Games with good storylines

[CommanderKeen]

Alright fellas -
I wanted to see some lists of games with some good storylines (this includes plot, character development and interaction, original dialogue, etc.). I'm also talking about games where you can choose which path you want to take, and I'm not talking about the black and white of "be good or be evil."

I'm starting to think well written games are becoming a lost art. There was SO much potential for them especially in RPGs, but it's dying away. I want games that have the same meat in it as a lot of good books do.

Here are some of the best games with good plot I've come up with (this includes a lot of PC games, b/c PC gaming companies make a lot of games that console gaming companies could learn from):

-Monkey Island series (esp 1 &2)
-Full Throttle
-Colonel's Bequest
-Indiana Jones and the Fate of the Atlantis
-Halo 2 (gameplay didn't have plot, but what you did in the gameplay produced the cut scenes that made for an awesome story. Halo 3 kind of lost this.)
-Fable
-Zelda 64
-Kings Quest games (esp Kings Quest V and VI)
-Oblivion (had some interesting development, but can majorly use some work on characters and dialogue. You don't come out of that game saying "That was a really awesome character" about anyone)

Lets see some other lists (especially since I'm curious if I've missed any good ones over the past years that I can go back to)

[Swampy]

mass effect apparently...

[marX]

I am a huge fan of great stories...The best I've come across lately are:

Knights of the Old Republic : part one or two are both good but part one is the more complete game...Plus the story is better, if you can run it on you're Pc it's a must. Or get the backwards compatible xbox platinum version {it has to be the platinum version because the bugs are worked out and runs in 480}. You must get this game...don't read anything about it, go off of blind faith and play it, if you read something on it you might get a spoiler. We all know spoilers are bad for games with great stories.

Shadow of Colossus: This game is greatness, if you have a PS2 you must own it.

The Prince of Persia games have a great story involving time travel {who doesn't like time travel}...The Narration is superb {so far only part one is BC}.

And of course Mass Effect has a great story....It's safe to say Bioware games {Baulders Gate 2, Jade Empire} have great stories along with character development.

Oh and lastly Half-Life 2 has great character development and atmosphere...Portal is very entertaining because of the story; I get a sense of joy when I play through the game that I have never got playing anything else.

And just because I promote it...Panzer Dragon Orta has a really good story and is backwards compatible.

I realize I sound kind of arrogant in my post, but these games are that great I want the world to play them...These games are the reason why I play video games. As far as I'm concerned these are must play throughs{que cool pose}

P.S. I would also recommend playing Shenmue 2...But as soon as the game becomes great it ends...I await the conclusion.

[Angdvl089]

The Half-Life series. I honestly think about buying a PS2 just for Shadow of the Colossus.

[El_Phantasmo]

Vagrant Story on the PS1. It's old, but it was gooooooood.

Most of the Final Fantasy games Except the online only one - not played it and I don't intend to pay to play.

Phantasy Star Universe As with most RPGs you start thinking you'll be able to control/affect everything but can't. But, there's a couple of nice developments in this, and the plot is quite cool in the way it does intros and endings as though it were an anime series on TV.

Halo games Better than most Sci-Fi games which just try to out-weird each other. Least it was well written, consistant in it's oddness etc and didn't just throw random plot fudge at you.

Splinter Cell Good line of games. Not amazing, but quite groovy.

Enchanted Arms Quirky game, even if one of the starting characters is the most annoying character of any game out there and so sterotyped it's offensive! Good plot though, keeps you interested.

[Rhym3z]

Half-life (series Not just 2)

KOTOR 1 + 2

Eve online - the longest and probably the biggest game ever made?

World Of Warcraft.

Possibly Hellgate: London.

Diablo 2

not sure what else

[Diesel]

All of the above! hehe!

[marX]

Originally Posted by Rhym3z

Half-life (series Not just 2)

The only reason why I didn't say the first one is because every body has emulated the story in part or whole...So if you play the game now you're like I've seen somebody do that before....

What Half-life does do that nobody else has yet to touch on....Is the game sucks you in and you feel like you are Gordon Freeman...And as you play through the game you feel like you are a genius...You really feel smart as you play through the game, it's an amazing, rewarding experience.
....................................
Also, Kudos for being Commander Keen....I used to play that and Duke Nukem growing up.

[Naicitrom]

FF7 anyone?

[Bunnytard]

Final fantasy has a good serious