# Which Game has the best SFF story?



## vector7

You guys would've played lots of games. Which according to you has the best story?

IMHO, the best story would be the *Half-Life series*. Brilliant storyline and an extra-ordinary execution. What will be your choice?

Gears of War? Crysis? Or something else... Please tell your views.

//This kind of thread may have risen up in the past. Let's try to make it new and interesting with the games that have come out now//


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## Rodders

Yeah, i'd second the Half Life vote. I'd also like to throw Star Wars: Knights of the Old Replublic, Bioshock and Dead Space into the mix. (I also really enjoyed the stories from the Jedi Knight Games.)


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## vector7

Never played the ones you add. Bioshock has an very interesting premise though. An underwater Utopia?


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## Cayal

And soon to be aerial utopia.

Gears of War - no way.

FFVII and FFVIII are my votes, and Mass Effect.


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## Doctor Crankenstein

I love the Diablo universe. I recently got my hands on the novels, should be fun to read.

I did enjoy KOTOR as well.


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## devilsgrin

KoTOR series
Baldur's Gate series
Mass Effect series (since it little more than an interactive movie, with you guiding the camera)
Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 (won't call them a series, since the two stories have almost no links apart from peripheral NPCs)
Dragon Age: Origins
((i think its obvious that i'm a huge fan of virtually everything that BioWare produces))

Lord of the Rings Online has in incredibly rich story (if you follow the Epic quest chain), far far richer than any other MMO.


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## vector7

Baldur's Gate?? Seriously?? Have never played the game before. KoTOR is a nice choice. Having Mass Effect, not feeling like playing it. 

Then, World of Warcraft should have a brilliant storyline if it comes down to MMOs. Does it not??


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## biodroid

Mass Effect 1&2
Half-Life 1&2


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## Keldaris

Tales of Symphonia (GC) one of the best rpgs EVER! hmmmmm what else....

Morrowind
Diablo
starcraft
crono trigger
FF7 and 9
Lunar
Ogre battle 64 
Parasite Eve 
Modern warfare 1 & 2
Time splitters
XenoGears


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## vector7

How is Modern Warfare having a SFF Storyline??


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## biodroid

Yes Modern Warfare is no where near SF, it just has modern weapons which exists today.


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## highscorewins

I like this two:

1. starcraft
2. diablo


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## Keldaris

vector7 said:


> How is Modern Warfare having a SFF Storyline??




LMAO, I got thinking  about games with awesome storylines and forgot the topic was about SFF games. can't blame a guy for not thinking clearly after a 10 hour shift.


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## Keldaris

not sure what happened with the double post >.<


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## BookStop

Freelancer comes to mind, but to be honest, I don't know very many SFF games


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## vector7

> Freelancer comes to mind, but to be honest, I don't know very many SFF games



Most of the famous games and those which sell well are SFF especially the action-oriented games and they have really good story lines. At least the good ones do.


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## Red 13

FFVII is my all time fav story.
Oblivion is another great one.
Assasins creed i find very original and quite refreshing.


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## Tragedy

Morrowind.


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## devilsgrin

FallOut: New Vegas. As one would expect from an Obsidian game, the story is compelling, complex, and the karma/reputation system makes a huge difference to the story, and its outcome.


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## CyBeR

Tragedy said:


> Morrowind.



Quoted for great truth. 
Also 'Gothic' 1 and 2, 'The legacy of Kain' series, 'Jak and Daxter' along with the sequels, 'God of war' 1, 2 and 'Ghost of Sparta'...and so many more.


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## No One

Can't disagree with Morrowind, or Fallout, but I have to add the Deus Ex series to the list. 

It's all very "Ghost in the Shell", but the games' exploration of the nature of consciousness and AI intelligence in relation to social and evolutionary factors is extremely well crafted, I thought.

Also provided me with one of my very favourite lines ever: "The only frontier that has ever existed is the self."


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## the smiling weirwood

You should try Folklore for PS3. It's a gorgeous game, plays beautifully, and the story is very fine indeed.


