Game Lore/Backstory Appreciation Thread

Silky

Banned
This is a thread to discuss and share your favorite games with deep lore/backstory/buildup.

Gears of War

A lot of people don't see the first Gears of War as one of the best examples of the game's storytelling and world building. Because well, most people sees it as dudes bro-ing up and fighting aliens for earf.

The first entry detailed a bleak future on an alternate version of Earth--already war torn by stuff happening years before the actual events of the first game--being invaded/overpowered by bigass bug-aliens. Gears of War, and it's sequels (including Judgment) does something I really appreciate in a game--good lore. With every collectible picked up in-game, every piece of new environment discovered, the game gives you a glimpse from it's shitty window into a 'slightly' less shitty world, full of political struggles, dying communities, and civil war. Moving on, from game to game to the point where the Pendulum Wars end and Emergence Day occurs, all the way to the sinking of Jacinto and leading into everyone being stranded, the series does a brilliant job of detailing Sera. Each character, for better (Marcus, Cole) or worse (Dom, Baird...?) gets their own backstories fleshed out enough so that the cast moves on from being meaty bro-dudes to...meaty-bro dudes with meaning, essentially. There isn't a cast member in the series that doesn't feel 'phoned-in'/there for the sake of being there other than Griffin. At least that's what I believe.

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Share your favrotie things now!
 
I love how Valve has turned Team Fortress 2 into a rich narrative universe... but that being said I can't go into detail as I don't really follow it. It's just immensely interesting to me that a heavily-stylised MP shooter is now underpinned by a cast of whacky characters and a unique sense of place.
 
Definitely the original Silent Hill games for me. Not only for the mysterious and eerie history of the town, but the notes and various documents and character responses to interactions within the world. The first visit to the apartments in Silent Hill 4 is a great example of this. Getting an idea of whom those people were added a lot for me, particularly the unusual ones.
 
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