10 Best Written Video Games

[Zeus]

Portal does have great writing, mostly in that it's clever, brief and unexpected. The story is good (in a spoiler-free environment, no one would expect the twists it took in a puzzle game--it'd be like Tetris turning into Silent Hill midway through), some of the lines were genuinely hilarious, and the villain was my favorite in a good long while. But the thing I liked most is that they used self-restraint.

Word vomit has been a bane to RPGs since the late 90s, when games like Xenogears and Planescape: Torment hit, seemingly with the goal of including every word the designers ever thought of, without a bit of editing.

I blame the CD-ROM. There was a time when space was so precious, Goldbox games had to include most of the story in a printed manual. And you can bet your ass they combed over every paragraph, omitting useless words. Then games hit a point where text space is basically limitless, which game designers took as a sign they should stop editing themselves. Dialog? Why bother! Just unleash a stream of consciousness of James Joyce proportions.

To be fair, Torment's writing wasn't bad, so much as excessive to the point of making the game poorly paced. But Xenogears was not only excessive, it was badly translated and riddled with typos.

I didn't read the article, though, because Oblivion's story is not that great. Open worlds are, by nature, at odds with good storylines. And including it on a list of best stories is basically including yourself in the doopity boop be doo club.

 

[mysterious-stranger]

*Guy praising DA2 for it's story and characters*

No

 

[DraQ]

Portal does have great writing, mostly in that it's clever, brief and unexpected. The story is good (in a spoiler-free environment, no one would expect the twists it took in a puzzle game--it'd be like Tetris turning into Silent Hill midway through), some of the lines were genuinely hilarious, and the villain was my favorite in a good long while. But the thing I liked most is that they used self-restraint.

Word vomit has been a bane to RPGs since the late 90s, when games like Xenogears and Planescape: Torment hit, seemingly with the goal of including every word the designers ever thought of, without a bit of editing.

I blame the CD-ROM. There was a time when space was so precious, Goldbox games had to include most of the story in a printed manual. And you can bet your ass they combed over every paragraph, omitting useless words. Then games hit a point where text space is basically limitless, which game designers took as a sign they should stop editing themselves. Dialog? Why bother! Just unleash a stream of consciousness of James Joyce proportions.

Luckily, full voice acting became standard and fixed this.

I didn't read the article, though, because Oblivion's story is not that great.

I heard that muslim theocracies are not that tolerant - any truth to that?

 

[Jasede]

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/988968-dragon-age-ii/reviews/review-145912

STORY 9.25

The story of the first Dragon Age was based almost entirely on the world it took place in, not as much as your character you played as. The sequel negates this idea by making it take place almost entirely in one city, which is the city of Kirkwall, which makes it much more personal because you are more familiar with your environment and are not constantly moving around to different cities where things are constantly changing. I personally think that this is a great thing to do because it definitely feels like YOUR city, however I can see how some people may not like it because it definitely feels limiting, and it also makes the game lack a sense of diversity in the environments.

Another thing that makes this story much more personal is the inclusion of family, which does in fact play a huge role in the story. The beginning of the story deals with Hawke trying to get his family safe, and throughout the game, you will become a champion of Kirkwall, plus your family grows and changes just as the character of Hawke does, and their actions depend very much on what you do throughout.

The story brings in many decisions that will invoke emotion, and some decisions will make you truly stop and think about the consequences that may occur. The thing that makes it even more incredible is that even from your very early decisions, you will feel like your decisions have a very significant impact on the world. There will be times where something bad might have happened, and you could have done something earlier to stop it from happening, and it makes you actually think about it. It is very well done, especially since the overall story of the game lacks direction. It truly feels like your story; a story that you the player craft.

My personal story felt almost like a romance at parts because of a path I decided to take with a certain companion, and it amazed me at how the story shifted to allow that. It is even more amazing because I know somebody who played through the game without that companion at all, and in mine, that companion was almost integral to the story.