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## biodroid

Half-Life series and Mass Effect series. Gears of War series is also very good and very cinematic as well.


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## Rahl Windsong

NeverWinter Nights 1 (Bioware) and 2 (Obsidian Entertainment). The original NWN had two good storylines with the expansions Shadows of Undrentide and especially Hordes of the Underdark. The OC storyline was ok but not as good as the two expansions. NWN2 had a really great OC right out of the box and the expansion, Mask of the Betrayer, in my oppinion rates as one of the best stories ever produced in a computer RPG.

The real beauty of both of those games is the fact that they come with a toolset which allows the community to craft modules, hakpacks, and everything the developers had available to them to craft the original games. What this does is it makes those games timeless because even NWN which was released in 2003 still to this day has a dedicated community releasing new things for it, free for download, every day.

Also there is a project in the works to do a complete "refresh" of the original NWN, and it will make it somewhat like a Massive Multiplayer Online game. You can find more information about that here: NWN refreshed | Palmergames


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## Dundalis

Dragon Age has the most engaging story I've seen in a long time. But the setting is pretty generic. I quite like The Witcher's story for one a bit out of left field.


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## Harry Kilmer

Deus Ex. I just started playing it again, good as I remember, but I'm going to try and pay more attention to the plot this time, I've a bad habit of skimming over details in games like this.

Theres a mod out that lets you play the game on new operating systems, with a higher resolution. If anyone still has a copy, I reccomend trying it out.


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## thaddeus6th

Phantasy Star IV.

Old game, but well worth playing even now.


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## Snowdog

SF - Starflight. The story is head and shoulders above anything else I've played.

Fantasy - I'd have to go with Morrowind, apart from the huge quests and the massive background detail the open-endedness meant you could write virtually any story you wanted.


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## reiver33

No one has mentioned *Homeworld*? _Shame_ on you!


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## R M Tobias

Not really a story as such but I really enjoy the extensive background info on each of the races in Sword of the Stars. I also like the intros that come with each exapansion, quite fu


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## Connavar

Metal Gear Solid series  is light Sfictional and is in the near future.

Story wise no one is close to Kojima's masterpiece imo.


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## Rahl Windsong

Snowdog said:


> SF - Starflight. The story is head and shoulders above anything else I've played.
> 
> Fantasy - I'd have to go with Morrowind, apart from the huge quests and the massive background detail the open-endedness meant you could write virtually any story you wanted.


 
I played the original Starflight on an IBM PC that did not even have a hardrive, just two 5.25" floppy drives. Is this the game you are talking about?Starflight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would second the vote for the great story in Starflight, that was the game that basically got me hooked on playing computer games way back in 1986.


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## Austin55

Planescape Torment from my point of view is the best game.It shall make you feel like reading a story book.


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## InfinitySquared

Well. for me, it's the Fallout series, Sword of the Stars, the Half Life series, Freespace 1 and 2, and Starcraft and Mass Effect.


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## paranoid marvin

Planescape Torment by someway ; although it's probably more story over game. Brilliant , involving and emotional storyline. Also Baldurs Gate , in the way that the different characters in your paty interat. Just like with PT , depending on the players alignment and that of your gang , you'll get a different game , with often quite amusing conversations - even relationships - going on between them without the player ever getting involved.


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## Null_Zone

It might be a little sad but Civilisation.

I love to sit down and create and narrative history of the game that I've just played.


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## devilsgrin

Null_Zone said:


> It might be a little sad but Civilisation.
> 
> I love to sit down and create and narrative history of the game that I've just played.


 
that IS a little sad. But... i admit, i do much the same. Though mine is reciting in my head as the game progresses "and just as the flourishing civilisation began a golden age, they were annihilated by the upstarts with gunpowder" cue "mwahahaha" evil laugh... for 'twas MY civilisation that annihilated them.


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## Snowdog

Rahl Windsong said:


> I played the original Starflight on an IBM PC that did not even have a hardrive, just two 5.25" floppy drives. Is this the game you are talking about?Starflight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> I would second the vote for the great story in Starflight, that was the game that basically got me hooked on playing computer games way back in 1986.



