What is the most poorly written story in a game in your opinion

Modern Warfare 2 for a varariety of reasons

1. Shepards stupid reason for betraying you

2.How 1 cia agent found in a airport massicer make the russians assume that it was the u.s fault

3. The characters have no real personality

Black Ops had the worst story I've gone through in recent memory.  I also want to say FF XIII, but that's only because I really hated Hope. So, I really didn't give the game the time that it probably deserved to get into the cooler story parts.

Blue Dragon. That shit was derivative. 

Bad Dudes.  

Can I say Final Fantasy XIII without getting flamed?  Probably not...so uh... Rock Band.  Get famous playing other band's songs??  C'mon now!


(Totally not being serious)

It's not the worst game story ever, but Killzone 3's story is one in recent memory that annoyed me a lot. The characters are completely bland without any memorable characteristics whatsoever, the dialogue is crappy, and the universe just seems less and less believable as the franchise goes on. There could be really interesting stuff happening in that universe, but they just don't ever truly commit to it. Such high production values and interesting basic premise completely sabotaged by lazy writing.

Pong.. I mean, where's the character development, the love interest, THE DRAMA?!

" @nick_verissimo: 

Black Ops has the worst story I have ever tortured myself to play out of all games I own.

It's a bad game in general, zombies and multiplayer offer hardly any redemption. Next time, Treyarch need to do a better damn job.

"

Final Fantasy XIII.  Horribly written and mostly only given to you via encyclopaedia entries.

so are we only including games that attempt traditional dramatic structure and fail? Cause if not, I'm gonna go with the guy that said Bad Dudes.

Borderlands. The story telling is terrible and nothing about the world interests me.

" so are we only including games that attempt traditional dramatic structure and fail? Cause if not, I'm gonna go with the guy that said Bad Dudes. "

" @Getz said:

" so are we only including games that attempt traditional dramatic structure and fail? Cause if not, I'm gonna go with the guy that said Bad Dudes. "

President has been kidnapped by ninjas. It's short and sweet and you don't need to hear any more. It's great, what's the problem? "

As far as recent memory goes Crysis 2 wins for me. The story is complete nonsense and incredibly boring. There is not one single interesting character in that entire game.

Heavy Rain...

Loose (or forgotten) plot threads.

And the killers identity. Ugh...

I tried to play it again and stoped after I got to "Jason!"

The question raises a fine point that is often missed.
There's a difference between a bad story and a poorly written story. For example, Bioshock's story is complete shit, but it's adequately written. On the other end of the spectrum, Jericho actually had an interesting story, but it was horribly written to the point of killing any promise.

Very few games have good stories, but there are several that have adequate or better writing. Mass Effect is another example of a dull, derivative story that is well executed; the character's have distinct voices, and there's a natural flow to the dialog. The Thief games are underwritten, but what's there is great. The early Silent Hill games have great stories, but the executions were hit and miss (a lot of stilted dialog).

I'd say that Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid, Jericho, 50 Cent, and Naughty Bear included some of the worst writing of this generation.

Homefront

Medal of Honor. If it even qualifies as a story. At best its like 4 hours long. Entire story: Dudes with beards go to Iraq because war. RPG. Helicopter goes down.  "The war has just started". Roll credits.

Blops and MW2 at least had fucking named characters

Tetris.

Heavy Rain. After years of shouting by David Cage that Heavy Rain was going to be the next step in interactive storytelling I was utterly dissapointed with the abysmal story of Heavy Rain. On another note, I really didn't like the way Kratos evolved in God of War 3 (he was the ultimate anti-hero in part one, a tolerable asshole in part 2 but a giant dick in part 3).

"

Modern Warfare 2 for a varariety of reasons

1. Shepards stupid reason for betraying you

2.How 1 cia agent found in a airport massicer make the russians assume that it was the u.s fault

3. The characters have no real personality

"

" @nick_verissimo: 

Black Ops has the worst story I have ever tortured myself to play out of all games I own.

It's a bad game in general, zombies and multiplayer offer hardly any redemption. Next time, Treyarch need to do a better damn job.

"

" @stoodspoon said:

"

Modern Warfare 2 for a varariety of reasons

1. Shepards stupid reason for betraying you

2.How 1 cia agent found in a airport massicer make the russians assume that it was the u.s fault

3. The characters have no real personality

"

1. It's called 'Loose Ends' for a reason. They were a little oblique on what information needed to be kept secret, but still.

