By Jim Rossignol on September 7th, 2011 at 10:33 am.
The past couple of weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about game environments that do something a bit different, or game environments that I really love spending time in because they are singular and unique (Hello, The Zone!).I wanted to ask you guys, too. So what game environments do you keep coming back to? Which ones took your breath away with their cleverness? What are the most interesting game environments, and why?
Speak!
07/09/2011 at 10:35 Matt says:
Just Cause 2 – the most fun game world to simply play around in. Gorgeous, full of stuff to do, and ENORMOUS. Skydiving from 10’000 feet never gets old…
07/09/2011 at 10:56 Gnoupi says:
This. climbing the highest mountain and watching the view over Panau, it’s amazing.
And skydiving from said mountain just after tops that.
07/09/2011 at 12:01 Ultra Superior says:
+1 for the cause. It is the best outdoor environment ever and why haven’t they sold us 10 DLC mission packs is beyond me. What a wasted potential.
Just Cause 2 is the single one game that could milk my wallet endlessly and they didn’t.
07/09/2011 at 13:15 jezcentral says:
Oh yes, this. Some games are crying out for DLC, like Just Cause 2 (and my personal pick would be more Hitman: Blood Money missions), whilst other developers crowbar in stuff that just isn’t needed.
Mind you, the DLC for JC2, e.g. pink tuk-tuks and painted parachutes, was a bit like this.
07/09/2011 at 18:57 Evernight says:
I will def upvote JC2. It never gets old and there is a great variety of environments to play around in – from desert to ski resort to oil rigs.
08/09/2011 at 05:16 field_studies says:
Watching my friend play it for the first time the other night, working through the first few minutes of the first scripted mission, and seeing, from way up high on the mountaintop, but distant lights of the main cities.
Of course when I was playing that mission myself for the first time, I didn’t register that skyline as anything but backdrop. This time, knowing you can just parachute all the way there, filled me with… oh, I don’t know, a little something…
08/09/2011 at 08:07 Bob says:
If ever a game was made with me in mind it’s Just Cause 2. Not only has it large portions of mindless fun, try flying a plane over the mountains toward the sea as dawn is breaking…spectacular.
07/09/2011 at 10:40 JuJuCam says:
For some reason I thought you were talking about favourite places to play games, and was about to go on a bit about how I miss the arcades of the 90′s because I didn’t feel comfortable inviting friends over to my house but we could hang out after school when we had a few bucks and play Time Crisis.
07/09/2011 at 10:42 godgoo says:
OK so it’s not a PC game but I *have* to say Shadow of the Colossus, most memorable and emotive game world for me.
For PC I really liked the environments in Tomb Raider 2, I was about 13 at the time and found it a very transportive experience.
07/09/2011 at 10:50 godgoo says:
I can’t believe I didn’t say Far Cry 2, no need to point out the game’s faults (though I *still* play it occasionally), you cannot deny that environment, the grass swaying in the wind as you prepare to snipe some dude across a valley…
07/09/2011 at 10:51 godgoo says:
Oh and Far Cry 2, for all it’s faults it’s hard to deny the environment.
07/09/2011 at 11:04 McDan says:
Oh yes, Shadow of the colossus for me as well. Still absolutely love that game and still play it. And of course Hilys in BG&E, that place is amazing. And New Austin in Red Dead Redemption, ah I can’t decide there’s too many. But I’d have them in that order of favouritism.
07/09/2011 at 11:15 MattM says:
I don’t think I have ever seen a more geographically impressive game than SotC. The rendering of the bits and pieces like trees, grass, rocks. etc was nothing special even for the ps2, but the over all landscape was just so varied, well designed, and impressive especially when you realize how much of it you can walk through rather than just being part of a skybox. I am trying to think of games that have accomplished something similar. Unreal (the original) comes to mind, but time (15 years or so) may be coloring my memories of that game.
07/09/2011 at 11:46 Magnetude says:
Yep, SoTC and Far Cry 2 are up there for sure. SoTC wins for having environments interesting enough to make me keep playing a game about fighting monsters which only had 16 monsters in it. That bridge, man. That bridge.
And Far Cry 2 regularly calls me back for a point-to-point run across the map, firefights in burned out markets and dentists along the way.
GTA4 is the best environment I’ve seen for just feeling alive. Even after hundreds of hours, it still tricks me into thinking that all those people are walking around for a reason, even though I know if I follow them they’ll just end up circling the block a few times before getting hit by a rogue bus.
07/09/2011 at 11:50 godgoo says:
good point on gta4, it’s one of those games that every time I fire it up I’m right there like walking into a painting or something.
07/09/2011 at 18:53 Xerian says:
I’d have to say Dead Island. Its got a bloody amazing atmosphere. I’ve tried a tad of it, and man o’ man, am lookin’ forward to friday.
07/09/2011 at 10:42 Sheng-ji says:
COLOUR!!! Doesn’t have to be cartoony, but let’s have beautiful, awe inspiring landscapes! I remember the first moments of Unreal, that waterfall. The first Halo was an amazing place too, that arch in the sky, the interesting structures, just amazing.
07/09/2011 at 10:57 Gnoupi says:
Bastion, typically, even if it has its share of grim, is a good example.
07/09/2011 at 10:59 Sheng-ji says:
Oh yeah, bastion is so nice, the music, the atmosphere, everything!
07/09/2011 at 11:49 godgoo says:
aaah, Bastion, perhaps too soon but gosh it’s lovely.
07/09/2011 at 11:53 godgoo says:
Also, the bastion OST is on Spotify. Which is nice (although I bought the OST edition).
07/09/2011 at 11:57 Magnetude says:
Fully agreed on Bastion. It hints at the environment more than it shows it, leaving your imagination to fill in the rest.
07/09/2011 at 13:57 Urthman says:
Favorite Colorful Environments:
Prince of Persia 2008
Trine
Psychonauts
Freedom Force
Mirror’s Edge
Giants
World of Goo
Mini Ninjas
Bejewelled 3
07/09/2011 at 15:47 jettpack says:
oh yeah, bastion is beautiful. Jen Zee is a talented lady.
Shogun 2 is STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL as well. That may be my favorite representation of japan anywhere
07/09/2011 at 16:19 mwoody says:
World of Warcraft’s Vash’jir – a trio of completely underwater zones – is unbelievably colorful. Moreso than anything I’ve ever seen in two decades of gaming.
07/09/2011 at 10:42 Valvarexart says:
I really LOVE dark and murky forests. Forests where you can’t or barely can see the sky, and lot’s of bushes and low trees everywhere were you can take cover. They need to have a “closed” feeling, and the closer the dark trees are to each other the better!
07/09/2011 at 17:16 brulleks says:
I’m with you there – I was so disappointed with Oblivions forests, as I’d hoped they’d be denser and darker.
The only game I can think of that achieves this is The Path – now that was one hell of an atmospheric environment.
Also, I’m two hundred and twenty fifthing everyone who’s said Far Cry and Far Cry 2. Gorgeous.
Other than that, as a couple of wildcards, I’d say Giants: Citizen Kabuto and Outcast (I have to add Outcast to pretty much every ‘best of’ list I compile but, again, it seems justified being here – the voxellated world was stunning at the time, and portrayed a good variety of landscapes from snow to swamp to desert).
07/09/2011 at 10:43 westyfield says:
The Zone.
BF2142′s future-cities (specifically Minsk, Belgrade and Cerbere). Neat architecture, guaranteed a fun time when there.
07/09/2011 at 11:11 Balobam says:
Yeah I’m gonna have to agree with you on that one, The Zone does a fantastic job of making you feel alone, like any slip up will result in death, whilst also showing you unique environments from area to area.
Especially once you start getting to the factory areas, and inside the labs. Those damn places made me feel so claustrophobic, just hearing sounds and not knowing which tunnel they came from.
07/09/2011 at 11:38 airtekh says:
+1 for the Zone. Brrrrr.
07/09/2011 at 12:27 bear912 says:
STALKER has the single most atmospheric environment that I have ever encountered in a video game. The Zone is a character, a terrifying enemy and companion.
Also important to me are the many beautiful environments in Half-Life 1, Half-Life 2, and Portal 2. Valve has some of the best mappers on earth. Likewise, Uncharted 2 (I haven’t seen any of Uncharted 1, really) presents some impressive and spectacular sets.
Currently, I’m also enamored with the bleak, detailed, and powerful period-pieces that are Red Orchestra 2′s maps. Yum.
And I shall stop there to avoid listing twenty more games whose environments I love. Gaming has produced some quite magnificent sets, to be certain.
07/09/2011 at 10:44 Jumwa says:
Morrowind tops my list. The amount of time I’ve spent just investigating every little nook and cranny, and appreciating the world that was crafted. It was by no means perfect, but it’s kept me coming back for many years.
Plus getting swanky new graphical update mods were always a good excuse to come back and see things again.
Lord of the Rings Online also had a stunning world I enjoyed seeing with my partner. Rivendell was beautiful, my favourite I’d say. Strumming up our instruments near one of the myriad waterfalls springs to mind. It was all hidden beneath a MMOs annoying leveling system, but worth seeing none the less.
07/09/2011 at 10:49 Sheng-ji says:
Oh, both these games were amazing – the little viewpoints you could find in Morrowind and the architecture and flaura an fauna – just sublime.
LOTRO was so amazing to explore and really rewarded those who loved the books and films, a rare trick!
07/09/2011 at 10:59 Jumwa says:
I can’t remember the name now now (Farochel?), but there was also the icy fjord place up north that really captured my imagination for a while too. I raced through that solo one day while my partner was at work. My hunter was far too low a level for it, but I kept racing along, eager to get deeper and see more of it. I made it through the entire place in the end without dying–miraculously–and it was worth it just to glimpse the zone.
There are other MMOs far more graphically intense than LotRO, but none that I can think of who captured so much style with what they had.
07/09/2011 at 11:50 Xercies says:
Yep love both of these games environments.