Yep, that's the one. I still have my original packaging and floppy disks, though I can't play them. I've kept a couple of old IBM PC games, another being Star Fleet 1, which must have the biggest manual to game size ratio ever


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## Talysia

The majority of the games I play are JRPGs, and some of them have some really good storylines.  I love FF7's story, as well as the stories in the Suikoden series (although some are better than others), and the Valkyrie Profile series.  In terms of SF over Fantasy, I'd have to pick the Star Ocean series.  Haven't played the latest one, though, so I can't comment about that one.


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## Rahl Windsong

Snowdog said:


> Yep, that's the one. I still have my original packaging and floppy disks, though I can't play them. I've kept a couple of old IBM PC games, another being Star Fleet 1, which must have the biggest manual to game size ratio ever


 
Yes I still have all the original stuff for that game as well and many others including the entire King's Quest and Space Quest series from Sierra Online, well King's Quest I think I stopped buying them once they went too "disneyish" for my tastes. I think that was around Kings Quest 6 or 7 when the art style changed and made me hate that series....Most of them I can no longer play and sometimes I wonder if I could get big bucks for them on Ebay...


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## Heck Tate

If you guys haven't played The Bard's Tale for PS2 then you're seriously missing out.  Not great for gameplay, but in terms of story there is no better game.  Hilarious.


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## thaddeus6th

I did like the Bard's Tale. The songs were pretty good as well. I think that was probably the last outright comedy game I played. They should make more like that (but with better gameplay).


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## Menion

The Elder Scrolls? I'm sure they have allready mentioned, but just in case.
Fallout? same as above.
Fable 1, 2 (only for xbox) 3
World of Warcraft? I know it's an MMO but you can download it for free and play on a private server, for FREE!
Lord of the Rings Online: Is now free aswell.
Assassins Creed 1,2,B

There are so many to choose from.


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## merry gentry

Either I'm blind or no one has mentioned the Gothic series.


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## Cayal

Legend of Dragoon (PSX) if anyone played it had a pretty good storyline.


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## vector7

> Well. for me, it's the Fallout series, Sword of the Stars, the Half Life series, Freespace 1 and 2, and Starcraft and Mass Effect.



I got introduced to Half Life first. Then Fallout 3 but not the original or the sequel. After playing 3, I became a fan. It has one of the most brilliantly thought out stories. I am still smitten by the gameplay though.

After that came Mass Effect. I have not finished it due to bouts of laziness. 

I might have missed a lot of games because I play on my laptop and can not afford a console here in India. Damn! Those things are costly.


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## Abd-L-zeez

Ff7
ff x
ff 12
ff 13
mass effect
dragon age 
halo sires


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## Freelancer

In my opinion there is no best, because you can't compare most of them at all. There are different stories what you can enjoy or not. So here is my list about those what I enjoyed the most. These are my top SFF game stories
*
Science Fiction*
Homeworld Series (HW Cataclysm included, I loved them all)
Deus Ex Series
System Shock 2 (One of my ultimate favorite SF storyline)
Bioshock Series (The first one is a copy paste of System Shock 2.)
Descent Freespace Series (a.k.a. Freespace series, I loved both)
Descent Freespace 2 - Blue Planet Age of Aquarius (The best Freespace 2 mod, with a great story.)
Anachronox (One of the best SF RPG story)
Advent Rising (I want a sequel for this one.  )
Culpa Innata (One of the best SF in adventure games)
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
Starlancer
Freelancer
Star Trek: Bridge Commander
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine The Fallen
Wing Commander 3 - Heart of the Tiger
Wing Commander 4 - The Price of Freedom (Best in the WC series)
Wing Commander 5 - Prophecy
Mass Effect Series (DLCs included)
Knights of the Old Republic Series
Dead Space Series
Bulletstorm (Typical revenge story, but it was well presented and had depth.)
StarCraft Series (Including Brood War, SC2 was a step back.)
Metro 2033 (Based on the novel.)

