I recently finished Rise of the Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy XVI, and I’m hesitant what I should play next (PC or PS5).
With FF I enjoyed the game and the story was all I expected from it, and I’m really looking forward to the DLC.
With Tomb Raider… damn that game is all over the place. The story is predictable, and also stupid. “Why did you rush in there? Without weapons? Against an army?”, and other similar thoughts kept running through my head. I don’t feel inclined to play Shadow of the tomb Raider (the sequel).
I have a backlog of too many games, and lately it takes a lot of effort to start because I don’t know if it’s worth the time investment. I love games with good stories, and playing a game that puts the lore and story in the background feels like a waste of time.
Sure, I could get started on Baldurs Gate 3, I’ve heard great things. But is the story great? Will I be able to say “oh that chapter/fight/act is awesome!” To other people looking for game experiences?
Experiences like Escaping from the ship in Super Metroid, helping that king in Witcher 3, fighting Psycho Mantis in MGS, fighting Titan in FFXVI, killing the first colossus, escaping from darth Vader, that first Mario odyssey stage, beating the first boss in Bloodborne, playing “Brothers” for the first time and getting to the ending… all great experiences with awesome stories to tell
TL;DR: what am I missing?
EDIT: Holy crap I didn’t expect these many replies. Thank you! There are many recommendations I’ve already played, and many others I will definitely play. Thanks!
If anyone is interested in the result:
Recommended, bought:
- Bioshock 2
- Black mesa
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Death stranding
- Deaths door
- Detroit become human (PS5)
- Disco elysium
- Dragon Age
- Elden ring
- Fallout 3
- Fallout 4
- Fallout new Vegas
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Hades
- Half life alyx
- Hellblade senuas sacrifice
- Homeworld
- Horizon zero dawn
- Inscryption
- Just cause 3
- Life is Strange
- Mass effect 3
- Metro series
- Ori and the blind forest, and sequel
- Oxenfree
- Persona 5
- Planescape: torment
- Shadowrun dragonfall
- Shadowrun Hong Kong
- Soma
- Spider-Man
- Subnautica
- Tyranny
- Wolfenstein series
Recommended, to buy:
- 13 sentinels (PS4)
- Age of decadence
- Cruelty squad
- Dead space
- Ghost recon wildlands
- God of war ragnarok
- Grandia
- Kingdom Come Deliverance
- Octopath Traveler 1 & 2
- Outer wilds
- Pathologic 2
- Red dead redemption 2
- Song of horror
- Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG
- The hex
- the last of us part 2
- The upturned
- Torment: tides of numenera
- Withering rooms
- Yakuza
Already Played, and yeah, these are awesome:
- Alpha centauri
- Bioshock 1
- Bioshock infinite
- Borderlands series
- Control
- Dark souls series
- Deus ex human revolution
- Deus ex mankind divided
- FFXIV
- Ghost trick
- God of war 2018
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Hollow knight
- Hotel Dusk
- Mass effect
- Mass effect 2
- Nier: automata
- Nier: replicant
- Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
- Portal
- Portal 2
- Psychonauts 1 & 2
- Spec ops: the line
- Stray
- the last of us part 1
- The Stanley parable
- Titanfall 2
- Undertale
- What remains of Edith finch
- Witcher 3
Outer Wilds (not Outer Worlds)
Ori and the Blind Forest
Hollow Knight
+1 for Outer Wilds!
Also wanted to add Outer Wilds. The story is incredibly interesting and well-told, and it’s one you have definitely not seen before!
I wanted to say Outer Wilds too simply to have OP join us in our search for that high of another player experiencing this game for the first time. Nothing quite like seeing the game “click” when they finally get those big plot points.
Pleasantly surprised to see Outer Wilds here, which I just finished the base game of the other day. Starting the DLC now.
Great game!
Mass effect trilogy
Soma
What remains of Edith Finch
Stanley parable
Spec ops the line
Fallout new Vegas
Detroit become human
Deus ex and deus ex human revolution
I want to second What Remains of Edith Finch. Tip: play it in a single go. It will take about 2 hours, but trust me when I say it’s worth it.
How would you classify Detroit becomes human? Its been in my queue for awhile. The preview looks great, sounds great, but I havent heard anyone bring it up. Which makes me worry if its worth the time.
I’d say its worth the time. It has a lot of replayability, but I only played it once.
It’s awesome. Mainly a dialogue-based game. Drama. A lot of choices that you have to make. Emotional.
Outer Wilds
I highly recommend Outer Wilds if you haven’t already. Just don’t get it mixed up with Outer Worlds
I was really surprised by Titanfall 2. Looks like an ordinary mech shooter (okay there is nothing ordinary about that these days), but the story was solid and the level design amazing.
My only complaint is that it’s way too short of a campaign. It’s very easy to beat over a few hours, but it’s fun the whole way through and I just want more.
God of War 2018 - such a great story and you don’t need to know the previous games.
God of War - Ragnarock - it’s rare a sequel to a banger is good. Even more rare when the sequel to a banger is an even bigger banger. 2018’s story was good, ragnarock is so damn moving.
Red Dead Redemption 2 - never played the first one but bc 2 is chronologically before it, no matter. This game is so immersive and deep.
Horizon Zero Dawn - this one is probably hit or miss. You either lovr the lore or couldn’t be fucked. For me it was a great story. Gameplay may not stand the test of time however.
Ghost of Tsushima - this game is so fucking pretty.
Hollow knight - the lore. Omg the lore and the art style and omfg the music. Hidden gem.
I can’t think of more but there are a ton 🙂
Horizon’s story stuck with me for a few weeks after completing it. Also one of the few games I played all the way through without playing other games as well. I usually have to play a few different games so I don’t get burned out of any one game.