Morrowind I just loved being lost in, so many different environments and places to explore. Such a weird little place.
LOTRO is probably my favourite MMO because of its environment and how it weaves the quests and everything into it. Just loved exploring the land and going from The Shire to Rivendell was actually quite fun, there was so many secret places to find as well, the maps were truly huge. I miss that game.
07/09/2011 at 13:10 Sheng-ji says:
Oh, the mad dash through the trollshaws hoping beyond all hope that the sun didn’t set because you wanted to get to Rivendell early! Is that game gone? I thought it went free to play.
07/09/2011 at 13:55 Jumwa says:
It’s still around and apparently doing better than ever as free-to-play. Though I haven’t played it much since then myself.
07/09/2011 at 14:05 Xercies says:
I don’t even like the thought of what they are doing with there F2P model to be honest. Aren’t they like breaking up the zones and making you pay for them for a certain amount of time? If thats true that goes against the philosophy of the game to me. plus to be honest I played it and well I got quite far into it and there wasn’t much really to do anymore, after awhile the game kind of does die out a little with not many good story quests to do and only raiding which is fun but just a little bit to much of a grind for me.
07/09/2011 at 15:07 Jumwa says:
If you don’t subscribe, you have to buy the quests for the zones (or grind out enough points to get them free). The zones themselves are all still there, accessible to you to explore and see, to fight enemies in and engage with people. You just wont be able to do the quests unless you pay for them, or earn enough points through grinding to unlock them that way.
As well, if you’re the type of gamer that does the story quests then loses interest in MMOs, the free-to-play model LotRO uses is excellent for you. Buy the quests you want to do, finish them, done. No money wasted on monthly fees, no pressure to keep playing. You got what you paid for.
07/09/2011 at 16:03 Durkonkell says:
In terms of environments that keep me coming back, I suppose Morrowind is the prime contender for that. It’s such a strange place, but I’ve spent enough time there that it almost seems like some place I used to live.
Also, Azeroth in World of Warcraft. It’s pretty massive, and if you’re into the lore there’s a lot to see and find. Cataclysm added the ability to fly around it all on your own mount and the devastatingly beautiful Vashjir. A lot of Northrend (previous expansion) is pretty spectacular too but my favourite game environment of all is probably Outland (previous previous expansion). The shattered remains of a planet hurtling through the Twisting Nether (like space but with more colours) – Nagrand’s floating islands, the eerie beauty of Terrokar Forest and Zangarmarsh and the thousand stabbing needles of the Blades Edge Mountains against a blood red sky.
As regards LOTRO: I’ve never played it despite being a big fan of both the books and the films. I’ve been tempted to download it for a while, not at all for the gameplay but purely for the environments. Damn it, I want to see Rivendell! Curse you, Jumwa and you other people. I don’t have time right now! My back hurts! I’m too tired OH VERY WELL.
07/09/2011 at 16:07 200proof says:
Morrowind for me as well. Oblivion didn’t even come close to being as diverse, I have spent weeks traveling just the original map, I havent even made it up to the addition in bloodmoon. Also, if I recall, there is a mod, TR I think, that is working on adding the whole province of morrowind, not just the island. I think it almost doubles the size of the original map.
The Zone is a close second, but not so much in the later installments.
07/09/2011 at 18:16 Jumwa says:
Azeroth for me lost so much charm with Cataclysm. The new development team behind it just didn’t seem to have the flair of the old one. The new world seemed to orderly. It held no authentic feel.
So even though Azeroth direly needed an update, I think they dropped the ball. The new world was stale before it hit the plate and it didn’t convey a truly post-apocalyptic feel over the old one either.
Some of the new zones, like Vash’jir, had their moments. Twilight Highlands even had a moment for me when it made me think of Warcraft II. But over all eh. It felt like standard fair WoW-clone ripoff world, rather than the real deal.
07/09/2011 at 10:44 stahlwerk says:
Meigs Field, in MS Flight Simulator 4′s 16-bit Chicago was a magical place at the time. Especially with the dynamic scenery that version added (boats, fuel trucks, other planes…). I got kinda sad when I heard it was demolished IRL a few years ago.
Edit: for fear of terrorism, nonetheless!
07/09/2011 at 10:45 Angel Dust says:
Both the town in Pathologic and the ..er.. void of The Void are two of the most striking and memorable game environments I’ve ever experienced. Zenozoik, from Zeno Clash, also grabs me in the same way, if a little less oppressively!
Even though you don’t get to explore it, the clean, dystopian world of Mirror’s Edge is another I like to return to.
07/09/2011 at 11:36 airtekh says:
The city in Mirror’s Edge was beautiful, and it actually angers me that I wasn’t able to explore it.
07/09/2011 at 15:15 lasikbear says:
The Void had such good environments! I just wanted a no-enemies cheat so I could walk around everywhere without being hassled, painting my trees and listening to the music. The soundtrack really helped too, as well as the various colours talking to you.
07/09/2011 at 10:45 reticulate says:
I loved Red Dead Redemption’s map. All sorts of different terrains, lots of animals to hunt (and to be hunted by, bloody Cougars) and a very palpable old-west vibe. Tall Trees was my absolute favourite, ninja bears notwithstanding.
Not on the Pee-Cee, however, so I’m not sure if that counts.
07/09/2011 at 10:56 LennyLeonardo says:
Red Dead’s world is really incredible. Rockstar are great at creating worlds by being really smart with the incidental details. Loved the funny animated films you could watch at theatres, and the satirical newspapers and such.
07/09/2011 at 11:05 reticulate says:
I think I’ve said it in RPS comments before, but Rockstar are one of the undisputed masters of the mise-en-scène. The world is a story, in of itself.
Also, the film about Women’s Suffrage cracked me up. Vintage Rockstar.
07/09/2011 at 10:46 Lavs says:
Dead Island is looking to be very, very pretty if not particularly clever.
I very much enjoyed Fables 1′s environment too. Every town/area had a distinct feel to it, I thought.
Oh, and of course! The Void! That game’s environments were absolutely amazing even though I only ever saw a Let’s Play, and never really played it.
07/09/2011 at 10:47 CMaster says:
I know in a lot of ways it’s dull, being an attempt at making something almost-real-world, but Black Mesa is pretty firmly stamped on my brain. I can remember most of it, have quite strong associations with pieces of musics and certain areas.
The Zone is of course the easy, obvious choice. But that’s because there’s something about The Zone which has such a personality of its own – quite a good thing really, when all the actual human characters are pretty flat and just blend into the far more exciting background. SHoC was a pretty incredible piece of atmosphere work.
Then my last one is going to be both left-field and the most common response. It’s the world of the MMO you spent the most time in. For me, that’s Neocron, the 2002 MMOFPSRPG (although I came to it in 2004). I’ll let someone else describe why. But Neocron city, and some big chunks of the wastes, are places that I know intimatley. And Neocron city is, while truly tiny for a city (you can run end-to-end in ten or fifteen minutes) a truly huge space in game terms. It is comprised of somewhere around 50 individual maps, most of which are very 3D (lots of walkways, tunnels, etc) and I believe over a million enterable apartments (of around 14 designs)
07/09/2011 at 12:08 LionsPhil says:
Another +1 to Black Mesa. They did the run-down-but-still-employs-janitors underfunded mix-of-generations-of-tech concrete lab thing brilliantly, especially given the crude tech. Most of it is excellent texturing.
I also remember Neocron’s neon-green city, part of at least, despite only playing the beta and stabbing rats, so it must have done something right.
07/09/2011 at 12:10 Magnetude says:
Ah, Black Mesa was incredible. I mean, barring one or two mine-cart sequences and getting knocked out and carried once, all the progress you made was yours. You made your way from a secret lab deep underground to the outside of the mesa itself in the middle of the desert all on your own steam. It was really impressive how the game made you really feel that. The environments didn’t feel arbitrary, either – some games just give you a sequence of labs and sewers and outdoorsy bits with no real explanation of why they exist, but each area of Black Mesa gave you a greater understanding of the facility as a whole.
I think that’s one of the hallmarks of a great game environment, one that gives you a real sense of place, the feeling that you know where you are, where you came from and how the two are connected. DXHR does that pretty well too I feel, a good sense of place.
07/09/2011 at 12:36 CMaster says:
I don’t know, I always felt that Black Mesa was impossible. I’ve got a pretty good sense of direction – less so in games, obviously but still. I knew at the time in BM that it was impossible, that some places overalpped themselves at that the surface was at a whole load of different heights. However the strength of Black Mesa was that it largely made sense. Everywhere that you went, you could see what it was for, why it would exist outside of Freeman’s flight. It’s fascinating to compare Half Life with Opposing Force in this sense, as Gearbox completely and utterly failed to grasp that idea, filling the game full of nonsense like underground fireball dodging, sewerage works with complex self-destruct mechanisms and highly-explosive concrete.
07/09/2011 at 13:09 BarneyL says:
I still remember some of the Neocron environments fondly, such as the populat city\tech haven hang outs. Also the hidden corners you’d either be lucky to find or weren’t supposed to be able to get in to.
Hobbiton in LOTRO is another favourite MMO spot and gets the feeling of the area just right.
07/09/2011 at 13:10 dartt says:
I don’t think they cheated; here is a birds-eye view of the complex.
http://theintrepid.blogspot.com/2010/06/birds-eye-view-of-half-lifes-black-mesa.html
07/09/2011 at 10:47 Renfield says:
Morrowind – that is, Vvardenfell – was my instinctive first response.
Others I can think of include San Andreas’ evocative miniaturisation of an American state to play in/with, New Vegas’ (and to some extent Fallout 3′s) frontier microcosms, and the environments of both V:tM games; although obviously they’re not game-derived. Also Rapture, standing out for making me feel genuine *relief* for leaving it.
Edit: I see someone beat me to Morrowind as I was thinking/typing. In general, it would seem game environments with narratives tend to excite me the most.
(The Zone, of course, being another good example.)
Edit 2: Zenozoik! Of course, how I could forget that one?
07/09/2011 at 10:48 Patches the Hyena says:
GTA San Andreas. So much fun! Also, GTA IV and Just Cause 2.
07/09/2011 at 10:48 Merus says:
Hillys in Beyond Good and Evil is kind of an amazing place. I would totally move there if I could.
07/09/2011 at 11:15 Pew pew LAZORS! says:
Same here, love that place.
07/09/2011 at 10:48 captainfuzz says:
Any environment with snow used well I find a remarkably beautiful and haunting experience. Some minecraft moments in the snow were awe-inspiring and I am greatly looking forward to Skyrim. That said, my favourite snow level was in Metroid Prime with a beautiful twinkly piano soundtrack.
07/09/2011 at 11:07 Jumwa says:
Likewise on Metroid Prime!
That first moment when you blast your way through the ice tunnel and peer out upon the land always sticks with me.
07/09/2011 at 11:40 Kefren says:
Ditto. The Thing springs to mind – lots of snow and cold darkness, then shivery indoor locations.
07/09/2011 at 13:07 Hoaxfish says:
Yep for Snow areas… Snow, not just ice. Snow that crunches as you walk through it knee-deep leaving trails behind you, while you’re wearing a big warm jacket and hood.
The Thing, and Lost Planet are probably the ones that specifically come to mind.
07/09/2011 at 10:50 TheLordHimself says:
I actually really enjoy futuristic environments or space/sci-fi worlds. I’m enjoying the feel of Deus Ex: HR, particularly the idea of the Chinese city with the second city above, shame you can’t go there though (unless you can and I haven’t got there yet). Other games that I enjoyed like this are Mass Effect and Freelancer. I really liked the world created in Freelancer, even though planets were only about 40km from their stars, one of my favourite games, just wish I could find the disk!
07/09/2011 at 11:01 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
not sure if it was on here or somewhere on PCG, but i read in an interview about DXHR that they had started to make Montréal and the upper chinese city into hubs as well, but it was taken from the game. Maybe someday, KOTOR style, we’ll have some kind of directors cut…
07/09/2011 at 13:32 Spork says:
Another vote for Freelancer; I loved the feel of different planets and systems from the rainy British bits to isolated pirate bases, just reading their names takes me back. Looks like my playthrough of DX:HR just got put on hold.
07/09/2011 at 13:35 JFS says:
Is Freelancer still available to download somewhere, I mean, legally? It had so much atmosphere.
07/09/2011 at 10:50 coffeetable says:
Freespace 2. Obviously the physical environment itself wasn’t much (space is kinda empty after all), but I feel that the menus and briefings should be counted as part of it too.
07/09/2011 at 12:15 daphne says:
This, though not for the menus or briefings. The nebula missions constitute some of the most immersive, memorable gaming experiences of my life.
07/09/2011 at 12:18 Magnetude says:
Homeworld 2 as well. While you can’t say much for space as an environment (there’s just no atmosphere, hey) the sense of scale you got seeing the little fighters zipping around the huge motherships was awesome.
07/09/2011 at 13:20 mejoff says:
Oh Hells yeah, the first time the claws of one of those shival cruisers slices out of the mist right in front of you is still one of the scariest experiences available in gameing!
07/09/2011 at 10:51 LennyLeonardo says:
Fallout, all the way. It had me at the huge meta-manual with the scientific rundown of the effects of a nuclear blast. Ah, fun times.
Second place goes to Okami, the best game featuring an old man with an orange on his head.
Edit: also, it’s not the best, but I think the world of Dead Space is really underrated. The half-gothic half-industrial sci-fi mix is similar to the Alien films, but it has its own unique character.
07/09/2011 at 12:37 Lambchops says:
Oh, Okami, it’s so super lovely. Gloriously deranged and great fun.
I want to play it again now!
07/09/2011 at 13:29 LennyLeonardo says:
Lambchops, you and I are now friends.
I love Okami so much it hurts. If it was re-released on the PS3 in HD like Ico etc. I would buy it, and the stupid console, in an instant.
More games based on real folklore please. Oh, and more games where you play as a wolf. And more games where you have to befriend rabbits.
More Okami. Yes.
07/09/2011 at 10:51 scatterbrainless says:
First, are we talking game worlds? Or levels/environments? For levels I don’t think I can get past being dropped onto a bombed-out Statue of Liberty, given a rocket launcher, then (rightly) being called a monster for using it on dozens of human beings in Deus Ex. That wrecked carcass of the statue towering over everything really set the thematic tone of the whole game.
For worlds though I think by far the best would have to be the magic/clockpunk dark ages of the Thief series, with its strange factions, weird paganism and absolutely absent sense of joy or happiness. If cynical bleakness and gallows humour were a food, it would be every meal in Thief.
Or Planescape Torment anyone? Arcanum? Fallout? In fact pretty much that whole CRPG golden age…
07/09/2011 at 11:05 Renfield says:
I suspect the question concerns interesting environments in the ‘interactive playfield’ sense, rather than campaign settings; although obviously the boundaries between them can be quite vague. If not, I absolutely agree about the IWD, BG, Planescape, Fallout, Arcanum et al. tradition of cRPGs, as well Relic’s Warhammer 40K oeuvre, plus Starcraft/Diablo/Warcraft up to WC3.
07/09/2011 at 10:52 jon_hill987 says:
The Capital Wasteland in FO3.
07/09/2011 at 11:05 Alexander Norris says:
Really? I honestly want to know what people see in Fallout 3′s world; I found it bland, boring and empty, with completely stupid/unbelievable factions that didn’t interact in any meaningful way.
07/09/2011 at 11:26 sinister agent says:
It’s stark, bleak, and kind of beautiful, and there’s tonnes to explore. The game had its faults, certainly, but the world was quite unique.
07/09/2011 at 11:50 jon_hill987 says:
As above.
I didn’t care for the raiders and other factions, they would have been better making more settlements and a few small groups of people that wandered between them.
07/09/2011 at 11:56 CMaster says:
I guess the thing about FO3 is well, you have to not think about it. I did, so despite the breathtaking visuals, it did nothing for me.
Why do I say that? In short because nothing in it makes sense. Fallout 3 is set two hundred years after the war – only 30 years less than the time between the founding of the US and today. Yet nobody seems to do anything. They scavenge a little from the ruins, often wearing pre-war clothes. You find lots of people who still act like it’s pre-war. You find dozens of buildings, including complete food stores, which nobody as been in since the war. I realise that FO’s “perpetual 50s” is a big part of the game, but it’s ridiculous. FO2 showed us a world being rebuilt on farming and trade. FO3 claims to be 200 years on, yet acts like it’s maybe 5 years after the nukes fell.
07/09/2011 at 12:01 jon_hill987 says:
Yeah, they should have taken a zero off that 200 years, it could have all still worked.
07/09/2011 at 14:03 Alexander Norris says:
Yes, I guess that’s a lot of what bothered me – that and the boring “heroic good with no flaws” BoS splinter they had going. Should’ve used the Fallout: Tactics Brotherhood instead, as that one is expansionist/integrationist but also has flaws (racist towards anything not human).
07/09/2011 at 18:48 Shuck says:
@CMaster: FO3 was definitely a victim of series continuity. It almost felt as if the game was designed to take place soon after the war, but someone decided, late in development, to put it in continuity with the other games, which made huge chunks of the game not make any sense.
07/09/2011 at 20:43 sinister agent says:
Those are all very valid points, and I can see why they’d ruin the setting for many people. They do seem like silly problems to me, but for some reason they never seriously affected my enjoyment of the environment.
07/09/2011 at 10:52 Dominus says:
Planescape: Torment
Thief
07/09/2011 at 13:14 Sheng-ji says:
Two more excellent games – the maw in thief 2 with those eyeball plants and obviously the cradle in T3 – just amazing. I can’t remember specifics from Torment, but I do have very fond memories… To GOG!!
07/09/2011 at 10:56 Alexander Norris says:
Shattered Horizon!
I really wish they’d had a SP campaign set in that environment, or that someone would revisit it. It’s genuinely unique and really atmospheric.
07/09/2011 at 11:10 Richie Shoemaker says:
Oh good call. I’m with you on this one. When you shut down your suit and the sound fades out you can feel very vulnerable. I wish I didn’t have tinnitus as it would be even better.
07/09/2011 at 11:37 frenz0rz says:
Damnit people, this. This right here.
Shattered Horizon remains one of the most atmospheric and visually/environmentally brilliant games I’ve ever played, but it was ultimately hampered by the fact that it was multiplayer only. I really did feel for the developers, especially when they spent a lot of time trying to inject new life into the game with free weapon/map updates and steam deal weekends, but ultimately the servers laid empty, and a truly innovative game went almost entirely unappreciated. I wish it had a singleplayer campaign.
07/09/2011 at 10:56 sinister agent says:
Darklands. An early/mid (I forget) PC rpg thing set in medieval not-yet-Germany and the surrounded area. Based in history, mythology, and society of the region at that time, wonderfully realised. It still holds up well today, though it’s not perfect and there are a few minor interface oddnesses.
Crackdown. Running, leaping, climbing over and occasionally throwing a car off all those buildings for hours on end. Great fun, colourful and full of life.
GTA 4. I disliked the game, but the world was marvellous, brimming with detail and ambience.
The Settlers. It was just so damned pleasant. I could still sit here and watch the little guys go about their work, and listen to the trees rustling and the waves lapping, and the wee fisherman cranking away with his rod, the farmer sprinkling his seeds, the et doing its cetera.
Far Cry 2, though it would be made magnificent with some non-hostile, more NPC life to it, was beautiful and unique as a setting.
Fallout 3′s world was beautiful in a bleak and sad way, and made for exploring.
Just Cause 2 for sheer beauty, variety, and enormousness. I’d probably get my money’s worth out of it even if there were no combat at all, and the player just an unusually dedicated freelance demolition man.