*Fantasy*
Assassin's Creed Series (Brotherhood included)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Ultimate 1001 Nights atmosphere)
Prince of Persia: Prodigy (a.k.a. Prince of Persia 2008)
The Longest Journey and The Longest Journey: Dreamfall
Dragon Age: Origins
Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines


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## Star Girl

Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy IX
Okami
Bioshock
Machinarium


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## JulioM

Sid Meier's Alpha Centari was good, I also liked System Shock 2 and Deus Ex. I tried Starcraft but didn't like it so much, but Starcraft 2 is fun. I've had fun with WoW, Diablo 2 and Baldur's Gate 2 as well.

I tend to play games like Counter Strike more often


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## Ashcroft

devilsgrin said:


> Lord of the Rings Online has in incredibly rich story (if you follow the Epic quest chain), far far richer than any other MMO.



For that I love you.

Yeah, for sheer immersion factor I'd go with LotRO for fantasy (yeah, there's a lot of "Kill x number of y!" quests, but they're always immaculately reasoned), and SW:KotOR, or perhaps Mass Effect 2, for SF. I'll be honest though, I don't play many SF games, so I might be a little bit undereducated on the matter.

EDIT: What was I thinking? Obviously Deus Ex (original) wins the SF vote from me.


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## Bugg

Apart from agreeing with most of what's already been mentioned, I'll add a shout for Metroid Prime. I liked the way you could gradually piece together the story by reading logbooks and data entries and such. It created a very atmospheric, very alien game world. I suppose the original Halo had its moments. Eternal Darkness was very good at the time, too, with a great story and brilliant ways of showing the character losing his or her sanity.

Going back a bit, some of the old LucasArts adventure games had great stories, like Day of the Tentacle and The Dig. 

Does anyone else remember It Came From The Desert?


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## ragtagblues

It's interesting that I have seen FF12 brought up a few times, yet a lot of people I have spoken to slate it, FF12 was probably my favorite story out of the FF series. It seemed to have such a great balance and the cultural aspects within the story had such realism. 

To add to the list -

FF8 - Was the first one of the series that I ever played and as such remains a favorite.

Drakongard 1 & 2 - Just really enjoyed the games.

Apart from those three I don't have anything to add from whats already been brought up.

Oh and Shadow Hearts was really quite good.


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## Quokka

The original Resident Evil game is worth a mention, some very common ideas with zombies, haunted house etc and the voice acting was so bad it was bizarre but the atmosphere and storyline were spot on for the game.


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## thaddeus6th

Was FF12 the one with Balthier, the Judges and nethicite?

I think that was a missed opportunity. I liked a lot of the political plot, but it felt half-done.

I agree on Shadow Hearts (and Covenant), but my favourite is Phantasy Star IV.


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## Quokka

Great game phantasy star IV, I mentioned on another thread that Sega have done a lot of my favourite RPGs and you had to love anime cut scenes on the megadrive. 

I finished Valkyria Chronicles last night and it's probably not the best SFF story ever... but it comes pretty close.

There's at least 3 cut scenes for every battle and even then a lot of it's not real time so it relys a lot on the storyline and imo some of the dialoges a bit clunky and some of the side characters a little simple but they're minor grumbles and over all it's a really excellent fictional WW2 story.


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## Boaz

It's one thing if a game has a good story, but is that story easily accessible? In a single player game, the story should readily unfold. I find that most rpgs allow the story to flow, but whether the story is good or not is another question.

For instance, _Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic_ is a fun game, easily understood game, with an intruiging story. The game is linear through the first planet and the last one, but in between you can choose the order in which you do the other three or four. You can pick up companions for your quest and their side stories are interesting. The ability to choose between the slow advance to prove yourself a servant of the Republic or the descent into evil is omnipresent. But the real fun is that there are chances/temptations to throw it all away and reverse you alignment to the Force. There is also an option for a romance for the main character... with a chance for it to all go horribly wrong.

