Game recc (PC pref): story as strong as Portal and good for a kid and a grandmother

The Game Room
1

The stars were aligned and my mother sat in as my son (9) was working his way through the first Portal. She was mildly amused by the humor, was intrigued when he found the first ‘secret’ area, and hooked by the time he had to assume the party escort submission position. We then binged on Portal 2, which they both found superb. Beyond the mechanics and puzzle aspects, what really got them involved was the story.

And now what? At nine, he’s kind of too young for the Half Life series (and I think she’s a bit too old for it). Plus, as fantastic as the story is, a lot of gameplay is action-oriented, which doesn’t make for great spectator material. I thought of the Fallout series, but that story, as good as it is, seems more gripping to an invested player, not for spectators merely watching. Bioshock (the first) would be perfect, I think, but the gore and all migh be a bit much for him (plus the whole “a slave obeys” bit). Bioshock Infinite came to mind, but I can’t remember if it’s easy enough to follow (or how gripping the story was).

So with Steam’s summer sale upon us, what holds a candle to the Portal series? I prefer PC, but we have a WiiU and an XBoy 1 available.

2

Well, there are masses of great RPGs out there with good stories, but most feature gore, sex and/or swearing so maybe not (Witcher series, Dragon Age series, Mass Effect series, Deus Ex, Vampire:Bloodlines, Dishonored…). Maybe an older one, like Jade Empire, either of the KOTORs, Baldur’s Gate… ?

The Talos Principle is kind of cool. It’s not the same sort of humour as Portal at all, but its story is very engaging nonetheless and, well, it’s not every day you get to ask yourself whether or not God is fucking with you, and whether you maybe should fuck back. Gameplay-wise, it’s similar to Portal - puzzle rooms going from simple to fiendishly clever, secret areas with extra puzzles & so on. Another fun puzzle game with decent storytelling would be Braid.

King of Dragon Pass is a fantastic story-driven game, very unique - a sort of mix between a Choose Your Own Adventure book and a village management game. Set in the Glorantha RPG universe, which is a very old and rich one written by an anthropology major and it shows. The whole idea of the game (and the world) is that the stories we tell each other (myths and legends, the stories of the gods etc…) have power in and of themselves; and to succeed in the game you have to grok that the people of your tribe have their own stories, which are not Earth stories, and their world often works better when you act according to those rather than common sense. It does feature quite a bit of reading though, which might rebuff a kid.

I was pleasantly surprised by Orwell, but its themes might sail over the head of a 9 y-o even though they’re very modern and the things the game has to say maybe oughta be taught in classrooms. It’s about the dangers of social media, surveillance, control, how easily manipulable this flow of digital information is, how people these days make it easy to spy on them by publishing everything about themselves and what they do online etc…
Bit short, though.

Overlord 1 & 2 don’t have the most intricate of stories, but they’re delightful romps and well written. My ex-'s kid loved them when he was 12.

3

One of the creators of Portal made a game called Quantum Conundrum. It’s a puzzle game with a light fun tone. The gimmick is you change the texture of the room around you. Make it bouncy or hard to get from one end to the other. I never finished it but it was fun while I played it.

4

You could take a look at Yooka-Laylee. The story isn’t as good as Portals, but it’s got its share of jokes and twists, and the gameplay is easy enough to pick up. Some of the bosses are challenging though.

5

Nice. Would something like The Witness be a good suggestion? The puzzle parts might be intriguing to grandma as the kid manages the mechanics.

6

Quantum Conundrum looks good. With the Steam sale on, it’s something I can get and check out regardless. The Orwell game is interesting, especailly as I’ve been beating Internet Privacy issues into his head. Overlord looks like something I’d like to play with him, but maybe not the best for grandma spectating. Platformers are great, but again seem to fall just shy of long-term spectating. I know the Mario series has a threadbare narrative so it’s not necessarily a fair comparison, but they don’t hold her interest watching-wise.

Has anyone non-spoiler thoughts on the Stanley Parable? I’ve heard spectacular things about it, and have wanted to check it out for a while. If my second-hand, spoiler-shy understanding is correct, it has a major storytelling element, with the in-game activity driving it rather than the other way around.

In Googling, a lot of people recommend The Orb. Anyone know of it?

7

Stanley Parable is… eh. I mean, it’s a fun narrative experience with clever meta- aspects… but it’s not a game. It’s very good storytelling, it has a point and so on, don’t get me wrong. But you’ll be over it in a few hours, if that. It’s sort of like Spec Ops : The Line in that it has interesting things to say and it’s a good way to foster thought-provoking conversation with your gamer mates… but in and of itself, it’s kinda crap. At least* Spec Ops* has passable action sequences to go with the philosophical content :slight_smile: