The FFXIII series did this really well. I took a year to finish FFXIII, and even with its complicated plot I was able to follow it because of the recaps that would be presented to me every time I'd start the game up. I think it's the best Final Fantasy ever made.
I've even seen games that explicitly say "you haven't loaded this save in a while. Do you want a refresher?"
It's a cool idea and seems to me to solve the problem of "where was I" after a break, but it hasn't caught on fully yet.