What’s up everyone? DK here kicking off another week of Member BattleCries on EpicBattleAxe.com! If you missed out on the conversation last week, we had some really great submissions on the topic of genre defining Action/Adventure games. You can check out the post here and the featured Member BattleCries here.
Now, on to this week’s topic…With the release of BioShock 2 this week, I thought it’d be fun to step back and examine the games or franchises that deliver the deepest sense of immersion…Games dripping with atmosphere and standing apart from the crowd by being ANYTHING BUT GENERIC! The word “Atmospheric” is defined as “creating a distinctive mood”, so with that in mind, I pose the following question to you in this week’s MBC Topic Starter:
WHICH GAME OR FRANCHISE DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST IMMERSIVE OR ATMOSPHERIC AND WHY?
Of course, the discussion is open to any game, any genre, and really anything you want. Just keep it on topic and let us know your thoughts on the matter if you can pull yourself away from BioShock 2 long enough to do so. We’re also glad to hear from you if you have a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT subject you’d like to sound off on, so feel free to do that in the comments section below as well.
As always, we’ll feature a new Member BattleCry each day here on the ‘Axe and then highlight the Member BattleCry of the week on the next skirmish of the EpicBattleCry video podcast. Also, don’t forget to vote in our poll this week on the key elements that go into making a game immersive!
Alright, I’m looking forward to what you all have to say! Check back daily to see if your MBC has been featured and to see what all of the other ‘Axe Heads are saying.
Peace,
DK
I think Fallout 3 created a very good sense of immersion and a feeling of isolation. Dead Space can be held to this regard as well.
Probably the game that has immersed me the most this year so far has been Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Even though it isn’t out yet, the beta gives a good sense of a chaotic battlefield with buildings blowing up next to you and bullets whizzing by your head. The sound design in the game is the most authentic to a real battlefield that I have ever heard.
A great number of things contribute to the atmosphere and immersion of a game, and one series that probably has them all is Thief. It incorporated a 1st person perspective, that put you right into Garrett’s sneaky shoes, huge gloomy environments to get lost in, a decent and fairly original story and what’s likely to be the most important: a huge emphasis on sound. Every noise you made would count. Footsteps on stone halls, arrows fired, objects thrown.
You’d often find yourself standing still, listening for the guards footsteps, coughs and constant rants about their lives, as you tried to sneak by (often being scared s***-less by the occurring supernatural). Throw in the excellent voice acting for Garrett (by Stephen Russel) and the oh-so-gratifying chime you’d hear every time something valuable was stolen and you have a masterpiece.
You just know a game is immersive when it makes you grab your headphones and play it in the dark.
I think it takes a good mixture of interesting characters, setting, plot, and sound/graphics to create a truly immersive experience. And with this in mind, I would have to say that Half-Life 2 is the best example of a truly immersive game.
The characters/races you meet are so interesting and have their own charm and idiosyncrasies. Your sidekick Alyx Vance, Dog, the “bald with glasses” archetype Dr. Kleiner, the enigmatic G-Man, and the Combine puppet, Dr. Breen, and of course the iconic Gordon Freeman.
This is where I think the characters and setting converge. All of these people fill this dystopian, futuristic Earth with life and hope. The human characters actually act in a familiar way, shown by visible depression when a mate dies, or the visible uplifting of spirits when they see you, Gordon Freeman, arrive to help them fight off the next attack.
Now, for the plot. I don’t want to give anything away for anyone, so I’ll just mention the way in which the story is told in Half-Life 2. All Half-Life games don’t have cutscenes. So, the story is divulged through scripted dialogue, but does not change the first-person perspective during these sequences. In my opinion, this was a genius move by Valve. It just makes you feel so much more involved in what’s going on. Instead of seeing a zoomed-out panoramic view of the action, you’re seeing it all through the eyes of Gordon, thus giving you the perception of actually experiencing events instead of being some omni-present spectator.
Now onto the sound and graphics. This games looks absolutely BEAUTIFUL, with some amazing atmospheric sounds. Even compared to today’s new games, the graphics still hold up. The amount of detail and diversity shown in the environments is simply astounding, and a real pleasure to play and explore. From the headcrabs’ disturbing zombie appearance and their horrifying cries and shrieks, to the Combine Civil Protection’s gas masks and storm-trooper-like voice. Even the weapons have a very nice feel to them, and the various sounds they make when firing is just right – especially on a nice stereo.
