Current Events > Mediocre games that were elevated by a good story.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I had this game on PS2 called Test Drive: The Brotherhood of Speed (well, in the U.S. it was just called Test Drive. In the EU it had the way cooler name) and it was the most barebones, generic racing game ever, gameplay-wise. Couldn't even customized the cars outside of paint jobs.

But it had a singleplayer mode that was actually pretty awesome. It dealt with the an underground racing crew that have divisions set up in San Francisco, Japan, England, and Monte Carlo.
The game opens with a big race where one of the best guys in the crew gets wiped out by the "villain" of the game. The dude is disabled and out of commission. So that's where he recruits your guy -- this local street racer -- into this new brotherhood of illegal street racing. And he's guiding you through the story. You meet a bunch of fun, whacky characters all over the world -- some of them become friends and others are assholes. The game doesn't take itself entirely seriously.

You eventually take on the villain guy near the end and race him for his sweet Viper.

Then the guy who's been mentoring you the whole game reveals that he could walk the whole time and only used you to get the villain dude's Viper. He takes all your cars and shit and makes a deal with you -- he'll turn everything over if you can beat him in a series of races. And the only car you have to race him with is his shitty car that he initially lost with.

I played through that game so many times solely because I loved the story and the fun writing, even though it was a mid-shelf game at best.
Also, the soundtrack was dope.

Do you have one of those games (that aren't like that by design)? Meh gameplay, but a story you like enough to play it again?

---

Most 90s JRPGs

---

I wouldn't say that the story is necessarily good, but it had a lot of good ideas, including stuff related to the story, IMO - Vampyr.

---

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is 100% this.
The actual combat gameplay is janky and mediocre and you might be tricked into believing guns suck because of how bad the early guns are but the writing is great and you actually have options for how to approach certain tasks and certain people. Plus, the atmosphere, music and characters are fantastic.

The weakest part of the game is the end, because after Hollywood, it becomes increasingly clear they ran out of dev time(there's noticeably less texture and complexity in Hollywood and Chinatown was awful and insensitive for 2004) and it's basically just janky combat and the bosses become ridiculous damage sponges and little else.

---

Fallout 1, 2 and New Vegas

Summoner

---

ElatedVenusaur posted...

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is 100% this.

---

Red Dead 2

Its a bad game with a good story

---

Dragon's Lair

MGS4

medicore enemy placement. Seriously, the game suffers from it. They even tried to flip it on its head and do stuff like the espionage mission (where Snake dresses up like Columbo lol) and the MG Rex sequence. IMO, after the first 2 BB bosses, its basically candy. Gameplay in the second half or even arguably 3/4ths of the game is gimmick or puzzles or basically arbitrary. Its a very common complaint in conjunction with the length of the cutscenes.

The last boss plays like ps1 lol Like a wrestling game on PS1. a fighting game thats not. Its hardly even a boss. you just press buttons and try to comprehend what youre seeing lol

Soul Reaver 2

Love the lore, but these games are kinda dreadful to play.

---

Xavier_On_High posted...

Most 90s JRPGs

The gameplay in Ogre Battle 64 was such that you couldn't even choose which enemy to strike. But it had a great cast of characters and a very cinematic approach to storytelling.

Custer's Revenge

Mafia

Spec Ops: The Line

---

Irony posted...

Spec Ops: The Line

---

Deadly Premonition

---

World Court Tennis for TurboGrafix 16

Regular mode was just you average (for the time) Tennis game, but it had a "quest" mode, that was basically an RPG.

Quoted from GameFaq Review

World Court Tennis has a quest mode that is an ACTUAL RPG. Not choosing tournament dates, not winning points to upgrade characters between matches. We're talking Dragon Warrior/Final Fantasy stylized overworld with random encounters in which you get challenged to a game of tennis! No joke, it's real, and you have to see it to fully understand it. Instead of dungeons you go to the Evil Tennis King's cohorts' home courts and challenge them to a three set match for a magic pearl! Get all 6 pearls for the magic ball so you can slow the King's serve.

It was basically an "Evil overlord takes over the land" RPG and you go town to town collecting things and buying upgraded shoes, rackets, etc.

---

Manhunt

---

Akiba's beat on the vita and ps4 had very annoying, repetitive battles with hp sponge enemies and all of your characters hit so weak, not to mention it being one of the most tedious padded games I've ever played. But I am seriously considering replaying it cause the story was so great and hit me in the feels numerous times.
---

World Court Tennis is now at the top of my list.

---

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

It is very much like MotBQ. A few MotBQ characters are recruitable in PoLC on the High Chaos Frame path: Aisha, Saradin, Gilbert, Debonair, and Destin, who was the (canon) protagonist of MotBQ and is obviously modeled on the male MC sprite from that game.

---

She/her

Yakuza series. The combat is serviceable, but there's a reason they get away with only minor tweaks. I guess having all themini games and what not help. Know what, nevermind.

---

bigblu89 posted...

World Court Tennis for TurboGrafix 16

Regular mode was just you average (for the time) Tennis game, but it had a "quest" mode, that was basically an RPG.

Quoted from GameFaq Review

It was basically an "Evil overlord takes over the land" RPG and you go town to town collecting things and buying upgraded shoes, rackets, etc.

I'm getting major Golf Story vibes from that description

---

Might be a hot Take: Mass Effect 1.

The gameplay was OK but also clunky. Some of the side mission were good, but most were bland + took you to these barren wasteland (though there were some mountainous ones, but more on that in a bit) planets that only had like 3 or 4 points of interest with nothing between them (aside from maybe a Thresher Maw in certain areas). Then of course you have the MAKO, which handled like shit and made the previously mentioned mountainous planets torturous to navigate through.

Fortunately the story + characters were great. I also enjoyed most of the main story planets, with the 1 exception being the one you rescue Liara from.

Srk700 posted...

Might be a hot Take: Mass Effect 1.

The gameplay was OK but also clunky. Some of the side mission were good, but most were bland + took you to these barren wasteland (though there were some mountainous ones, but more on that in a bit) planets that only had like 3 or 4 points of interest with nothing between them (aside from maybe a Thresher Maw in certain areas). Then of course you have the MAKO, which handled like shit and made the previously mentioned mountainous planets torturous to navigate through.

Fortunately the story + characters were great. I also enjoyed most of the main story planets, with the 1 exception being the one you rescue Liara from.

I can definitely agree with this. I love ME, but the gameplay didn't become actually good until 2.

---

Robot2600 posted...

World Court Tennis is now at the top of my list.

It was easily the most fun I had playing TG16.

I had money burning a hole in my pocket as a teenager (must've been around Christmas or my birthday), so I bought a system at Toys R Us when it was already a dead system and they had it on clearance. I believe it was $50 and all the games were either $5 or $10 each.

I honestly can't even remember what games I had for it other than World Court Tennis and Legendary Axe 2.

---

Vandal Hearts 2 and Vagrant Story. Those 2 games are otherwise unplayable.

---