K240. Bit of an odd choice, but I loved the setting, and it may be because I was rather young, but it left a real impression on me, and I always felt like I really was a prospecter trying to find the ore and keep everything ticking over. A modern remake would make me very pleased.
07/09/2011 at 10:58 Anguy says:
I love rooftops in games so: Mirrors Edge, Thief (there are at least a dozen FanMissions featuring great rooftop scenarios)
I also love Hylis from BGE and the rough and dark fantasy world of Gothic.
07/09/2011 at 10:59 BooleanBob says:
Playing through Brutal Legend for the first time – the environment is the stand-out star of the show. The characters seem a little thin, the dialogue is clunky and the comic timing all over the place – and that’s not to say anything of the game itself, where the greatest flaws are evident – but the heavy-metal-album art-covers sandbox world is just incredible.
Just driving around in the Mako-esque killcar, tunes blaring, the anti-future-shock dystopia (Eddie couldn’t be more at home in his new surroundings) picked out in perfect shades of lurid purple and green, falling meteorites lighting up the skyline – fantastic stuff.
07/09/2011 at 11:50 mrwonko says:
I have to play that game one day. First, I’ll need one of those console thingies though.
07/09/2011 at 11:00 Gnoupi says:
Bulletstorm’s landscapes. Breathtaking views, even in the title screen
Whether you like the game or not, it really did a lot to pull the unreal engine 3 from its grim, brown/grey uses.
07/09/2011 at 11:54 Love Albatross says:
Was going to say the same thing. It has some absolutely gorgeous environments, the buildings and aesthetics were futuristic and unique without being unrealistic. Really surprising for a linear shooter, I found it incredibly memorable.
07/09/2011 at 14:02 Fedexdoom says:
This!
That moment when the giant spinning wheel of death comes at you, destroying anything in it’s path and ramping over mountains, while you are on the rail train running is spectacular.
Another in a similar gameplay style was Vanquish. Though the environments consisted mostly of sci-fi hallways and cover filled rooms the scale and beauty was just -cough- out of this world.
07/09/2011 at 11:01 Abundant_Suede says:
Bioshock. I know it’s hip to dump on that game for not being SS2 or for weaknesses it may have had as a shooter, but I still go back and play it just to immerse myself in that world again. I think it’s one of the freshest, and most compelling artistic achievements I’ve experienced in a game in a decade.
07/09/2011 at 11:06 reticulate says:
Rapture was a tremendous achievement in artistic design, whatever people’s thoughts are on the actual game.
07/09/2011 at 11:49 airtekh says:
Rapture’s very pretty alright.
“No Gods or Kings. Only Man.”
07/09/2011 at 12:23 Abundant_Suede says:
It’s not only the cosmetic appeal, although that is considerable. It’s everything. The retro aesthetic in the submerged environment, the sound design and the little songs the vending machines play, the well rendered characters, and the strangely appealing but ghoulish little girls and their wonderfully designed companions, singing their whalesongs through the depths of Rapture. I used to follow behind Little Sisters just listening to their adorable exchanges with the Daddies.
It’s everything. It’s not SS2, but it’s an artistic triumph across the board, and one of the most distinct, well conceived, and vividly realized game worlds I’ve played, among all the usual kitchen sink “fantasy for fantasy’s sake” video game fare.
I’m really looking forward to Infinite, but I hope we haven’t seen the last of Rapture as well. I would so dearly love to play a real free roaming sandbox in that world. Hopefully without Vita-Chambers.
07/09/2011 at 11:01 aircool says:
Probably some of the more impressive geological structures in minecraft. Lots of trees, bizarre water/lava falls and some really dark and spooky caverns. I think the Moonshade Highlands in Rift are pretty special, as are most placed in lotro (as someone mentioned earlier).
Morrowind was one hell of a place to explore. I really miss the days of ‘fogging’ as it added to the ambience of the locations. You could be near a town, or some spooky, wonky ruins and you’d not know it. Guild Wars had some nice places too.
Level 4 of the megadrive game ‘Alien 3′ was excellent. Great spooky graphics and a great soundtrack.
Also, I hate any snow environment. Makes me feel cold.
I could have tried giving some ‘clever’ answers, but I have pretty simple tastes.
07/09/2011 at 11:03 NieA7 says:
For aesthetics Chrono Cross and ICO. Cross is beautiful far beyond its technical limitations, especially coupled with the music (as is Guild Wars to some degree, the first time I got to the Crystal Desert was a little bit breathtaking). ICO is ICO, it’s pretty much the only place in a game that’s really felt alive to me, which is a bit odd considering it’s abandoned and falling apart.
Mechanically Minecraft’s landscapes are almost always fascinating, though that’s as much about what you can do with them as them themselves. Portal was a lovely area to explore in terms of expanding the narrative, and was well enough designed that the gameplay felt totally natural within it.
07/09/2011 at 16:40 vivlo says:
i am surprised no one spoke about Minecraft earlier :’( … because indeed despite all the hype about it and despite that this game is basically only about its environment, it’s this game in which i have watched the most fascinating sceneries, i think. And looking far at the horizon knowing that you can reach it easily is a great feeling too. Knowing you can go to any place you’re looking at is a pretty unique sensation that this game gives.
to be perfectly honest i might lack videogame culture (haha) but when you talk me about environment in games, i immediately do think about Minecraft…
07/09/2011 at 11:03 Ernesto says:
The sub sea landscapes of Archimedean Dynasty (known as Schleichfahrt in Germany) made quite an impression on me back in the days. I would love to see that realised with modern engines. I imagine big underwater cities with submarine traffic would be quite a sight.
07/09/2011 at 11:04 Mitchk says:
I’ve just started playing The Witcher 2 after picking it up for £11 a few weeks back. Every environment I’ve played through so far I’ve loved. The forest outside of Flotsam is just epic on ultra settings, the ambient noises and light filtering through the canopies of the trees, it really feels like a living breathing environment. I’ve pretty much ignored the missions and just wandered around there for hours hugging trees etc.
07/09/2011 at 11:05 thepaleking says:
Post-apocalyptic Tokyo, from SMT: Nocturne. There was just this absolute sense of hopeless ruination, knowing that you are one of the handful of (literally, not just in a tag-line sort of way) “humans” on the planet. The environments themselves didn’t have the minuscule details you find in a first person game like STALKER or Metro, but it had a broad stroked, abstract painting atmosphere that was completely otherworldly.
07/09/2011 at 11:08 trigger_rant says:
Portal 2, had an absolutely brilliantly designed gaming environment, in my book. I love ruins, and Portal 2 did something I have never seen before. The Idea of a huge, run down, scientific laboratory build inside a large abandoned mine was a stroke of genius and totally hit my sweet spot.
07/09/2011 at 11:08 unitled says:
Narrowing it down to one is tricky, but I’m going to have to go for… Wind Waker. For me, there are Few more relaxing experiences than gently drifting in the wind on the high sea, simply seeing what you can sea. Erm, see.
I liked the environments in FO3 in general, but I’d like to make a special mention of the museum of technology. It captured the spirit of the game for me perfectly, exploring the rusty old ‘sample vault’ is one of my all time favorite video game experiences.
07/09/2011 at 11:08 Burning Man says:
Assassin’s Creed’s cities. I asked myself if I considered them visually distinct in any way. I realized that they rarely venture beyond simple grey. But every character in those cities looks genuine, has distinct, specific animations, the architecture is true-to-life and fantastically done and you can run all over it.
Would Live There 9/10
07/09/2011 at 12:13 reticulate says:
I’m annoyed at myself for not thinking of AssCreed.
Specifically, I visited Italy recently and playing the game actually helped me various sights without needing the map every five minutes. Especially in Florence. Rome was a little different, especially in the area around Palatine Hill – the rest is so different nowadays it’s hard to compare.
07/09/2011 at 12:54 Binho says:
I know it’s very much a personal thing, but the environments for AssCreed2+Bro did not work for me, in terms of authenticity, renaissance-icity or Italy. They were very good looking though.
The architecture and city layouts for the time period are often anachronistic at best, and plain innaccurate at worst. Rome especially. The Italian accents weren’t great either. They didn’t even have the local dialects right, especially in Venice. Like if someone used a Yorkshire accent for a Londoner.
And the lighting and countryside felt just…off. I’m in Italy 2-3 months a year, and it just didn’t feel right to me.
07/09/2011 at 14:12 Urthman says:
Yes. I love booting up AC and just climbing around one of the cities for a while.
07/09/2011 at 11:11 Lambchops says:
Adelpha from Outcast.
Hiliys from Beyond Good and Evil
Anywhere from Little Big Adventure 2.
Psychonauts is a given.
GTA III. Sure it’s more simplistic than its successors but I just felt I got to know GTA III’s city a lot better.
Did I mention Outcast?
07/09/2011 at 14:09 grnr says:
with you on Adelpha – was just reading through all these comments thinking “why’s nobody mentioned Outcast yet”. Damn I loved that game…
07/09/2011 at 20:07 Waltorious says:
I have to agree about Adelpha from Outcast… not only is it gorgeous, but it feels so fully realized as a place. An excellent setting.
My other picks have also already been mentioned by others… the City from the Thief games is excellent. The games would have been good just with their stealth gameplay but the sheer atmosphere of that strange, dark City is what made the series my favorite series ever.
Psychonauts (of course) and Grim Fandango also had extremely imaginative and unique environments. Probably the games I’m most likely to try to show to non-gamers, for that reason.
Anachronox has also been mentioned already, but I don’t think I’ll ever find places quite like those again.
Finally, and this is a strange one, I was very impressed with how unique the locations felt in Might and Magic 1 (yes, the one from 1986). With extremely limited graphics and 16×16 grid maps it still managed to evoke forests, wizard’s lairs, dark caves, coastal areas, mountains and glaciers incredibly well. A fantastic example of how to generate atmosphere through game design alone (as opposed to visual design).
07/09/2011 at 11:14 Vexing Vision says:
Anachronox. I love the shifting plates of the world.
And Democratus is the most mind-boggling and cynic approach to democracy I ever had the pleasure to see.