The story spans 10 years and is separated into three acts, each of which ends in a major event that will affect the city in a big way. The problem is, however, that there isn't really an overarching story that ties the three acts together. The only thing that really ties them together is the rank in the city that Hawke grows as time progresses, and there are times where you might feel like you don't remember why you are doing some of the things you are doing. It may get irritating at times, but it never affected me so much that I wanted to stop playing. Part of what helps that is the number and quality of awesome side quests.

There are four types of quests in the game. There is Main Plot quests, Secondary Quests, Companion Quests, and Side Quests. Main plot quests are the line of quests that will make you proceed through the story throughout the three acts. These quests usually bring an important plot point into your mind, however there are times where you may not be exactly sure how it affects the story. Rest assured, you will find out eventually, and when you do, you will be happy you did so. Next up is Secondary Quests, which is an interesting animal. Many of the Secondary Quests are simply “go there, do this, come back” quests, however every once in a while, there is a Secondary Quest that has a plot that is very intriguing, and you will want to see them through until the end.

Next up are Companion Quests, which are certainly the best side quests in the game, assuming that you interact with your companions. Each companion you have has their own unique back-story, and the many of the Companion Quests that you do involve that specific companion's back-story. Doing these quests not only gives you an interesting plot, each of which you will want to see through until the end, but they also further your relationship with that character, romantic or not. Last and certainly least are Side Quests, which essentially are quests in which there are things that you can find along the way, and if you find all of them, you can go back and claim a reward. It is definitely the weakest of the quests, so much so that I didn't complete a single Side Quest.

Speaking of companions, lets talk about the romances with companions. You will encounter a multitude of companions, each of which you have an opportunity to engage romantically with. Much to the game's credit, unlike the first game, some of the companions that you have the opportunity to have sex with in the game are characters that you would actually WANT to have sex with, regardless of the player's sexuality. I don't know how BioWare did it, but they managed to make each of these characters very interesting and compelling, and they also make you think before you act because there can be times where if you do something wrong, the companion can leave, sometimes for good.

One thing about the characters that I did not like, however, is that throughout the game, there will be a number of characters that you can choose to either save or let die. Being a “good” character (which I will get to later), I saved all that I came across. The problem, however, is that near the end of the game, there are parts where many of the characters you interacted with and saved come back, and you are almost expected to remember all of them and what you did for them. This is very frustrating to me because I didn't remember many of them, especially since there are characters in the game that look very similar, almost to the point that you cannot differentiate two different characters.

Overall, I thought the story was excellent. The characters in it are incredible, especially the ones that return from the first game (Enchantments anyone?). It may be very different than that of the first, but in a way, it had to be, because if it was just another “the end of the world is coming” story, players might have felt Deja vu and may not have seen it all the way through. With this, however, I wanted to see how the game would end, which is a huge credit to the game. Another credit to the game is that it stops you from playing either a completely good or a completely bad character as many RPGs nowadays allow you to do, even more so than the original Dragon Age. You may think you are doing a good thing, but it can easily turn into something bad, and there are consequences to everything. This is a great thing to see, as many times in games you choose the good dialog option because you want to be the good guy or vice versa for evil, but this game can preclude you from doing that very easily.








http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/187975-plane ... iew-126768


"A long-winded, frustrating version of Fallout 2."

Planescape: Torment is an RPG cult classic released by Black Isle Studios in 1999. It is one of the most open-ended games ever, as there are many possibilities when it comes to customizing your character and numerous quests. It has received numerous distinctions. Seeing it named in Top PC Games lists and made by the developers of Fallout, I decided to give it a shot.

The setting is based off a Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign. If you have not played AD&D, then this game will be very hard to understand at first. There are a lot of references to it, from the main city to characters you come across. For example when you learn a spell you have to equip it then sleep to memorize it. It also uses Bioware's Infinity Engine used in games such as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. Don't know what that is? Good, neither did I.

STORY: 3/10

The story begins with the protagonist, The Nameless One, awakened on a mortuary table by a floating skull named Morte, who you also control. Basically you are on a quest to figure out why The Nameless One cannot die. Throughout your adventure, you meet several diverse characters (there are 6 other possible NPCs) and pick up many other quests. The game has references to a lot of wide references, not just to AD&D, and unique languages. However I found the use of 17th-century English slang and uncreative names, like Ravel Puzzlewell, to be of no interest.

