What games do you remember most thanks to their story

Hey guys I am working on a project at my university concerning narrative in retro games this has obviously led me here to the Amiga board.

So as the title suggests I am looking into what makes stories in games memorable and why. So feel free to post up some of your all time favourite games for their stories and overall narrative and why you believe they are so great.

Thanks

[Predseda]

Starglider II has one of the most awesome story in its novella. And also Burton bird has nice story in its intro Another very good background story has Nemac IV.

[s2325]

Lionheart for sure. I don't know if game could be the same without intro. Nameless man wandering without purpose. And in game hero looks more human than in intro. Intro for Borobodur is extremelly boring and should be skipped (you have that option so maybe makers knows that there was something not right).

[Locash]

Elite on the BBC Micro. The game came with a novella which establishes the setting for the game and tells story of a boy who lost his father in an attack by an unknown protaganist. Cut a short story shorter, boy becomes successful and manages to take revenge on his fathers assassin and joins part of a secret organisation called The Dark Wheel.

Novella is available on the games co-writers website

http://home.clara.net/iancgbell/elite/dkwheel.htm

The thing that impacted me the most was everything in the story was in the game, the ships, weapons and places. I could do and see all of it. While you didn't play the character in the story, the game was free enough to let you imagine and create your own way through it.

Elite back then was black and white wire frame graphics and the back story gave the Universe depth and colour. Also I was very young and any short story with murder, revenge, smugglers and space ships was a winner .

[Fabie]

there's a famous old game for the SInclair spectrum and other 8 bit machines named The Abbey of Crime which have a great history it's based on the novel "the name of the rose"
The game features an an interesting intro
originally was a spanish game but there is a remake for windows multi-language that can be downloaded here

http://www.abadiadelcrimen.com/

Thanks a lot for the great replies

[Monsterland]

I always thought Kult had a really interesting story. Eventhough it wasn't much of a very long worked out storyline I really liked the alternative typical French styled science fiction atmosphere, it's well chosen sound effects and, although small and shallow (the game wasn pretty small in every aspect), it's interesting characters.

Same goes for Dune, the game had it's own atmosphere with excellent music and interesting storyline that stood up well against it's big paper brother.

[JuvUK]

wing commander, because the games carried you along and depending on your results the story changed

[gimbal]

Only Amiga games?

I'll assume no, but I'll limit myself to the 90s. plenty of 0ld sk00l Square games come to mind. Chrono Trigger, Legend of Mana, Final Fantasy games...

Albion had quite a satisfying storyline, although even in those days it was a little rehashed.

I'll specifically name Prince of Persia, which was something else entirely. It didn't have any kind of narrative or even text, yet it told a beautiful tale of love and heroism through its imagery, music and even level content. It takes skill to plant a story in your head without the basic tools of text or spoken words, Prince of Persia managed it brilliantly.

[Hungry Horace]

as usual Bloodwych deserves a good mention. The tale of the evil Zendick gathering dark powers beyond his control and eventually bringing about Chaos (and summoning a 'Lord of Entropy') is very neatly plotted for the game.

The authors even ended up butchering it again for Legend.

[vidarh]

Shadow of the beast trilogy. While the story is pretty much a cliche, the way it was presented with the intros and game over screens was a major part of the wow-factor of the games. I never played them much - spent a little bit of time in awe at the cool parallax and loved the music, but intros and story is what I remember the most.

Prince of Persia original version was my favorite game of all time.
My couisin sent it to me fro UK still have it in original box.
At first it was like nothing I saw before.
Two friends of mine called ever eveving for about ten days .
We took it turns completing levels until we finished it
In my book this game will never be equalled.
The Snes version is one of the best version as more levels have added.

[Mequa]

Monkey Island (1 and 2) and Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis are adventure games (originally ported to the Amiga) which have strong memorable storylines. Monkey Island 2's psychedelic ending is certainly memorable.