07/09/2011 at 11:16 Aemony says:
Trine. No question about it.
07/09/2011 at 11:18 airknots says:
Loved Psychonaut’s environments, specially the colorful one with the running bull and the lung fish level. Also loved Grim Fandango’s environment.
07/09/2011 at 11:18 Lugg says:
I really loved the environments of good old Unreal 2… there were some really imaginative alien worlds: The biomechanical alien environment, that was just creepy… or all the alien fauna. Or the 2nd level where you stalk through a dense forest at night. Damn cool! Not to mention you could actually walk around your own ship. That was pretty amazing, and is something I’d have liked to see more scifi games do.
07/09/2011 at 20:52 LordEvilAlien says:
Unreal 2 was beautiful…and there was a space goat wandering round your ship as well….
07/09/2011 at 11:21 Markenname says:
The first thing that came to my mind was ‘Omikron – The Nomad Soul’… The first game that gave me the impression of somehow having a choice where to go and what to do in a video game. Plus: It has David Bowie in it.
Also, when I first saw ‘Bioshock’ I was like… That’s the most beautiful setting I’ve ever seen.
07/09/2011 at 11:22 Taidan says:
Azeroth, all of it. After quitting World of Warcraft (for good, this time) about nine months ago, I still had strong pangs to go back and play. After a little bit of introspection, I realized it was neither the people nor the game itself I missed. It was the place.
Also, Upper Hengsha in Deus Ex 3, and Bekenstein in Mass Effect 2′s Kasumi DLC. They both had these sections where you were trapped in a relatively small areas, but had absolutely stunning views into a much larger (albeit out-of-reach) world.
07/09/2011 at 11:22 pakoito says:
Nehrim’s world map
/hipster
07/09/2011 at 11:23 Noumenon says:
Obani Moon, Ratchet & Clank 3.
07/09/2011 at 11:24 Bozzley says:
The world of World of Warcraft. Not the expansions, the original, 0 to 60 world. My girlfriend and I had not been playing long, both still enthralled by the starting Alliance environments, when a couple of mates offered to take us to somewhere new. The four of us running through the Barrens at night for the first time was amazing. Over the coming months we went everywhere and explored as much as we could (and ruthlessly exploited the little shop in Azshara that sold the schematic for diving helmets). One of the few times, weirdly enough, where I stopped looking at the game world as something to exploit and saw it as something to behold.
07/09/2011 at 11:57 frenz0rz says:
I couldn’t agree more.
I played WoW when it first came out back in 2004, at the age of 14. To this day I have fond nostalgic memories of wandering the moonlit Barrens at night, bounding along on a wolf mount through the forests of Feralas, and staggering in awe through the trees of Ashenvale. The music was sublime, the environments dripping with beautiful atmosphere, and the experience of truly exploring another world in a state of childlike bliss is something that I’ve struggled to emulate for years, but have never recreated. Your first MMO really is something special.
Also, when I was younger, I always used to listen to new albums and music playing WoW, and even now listening to this music conjures up some unique and comforting memories and visualisations. Die With Your Boots On by Iron Maiden, for example, conjures the aforementioned memories of storming through the forests of Feralas, leaping over fallen trees and rushing streams. Hotel California by the Eagles summons images of wandering the desolate Stonetalon Mountains on a Sunday afternoon without a care in the world.
I find much comfort in knowing that, despite the sheer amount of people playing WoW to this day, such childhood memories are special, and are mine alone.
07/09/2011 at 13:52 Carra says:
I’ll add my vote to this game, surprised it didn’t come up earlier.
WoW has a great and very varied world. Walking through the snow in Winterfell, the Barrens oasises, Stranglethorns jungle, Tanaris jungle,…
It’s such a familiar world. I still have a good mental image of all these places: I can walk through Stranglethorn in my head and call up a few memories at each place. Winning the fishing contest, grouping up to fight the three captains, winning the arena, doing Zul Gurub or just walking around and taking a few screenshots.
07/09/2011 at 11:24 MikoSquiz says:
At first I couldn’t decide which part of Psychonauts to pick, then it occurred to me that as much as those fantastic worlds appeal, the environments from Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, and even the Leisure Suit Larries take the cake. All lava lamps and 70s paint jobs and unattractive attractions.
Worn, old lackluster, slightly drab kitsch makes me all emotional. My heart lives in a faded, fading seaside resort that’s forever out of season, as if trapped in amber.
07/09/2011 at 11:25 Igor Hardy says:
Riven – a wonderful, huge world where every little detail connects with the rest.
Thief: The Dark Project – The City in particular, but also the various sealed off areas – mines, catacombs etc.
Azrael’s Tear – quite a bit like Thief, also filled with secrets, but with Knights of the Round Table lurking around, and dinosaurs
Discworld – the many wonderfully crazy locations of Ankh-Morpork
Secret of Monkey Island 2 – The whole three island filled with memorable places and characters
Planescape: Torment – Again, The City (Sigil)
The Dark Eye – bleak house of a tormented family and a few personal nightmares of puppet-like characters, every object in sight wakes disturbing thoughts and memories, probably the best recreations of Edgar Allan Poe’s worlds created so far
Tex Murphy’s Neighborhood – set in the mutations plagued future, it’s a huge area that you get to know across three different games (so it quickly becomes your 2nd home), presented through a combination of 3D, FMV and Tex’s silly comments.
Oh, and Neverhood and Machinarium
07/09/2011 at 13:04 Noodlemonk says:
The Neverhood!
I was looking through the comments for someone mentioning the Neverhood. It is without a doubt my favourite environment.
It presented the player with an odd feeling of being completely isolated in the middle of nowhere (literally). Space perhaps? Kind of, but we’re not sure. And the distinct sounds of what you tell yourself is the mixed sound of passing satellites, white noise and, well, subtle nothing, adds to this feeling immensely.
A surrealistic, slightly scary, yet utterly wonderful place!
07/09/2011 at 20:00 Doctor Apemind says:
I’d have to go for Myst. I know Riven looked better, but never has there been a game that gave me such an eery and detached, but also beautifully free feeling. Touching the tiny moving images of distant written worlds and being transported there with that unforgettable WHOAWH sound, made my 15 year old heart skip a beat in excitement.
Even though it was mostly static images, the Victorian, steampunkish, fairytale, lonely, haunting, serene and very detailed rooms where accompanied by brilliant music.
Ah, the old days…
07/09/2011 at 11:28 LennyLeonardo says:
City 17, anyone?
07/09/2011 at 11:28 RogB says:
The castle in ICO. beautiful, eerie, peaceful..
not just the graphics, the ambient sound and almost complete lack of music made it feel like a real place.
07/09/2011 at 11:33 Telke says:
Red Dead Redemption +1…well, anything allowing exploration (even simple stuff, like psychonauts levels) is great.
I loved WoW’s world before I had a mount, and knew the maps off by heart. But again, that’s the sense of discovery more than anything else. So I don’t know if I really have a favorite environment…
07/09/2011 at 11:33 Casimir Effect says:
Lots that people have already mentioned:
The uniqueness of Planescape
The dangerous beauty of FarCry 2
The sorrowful grit of The Witcher 2
The bright feel yet oppressed atmosphere of Hilys,
and as something new I’d also throw in the otherworldliness of Sacrifice. Never have I felt more of a stranger in a game world that in that one.
07/09/2011 at 14:00 Noodlemonk says:
Ah, Sacrifice – a great pick! I always liked to wonder what would happen if one were to jump off the edge. The little communities in Persephone’s realm was both cosy and flabbergasting at the same time!
07/09/2011 at 11:33 Laurentius says:
Guild Wars: Nightfall – Istan, there are absolutly fantastic locations there and design is so unique and graphics is still amazing.
GTA IV – LC is a masterpiece of videogames.
Freelancer- open space, different space stations and warships.
BG&E -Hillys, it’s so lovely.
and of course LBA- Twinsun is still the best !
Aperture Science
07/09/2011 at 11:36 sakmidrai says:
Sacrifice, Psychonauts and Outcast for me.
Especially Outcast. I can walk around in the different locations for hours. The amazing music helps alot.
07/09/2011 at 13:03 hasbean says:
+1 for Sacrifice
unique. weird. beautiful.
07/09/2011 at 13:16 Hoaxfish says:
A slight side-note on Outcast… the invisible walls that bordered each region were quite clever, rather than the usual “too far = now you’re instantly dead/blocked”.
Don’t swim too far… the fish will kill you
Don’t walk too far into the desert… you’ll suffocate in the sand drifts
07/09/2011 at 13:54 sakmidrai says:
This is true. It was the only game where I had the feeling “Damn, can’t go there because of the fish/sand/swamp.” and not “meh, walls.”
I really hope the Cryengine3 mod is that good as well. I loved the 1.1 oasis demo.
07/09/2011 at 11:38 KikYu0 says:
deus ex, fallout, dead space – sci fi mixed with endgame scenarios.. love
07/09/2011 at 11:40 Strontium Mike says:
Definitely the Zone whether in the Stalker games or MW’s only decent level, so much atmosphere. Far Cry 2 and Red Dead Redemption for well designed worlds. Black Mesa and Aperture Science Labs for all the mystery and Rapture which was wasted on a linear FPS.
07/09/2011 at 11:41 airtekh says:
No one’s mentioned it yet, so I’ll say City 17 from Half Life 2. [EDIT: yes they have, my searching skills suck. :( ]
I found the visuals and the soundscape just breathtaking. It feels familiar but alien at the same time.
07/09/2011 at 11:42 DarkByke says:
Brink’s ark!
07/09/2011 at 11:44 sharkh20 says:
Conall’s Valley from Age of Conan. Amazingly large and pretty game environment. Also, the style of Resident Evil 4 as a whole. Still looks beautiful.
07/09/2011 at 11:46 Teronfel says:
The world of Gothic 3
11/09/2011 at 09:52 Ninja Dodo says:
I think there was a lot of potential in Gothic 3… You could see that same hint of greatness that was there in the previous games, but it was spread too thin over far too large a world.
