>>There are a ton of modern games with really compelling narratives.
The problem isn't really the narrative, but rather the lack of a well-developed, deep setting. All of the games you listed have very good stories, but those stories make you the Center of the Universe and everything revolves around you. Even the parts of the setting that are explained give a very strong feeling that, at the end of the day, they were developed to justify and validate your goals and missions, either by hampering you or aiding you.
In direct contrast, I'd like to point to the Baldur's Gate games. They don't just have an excellent narrative. They also take place in a very strong, well-established setting. This setting successfully conveys the feeling that, while you are an important character and what you're trying to do is important, at the end of the day the world (of Faerun) is chock full of people and organizations and nations with their own agendas. The epic saga you experience is simply one strand in a massive tapestry. And in the end you don't save the world or some such nonsense. You simply conclude your own story, and life goes on.
Compare this to Mass Effect, where you literally save the entire galaxy from ultra-powerful robots who literally want to wipe out all life. Okay, fine. But the series does so little setting development that you end up caring more about destroying the bad guys than understanding and learning about the galaxy you are trying to save.
The problem isn't really the narrative, but rather the lack of a well-developed, deep setting. All of the games you listed have very good stories, but those stories make you the Center of the Universe and everything revolves around you. Even the parts of the setting that are explained give a very strong feeling that, at the end of the day, they were developed to justify and validate your goals and missions, either by hampering you or aiding you.
In direct contrast, I'd like to point to the Baldur's Gate games. They don't just have an excellent narrative. They also take place in a very strong, well-established setting. This setting successfully conveys the feeling that, while you are an important character and what you're trying to do is important, at the end of the day the world (of Faerun) is chock full of people and organizations and nations with their own agendas. The epic saga you experience is simply one strand in a massive tapestry. And in the end you don't save the world or some such nonsense. You simply conclude your own story, and life goes on.
Compare this to Mass Effect, where you literally save the entire galaxy from ultra-powerful robots who literally want to wipe out all life. Okay, fine. But the series does so little setting development that you end up caring more about destroying the bad guys than understanding and learning about the galaxy you are trying to save.