Over the years many video games have presented fans with incredibly impressive stories. Sometimes the narrative is so good, it makes mediocre or downright atrocious gameplay completely forgivable.
The ten games below vary in gameplay from tolerable to nigh unplayable, but they all have their fans mostly due to the incredible stories. Some are even among the best-selling games of all time. For some gamers, a good story cannot save a title if the moment-to-moment action is boring. After all, if somebody wanted just a good story they would watch a movie or read a book.
10 Shenmue
Shenmue's gameplay is deliberate, but that does not make it any more enjoyable for people intolerant of the slow-paced mechanics. While combat is a part of the equation, it only shows up in select moments. In the first game, players will go through the game for several hours before the first bout.
Bringing it down even further is the numerous quick time events during cutscenes, something long since considered obsolete. Still, the epic continuing saga following Ryo Hazuki is compelling.
9 Nier: Automata
While Nier: Automata's combat is extremely smooth, the game is either extremely too easy or too hard. On the second hardest difficulty any player familiar with action games can mow down all the enemies and bosses with ease. On the hardest difficulty, however, most enemies kill the player in one hit.
At the end of the day, it is more worth it to play on the normal difficulty and just enjoy the cerebral science fiction narrative. Players should try out the recently re-released Nier if they want more tragic fantasy narratives.
8 Silent Hill 2
Released in 2001, Silent Hill 2's story deals with themes many games did not touch beforehand like guilt, lust, and trauma. It stands side by side with games like Metal Gear Solid 2 as pushing video game storytelling forward.
The combat, however, is only perfectly acceptable. Exploring the town is still extremely compelling for new audiences, but taking out enemies is clearly a tertiary focus of the design. It is made worse with the HD version, which is technically inferior to the original PS2 release.
7 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Even taking into account the technical limitations, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City manages to faithfully recreate the glitz, glamour, sin, and crime of 1980s Miami. The best part of the game is the world design, assisted by the radio and characters with whom Tommy Vercetti interacts. The actual combat is less than stellar, however. The auto-aim mechanics never worked super well and has only gotten worse with time. Movement in the game is also fairly clunky.
6 Deadly Premonition
Hidetaka Suehiro, also known as SWEARY, directed Deadly Premonition in 2010. The basic story outline resembles Twin Peaks, which follows an FBI agent investigating a small-town murder of a young woman.
The supernatural story, mysticism, and strange characters populating the town all contribute to this game's cult classic status. The gameplay, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. The sequel for Nintendo Switch fares even worse in this department, with performance issues making it nigh unplayable.
5 Alpha Protocol
Obsidian Entertainment is responsible for some of the most respected modern RPGs, most recently making The Outer Worlds. Not all of their RPGs have been pure gold, however.
Alpha Protocol is marred by serious gameplay hiccups. The shooting is wonky and the animations are subpar. Players who are able to look past these find a compelling spy thriller narrative with multiple branching paths. Some even hope for a sequel to bring back a similar story with improved gameplay.
4 Brutal Legend
This Double Fine game was confusing for fans. It was advertised as an action-adventure game, but a large amount of the gameplay includes real-time strategy elements.
This proved a big turnoff for many. Regardless of the gameplay, the story is a heavy metal fan's dream, filled with humor and voice performances from music legends like Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, and even Jack Black. The developer is currently working on Psychonauts 2.
3 Killer 7
Suda 51 is known for making incredibly unique games, starting with the PS1 adventure games Twilight Syndrome. Killer 7 is bizarre and almost indescribable. The gameplay is in third-person and on rails, but combat is in first-person.
Critics were divided over the unique title, with particular elements seeing both praise and disapproval. Even if players do not like it, no one can ever say it is not original. More than 15 years after release and no other game has come out like it.
2 Mass Effect
The first Mass Effect plays differently than the rest of the trilogy, and the combat is considered weaker and clunkier. On top of that, there is the infamously poor control of the Mako. This is all forgivable when it comes to how well the game introduces players to the world and overarching conflict. The remastered trilogy promises to remedy all these issues in addition to improving the graphics.
1 Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the most ambitious triple-A video games ever made. The story has enough content to fill up several large novels. However, the shooting and movement were a central point of criticism. It works fine, but it is not as tight as it could be.
The developer has utilized a similar control scheme since 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV. One would think they'd learn something from Max Payne 3's immaculate shooting mechanics since they run on the same engine. We wonder if the next open-world game from Rockstar will utilize different controls.