I’m sorry, but I feel like this is very much a context sensitive issue. There are hundreds of games that are amazing because the core mechanics and the interactions the player has are fun.

Not all games have amazing narrative or are even defined by narrative.

Look at Borderlands, that game was amazing and its draw was the system of weapon generation and how varied the treasure could be. It had a lot of fun areas and boss fights. I will admit that many of the character portrayals were very witty, but when you break it down the story itself wasn’t that impressive.

I was looking for some kind of great treasure at the end in a secret vault and instead I am dealing with some kind of inter-dimensional monster which prevents me from ever getting to the loot.

There are plenty of other games where the main mechanic is the story I will agree and the writing plays a huge part in the strength of the game, but I am going to have to disagree with that idea.

Sometimes games are just ridiculously fun and it isn’t the story that the player is focusing on.