I'm fairly certain we'll disagree here and there, but it just makes it that much more interesting, eh? No worries. :-)
I'm actually not going to argue that Kojima didn't essentially become a film director for small stretches of MGS4, even though most Metal Gear cutscenes contain interactive easter eggs. What I would argue is that it's not a bad thing. That 71 minute cutscene, that includes a split screen section at the end of the game, where you're actually playing half the splitscreen, and the rest after that is story resolution. That's resolving one of the greatest game stories ever told, with threads going back twenty years real time at that point. So in my opinion, it was essential to the experience. And cinematic cut scenes are what you sign up for with Metal Gear, it's part of the draw. Meanwhile the gameplay is utterly unique in gaming, and arguably as good as it gets. The interactive part of the storytelling is in how you go about completing the game. Are you going for a no kill, pacifist run? That's part of the character and what he stands for, or it can be. What about the codec? That's a major part of the storytelling. But the primary beats of the story are set in magnificent, radiant stone, in this case. And it's fine, because that's part of why you're there if you're a Metal Gear fan. Eight hours of cut scenes are nothing to complain about in a seventy hour game, either. Likewise in Xenosaga, where you have these 40 minute cut scenes, but they're beautiful and exceptionally smart, and absolutely worth the watch, especially considering the beats they fill in the story of these enormous, completely unique rpgs.
Again, though, story doesn't always mean cut scenes or linearity, or a "choose your own advemture" (not that I agree about their worthiness or functionality as games). I doubt you've played Steambot Chronicles. Not many have, thanks to its very late release in the PS2 generation, well after PS3 launched. Here's a heavily story centric game where you are responsible for essentially creating your story. Who you meet, where you travel, whether you spend your time in the unique (and excellent) mech combat, starting up a rock band, playing the market, dating, whatever, it's all up to you. And it's all excellent, both in terms of the storytelling and the gameplay. There's another one that came out around the same time that's similarly free-form, but I can't recall the name off the top of my head. Point being, if these were gameplay centric, system heavy games, you'd need six or seven games to cover the same gameplay, and the storytelling wouldn't be anywhere as rich, effective, or rewarding. These are games where they took the idea of emergent narrative, and actually ran with it full bore, focusing on the "narrative" part of the equation, whereas usually it's just another word for flimsy sandbox skinning, with no payoff.
Pretty much across the board, where storytelling is the first focus in design, the game as a whole prospers, and you get a more fulfilling product as a whole (on the average), with more unique and (importantly) varied design, not just a gimmick mechanic or iterations on the same ol' thing for the thousandth time, enhanced or not. Because you end up needing to meet the requirements of the story along with whatever your core mechanic is, where the story isn't hemmed in to match the confines of the core mechanic. These games are where I see the most innovative gameplay, not the least. If you have your core gameplay sweetspot, and that's where you hang your hat like a Bungie shooter or Call of Duty or whatever, you're not really stretching very much. You're not stepping out of your comfort zone very much, or asking your players to. You have your bread and butter and you're content to ride it. You've already pretty well achieved your limited ambitions. Games in that box usually don't appeal to me very much, or hold my interest as a player. I'm probably one of the few that got bored with Halo two thirds through, and even though I enjoyed it enough to try out the next two sequels, none held my interest and I left the series.
Tell Tale, on the other hand, they may not be all about the puzzles like other preceding adventure games, but no other adventure game left me on the edge of my seat with one selection or another, and they've started to take some cues from Quantic Dream's action scenes, with more divergent immediate results and longer term consequences. Tell Tale continues to evolve, and I don't think anyone would argue they haven't developed a unique identity in terms of gameplay, minimalist as it is. They also manage to consistently get truly great games out under $25-$30, no mean feat.
Regarding Heavy Rain, I'm glad you appreciate my perspective. :-) Yes, I believe that's the most immersive game I've ever played, and certainly it provided some of the greatest meaningful player agency I've seen. The same applies to Shenmue and Steambot Chronicles. Meaningful because they reward that agency with knockout, highly impactful payoff. You have a great degree of freedom, and that freedom is rewarded with flexible but high quality storytelling.
This opposed to something like Little Big Planet or the dig and mining games, that are far more like toys, yes, where the only payoff is in completing what you set out make. They're better as creative exercises than games. Which is great, I loved the first Sims for the same reason, but which could never provide me the same journey as an end user player. As a chance to just hop in there and mess around with the tools you have, sure. But I have more freedom as an artist with my own tools, you know? I got LBP free as compensation for one of Sony's breeches. I didn't stick with it very long, even so. DA:I, yes, I think it objectively misstepped. This is supposed to be a major story centric franchise, but there's no payoff to eighty percent of the game's content, as nice as the vistas are. And the lack of rhythm and pace is a direct result. From my perspective, the majority of the game detracts from the stuff I really enjoy in the minority, story focused content. And aside from the customization elements, thhat content pretty well proceeds on rails with no real input from me.
As with Gears, DOA, Tekken, MK, and other shooters and fighters and sports titles, even puzzlers lately have begun to tack on more robust story content, and I agree it does tend to enhance the package to the extent that it can. I'm glad to see the industry developing as a storytelling medium, along those lines.
Focus on environments: I agree that this is an important part of storytelling, but a set with no plot or characters with layered depth doesn't leave you with much of a story, no matter how much you wander around in it. A stageplay without the play is just a stage. A film set without a script is just an empty set. A playground you can fill with your imagination, but does nothing to reciprocate your dramatic overtures. I'd rather just draw myself, go write my own story, or fire up my own animation tools. There are games that function more as low end development tools, and that's great, but it's not so much a game at that point, really. The creation itself is really the draw.
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