Narrative at the expensive of gameplay?

Do you feel that many games released in the past 5-7 years have had a tendency to sacrifice quality gameplay for the purposes of telling an ideal narrative? It seems that a lot of developers are more concerned with presenting a compelling narrative than making a game with fun and interesting gameplay (they seem to forget they're making a video GAME).

I'll give you an example that comes to mind. Grand Theft Auto IV. The developers where more focused on telling a fleshed out and compelling narrative that they did so at the expense of the core gameplay. If you strip away the story, the game and missions on their own were pretty boring and repetitive. It also didn't help that there really was nothing to do in that game outside the missions. The game was more focused on telling a narrative than delivering fun and varied core gameplay.

Do you feel that a lot of (AAA) games released in the past 5-7 years have followed this trend?

(This is not a GTA IV discussion thread. I was using GTA IV as an example to illustrate the main topic I'm presenting).

I feel it's more like they're making games with disjointed narratives and gameplay. Like the Order which should've been an adventure game which turned out to be a Cover TPS.

No. Video games are a medium that can provide a large variety of experiences. So some games will be narrative focused, while others have no narrative at all. Much more games are being made now than before so obviously we will get more games that place differently on the spectrum.

The main problem comes when there is a disconnect between narrative and gameplay. Some devs try to do too much when it would be beneficial for them to be more focused. The user above gave a good example with The Order which feels like it was written as an adventure game, but instead it's a shooter. It's almost as if the writers and designers were in two separate locations and rarely talked to each other.

It just depends. I tend not to play a lot of the AAA games, so I've had a different experience than a lot of others. I don't mind if a game does that as long as the story is worth it. Of course, the really great games blend the two without sacrificing one or the other.

I think the rise of decent narratives in games is a great thing... pretty much all of my favourite games have a great story/characters.

But there are definitely some games that seem more interested in telling a story over having decent gameplay, which obviously isn't ideal. But I'm a sucker for a good story, and can push through average gameplay if the story is engaging (ie. Beyond Two Souls etc).

In saying that, I have only had a few narratives that I was enthralled with. It's all in how you present the story for me

Check the revision of my OP.

I feel like they sacrificed gameplay to show me a cutscene.....

@Lulu_Lulu: Go on...

Having a good story should be the icing on the cake not the cake itself. A good story shouldn't be a necessity for the game to be enjoyable, but rather a bonus addition to make it even better than it already is without a decent story. Also, the plot should be freely determined by the player, and each player's plot should differ from other player's plots of the game.

@psx2514:

I would if I had more to work with, I only played Warcraft, not world of warcraft.

EDIT: LOL... Wrong thread... my bad.

Anyway I was talking about the game people consider to have a good story, Uncharted, now its actually true, it does have a good story, but whats the point if that story only exists in the cutscenes and not actually in the gameplay.

Thats like saying Spiderman is a well written because its got pretty pictures.

I don't view narrative as a detriment to gameplay because I don't tend to view games in exclusive components to themselves, but as a compliment to the whole.

Take TLoU. I'd argue the narrative in that game strengthened and enforced the gameplay. Being invested in the story and characters made the gameplay all the more satisfying to me because it held relevant pretense and gravity. Granted, it was a generic zombie tale, but it wasn't the story so much as it was the execution. I came to care about the characters and their journey. Eventually I became so invested in why I was playing that I wanted to see the end result. It lent me impetus, and it enabled me to accept compromises in mechanics to its benefit.

This is what Nintendo fans don't understand. They view mechanics and narrative as separate and conflicting elements when they are perfectly capable of being, and are often, inextricably linked and can be complimentary to one another. Mario games may have the most precise, immaculate gameplay, but that gameplay is there for nothing more than the sake of its own merits. I'll admit, to be able to sustain a game on such is an accomplishment and to Nintendo's immense credit that they are capable of producing games held on that criteria alone, but I believe we've past that point. Games are capable of accomplishing what Nintendo's done while also giving that narrative in addition. Play Ori and the Blind Forest to see how. That game has an amazing narrative, not intrusive at all to the gameplay many seem to tout as so paramount to this medium. Yet it is as good a platformer as Nintendo has ever produced, and memorable, precisely because of narrative.

I sort of agree... but like I said, I'm a sucker for a great story.

Hey, I like a great story, too. With that said, I want to be able to enjoy playing the game even if the story is non-existent or pure crap. A video game should be enjoyable regardless of whether or not it has a good story. If a video game is riding on the coattails (sp?) of it's story alone, then it might as well have just been a movie or mini-series.

Yeah I know what you're saying... however, like I said before, if a game has a really engaging story but average gameplay (ie. Beyond Two Souls etc), I personally still really enjoy it.

in retrospect, haven't there always been games trying to convey a story. Just look at oregon trail, a game that blends choice making into the gameplay, so the story is pretty much the game itself. Although oregon trail is a simulation game, so I guess it's not really a story to begin with. Other story driven older games I've seen are phantasy star, longest journey, baulders gate, planescape torment, various other rpgs and point and click adventure games. The things is, I havent played many of these older games, so whether or not their narratives are actually high quality is still arbitrary for me, but most reviews have praised this aspect of the games. So the way I see it, games have always attempted to expend gameplay for narrative, just in various ways as time moves on.

Even at its worst in a sense, narrative remains supplemental to gameplay. Metal Gear Solid 4, with over ten hours of cutscenes, is one of the greatest games ever made. In that game, both the length of frequency of cutscenes might be thought of as disjointing, but it is a great experience.

A lot of game put cinematic over gameplay or did try to mix them both ... Like QTE, a cutscene that they try to make us active during ... which turns out into game like Heavy Rain and the whole catalog of Telltales title... very nice story and all ... but it is good only once, after that it is more than boring to play.

Oh and BrandKetra ... Metal Gear Solid 4 was abysmal. 5h of actual game play and 15 hours of cut scènes and some of them last for 3h straight ... no thank you, not ever again.