Once upon a time...

Stories are such an amazing and powerful thing from the first tale to sci-fi futuristic films which no one can comprehend at the time. In a game I much prefer to have a story. I enjoy being Lara Croft crawling up a side of a cliff hoping to stop the evil Jacqueline Natla from making a race of mutants or even Cloud travelling around hoping to stop Sephiroth destroying the world.

I don’t think it is necessary for a game to have a storyline. Some games like The Sims, World of Warcraft and Second Life don’t have a definite story but they are incredibly popular and are just as good as any other games which have a story. In the games which don’t have a definite storyline there is usually a goal. While a player goes through the game trying to reach the goal they make their own decisions, meaning the player must make the story. This is different in games like Tomb Raider where the storyline is set and the player must follow it.

In the game Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne there is a story present. As there is a story within the game more is known about the character. When there is a storyline in a game I feel that there is a greater emotional tie to the characters in the game. This is much useful for a game franchise with a well known character rather then a Sims game, imagine the horror of little kids bawling their eyes out because their favourite Sim just died of old age.