Overall, Half-Life 2 is a memorable gaming experience that places right in the middle of human resistance, and never lets go. Anyone who hasn’t played this game, well, what are you waiting for?
My battle Cry goes out to Final Fantasy 7. I think this game had a great power to just capture you and immerse you in that game.
When you first start the game it goes into a cinematic of the first City, Midgar. All you see is just this huge urban city just full of power plants and machinary. So for the first few hours in that game you only experience Midgar and its various sectors and how all the citizens are treated and living.
You visit the various slums full of scrap metal homes and various odd shops and places.Then you visit the Shinra building and just look at it in awe how it just erects from the city and how clean and professional it looks.
Then you come to find out that there is a vast world full of different towns and people that you get to visit.Each town having its own theme such as the Old Style japanese style town of Wutai, A Old medieval european style of Kalm town and the town of Costa Del Sol a Beach Vacation Spot.
Not to mention the best town of them all that should somehow be placed in every game ever, The Gold Saucer, the mini game heaven that you could alone spend a few hours there just playing all the games.
Also the plot of this game and how it was just weaved into each setting and almost everyone in the game seemed effected by something in the plot.
Also how could i not mention how every town seemed to have the perfect music in the background that just gave you a feel and mood of the town and the citizens that lived there.
All the different characters the main ones and the stand alone npcs and they just matched the setting and plot so well like with some just being just a normal person that you could identify with to crazy villians such has Hojo and how you could just imagine how evil and creepy his laugh just sounded everytime his head bobbed up and down.
There is a reason why FF7 is seen has one of the best games of all time. I know i didnt touch on all the aspects but that would just take way to long to say how incredible this game was and the way it just took you and never let go.
My battle cry goes to the Monster Hunter series.
I know it might seem a bit strange to some people to say a game that has no real story or “emotional” character to speak of but I think that’s the main reason why I feel I can get so immersed in the game when I am playing.
The basic idea of the game is quite simple, you are a new hunter and you must accept and fulfill contracts in order to progress. As you do these contracts you gain more status and can accept higher level contracts. In order to fulfill said contracts you must keep yourself supplied which you do by collecting natural found material, killing creatures and carving the body, and buying from the shops.
As for the character, you are allowed to customize your own character. There are plenty options available and combined with the large selection weaponry (with each weapon being completely different from each other in both stats and play style) allow to add your own personal touch to the hunter. You have no leveling up of health or stats and such, that is purely dictated by your Armor and your weapon, which must be created and upgraded from the materials you collect via contracts (after all you are just a normal person so it would be foolhardy to fight powerful creatures wearing a T-shirt and shorts.) Then you have the things happening to you outside the safety of the village, including loss of health from damage, stamina from hunger, and the effects of intense heat and cold. You must be sure to bring the items the help or collect them if they are available and know where to find them. All of this makes it feel much more real and you may find yourself more attached to the character as they become an extension of yourself.
The game is also not afraid to challenge you, you are often found with a hunt that gets really hard and you are forced to change to/ create a new weapon and/or armor or try a new strategy. I got to say that when I took down my first Wyvern I felt a large sense of accomplishment, and it is largely due to the fact that it was entirely from my own effort. I created from scratch the weapon that took it down, I created my armor and made sure it had the right defensive abilities to help me the mostly in this fight. I developed the stratagy, I made sure I was carrying all the materials necessary to keep myself alive, hell; I even cooked the meat that kept my stamina up. It’s because of this that when I am in the middle of a quest and see the I have 10 minutes left when I have been locked in combat with my target for 40 minutes that I am so surprised that it has really been that long, it is quite easy to lose yourself in the game.
I would also like to give props to the immersion in portal for simmilar reasons, there really is bueaty in simplicity of the consept in some games.
My battlecry goes out Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, a PC game that succeeded in creating just the exact atmosphere and a really deep sense of immersion.
A whole new and fresh take on the vampire mythology without the need to recur to the generic BS we see over and over again.
The combat system had its flaws sure, but the atmosphere was there a the deep RPG experience too.
My battle cry goes out along with what Amp21 said about Final Fantasy 7, but I think Final Fantasy 9 did an even better job with the immersion. I think Nobuo Uematsu created a gaming masterpiece with the music of FF9. In an interview with Famitsu Nobuo was asked about how many tracks he made for the soundtrack and it was a whopping 160!!!! When asked why he made up so many he said it was mainly because he was allowed to roam free with this title, just doing his own stuff. The music was the key in bringing the fantasy to life with FF9.
