We’ve seen some wonderful video games in recent years. We’ve seen game after game on the cutting edge of graphical fidelity. We’ve seen game after game selling millions of copies, crammed with characters voiced by the cream of Hollywood. Despite all this, when it comes to telling good stories, most video games just don’t cut it.

As pleasing as top-notch graphics can be, in my experience it’s an engaging narrative, fuelled with likeable characters, that results in a treasured experience. I’ve played and reviewed many a fantastic story-driven game (Gone Home for example) but unfortunately the most popular games are those that forgo story for mindless action.

Take the recent disappointment that was Watchdogs, which featured a story that had more holes than characters. It follows the criminal exploits of hacker Aiden Pearce, a morally gray thug who somehow can’t see that he’s a bigger crook than those he takes such arrogant pride in stopping.

There was a moment in Watchdogs where I stole $300 from the bank account of a single mother. At that point, it became clear to me that Ubisoft had put no effort into the story whatsoever, failing to notice the hypocrisy of a man who beats the living shit out of a mugger in an alley one moment, then robs from and invades the privacy of thousands of innocent, unknowing citizens in the next.

Aside from that, the characters are a cavalcade of clichés, with the love interest Clara basically a far less interesting version of Lisbeth from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Also, Aiden’s sister is apparently so dense that she can’t figure out her brother is the infamous ‘vigilante’ even though it’s broadcast over the radio every few minutes.

In the light of his falseness, the rest of the story was laughable. I couldn’t help but think ‘serves you right’ when things went wrong for him, and the developer’s attempt to innovate by replacing the standard ‘murdered child’ motivation with ‘murdered niece’ is like replacing hanging with the electric chair. There’s still a dead body at the end of it.

Ubisoft had the opportunity to craft a modern, gritty story of the human consequences of digital crime, and instead they spent more effort on pointless mini-games. Watchdogs may be a pertinent example, but there are many other games that commit the same crimes.

Grand Theft Auto 5 tells the story of three awful men trying to get rich, without addressing the question of why you’d want to help three awful men get rich. Titanfall’s story is just white-noise, drowned out by gunfire and explosions. Don’t get me started on Nintendo, who are content to tell one story per franchise and basically repeat it for all subsequent sequels.

The worst thing is that when games come along that try to push their story above all else, they just don’t sell as well. Rockstar’s finest work L.A. Noire is ten-times the game that Grand Theft Auto 5 is (it’s a controversial opinion! Kill it with fire!) and yet it shifted a fraction of the units.

So why is it that the video games industry (or at least triple A games) don’t seem to consider a story as an essential part of a game? It’s not a secret that story-driven games have more longevity than games focused on graphics. One Call of Duty game is replaced by the next, yet people still rave about The Secret of Monkey Island. It’s because a story never gets old, where as graphics age rapidly.

I’m not saying that the games industry should abandon its pursuit of photo-realism and devote all it’s resources to telling stories, because if all a person wants is a good story, they can read a book. Video games need to be a combination of gripping narratives, engaging characters, good visuals and fun gameplay. It’s this combination that produces such timeless classics as BioShock.

It really is a shame that many developers treat their games’ story as a by-product, because video games have the potential to tell stories in a completely unique way. I wrote an article a long time ago in which I discussed ‘first-person emotions‘, If you read a book or watch a movie, you are a spectator. If something bad happens, you feel bad for the characters. If something good happens, you feel good for them.

However, in video games, consequences occur as a result of your actions, meaning when something bad happens, you feel guilt. When something good happens, you feel elation. Most games fail to take advantage of this, meaning that the only emotions they evoke are satisfaction and eventually boredom.

As I write this, I’m scrolling down a list of upcoming titles and I’m not filled with hope. Perhaps The Evil Within will tell a terrifying tale. Perhaps The Order: 1886 will draw us into its rich world. However, based on my experiences with big-budget titles, there’s every chance it could just be the same old story.

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