly am starting to feel that when it comes to gaming the stories that are the most important are the ones you create. Not a new idea or anything, but if you really think about most of the memorable moments for yourself in games it's usually some epic event you created yourself using the tools the game offers. Those moments you had with your friends when you were raiding a settlement in a game like DayZ and barely survived a band of crazy anonymous players. Or beating Rodin by yourself after multiple attempts. Those are what stick with you the most.

I think for games to tell stories that aren't personal experiences, I think games where exploration and discovery is key is one of the better ways to do it. Leave bits of history about the world we're exploring spread out in all these exotic locations we go to within the world. It's something I can appreciate about games like Fallout or Breath of the Wild, where the deep and juicy stories are found while exploring.

Resident Evil 4 was the first one that came to mind. One of the greatest games I've ever played and it will forever hold a spot in my top 10.

Them characters and that story are pure ass tho. Pure ass.

Pretty much every video game ever.

@jg4xchamp: Sorry Champ, I was on my way home from work. I didn't want to reply until I could sit down and do it properly. :)

Thanks for sharing that post. I'm sorry if it seemed like I was making a character of you. I respect that opinion and I think it holds weight big time! This is an interactive medium and while I personally like many examples of character and voice acting this medium has brought out. I don't want to discredit the hard work that goes into these elements of video games because talented people with good ambition really do put out entertaining work.

I think for the video games to bring out truly great stories though, it's going to be hard to do it in the traditional form, I feel because inherently there are things in action games, for example that simply don't work. Death, for example is nearly always dehumanized. Context through gameplay I feel is a more meaningful direction. It's what this medium is really good at and writing movie stories that constantly stands to juxtapose the fact that a game is a game isn't going to work. There are good examples. Abe's Odyssey delivers its purpose quite well, I feel. It's a humble effort and it really works because most of the actual happenings of the narrative are happening in the gameplay experience. It's like when video games put all their crowning moments in cut-scenes, what is the gameplay actually allowed to say? How does it contribute to the narrative at all?

I know I talk up Mark Brown a whole lot and it's not like I think all his videos are mint but this one does a good job of simplifying the potential for linear narrative in video games vs. how it's actually being done. The Language of Game

That's the abridged version. It's a very interesting conversation to have though.

Until Dawn.

God Hand. Even the characters in that game don't take the story seriously.(you also fight Power rangers in that game)

RE4's at least self aware tho, it's like the opposite of pretentious. It's a self-aware cheesefest and it plays it straight, it's lovely. Plus the one-liners in that game are fucking fantastic.

STALKER Shadow of chernoboyl.

One of the greatest game of all time but barely has any story.

Even Mafia 1??

Mafia 1 is hot garbage as a game and as a story.

you obviously didn't play it back in 2001

Too many to mention.

The story for SOC is arguably pretty good. It's told in a completely schizophrenic manner with grammar typed out by a monkey smoking Benson And Hedges, but when you know what's going in, it's neat. I like as well that you get alternate endings based on how you play than spelt out out in a trite over-elaborate manner, the first time I completed it I wasn't even aware it had alternate endings. If this was a Bioware game you'd have some PR man not shutting his face about it.

You're right I played it in like 2002, but ignoring that, that's not a good argument nor a free pass to suck.

You don't need to have seen The Godfather in the 70s, to notice why it's a special film. And the same would apply if Mafia 1 actually had a story worth a ****, and as a game it's shallow as hell and riding one giant free pass because "teh weapons have recoil" n "the atmosphere". It's fine and all, if you're a jabroni, but again for those of us that actually aren't ignorant of Mafia's many cinematic inspirations and like things like good fucking games, nah the game is garbage, by any year's standards. Be it 2001 n 2017.

When it comes to games (and pretty much movies and books aswell) I prefer lore over story. The story of LotR, for ex, is very basic from a narrative point of view but the lore is what makes its world interesting. I feel the same with games, especially those like Soulsborne and Destiny

but yeah, videogame stories can be entertaining for what they are but very rarely are they "good", wich is a shame

lol. mafia 1 is still best third person action/shooter ever made with greatest story told in game that is almost oscar worthy.

come on my friend. we know you hate mafia 2 but original game? seriously?

beside both Mafia games are better than anything resident evil 4, vanquish or shinji mikami has ever done.

I beat STALKER SOC multiple times but i barely understand what is going on in this game. only think i remember that we play as strelok.

At nothing, just further trash loved by Ghost. PC gamers want to pretend it was some slick enthusiast game, but it's every bit as dumb n mindless as any other casual game. Not surprising your fraud ass likes the game. It doesn't have any depth, that's your type of game.

Hey Champ, this one is all you brother