07/09/2011 at 11:51 Kefren says:
Unless I’ve missed it, no one has mentioned Citadel Station or the Von Braun/Rickenbacker. Scariest environments ever, yet believable and they feel real because you can tackle floors in different orders, and even levels offer numerous routes that make each experience different.
07/09/2011 at 12:41 Prime says:
Both Mass Effect games had some amazing environments, most of them with at least one spot you could stand and gawp at the incredible loveliness. It’s just a pity they tended to be small and largely un-interactive.
07/09/2011 at 11:53 Derppy says:
World of Warcraft, nothing compares.
And I’m not saying this as a fanboy, I quit the game a few years ago and won’t start playing it again, I don’t even really like MMORPG games that much. Still, it’s the only game that has massive environments, but still all the places are easily recognizable.
I didn’t sink much time to it in the MMORPG-scale, but I’m sure I could tell exact locations from random screenshots even 10 years from now. Every area had very unique style and locations, it felt like a great adventure when you first entered a new zone or city, but after a few hours you became very familiar with it and didn’t get lost, even if it was complex.
Very rare to see such level design in games. In most games I get the feeling I didn’t even become familiar with the previous area when I’m transferred to a new one, which looks very much like the last one. At that point I get bored and decide to continue next time, where as in WoW I was always extremely hyped to explore a new area.
Too bad the gameplay itself was very repetitive, but I guess it would be just too massive project if you had to triple the pace and the amount of such unique and carefully designed environments.
07/09/2011 at 14:39 Love Albatross says:
“I didn’t sink much time to it in the MMORPG-scale, but I’m sure I could tell exact locations from random screenshots even 10 years from now. Every area had very unique style and locations, it felt like a great adventure when you first entered a new zone or city, but after a few hours you became very familiar with it and didn’t get lost, even if it was complex.”
No different to most other MMOs, then.
07/09/2011 at 11:57 Christian O. says:
Grim Fandango – All of Grim Fandango.
07/09/2011 at 14:11 Hodge says:
Beat me to it. I could live in Rubacava.
07/09/2011 at 11:59 Monkey says:
System Shock – Citadel Station.
07/09/2011 at 12:10 LionsPhil says:
*scroll* *scroll* *scroll*
Ah, there it is.
+1
07/09/2011 at 12:31 outoffeelinsobad says:
+1
07/09/2011 at 20:10 Waltorious says:
I can’t believe I forgot to mention System Shock… probably the single most immersive game I’ve ever played, and I only played it for the first time a couple of years ago. Despite the dated graphics, I actually felt like I was THERE, that it was a real place. This is a key factor that many modern games forget, which is why they fail to be scary.
07/09/2011 at 12:00 WJonathan says:
GTA: Vice City.
07/09/2011 at 12:15 reticulate says:
Vice City as a map, for me, wasn’t particularly good. But the day-glo look along with probably the best soundtrack ever make it. Make it so good.
07/09/2011 at 12:01 luminosity says:
Homeworld!
07/09/2011 at 12:03 Freud says:
This is an obscure game but an environment which stuck to me. Hardwar was a Elite-like game where you were stuck on a planet filled with fog and towers. Your crafts were limited by gravity and energy so higher towers were inaccessible at first.
Not a great game, but something about the setting resonated with me. Voodoo 3D graphics also bring back nostalgia in me.
07/09/2011 at 12:44 Prime says:
Hardwar! Awesome!
It did so much to convince you it was a small world-in-a-bubble. Really evocative.
07/09/2011 at 14:04 Noodlemonk says:
+1 for Hardwar
07/09/2011 at 15:59 Levanon says:
Oh god yes. Hardwar <3
07/09/2011 at 12:04 phlebas says:
Your lamp is now on. You are in a debris room filled with stuff washed in from the surface. A low wide passage with cobbles becomes plugged with mud and debris here, but an awkward canyon leads upward and west. A note on the wall says “Magic word XYZZY”. A three foot black rod with a rusty star on an end lies nearby.
07/09/2011 at 12:05 Ultra Superior says:
THIEF 1 & 2.
Cradle is great, but the engine of Thief 3 got too obsolete (weird that the older versions didn’t age as much. … Soul over Tech!)
Also… Deus ex 3 HR has the best interior design I have ever seen in any game anywhere. Pure taste. Bravo mr. JJB.
07/09/2011 at 12:07 BobsLawnService says:
In theory : Frontier : Elite II – it basically says “Here is a seamless universe. Go nuts”
Why? Fuck sectors and jumpgates.
Also, the original Far Cry. I loved that island.
07/09/2011 at 12:08 mickygor says:
It’s a struggle between this and Nova Prospekt, but Ravenholm from HL2 is probably my favourite environment (in any game, not just HL2). I hatehatehate it! First time I played HL2, I got to Ravenholm at about 4am, and my god it was scary as hell. It didn’t help that HL2 was the first FPS I played on PC, so I was kinda crap, young (I think I was 15), and not used to games actually scaring me since I was a massive RTS junkie so used to being one step removed.
07/09/2011 at 12:09 mrwonko says:
There are a lot of videogame environments I liked. Psychonauts was a good choice, of course (I think my favorite part was Black Velvetopia), as well as the Zone.
I spent literally hundreds of hours in Oblivion – in retrospective its world was not that special, but The Shivering Isles sure were – though I believe Sheogorath played a huge role in that, too. Still a lovely world.
It also reminds me that I still need to finish Damnation one day – one of its selling points were the nice environments, I remember some kind of dev diary dedicated to them.
Talking about Steampunk worlds – the Edge of Twilight world showed a lot of promise, too bad it got cancelled. And there’s the UT3 mod Airborn. I hope that won’t be abandoned as well.
I also loved the world in The Whispered World (which I just finished), which may partially be due to the (in my opinion – I know some think differently) brilliant ending which made me think back to how much I enjoyed being in that world.
Darksider’s art style was nice, too, but the world was mostly not that special.
The Wild West in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood deserves a mention as well. I loved that game, not least due to the setting/world.
Oh, and of course Zeno Clash! Wonderful world.
There sure are a lot of wonderful worlds in videogames. Not enough, of course, but still quite some.
P.S.: Oh, I just remembered another cancelled project with a potentially great world: Project Offset. Looked so promising…
07/09/2011 at 12:10 ncampbell says:
Empire City, Mafia II. The sense of time, and architecture/fashion/cars changing. Amazing.
07/09/2011 at 12:11 Desvergeh says:
I’m sounding like a stuck record here but -
Planescape Torment – loved the feel of the Planescape universe, an RPG where I actually cared to read the background information in-game
The Void – do love a bit of bleak, but this was bleak with colour and imagination
Zeno Clash – game wasn’t the best ever, but felt like playing a game set in a Dark Crystal type world.
07/09/2011 at 12:11 MadTinkerer says:
As primitive as the blocky polygons + sprites environment of Ultima Underworld 2 is, I do play it again every few years. A big part of it is the variety of the environments as well as the variety within the environments. The core idea is that you’re trapped in a hub world connected to eight alternate universes and the guy who did it is orchestrating a grand effort across all worlds to 1) take over all existence 2) kill you and all your friends.
The third best part of the game is exploration and (good for the time) combat. The second best part of the game is the proto-Theif series AI and inventory system where you can attempt to steal practictically anything. The best part of the game is how careful conversation choices will allow you to infiltrate several of the bad guy factions as well as influence various good and neutral parties.
No, actually the best-best part of the game is the sheer variety of the environments. From standard “castle sewers” (long before sewer levels were standard), to the insides of a giant living organism, to a Harry Potter-esque Wizard Training School (nearly a decade before before the first HP book), to a M.C. Escherish / Lewis Carollish Dimension Of Pure Weirdness. All inhabited by tremendously memorable characters.
07/09/2011 at 12:29 outoffeelinsobad says:
Demon’s Souls on the PS3. The Witcher 2. Baldur’s Gate 2 and Planescape: Torment.
07/09/2011 at 12:34 Lobotomist says:
Another World …
also Limbo.
Actually all after death like Grim Fandango.
LOTRO did amazing job. Also on mines of Moria. They are amazing work of level design
Borderlands
Ah not forget Witcher
I love it so much i bought all the books and downloaded crummy polish TV series too ;)
07/09/2011 at 12:35 Mr_Poivron says:
I have to admit that I’ve spend a looooooot of my lifetime in Outcast universe.
A this time, it was one of the most complex and interesting virtual World….
Good times…good old times
07/09/2011 at 13:14 Freud says:
I haven’t replayed it but I can still vividly recall every single map of it. The sense of place of Outcast is very powerful.
Little Big Adventure is another game where I remember a lot of the world and the creatures populating it despite not having played it in 10+ years.
07/09/2011 at 12:37 cw8 says:
Land of the Dead – Grim Fandango
Sigil – Planescape
Amn – BG2
Lost Heaven – Mafia 1
The Shire – Lord of the Rings Online
Pretty much all the islands in Monkey Island
Hong Kong – Deus Ex
07/09/2011 at 12:41 Spacewalk says:
Hexen because it’s heaps black metal.
07/09/2011 at 12:42 Maldomel says:
The Zone, so atmospheric, desolate and yet beautiful in it’s way. Specially when you get into abandonned buildings and there are actually no monsters or ennemies, the feeling of loneliness is very deep during those parts.
Also yeah, Psychonauts because every level is awesome (special mention to the milkman conspiracy, that one is pure genius).
07/09/2011 at 12:48 Graeme says:
Xen from Half-Life anyone?
But seriously, I could walk around the worlds of Minecraft forever looking for the perfect view.
07/09/2011 at 13:02 Prime says:
The so-close-you-can-taste-it future of Minecraft’s ability to craft beautiful believable worlds is the single brightest shining light on the gaming landscape for me. (well, apart from maybe SpaceEngine’s universe to explore, and Pioneer’s galaxy)
07/09/2011 at 12:49 Iskariot says:
I loved liberty city. I still do. I regularly return to GTA 4, just to enjoy that beautifully detailed city.
