My last article was focused games that I didn’t like so much, or at least the way that the game was executed. This article is, well, the opposite. These are some games that I thought conveyed a story in an excellent way, and a who’s stories are are uniquely conveyed through the medium of video games.
Limbo
Certainly one of my favorite platformers, Limbo made excellent usage of the minimalistic approach to story telling, using almost no words in text or speech what-so-ever. Everything about this game screamed minimalism, and it worked really well. While this game is open to lots of interpretation, the basic gist of the story seems to be a boy trapped in Limbo, searching for his girlfriend/sister. This isn’t the most original or thrilling of plots, but it served it’s purpose in setting up the universe, and the execution was just shy of perfect. Limbo demonstrated how pictures are worth a thousand words, and the atmosphere and emotional impact of the game was full and interesting. The only other form of media that could contain Limbo for me would either be a progression of pictures in an art gallery, or a completely silent film, and even then I don’t think the loneliness and solitude of the game would translate well.
Dear Esther
Dear Esther was quite a controversial topic this year. I don’t expect people to agree with me about this… thing, being a game, much less the wonderful game I believe it to be, but I do think Dear Esther was one of the best games to come out this year. For me everything worked perfectly; the slow paced walking, the atmosphere, the soundtrack, the narration, the scenery, everything worked together excellently. It could be argued that this game (or what ever you want to call it) could easily have been made into a movie, and in fact was a movie in it’s present state, but I disagree. What really made this game for me was the non-linear progression of the story, and the differences between each path. Each time you play the game you can move through the world through different paths, and the story will changed based on the path you choose. Sure, there exist non-linear and branching stories in other media, but as I stated in my Living Story articles I do not believe that that device works as well in other forms of media. This is another game that is open to all sorts of interpretation because of the highly symbolic and surreal style of the story, at least towards the end.
Red Dead Redemption
Oh gosh this game. This was the first time that I really felt like a game managed to immerse me into a story fully. I really felt the emotions and pain that John Marsten felt, and the game offered an expansive and life-like world that took full advantage of the resources available to it to create a world that didn’t feel plastic and fake. While the game certainly has it’s flaws, it managed to relate a powerful story that captured my interest and brought me to tears. I’ve harped on controls being the main destroyer of immersion for me, or the reason I felt so immersed in the games I’ve listed, but Red Dead Redemption is a little different. I didn’t exactly enjoy the controls, mostly because I don’t like console controllers, but also because I don’t care for third person views to often, unless they are RTS/top-down style. All in all, though, the games powerful story and excellent creation of atmosphere and a believable world completely over-powered my dislike of controllers and Third-Person views. This is one of the few AAA games I’ve played on console in the past few years that I’ve enjoyed, much less loved. It makes me curious as to what Rockstar could do if they were to put some serious effort into a PC exclusive.
Myst
I really can’t say anything about Myst that hasn’t already been said. The game contains an excellent world with tons of atmosphere, and truly one of the few games that doesn’t sacrifice gameplay for story. From the moment I found myself on the island of Myst, to the conclusion of the game, whether you get the “good” ending or one of the many “bad” endings, there wasn’t a moment were I didn’t once feel out of place of like the game had broken it’s atmosphere. Each Age felt unique and complete, and each puzzle was an interesting challenge that required both observation and logic, and not one or the other. Even if the gameplay wasn’t overly complex, it worked, and was efficient, and I can’t imagine anything besides touch screen controls working for the game.
These games should really serve as examples of how to execute a video game well (maybe a little iffy on Dear Esther based on your tastes). There are surely countless others that I could name, Bastion, the Portal series, the Silent Hill series, the Half Life series, the Deus Ex series (all two of them), just to name a few, but these games were the ones that I’m most familiar with.
RDR SPOILER ALERT
I don’t get the praise RDR gets. John was a dull “WHERE’S MA FAMILY” character who didn’t give a shit what happened around him. This can be best observed at the Mexico segment of the story. He helps both the army and rebels and doesn’t care one bit when shit goes down.
Also the final parts of the game was anti-climactic and the ending feels way too forced so there was an excuse for a sad ending. Then everyone cries “manly tears were shed”.
I find it amazing that people actually gave a shit about John’s family. Replace family with girlfriend and you’ve got the same storyline as a ton of other games out there.
It wasn’t a bad story, yeah the whole family thing was a bit generic, but I think that all the things going on around him make the story decent enough. And really it only has to be decent enough because the open gameplay will carry it through.
Glad someone else enjoyed Dear Esther. It gave me feelings that besides it only Tarkovsky movies have given me. And I don’t think it would work as a movie. Giving the player the freedom to explore and choose their pacing was crucial IMO.
I’m also always happy to hear Myst mentioned, ’cause… wait… “touch screen controls”? HERESY!
I started playing games this generation: the news post
“the Deus Ex series (all two of them)”
You’re forgetting IW, which was just below mediocrity, and the distant cousin, Project:Snowblind
Dear Esther a good game? Unbook marked, unsubscribed, shut the door, called the cops.
great article sir, although i believe Dear Esther and bioshock should switch places with that ‘games which shouldn’t have been games’, i would have rather have Dear Esther in literacy format, and i thought the gameplay mechanics in Bioshock were refreshing and exploring rapture and learning about the city and what went wrong was very compelling, fun, engaging, and very creepy and could only have been done as you playing as the character yourself along with the plot and the way characters interact with you could have only have the same impact if it was you playing, its just a shame many people shunned it because it was a first person shooter and it felt too familiar with the ‘walking down corridors till an enemy pops up’ feature during the start, you just need to get past the first few (pretty much tutorial) stages and then the gameplay becomes alot less linear. Dear Ester had a brilliantly executed setting and environment a well crafted story and a fantastic soundtrack on the other hand the gameplay element felt completely unnecessary in my opinion, while i do appreciate the fact that its solely based on exploration and you do get more story dialogue if you explore more and do get that feeling of ‘oh i wonder whats down there’ i still felt like i was only witnessing what this island and story meant and didn’t really feel like me as a player was a part of it as there was nothing to engage with really, and im not one of those gamers who thinks that action should be the thing that pushes people forward and these kind of games have no place in this industry i just think it needed something more as a video game and it felt like i did nothing gameplay wise and it just felt unimportant and i think they could have done this same idea by a writing small graphic novel or a small animated short film.