Your favorite gaming narratives

[Specterbane]

So The Escapist has a new series of weekly videos you've probably heard of called Extra Credits. Which is all about game development as the media comes into it's own realization of how it's unique from other media.

So with that being said, what are your favorite areas where a game brings you into it's world with it's narrative?

Personally I really enjoyed the way valve did it with Portal. The clean-room look to most of the test chambers was very well contrasted later in the game as you get to the end. Likewise, the only contact you have is a one way "conversation" with a creepy computer, even the observation areas are noticeably empty as you go through the game. All of that gives you a distinct feeling of being alone and abandoned.

Metroid prime did a good job with that feeling of solitude as well by having there be almost nothing there that wasn't trying to kill you at least a little bit. Everything about the game made you feel like a stranger in a strange land.

So what has been good for you guys? What's been bad? This is a fun subject to talk about and I hope we'd all like to see other's opinions on it.

[tacticslion]

I highly enjoyed several of Square's titles.

Vagrant Story, despite having a someone incomplete plot, was engaging and drew me in, and also gave that feeling of loneliness, but used the environment well enough, and set the stage nicely enough to make the world feel 'real', especially with little touches like bottles of wine in appropriate places, and the architectural elements (semi-accurate as they may be). Final Fantasy Tactics gave me the feeling of watching historical events unfold - some combination of reading a book and watching a movie. It did so with engaging conflicts and interesting - if poorly translated at times - dialogue*. Chrono Trigger was bright and colorful, but intriguing in the "deep" elements that it briefly touched on, and even contemplated lightly (though never fully explored), and managed to draw the narrative well enough and tightly enough that they created a cohesive story from a basic 'reformat all of reality' plot. I think one of the major elements that drew me into all three games was also the musical accompaniment - not necessarily all masterpieces, but well developed enough to carry the weight and the emotion of the scenes, battles, and feeling of the games in question.

More later, likely.

*This is the original PS version, not the War of the Lions, which was excellently translated, just disappointingly "faux-Shakespearean" (alternately "faux-olde Englishe") and sloppily tied into FF12's mythology. Seriously, keeping the names "holy stones" instead of renaming "auricite" would have been perfectly acceptable. Several thousand years had passed since the events of FF12, after all, and it's likely some elements of wording had changed.

[Jesus]

I always dig it when the hero sacrifices himself for the greater good.

[Viridis]

Speaking of Portal, Valve really likes subtle storytelling. Half-Life does it without cutscenes, just what you overhear and can figure out on your own. TF2 started out with an Excuse Plot that sort of snowballed, and you can even figure out some of story by just looking at the maps (spy bases with rockets/lasers concealed behind innocence facades).

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by Jesus

I always dig it when the hero sacrifices himself for the greater good.

So you're a spoiler!CT fan too! Well, of course you are! You're perfect!

[Kim]

FFT's faux-Shakespearean stuff didn't feel out of place to me, actually. PSP version was the first version I played, and a lot of story elements, like the player knowing both sides to a story but the characters not therefore leading to a destructive conflict, felt in line with the sort of stuff you'd see in a Shakespeare tragedy.

[Seil]

You said "narrative" and I was all excited to put down Max Payne, but you know. Whatever.

I like Dark Sector a bunch for this. An infection spreading all over Lasria; there's money and luggage spread around because of people trying to get out, there's body bags all throughout the cities with biohazard warnings because of people who didn't get out... Everyone's wearing gas masks and armoured soldiers are running around fighting infected...

I could point out Soul Reaver, where Kain's decision at the end of Blood Omen 1 doomed the world of Nosgoth to filth-ridden decay that spans four more games, but that's too easy.

Half Life does pretty good with this, telling the story of the enslavement of the human race without actually doing so.

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by NonCon

FFT's faux-Shakespearean stuff didn't feel out of place to me, actually. PSP version was the first version I played, and a lot of story elements, like the player knowing both sides to a story but the characters not therefore leading to a destructive conflict, felt in line with the sort of stuff you'd see in a Shakespeare tragedy.

