Which story arcs/missions do you find most emotionally engaging?

Lol, I don't find this game "emotionally engaging" one bit.

But if i had to pick one, Westin Phipps' freakshow teacher arc was pretty nice. It gave me a warm feeling of being a huge **** in a video game. Wish there was more villainy content like that. I really enjoy playing a bad guy in a video game, especially if there's an option between good and evil.

Edit:
"Psimon Sez" and "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge" were actually a lot fun too. The latter one is even more fun when you find a reference to it in a Vernon's arc.

I'd have to go with the entire Vahzilok storyline. Its not just the singular arcs but the entire thing from the introduction, to some of the side missions that are not part of the arc, and to the ultimate conclusion of taking down Vahzilok.

This guy and group are utterly evil, the entire storyline is twisted and when you realilize that Dr. Vahzilok is wearing a meatmech suit that makes it all that much more disturbing. and which ever dev came up with that concept of a meatmech suit is just wrong in the head.

I had played a science based hero when I first started the game (grav/kin troller) and the Vahzilok were the first villian group I ran up against. Its technically not a storyarc.. but the overall starter mission for the initial science contact plays like one, and unlike the other starting contacts this arc is truely evil. The other starting missions deal with minor things like drugs, stolen artifacts, blackmail overall minor things.

The Vahzilok ...
You have reports of a kidnapping, you investigate it, head down into the sewers to save the guy. You then take all the data that SERAPH has on the Vahzilok to Hero Corp, and in return are given information leading to a lab. You rescue some people being held hostage. Find out about 'involuntary organ donations' in Kings Row. More people are disappearing, and you are once again sent to investigate it. Then you find out that all of the people taken are terminally ill and Vahzilok offers them a means to live forever.. so they pay him and he turns them into zombies. Then you find out a conference is happening and you go and break it up and find a medical report detailing what and how they are doing things in gruesome detail.

That's just wrong on so many levels and this is all for a starting character. Then the overall storyline keeps progressing with the Vahzilok kidnapping people in Kings Row for 'the involuntary orgain donation'. Your first meeting Digger that was abducting the people and flat out murdering them for their organs.

Then the first true arc happens they are trying to posion the water supply and in the first mission they are flat out killing people in an office building. If the plot had worked it would have been easier to transform people into zombies, but also had the side effect of making them more prone to illness as well. (Arc The Vahzilok Pollutant Plot)

On a side mission you rescue an ER Surgeon and find out from that Surgeon that the Vahzliok are using hero organs to make the Eldions. And a disturbing aspec is that the ER Surgeon admires Vahzilok's saying that if he could confine himself to legal research his brilliance could be a boon to man kind.

Then you have the conclusion with the Vahzilok Plague and you finally bring Vahzilok in for what he's done. That arc is just awesome.

Overall its my favorite group, and my favorite storyline.. it has a true begining, middle and an end. Its one of the only true storylines in the game where you have any sense of accomplishment. You feel like you have actually stopped the villian and group in question.. not just a plot of a nameless faceless boss of that group, but the leader of the entire faction is taken down. The story is over so they don't appear again throughout the hero side stuff. They don't crop up 10 or 15 levels later to rear their ugly heads even more powerful then before, and with more nameless faceless bosses. It doesn't dwindle rapidly and lead into another groups as many other groups do (hellion, skulls, tsoo, warriors for example). You beat them, you stopped them, and you saved the day. I'd love to see more villian groups designed like The Vahzilok were designed. Less faceless/nameless groups that you can't stop and more groups that you ultimately defeat as part of the overall storyline for your character.

In addition to all these great stories listed above, the Freakshow Olympics holds a special place in my heart too. When I was running Blue Battler in the very beginning of the game, I spent a lot of time street sweeping with a friend ... (this was before arcs gave souvenirs, even) and the murder of the reporter was the first time I ever felt personally engaged in the story... he was the first person I failed to save ... 8-(

Aside from that, the whole Penelope Yin/Clockwork King story has a resonance for me ... even though I feel like Penny doesn't give a lot of consideration to CK ...

The General Z storyline which start my hate on for Sky Raiders, Terra story line because as stated before, The Dark Watcher storyline which gave me new reason to slaughter all forces follow the Clockwork Prince, and the STF and LRSF for the story and fact I felt part of the story.
Oh yeah the Cuda SF because during it all I just had one thought on my brute's mind: getting even at all cost. And getting paid. "Where my money?"

I really enjoy running 'The Magic man' from Mercedes Sheldon.

