Does anyone know any great "story heavy" PC games?

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TravelHat

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Some I haven't seen mentioned yet --

Deus Ex
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Myst and Riven
 

Roxxsmom

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I skimmed the thread, but I didn't see any mention of Planescape Torment. It's an old game, definitely has a retro feel (is available on GOG), but it is considered to be pioneering in terms of games with interesting stories and flexibility in the moral choices you make en route to the conclusion.
 

RonMF

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I love games that have really great stories :)

Some old-school, story-rich games that I love:
Bioshock
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Twilight Princess
Knights of the Old Republic
Fallout 2
and I hear Mass Effect is incredible, story-wise

Some newer ones:
Elder Scrolls Online: an MMORPG with enough story to fill seven lifetimes. I need to be careful playing it. It can be consuming.
Skyrim: single player 'version' of the above.
 

tiggs

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* Slides into the thread, whispers: *

Life is Strange.

* Rewinds Time, slides out *
 

Shadowmoo

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The Witcher series is really good for story. Along with the Zero Escape games, but the series is on multiple different platforms. I love the setting of the Zero Escape games because of the time travel and weirdness.
 

Zoombie

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I've been enjoying Numenera: Tides of Torment.

Not sure if it will live up to Planescape: Torment, but I'm liking it!
 

LeeMountford

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Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, so apologies in advance, but I highly recommend To the Moon. It's available on Steam and should be cheap. Not much in the way of gameplay, and the graphics are decidedly '8-bit', but man, I was fighting off the tears (and losing) by the end.
 

kneedeepinthedoomed

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Vagrant Story. Why this game doesn't come up more, I don't know. It did a lot of things right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC098lqnmQk

An elite "Riskbreaker Knight", Ashley Riot, has vanished after allegedly killing Duke Bardorba. A week earlier, he was sent after a cult leader into the lost city of Lea Monde. The game tells the story of what actually happened in the time between the two events.

Opening movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rUsyNFqzFw

These days, you'll need a PS1 emulator to play it, I believe... and a ROM.

Final Fantasy 6 is also excellent. The story of the girl Terra who is somehow capable of using magic in a world where magic has been outlawed and replaced with machines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_lr12kgGeU

Game makers surely had big ideas back then. I wish that games would begin to aim high again like this, because there is a rich past of storytelling in games to unearth. Today we have bro-games with explosions and huge guns. I'd rather have the time of ambitious game stories back.

Edit: And the intro movie to Baldur's Gate: Shadows of Amn is so awesome I just have to post it too.

"The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his death he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos shall be sown in their footsteps."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq9N9ddsKg8

Let nobody say that games can't be a great storytelling medium if they would just try.
 
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Cyath

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I second the suggestion of Vagrant Story. Great game!

Also second the Witcher series and Life is Strange.
 

The Weaver

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This one is new, but I heavily recommend Night In the Woods. Its about Mae, who just dropped out of collage in order to come back home. Possum Springs is not what it used to be, and her friends are growing up. Also there is something strange in the woods. Funny, charming, and insightful, for me this has become one of my favorite games of all time and if you want an idea on how the game is, here's a short clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rukKURHhNpE
 

Goettsch

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I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
At the very least the opening speech is worth your time. The author (Harlan Ellison) is the voice of AM and gives a wonderfully hammy performance. It's a distinct experience from the book and not just an adaptation.

Rama
Myst-like game play with more sci-fi and live action elements. Arthur C. Clark also makes an appearance in it. Same as above and not just an adaptation of the book.

Sunless Sea
Almost entirely story. Unique atmosphere and wonderfully written. Too much to put here, so just check it out on Steam and see if it piques your interest.
 

KennySkylin

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Life is Strange
Bioshock: Infinite
Oxenfree
Firewatch
Alan Wake
The Wolf Among Us, Walking Dead, all the Telltale games really
Soma
Portal 2
Danganronpa
Mass Effect series
Dragon Age: Origins
KOTOR 1 & 2

I don't know if you are interested in visual novels or interactive fiction / text adventures, but you might want to check out some of those also.
 

Roxxsmom

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Some other story driven RPGs I've enjoyed over the years, are the Baldur's Gate series, Mass Effect series, Dragon Age series.

I've had a beta version of Tides of Numineria on my computer for a while, waiting for me to get to it. I'm afraid it won't live up to PS Torment, but hopefully I'll have time this summer to give it a whirl.

There's The Witcher too. I haven't gotten as into the more recent Witcher games, partially because the user interface seems to be geared much more to "serious" gamers who want to control every blow, move and parry (and I'm a more causal, story-driven gamer likes a balance between tactical realism and being able to master the basic game mechanics quickly with my aging nervous system and clumsy, fat-fingered typing skills).

