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
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 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

Endorkend,
Endorkend avatar

If you can deal with dated graphics 100% the original DeusEx.

And DeusEx Human Revolution still looks splendid and also has damn great story.

Perroboc,

Played both Human Revolution and Mankind divided. Incredible games, shame that the second one was cut before the story finished 🙁

aaaantoine,

Also, the other good Ion Storm game, Anachronox.

I haven’t played it in 20 years and still remember some great moments.

Endorkend,
Endorkend avatar

Oh yeah, one of the more original RPG stories still.

Democratus is still one of my favorite RPG companions of all time.

Chobbes,

I was kind of disappointed with all of the planets after leaving Anachronox and I kind of just stopped playing at some point. I kind of want to pick it up again but I’m not super into the combat system either.

aaaantoine,

Well… if you want most of the main story but without the gameplay, someone had made a movie out of the cutscenes awhile back.

I ended up quitting on the final boss. Partly because I was gut punched by an unexpected plot point just prior. But also because it was the third big fight since the last save point and I got lost on the mechanics. I caught the ending through the movie I found.

Nerorero,
@Nerorero@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Wait, did you not list the first deus ex???

Squizzy,

Oh thanks for this list, I wish there were more that weren’t scary. I’m a total coward.

CitizenKong,

Baldur’s Gate has some of the best gaming moments in my recebt memory, but those are more character and story moments. On the other Hand, FFXVI has the most epic boss fights I’ve ever played, basically Kaiju beating the shit out of each others.

Squiddy,

I see Undertale but not Deltarune. If you haven’t tried it yet, the two released chapters are free.

theragu40,

I’m late to the party, but just wanted to say that your list of purchases and recommended to purchase are just monumental lists of games. So many amazing choices.

I want to add two more if you have room.

Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2. They won’t get you as much in the way of epic set pieces, but they are dripping with charm and very well crafted games with some of the most interesting levels I’ve seen.

Perroboc,

Both games are awesome! I’ll add them

nodimetotie,

Quantic Dream makes pretty good story-driven games. People have recommended Detroit, but earlier games are also worth checking out, like Beyond: Two Souls

EarMaster,

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.

thelongshot93,

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.

SCB,

I definitely recommend Control, since a lot of games you like have big epic set pieces as well as an engaging story. That game is insanely rewarding if you’re willing to put the time and effort into looking for “collectibles” and piecing the game together. Very cool atmosphere and fun to play as well. You really get out of this one what you put into it.

Bioshock Infinite got shit on by both racists and leftists who completely missed the point of the game, but the ending is the best of the Bioshock series IMO and stuck with me longer than most anything else I’ve played. Lots of big cinematic moments, too.

Guardians of the Galaxy is slept on imo and has some amazing moments, and while the story is a retread of things the GotG comic has done, if you’re not a big comic reader, you won’t know, and if you are, you’ll be jazzed about how things are represented.

BG3 is incredible and the hype is well-deserved. The replayability is genuinely off the charts. Ive begun 4 playthroughs and beat it once and have not played the same game twice. Main story is the same but the variability in motivation, drive, and interactions is simply incredible. It is THE CRPG, and this is coming from someone for whom BG2 is my favorite game of all time.

New Vegas is New Vegas. It’s a shining example of what gaming can be for a reason. Needs no explanation (other than “don’t go north at the start”).

MaverickWolf,

I came here to say Guardians of the Galaxy. The gameplay is fine, but the story and music in the game are awesome! I keep trying to get people to play it.

quams69,

Outer Wilds

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.

dutchkimble,

Ghost recon wildlands, it’s the game that keeps on giving

Adulated_Aspersion,

I’ve platted this game, amd I love it dearly. We need a Wildlands 2. Not Breakpoint.

dutchkimble,

Indeed we do

ArchmageAzor,
@ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world avatar

I highly recommend Outer Wilds if you haven’t already. Just don’t get it mixed up with Outer Worlds

bionicjoey,

Outer Worlds is good too. Not as good as Outer Wilds, but still good. Sorta like New Vegas in space

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.

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