• 7 years ago
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    I've got two questions for y'all
    One: Which open world games have the best stories?
    and Two: Which video game stories weren't negatively impacted by them being open world?

    Some open world games strive for the cinematic approach, but given that many (most) players spend the majority of their time exploring and completing side activities, any serious plot is broken apart. "We have a super critical mission: see me at the docks when you can." *Faffs about for an in-game week* "There you are, it's time to get started."
    Fantasy games have mostly succeeded at avoiding this, as you generally play an adventurer who's recognized for all the travel they've done. In this way, Geralt's stories don't feel as oddly segmented as those in Grand Theft Auto might. However, The Witcher 3 did cause a bit of an awkward split by setting leveled quests (which I still don't believe to be a bad decision), as Geralt could accept a quest, and then come back a year later "hey I did it" "the fuck you been?"
    But I suppose that can be an issue with side missions in every RPG. You accept quests, you come back months later after you realize "oh right, that would be convenient right now." Witcher 1/2 bypassed that by being segmented.
    I'd nominate The Legend of Zelda, but you have to progressively unlock the world, it's not like Skyrim or Fallout. We'll see how Breath of the Wild handles its story and open world, though.
    I got nothin'
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    • Ed Kick
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      Ed Kick
      Editing … Question 1: Dragon Age Inquisition, Witcher III, LA Noire, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Arkham City/Knight.
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    • Ed Kick
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      Ed Kick
      Editing … Question Two: Maybe none, I felt like DA:Inquisition got very very close and had fantastic story pacing for being a 50-100hour rpg. LA Noire maybe but it's "open world" didn't really have anything to do.
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    • Dr Eggnog
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      Dr Eggnog
      Editing … I found the stories in Far Cry 3 and Arkham City just okay. L.A. Noire was odd in that the story was the gameplay, it was a bit like a visual novel. Borderlands 2 had a story? I just remember silliness. Haven't played the others.
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    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … Witcher III and Red Dead Redemption have the best open world stories. The others that Ed mentioned have good stories but those two are easily the best.
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    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … I can think of two difficulties inherent with open world storytelling. 1) The freedom to explore and approach from different angles means the dev can't control the pacing or the order in which you do things like they can in a linear game. 2) The world has to actually depict the consequences of major story events, they can't just give you a glimpse within a linear environment and then take you elsewhere. If there's a battle/siege/natural disaster/new King etc then the map, NPC behaviour and dialogue might need to change right across the open world to make it believable.
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    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … The problem of pacing in an open world's easy to overcome. You write a more flexible story and one where it doesn't feel out of character to stop and explore or do a side quest. You maybe take away the option of side quests in pivotal parts of the main quest or make side quests fail if you don't complete them before a certain point in the main story. Plenty of open world games do this really well. Even if you don't do those things though I don't feel like you need this huge suspension of disbelief to accept that the player can make a character behave out of character. You can make linear game player characters act weirdly as well.
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    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … The "making a huge open world react to any momentous story events" problem isn't as easy to tackle. Even the best open world games sometimes mess that one up. The most famous example's NPCs not knowing who the Dragonborn is even after he's killed Alduin, won the civil war, became head of all the guilds etc. Even Witcher III felt like it shied away from letting you decide the fate of cities and outcome of battles as often as Witcher II did because it'd be a lot of effort to depict the consequences of those kinds of decisions across a huge open world map.
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    • Dr Eggnog
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      Dr Eggnog
      Editing … I also found Red Dead's story just okay. It was really slow and simple. The only clever part was how the post-game was handled.
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    • Husky Wing
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      Husky Wing
      Editing … Yea, I didn't find Red Dead's story fantastic (and one entire act was really just filler, but it was fun filler)
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    • Dr Eggnog
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      Dr Eggnog
      Editing … For me Red Dead was a generally solid game that didn't have a lot of highs or lows. I kind of want to play it again just because decent games in that setting are so rare.
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    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … The Mexico section of the story was very much a detour but the beginning and ending felt like a classic western to me.
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    • Dr Eggnog
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      Dr Eggnog
      Editing … I think I saw The Treasure of the Sierra Madre once but I don't remember a damn thing about it.
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    • Splatterhouse 5
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      Splatterhouse 5
      Editing … I've loved the Fallout games, and have found the stories intriguing enough to want to complete them. GTA 5 is also the first time Rockstar wrote characters and a story fun enough for me to want to complete a GTA game. When it comes to Rockstar, I found Bully a lot of fun. Borderlands 2 is a game I completed much more for its gameplay than its story, which I can barely remember - It's so over the top, and filled with funny little moments, that the story always seemed to take a backseat to what was going on.
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