This doesn't seem to be an issue for most people, though, so I'm probably just congenitally clumsy.

As for MMORPGs, there's WoW, of course (I assume it's still running, though I stopped playing years ago), and Elder Scrolls online (I haven't played it, but my husband seems to like it).
 
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Zoombie

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I personally found Torment: Tides of Numenera to be very dissapointing...

But, I just remembered, if you want a fantastic story based game? Check out Tyranny!
 

Cernex

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Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 come to mind. Final Fantasy was already suggested above, even! But yeah, while I could state that there's a huge amount of nostalgia involved, it doesn't erase the fact those are some of the most popular and liked JRPGs released in the history of ever.

On the side of Western RPGs, I would also suggest two lesser known titles: Shadowrun. To be more precise, both Shadowrun titles the SNES and the Sega Genesis (which are wildly different). Both do a great job in building and showing the Cyberpunk feautures of the world and contain great stories. I guess it could be debated which one has the bigger spoke (the SNES game being more linear, story-wise, while the Sega Genesis version was sandbox -and one of the first one on consoles at that- meaning you technically do your own story as you go along).

The last one I would suggest would be Metal Gear, but ONLY the first three before Kojima went full Kojima with the later titles and it became kind of a crazy mess. They're still good games, mind you. But if you want to stick with the ones that ACTUALLY make sense, those would be Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, and Metal Gear Solid.

Also, while the genre is a bit... controversial, if you're willing to count visual novels as games (some people don't), Kojima's own Snatcher is also VERY heavy on the story (since that's basically its main selling point). The world building is GREAT, as are its first two chapters... which is good since it balances the story which, while huge on scope and espionage, kind of falls apart in the last one.

Oh, and of course, Silent Hill 2. I shouldn't need to explain that one.
 

Transformersfan123

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For sure the Batman Arkham series, and the Bioshock series. I prefer the story in games to heavy action. The story is why I play.
 

AshNic

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I haven't seen anyone mention Steins;Gate yet so I'll be the first to say that one. It's a visual novel and its story is absolutely fantastic.
Another very heavy mention from me is the Legend of Heroes series, starting with Trails in the Sky First Chapter.

Other recs, most already mentioned:
Planescape Torment
Pillars of Eternity
Deus Ex
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Dragon Age: Origins
Mass Effect 1-3
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Bastion
The Last Of Us
Final Fantasy VI
Radiant Historia
NieR Automata
Witcher 1-3
Bioshock
Fallout: New Vegas
God of War (2018)
 

Enlightened

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If you try to get some of he older, PC games to work on newer versions of Windows (even with compatibility enabled) they may not work. If they were DOS games, or require direct control of hardware, you won't get that with command prompt in newer versions of Windows. DOSBox (DOS emulator) may or may not work. Then there is the issue of some older games will not run in a 64-bit environment.

I used to enjoy Star Wars Chess on PC, but 64-bit OS won't run it. DOSBox disables mouse control and makes keyboard control almost inoperable.

Adventure games often have stellar stories. John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles is fantastic. It loaded on Windows XP. It should run on newer versions of Windows even though it came out 20 years ago.

If you try to run Resident Evil 1 (PC), it only runs on Windows 95. It wouldn't even load on Win98.

With each release of Windows, Mircosoft wants to eliminate more and more compatibility with legacy software. Windows XP was bad enough to get old games to run. Windows Vista, 7, 8/8.1, and 10 are all getting worse.

Here are lists of games that will and won't play on Win 7, 8, and 10: http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/5/1/GLITCHES,_BUGS_&_PATCH
 

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Detroit: Becoming Human is out now. i saw a bit of a play through if it...and wow..... (it's made by the same peeps that made Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls)
 

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Detroit is currently ruining my life. (in the good way) It is both completely compelling and emotionally taxing, and it'll take a few playthroughs before I can see the whole story... So good, and so, so pretty.
 

Tamlyn

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There was a Detroit: Becoming Human booth at PAX Aus last year. I had had surgery two days before and really shouldn't have been anywhere near the con at all. Just the setup of the booth grabbed me enough that I lined up to try the demo. I had to go home afterwards because the queue exhausted me - but it was absolutely worth it.

Definitely need to get it at some point.
 

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A coworker and I both bought it on release day. We had planned to talk about our progress as spoiler-free as we could. Two days in, we couldn't discuss the game effectively because our paths were so radically different the games had nothing in common. It's wild.
 

abdall

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Night in the Woods. It's amazing and like...80% story. Plus the characters are amazing and it's so aesthetically pleasing.
 
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