Fallout 3 and Just Cause 2 are amazing worlds too.
I also loved Far Cry 2. That world looked so intense, especially the jungle.
Batman Arkham Asylum was great too.
07/09/2011 at 12:51 mikmanner says:
The City – Thief 2
Flotsam – Witcher 2
China – Deus Ex Hr
Wasteland – Shadow of the Colossus
Toy Land – Mario Galaxy
Chernobyl – Stalker
07/09/2011 at 12:51 Prime says:
There are SO many…! Here’s a few off the top of my head:
Thief games – Fantastic sense of place
Mass Effect – Sci-fi gorgeousness
Minecraft – Still unique
Morrowind – Especially with the Morrowind Graphics Extender!
Tron 2.0 – They got the look and feel just right!
Just Cause 1 – Goes for 2 as well but I feel the first game did jungle ambiance better, and possibly slightly better sunsets.
Scrapland – Low poly but beautifully textured and lit – real art
MDK – Environments like you’d never seen before or since!
Battlezone – Moon levels. Simply breathtaking. The very next game to do an expansive, explorable and convincingly realistic moon environment is basically bought upon hearing about it.
I could go on…
07/09/2011 at 13:32 pakoito says:
Loving the Scrapland reference, it’s such a underrated game.
07/09/2011 at 13:01 Binho says:
Want to add:
Age of Empires 2 – Yes, it’s weird to have an RTS. And it’s not very unique. But the 2D art was so good, and worked so well with the music.
X-Wing Alliance – One of the last games to have space feel truley vast and empty, without all those colours and clouds in modern space game. Pure, empty starfield. Shattered Horizon does this well too.
Oblivion – Not unique, but the world music just works so well. Always found music to be an important part of immersion.
Fallout3 – I don’t know why, just something about it
07/09/2011 at 13:03 Advanced Assault Hippo says:
Stalker – hands down. The most incredible gaming environment ever created.
There are other honourable mentions, but none of them can come close IMO.
07/09/2011 at 13:10 Spakkenkhrist says:
I love the rich visuals of Trine and think an RPG based in that world could be incredible, also the colourful King’s Bounty world look great and is a refreshing change from the grimy realism of most FPS environments, it’s a video game that looks like a video game.
In contrast the zone is probably the last place I’d want to be but it is so atmospheric and utterly compelling as a game setting, also Cryostasis for making you feel so isolated and alone.
07/09/2011 at 13:19 amishmonster says:
I have to add another non-PC game to the mix with Okami. A lot of this hinged on the art style but the locations themselves were varied and each managed to be peaceful in its own right.
The 2008 Prince of Persia is one I play almost exclusively for the environments; the layouts and vistas are just grand. I’ve also always enjoyed the Myst games more for their panoramas than their puzzles, though I don’t mind those as much as John does.
07/09/2011 at 13:40 LennyLeonardo says:
Okami is the bestest. It’s a wonderful world and so damn charming it makes my teeth hurt. Plus, there’s so MUCH of it, right? So many crazy little stories and batshit characters. It’s a testament to both the devs’ imagination and to the colour and variety of Shinto folklore.
07/09/2011 at 14:21 mrwonko says:
Oh yes, the 2008 PoP – how could I forget about that? Beautiful world!
07/09/2011 at 13:22 Hoaxfish says:
The Myth series.
Solid “grim dirty mediaeval horror” going on. No rainbow wizards fighting primary coloured demons.
Sickly greens and greys, rusty metal on metal, meaty crunches, demented reincarnation cycles… oh, throwing a dwarf head as a projectile, or kicking a soldier so hard he explodes into a flying limb shrapnel.
07/09/2011 at 13:37 amishmonster says:
Casualty.
07/09/2011 at 13:34 Gunsmith says:
for me it has to be the world of Second Miltia from the Xenosaga series, ive never seen a clean and futuristic utopia presented in such a sleek and awesome way, i spent most of the time just walking around the city hub then completing the game.
07/09/2011 at 13:34 jimangi says:
The Stanley Parable.
07/09/2011 at 13:37 Jac says:
Despite being disappointed with the interactivity of the world in DXHR (was hoping I could throw all manner of objects at random peoples heads) the attention to detail was superb.
Breaking into a couple of apartments and reading random emails critising the forces that be, then noticing a chair turned over with blood trails around the room signifying that they had obviously caught up with the sender of the emails was such a great incidental piece of detail that really made me appreciate the efforts of the developers.
Also on console all the zelda worlds from the snes games onward definitely have some sort of magical feel for me.
07/09/2011 at 13:42 TheTourist314 says:
Well, with the Psychonauts picture I can now only help but think of Whispering Rock psychic summer camp in Psychonauts. Really, for all its minor flaws as it went along, Psychonauts continues to impress me as gameworld that is filled to the brim with cleverness and a general sense of care put into it. I think my favorite world in it was the 50′s suburbia filled with G-men.
07/09/2011 at 14:09 Noodlemonk says:
+1 Definitely this!
07/09/2011 at 14:25 JackShandy says:
The camp hub was the best environment of the lot.
07/09/2011 at 13:43 Fedexdoom says:
Though it was mentioned above I’d say that Just Cause 2 has some of the most impressive visuals I’ve ever seen in a game.
There are a few more that come to mind for me though. Some of my favorite environments are the maps to World in Conflict. The sections of city felt like a city and the defense and choke points of the natural maps felt, well, natural.
Another game that really grabbed me with it’s environments was Borderlands. Though everything was in the same pallet it all felt real and coherent. Pandora was a place and you were in it. From the mountains to the caves it all felt there because, well, it was, not because some developer threw it in there for the sake of variety (though that was assuredly the purpose).
Finally there is Rapture. Rapture is undeniably one of the most well made and immersive game environments. The water, the architecture, the silly little vending machines and totally bonkers people brought that place to life (as much as an underwater city filled with crazies can come to life).
There are many more, of course, but those are the few that really grabbed me.
07/09/2011 at 13:54 LennyLeonardo says:
World in Conflict is a good shout. Most of the missions took place in sleepy towns and suburbs that all seemed so familiar somehow. It’s rare that an RTS makes you genuinely care about the places you’re trying to defend. When that lovely little mountain town with its Christmas lights and stuff gets nuked (by its own army) it’s actually kind of emotional.
07/09/2011 at 14:30 Fedexdoom says:
Oh yes, the nuke scene was one of the only scenes in my gaming history that nearly brought me to tears. Bannon was an asshole all game but I never wanted to see him sacrifice himself like that.
07/09/2011 at 13:48 glix says:
I think the only one that comes to my mind that hasn’t already been mentioned is Metro 2033. The atmosphere in that game is incredible.
Aside from that, AssCreed, The Witcher, Deus Ex, etc etc.
07/09/2011 at 13:48 Kadayi says:
Messiah. Albeit it is quite aged now I liked the dystopian vibe Shiny were going for with it, plus I recall the transparent floors really impressed me at the time.
07/09/2011 at 13:52 Big Murray says:
Little Big Adventure had a beautiful world … a little boy’s childhood adventure in video game form.
07/09/2011 at 18:46 MajorManiac says:
I had strong feelings for the towns in that game. The story really made me feel part of the world. Plus details like when you get beaten’ by the bad guys you don’t die, but wakeup in prison and have to escape.
07/09/2011 at 13:55 Chaz says:
I’m a real sucker for the whole post apocolyptic or just general waste and decay type settings, so stuff like:
Stalker
Fallout 3 and NV
Half Life 2
Far Cry (that first island with all the decaying Japanese WW2 stuff was great)
07/09/2011 at 13:58 Raane says:
Brutal Legend’s environments deserve a mention.
Morrowind holds a special place in my heart too.
07/09/2011 at 13:58 mbp says:
My favourite level in any video game is probably the “Rebellion ” level in the original Far Cry. You have this huge beautiful tropical island that you must traverse from one end to the other with all out warfare going on the whole way across. You can choose to walk, drive, swim or even hang glide. I still replay that level every few years and I still find new ways to cross the island. .
07/09/2011 at 14:01 Rohrmann says:
What first comes to mind is Diablo I. When I remember first going down the stairs to level 1 as a 12 year old and the chills the sound and atmosphere gave me…
Another thing like that (don’t hate plz) is Teldrassil in World of Warcraft. The music and art just struck me when I walked in there for the first time.
07/09/2011 at 14:01 bill says:
I think environments are one of the most important parts of games for me. Not purely the level, but the way it combines with the setting and graphics to create atmosphere.
Of the top of my head:
- Jedi Knight (1) – nailed the starwars vibe, felt huge and vertigo inducing, plus excellent levels in themselves
- Psychonauts (natch)
- Ocarina of Time – considering the minimal amount of polygons they had to work with, they created some lovely and distinct environments that i spent hours exploring.
- Morrowind (natch)
- Terminator Future Shock – i thought they nailed the post apocalyptic LA with fields of skulls, broken highways and a blue-grey vibe,
- Portal (natch)
- Half Life (i’m fed up of saying natch now, it sounds dumb)
- Thief (the atmosphere and original world they created just worked)
- GTA3 and Vice City – they did a great job of making varied cities that each had unique and memorable areas. I could probably still drive around both from memory)
- interstate 76 – Not really an environment, more of a nothing with funky style
07/09/2011 at 14:17 Deekman says:
The windmill area in Ico stands as my favourite environment in any game ever.
07/09/2011 at 14:22 JackShandy says:
Blood island lighthouse, Curse of Monkey Island. But just the entirety of Blood and Skull island- the shipwreck, the volcano, the smugglers cave, the graveyard, everything.
