Let me get the good gameplay/good story games. Graphics are nice but they’re just the icing on the cake.
I want to hear some recommendations too !
Me and my friend recently finished aragami 2, we both really like the gameplay but thought the story was only alright but if you like sneaky type games you might like it
I’m all for good stories. Do you all know any story-focused games?
The Yakuza games, but to be fair it’s maybe more of a case of good writing rather than good story…
Disco Elysium has been described as “the best game I’ve ever read” by someone I read online once. It is very heavy story focused.
Baldur’s Gate 3. But the learning curve even on the easiest difficulty is pretty high. You’re going to die or save scum a lot if you don’t know DnD that well. Worth it though 100%.
Though bg3 contrary to a lot of good story games has excellent gameplay
I’m willing to accept the downvotes, but I found BG3 bland and corny.
Maybe I didn’t get far enough in the game, but the stories were kinda boring and the characters were annoying. Every time they spoke I wanted them to stop, especially Astarion.
I know different people like different things, but I gave that game far more time than I usually would’ve because of the critical acclaim and it just fell flat at every point.
Upvote for relevant discussion/opinion. Remember it’s not an agree/disagree button.
I’ll up vote this. I can’t pick it up any further because I’m sick of hearing about all the companions “troubled pasts”.
It’s also so over the top for each of them, it would be more refreshing if one of them just had a normal cliche backstory. Instead everyone is extremely damaged and fucked up it’s like playing D&D with a PTSD Support group.
“Oh yeah so sorry you had to watch your mother shoot up heroin and pass out every night with a different stranger. That’s pretty sad. Well um hate to interrupt, but uh just want to um keep the game going… So let’s roll to kick this goblin off a cliff.”
Disco elysium
I love what Remedy entertainment is doing with Alan Wake/Control/Quantum Break.
It’s a bit all over the place and an acquired taste, but since Control/Alan Wake 2 they’re really bringing it all together.
It’s kinda world building focused and spans across different games, rather than a concise “beginning and end” story. Quite difficult to describe tbh, but it’s probably the only video game story I’m really invested in.
I’d recommend starting with Control or Alan Wake 2, but I believe proper order would be Alan Wake 1>Quantum Break>Control>Alan Wake 2.
i wanted to play aw1 again and i think i had finished it before but Jesus Christ it feels janky.
i kinda miss the times when i could only buy a game or two at a time and that forced me to play them for a while.
now if I’m playing a game with jank i can just switch to one of the other 2000 games i already have waiting.
and i loved control but it has the worst save points. i just don’t want to go back several rooms every time i make a mistake. that alone stops me from playing it again.
Series: MGS, Yakuza/LAD, Nier, Mass Effect trilogy
MGS?
Metal Gear Solid
A Plague Tale: Innocence and the sequel Requiem are both amazing. The games are both very linear, which to me helps with narrative urgency feeling authentic. I highly recommend the games.
Dishonored is my favorite, and one of few single player games I’ve actually finished
Unless you haven’t heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG, FFXIV, in which case, that’s my favorite
I’m highly recommending Oxenfree for the conversation system. Characters talk to you and each other in real-time and you have to choose an answer or silence in time. It’s might be more on the atmospheric side than story, but I recommend it anyway.
It takes time, effort and manpower to get good gameplay right.
I mean, plenty indies dish out excellent gameplay. So, I rather feel like it conflicts with good graphics.
In particular, and this is an old-man-yells-at-cloud take, I do not feel like 3D graphics do us many favors for gameplay.3D usually just means less overview what’s happening around you and more directions in which you can miss jumps/targets.
Game worlds suddenly need to look realistic, with sprawling (empty) mountains, cities and whatnot, rather than just screen-after-screen of compressed gameplay levels.
And of course, it’s also much more challenging for gamedevs to prototype in 3D, when prototyping is essential for good gameplay.Yup, Phasmophobia for instance is good. A bigger company could make more elaborate ghost stories, but would more likely go for micro transactions in cosmetics/items.
Good story when?
The story is in your head
Some games have a better story and visuals that movies these days… Watching playthroughs is at times more interesting than watching series.
I watched a 4K play through of Hellblade 2 a couple of months back. Played and loved the original after my wife played it and loved it. She played the second one and said that while the story was good and it’s very pretty, it was kinda dull to play.
So yeah, I watched someone else playing it, and yeah, the story and visuals were great.
I’ve heard some devs say that graphics are more related to marketing than gameplay. Games with good graphics get more clicks.
Some games don’t even need a story. Apex and League of Legends for instance.
I feel that’s almost unfair to LoL. Shitshow of a game it may be, the lore is actually pretty fantastic. It’s also got nothing to do with the game itself which is why I’m waiting on that MMO.
An MMO seems a much better fit for the lore indeed!
No, a thousand times no. MMO are static loopy deathtraps. Nothing can ever change or evolve, everything is dead and storytelling is bland and impossible to focus on.
But ot be fair I hate them with a passion…
That is also true, and why I don’t play MMOs.
The dcss philosophy
A game that has no story but excellent gameplay has zero interest for me.
So… not a Tetris fan, are you?
Nope. Boring as shit.
