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Comment by bsd44 | Hacker News Reader

That's why I mostly play point&click adventure/rpg games and text adventures, because that genre can't really survive without a good story. I'm rarely disappointed and the games cost a fraction of what you would pay for a AAA title. Not that I don't like AAA, but every time I watch a gameplay video I get bored fairly quickly because I don't feel drawn to the game, it seems "same old, same old". Perhaps it's just me.

I think "Life is strange" is a good example of what can happen when the writing is strong combined with a nice, easygoing gameplay that takes you through the story. The only AAA game that I bought was "The Witcher 3" precisely for the back story, but after 5-10h of playing it just felt so repetitive that I gave up on it. I am likely in a minority but I'd take strong writing over graphics, physics and other elements of a game any day.

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> The only AAA game that I bought was "The Witcher 3" precisely for the back story, but after 5-10h of playing it just felt so repetitive that I gave up on it.

I went through the same thing with Witcher 3, but I tried again and once I got past the initial Baron storyline the game really hit its stride. That game has so many mini-stories that you can play for 100 hours and still have some interesting stories to engage with. I don't think I've played any game before or since with that many storylines.

Interesting; I got fed up after finishing Baron's story too.

You might be in the minority, but not alone. I had same experience with Witcher 3 and AAAs in general. I find that games with good procedural gameplay and an inherently emerging story are the best fit for me. E.g. Kenshi, Dwarf Fortress come to mind. Kingdom Come is a counter-example, where it's fairly mainstream, but I found writing great and the world procedural (alive) enough for me to thoroughly immerse in. Can't wait for the sequel. I like a lot of multiplayer games too: sourcing randomness and intelligence from actual people works well.

I never played the Witcher but if Cyberpunk 2077 is anything to go by (same developer) I'm not surprised. At least for Cyberpunk the storytelling was not its strong part (neither were its bugs etc... but the visuals were, oh my.). I tried out Gamedec recently and that's an isometric RPG without fights. Which means reading and decisions. And of course great storytelling because without it the game would have basically nothing.

I wouldn’t judge Witcher 3 based on Cyberpunk 2077. Very different experiences, systems, UI, everything.

I quite enjoyed the story in Cyberpunk 2077. And there was quite a lot of lore to go with the story, so it actually felt like a lived-in world.

If you like Gamedec you'd love Disco Elysium, but you've probably already heard of it.

The Witcher 3 story was one of the best game stories out there IMHO, but it gets off to a slow start. That slow start can be VERY slow, if you are doing lots of the side quests to start with.

If you haven't gotten through the 1st act, I'd recommend giving it another try. (After each major act, there's usually a narrated story board scene, where you see how some of the choices you made effect the outcome, for good or bad.)

I'd also recommend ignoring the side quests initially and just progress along the main quest-line. It will move you into the meatier part of the story pretty quickly that way.

(Once the story hooked me, then I wanted to spend more time in the world doing the side quests.)

The Witcher 3 starts off sluggishly, but it gets significantly better after you complete the Velen quests.

What point and click/text adventures do you play?

This list is from my Steam library, however I haven't yet played all of them:

   - Deponia  
   - The Detail
   - State of Mind
   - Black Mirror II
   - The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
   - Disturbed
   - Earthshine
   - Edge of Reality
   - Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes
   - Fighting Fantasy Classics
   - The Forest of Doom
   - Jericho's Prophecies
   - Memoria
   - Mirt. Tales of the Cold Land
   - Scarlet Hollow - Episode 1
   - Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders
   - Life is Strange
   - Life is Strange: Before the Storm
   - The Lion's Song
   - Misadventures of Laura Silver
   - Omen Exitio: Plague
   - Syberia
   - Syberia II
   - Wonderlust

If the parent want a few more suggestions:

  - Primordia
  - Strangeland
  - Machinarium

Excellent, thank you! I've already played Machinarium and absolutely loved it but I've wishlisted the other two. Great suggestions!

In addition to the sibling comment, I suggest these as personally assessed to be of high quality:

     - The Last Door
     - Gemini Rue
     - Resonance
     - Whispers of a Machine

Thanks for the suggestions, these all look good!

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