What are some good games with really awesome stories?
What are some good games with really awesome stories?
(With a Linux version or at least works good with Proton) Edit: just bought disco Elysium, going to post updates in the comments when I try it tomorrow. It's on sale until tomorrow in case anyone is going to purchase it.
def Disco Elysium
heed this warning though: after Disco, there is no going back; most storytelling might seem subpar or just of low quality afterwards
it's also soul crushing, existentialist and doesn't shy away from critiquing/ridiculing society and what it believes in (from a Marxist pov, though Communism itself isn't spaired either in the game, with a harsh critique only communists could write), but it's also one of the most hopeful games I've ever played at the same time
I would rly recommend a blind play through without cheating through quick saves! (aka. save scumming) A lot of decisions in the game succeed based on the probability of your stats accomplishing it. I made the mistake in my first play through and just forced everything I wanted by reloading over and over again -_-
Witcher 3 has an amazing story and 2 DLCs that feel like entire games themselves. Runs great for me under Linux Mint (Steam / Proton).
The original BioShock is a masterpiece
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Disco Elysium
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Citizen Sleeper
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1000xRESIST
Japanese and somewhat fan servicey at times but also recommended:
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Nier: Automata
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13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
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If you don’t mind horror, I would definitely recommend SOMA. It’s also one of those games where it’s best to go in blind. If you are interested, do yourself a favour and do not look at any spoilers before playing.
Lots to think about.
Nier Automata. Fair warning you won't feel happy after finishing it, but it's something everyone should experience
I've been gaming on Linux exclusively for 3 years now. So. These are all proton-tested-and-approved. Though a couple (especially the old ones) require a bit of tinkering.
- Pillars of Eternity I and II -- Slow burns. cRPGs. Get very good, but take a while to get there
- Tyranny -- Same developer, also a cRPG, but gets to the point faster, and in fact can be finished in one weekend. Do note: It's an "evil campaign" type of RPG.
- Pyre -- A fantasy basketball game with a Visual Novel on the side. Very touching story, made me cry twice. And the gameplay is no slouch either, even if I kinda suck at it. (... Though when you lose the games you don't game over, the story just changes)
- Wolfenstein the New Order -- FPS set in an alternate history where the nazis won WW2, where you play a resistance fighter. Very enjoyable action, and it always feels good to blow nazis away.
- Dishonored 2 -- Stealth-FPS/Immersive Sim where you play as an assassin-princess who can turn herself into a horrid tentacle monster. Also a nice story.
- Enderal: Forgotten Stories -- Skyrim Total Conversion title. Very surreal and trippy story. Pushes the Skyrim engine to its absolute breaking point to realize the developers' vision, and doesn't always get there.
- Fallout: New Vegas -- I mean, if I didn't bring it up, someone would. New Vegas is a flawed and messy game, but it is just about competent enough that you are fine with it being less-than-ideal in the name of getting to the story.
If old games & emulation are on the cards --
- Terranigma (SNES) -- What if Legend of Zelda... But you are literally creating the world by doing your quest. It's nuts. I love it.
- Legacy of Kain series (PS1, PS2, PC) -- Very flawed gameplay on all of them (each in its own unique way)... But it is legitimately one of the greatest tales ever told through gaming. (note: It's also edgy)
- Prince of Persia Sands Trilogy (PC, PS2, GC, Xbox) -- This little trilogy of games from the sixth generation delivers in both elegant platforming gameplay and entertaining storytelling. Does suck that they are from a time that game devs thought subtitling your cutscenes would make your skin fall off (or something. No games back then had subbed cutscenes and it sucked)
- Paper Mario/Mario & Luigi series (Nintendo machines) -- Comedy RPGs about the Mario characters (duh). Very well written, especially Thousand Year Door (GC/Switch) and the original Mario & Luigi (GBA/3DS). Story is as vanilla as you'd expect, since it's Mario, but it is worth it for the comedy imho
The Talos Principle. It's my all time favourite game. It has a sequel too that expands on the story.
It's a puzzle game with a story that you discover while solving the puzzles. It's kinda similar to Portal in that sense but instead of a focus on comedy, there's a focus on philosophy. If you don't mind reading some philosophical texts and being asked questions that will literally make you question your own value system, then definitely give it a shot.
