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Notes -
Crying silently for poor "Fallout: New Vegas" and GTA:Vice City
A good game tells its story not in cutscenes, but with its world and interactions. To make psychonauts (and the milkman conspiracy work) you need a good worldbuilding and storytelling.
In classical doom fashion you don't need a story - why are you cutting demons witch chainsaws - because there are demons and I have chainsaw. Same with mortal kombat - why do you want to beat this guy to a pulp - because he is there. When the gameplay is pure enough - all your bases are belong to us is enough of a motivation to play.
But the first time you meet roman soldiers in full atire in mojave desert in postapocalyptic Nevada you are WTF - mind blown ... the fact that they make it work and make sense is even bigger WTF mind blown.
The problem with the story is that games have way to tried to tell you a story so you can clap the writers and not to make your experience better.
A great game that tells simple story for you is Icewind Dale - there the story was minimalistic, but extremely tight. But it did great things to make you care and feel the place - which made the quests more enjoyable.
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