I found the story to go from interesting to uninspiring. The story isn't too bad at first, but the game continues with long-winded explanations of unnecessary background stories that are really hard to pay attention to. You discover a lot more about the protagonist as the game goes on. But halfway through the game I found myself skipping through the dialogue as fast as possible.

GAMEPLAY - This is where Planescape: Torment really fails. 2/10

Somewhere along the making of this game the developers of Planescape:Torment forgot that games are supposed to be fun, and a deep story is used to enhance that quality. The bulk of the game is spent in text. Massive amounts of text.

The majority of experience comes from text quests, not through battles. A lot of the quests involve running back and forth and engaging in conversations. The conversations are especially long-winded. Many times you will have to hit "Click for More" button because the whole dialogue won't show up in the window. I was able to follow the dialogue initially, but the sheer amount of unnecessary wordiness will break down anyone's attention span. The conversations depend on what you say. There isn't necessarily a right thing to say in every conversation, but a few important outcomes depend on certain dialogues. It isn't too hard to figure out the right thing to say, because they are usually the longer lines. You don't have to bother reading them.

Controls are good, but the map is very frustrating. You can't skip from one section of the town to another on the world map until the end of the game, and that only works if you run to the town exit. The map is supposed to be responsive, so if you click on a section of the map your characters will run there, but this rarely happens.

In terms of what makes this game open-ended, there is an alignment system in the game based on your character's actions. You can join factions and become a fighter, mage, priest, or thief. Your character can't die, but there are a few parts of the game where it will end if you fail to accomplish an event.

If people say you should save before talking and the majority of the game involves talking, then the game isn't very fun.

LOOKS AND SOUND 5/10

Nearly ten years after its release, there's really nothing to complain about in terms of graphics. The game does a nice job of using different colors.

The soundtrack, on the other hand, is a much different story. Especially the battle music. It's really annoying. I played my own music to combat it from tormenting my mind. A few important characters, such as the NPCs, have voices but you rarely hear them because the dialogue is so complicated. There are a few annoyingly voiced characters. The floating skull, Morte, can be entertaining.

REPLAYABILITY - 2/10

This game takes a healthy amount of time to complete, it took me a month but I didn't play every day and probably completed about half the quests. I really forced myself to complete this game because of its reputation. You can do a speed run in about 10 hours, but you will miss most of the quests. Judging by its popularity, if you like the game you will replay it. But I will never do so.

FINAL WORD - 3/10

If you are unfamiliar with the AD&D system or don't like massive amounts of text, then you should probably skip this title.

PROS
Good controls
Various ways to play
A lot of detail

CONS
A lot of backtracking
A lot of text
Annoying sound
Unlikeable characters
Uninspiring story
Unnecessarily long
Not much in terms of gameplay
Did I mention a lot of text?

MEIN LEBEN

 

[Zeus]

Luckily, full voice acting became standard and fixed this.

Hehe. You troll, but it's actually true in a way. Unfortunately, WRPGs decided to chop out alternate dialog paths (rather than just condense and focus on better writing), and JRPGs tend to get around this by only voicing short, introductory segments. So we're in a whole new era of stupid right here. :D

 

[Jasede]

Voice acting! Hate! Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers...

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Unfortunately, WRPGs decided to chop out alternate dialog paths (rather than just condense and focus on better writing), and JRPGs tend to get around this by only voicing short, introductory segments. So we're in a whole new era of stupid right here. :D

Hey, I happen to like this style.

 

[Sceptic]

Portal does have great writing [...] Torment's writing wasn't bad

Did you make an inversion there without noticing?

Hey, I happen to like this style.

It's definitely much better than full VA.

 

[Gragt]

SHODAN vs GLaDOS: which is better and why?

Discuss!

 

[CorpseZeb]

SHODAN vs GLaDOS: which is better and why?

I always think, there is small, very small, very, very small chance of getting laid with Glados (Madame, here I'm doing right all tests so!). With Shodan – no fucking chance...

 

[Gragt]

Forget I asked …

 

[SCO]

Shodan would hurt you while she fucked you.