AoE2. I played the hell out of singleplayer back in the day, and with Remastered they both added new ones and improved the storytelling in old ones. Art of War campaign also is a good introduction to multiplayer combat.
If you like historic stuff; you'll like it. There also exists lot of community campaigns
Time to shill CrossCode again :)
I think the characters are phenomenally written and the plot is fun and has excellent ups and downs.
the entire King's Quest franchise
I love Celeste's simple, effective storytelling. Every aspect of the game ties into its own meaning--the environments, the music, the challenge. Extraordinarily well done.
Surprisingly detailed is the Horizon series. Replaying Zero Dawn and seeing just how much of the story is set up before and during the tutorial is genuinely crazy. Every event feels like an actual part of the narrative, rather than random filler.
Chrono Trigger. Timeless masterpiece. Arguably the greatest JRPG ever made, and yet another one that gets more fun the more you analyse it.
All of these were pretty good on Deck, and should work well on anything. Went for a mix of genres.
I found Spec Ops: The Line to be a good story. Starts off as a typical gears of war third person military shooter. I immediately was skeptical since I don't typically like cod like military arcade shooters. Let's just say the story gets dark. Mainly the character development. I saw the reviews and don't regret grabbing it, well worth the play in my opinion.
I found Prey to be fantastic.
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Nier Automata
- What Remains of Edith Finch
- Bioshock (quality varies as the series continues)
- Soma
- The Sexy Brutale
- Fatal Frame 2 and 3
- Fran Bow
- Telltale's Walking Dead (first one)
- First 4 Silent Hills
The games are a bit buggy but pillars of eternity and dead fire have awesome stories and characters. Then classic crpgs like bg2, planescape torment. And the reboot tides of numenera.
If you're down for a retro RPG via an emulator, Earthbound. The overarching story is about dealing with traumatic events as a child and coming of age while hitting the endearing but quirky note similar to games like Undertale that was a cult classic on the SNES. It came boxed with a full color, complete strategy guide made to look like a travel guide so it's intended not to be too difficult and really experience the story.
The story in To The Moon absolutely floored me when I played it.
I can’t say as to whether it runs on Linux, but it’s pretty old at this point and was never graphically intense to begin with so should. It’s a pretty short game too, but really is worth the time you’ll spend with it.
I don't know if any of these have native Linux versions all I know is that I played them on steamdeck with no issues:
Beacon Pines has a fucking great story and I loved it so much.
Horizon: Zero Dawn has a really cool thing going on where you're experiencing a fully compelling story unfolding in the present day, but you're also gathering up data logs and recordings that allow a story from the distant past to reveal itself at the same time. One of my favourite storytelling experiences in gaming.
Night in the Woods was just a joy. Made me miss friends and memories that I never had.
Citizen Sleeper is basically a fully fledged science fiction novel with gameplay elements attached. It takes inspiration from the excellent Wayfarer series by Becky Chambers and holy shit its just. Mm! Its cozy, its thrilling, it is beautiful, its lonely, its warm and welcoming. It has some similar elements to Disco Elysium's gameplay.
To The Moon has the wonderful voice of Laura Shigihara on the soundtrack, and a story which brought me surprises and to the point of painful, beautiful, big girl tears.
Exit/Corners is actually a free flash game but don't write it off. It's an incredibly well crafted cast of characters and a story which will keep you on the edge of your seat. I wish I could go back and play it again for the first time.
I'll add Kingdom Come: Deliverance to the list. Great story, fun (if challenging to learn) gameplay and really amazing environments.
Alice is missing : Content warning, it's a game about a missing kid, Bullying and sexual harrassment will be at the table, it's also a game with a lot of bleed potential. The game mechanic using text messaging is pretty great, and the sound track is amazing.
I had a really good surprise when discorvering the Forged in the Dark mechanics which are PBTA with a bit more rule. Works quite well, but like many other story first game, it pushes more improv style and less prepare awesome stories
The longest journey :)
Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire is just one of my favorites that I keep coming back to
Wildermyth is a weird game that comes up with really interesting procedurally generated stories as you play through the life of an adventurer.
