What are some AAA video games that prove you don't need impressive visuals to tell an engaging story?

Mar 8, 9:07 PM

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Feb 2024

For me, it’s Deus Ex and its sequel Invisible War. The majority of the “Cutscenes” are just the characters standing still and talking with barely any expression. But my god the dialogue!

Mar 8, 9:41 PM

Retro8bit

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Jun 2008

8053

Hmmm off the top of my head, I would have to say Shadow Man.

Mar 14, 10:25 AM

tchitchouan

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May 2019

6378

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

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Mar 19, 7:05 PM

Suntanned_Duck2

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Mar 2017

1180

What games do you like? What consoles/PC do you have? To make it easier to scale what games to recommend.

Deux Ex/Mass Effect can be that way of dialogue heavy.

Find games with a focus on gameplay. Many Nintendo titles are. If you want action go with many that look for that.

How mature, teen or family friendly you sort of up for in tone of setting/themes?

Many do push dialogue/story/graphics these days so I'd say avoid certain open worlds/RPGs.

Go more racing (combat focused like kart racers or sci-fi racers so Crash Team Racing or Redout), platformers (many Indie ones, I guess Sonic, others majors ones are usually on consoles),

shooters (any old ones usually PS3/360 era there is tons there, some good, some bad I've buying up a ton from the 6th/7th gen and they vary of quality and bit of story and fair gameplay some can be VERY similar due to the cover based trend sadly so I just seek out their key mechanics),

hack n slashes can have over the top cutscenes they aren't just standing around as much (sometimes they do) but other times they are battle cutscenes. So Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, Vanquish as a more shooter one. Valkyrie Elysium. Stellar Blade will hopefully. Atlas Fallen. Darksiders 1 & 2 are worth it for the Zelda and God of War of combat and puzzles but a more angle/demon/horseman kind of thing.

Yes I mentioned AA in there for some of them.

But I mean any shooter of the 2000s besides COD/Halo/Crysis/Medal of Honor/Gears had fair gameplay or repetitive gameplay but eh stories and fair sometimes visuals.

People can play Halo or Gears for the story but I mean people do the gameplay in singleplayer I feel or multiplayer matches and maps. The difference in modes.

Racing games made the visuals nice sometimes and the progression/ideas in the 2000s were w excellent but many left behind. Nowadays their progression suck. Physics may be realistic but not always fun.

Sports were well sports. Good or bad depending.

I mean not many puzzle games have cutscenes. XD They aren't very AAA wow factor but still enjoyable.

It depends on the game and yes most people want adventure or combat I get that. Adventure games are well mostly dialogue and walking/puzzle solving or exploration.

But action adventure/RPGs yeah you will get more cutscenes/standing around a bit. RPGs more so. Cinematic going ones especially.

I mean many survival games may be Indie but still visuals fair while being not story focused in the slightest and all gameplay of you can get around the resources, quirks of gameplay and durability or balance of enemies and tiers of gear.

Arcade of House of the Dead, Crazy Taxi and many more.

Tycoon or strategy of Cities Skylines/Sim.City.

Roller Coaster Tycoon, Two Point Hospital or Theme Hospital.

Civilization, Rise of Nations, Age of Empires.

Some licensed games may show clips of the movies but sometimes they don't but still get into the action but depending on the era. Too.

This is why genres or describing aspects of games makes it more clear is 'oh it's got dialogue choices oh then avoid visual novels or RPGs that do that.

Games want graphics and story and for us gameplay focused or some cool action yeah be picky with current gen and mostly go Nintendo or older gens of PS/Xbox/PC. But in terms of PC it's probably fair with the stuff only on there with more options that consoles don't see.

Suntanned_Duck2Mar 19, 7:53 PM

Mar 20, 12:22 AM

Theo1899

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Jun 2016

12771

I like Warcraft 3's narrative. Some cutscenes are super expensive looking (for 2003) CG but most of then are low poly and in engine.

MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST

Mar 21, 9:55 PM

DreamWindow

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Apr 2013

5406

The NieR games, especially the first one. There's literally segments of the game that are pure black with white text and it's still engaging.

This ground is soiled by those before me and their lies. I dare not look up for on me I feel their eyes

Mar 28, 6:23 PM

Coaghim

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Aug 2013

823

I would say Mass Effect trilogy and The Witcher 3 (+2 DLC) tell a very engaging story. While graphics wise they are older compared to what we can have now. Those games, back in the days they were originally released, were near the top of the market. Ok Mass Effect 1 maybe wasn't as great as other games when it came out. But Mass Effect 3 without a doubt was a visual stunner compared to other games released in that year.

Another engaging story is the Metal Gear saga. NANOMACHINES SON! :P

Also I loved playing the Syphon Filter serie on PSX. You play as Gabe Logan, kinda like an NSA agent doing counter terrorists missions. RIP Syphon Filter serie, you are missed, 2 bad they didn't do you justice in the PS2 era.

Second Sight on PS2 was a special fun game. You play as a guy who's like a labrat imprisoned in a huge underground lab. When you regain conciousness (AKA the player starts the game), you want to escape with your new found psychic abilities (that only grow and improve as you progress in the game) and find out why you were locked up & where are you? Who locked you up?!

Other engaging stories I can remember are SNES era games. The just have a magical air around them. In the times you couldn't sell a game for good graphics, developers had to be creative to distinguish themselves from others, more care, dedication & love was spended on story, characters & 8bit music. I know off 8bit tracks that still slaps modern game music to oblivion.

When will Black Clover release new anime?! It has been 3 years already since March 2021...

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What are some AAA video games that prove you don't need impressive visuals to tell an engaging story?

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