ITT: Games with great story but terrible gameplay

I just picked SOMA up. What am I in for in terms of exploration and freedom?

>>387361196
>exploration and freedom
not a ton

It's a walking simulator with stealth mechanics. The walking simulator parts are the best. There was at least one enemy that I really needed to google how to get past him.

>>387359841
Silent Hill 2
Deadly Premonition
Drakengard

>>387361716
game to say Deadly Premonition

>>387359841
>great story
Pic unrelated?

>>387362093
If you count a good story by the amount of times you think about, and attempt to re-interpret a story, outside of the game itself. SOMA has a good story.

In a way, it mostly demonstrates thoughts experiments in classic sci-fi fashion.

>>387362283
What game have you been playing? Because it certainly wasn't SOMA.

I thought SOMA will be shit, but man that story.

>>387362421
Wow, you're really contrarian and cool.

What are some games with good stories, then?

>>387361196
I'm afraid it's going to be extremely narrow. Game is practically walking in a tube and gives you only an illusion of choices.

>>387362696
I'm just saying. If you thought SOMA had a good story, you probably have very little experience with sci-fi. Nothing SOMA introduced was fresh or even particularly well-executed.

>>387362915
I'm just saying. You sound pretty insecure, asserting that anybody who had the gall to like the story in SOMA must be ignorant of the entire genre it belongs to. We get it man; you are the master of science fiction. You've seen and read everything so you're naturally jaded. Very cool.

SOMA is a niche game. Chances are that most people who seek it out are somewhat familiar with sci-fi, much less someone who goes out of their way to post about it on a Chinese cartoon imageboard.

Witcher 3, I love it but at the same time sometimes going through the houses makes me want to smash the keyboard in two

>>387363457
>You sound pretty insecure
Only because you're projecting harder than a movie theatre.

It's cool, though. Everyone had to start somewhere.

>>387362915
>Fresh ideas in sci-fi
>After Asimov and P.K.Dick deaths

Keep dreaming buddy

>>387363763
Guess I hit a nerve, you had to pull out the old "Internet argument 101" handbook.

>He said something negative about me! Uhhhh---projection! Yeah, projection!

Meanwhile, I'm not the one coming into a thread about a game I don't like saying, "I didn't like this game, therefore I am intelligent and you are ignorant", without even attempting to make an actual argument.

Only pretentious twats do that.

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>>387363763

I've read loads of Philip K. Dick, Larry Niven, Orson Scott Card etc. and I still thought SOMA had an interesting story.

>>387362915
Yeah but it's a video game so that's pretty cool

>>387364241
Must have hit a nerve then. Otherwise you wouldn't get as agitated.

Grow up, anon.

>>387364340
>I've read loads of entry-level sci-fi authors
Cool?

>>387364494
I guess you aren't as good at reading people as you think. Agitated? Not even close, man.

But I suppose since you didn't even try to deny anything I said about you, I'm glad we can come to an agreement on SOMETHING.

Have a nice day, man. Hopefully you've learned how to not get shit on in a thread about a game that neither of us really give a shit about.

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>>387364573

>I've read loads of good sci fi

Sorry, I'll make sure to bone up on my fanfiction erotica tier sci fi so that I can properly enjoy vidya.

>>387364494
>>387364573
My god you sound obnoxious, we could have had a proper sci-if debate but you chose to act like a fucking child

>>387364843
>writes novels explaining why he's not agitated
Don't give up, keep reading.

>people still trying to pretend that sci-fi is a respectable genre
lol

>>387359841
I don't know why so many devs can't just make fun games with compelling stories, there is absolutely nothing preventing a developer from making both great.

>>387365248
>there is absolutely nothing preventing

skill

>>387365334
I mean the two are not mutually exclusive, yet so often they are treated as if they are, as if a good story detracts from the gameplay or vice versa.

>>387365248
With except to the stealth mechanics, SOMA being a walking simulator adds to the story because your perspective as the player physically switches. You we're that other person, and now another. Which adds weight to the story in my opinion.

In a book you'd be reading about things happening, not actually doing it yourself. Even if it is simply walking forward along a linear path, you can just stop and look around the environment for a moment while you think.

SOMA is comfy in that way.

>>387365248
From recent games I've played The Talos Principle nailed both in my opinion.

>>387361397
>>387362746
Well, fuck. Is Talos Principle at least a little more open?

>>387366294
Fuck no, it's less open. The Talos Principle is a thinly vieled puzzle game. It literally as a physical level selection level (a bunch of portals).

Explore the level selection map, anon.

Autistic poster aside, SOMA is a fantastic game. The atmosphere, world building, sound design, voice acting, story and general art direction are some of the best I've seen in a game.
So many good parts in that game.
I really wanna see what the Devs are working on now, they've definitely proven themselves.

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I am honestly really shocked we made it this far without mentioning this.

Planescape Torment

>>387366294
Kind of. The game has worlds, or stages, which can be accessed by using tetrominos you get from solving puzzles. Each world contains of puzzles which can be solved in any order you like.

It also has pretty good story, though you are free to skip basically all dialogue and text entries.

