Best Story in an Open World Game

I'm sure I'm far from the first person to realize this but I noticed recently that it seems like the story sucks in a lot of open world games. I love open world games and I love games with a quality story, but it seems pretty rare that I get them both in the same package.

It feels like the crappy story/open world combination happens too frequently to really be a coincidence at this point, so I think it might be a flaw in the design itself, where the story is intentionally broken up with bits of side content and that side content makes it feel choppy. Another theory would be that designers of open world games feel obligated to include a lot of filler content to make you feel like you got your money's worth, so the story turns out to be an unfocused mess.

Does anyone have thoughts on some games that have bucked the trend and combined the two? I just finished up Sleeping Dogs, for example, and thought it was a rare example of a well crafted story in an open world game.

Probably Black Flag, Red Dead, or San Andreas, Sleeping Dogs is good as well though it doesn't coincide with the standard format of an open world game. As a game becomes more non linear the story will become less focused naturally and it's very difficult to keep it interesting throughout; the overwhelming majority of the best storylines out there are either linear or mostly linear games. I guess you could call Vagrant Story "open world" and that's definitely way better than any of the above but you still have to go along on one of a few set paths.

red dead redemption by far.

New Vegas, if that counts.

Otherwise Red Dead's was awesome too. Especially at the end.

Yeah. This was a pretty good one. I didn't care much for the Mexico section in terms of plot, but the game has a lot of high spots in the early and late portions.

Red Dead Redemption.

Another vote for Red Dead Redemption, if the first one hadn't been made by Rockstar I seriously doubt we would ever have Redemption.

I'd say San Andreas.

I feel there are a lot of open world games that tell amazing world stories (GTAV, RDR, ESV, SLEEPY D) but plot stories are middling at best.

Saints Row: The Third.

Largely because it is the only open world game that comes to mind that didn't bore me to tears. But also the characters were fun, the story missions were always interesting, and the choices were kind of interesting.

Yeah, I'm struggling to think of others than the ones mentioned here, but my mind's a blank (it always is actually). So Read Dead it is then.

The first and third acts of Red Dead are outstanding. While it is a fairly standard plot of trying to run away from past mistakes, the portrayal and performances in the medium of an open-world game makes it feel fresh.

Ask me what happens in the Mexico stint and I'm at a loss. Seems like it was shoe-horned in because they wanted a change of scenery after you finish the Armadillo storyline.

I'd probably go with Red Dead Redemption as well. I also really enjoyed New Vegas and Arkham City (Although Arkham isn't necessarily open the same way as the other too.)

Also if you consider Dark Souls Open World, and you bother to dig and fill in the blanks, guess that's one that might make the list on the side.

Though it's totally Dark Fantasy cliché, I very much like their take on it.

Fallout: New Vegas: Ultimate Edition. It has a few gaps in the narrative, specifically in relation to the Courier's back-story and overall characterisation, but the DLC clears that right up (and gives us some fantastically hilarious and upsetting scenes too!)

I join the choir for Red Dead Redemption, but I also found the first installments of Assassins Creed quite interesting - I loved the weird mix of history and sci-fi.

Another good experiences are: Far Cry 3 and GTAV

The Yakuza series.

Shadow of the Colossus.

I really enjoyed red dead redemption.

Maybe I should go back to Red Dead. I've tried to push myself through more than once but have still never made it out of Mexico. I did love that set piece when you ride over the mountains into Mexico though.

I liked Fallout 3 and NV as well. San Andreas was pretty good but it definitely suffered from the same lack of focus plagued many of the others. The San Fiero and Las Venturas missions were extremely superfluous to the actual story.

Shadow of the Colossus. Fallout 3(no so much because of the writing, but the context I guess.) I'll also throw in Arkham City for good measure.

I really need to play Red Dead and Yakuza!

That ending really bailed Red Dead's bad parts. So I'll go with it.