The music brought it alive, but the character design was flawless, Vivi?
And just like always, FF9 didn’t disappoint in visuals. The opening FMV for 9 blew me away when I saw it.
The mini games were another aspect that the game did to near perfection. There was the card game, chocobo hot&cold, and even the small things like the jump-roping and the unlockable blackjack. With all these extras the game made you sink in and stay in that seat all day.
I was only able to touch on some of the details of FF9 and there are hundreds more ways that the game brought the fantasy to life for me.
Edit: On a side note, the poll should allow for 2 answers, Characters and Music tie for me.
My mbc of the week goes out to Fallout 3!
To explore the ruins of Washington was a blast (not to mention the DLC packages) you never know what to encounter in the wastes. The ticking of your Geiger counter, the music and the wind blowing through the wastes sent chills down my spine.
My battlecry goes out to Silent hill. Silent hill is the scariest game I’ve ever played, its scary because it relies on its atmosphere to scare you instead of things that jump out to surprise you. The atmosphere itself is all in the setting, in the open town you can’t see anything in front of you because of the fog but you know there might be something there because your radio emits static. The scariest part of Silent hill by far is the otherworld where everything has this dirty feel thats hard to describe but extremely scary you have to play to know what I’m talking about.
I think Bioshock by far has the best atmosphere any game has ever created. I have never once before had a gaming experience quite like the first time that I set foot in the the lighthouse at the beginning of the game and looked up to see the sign “No Gods or Kings. Only man”. And as I kept looking around I saw the beautiful architecture on the walls and was pleasantly surprised to find out that the entire game was like this and was all in the underwater city of Rapture.
it’s been mentioned on EBA this week already but SotC has a great atmosphere, i found it truely gripping. conversly to what has been suggested for strong atmosphere above, i think it’s strength was that it kept things simple.
I freakin LOVE Metal Gear, Brent: blow me, but it does get so convoluted that it lets reality creep back in with all the WTF moments.
SotC is like when you read a book and your imagination makes the most of it. without overly contrived characters and plot, not having to worry about a crappy script and poor VA, SotC let’s you project some of your own personality on to the characters and it makes for an easy buy-in to the game. the scale and design are second to none as well which helps, but the fact it doesn’t force itself on the player allows you to fall in to it rather than struggling to pull you in.
it also manages to tell a story and show the character grow without a patronising and poorly delivered script. now that’s good story telling!
personally i think SotC has more depth than almost every other game released since. not to say there haven’t been genuinely great games in that time, but if i was to use any game as an example of why gaming is great and a thoroughly valid art form, it would be SotC.
either that or Half-Life for similar reasons, Freeman’s reactions are actualy your reactions.
My Battlecry goes out to Mario:
For me personally the Mario Franchise and especially the old NES and SNES games are the most atmospheric in existence. The fact that you can play these games for hours and over and over again is somewhat related to their atmosphere. Sure they don’t have a great setting and they won’t let you get inside the character or something like that. But for me it’s a special sort of atmosphere more intense then any else. I really can’t explain it like I want to but i think it’s something where childhood memories and great gameplay come together. Even in the newer Mario games like galaxies or the new 2D sidescroller this magic is still present. Maybe I miss the original topic a bit but I think the colorfull worlds of Mario are places that can really draw into the experience and you feel related to that plumber. Not because a deep story but because of likeable characterdesign and nostalgia…
My Battle Cry gos to Mass Effect
For me personally there is no beating Mass Effect in anything
As far as Sci-Fi, and shooter goes, it has its special touch on it with a movie style storytelling that keeps you sooooo hooked til the end!
That franchise for me does it. there is no mistaking the feel of mass effect, not just another shooter, and not just another rpg.. its something else.. something that pretty damn close perfects it.. something memorable and to hold on to and replay over and over and over like a drug!
DK WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE JAMMIES ??? COMMANDER SHEPARD!!
My Battle Cry goes out to Metroid Prime. The Metroid series is known for giving the player a sense of immersion and desolation but Prime really drove it home. With a massive world to explore and playing from a very personal first-person view the game revolutionized immersion by the way your visor interacted with the invironment. It would steam in hot climents, frost in cold ones, and be distorted when hit by electrical attacks. All of this carried into Metroid Prime 2&3 by creating an even bigger world in MP2 or using actually good motion controls in MP3. Metroid Prime set the bar for other games focusing on immersive environments and hopefully Other M will take notes.