2. You're a retard.

3. You're a total retard, why did I even attempt a real answer for the first question.

"

" @HandsomeDead said:

" @stoodspoon said:

"

Modern Warfare 2 for a varariety of reasons

1. Shepards stupid reason for betraying you

2.How 1 cia agent found in a airport massicer make the russians assume that it was the u.s fault

3. The characters have no real personality

"

1. It's called 'Loose Ends' for a reason. They were a little oblique on what information needed to be kept secret, but still.

2. You're a retard.

3. You're a total retard, why did I even attempt a real answer for the first question.

"

No, I agree with him and you didn't even try to give your reasons for disagreeing with him you just called him names. Seems like you're a little butt hurt.  "

Far Cry 2.

Certainly not the worst I've experienced but the first that came to mind:

" @blueduck said:

" @HandsomeDead said:

" @stoodspoon said:

"

Modern Warfare 2 for a varariety of reasons

1. Shepards stupid reason for betraying you

2.How 1 cia agent found in a airport massicer make the russians assume that it was the u.s fault

3. The characters have no real personality

"

1. It's called 'Loose Ends' for a reason. They were a little oblique on what information needed to be kept secret, but still.

2. You're a retard.

3. You're a total retard, why did I even attempt a real answer for the first question.

"

No, I agree with him and you didn't even try to give your reasons for disagreeing with him you just called him names. Seems like you're a little butt hurt.  "

Not really. I just wonder how many people who played MW2 and slate it even paid attention. The story isn't groundbreaking, but it's solid, told in an efficient manner, pretty clever in spots and far exceeds a majority of other games out there. And then you have threads like this where someone doesn't get the most basic of plot points. It's like the last time a thread about the MW2 story popped up and someone PM'd me to explain why Price dropped a bomb on the Americans if he was a good guy. "

" @HandsomeDead said:

" @blueduck said:

" @HandsomeDead said:

" @stoodspoon said:

"

Modern Warfare 2 for a varariety of reasons

1. Shepards stupid reason for betraying you

2.How 1 cia agent found in a airport massicer make the russians assume that it was the u.s fault

3. The characters have no real personality

"

1. It's called 'Loose Ends' for a reason. They were a little oblique on what information needed to be kept secret, but still.

2. You're a retard.

3. You're a total retard, why did I even attempt a real answer for the first question.

"

No, I agree with him and you didn't even try to give your reasons for disagreeing with him you just called him names. Seems like you're a little butt hurt.  "

Not really. I just wonder how many people who played MW2 and slate it even paid attention. The story isn't groundbreaking, but it's solid, told in an efficient manner, pretty clever in spots and far exceeds a majority of other games out there. And then you have threads like this where someone doesn't get the most basic of plot points. It's like the last time a thread about the MW2 story popped up and someone PM'd me to explain why Price dropped a bomb on the Americans if he was a good guy. "

The story was a decent over the top soldier of fortune fantasy, It was never "ground breaking EVER" and IMO turned to total shit at that sniper mission.  "

I'm guessing you totally missed the hegemony in the story too. And, also, what are people comparing this game's plot too? I'm struggling to think of an FPS with a story as well done as the Modern Warfare games. "

Deadly Premonition was the first thing that came to mind.

" Pong.. I mean, where's the character development, the love interest, THE DRAMA?! "

Venetian Blinds

For sheer bad writing, Darksiders. 90% of the dialog sounds like it was written by a 12 year old boy who just saw the Lord of the Rings movies.

" @Abyssfull said:

" Pong.. I mean, where's the character development, the love interest, THE DRAMA?! "

Perfect example of why this question is silly. Too broad. "

This plot description I came across on the Creature Plot Twist wiki page for the game Urban Chaos seems rather fitting for this thread:

"As an example, the game Urban Chaos tells a story about a policewoman fighting a gang.  The game's story remains relatively grounded and follows along this path until the final two missions.  In the second-to-last mission, the player must fight a demon that inexplicably appears on the city streets.  Then in the final mission, a plot twist reveals that the main antagonist is not just a corrupt mayoral candidate, but also a warlock trying to open a portal to Hell. "

What.

" This plot description I came across on the Creature Plot Twist wiki page for the game Urban Chaos seems rather fitting for this thread:

"As an example, the game Urban Chaos tells a story about a policewoman fighting a gang.  The game's story remains relatively grounded and follows along this path until the final two missions.  In the second-to-last mission, the player must fight a demon that inexplicably appears on the city streets.  Then in the final mission, a plot twist reveals that the main antagonist is not just a corrupt mayoral candidate, but also a warlock trying to open a portal to Hell. "What. "

Typing of the Dead ;)

Vanquish. But in this case, the story didnt matter at all, it was all about the sweet gameplay.