I have seen a loot of old games here so I will throw in a game I have played so many times as a teen and picked up and finish again earlier this month because of the great story and gameplay: Dragon age origins.
It never disappoints me. I am thinking about playing da 2 again too (got a lot of hate but I never thought it deserved it because the story is great, origins is better tho)
I added some texture mods to make it look a bit better but don't do anything crazy it can't handle too heavy textures.
It is very tactical (if you play on higher difficulties), I really recommend setting up the skills and conditions (tactics tab for the characters) for your followers. There isn't anything better than when your followers sync their attacks with you like when your mage freeze an enemy who tried to jumped on your main character so your character won't get stunned and can do a follow up attack. Or when you use two spells that increase the damage together. You can make the whole group play as you like which I like a lot.
So both story and gameplay is great and that is why I love the game so much.
Almost all of the side quests are worth your time too. there are a few you can miss out on so don't wait too long with doing them and talk to everyone before it is too late. You can play how ever you like. You can even just play main quest but you will miss out on a lot of story and interactions if you do so. Try to challenge the game like stealing from ppl, you may find stuff out that helps you out by being creative.
This became a book and I had to stop my self. I really recommend dragon age for anyone who likes a good story, likes being creative, strategize and just listen to their followers banters while you run around in the world.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk I hope you will play the game.
I'm sad nobody has mentioned Chrono Trigger...
I would recommend Omori, or In stars and Time. They are really good RPGmaker games, especially Omori which is like the best psychological horror story ive ever seen. Their gameplay are pretty basic turn based rpg fighting, but their ambiance, characters and world are just incredible
Just saw you got it already - enjoy Disco Elysium!
Some of the best, most enjoyable, games writing I have ever seen. Every character is a treat.
Ready for the hate but I love Devil May Cry 5's story. Even if sometimes it was cliche
The Witcher trilogy + awesome books
I’ve been playing the System Shock remake, and it’s been a dream!! It could be a tad more hand holdy, particularly with actually presenting the story, but it’s very true to the style at the time, leaving you to just explore an “abandoned” space ship to figure out what happened. It feels very Bioshock, meets Metroid, meets Marathon, meets Alien Isolation.
Metro 2033, and I’m fairly confident the 2 sequels, has also been running very smoothly. I plan to do a full play through of all 3 games having played the first 2 zones of metro exodus years ago and falling in love with the world building. Something I realized I was missing in a lot of games was full voice acting. If there are captions/words/subtitles on the screen someone is saying them out loud. I guess in world words like posters and such no, obviously not, but even the “loading screen” are these lovely journal/map moments, reminiscent of travel transitions in old films. They come with a fully voice acted paragraph to make it not feel like a loading screen at all, but a transition in the “film” or chapters of the game. This makes sense being based on books. The story is just given to you so well, while also allowing enough freedom to make it feel like you are an active part.
Howling Dogs: https://xrafstar.monster/games/twine/howlingdogs/
It's a little Twine game that you can enjoy just in your browser (see link above), but it's great.
CrossCode. Excellent fluid combat, fun puzzles and an interesting concept. But most of all, the story is great and the characters are really good. You just can't help but love the characters the more you play I feel. Give it a shot, it's good.
As a wildcard (my first pick is already here) I put forward Pathologic. I've never played it and playing it seems torturous, but it's absolutely an amazing game with an powerful immersive story. Or perhaps, it's an amazing game which is a powerful immersive story. The game mechanics are a story-telling mechanism, rather than a mere medium to overlay story onto.
Hbomberguy video: Pathologic is Genius, And Here's Why
I really liked Bastion.
It is probably been said, but roll with the failures in disco elysium, sometimes the failures bring out a better result. It systems do a great job commenting on your decisions and whether you do your job as a cop or not, it still drives across a very human story
In regards to a game with a good story, I can say OneShot surprised me. It breaks the 4th wall by having you be the character that guides the protagonist through the world as they wake up in another world and go on a journey trying to get back. Simple graphics and one has to read everything, but by the story's end was I left feeling some emotions in regards to its conclusion.