Same here. Red Dead's story meandered way too much for me, it didn't really seem to be going anywhere. John Marston kept going to different people demanding information and they'd say "do this and I'll give you what you want!" and "this" wound up being several missions and Marston rarely got what he really needed. I've tried to go back to it several times and I just can't make myself. The performances are great, the dialog is solid, but I kept wanting something of significance to happen and it never felt like anything was happening.

I finished GTA V and it's kinda the same thing, but I enjoyed fucking around in that world enough to keep playing for the thirty some odd hours it took me to finish it. The story came across as very disjointed and all over the place but, eh, it was pretty fun. I'll probably buy the game again on PC at some point.

I think Sleeping Dogs has a better story than anything Rockstar's put out (and I had more fun playing it than anything except for some moments in GTA V). Call me crazy, fine, but I didn't play Rockstar's earlier entries. GTA IV, V, Red Dead, and Max Payne 3 all had the same issues - they're great at giving off the precise atmosphere that Rockstar wants and the dialog is almost always pretty engaging, but the plots themselves just come across as disjointed and inconsistent to me.

Yes I agree with your breakdown. The motivations and Mexico's length does wear. But the highs are so high that it easily wins. The end is my favorite end to a game ever. If anyone stalled out in Mexico they should keep playing.

Assassin's Creed II is probably second for me because of how strong the ending was and I loved the sci fi and historical aspects overall and how they were woven in. Then I would put GTA V. I really enjoyed the characters and the heist and the whole presentation of the story.

Saints Row 3 was way too good.

And I really liked Infamous 2! Plus, the villain's main theme is one of the best villain themes I've ever heard.

Two Worlds.

Ill go with Red Dead but by a narrow margin over Sleeping Dogs. Both carried an interesting story from start to finish, both had great characters, and both were just plain fun and hard to stop playing.

Also not counting mass effect because its not really open world.

GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption, Batman: Arkham Origins (very underrated)

I always enjoyed the story in the first InFamous game.

I'm going to go against common wisdom here and say Dragon's Dogma.

Maybe it was unintentional and a pure accident due to poor writing/budget as critics of the game say, but the understated way DD revealed things and the lack of cutscenes made me feel a part of the story instead of watching one (which is how I feel even in most of the better ones like RDR). Especially when that ending hit, I felt genuinely floored in a way that I'd think the Arisen would feel.

With that visceral combat system and that emergent story experience I felt way more invested in that game than I have in a long time.

I'd argue Dark Souls works for a lot of the same reasons. I think for open world games that's a better way to tell stories than the more traditional cinematic way that works well for linear experiences like Final Fantasy or your Uncharteds etc.

Does Gone Home count? Or is that more open-house?

That's pretty much what I was thinking when I clicked on this thread. I'm pretty hard to win over when it comes to story, but I've yet to play an open-world game with a story I actually enjoyed. Before anyone asks, I've played a whole lot of them. Most recently, Shadow of Mordor reminded me just how forgettable open world stories are.

Red Dead's is great EXCEPT for the Mexico parts because of how ridiculous the game is for forcing you to play both sides. It was very schizophrenic. Ending was pitch-perfect, though.

Sleeping Dogs was great, until it just had to have its cake and eat it, too. Didn't like how neatly it all wrapped up with the Hollywood ending. That game needed to end tragically, but it didn't, and it let me down so hard that I don't hold it up in the same regard as Red Dead. Shows how much an ending can make or break a story.

I feel like somehow the GTA style open world playground has kind of taken over our idea of what constitutes an "open world." I think the best idea of what an open world is, is that it's a fairly large open space you can go explore, instead of levels/missions, or room by room exploration a la metroidvania. Pretty much there's an overworld and you're free to explore that.

So what I'm saying is ALttP and like all SNES era JRPG's were pretty much open world, and some of them had pretty good stories, especially considering how barebones the stories of other video games had at the time. I thought Ys 1, 2, and 4 had good stories (never played 3), and I did like Chrono Trigger's story quite a bit.

imo the story should be irrelevant in an open world game, the whole idea is you carve your own path, at least that's how it should be, but more and more gamers seem to be clamoring for something definitive, and narrow, despite that fact that it could only ever be window dressing an avatar who kills everything.

open world games should have open endings, and stories should be free from the demands of gameplay. the two combining is bad medicine for both.

