Games spoiled by this post: Dragon Age: Origins, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 3, Persona 4, Persona 4:Arena, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Bioshock Infinite, Analogue: A Hate Story, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, and Knights of the Old Republic 2
Not every great game has a great scene. Some games are great because of their mechanics; others games are great because of many small moments that build up to something great. I wouldn't necessarily say that these are the greatest games I've ever played, but these moments are some of my favorite story-based moments from video games.
Even though I've played Dragon Age: Origins more than fifteen times, my heart rate never fails to increase as my Warden enters the Landsmeet chamber for my showdown with Loghain.
There are many ways this sequence can transpire, so one of the things that I love about it is that it is difficult to play the same way twice. But there is so much tension! It has the tension of standing in a crowd and demonstrating what is right; it has the tension of making important decisions for a character that I've spent twenty hours or more building and living with; it has the thrill of inhabiting a well constructed world that is so different from the one I live in every day. It is the best scene I've ever played.
2. "Madison Has a Nightmare" from Heavy Rain
There are many tense, stressful and exciting sequences in Heavy Rain, but the scene when Madison is a attacked during a nightmare is always the one that I think of when I think about how moving video games can be. It was terrifying and made me feel like I was the one being attacked, which is remarkable for a game that is clearly third person. I panicked when I selected the wrong actions just like I probably would if I were actually being attacked in this manner, which I know isn't fun, but it does prove that video games can be more than mere fun.
Around the seven minute mark is where the attack section begins.
When I play this part, I feel like I'm in an Alfred Hitchcock film.
3. "Curing the Genophage (or Not)" from Mass Effect 3
This sequence starts off with the totally bad-ass reaper fighting the mother of all thresher maws, and continues with a very emotional sequence that is emotional regardless of what choice the player makes. When Mordin sings as he is dying, trying to undo the mistakes he made in the past, anyone who cares for Mordin even a little bit can't help but get teary-eyed. But in a scene with a Shepard who was convinced by Mordin's past arguments, one who knows that she needs the support of the Salarians in the coming war, who knows that she must pull the trigger herself to stop the cure, it is this scene that is truly great. It's sad. Watching Mordin struggle to fix the cure makes it even more sad. But it's a moving sequence because each character knows what they must do and give a lot to do it. Shepard is not happy to kill Mordin. Renegade Shepard doesn't do a lot that is meant to make her happy.
4. "Luna's Ending" in Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
I loved Luna from the first moment that she was on the screen. She was so delightfully kind and I dreaded the moment that she would betray me and do something awful. I wanted to believe she was as good as she seemed and was so proud that I believed in her throughout the whole game when it turned out she was an honest character. I'm also a sucker for robots secretly living as humans.
This game has more visual novel elements than game elements, but it does have some game elements, so I feel comfortable including it on this list. The major premise behind the game is that the player is investigating a space ship that has been drifting in space.The player must communicate with the AI to gain access to letters written by the crew and occupants of the ship. The letter that describes the horrible maiming of the main character is one that stuck with me for weeks after I played it.
I am a big sap, but Persona 4: Arena is the only fighting game that I've ever played with enough emotional content to affect me. I cried like a baby playing through Labrys' storyline because (as I mentioned earlier), I get sad when people treat humanoid robots like they are less than people.
This video is the actual gameplay between the two robotic characters. In addition to having an in-depth story, the fighting mechanics are pretty cool. I'm not hugely into fighting games but this one is fun and the story is fabulous with each character having a detailed story arc.
7. "Convincing Atton to Turn to the Dark Side" in KotOR 2
Does it make me a bastard that I enjoyed the particular kind of pleasure that can be obtained from turning Atton to the dark side? Probably. Atton wants to be dark and wants to give into the darkness inside of him. I realize that it is also very rewarding to turn Atton into a light side Jedi and show him that there is good in the world, but the darkly sinister scene that occurs when Atton gives into his evil leanings is the sort of scene that I can only participate in within the world of a video game. Perhaps that is why I enjoy it. There is an aspect to video game that allow me as a player to enact scenes that I would not want to in real life, that reinforce my world views, and I guess that after turning Atton to the dark side, I now know that I would not want to seduce someone to evilness.
8. "Whodunnit?" Dark Brotherhood mission in Oblivion
This is an assassination mission where the player is taxed with murdering everyone at a dinner party while terrifying the guests before they are murdered. This scene feels like every murder mystery book ever that takes place in a party. I've always enjoyed solving a murder mystery (How to Host a Murder party style), but it is equally cool to be the murderer in such an occasion. There is a lot of suspense trying to isolate each party-goer as well as to try to discover why someone might want them dead.
After I finish all the murders, I usually settle down for a sweet roll before I leave the house.
9. "Looking for Shock Jockey" in Bioshock Infinite
The sequence in the Hall of Heroes, particularly the part that takes place in the dioramas of
The Boxer Rebellion and
The Battle of Little Bighorn are so beautiful.
The museum props that attackers jump out of adds to the sense of the sinister. The gameplay is fun, but there is also the added tension of Slade talking over the top of the fights. Booker's hesitation and desire to escape his past really comes across to me as I guide him through the visual representation of some of his worst memories. Then I help him get catharsis by killing his attackers.
One of the most interesting aspects of this scene is that the game will end in Namatamae's hospital room if the conversation is not played properly. There isn't a game over or really anything to indicate that you've misplayed a conversation except an unsettling feeling that you've left too much undone. It's also a very stressful scene with tons of tension so even though there is a correct way to play it, a correct way to respond to the situations, it can be fun to play it incorrectly just to see how the events unfold. The way the characters interact is very convincing especially because the game allows the player to take the time to get to know the characters. Knowing the characters, the PC's friends, is one of the primary objectives of the game.