SWKOTOR was a lot of fun... and I'm not a Sci-fi guy. It does not inspire me, fantasy does. And I found _Dragon Age: Origins_ to be an awesome story. In addition to companions, romance (multiple options), and saving the world, there is a major political game to be played. Who will you support in the fight for the crown? Which allies will you recruit? Which side will you take in the controversy between the Chantry and the Magicians? And here is the major spoiler... Warning! Do not highlight if you are planning on playing:





> The final boss can only be defeated by one of your party sacrificing their life... and you get to decide who it is.


All that (especially the companions and the political game) combined to make DA:O an engrossing story.

In comparison, _Dragon Age: Awakenings_ paled. The gameplay is the same. You still get interesting companions and a few interesting story choices. But the scope of the story does not compare. In the first game you save your country and, by extension, the whole world. But in the second game, it does not feel like you're saving anyone. You just amass a fortune of gold and a military power base for your character's personal use. When I play a fantasy game I want the character to end up as Aragorn, not Donald Trump. The story was not compelling.

The story must also flow and unfold fairly easily for the player. A good friend of mine got _Skyrim_ the day it was released, but finally quit last week. He felt his character was gimped beyond any redemption. His character accquired a certain disease... and he refused to look up online a solution. So I looked it up, without telling him, and talked to him with nonchalant, but leading questions. He's frustrated because his character has become a villain of infamous reputation. He's constantly attacked on sight by villagers and guards. And with a dragon now guarding the one place he could temporarily suppress his disease, he feels that the game has put him in an untenable position. He will not read online for fear of massive spoilers and the game itself does not allow him to easily find clues to a solution.

Those are all single player games, I've found MMOs more difficult to find and follow the story. I've played _City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Star Wars: Galaxies, World of Warcraft,_ and _Lord of the Rings Online_. I find that the one major problem in finding the story is that I must be in a group to follow the main story. The most epic dungeons and bosses cannot be defeated single-handedly. I undertand this concept... it's a massively *multiplayer* game. But I've never, I repeat... never, been in a group of eight or more people who want to wait for me to read the dialogue, check my new clues, watch the cinematics, and digest the development in the story. They all want to rush off to attack the next mob. So either I fall behind and get kicked from the group or else I forget the story so I can rush along heedless of the real reason we're in the dungeon... it's all about the loot... the long-lost-epic-demon-slaying-warhammer-of-the-legendary-elf-general-Kickassidor-Beatdownicus!!!!

So, I no longer follow the main story. I play mmos just like I play _Civilization_ or the _Total War_ games.... I make up my own story as I go along. I'm not saying mmos are not fun, just that they are nigh impossible for me to access and enjoy the meat of the story.

Maybe, I'm just getting old... What was I saying? Oh, I like stories. I don't want blood for blood's sake. I want there to be compelling reasons for the hero to fight specific foes. I want interesting characters to surround the main character. I want there to be despicable villains. I want the choices to come with a cost. And I want the story to flow... yet be open to my exploration. I don't want to repeat the same fight a dozen times until I get it right... the thing that will stick in my mind are the eleven defeats and not the one victory... I want to remember the hero as victorious, not humiliated.

Edit: I should probably add that _SWKOTOR_ and _SWKOTOR II:__The Sith Lords_ are two different games. _The Sith Lords_ is a sequel. _TSL_ succeeds by building upon the locations, characters, and political situation at the end of _KOTOR_. By itself, the story has holes and flaws... for example, one Sith Lord can eat entire planets (yes, you read that correctly), but he's not the final boss. In fact, he's not one of the final two bosses. WHAT?!?!  I just defeated Galactus... and that was... not... the climax... of the story?  Yeah.... riiiiiiiight.  

The game was rushed by the developers/publishers to make Christmas and the end of the year sales, so the droid factory planet and the the entire HK-50 storyline was nerfed. But if you enjoy _KOTOR_, then try _TSL_, I'm sure it's out there for $5 US.

