games

Most of them, tbh. Games where the dialogue isn’t core to the gameplay or story could usually omit it entirely, and games where dialogue does have a role often have too much of it. That, or it gets implemented poorly, like when it’s unskippable, or interrupts gameplay.

I like it when dialogue, and lore in general, is either optional, or runs in parallel to the gameplay. I played Pacific Drive recently and there’s a lot of dialogue, but the game doesn’t force you to stop what you’re doing to listen. Most of the story is told in the form of NPCs talking to you over the radio, and you can listen to it while you’re moving, interacting with game elements, shuffling your inventory, etc.

I’m also a fan of the Silent Protagonist. It’s fine if NPCs are talking for my benefit, but I don’t need to sit around and watch my character talk with another character. It’s a game, not a book/movie, and odds are the writing isn’t going to be good enough for me to want to sit and passively experience the narrative.

So yeah, dialogue should only be used in games that require it for gameplay or to tell the story, it should be used judiciously, and it shouldn’t interrupt gameplay or immersion. A lot of action games that want to pretend to tell a story could benefit from getting rid of the dialogue, or making the dialogue more passive. There shouldn’t be a need for lengthy cutscenes or being forced to stop playing to listen to an NPC. If you can’t tell me the story while I’m playing then you should tell a different story.

Plenty of games make good use of dialogue, it just sucks when it’s bad or when it gets in the way.