07/09/2011 at 14:25 TheGameSquid says:
Some of my all-time faves (even though they might have been mentioned before):
Gothic 1: The prison colony. Easily my Nr. 1. It had such a strong sense of being, coupled with an amazing sense of freedom. On top of that, it was one of the most interactive RPGs ever (unlike the static shit Bioware produces, with all due respect to games like Baldur’s Gate and KOTOR) with excellent NPC behavior. It had plenty of beautiful sights and verticality. It’s something you just HAVE to experience for yourself.
Outcast: one of the first games I played where I was allowed to go to a lot of places without too much restrictions and do all I wanted. I had a demo of the game that lasted 1000 seconds (came with my copy of the somewhat impenetrable Independence War), and me and my brother used to play that over and over, just trying to do and see as much as possible. Good times!
Sigil: it may not have that strong sense of interactivity and presence as the previous two, but it was just so wonderfully realized. One of those first games I played where I just wanted to know everything there was to know about a place.
I also have amazing memories of crawling through vents in Deux Ex, exploring the living shit out of Vvardenfell (and spending 50 hours in it before hitting level 2), robbing the tomb in Thief in search for that horn, trying too shoot communists in Operation Flashpoint (but missing everything of course!), travelling through Britannia in Ultima VI and VII, getting ultra-claustrophobic in the Stygian Abyss, exploring the bowels of the Temple of Elemental Evil and much, much more!
07/09/2011 at 14:27 cristhianfs says:
As a designer, I just love the environments in Mirror’s Edge, they’re minimal but very clean and noticeable, also loving Psychonauts Burton-y environments
07/09/2011 at 14:43 Love Albatross says:
Didn’t play it for long, but Vanguard: Saga of Heroes had some stupendously gorgeous maps. There’s one in particular, I think it was an elven city that’s accessible once you’re out of the starting area, and it was stunning, sprawling and huge, felt like a proper city rather than the small towns we usually get in RPGs. Would have been even better had there been more than 5 people playing the game.
07/09/2011 at 14:58 Nallen says:
Asheron’s Call and New Eden. I don’t think I’ll ever have the feelings discovering those places gave me. Not even discovering them, discovering just how much there was to discover, the sense of wonder. But now I am older, jaded, the Internet takes the mystery from everything.
07/09/2011 at 15:14 postwar says:
Fallout 3 through and through. Color palette may have been dull but the amount of gems hidden in the wasteland blew my mind.
07/09/2011 at 15:43 jettpack says:
….. oh my. this is quite difficult.
Im a sucker for city 17 and rapture. The world design in city 17 is some the best ive seen in any medium. beautiful, dystopian but most importantly utterly believable.
Also all of the Witcher 2. That game is stunning. Flotsam is easily the best forest ive seen anywhere (sorry crysis)… man this is tough
07/09/2011 at 16:15 Jake says:
Well I’ll just say Silent Hill (2 and 3 mainly) again. It’s such an ominous town all wreathed in fog but when the klaxon goes off and it changes into a dark, rust covered nightmare it’s genuinely a horrible place to be. The theme park in SH3 creeped me out. Also Silent Hill: The Room is quite good, I liked the mystery of the boarded up apartment door at least.
Penumbra gets a mention too, I loved how you went down through an old abandoned mine into deeper mines and darker ruins and tunnels, always feeling like you were going further and further away from civilisation. Amnesia suffered by not feeling like a believable place, just miles of sprawling castle corridors.
The original Alice game always felt pretty amazing, like you were somewhere strange and magical, I should really try the new one.
07/09/2011 at 16:39 Cryotek says:
Chinatown from Revenge of Shinobi (Genesis/Megadrive). Also a great Yuzo Koshiro track.
07/09/2011 at 16:53 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
Got to agree with the many voices praising JC2, it really is completely gorgeous, AND gorgeously enormous. And the Zone is a no-brainer. Similarly, I really liked Metro 2033. It’s sort of like the Zone but more claustrophobic.
Also, HL2 is very memorable, as are various levels out of the hitman games, with the first and last levels of Contracts taking the lead.
And in the reserve spot, Freelancer has a few moments that are just breathtaking – primarily towards the end of the campaign.
07/09/2011 at 16:58 kfriday says:
Lots of great environments mentioned here.
For the environments themselves, I really enjoyed Age of Conan. Not much else was great about the game, but it had some really cool zones to explore. The cimmerian’s beginning zone was a massive valley with a river running through the middle and large mountains to explore on the sides. It felt cold, dark, and violent; which fit the game and race quite well. The game had impressive graphics and far draw distances also.
I have thought about trying the F2P just for a little exploring. MMO’s need more adventure and less grind.
07/09/2011 at 17:00 perfectheat says:
Q3WCP9
07/09/2011 at 17:46 thesmileman says:
Alice and Alice: Return to Madness. I loved the environments they kept me playing the games which were not particularly good but the artwork and vision was amazing.
07/09/2011 at 17:50 shagen454 says:
This is a difficult one. I like environments that make me hungry. You know, like the environments are edible in Hansel & Gretel. They make me hungry for LSD & frosted cake. Not many games make me feel like this.
Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2. I love the blockiness & the curving of the dungeon walls. Better yet are the sounds made when designating dig zones.
Homeworld, multicolored space ‘environment”. Do you eat cotton candy or do you drink dissolved material?
Hands down & I feel bad for you guys that are too cool. But, hands down World of Warcraft has the best environments. No, they aren’t realistic, but the environments in that game to me are like going into a Gelato shop. I love the way everything looks, the way things blend & I’m sure they’re sweet & creamy in a zesty multicolored fruity way… is that an avatar or a gummy bear? I also smoked more weed to WoW than any other game ever so maybe that has something to do with it.
07/09/2011 at 18:00 RagingLion says:
Far Cry 2, Darwinia, Mirror’s Edge, Assassin’s Creed 1 & 2 off the top of my head are places I love to spend time.
07/09/2011 at 18:04 LazyGit says:
Crysis.
How did it take so long for someone to mention it?
That moment when you crest the ridge in the first level as the sun rises, the waves lap at the shore and the palm fronds wave in the air was pretty magical. I’ve gone back to those first few levels loads of times just to take in the beauty of that island.
Just run the GPU demo and see how relaxing it is to fly through the air above that place.
07/09/2011 at 18:12 protorp says:
Much I agree with already mentioned, but one on top would definitely be Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri. The first time I ever remember being amazed by real scale geographical features outside of a flight sim…
07/09/2011 at 18:36 Sixtoe says:
I loved the TV stage of Harlequin for the Amiga, where you could drop into different TV dimensions, it was pretty weird, but then again so was the whole game.
07/09/2011 at 18:55 foobeer says:
I loved the Myst series where the environment is the game itself.
07/09/2011 at 19:02 theimpossibleman says:
Going to have to go with System Shock 2. Because space.
07/09/2011 at 19:03 JoeX111 says:
Maybe not my all-time favorite, but: Tron 2.0.
Monolith did such a great job updating the The Grid to represent more modern computer systems. Going from a PC to a PDA to the Internet itself (where you are instantly assaulted with spam and advertisements) was an awesome idea. More than anything else, I just wanted to jump from system to system, marveling at the art style and the design decisions that brought this world to life.
So much so that when Tron: Legacy came out, I was utterly horrified to discover it was set in a closed system cut off from modern networks. What a waste.
Quite an achievement, especially considering I didn’t even like the original film (aesthetics aside).
07/09/2011 at 21:13 Wulf says:
Probably something that involves one of the punk themes, mixed with a good amount of nature, and perhaps even alien elements. It provides for a lot of interaction, intrigue, and things to poke. I like having things to poke. I also appreciate it when environments themselves can be a bit silly, and reward the player for exploration. I like storied places, too, and I feel that’s important. Even when alone I like finding bits of things that people had written prior to my being there. One example is Uru, as it checks a lot of those boxes.
07/09/2011 at 22:12 Trillinon says:
MIdgar, Final Fantasy VII
There’s something about the hand-painted dystopia of MIdgar that was very evocative. One could argue that the Final Fantasy franchise owes it’s success to that environment. It certainly drew in a lot of players from the commercials.
07/09/2011 at 23:42 gritz says:
The Serpent Isles from Ultima 7 pt. 2 are my go-to happy place. The forests and highways around Fawn and Monitor, the houses of the mages of Moonshade, the serene island of monks, the rowdy and intriguing Sleeping Bull inn, the Ophidian ruins, underground caverns and the frozen north… they’re all like a second home to me.
Each place is so vividly realized, abounding with intricate detail and oozing mood and character. The weather effects give you a sense of a world ripping itself apart, while the abstract themes of order and chaos physically manifest as ice and fire.
It may lack the openness and non-linearity of the Black Gate, but for some reason it resonated with me much more strongly.
08/09/2011 at 00:23 Toshley says:
Going to have to vouch for STALKER and it’s universe, nothing enthralls me as greatly as The Zone.
The World of Warcraft(see what I did thar?) is another one I absolutely loved to spend time in, pity it has been butchered beyond recognition ever since Wrath, with came with the inception of Blizzards new design philosophy, ‘Let everyone experience everything without them having to work for it’.
08/09/2011 at 08:10 coldvvvave says:
Some parts of Zone – Bar and Yantar facility.
Hawken looks very good but it’s not out yet.
08/09/2011 at 15:32 Tams80 says:
Mini Ninjas. Colourful and beautiful, with great sound effects. I just meditated by streams for ages.
08/09/2011 at 21:27 GameCat says:
I’m surprised that no one mentioned Alice: Madness Retuns world yet. It’s beautifully twisted etc.
Also:
Zeno Clash
The Void
The Path
GTA VC, SA, 4
Shadow Of Colossus
HL1&2, especially Xen
Minecraft
Medievil (WHY THEY DIDN’T MADE SEQUEL ON PS3, WHY?!)
Limbo
Final Fantasy 9 (other numbers are meh)
09/09/2011 at 10:30 WWR Aero says:
(Spot the Child of the 80s/geek) – For me the first game of recent years to jump to mind is Transformers: War For Cybertron. Yes, I am a child of the 80s, yes I am a Transformers fan, but who could look at all those transforming environments and not say “that was cool”?!?