_KOTOR_ was developed by Bioware while _TSL_ was developed by Obsidian. Coincidentally, Dragon Age was also developed by Bioware.  On the strength of those two games, I've started _Mass Effect_... another Bioware title.  I dunno, the mini game of Simon (the 80's electronic game) that I'm required to play to open in order to find any loot is very irritating.  That is stupid... at least I should be able to turn off that feature.  I'm trying to follow the story... after _KOTOR_, the return of Raphael Sbarge is slightly disconcerting.


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## devilsgrin

> Edit: I should probably add that SWKOTOR and SWKOTOR II:The Sith Lords are two different games. The Sith Lords is a sequel. TSL succeeds by building upon the locations, characters, and political situation at the end of KOTOR. By itself, the story has holes and flaws... for example, one Sith Lord can eat entire planets (yes, you read that correctly), but he's not the final boss. In fact, he's not one of the final two bosses. WHAT?!?! I just defeated Galactus... and that was... not... the climax... of the story? Yeah.... riiiiiiiight.
> 
> The game was rushed by the developers/publishers to make Christmas and the end of the year sales, so the droid factory planet and the the entire HK-50 storyline was nerfed. But if you enjoy KOTOR, then try TSL, I'm sure it's out there for $5 US.



i actually found TSL a far more compelling story, and quite a lot LESS cliched than KOTOR. The Exile is a far more complex and interesting character than ...you know who, who's name would be a spoiler for anyone unfortunate enough to not play KOTOR already... (though you-know-who's pre-game history is intriguing, the exile's actual game is far more so)
That Darth Nihilus is NOT the final boss makes perfect sense from the storyline we're presented with. And whilst Kreia's line when you comment about powerful he is, and her reply is "really? you think? If you ask me, he's practically crippled." (paraphrased somewhat  ), seems almost like a throwaway copout, from what we know about the Star Wars universe, it makes not only sense, but its perfectly logical. 

Yes we can blame Atari for the rush job. HK-47/50's factory being scrapped was only painful since we know its supposed to be there as an intriguing side-quest. "Meat-bags" my favourite quote from either game.


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## Galacticdefender

I think both Mass Effect (1 and 2) and the Halo games have some of the best stories. The Halo universe gets a lot deeper if you read the novels too.


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## juelz4sure

A very under rated game is lost odyessey, one of the best rpgs ive played in awhile but the storyline is fantastic


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## MemoryTale

I love the story of Persona 3, although I'm not sure how SFF it is - I personally think of it as urban fantasy but that could just be me.


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## AnyaKimlin

For me it is Suikoden - it blew me away and I was addicted.  Bought the PS2 so I could play numbers four and five.


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## James Coote

Homeworld
Half Life 1

Portal 1? Even if it took a little too much inspiration from the film Cube

Also I'd say portal 2, only I hate wheatley and I think they should have made the player character different from the first game.

Also, not Half-life 2. It wasn't a bad story, but again I hated having it narrated to me by Alyx (who also stopped me playing at my own pace and generally annoyed me), rather than me having to figure it out from the sprinkling of clues around the place.

Also portal 2 and half-life 2 did not have that feeling of 'alone-ness' that comes from having not seen another living soul for quite some time now and feeling that maybe everyone else has died and you're the last survivor. Come to think of it, none of the combine ever got killed by the aliens, unlike the marines in hl1


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## juelz4sure

AnyaKimlin said:


> For me it is Suikoden - it blew me away and I was addicted. Bought the PS2 so I could play numbers four and five.


 
suikoden had more than just one game? or am i just misunderstanding you because if so i really missed out i loved the one i had played.


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## Talysia

juelz4sure said:


> suikoden had more than just one game? or am i just misunderstanding you because if so i really missed out i loved the one i had played.



Which one did you play?  As far as I can remember, there were five games in the main series (1,2,3,4 and 5, with 3,4 and 5 being on the PS2), as well as Suikoden Tactics, which was a sequel - of sorts - to Suikoden 4.  There was another Suikoden game, Tierkreis, released on the DS a little while ago, too.

I'm a big fan of Suikoden, myself - have been since the first game.  It's a great series.I think my favourites are 2 and 5.


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