My favourite arc hands down, is Aaron Walker's in Neutropolis.

It is always a pleasure to hear people enjoying the stories we tell and that the heart strings we pluck are making sweet sweet music. I'm especially happy that many of the emotional beats we aimed for with Going Rogue resonated so well. I'm having a good time reminiscing with you all as story arcs are mentioned (and smiling when an arc I wrote is mentioned).

Thank you all for the kind words.

There are no arcs in Dark Astoria - it's a subtle hint that there should be some

Odd.

I think the big one that always makes me feel like a jerk by the end is Westin Phipps' Freakshow arc with Francine Primm. It would be a really sweet and sort of inner-city comedic tale if it wasn't for your villain busting in, slaughtering all the Freakshow who are just there to learn, and then kidnapping a helpless teacher who just wanted to do good. And to what end do you capture her? So she can be tortured until she's a broken shell of a woman and an example. That was the one time my villain really felt like a monster (though a lot of credit for just how depraved it all really is goes to Phipps' planning)

Seer Marino is one of the better arcs.

I always liked Reverent Hero Project. I don't remember to many arcs overall simply because I've been in and out of the game so much, but learning the back story of the PP's always sends a small shiver down my spine.

Also, I always liked the light hearted sense of fun that you found in playing the Aeon arc. "What? WE'RE LIVE!?"

Can I just say, I'm LOVING reading this thread. Fine. I'll say it. "I'm loving reading this thread."

It brings me back to some of the original writers of the arcs from years gone by as well as the new ones who have come on board and kicked some serious arc hiney.

Thanks, everyone!

WW

One of the ones that struck me was the mission from Tina Macintyre where you are sent to explore an alternate dimension that was ruined by your alternate self. Just hearing the spirits cursing you as you explored the wreckage, and finally finding your double's diary, made me shiver.

EDIT: Oh and FPARN! For the first time!

Love, love, love the Katie Douglas arc! I really felt empathy for her when playing that!

Ohhh and just recently ran through Mother Mayhems arc... now that just creeped the hell out of me! I want Aurora back now plzzzz?!

I LOVE doing the mission arcs.... so many! I find lots of times my husband and I have to turn off our xp so we won't level out of some of the arcs that are all about the same level (mid-20s).

The ones that come to mind immediately when asking about emotional resonance:

Katie Douglas - emotional impact having to fight her mother.

Aaron Walker's arc - and anything to do with the Noble Savage. ("Jennifer, he's alive!)

I have to say that the Cleopatra arc was really gripping in that I tend to be on the resistance side in my sympathies but I *really* like Washington as a person, and Cleopatra "sugah" was a jerk for setting us up! (My husband and I had lot's of discussions during the morality mission which way to go the first time we did this.)

Heck, I'd have to say there are a lot of missions in Praetoria that mess with my values vs. the choices we are offered and have emotional resonance. Patient Zero, sure, he was under the influence but he was a killer! Enriche is an "opiate for the masses" and should be destroyed, but the people's water supply...???! Most of Praetoria's arcs, if you are reading everything, have serious ramifications and mess with your emotions.

Outside of Praetoria:

I have to put in my plug also for Jenni Adair's Protean arc. It gets me every time...it's disturbing to see me's all dead and dying.

The Evil Countess Crey

This was kind of a vigilante mission before side switching and going rogue were even around. It has you do some questionable things, you are briefly wanted by the police and you intentionally sabotage Crey with their customers. But the real reason this mission stuck with me was one of circumstance, where the text combined with the mission map became more compelling. After tracking the Countess down, I was lead to a cave map for the final mission. This is the description upon entering:

"It's faint, but you can hear a woman crying. She sounds so sad, and you almost wish you could comfort her."

Now, I've been hounding this woman for a while, but the notion that she's hidden away in a cave crying gave me pause. She's done some bad stuff, but her description is one of good intentions gone bad or something similar. All of the crey enemies were on the right hand side of the map, but I didn't know that until later. I went left at the first intersection and didn't find anything for a while until I stumbled into a big empty cave with just Countess Crey in it. It felt rather sad and lonely... not a minion or lieutenant to be seen... and it didn't feel at all "heroic" to bring her in, but I did. When I found all the crey minions later it was doubly troubling... like they all wanted to keep their distance from her so that maybe they wouldn't get caught in the dragnet.

There are other storyarcs that have better writing or better fights. But none of them ever had the happy accident (this separation could be intentional, I have no idea) of the map cooperating to help portray an emotional part of the story.