Atmospheric/Story-driven games?

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I am looking for suggestions on some games that are highly story-driven, atmospheric, or have a lot of emotional content in them. I find that the vast majority of games out there today have either no, or very weak, story lines, and you never really develop a connection to either the characters or the game world. Usually it's little more than "A bunch of people want to kill you, shoot them first!". Then a lot of games that have a good basis for a story just mess it up with all sorts of weird, nonsensical, or unrealistic stuff. I see this a lot in asian RPGs: the story will start off pretty good, and then some crazy stuff starts happening like people start glowing and shooting laser beams from their eyes. I don't mind fantasy and stuff as long as it's fully explained and makes sense in the context of the story.

Really some of the best storys I've seen in games have all been in indie, rpgmaker games (Exit Fate being one of my favorite). The longest journey/dreamfall are some other really good commercial ones. And for atmosphere, I think Shadow of the Colossus wins hands down! I mostly just want to find games that have more to them than just running around blowing stuff up, and actually make you feel a real connection to either the characters or the game world.

Go for Ico if you want something Shadow of the Colossus-like (atmosphere-wise).

I think there's a new Slender mod out called Slender's Woods if you want something Slender-based with a story. (He pops up out of nowhere sometimes, it's quite scary...)

Persona 3 and Persona 4. Those two are the largest from my view, but you never gave any indication on what system.

The recent Walking Dead game is definitely story driven...

It's a lot like Heavy Rain, play system wise. The lack of an open world can be a bit frustrating... On the bright side, it is divided into episodes. So, you could download the first episode/demo and see if you like it.


i'm pretty sure you can get it on Steam, PSN, or XBoxLive.

I took the plunge and bought the "season pass" on PSN. I'm not sorry, yet. But I'm still on the first episode.

The game is much more about survival ethics and less about blasting zombies all the time... If they can actually make your ethical choices have consequences, it will be a good game...

Like I said, it sorta reminds me of Heavy Rain, but with zombies. I did not like Heavy Rain, but I do like this, so far...

Planescape: Torment if you want a goddamn book in a game.

There's also the Legacy of Kain series 1-3 .
The first one is really great, but it gets so so soooo much better in the sequels.
AAA voice acting, amazing story, amazing characters.

I recommend "Alan Wake". It's a thriller about an author who goes on vacation but ends up trying to find his wife after she disappears. It's quite good.

Metro 2033 if you don't mind some FPS action and awkward Russian VO.

Telltale's The Walking Dead is atmospheric and emotional in a very obvious way. It's like being in the middle of a suspenseful TV series where the main characters keep dying. You will cry, you will laugh, and you will get angry.

It also meets your criterion of being realistic. The setup is a zombie apocalypse, but that's the only supernatural element. The source of the zombie apocalypse is never explained, but the basic rules are made clear early on (although the characters do eventually figure out clever ways to exploit the rules). The core of the story is about people reacting in different ways to a terrible situation.

Atmosphere:

Penumbra Trilogy - Survival horror in the frozen north. Dark hallways, underground caves, derelict machinery and industrial areas.
Condemned: Criminal Origins - Tracking a serial killer though the slums of a big city, it makes great use of volumetric lighting and grungy textures, giving a lot of areas in the game a very spooky and ominous feel to them.
Myst Pentalogy - Absolutely gorgeous fantasy worlds, several of them rather spooky, and even down-right disturbing in some areas.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Survival horror in a gothic castle. Beautiful use of colors and textures make the game surprisingly saturated and surreal for a horror game.

Story:

Mass Effect - Space opera done well. A steadfast hero, exotic aliens, space ships, an impending galactic catastrophe- it's all there. A couple of surprisingly emotional choices to make, too.
Beyond Good & Evil - Whimsy mixed with sci-fi, and a little bit of magic. It's got corruption, intrigue, humor, sadness, friendship, and just the slightest hint of romance. Never seen another game like it, ever.
FEAR - Best way I know how to describe it is: "One big screwed up family". The story involves psychics, genetic engineering, cloning, human experimentation and a serial killer, all wrapped up in an action-packed psychological horror package.
System Shock 2 - Cyberpunk survival horror, alone in deep space. The few human characters you meet, you immediately root for. The stinger leaves you with a very acute sense of dread, too.
Dead Space Trilogy - The real spiritual successor to System Shock 2; you can draw a lot of direct parallels between the two games. Aliens take over the bodies of the crew of a ship in deep space. It's how the aliens got there that's interesting.
Deus: Ex: Human Revolution - The revelation about half-way through the game made me genuinely happy and excited, and the result of that revelation made me rage so hard. The choices at the end of the game are also surprisingly emotional.

Oh man that reminds me to play Dead Space 1/2 again~
I really recommend playing it on 2nd hardest difficulty to get that nervous feel when you are low on ammo :3

System Shock 2 is another great choice!
Sadly I never finished it because I accidentally quick saved while I was dead!! ! >:(
I was very late in the game as well grrr....

Planescape: Torment still has the best writing in any video game. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 would be close but it was let down by Lucasarts forcing Obsidian to push it out the door unfinished for a holiday release date instead of giving them the time to craft a proper ending.

Above mentioned are good. To add to the list...

Gray Matter is a good mystery adventure game from Jane Jenson, who made the classic and awesome story driven adventure series Gabriel Knight. If you liked Longest Journey, you might also like Syberia if you haven't already heard of it.

If you like RPGs, grab Vampire:Bloodlines, get the latest unofficial patch by wesp, and enjoy.

On PS3:

Limbo
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Binary Domain
Siren: Blood Curse
Silent Hill: Downpour