"Plot is Highly Overrated" - Discuss

I don't think I've ever played a game that has a great story but terrible gameplay.
Has anybody got any examples?

For me FF7/8 fall into this as the gameplay boils down to a repetitive quests and battles. But IMO the story and characters make these games classics.
 
I would care more if the stories were crafted better. Mass Effect 3? Guild Wars 2? Many games could have benefited with more interesting story telling.

So yeah, I disagree. You can make games with interesting plots and good gameplay, it's just that it is a rare occurence.
 
For me, the atmosphere of the game trumps the plot and gameplay. However, to a certain extent both of these contribute heavily to the atmosphere, along with the visuals and the music.

Example: Bioshock felt like a well-defined world - the plot was decent, but I didn't really pay much attention to it until about half way through. What I did pay attention to was the world I was in, the way the music and the gameplay enhanced that sort of creepy atmosphere.

Infinite, on the other hand - the world lost a bit of the brilliance that Bioshock had, but I felt like the gameplay was marginally improved, and the plot massively so - to the point that for me, both games balance one another in terms of how much I enjoyed them.
 
I depends on the game if its a platform game like Mario, Donkey kong, Portal the it does not need a good plot, but games like MGS, last of us, beyond two souls the plot is what makes the game.
 
In recent times the only single player games I've completed are the ones in which there has been a good story to back up the motive of finishing it. I'm finding now that without it boredom quickly sets in unless the gameplay is stupidly fun.

If I take for example GTA IV; I found the story pretty much boring and have not to this day finished it. GTA V I couldn't wait to get to the end because there was a story - a feeling of history allowing me to keep ploughing through it; I honestly was disappointed when it ended. Red Dead Redemption too - couldn't stop playing it till I'd finished it.

Now I may get criticism for this next one...I don't think Oblivion or Skyrim would be half as good without the backing of it's novel. The menus are a pain to navigate, the combat gets repetitive and it's hard to feel anything for the characters because they all have the same mannerisms...but the core story keeps you gripped.
 
As I have got older its become harder remembering plots in games I played last year :(

As a sequel comes out say Dead Space 2 or 3 and I can't remember wtf happened in the one before :( Even if it's in a game I loved. This far on all I can tell you about bioshock 1 is it had a big daddy and a little girl, something about injections and plasma. It had load of irritating collectables and splicers that came along the ceiling that **** me up. I remember golf clubbing someone to death?

Dead Space, I remember the regenerating necro in the room where you moved walls and the needle in the eye!
 
one of the best single player experiences I remember was the original halflife, which had a brilliant unfolding plot. Likewise halflife 2.

Plot, if done well can make for an amazing single player gaming experience. You can make up for that with good characters, but I would disagree that characters are more important. They are both ways of making a single player game enthralling.

COD4 : Modern Warfare, was an excellent example of this. The plot wasn't all that, but the mission All Ghillied Up, one shot one kill, were out of this world. Most people can remember that battle underneath the Chernobyl Ferris wheel waiting for the helicopter extraction.
 
A good story is important.
For example, The Last of Us looked great and had a brilliant story. It was the story that kept me playing until the end, even if I didnt think the game was as good as everyone else thought.
 
Most people can remember that battle underneath the Chernobyl Ferris wheel waiting for the helicopter extraction.

:D

I remember using a cheap tactic laid on the floor of a booth while hitting throw back grenade as fast as if I was running the 100m on track and field. Stupid game :D
 
Story is all important to me, followed by choice or illusion of choice. Lastly open levels (not linear or open world). That's pretty much why Deus Ex (the original) is still my favorite game even after all this time.
 
Yea plot is important, but everything else is too.
In games that are mostly online vs orientated the plot does not play a big role, like Battlefield or Cod series (unless your a SP player).

But like the PS3 game The Last Of US, without the plot it wouldnt be that good as it is. And everything plays out very well in it, plot, characters, graphics , gameplay. and so on.
 
says it all that you remembered it :D

I still have nightmares about no fighting in the war room and the terminator accurracy if you put 3 pixels around a corner :D

The days when Veteran was a challenge. :D

Tbh I didn't find them fun then though, now they have swung too far the other way. All they needed to do is remove the respawning but they totally dumbed everything down. To be expected I suppose when you bring in more and more advanced firepower.
 
Tbh I didn't find them fun then though, now they have swung too far the other way. All they needed to do is remove the respawning but they totally dumbed everything down. To be expected I suppose when you bring in more and more advanced firepower.

I'm not sure whether I found them particularly fun either, but I sure did feel a sense of accomplishment after beating them, especially World at War which had some of the most infuriating sections I've ever encountered. Ultimately of course it just boils down to timing and luck, reaching the next section which pushes the enemy spawn point further back but still it was an accomplishment to complete the earlier games on the highest difficulty. The last three or four games in the series have been absolute cake walks!
 
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