Stories in games are a bit of a contentious issue. By that I mean they usually aren't very good. We often forgive this, because games like Super Mario Galaxy and Doom have shown us that games don't need to have stories.
And then sometimes games do attempt to have serious stories but turn out like Resident Evil, which is too silly to be taken seriously. Or Kingdom Hearts, which is ridiculously overwrought and convoluted. Or Sonic 2006, which has bestiality.
So it's completely possible for no story to be the better choice. Heck, look at what happened in Doom 3 when they tried to put the story into it, it just got in the way of the shooting.
There are other cases. For example, Uncharted is an example of a game with an average story that is simply presented very well. This is often the case with many games - generic stories, but presented well. This can be applied to games like Thief or Starcraft.
Telltale's The Walking Dead, however, is an example of a game that manages to transcend the expectations of its genre, and has provided a story more emotionally engaging that can reasonably be expected of games. Rather than focus the game on zombie killing, the focus is on the survivors and the uneasy alliance they've forged, complete with disagreements about taking in new survivors, venturing off for supplies, and other scenes. There are truly gut-wrenching scenes, such as the hectic struggle to free David from the bear trap, culminating in the protagonist needing to cut his leg off. Or the scene where Lee Everett has to kill his brother. Or the climactic fight at the end of episode 2. And on top of all this, there's the dynamic between protagonist Lee Everett and Clementine, the little girl he has to take care of.
This trailer shows off some of the story bits from the first episode.
Honestly, if this game doesn't win "Best Story" at Gamespot's GOTY awards, whatever game does win better be pretty freaking engaging.
Log in to comment