I need your help settle a bet: What video game has the single greatest storyline?

KOTOR is the best of all time, and Mass Effect is by far the best on your list.

Whoops...I see that I'm late on this. Comment still holds though.
 
Donkey Kong

You're a homely little man, busting his ass up ladders, avoiding, jumping or smashing barrels and fireballs for some girl you think is hot and worth all this trouble, who was taken by a hairy, steroided jackass. You pick up her purses, her umbrellas, and her hats along the way thinking it will impress her and she will be grateful, all the while jumping on moving platforms and spring loaded jump contraptions as it goes on. Everytime you seem to have rescued her, the steroid freak grabs her again and moves on. Finally, after finally removing steel rivets from a number of platforms, sending the meathead to his demise, she professes her love for you. But do you get anything out of it? NO. The steroid freak rebounds and kidnaps her again, leading to a vicious cycle. Wanting for you to prove your undying love for her, everything speeds up and increases in difficulty continuing to do this until you die, never proving yourself worthy of this dame's love, and she'll go off with the meathead. Moral of the story - stick with the low maintenance women cuz these high maintenance ones will lead to an early demise.

How do you like Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell now?
 
Mass Effect sucks. Any other RPG would easily win if the list wasn't just chosen at random from the rubbish current drifting around.
 
[quote name='Jodou']Chrono Trigger obviously.[/QUOTE]
Definitely this, how can this not even show up in your top 5?
 
It's hard to say what the single best storyline ever was for me.

Psychonauts- I appreciated this game more for it's creativity and level design (amazing!) than the story. It was there, enough to pull me along, but definitely not what made it great to me.

Halo- Again the gameplay here outweighed the story. Although I will admit I played through the campaign levels many, many, many times and never really tired of the objectives. Taken as a whole story arc that spans all the games, however, and I really appreciate the depth and scope of the Halo story universe.

FFVII- Definitely a strong story when I played it through the first time. A real epic journey and it definitely had a lasting effect on me. However, it was my first "super-epic" hardcore RPG so there's that too.

I'd put out a vote for The Longest Journey. A niche title, but one with IMO a great story. A ton of imagination and creativity there. I really became invested in the characters while playing through that. The sequel (Dreamfall) was a nice followup. I'm not sure if TLJ is really a "fair" choice though, since the whole game is story. As a point and click adventure, there is not as much gameplay and a huge focus on storyline/character development.

Finally, this may stir up some controversy but I really liked RDR for the fact that
they put in the ending where you finish your "mission", then return home to your family. It really stretched the game beyond "well we killed the bad guy/main boss/saved the planet, so hurray everything's great and we will all live happily ever after- end story. In RDR you get to experience some of that "good life" your character worked all game for.
I give RDR bonus points for that because you don't see it in games that often.

I'd also say I'd have to agree with dmaul. As I was thinking through my favorite gaming experiences, the strongest titles have always been a combination of storytelling and gameplay. Titles like Zelda Wind Waker, Bioshock, Mafia II, etc. all great games but the gameplay drove me through as much as the storyline did.

Ruahrc
 
[quote name='Ruahrc']I'd put out a vote for The Longest Journey. A niche title, but one with IMO a great story. A ton of imagination and creativity there. I really became invested in the characters while playing through that. The sequel (Dreamfall) was a nice followup. I'm not sure if TLJ is really a "fair" choice though, since the whole game is story. As a point and click adventure, there is not as much gameplay and a huge focus on storyline/character development.[/QUOTE]
I'm glad Dreamfall got a mention! Some elements of the plot hew pretty close to standard sci-fi/fantasy videogame cliches, but the characters are really well-drawn and the plot unfolds in an incredibly compelling way. My wife, who generally hates videogames, got totally sucked into it and would actually ask me to play it so she could watch and see what happens next. It's on Xbox Originals or the disc is pretty cheap used, definitely something people should check out.
 
[quote name='LottaGames']Mass Effect sucks. Any other RPG would easily win if the list wasn't just chosen at random from the rubbish current drifting around.[/QUOTE]

You know something? YOU SUCK!!

:cool:
 
[quote name='Jodou']Chrono Trigger obviously.[/QUOTE]

Nailed it. Thread over. OoT, Xenogears, FFVI, Red Dead Redemption, ICO and Super Metroid also have fantastic stories.

Lots of games have good stories, some have great stories but only a few have truly memorable stories.
 
Metal Gear Solid 4. That one killed me and needs no explanation or defense. It speaks for itself.

Uhhh, but if that gets tossed out on a technicality for being part of a continuing storyline then my vote goes to Braid. BRAID I TELLS, YA!! Why? EVERYTHING about that game was gorgeous. The story almost felt more like a really great novel than a video game. That was some SUPERB story crafting. The way it unfolds in game play is just heartbreaking.
 
Wow...Halo is on the list? Not really sure how any FPS can be on the list....I think, and this will not be in any order, but Bioshock, Heavy Rain, and Alan Wake blow all of those away. Hell, I'll even throw Dead Space out as making me care more about the character than Halo in a FPS (Duke Nukem & strippers wins for me, but that is another story).

MGS4 was a good storyline, unfortunately it gets a bit downgraded for me on the game play aspect because I thought they should've just made a movie...wait, that's what I watched.

ME was very good, but wouldn't make the top of my list....one of the better RPGs though.
 
Halo and ocarina of time are great games, but not because of the storyline. Honestly not much really happens in OoT and there is hardly any dialogue.

I'd vote FF7, epic storyline. I haven't played Mass Effect though so I can't rule that out.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']I'm glad Dreamfall got a mention! Some elements of the plot hew pretty close to standard sci-fi/fantasy videogame cliches, but the characters are really well-drawn and the plot unfolds in an incredibly compelling way. My wife, who generally hates videogames, got totally sucked into it and would actually ask me to play it so she could watch and see what happens next. It's on Xbox Originals or the disc is pretty cheap used, definitely something people should check out.[/QUOTE]

Pretty cheap used? Is it easy to find? I got my xbox copy from Goozex a long time ago and am holding on to it. It has a pretty inflated point value on there so I always figured it was either hard to find or slightly valuable. I know the game wasn't a big hit commercially so I'm not surprised if there are not that many copies floating around. I suppose the PC version is real easy to find though.

But yeah, a great game. Did you play TLJ? If not I'd highly recommend that too, even cheaper as a download title I think.

The friendship between April and Crow is one of my favorite character interactions ever in video games.
 
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