Really, it's not that they used Shakespearean, it's that they used faux-Shakespearean. It tried to pass itself off as older than it was, and came off sounding a bit awkward. Some of the new lines I really like, I must admit. Some of the characters come off better now. Some, however, like Gafgarion (the Dark Fell Dark Knight) come off as too formal, and not nearly as barbaric and 'earthy' as he'd sounded before - which was kind of his thing. Further, the splicing of terms like "auracite" (which I admit is an interesting tie-in) into the already stressed vernacular makes the over-all impression somewhat weak. I'm very, very glad they fixed all the translation errors, however, as that did allow the story to take on more life, it alienated a couple of people I know from from reaching into the game by forcing them to learn a new language in addition to navigating occasionally poorly executed fake old English* (which is actually really "Middle English"/"early Modern English", as none of us could really read or understand "Old" English now). The older game actually allowed them to engage because it used more straightforward language and they didn't have to have played two or three other games to get the context. Again, I've no problem with updating the old game. I admit I'm a curmudgeon, and I like my old style* (the in-game engine graphics were better than this new-fangled "cut-scenes" and blah, blah, blah, and at least it's not related to that piece of crap FF7!), but at the same time many of the updates, ranging from class adjustments, to translation fixes, to extra story and content are fantastic; most other things are acceptable, including the cut scenes and the idea of the accents.

ANYHOO back on topic, ish...

Red Alert (the first two and expansions) actually had surprisingly engaging narratives compared to my expectations for RTS's. Starcraft also. I enjoyed the way the cutscenes actually showed people reacting the way people would really react (notable and purposeful cheese in Red Alert aside), and granting a reason for your assaults rather than just "here's the enemy: kill". Mass Effect is pretty brilliant in it's character concepts and execution, and if my computer weren't so weak, I'd still be playing it.

Freedom Force gave every element of Silver Age comic books distilled down to it's base essence and forged into video game fun - really, a near-perfect fusion of the two mediums.

While I enjoyed NWN, the story, up until Hordes of the Underdark, was pretty weak, in my opinion. But it was really NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, that showed that Atari (really Obsidian) could make a darn fine game and story and a fantastically believable world with richly detailed background characters and comprehensible ways of finding out the information you did. The visuals were okay, but really it was the narrative powered by incredibly characters you could relate to (despite their often alien nature) that drew you in and made you believe you really were somewhere in Rasheman.

[Specterbane]

Originally Posted by Seil

Half Life does pretty good with this, telling the story of the enslavement of the human race without actually doing so.

Half-Life (especially 2) does do a great job of the narrative. They leave you in that first person the whole time making you feel as if you are Gordan Freeman, and leave you bewildered the whole time while everyone else seems to understand everything that's going on and acts as if you should when Gordan doesn't.

And despite that a lot of HL2's environment's seemed a bit brown, to seem dingy, it fit really well with the story.

And to top it off, Ravenholm was creepy as all get-out like it was spoken of by the characters.

[Magus]

Originally Posted by Seil

You said "narrative" and I was all excited to put down Max Payne, but you know. Whatever.
...
Half Life does pretty good with this, telling the story of the enslavement of the human race without actually doing so.

I ain't afraid to cite Max Payne, it had one engaging-ass narrative. If you need an element of the game that achieves this engagement to justify it, I'd say it's the first-person narration that allows it to feel like a noir or detective movie, combined with a lot of the dialogue being within the action itself, such as hearing enemies on the other side of a door talking about their favorite action flicks which the game is based on, where you can either wait to hear everything they say for entertainment value or crash in and ruin their conversation, the element of choice.

I think Half-Life 2 and all related media did the best job of using particular elements of a game to drive the narrative.

Shadow of the Colossus drove the narrative by not telling you anything, really, that was pretty good.