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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
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

pricklypearbear ,
@pricklypearbear@lemmy.world avatar

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.

ProffessionalAmateur ,

Second the GOW’s, RDT2 and GOT. Fantastic emotional plot driven games. I’d add both HZD’s too.

pricklypearbear ,
@pricklypearbear@lemmy.world avatar

Forgot about Horizon. That was a good story as well.

JimmyMcGill ,

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.

cygnosis ,

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.

potterpockets ,

Spec Ops: The Line.

A bit dated, but one of the few shooters that makes you question your actions and view warfare for what it does to civilians and to soldiers. Definitely some memorable story moments.

5ibelius9insterberg ,

This game is not fun. Not at all.

But I do not regret playing it.

FoundTheVegan ,
@FoundTheVegan@kbin.social avatar

Not so thinly veiled take on Heart of Darkness via the games industry.

Fantasic game. Intentionally meh gameplay. One of my faves, highly recommend.

Perroboc OP ,

Really good, played it when it came out. That phosphorus scene with the bodies of the victims stuck with me forever

UntouchedWagons ,
@UntouchedWagons@lemmy.ca avatar

The Outer Wilds, Fallout New Vegas and Just Cause 3

ExtraMedicated ,

I was also gonna say Outer Wilds. My Steam library is almost entirely indie games and not much else stands out to me story-wise except maybe:

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

The Upturned

Song of Horror

Withering Rooms

rustyricotta ,

Cannot say Outer Wilds enough. Wonderful experience. Exploration and lore is everything in this game. But it’s not too much. Some games have exploration and lore just for the sake of having it. Whereas everything in Outer Wilds is purposeful and motivating to do.

ProffessionalAmateur ,

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.

Montagge , (edited )
@Montagge@kbin.social avatar

The story in Elden Ring is super generic high fantasy. It's so boring.

SCB ,

I’m not the biggest fan of Elden Ring’s story, but it is decidedly not low fantasy.

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.

Commiunism ,

Disco Elysium definitely, as it’s probably one of if not the best written games available right now.

If you want something with more gameplay, you should definitely take a look at Pathologic 2. New content will be released relatively soon for it too (as in a different playable character and story), so it’s probably a good time to give it a shot.

rmstyle ,

Since you seem to enjoy JRPGs I can’t recommend Persona 5 enough! Story is at times predictable, but the characters make it worth your time.

PrinceHabib72 ,

Seconded, though particularly the Royal version. The extra semester (and related content) and quality of life upgrades are completely worth it, and the best way to experience the game.

JokeDeity ,

New Vegas

SCB , (edited )

Hey man you know where you can find a great cup of coffee? Starbucks!

Edit: this How I Met Your Mother joke apparently did not translate.

DasRundeEtwas ,

borderlands 2

optimally you scour up up to three friends to play with, but even alone the game is excellent.

it has a great story with one of the best villains in gaming ever (my opinion) as good as glados.

apropos glados the portal games are also a definite must play (what with portal 2 being the highest ranked steam game ever.)

hangonasecond ,

My personal disclaimer on this is that Borderlands is way more fun with friends, but if you want to pay attention to the story you probably need to be selective about who you play with. I find most of the people I’ve played with don’t really pay attention to the story and I either need to skip everything or force them to wait for me, not ideal for either person.

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.

hogart ,
@hogart@feddit.nu avatar

The Last of Us. Damn I loved that game. First and only shooter that I’ve ever completed.

Nfntordr ,

Kingdom Come Deliverance

filister ,

This game had the dullest characters and the most boring/cliché story and the fighting mechanism is absolutely horrible.

Nfntordr ,

OK… Thanks for informing me of your opinion I guess?

Argurotoxus ,
@Argurotoxus@lemmy.world avatar

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.

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.

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