Also, Delphine Software's Future Wars, Cruise for a Corpse, Another World and Flashback have impressive narratives, from sci-fi to murder mystery. In Cruise for a Corpse, all the characters have a potential motive for the murder - but the real antagonist turns out to involve one hell of a plot twist.

[hitchhikr]

When it comes to narrative in computer games you can't avoid interactive fictions (text based games) which are principally based on story telling, i remember a lot of good games from infocom (Trinity, Suspended, A mind forever voyaging, The hitchhiker guide to the galaxy, Buraucrary, etc.).
IF games are still produced nowadays (maybe even international game creating contests are still taking place) you really should ask people still involved in this art (http://www.ifarchive.org/index.html) if you haven't done it yet.

There's also specific way to story telling in japanese games (i remember the Megami tensei series, Xenogears/Xenosaga, Metalgear, etc. all dealing with morality and/or philosophical themes).

And i almost forgot about Portal & Loom

[Leffmann]

I like games with minimal narrative that leave more for the player's own imagination and to explore.

F.ex, the best RPG I've played is Phantasy Star I on Sega Master System. It has only a brief introduction of the setting and events, and throughout the game you're only subtly hinted of how to proceed. Most of the time you proceed by exploring the game map to find new areas and secrets, and paint your own picture of part of the story and events.

I like to contrast it to Final Fantasy VI (the only FF I've played) which is obviously a quality game, but to me it feels like a long farce littered with story-scenes where silly characters jump about on the screen accounting for everything you have and have not seen, what you should do and where to go next, like a nice red thread laid out so that you can get ushered along it. Not much left for the imagination.

[PowerPie5000]

Gotta be the Monkey Island games for me... on all platforms Infact i've enjoyed and remembered most Lucasarts adventure games including Grim Fandango, The Dig, Full Throttle, Maniac Mansion, Zak Mckraken, Day of the Tentacle, Loom, Sam & Max etc... But i've never finished any of the Indiana Jones games

The storyline for Shadowrun on both the Snes and Megadrive were great too... I found them to be very enjoyable, immersive games

[Mogilny]

It Came From The Desert, Police Quest I & II, Rise of the Dragon and Cruise for a Corpse.

[BrooksterMax]

I agree with most of these and it seems to be the adventure games e.g. LucasArts titles that are best remembered for their storyline. I certainly I can recall the Monkey Island 1 and 2 games really well to this day, as well as the Indy.

[Harry]

There were some games whose stories impressed me much at their time:
Alternate Reality The City (I encountered this first on the Atari 8-bit, but it also exists as Amiga Game so I will list it here): You were abducted by an alien ship and are subject to a virtual world, whereas your body lies in a kind of hibernation. Done with great attention to detail: Day and night change, weather change, opening hours for shops and taverns, 5 different musics in taverns, hidden passageways. Became repetitive monster-bashing when you had mapped the city, tasks were planned only for other parts of the series of which only The Dungeon surfaced on 8-bitters.
Dragon Wars: During game you are requested to read certain paragraphs (there are about 150) which unfold a story of a whole planet containing only some isles and suppressed magic powers. Imo still worth a play. Has great music by Maniacs of Noise.
Another World: You are teleported to another world by a failed experiment and have to bring yourself into a suitable situation again. The Story is being told by some short cutscenes and the gameplay has a stronger appearance of continuation than usual in action games.
Leander: For each level, you get a task to obtain a certain item, as explained by a kind of fairy. Maybe thats a weak story, but at that time a such inclusion had been new for an action game.
Of Adventures, which are predestined for storytelling, Dungeon Adventure (which is part 3 of the Jewels of Darkness compilation), Beneath a steel sky and Loom come to my mind.
Furthermore I was impressed by Millenium 2.2 where earth became unhabitable and you, as survivors on the moon, have to re-terraform earth. Has some lengths in gameplay.
Last: OnEscapee - on the run for your freedom.

[alexh]

Amberstar & Ambermoon are my top two.

Dungeon Master.

Shadow of the Beast.

Another World.

Damocles.

Monkey Island 2.