I agree on the God of War games as well. So well done.
Also, Fuck Ted Faro.
Fuck Ted Faro.
Edit to add: for me the lore of HZD was like 1 generational leap from plausible. Like it’s science fiction for sure but 1 leap in tech and it’s science plausible. That said… Fuck Ted Faro
Red dead redemption 2 has a really good story. Gameplay is pretty immersive and lots to explore.
God of war have a really good story and gameplay is overall fun.
Ni no Kuni II I found to be an interesting story. Gameplay was fun overall.
Ori, both games, has a good story to tell. Overall good platformer
Hollow knight is a fun platformer and overall story is good. Similar but not as good, death’s door.
Death stranding has an interesting story but kind of strange. Gameplay is OK but can get a bit repetitive at times.
Spider-Man, overall fun. Story is unique.
Ghost of tsushima, good story and gameplay. Visually lovely.
Cyberpunk 2077 I found immersive, story wasn’t bad but might not be for everyone.
Second the GOW’s, RDT2 and GOT. Fantastic emotional plot driven games. I’d add both HZD’s too.
Forgot about Horizon. That was a good story as well.
I’m halfway through RDR2 and the gameplay is boring af. Ok not all gameplay, mostly the quests. The world is amazing, and it’s quite immersive indeed but 90% of the quests are, go here, shoot some guys, come back.
The issue with quests in RDR2 is that they give you no autonomy. Most games set a quest objective and give you a dozen ways to achieve it. RDR2 forces you to follow the exact path through the quest that the game wants you to take. If you deviate it either fails to progress or simply fails the quest. It felt more to me like an interactive movie than a game in that respect, though you get full freedom outside of quests.
Have you done any Last of Us, yet? Both games are excellent.
First one. The second one… I’ve read it’s more of a vengeance story in the first half, and then you play the same story from the other side, making you see how awful revenge is.
Does it have scenes like the one with the giraffes?
Yep. I hated ND at the time but by the end of the game I was blown away. One of the most immersive incredible gaming experiences I’ve ever had (story-wise, both games I mean). As amazing as the first was I almost prefer the second… I’m still torn.
It’s not for every one though and it recieved a review bomb before it was released and a lot of those people still hate it.
To answer the giraffe one and without spoilers… yep there’a lovely moments in it that stick with you
I would agree that the first one is good, the second one is boring garbage in my opinion.
I like the second one better than the first.
Disco Elysium
This one doesn’t usually get mentioned when people talk about good story: Borderlands 2. (1 is dry, 3 is stupid)
It’s light-hearted so I think people don’t take it seriously, but if you look past the fart jokes, and really pay attention. You get one of the BEST villains ever, and some real emotional moments.
Undertale
Ghost trick (it’s on steam now woohoo)
BioShock trilogy
The original Ace Attorney trilogy
Also +1 to outer wilds. It’s been mentioned a dozen times here already. It’s my game of the decade.
Shouldn’t need to be mentioned but play all of these games blind because story is a huge part of them.
If you enjoyed FFXVI, it’s worth considering FFXIV.
It’s currently free to play through its first expansion and the second expansion will be free next year. So it’s a safe game to try from that perspective.
The producer of FFXIV is the same as FFXVI. His mentality has been that he’s wanted players who don’t want to play an MMO to be able to play through FFXIV’s story as if it were a mainline FF game. I’d say 95% of story content can be soloed at this point.
The two caveats are these: This is like playing through five full length JRPGs. To finish FFXIV’s story takes months. It’s easily 400+ hours of playtime imo.
The initial base game story, called A Realm Reborn or ARR is mediocre. It’s not bad, but the story quality spikes up in a big way at the first expansion and then never backs down. Even the end of ARR is really good, but it’s only decent up until then. However, after ARR is some of the best story writing I’ve ever had the pleasure to play. Shadowbringers and Endwalker in particular still bring tears to my eyes when I hear certain songs or rewatch some cutscenes. Truly a beautifully told story.
You’re missing Elden Ring. Bang for buck one of the best games hands down if you have 150ish hours to spare. Absolutely beautiful game with a great story, if a bit cryptic and dystopian. It’s a game that takes patience and can punish mistakes but just such a rewarding experience, wish I could start it over without knowing anything.
From some of the games you mentioned I think you’ll appreciate some of these games. All of them are the sort of games that have very rich stories that you will want to talk to people about, remember how you wanted to get your friend to play MGS blind just so you could see him face Psycho Mantis and have his mind blown and then you had someone to talk to about it? I had the same feeling for each of these games (which means I won’t tell you much about them, and you should try to avoid spoilers):
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SOMA
-
Spec Ops: The Line
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Life is Strange
I also think the Stanley Parable deserves an honorary spot it’s not exactly story rich but it’s a neat experience that I found quite unique.
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Bladur’s gate 3 is awesome but if you can wait, do so and you will have a much more seamless experience in the near future once more patches come out.
My recommendation is the following.
NieR Automata. It’s a masterpiece of a game with innovation all over the place. Trust me, it’s much more of a JRPG with some hot chicks. Go in blind and you will have an amazing experience.
On a similar note, Death Stranding. The story is less cohesive and honestly as a game it isn’t as good either but I still maintain that it is a game that everyone must try at least once. It’s not one of the best games I’ve played, by far but I am 100% happy that I played it.
Last recommendation is Hades. Flawless game with incredible amounts of polish.
P.S. all these games have AMAZING soundtracks
NieR, come for the 2Booty, stay for the existential questioning of the meaning of life.
One of my favorite games of all time and I 1000% picked it up because the fan art of the MC is hot.
