The narrative that captures our hearts and minds delivered in video game form
Games have increasingly upped their storycraft, with more interesting narratives being told. And we managed to narrow down to four games that has done interesting things with storytelling. Which we boiled down by talking one great scene or moment from each.
And who better to represent the best story, told through best moments, than the Ellen Page fanboy David Cage?
Note that the deliberations video involve a lot of spoiler talk, this post however, will talk around around them.
Marvel’s Spider-Man is a great take on the web crawler, where the dual worlds of Peter Parker and Spider-Man clashes together. And what better way to sign it off with the incredible secret ending scene with a great performance from the actors involved.
Our out-of-left-field pick, The Crew 2, surprising has a good moment too. With issues of driver safety being paramount these days in motorsport, seeing The Crew 2 weaving the message into the open-world racer interesting to see.
And so we have the big two. Either of these two could have won. God Of War, the soft reboot and hard sequel to the three God Of War games before, has that pivotal scene that developed Kratos as a compelling character. It’s also a great nod to fans of the series, and captures the spirit of what the developers wanted to do with the game.
Red Dead Redemption II has a scene that works oh-so-perfectly thanks to its plodding plot. The slowness of the gameplay and story all culminates into one simple moment of Arthur Morgan riding a horse while a lovely soul-jazz song plays in the background (which we discussed in length here).
While it could go both ways, the crew leans more heavily to Red Dead Redemption II. The payoff for such a long investment of time to see that scene is just so great. And so, it stands unshaken to claim the David Cage Award For Best Story! Congratulations!
The David Cage Award For Best Story
Winner: Red Dead Redemption II, the Stand Unshaken scene (Rockstar Games)
Honorable Mentions: God Of War, that scene with Kratos and his weapons (Sony Santa Monica, Sony Interactive Entertainment), Marvel’s Spider-Man, that secret ending scene (Insomniac Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment), The Crew 2, The Accident mission (Ivory Tower, Ubisoft)
Choice quotes from the deliberations:
“It’s a powerful scene. You get to see Kratos be Kratos, not just angry axe dad. …In general, that scene works for God Of War.” -Wam
“That scene [in Red Dead Redemption II] is just perfect. Very perfect.” -Daniel
“That [scene in God Of War] is the hypest moment in 2018. …God Of War works in a meta level which is very applaudable, but [that scene in Red Dead Redemption II] hits closer closer to home just because of the time investment I [had].” -Meck
“I’m quite invested in [Red Dead Redemption II, indirectly.” -Anan
“It doesn’t have anime girls, put me out.”-Irham, noting the lack of anime girls in the category
As much as we love to poke fun of David Cage and his questionable storytelling abilities, we would love to see him and Quantic Dream deliver not just great moments, but moments that string together into a cohesive, satisfying narrative. Prove us wrong so we can stop making fun of you, please.
Until then, stay tuned tomorrow as we reveal the most fun award this year: The Most Surprising Game!
Check here for the full results of the Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters Game Of The Year Awards 2018.