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What game has a great story and is worth the time investment?

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
boletus ,

The Hex, Inscryption

JakoJakoJako13 ,
@JakoJakoJako13@lemmy.world avatar

The first three Metal Gear Solid games have fascinating stories. They’re not the most logically sound stories and they have a lot of weird elements that make them hard to follow. At the micro scale they’re not the most comprehensive. On the macro scale they’re not hard to get into at all. When the story hooks you it really hooks you.

I was a child when I completed the first two MHS games. I never finished MGS3 because the disk got smashed to pieces. I do remember liking it a lot though. MGS2 is my favorite of the bunch. It was a good mix of old characters and new that carried the story in a satisfying way.

The absolute best story in video games(IMO) is the Mass Effect trilogy. For the longest time those games set the bar for video game story telling to me. Every character was so easy to get invested in. I cared for all of them and deciding who completed the journey or not was a series of deeply personal tough choices that carried across three games. Did the ending suck? Absolutely. Do not let that last 0.1% mar what is easily %99.9 one of the best space scifi stories in any medium.

platysalty ,

MGS2 will blow your mind. This scene from MGS2 has been living rent-free in my mind since I first saw it as a teen when MGS2 came out.

Remember, this game came out around 2000. The internet was just starting to become relevant back then.

H_Interlinked ,
@H_Interlinked@kbin.social avatar

The 3rd act of MGS2 hits like a sledgehammer after so much light hearted, self-parodying, comfortably familiar heroic espionage. The story has aged so well. It invokes that eerie 4th wall break feeling that Psycho Mantis delivered, but on a prolonged and more meaningful scale.

platysalty ,

As an edgy teen back then, I didn't fully appreciate the brilliance of MGS2. It's the one I look back at nowadays if I think about Kojima mindfuckery

meiko60 ,
@meiko60@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Octopath Traveler 1 & 2

platysalty ,

The only problem with starting Baldur's Gate 3 now is that it's gonna be a crazy high bar for everything that comes after.

But if you want a great story that's affected by your decisions and character, it's a great place to go.

Rhynoplaz ,

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.

lingh0e ,

The Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep was a great continuation of the main storyline as well.

Rhynoplaz ,

As a long time D&D fan, I geeked out through the whole thing! So much fun!

lingh0e ,

Did you play Wonderlands?

bionicjoey ,

Wonderlands is great. First good Borderlands game since Tales IMO

Rhynoplaz ,

I did. I enjoyed it, but didn’t replay it like I did with BL2.

Callie ,
@Callie@pawb.social avatar

NieR Automata for me, even with its 4 required playthroughs, it’s a fantastic story that genuinely made me question a lot of beliefs I had about life

Alternatively, NieR Replicant which is just as good on its 2nd and third playthrough because of knowing everything in the first playthrough

secondaccountlemmy ,

Spider-man is something that isnt mentioned here yet. It has amazing setpieces and a good story.

idunnololz , (edited )
@idunnololz@lemmy.world avatar

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.

Madbrad200 , (edited )
@Madbrad200@sh.itjust.works avatar

Baldur’s Gate story is great, yes.

Dragon Age (fantasy magick adventure) and Mass Effect (space opera) are also great.

bionicjoey ,

Describing Mass Effect as a soap opera makes me irrationally angry. I think you meant “Space Opera”, although even that isn’t accurate. It’s far more like Star Trek than Star Wars.

Madbrad200 ,
@Madbrad200@sh.itjust.works avatar

I definitely meant space opera lol oops

flames5123 ,

God of War 2018 & God of War: Ragnarök. I would recommend this first on PS5.

Next I would say is 100% worth the time investment: Final Fantasy XIV. It’s an MMO, but the story is amazing. You can play 99% of the story with NPCs easily. They made it so easy to pay older dungeons with the new NPC system to keep players going. It starts off very slow and just bleh (war story with light fantasy), but it gets better and better. I’ve played the 3rd expansion twice and plan on playing the 4th expansion again soon. I’ve cried so much. Even the side stories have great stories as the writers get their footing after the first bit. You’ll recognize several of the fantasy elements from FF16. I’ve only every played 15 before 14, so it’s not like I’ve spent a a lot of time in the series.

nevemsenki ,

Fallout New Vegas (with some mods), Vampire Bloodlines (with community patch) and Deus Ex Human Revolutions. I’d personally even put Deus Ex 1 there for the story itself, but the game is pretty old and may be jarring for modern audience even with mods…

beefcat ,
@beefcat@lemmy.world avatar

What mods do you recommend for FONV?

nevemsenki ,

It depends if you are new to the game or not. There’s two big categories of mods - those that only perform modernization and quality of life features, and those that rework everything until it looks like Skyrim.

If you are new, I’d recommend not using any of the latter; they can be fun, but it’s good to know New Vegas “as is”, I’d say. Otherwise the selection is so big it’s hard to pick, I’m running like 30 or so (mostly extra weapons, enhanced AI, better crafting, extra sidequests and a player home). But just give an idea on the scope of mods, the settlement building system in FO4 was inspired by mods originally in New Vegas (Real Time Settler and Wasteland Defense), so there’s really a wide scope of things to pick from.

As for the former, there’s some that jump to mind - NVAC (New Vegas Anti-Crash), FNV 4GB memory patcher, stutter remover, nevada skies and/or EVE (essential visual enhacements), and probably a texture pack or two to enhance visuals. Maybe even NVSE, which is a scripting extension mod that other mods can/will need.

AEsheron ,

I’ve heard nothing but praises for Yakuza’s story thus far. And I’m only a short way into my first game in the franchise, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and godamn does it live up to the hype. The characters, plot, world, they all are lovingly crafted and fit together so well. After this I’ll be going back to do all the Kiryu games.

Tevren ,

I highly highly recommend the entire Yakuza series if you want something story focused, with some caveats.

You’ll hear a lot about all the mini games in Yakuza but the games’ main focus is really the story. The games can take a while until they have introduced everything and you’re completely free to explore the city. Cutscenes and dialogs can be pretty long but they are all really well animated. It can sometimes be like watching a show.

Where I initially ran into issues is that I didn’t expect it to be this story heavy and just wanted to play. I highly recommend playing the whole series on Steamdeck. Since cutscenes can be long, the steamdeck’s pause and resume is really helpful.

Also, play the 2 Judgment games when you’re done with the Yakuxa series. I haven’t made it through 2 yet, but 1 was great.

MrNesser ,

It’s a bit older but I always loved Grandia’s storyline it’s on steam at the moment.

Nibodhika ,

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):

  • SOMA
  • Spec Ops: The Line
  • 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.

PrinceHabib72 ,

NieR: Automata has the same effect for me. That game made me have some thoughts, I tell you what, that once-in-a-lifetime experience you wish you could erase your memory of to experience it for the first time again.

kratoz29 ,

Hotel Dusk and Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney if you want something with a slower pace.

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