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BEST STORY
No matter how good a game looks, sounds or plays, the central thread holding together the entire experience is a wonderful narrative that manages to hold your attention as it drives the plot forward. Even though a game can still be great with little to no story in it (read Quake III Arena), the ones that are remembered are the ones that tell the good tales. Here then, are some of the best narratives that have kept us discussing them again and again long after we had stopped playing them.
The Nominees
And the winner is…
Despite some heavy competition, 2K Games spiritual successor to the System Shock franchise emerged as the most heart-rending, emotionally disarming and disturbing story in recent gaming memory. From the parallels drawn to Orwell’s idealistic society brainwashed through foolish optimism masking great suffering and Ayn Rand’s Objectivist outlook on the choices and moralistic, rather than intellectual and physical, heights of Man to the rundown 1960’s Soviet era underwater utopia of Rapture, Bioshock had its settings’ groundwork in place. However, forestalling all the linguistic excesses and hype surrounding it, Bioshock presented a genuinely engrossing tale of conspiracies, intrigue and humanity. Jack, the protagonist, wasn’t beyond the player’s control but he was never enclosed by it, giving one the freedom to play as an actual, honest to goodness human being, with all the faults and nuances intact.
The game itself was an exercise in conflicts - Ryan versus Fontaine, slaughter versus harmony versus indifference, existence versus subsistence - but the multiple views and adjoining egos, culminating in two seperate endings (neither described as Good and Bad), crept into one’s psyche, creating the illusion of being a part of the game and influencing it simultaneously and seamlessly. Amazingly, the entire tale is narrated without excessive cutscenes, using a Half Life-esque view for its events, and actively involved gathering clues, researching the game world and listening not so much for the right things for the right times but remembering certain things for any time, according to the bent of one’s will. For challenging our imaginations, literally pushing us to dive into its great, bounding exposition of Rapture, Bioshock earns our top nod for the Best Story of 2007.
The Runners-Up:
God of War II:
The question played on everyone’s lips - how could David Jaffe, the engineer of the first game’s monstrous, king-sized events, possibly top his previous endeavour? The answer came like two chain-suspended blades ripping through a Leviathan: An embittered Kratos being stripped of his godly powers, defying not only all space and time to regain his strength but constructing an army of Titans to go one-on-one with the Ruler of Olympus himself, Zeus and his cadre of fellow gods. From the colossal intro of bringing down a massive statue brought to life, God of War II set out once more to narrate a tale of politics, treachery, hate, deceit, and yes, bloody violence. Utilizing the same diorama, 2D portrait-like characters set upon a roaming 3D background, thunderous music, earthy voice-acting, and intense drama and destruction, it was a bit of a let-down that the ending’s cliff-hangar was more anti-climatic than cumulative. Nonetheless, for not only continuing its tradition of solid solid-telling but surpassing it, God of War II earns its spot as our runner-up for Best Story.
Assassin’s Creed
Hot on the heels of heavy background and history, complete with manipulation of one’s genetic memories through technology (touche, Metal Gear Solid 2!) and heavy biblical references to Jerusalem, Damascus, and Providence in the 12th century, Assassin’s Creed pulled out a shocking, twisting tale of betrayals and honour that later evolved into an all-or-nothing chase that could decide the fate of the world. The deceptive tale of Altair assassinating nine Templars and exploiting their hostilites with assistance from the Third Crusade was interspersed with Desmond Miles attempting to unravel the mysteries surrounding his kidnapping, and the “Piece of Eden”. Compelling and complex, the tale is told with a surprising amount of sophistication and maturity, sleek like a blade, and just as cold. Ubisoft took great risks with Assassin’s Creed, not only in the gameplay department but in its story as well, and is one of its most involving threads yet; that a trilogy is planned make things even more exciting. Assassin’s Creed stealthily maneuvers its way into our 2nd runner-up spot for Best Story of 2007 and rightly so.
Reader’s Choice Award:
Powered by Gregarious (42)
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:21 am
Way To Go Guy !!! keep the good work up !
January 2nd, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Congrats guys for bringing out this cool website!.
The winners are as expected.heh.
January 7th, 2008 at 1:01 am
Good layout and nice name. Looks like another address gonna get added to my bookmarks
January 12th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
It took the web server 1.54 seconds of back-breaking labor to give birth to this page.
No computers were harmed in the making of this page, but a few hundred browsers may have been euthanised.
February 20th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Nice results.Seems fair enough.
Cheers!!!
April 7th, 2008 at 7:35 am
WELL TOMB RAIDER AND OTHER GAMES LIKE LOST PLANET ,SOUL CALLIBUR, SILENT HUNTERS, FIFA, FLATOUT, RED LINE ETC…….SHOULD HAVE BEEN INDUCTED.