"

                    The question raises a fine point that is often missed.There's a difference between a bad story and a poorly written story. For example, Bioshock's story is complete shit, but it's adequately written. On the other end of the spectrum, Jericho actually had an interesting story, but it was horribly written to the point of killing any promise.Very few games have good stories, but there are several that have adequate or better writing. Mass Effect is another example of a dull, derivative story that is well executed; the character's have distinct voices, and there's a natural flow to the dialog. The Thief games are underwritten, but what's there is great. The early Silent Hill games have great stories, but the executions were hit and miss (a lot of stilted dialog).I'd say that Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid, Jericho, 50 Cent, and Naughty Bear included some of the worst writing of this generation.

                   

                "

Are you actually serious? No, really, are you actually serious? Saying Bioshocks+mass effects story are shit is basically saying that Air is not good because you need it, or that the sun sucks because it gives warmth. This is something I would expect someone from Gamefaqs to say, it is that unbelieveably foolish. Honestly, I am going to be serious, Just saying that invalidates your entire opinion on writing FOREVER. Have you actually read a book before? Or hell ANYTHING before? You are proof that some videogamers wouldn't know what a story is even if was stapled to their scalps! I am now going to dissect your entire post right now.

First two sentences start fine enough, but the third, by God the third is basically like bending down the greatest writers of the world today and basically telling them they suck while you take a crap on them. you have literally angered the writer inside me to the point of writing this very, very long post to be destroying your points altogether. fourth sentence now, Saying Jericho is INTERESTING while saying Bioshock is SHIT is like saying the greatest movie of all time is crap compared to Garbage Pail Kids. It is an insult to intelligent thought that I take personally in this matter.

Fifth sentence just proves you hate videogames, it utterly proves it. Anyone reading your post will know this about you and never take you seriously again. You DO know this... right? Or are you completely oblivious of this fact that you hate videogames with great stories?

Sixth sentence, yeah, Mass effects charactors are awesome, but saying the story is derivative is basically saying 2001 Space oddyssy is bad! (upon multiple viewing, yeah, it is, but on your first watch through it is a great movie.) hell, star wars can't even go up against Mass Effect, or, hell, even Halo anymore! They have basically said, "**** this!" to any thought involved in story and decided to retcon EVERYTHING while mass effect sticks to itself and makes completely sure that the lore is fine all the time.

Seventh post. So, I heard you like the story of tetris, the little blocks that could crush russia under the wieght of its own communism! (sarcasm.)

Eighth, I do agree, the early silent hills were badass and had amazing story, although with some wierd dailouge included in them. only agreement of two you will get from me.

ninth sentence. Gears of war, sure, but even then, they do care about the lore more then the movie industry can about anything. Hell, I guess the books are supposed to be pretty decent from what I hear. MGS... I really want to open my can of shitstorm in this thread now. I really do, but even then, this just shows the sheer amount of Gamefaq members that are actually here. (yes, that I consider is a insult.) Jericho, you got that right(second agreement from me.) 50 cent. honestly... what in the hell were you expecting here? Naughty bear... wow, so I guess a bear that has gone on a killing rage because that is SO DEEP AND COMPLEX!!!!

Drbendo, you have literally pissed off the entire writing community for the entire videogame industry, you have literally just said that videogames are nothing and deserve nothing, as a writer myself, I am APPALED to hear this from a human being. Literally appaled. I would write more, but I am done destroying your points until your next post which also should be worth another essay once you repost.

Basically, My good man, I have destroyed you, you fight against these points and you will show this topic that you truly don't even know what good or even bad writing is. if you take back your words, you are just a sheep then going with the crowd.

No offense to anyone. I as  a writer cannot stand it when my fellows get ragged on for making great works like bioshock and mass effect. Things that other industry like the movie industry won't even think about anymore, a medium that will soon die due to unoriginality. (yeah, I'll get flamed for this one, but to be quite honest, with the smurfs movie coming out, I am right on about this.) while this new one, even as it produces amazing work after amazing work only gets ragged on because they are in a new medium that has already beaten two of it's compadres down beside it in terms of quality. (movies and RETCOMic books. not graphic novels like the walking dead, but RETCOMic books like superman which constantly retcom EVERYTHING in every issue.)

I hope to everything that entire post was just sarcasm, I literally hope for humanity that it is. Otherwise it proves that some people only know what writing is from a burger king menu!

End rant.