10 Great Video Games (With Terrible Storylines)

When the original Doom released back in 1993, it ushered in a new era of gaming. No longer could these digital experiences be thought of as mere childhood playthings; they were suddenly intense, captivating, and grizzly.

Of course, though Doom certainly lives up to every visceral adjective in the dictionary, it does so thanks to solid gameplay. As anyone familiar with the series will doubtlessly be aware, Doom doesn’t have much of a plot. Aside from a few text dumps detailing some weird sci-fi occultism, there isn’t a whole lot for the player to go on.

John Carmack, one of the founders of Id Software, famously stated around the time of the game’s release that, according to him, “story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It’s expected to be there, but it’s not that important.”

Though that quote has aged very poorly, he may have had a point.

There are tons of excellent video game experiences which feature either half-baked or totally neglected narratives, but incompetent storytelling really becomes a problem when the plot was bad to begin with. Though they certainly redeemed themselves in other ways, many great games have straight-up awful plots.

Despite a few shortcomings, Bethesda’s revival of Id’s famous Wolfenstein franchise has been relatively well-received. Though the first game was, ironically, pretty narrative-heavy for a game bearing the Wolfenstein name, it was nonetheless one of the most well-remember games of 2014.

It’s sequel, however, didn’t quite get the same treatment. The series’ alt-history storyline drastically jumped the shark. Plus, for what it’s worth, the overall Steam reviews for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus are mixed.

While the original series reboot was a satisfying tale of perseverance and revenge, the new game’s plot is all over the place. After surviving a decapitation at the hands of the nefarious Frau Engel—a ludicrous plot point in itself—franchise protagonist William Blazkowicz embarks on a long-winded tour of American cities which eventually culminates in a trip to the planet Venus—yes, seriously.

2014’s Wolfenstein game did see players touring a secret Nazi moon base, but that felt entirely practical when compared to some of the shenanigans which occur in the sequel. This is by no means an indictment of Bethesda or Machine Games, but, if this is to become a trilogy, it would be nice to tone things down just a notch.