I'm sure other people have mentioned this, but the main draw of open world games is what they call emergent stories. You get to make your own stories and experiences and then share them with friends, family, the internet, your babysitter, etc. It seems kinda lazy at times, but if a developer does it right I don't get too hung up on the main story (or lack thereof). However, I did really enjoy the first Infamous game's story.

I think we can all agree that the standard Kojima type cutscene story doesn't work great in open worlds. But I don't think that means that those games can't have a great story. I just think devs haven't experimented enough to figure out how to make story work in these games.

One idea is to have companions engage each other and/or your character in conversations as you explore environments. They do an awesome job with this in Dragon Age Inquisition and the Last of Us. Granted I wouldn't call either of those games open world, but I don't see any reason it couldn't work well in an actual open world environment. They have tried to do this during the car conversations in GTA as well but I just don't think it's well-implemented. Just give me believable character development and exposition while I am playing the game to give me a reason to care about my overall "mission." Then only give me story missions and side content that have an actual connection to my overall mission. Don't throw a bunch of random shit into the game that has nothing to do with its narrative thrust. If you want to put collectables into the game, give a plausible explanation for why the items are where they are and why collecting these items would help my character in pursuit of his goal.

GTA IV had an interesting premise and an overall more satisfying story than GTA V.

I would say Sleeping Dogs. If anyone played that game all i gotta say is the wedding scene...... holy shit. Mafia 2 is up there!

Sleeping Dogs all the way. Its so honest about aping Honk Kong action flicks,with a dash of GTA, that I just love it. Saints Row the Third is also up there.

RDR for me quite easily. What they did w/story and JM was absolute brilliance; other games need to step it up on story like RDR did.

Saints Row(all of them), Yakuza series, inFamous 2. I'm actually really surprised to see how many people say Sleeping Dogs. I like the game, but the story feels paper thin and mediocre. I actually think Watch Dogs had a better story than people gave it credit for. Really good character dynamics. Honestly, I just liked Watch Dogs far more than most.

I concur

New Vegas. Including the Dead Money and Old World Blues DLC.

I'm not sure I'd count Shadow of the Colossus as open-world. The environment would certainly have you believe that it fit into the genre, but it's very linear in a gameplay and narrative sense. Excellent story, regardless.

It's open world in that the world is open. The gameplay and narrative is just as linear in RDR as SotC.

I don't know about that. There are additional activities that you can partake in over the course of playing RDR. Side missions. Collectibles. Mini-games. You can control the way the narrative in RDR plays out (to a limited extent) by doing some missions before others.

Shadow of the Colossus is an empty world with a set order of tasks, which works for what it is going for, but does not really fit into "open-world" as I know it.

Of course the term is kinda bogus in the first place, so we can each have our own interpretations.

Does Mass Effect or Dragon Age: Origins count?

I think Mass Effect is more of a linear story with open world aspects (freedom of travel between levels/settings, expansive environments with multiple activities/missions, etc). If it's considered an open world game, ME would be my number one :)

Otherwise, I'll echo the forum and say GTAV, Sleeping Dogs, and Red Dead were my favs.

I disagree, while in most open worlds you want to have the freedom to explore, complete stories separate from the main one, basically have a sandbox to play around in, a lot of open world games benefit from an overarching story if it's good or opens or changes the available area.

Also Starcontrol 2 in response to the OP question.

I am going to have to with Dragon Age: Origins. This is the first open world game that in my opinion gives a legitimate reason for you "saving the world", with all the Ferelden wardens being slaughtered in the beginning leaving just the player and Alistar. That and besides the main story, all the smaller side quest story lines (especially the Orzammar one) had me genuinely invested throughout their duration