>>387366294
If you don't mind mediocre voice acting, Cradle might be a good choice for you.

>>387362915
>still hasn't given his opinion of a good story

>>387365248
I mean, in some games the story and fun gameplay would be at odds with each other.

How do you make SOMA's gameplay more fun, when the bulk of it is hiding from monsters and listening to existential discussion?

I liked Penumbra and Amnesia what's wrong with SOMA

How is that Observer game? It looked like it might have a neat story.

>>387366995
They took an extreme interest concept and story and didn't make a very good video game out of it.

>>387367293
>extreme interest

meant extremely interesting
fuck

>>387362915
And then there's this faggot

>>387359841

>terrible gameplay

It was incredibly basic, yes, but terrible? I only played through it once to completion, but I don't remember ever having trouble with the gameplay.

>>387367520
Haven't you learned by this stage that if you have an opinion on something on 4chan someone will tell you that your opinion is inferior

>>387367293

Can you expand on that? How is it different in comparison to the gameplay in Penumbra and Amnesia.

>>387367768
There really isn't much difference. Though there's no sanity meter or limited resources to work with.

A lot of people just thought that the monster chase sequences weren't really the highlight or main selling point of the game, and that they were added in because as a follow-up to Amnesia, SOMA was expected to have them to.

>>387367990

Sounds like a solid game. Will buy it on sale. Thanks anon.

>>387367768
>>387367990
I remember the puzzles in the Penumbra games being more intricate than Soma, which is mostly a walking simulator with some stealth puzzles.

>>387368512

Penumbra puzzles we're literally "throw rock at a panel"

>>387368663
I haven't played them in like ten years but I remember some water based puzzle from the first one that took a while to figure out. I might've been retarded, but Somas puzzles on the other hand seems to be just move A to B.

>>387361196
>>387362746
What SOMA lacks in sheer expansiveness of its environments it makes up for in the explorability of its environments.

I love being able to open up all the drawers and cabinets, to mess around with the doodads strewn across desks and floors. Finding bits of lore tucked away in forgotten corners. That sort of thing.

>>387370084
>one anon says it's a corridor simulator
>another anon says it has expansiveness and explorability

fuck this shit I'm just going to pirate and buy it if I like it

>>387370170
Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivi0pmkzyaA

Soma's environment is relatively narrow in terms of area (open ocean levels are more expansive) but the deep in terms of dynamic interaction. You can open all the lockers, check the trash bins, that sort of thing.

>>387370170
He means that even though a large part of the game takes place in closed-off rooms and corridors, the rooms themselves have good exploration, in that you can interact with a lot of things and find hidden objects. Kind off like Deus Ex - the maps are pretty small but dense.

>>387370170
Think of it like that Alien game. It's mostly linear, but there are just rooms with universe fluff if you take the time to look and imagine the implied story that took place.

The maps are physically small and linear in design. I found myself pausing and just soaking in the atmosphere a lot in the game.

The story implications you learn make your mere presence in these maps a little haunting.

>>387359841
Anyone else kind of upset that they included that end scene with the Catherine and Simon copies on the Ark? I feel that really took away the impact of the prior scene, and the game would have been much better to conclude there.

>>387373052
i was kind of upset that humanity had apparently gotten so stupid, nobody thought to shoot the gigantic railgun at the incoming meteor.

>>387373516
And then you'd just have a bunch of smaller, but still big pieces hitting the Earth and most likely still doing the exact same thing genius.

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>>387373052
I think it works keeping it post-credits. Because after the tragedy of Simon's story has already sunk in, it thought it was an interesting tonal shift to see this idyllic world filtered through the harsh truth that Simon 4.0 hasn't realized yet about the Simon that was left behind.

Also thought it was a nice touch to be given the same questionnaire from earlier again, but with new context.

I do think it could have ended a moment sooner, like right when Catherine turns around, without us actually hearing her answer him. Ending things on a more quiet and thoughtful note, with her deciding not to tell him the truth. But I still think the scene works overall.

>>387373052
I think the idea was to contrast the grim reality of 3rd Simon with the flowery ark of 4th Simon.

>>387373516
They didn't shoot at it, but they did try to stop it and failed.

SOMA just had terribly implemented enemies. One you can't look at, forcing you to awkwardly fumble around until you can figure out which fucking direction youre supposed be going since you cant look at the fucking level. One that you're meant to stealth around, who has patrol patterns but arbitrarily teleports next to you preventing any actual strategy in your stealth. The absolute worst one was on arriving at the last complex, where you have an enemy you can't look at patrolling a circle (and switching directions arbitrarily) in a basically linear path. Your best option in that bullshit is literally to just run through and take the hit when he catches you.

>>387375348
Git gud
Didn't take a single hit

>>387375773
I said "best" as in least annoying. It is objectively poorly designed.

>>387375773
Getting hit has nothing to do with the quality of the enemies themselves. The other anon was right, they were badly implemented.

>>387375348
I slipped past that fucker at the end but couldnt get to the actual door. So I sat in the room next to the door, waiting for an opportunity, when he apparently decided that I was looking at him through the fucking wall and came for me.

Fucking garbage.