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What happened to the Story/Immersion Genre?

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melipone

melipone

Grizzled Veteran
Mar 22, 2006
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#1
Immersive, story-driven games used to come out all the time. Whats happened to them? The last one I played was The Longest Journey 2: Dreamfall and before that was probably Planescape:Torment. Everything seems to be an action hybrid now, unless I've missed some games? Any recommendations on recent story-driven games? Adventure or RPG I don't mind as long as the most important things is the story and atmosphere.

BTW I played Oblivion. Didn't like it personally. Too much enphasis on the fighting and too little story/side quests, and too much hand holding/dumbing down.

​
 
#2
They went out of fashion several years back.

Small studios still make them but they rarely sell well.

Have a look at:

http://www.adventuregamers.com/
The Longest Journey I (of course!)
Syberia I & II: http://www.adventurecompanygames.com/tac/syberia/
Ankh: http://www.ankh-game.de/
Moment of Silence: http://www.mobygames.com/game/games/windows/moment-of-silence/
(Checkout all of mobygames, they got some great games available)
Another company selling adventure games: http://www.adventurecompanygames.com/tac/pc.html
Epoch Star: http://www.epochstar.com/
Runaway: A Road Adventure: http://www.runaway-lejeu.com/index2.htm

For non-violent online games, have a look at The Second Life: http://secondlife.com/ and A Tale In The Desert: http://www.atitd.com/


Should get you started :)
 
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#3
I played LJ1, didn't like it believe it or not. It was just too unbelievable, the way the characters interacted with each other and the things they said.

Played some of Syberia 1. Need to get back into that I suppose.

Havn't played Ankh. It's a hybrid isn't it?

Played some Moment of Silence. Need to finish that

Havn't played those others. Might check them out.

Thanks!
​
 
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#6
melipone said:
Immersive, story-driven games used to come out all the time. Whats happened to them? The last one I played was The Longest Journey 2: Dreamfall and before that was probably Planescape:Torment. Everything seems to be an action hybrid now, unless I've missed some games? Any recommendations on recent story-driven games? Adventure or RPG I don't mind as long as the most important things is the story and atmosphere.

BTW I played Oblivion. Didn't like it personally. Too much enphasis on the fighting and too little story/side quests, and too much hand holding/dumbing down.

​
Click to expand...
Here's a good site with descriptions of all kinds of games:

http://www.3dgamers.com/games/

I think the last adventure game I played, besides Oblivion, was Myst-Exile. I put it away after utter frustration on one of the puzzles. I think my favorites to be the 7th Guest and 11th Hour. I still pull Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis out every once in a while too.
 
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#7
Have you not played any game in the Half-Life series? You don't get any more suspension of disbelief than in those games.

For the more traditional RPG or adventure game, I'd recommend Dungeon Seige II and, always a classic, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. There's also that point-and-click HL2 mod. Shantytown or something.

And Spade, don't ever advertise Second Life. If you read the terms of service, the entire thing is solely for market research.
*edit*
Oh, and I need to make an obligatory Tex Murphy reference. Old as hell but still awesome.
 
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#8
Some very old games (or not so old but still old), and pretty good story driven games are Final Fantasies. I know they are not real RPG`s but they are otherwise excellent games. Unfortunately, you are going grab your old PS1 (presuming you have one) and try to hunt FFVII - IX from some internet store. Or PS2 and FFX - X2.

Vagrant Story was also great game which had decent story, but it was bit too much for action. Again, PS1 game.

Any recent story driven\immersive games..... well Fahrenheit is the only one I have played and it was ok, but the magical theme in the game sooner or later out somehow ruins the atmosphere.

Have you not played any game in the Half-Life series? You don't get any more suspension of disbelief than in those games.
Click to expand...

Half-Lifes have always had decent plots and slightly interesting stories but true, suspension of disbelief goes high as Deja shouts often "Vu!" and it was mainly just that "Shoot all enemies to uncover another weird plottwist which says that Vader is Luke
 
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#12
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#13
Final Fantasy VII is probably still my all time favourite game. Think I played about half of FFVIII when it first came out. I wasn't particularly impressed by the story IIRC. Havn't played any FF games since.

Never heard of Dark Forces, might check it out.

Love all those old Lucas Arts games though, might replay some of them. Another great immersive story driven game I remember fondly is Beneath a Steal Sky! Great game you should check out if you guys have never played it. Think you can get it for free legally now.

I've got Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. Played some of it but lost interest probably before it really got going :( Think I'm in the first town still just after finishing the church mission where you have to collect some book from a cage or something. Nice atmosphere and quite immersive.

System Shock 2 I've tried to get working but it won't on XP :(

Aren't the Dungeon Seige games hack and slash games? Never played any of them. Diablo 2 was my last hack and slash RPG I actually bothered completing.

Tex Murphy I never played. I think I was a bit of a lucas arts fanboi at the time :D .
 
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#14
melipone said:
Love all those old Lucas Arts games though, might replay some of them. Another great immersive story driven game I remember fondly is Beneath a Steal Sky! Great game you should check out if you guys have never played it. Think you can get it for free legally now.
Click to expand...

To get the old Lucas Arts games working, you'll need SCUMMVM:

http://www.scummvm.org/

I used it for "Fate of Atlantis." It worked great.

For the other game you're having problems running under XP, you may try DOS Box:

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

I've never tried it. I've been meaning to turn an old Packard Bell 233 I have into a windows 95 or 98 machine but just never got around to it. I would like to get the original Tomb Raider to run under XP.
 
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#17
http://www.ttlg.com/
They may be able to help you get your old LG games running under XP. There are some command line additions as well as compatability mode suggestions. Also, sometimes a game just doesn't like a video card :( I do remember playing through it with a friend at a lan part one time on an xp box, so it will run sometimes. 15 hours well spent :)


A couple old lucasarts games that I've never played myself, but that a friend of mine really loved are Sam&Max and Full Throttle. Both (I believe) old fashioned point and click adventure games.

@Murphy: I really, really liked Metal Age and Deadly shadows; most of your contact with the undead is optional, unlike Dark Project. Frigging bonehoard scared the life out of me.
 
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