Crispy™ There has never been a walking simulator with a good story

[Skinwalker]

I am generally what you call a storybro. The polar opposite of a combatfag. I have played many games with subpar gameplay but good story, and consider them to be some of my most favorite games of all time.

Having said that, I don't think there has ever been a walking simulator, a game with practically no gameplay elements besides walking and clicking on items, that actually has a good story. It's not that it can't theoretically exist, it's that the kind of people who go into "developing" this types of "games" are talentless twats, and could never write a good story to save their life.

I will even include the nuadventure "games" that have quicktime events and dialogue option selections as "gameplay" elements. That includes Smelltale, Quantic Cringe, Supermassive Turds, etc. They're all shit. Gameplay-wise, and story-wise. Fahrenheit (Dayvid Cayyyge!?) came the closest to having an actually somewhat interesting story, but devolved into utter nonsense in the second half.

Prove me wrong.

 

[GaelicVigil]

I think TES3 Morrowind has a really good story if you put effort into it...which requires a lot of reading & walking. Dunepunk with weird fantasy and a volcano where your being the true hero of prophecy is up to your own interpretation. Pretty unique compared to the other standard fantasy tropes in other games.

 

[Chimera]

...

 

[pOcHa]

What Remains of Edith Finch

 

[ColossusCimmerian]

Walking simulator are not games.

 

[ColossusCimmerian]

However TS3 Morrowind is basically a hiking simulator.

 

[babayaga]

What are your thoughts on Amnesia and Soma? Both of them are horrors and walking simulators. Soma's story is pretty good imo.

 

[luj1]

Morrowind is not a walking simulator

 

[Skinwalker]

What are your thoughts on Amnesia and Soma? Both of them are horrors and walking simulators. Soma's story is pretty good imo.

Haven't played Amnesia, got fooled into playing SOMA thinking it's an actual game, found it fairly meh. Not terrible, but definitely not good.

 

[Ezekiel]

What are your thoughts on Amnesia and Soma? Both of them are horrors and walking simulators. Soma's story is pretty good imo.

I didn't finish Amnesia, but the protagonist of Soma is too dense for the story to be good. To the very end, he STILL didn't get it. What did he think she was setting him up for, after everything they had talked about and discovered? Had long before Soma been pretty obvious to me that copying one's mind digitally would not be immortality.

 

[Ezekiel]

Actually, even though I didn't finish Amnesia, I'm still gonna comment on it. Having no one to speak or interact with, almost the whole story being told with so much reading and monologue, is boring.

 

[S.torch]

I agree with this notion. RPGs are the best genre to deliver good stories in games, but even if you look outside the genre the best stories are usually not delivered in walking simulators. Look at Metal Gear, many people call the saga movie games, and it certainly is very movie-like, but you can't deny the gameplay and the mechanics are there always supporting the story being told.

This probably has something to do with storytellers enjoying having an impact on the reader/player that can't be delivered if he or she is just a completely passive actor without any input in what is happening.

 

[babayaga]

Actually, even though I didn't finish Amnesia, I'm still gonna comment on it. Having no one to speak or interact with, almost the whole story being told with so much reading and monologue, is boring.

It is pretty much just Lovecraft's story made into a game. His books are obviously much better however, there has not been a better Lovecraft adaptation so far.
I played it semi recently and it aged quite a bit but it's still fun to play it with a friend/lover at night.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Walking simulator are not games.

However TS3 Morrowind is basically a hiking simulator.

Walking simulators aren't games, but hiking simulators have been games since Faery Tale Adventure in 1986:

 

[pOcHa]

What are your thoughts on Amnesia and Soma? Both of them are horrors and walking simulators. Soma's story is pretty good imo.

I didn't finish Amnesia, but the protagonist of Soma is too dense for the story to be good. To the very end, he STILL didn't get it. What did he think she was setting him up for, after everything they had talked about and discovered? Had long before Soma been pretty obvious to me that copying one's mind digitally would not be immortality.

he was assuming that it would always be the "clone" that was left behind - btw, did you kill or spare your unconscious other self from the first cloning (i like to think that they keep each others company now)

and did you take both electric wires from the lady near start, effectively killing her - because you only needed one of those, it was enough

also, after you bash in the brains of the little helper bot that already helped you out a couple of times before (seemed less harsh and more easier at the time than to kill the big deranged guy) - you later learn from the documents that although it was not originally self aware when made, it had just enough cranium capacity to contain a consciousness (like all the bigger models), and it so obviously did, judging solely just from the heart wrenching reaction when treacherously attacked by you as a repayment for its kindness

still thinking about those to this day, so better CnC than most other games, even if no direct gameplay consequences

 

[duskvile]

How do you define a good story? Make a list what good story need to have.

 

[Iucounu]

the protagonist of Soma is too dense for the story to be good.

Which one of the protagonists? There are at least four...

One of the plot points is that many of the humans in the game have convinced themselves that their minds will transfer if they kill themselves, so why wouldn't Simon 3 believe the same thing? I see nothing wrong in principle with a story about self-delusion.

 

[gooseman]

Planescape torment

Jokes aside, I'm curious about this. Give me some "walking simulators". I also don't understand where you draw the line. I thought amnesia was a horror adventure game with puzzles? Is "walking simulator" a mode of storytelling or a lack of gameplay? Does Obra Dinn count? Disco Elysium? Or is it simply a prejorative for games you dislike?
I'll say game writing is generally in the shitter, so games focused entirely on a story are more likely to be bad.

 

[Iucounu]

I have played many games with subpar gameplay but good story, and consider them to be some of my most favorite games of all time.

got fooled into playing SOMA thinking it's an actual game

That sounds like a contradiction of the thread start, please clarify.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Soma?

This. SOMA has some of the best storytelling in all of gaming. Don't listen to the autistic retards who were too fixated on something else to understand it's brilliance.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

I knew this was going to turn into a SOMA thread hours before I could even post. It's that gud.

 

[Odoryuk]

Gone Home is a story every CODEXer can relate to

 

[Skinwalker]

I said in another thread, and I'll say it again: SOMA gets good boy points for recognizing that making digital copies of your consciousness does not prolong your life in any way, because the copies are separate entities from yourself. There's too much sci-fi goyslop based around the idea that you can attain immortality by "uploading yourself to the cloud", and it's always retarded and makes no sense.

So, good job acknowledging this basic fact of reason and logic. The story is still dull, depressing and inauthentic, though.

 

[Necrensha]

Soma is peak midwit bait: a super simple, easy-to-understand story, that will trick some people into believing that they are a genius for ''getting'' it faster than the clueless protagonist(there's nothing to get).

 

[Raapys]

I said in another thread, and I'll say it again: SOMA gets good boy points for recognizing that making digital copies of your consciousness does not prolong your life in any way, because the copies are separate entities from yourself. There's too much sci-fi goyslop based around the idea that you can attain immortality by "uploading yourself to the cloud", and it's always retarded and makes no sense.

So, good job acknowledging this basic fact of reason and logic. The story is still dull, depressing and inauthentic, though.

Yes, though it does get more interesting when you consider that ship thing. The ship of Theseus?