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[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

I didn't play Half-Life until decades later, so the game basically did nothing for me. The primary narrative expositional device of, "lock you in an area where an NPC talks at you for 10 mins", got old extremely quickly.

Borderlands is a joke story-wise.

Halo has gone to shit since 343i took over. Especially with their stubborn focus on the weird pseudo-romance between Chief and Cortana, as well as the introduction of the Prometheans. The Humans vs. Covenant vs. Flood storyline was waaay more interesting and easy to follow. The promethean auto-didact wankery was just too over-complicated, pretentious and derivative for the genre.

Thus it's between Wolfenstein and the two COD franchises (MW and BO). Which is pretty sad, tbh. Story-based FPS games have become a criminally underserved genre this and last gen (which is stunning, given how literally every other game launching on PS3/X360 was a story-based FPS with separate co-op and competitive MP modes).

I wish COD: IW would have become a main COD franchise on it's own. That game was FUCKING !

Crysis could have been fucking epic. As a series it had so much promise. Then they hired some novel author to write Crysis 2 and 3 and the story went to shit... again by overcomplicating things. They need to retcon both of those games and just go back to the simple alien invasion story that the first game kicked off.

 

[SSfox]

If we talk about Story Bioshok is the best in this poll i think.

 

[Havoc2049]

Halo for the win!

 

[Plantoid]

Halo, Wolfenstein

 

[TheRobot]

Anything from Bungie, didn't think Destiny 2 would get me back on board after halo died but playing gambit & PvE is hella fun.

 

[Naked Lunch]

The poll is utter nonsense because Halo is the only correct answer here.

 

[pasterpl]

Halo, half life, bioshock, deus-ex for me

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

Fps & Story..

Jealous of you guys finding worth in fps story wise <3

Edit, Bioshock & Halo I guess!

 

[LordBlodgett]

Halo, Metro, and Bioshock. Wolfenstein is a close 4th for me. Borderlands is fun, but the story doesn't really mean anything and isn't that memorable.

 

[dorkimoe]

I’m gonna have to turn notifications off for this but half life is not still going. Not counting a VR game that 13 people played no matter how good it is. That’s like releasing an album exclusive to mini disc

 

[regawdless]

So much story.

 

[Sygma]

Extremely disappointed Deus Ex isn't topping this chart.

Its not a fps, its an immersive sim. As a side note I've always wondered why The Darkness never got a 3rd game, the story was pretty good

 

[killatopak]

Bioshock.

 

[deriks]

Story is Halo because most of those screw up in the third game and beyond

Best story overall is Doom - humans uses hell's energy through a portal in Mars to help earth. Demons invades everything and you kill demons. There's some corruption shit going on, but fuck it, you will be worse. Rip and tear UNTIL IT'S DONE

 

[McCarth]

When you say best I took it mainly in a story sense, so I picked Half-Life, Halo, Killzone and Bioshock.

Those 4 stand above the rest in the attention and quality put into their narratives, even though all outside of Half-Life definitely got a bit worse through each iteration.

 

[Psychostar]

"What is the best long-running, story based FPS franchise?"

Words. What they even mean? I'm confused by your confusion.

xD omg epic fail. I'm reading gaf from a hospital bed and misread. Apologies for the - intelligence roll there. Wiped the party !

 

[Tomofdahook17]

Since the entire franchise of Battlefield is on there for some reason, why is CoD: 1 through CoD: World at War on there. I would probably pic that. I also Far Cry 2 was on there lol.

 

[Dick Jones]

Seriously, where's Doom? How can it not be there? While the plot is flimsy as fuck, what a fucking masterpiece in level design. It's like a porno with high production value.

Edit: I'd rather a flimsy story than a rubbish convoluted plot.

 

[LastBattle]

Hard to beat Halo with its deep lore and expansive universe and characters. I’ve dug the story in all of the games. It’s also the only FPS or game for that matter where I’ve actively wanted to learn more outside of the games.

 

[Esca]

Half life, like that's a question

 

[poodaddy]

Half Life and Deus Ex easily.

 

[Africa's Toto]

Since the entire franchise of Battlefield is on there for some reason, why is CoD: 1 through CoD: World at War on there. I would probably pic that. I also Far Cry 2 was on there lol.

Honestly? I somehow forgot about COD while I was setting the poll up. And while I was adding it after the poll had been up for a while, I forgot what the poll rules were.

Just imagine both COD choices as halves. Won't matter anyway, almost no-one has love for Black ops compared to the other COD series.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Not a Halo fan but my answer is Halo.

I am noticing an appalling lack of Max Payne on that list, though.

 

[EverydayBeast]

All those games give you lots of bullets to kill things fps stories can be rough (black ops Cold War) Bioshock did AAA three fucking times, big daddies are crazy.

 

[Azelover]

I was really entertained by Halo's story.

It's not Shakespeare, but it's really endearing and fun in an action-movie type of way.

 

[Africa's Toto]

So, the results after 155 votes go:
1. Halo (61 votes)
2. Half-life (47)
3. Bioshock (25)
4. Metro (24)
5. Call of Duty (20)

I have to say, Bioshock and Metro are the only real surprises here. And Bioshock was added to the poll a day late, so it could've potentially ranked higher

 

[Captain Toad]

BioShock is 100x better than Halo.