Poll of the Day > How do you feel about story lore in notes/letters in games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I ask because I'm playing Control and there are a fuckton of notes and recordings. I don't mind reading/listening/watching them, but there are so many (at least 20 in the first hour or two) to the point that I'm sure I missed a few, which sucks.


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I'm all for it. Makes exploring more worthwhile..

I'm for it. Makes skipping it possible.

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I'm for it, as long as its optional and for flavor.

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In very limited doses, they're fine.

When it's used to dump fucking hours of exposition on the player, like in Horizon Zero Dawn, it's unbearably terrible.

I love them.

the best examples are the audio recordings found in Bioshock games. I love those the most because you dont even have to stop playing; you can listen to them on the run.

my other favorite is the Thousand Years of Dreams stories in Lost Odyssey. Those are just beautiful

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I don't read notes thay lead nowhere, I'd rather a fetch quest giver mention stuff off hand.
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Depends on how it's implemented.

If you go the Skyrim/Elder Scrolls route and go "There's TONS of lore, but almost none of it actually matters, and you have to read all these books we've scattered everywhere to know any of it", or the Destiny route of "There's TONS of lore, and it all kind of matters, but we're not telling you any of it and are instead hiding it all in codex entries that we'll make extremely inconvenient for you to access in any way", I tend to dislike it, or at least be apathetic about it.

But games where they can integrate the lore into the setting and narrative in ways where you find it organically as you play, and it adds to the immediate experience, I really like it. Franchises like Fallout, Mass Effect, and all tend to do it very well. It also tends to be a plus in licensed games (like the old Baldur's Gate games, or KotOR), where they can allude to elements of the world that don't necessarily matter to the current story, but help establish stronger connections to the rest of that setting.
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I was no fan of the sphere recordings in the tenth Final Fantasy game--due in part to the fact that I had watched enough cutscenes from that game for my liking. On the other hand, I am a fan of the reports that can be obtained in the Kingdom Hearts game that do more to expand on its lore, that normally would be troublesome to do in a cutscene consisting of purely exposition.
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I put other because it depends how its done.
If the notes are used as optional ways to flesh out the story without forcing people further into the lore, then thats great.
If the story makes absolutely no sense unless you track down and read notes scattered throughout the game, then that kind of sucks.
The plot and world should accessible and interesting without added effort on the players part, but its also nice to reward people for exploring by allowing them a deeper look into things.

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I rarely care.

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I love it. Though, it sometimes feels like too much. Like Fallout, Horizon Zero Dawn, & The Outer Worlds has a ton. Though, I still really loved HZD (Especially the Vantage Points which make me cry). And the Fallout and Outer Worlds ones can be funny at times.

Plus, I already explore everything, anyway. So, its nice to be rewarded. Haha.
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LinkPizza posted...

I love it. Though, it sometimes feels like too much. Like Fallout, Horizon Zero Dawn, & The Outer Worlds has a ton. Though, I still really loved HZD (Especially the Vantage Points which make me cry). And the Fallout and Outer Worlds ones can be funny at times.

Plus, I already explore everything, anyway. So, its nice to be rewarded. Haha.

Horizon was yet another victim of my need to complete side missions. I got 80% of the way through and shelved it when DQ11 came out.


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party_animal07 posted...

I ask because I'm playing Control and there are a fuckton of notes and recordings.

Thats good.


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party_animal07 posted...

Horizon was yet another victim of my need to complete side missions. I got 80% of the way through and shelved it when DQ11 came out.

I loved Horizon so much. The ending actually made me cry.

Well, no, not cry, because I am a manly man from a long line of manly men who have learned to swallow their emotions and remain stoic at all times, but it definitely left a bit of a lump in my throat a few times before the end.
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streamofthesky posted...

In very limited doses, they're fine.

When it's used to dump fucking hours of exposition on the player, like in Horizon Zero Dawn, it's unbearably terrible.

Those things in Horizon take seconds to watch/read and are way too spread out to dump hours of anything on the player

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Metalsonic66 posted...

Those things in Horizon take seconds to watch/read and are way too spread out to dump hours of anything on the player

Plus, a good amount are audio clips. So you can listen while you move...
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The biggest thing that matters to me is the answer to the question "Why should I care?".
Because if it's lore for lore's sake, no thanks I'd rather just read a book that's written by a better writer. If I actually care about the universe and the people in it, then I'll happily dig into every element.

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I think dead space did a great job across the series splitting up text, audio, and video to paint a vivid picture of what was going on in the first two games. The third did alright but it felt more like an unhinged rant on government/religious control and felt out of place.

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Resident Evil games usually do a good job, and as mentioned earlier Bio Shock does a great job with the audio logs.
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I love it.

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

I loved Horizon so much. The ending actually made me cry.

Well, no, not cry, because I am a manly man from a long line of manly men who have learned to swallow their emotions and remain stoic at all times, but it definitely left a bit of a lump in my throat a few times before the end.

Really? I'm honestly surprised PO, maybe I should check out Horizon at some point then.

I like them as it gives more backstory.

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It's a great way of supplementing the main game's story or, in the case of something like the ES games, adding lore.

However, it can be annoying when it tells most of the main narrative, especially when the audio files or notes might be hidden.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

If you go the Skyrim/Elder Scrolls route and go "There's TONS of lore, but almost none of it actually matters, and you have to read all these books we've scattered everywhere to know any of it",

It doesn't have to matter. The fact that it exists shows that the world extends beyond the basic storyline and thus enriches it. A lot of the more relevant lore (like the White-Gold Concordant) is also available through NPCs.

And while the game could support a feature like a library to consolidate the information to some extent (especially after you've found the book), it's kinda easier to just use a wiki after the fact especially because the wiki will often have bridging material, notes, or added context.

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If it's relevant to the main story then it needs to be explained in the main story. I shouldn't have to go read notes in a menu to know what is going on.

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Playing the witcher and honestly I have a lot of difficulty reading the text and there's so much of it. Luckily it's not 100% necessary but I do wish it was condensed and was visually easier to look at. Feel like I'm occasionally missing out on noteworthy info. But I really like the random easter eggs, like finding the Twilight book for instance

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It's one reason why the original RE2 is better than the remake.

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WarGreymon77 posted...

It's one reason why the original RE2 is better than the remake.

What do you mean by that? The original didn't have notes?
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The original had a lot more than the remake. More interaction between Leon and Claire too, although it still wasn't much.

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