Best written games you've played

[Edward M. Grant]

I have good memories of the Mass Effect series, and I loved the story, but the writing didn't leave a strong impression on me.

Mass Effect was actually the point where I started to really dislike stories in games. GTA had already soured me on them, by having tedious story missions you had to grind through just to open up the world to have fun, but Mass Effect was the killer. The story may have been OK--dunno, because I never finished it--but the writing was abysmal.

First there was the half-hour unskippable cutscene at the start where I had absolutely no control over anything, then there was Mr Gung-Ho the Redshirt:

'Look at me, I'm Mr Gung-Ho!'
'You're gonna die as soon as we get to the planet, aren't you?'
'Oh, look. A cutscene where Mr Gung-Ho dies to give me a motivation to hate the aliens, and I'm not allowed to do anything to prevent it.'

Then that progressed to some weird alien thingy that was clearly not a good idea to go anywhere near.

'Oh, look. A cutscene where my character goes and fiddles with the weird alien thingy that's clearly not a good idea to go anywhere near, even though I wouldn't have done that. Because letting me choose not to would have spoiled the story.'

Then, later on, I forced myself through the numerous cutscenes which had at least twice as much dialogue as was required to tell the story so I could do some quests until I was accepted into some alien ultimate bad-ass club.

'Hey, look at me. I've just been accepted into the Ultimate Alien Bad-Ass Club. I think I'll talk to this lady as I walk past.'
'Excuse me. Can you help me find my cat?'
'Lady, didn't you hear I just got accepted into the Ultimate Alien Bad-Ass Club? Why would I have time to look for your cat?'

I quit not long after that. One of the first games I own that I didn't finish.

Shogo, now that had a good 'can you help me find my cat?' mission. In fact, that may be the game I was thinking of that came out at the same time as Half-Life. It's one of the few I've played through multiple times just to see the different story endings; mostly because the story didn't get in the way of the actual gameplay.

 

[Inca_UK]

I think the top dog would have to be Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic. The twist in that, holy sh*t! I never saw it coming and I'm not used to twists like that in games.

 

[Khalid M]

The Last of Us has excellent dialogue, very crisp and natural-sounding, also creative and has lots of characterization. The story was great too.
However if you ask me what I consider to the best written game, then my answer is:

I'd probably go for Xenogears as my second, even though I didn't finish it and found large parts of it tedious. I did, however, track down a typescript of the later sections, and in some respects the scope of its vision is probably the most breathtaking I've come across in any game, and possibly any novel.

This sir gets it.
I'm happy someone here played Xenogears. I could write an entire essay about, so I'll try to stay brief. Among many other things, Xenogears has:
- A timeline of 10,000 years. With lots of historical events, civilizations rising and falling, and a scheme slowly building up all this time. Yes.
- No less than FIVE main antagonists, and all of them get a lot of development.
- All characters were written with the Enneagram system of Personalities in mind, which means most of them are very complex and as genuine as fictional characters can get. The characterization is rooted in actual psychology.
- We hear the word epic misused every day, but in this case it is truly fitting to use. You will devise war strategies, reclaim back a throne, search for a floating country, infiltrate an empire, and witness disasters on a global scale.
Xenogears is a pain in the butt to play though, dialogue scrolls slowly, some maze-dungeons will make you tear you hair, and the infamous second disc has little gameplay because the project had to be rushed, but it's totally worth it.

 

[Temaran]

I am genuinely surprised that no-one has even mentioned Planescape: Torment here yet.

For me it is by far the epitome of writing in games and no other title has since even come close to its mastery of the art.

I'm also a big fan of System Shock 2 for it's writing. I saw a bioshock game earlier in this thread, but the newer games pale in comparison. Especially in terms of the villains. Oh Shodan, how I love-hate you!!

/Temaran

 

[Camiedee]

Mass effect is my favourite game series, simply because of the writing, the story, the characters and the universe the game creates, it is just, fantastic. And I can't wait until the new game comes out.

 

[Khuratokh]

Planescape Torment is one of the best written games I feel. It really pulls the heartstrings. I won't spoil it, please buy it at GOG.Com

Halflife 2 featured Alyx, one of the best written npc's in a shooter. It showed female npc's didn't have to have oversized breasts to grab your attention.

Portal is pretty funny dark humor.

Homeworld. Basically the story of BSG in rts form. the third mission had me in tears. Really effective use of music too. The only time I was this deeply affected by an RTS.

Cave Story.
Starts out simple, quickly becomes nintendo hard. But has a pretty affecting story.
And the whole game was made by one very talented man.

Fallout 1 and 2. Topdown isometric. Choices had weight. And the evil path had some brilliantly twisted options. Sure you could just slaughter everyone, but you could also set two factions up for war.
But the writing fits the scenery perfectly.

 

[Ihe]

I'm late to the party, but I agree the first 2 Fallout games are incredible. Fallout 2 is simply a masterpiece.
Another really well written game is Bastion, an indy gem.

 

[Vaz]

The Mass Effect series.

The Last of Us.

Heavy Rain.

The Witcher series.