Best writing/story in a video game

Mass Effect has a truly amazing writing team.

Also, Dreamfall, the sequel to The Longest Journey and most of Blizzard's games, even if they do rip a lot of their elements from other works.

The story is pretty basic, but Sonic Colors has some impressive writing.

Planescape Torment

Thread closed.

Warcraft series pre-World Of Warcraft. (The story in World Of Warcraft is quality but heavily clashes with the continuity to the point of incomprehensibility and unfollowability even to dedicated fans who know the universe inside and out.)

Starcraft is another.

Then you have the Halo series. Amazingly well written despite whatever opinions you may have over its fans or gameplay.

I'm going to second the O Ps Mass Effect.

Also, Red Dead Redemption is simply marvelous. No other game has made me feel such a... conflicting range of emotions.

Second Sight was very well written, especially the exposition.

Epic Mickey had a very good story, with a minor exception that there were a few cliches

Planescape Torment

Though Vagrant Story is a personal favorite.

Also writing and story are not necessarily the same thing.

The Final Fantasy Tactics story itself is very good, whatever opinion you may have about the quality of either of its translations.

@Major Tom: I hope you mean the story itself and not the writing. I've seen kid's cartoons with better writing than any Warcraft game.

I thought Shadow Of The Colossus had a good story without really telling much of it to us. It told a story as only a game can: by making the player experience it.

Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion were also both awesome in completely different ways: Prime with its Scrapbook Story and Fusion by way of Samus the Warrior Poet, and some tense wordless bits with the main antagonist.

edited 17th Jan '11 10:04:23 AM by SparkyLurkdragon

What Arilou said.

Batman Arkham Asylum

The Phoenix Wright games and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2? ^^;

edited 17th Jan '11 11:50:27 AM by lalalei2001

Kirby Squeak Squad

The storyline is: The squeaks stole Kirby's cake. Go beat them up and get back that cake!

Deus Ex and System Shock 2.

And heh, Mass Effect has good writing. It's pretty standard shallow scifi stuff.

edited 17th Jan '11 12:56:04 PM by Talby

Well, the Mario RPG series and anything by Nippon Ichi has really brilliant writing. The plots aren't always the greatest, but the writing makes them absolutely fantastic.

System Shock 2 is also pretty standard shallow sci-fi stuff.

I mean, hive mind alien squick guys and an AI that goes evil? How original.

edited 17th Jan '11 1:04:35 PM by Scardoll

Ghost Trick did a very good job in executing its many amnesia-related mindscrews and putting together the entire plotline of that one night. It was brilliant.

Surprised nobody has mentioned Silent Hill 2 yet.

That's because Silent Hill 3 was better.[/controversy]

Good writing and original writing aren't the same thing. An archetypical story told well is better than a unique story that's boring.

The writing in SS 2 is effective at maintaining the atmosphere the designers were going for. The audio diaries tell the story in an interesting way, by showing you glimses of the bigger picture through the experiences of the crew - often having little mini-arcs following a particular character trying to survive a hazard or accomplish something. It improves the gameplay experience rather than detracting from it.

The writing in Mass Effect isn't terrible or anything, just boring and average. Most of the characters have no personality and the villain doesn't even have a clear motivation.

edited 17th Jan '11 1:40:05 PM by Talby

"Good writing and original writing aren't the same thing. An archetypical story told well is better than a unique story that's boring."

Exactly.

Which is what many people thought Mass Effect had in its in-depth conversations. You might have thought the characterization was boring and average, but many others liked the little details.

edited 17th Jan '11 1:43:04 PM by Scardoll

Seconding Final Fantasy Tactics for the story.

Also, Xenogears was a flawed game in many ways, but I can't think of any other game that comes close to matching it on its strengths.

I thought Iji had good story and writing.

Mafia The City Of Lost Heaven will always be my favorite game storyline-wise.