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Gonzako @lemmy.world

What have been the games whose writing really got into you?

I just finished playing Triangle strategy and sometimes that games writing gets so good but feel what the very characters are feeling. What about you? What have been those games that have gripped your hand and made you feel every turn of the page?

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  • A Mind Forever Voyaging, by Infocom.

    It's an old text adventure from the 80's with a particularly cool and oddly relevant concept: You take the role of an AI that's been meticulously raised in a simulation to truly become a general intelligence. The reason this project was undertaken was to eventually send you, the AI, into other simulations based in the near future to test the outcomes of various political policies of the new republican government, record your interactions, and report back to the engineers who created you.

    The game's designer said that he created the game in response to the despair he felt from Ronald Reagan being elected.

    I haven't gotten super far in it, but it has an incredibly well written short story in the manual that details all the events leading up to the start of the game, and so far the game itself is unlike anything else I've ever played.

  • Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 and 2 have an awesome main story line with writing that makes me feel like I am playing video game sequels to A Knight's Tale.

    But then it also has some pretty yawn inducing stuff, too, that might be interesting to history buffs since it takes place in real life, during real historical events in Bohemia. A lot of politics and nobility dick-waving. I skipped through a lot of random side quest dialogue because it was just an hour of discussing politics. 🤣

    Disco Elysium tho is hands down the best written game I've ever played. We need more video games to be written by actual authors. It also just has an insane amount of branching paths and differences in how you play that mostly appear in dialogue, but also just wearing different clothing can change things dramatically.

  • A Way Out. Highly recommend playing it with your closest friend. Fucking game made me feel stronger emotions than any other game I've ever played, because the motherfucker I was playing with is my best friend. I'm not going to spoil the ending, I'm just going to say: heavy fucking feelings

    • Don’t forget to try their other games if you haven’t already! It Takes Two is wonderful, and the recently released Split Fiction is my favorite of them all.

  • New Vegas, the writing of the dialoges are brilliant. Some of the funniest or straight up saddest stuff are both there.

  • Final Fantasy XV... Usually I get wet eyes when the games do it right. But with FF15 I literally cried.

  • Spiritfarer did this to me, I was very much invested in every character (except the bird and the bull, they can fuck off)

  • Rime is a fun but emotional one.

    Citizen Sleeper isn't my usual type of game but I was hooked instantly by it all.

  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the most recent example, but I also love the writing of Horizon. I wish it was more mature, but it's good writing overall. Excellent setup.

  • Gone Home - when I finished the game I was legitimately sad that I couldn't spend more time with the people whose lives I got to know so intimately from their environments. And yes, they didn't feel like characters anymore, they felt like actual people. That's one of the highest praises I can give to a game's storytelling.

  • Brigador has surprisingly excellent writing. And moreover, I mean it literally.
    Between maps, you have a config interface where you pick a pilot, guns and a vehicle to put it all on. But you also have a window with Intel. You have to pay ingame money to unlock this Intel, in the same you have to pay to unlock pilots, guns, vehicles, maps. They prices are not negligible. I unlocked every single piece of Intel, many times before I unlocked other more useful things, because it was that good.
    I wanted to read more. I wanted to know more. I should point out that most of the Intel was self sufficient : it wasn't a huge story cut up in parts. I could read one Intel and there was no incentive to buy the next more expensive one to know the end. But it was quality military sci-fi and so much lore building. And here and there, hints about cool equipment combos to try out in game (this pilot in that mech with those guns and gizmo).

    It was a complete shock to find such quality in what is otherwise a shooter. Yes, many action RPGs have encyclopedias worth of lore, disseminated freely throughout the world, on items, etc. I think the presentation here helped. But I was genuinely surprised at how good and enjoyable it was to read. I literally sat down and few times spending like an hour reading through bits and pieces and going to play a map or two only so I'd have enough cash to unlock some more.

    I hope I get to enjoy such surprisingly good writing in a game again in my gaming lifetime (and I've been playing for about 37 years, I should add).

70 comments