Best Story:
The world may still only pick up Call of Duty or Battlefield for their multiplayer modes, but the importance of a great story in video games can’t be stated enough. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag would just focus on pirates getting drunk and blowing up forts without the backdrop of the Templar-Assassin war. Batman: Arkham Origins would just be another routine patrol for the Dark Knight. Even when you look at titles like Pokémon X/Y, it’s the story that ties everything together and gives the player purpose. Anything else and they might as well be playing Tamagotchi.
Nominees:
– The Last of Us
– Batman: Arkham Origins
– Tomb Raider
– Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Winner: The Last of Us
The plot and overall back story for The Last of Us may be easy to understand at first. The infestation of a Cordyceps-like fungus which turns people into infected, nigh-undead creatures; the father-daughter bond formed between central characters Joel and Ellie; the post-apocalyptic near future which depicts a functioning United States that may as well die quietly; and so on. But the nature of the tale is far deeper. It’s a story about human nature and how life goes on, even in the most horrifying circumstances. The end could just as easily be the beginning, as emphasized by the somewhat open nature of the ending. It’s easy to ascribe meaning to the game’s atmosphere yet still be run to the ground by its absolute tension and horror. We’ll be forgetting plenty of stories in the coming years – The Last of Us isn’t one of them.