[...] for the new week. Now, if you haven’t seen this week’s topic yet you can do so right here, but for those of you ALREADY playing along at home, let’s get on with the discussion about [...]
My member battle cry goes out to Super Metroid. While the original Metroid and Metroid II use atmosphere to distinguish themselves from other games of their time, Super Metroid is the first to use its atmosphere as a means of telling a great story all within the context of its gameplay. This is perfectly represented during Samus’s investigation of the space colony at the beginning. All during gameplay, we see the lights are out, the scientists are dead and the baby metroid is missing. By combining these visual elements, the moody soundscape, the surprise attack from Ridley shortly after and the pulse thumping music that kicks in, we the gamers immediately feel like we are participating in the action and not merely watching it play out through elaborate cut scenes. Unlike most games that treat me like a casual participant in linear, prescripted sequences, Super Metroid is the first game that made me feel fully immersed in a world and its story from the perspective of the main character. I am Samus Aran and my actions truly determined whether she will fail or succeed on her quest.
Hmm, most immersive gameplay experience. Darn, I had the name at the tip of my tongue! Y’know, EVERYBODY either plays this game, played it, and will play it at some point. I mean, the game’s like the HARDEST one around; you’d have to spend days, months, hell some of us spend years grinding away on it. Don’t ask me for what, though: haven’t found a reason yet. This game is SO hard you don’t get Saves, Continues, and you only get ONE friggin’ try at it. Which means there’s only one Game Over, despite what rumour sites claim.
Augh! It’s KILLING me! What was that game’s name…
Strife?
Mife?
Lies?
L……
I’d like to shoot a battle cry to Blizzard’s Diablo. If there was ever a game that owed much of it’s massive success to its’ atmosphere, it would be the original Diablo. Its’ gameplay was really as simple as could possibly be: basically a never-ending clickathon. It featured a handful of NPC’s that allowed virtually no interaction. Even the story was not very deep or complex at all.
However, the atmosphere would just grab you from the very moment you step foot in Tristram and not let go long after you leave. Every single element that makes up a great atmosphere came together just perfectly: from the amazing music, to the art style, to the voice acting, to the fantastic writing.
Everything about the game just oozed a dark and intimate feel that I could never get enough of. In fact, it was the very first game that made me fantasize about a game-based movie. Blizzard listening?
My Battle Cry goes out to Psychonauts and all of Tim Shaffer’s games for the best atmosphere. It’s not always about the saddest story, or darkest hallways, the most important thing is that your world is like no other. All of Tim’s games are like that, they make the most odd and crazy worlds from the Dia del Muertos (Day of the Dead) inspired Grim Fandango, to the Metal world of Brutal Legend, I never imagined games could be this creative until I started playing his games. Psychonauts in particular is borderline undiscribable, and yet it works.
And let’s not forget the PUNS!!! in a Tim Shaffer game, if you find a Speed Demon he is litterally a speedy demon, if you find a Busy Bee it’s a fucking Honey Bee doing manual labor! Little details like that beat high end graphics any day when it comes to atmosphere.
My Epic Battle Cry for this week takes us all the way back to 1994 for a somewhat obscure game on an equally obscure system. It goes out to Alien vs Predator for the Atari Jaguar. I have not played Alone in the Dark, but this is the earliest game that I can think of to get the horror atmosphere right, and it gets it VERY right. This hits the nail on the head for a horror atmosphere long before both Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
Alien vs Predator is an amazing game, even today. It’s atmosphere holds up simply because it did the most important thing right. It’s sound design is excellent. The game moved away from video game tradition by having no background music at all. There is music in the title screen, and that’s it. When you are playing the game, the only sounds you here is the infinite quiet on the derelict space ship where something has, quite obviously, gone horribly wrong. All you hear, a lot of the time, is the hum of the engines. The entire space ship feels just a little too quiet until you hear the familiar screech of the Xenomorph, which sends you straight into a panic.
By today’s standards, I suppose the game would be considered repetitive. A whole lot of the space ship looks very similar. This game did a lot of things right, however. The sound design is just one of them. It had some minor instances of voice acting. Having any voice work in 1994 was still a very big deal. It was cool to hear the Marine talk. The 2D sprites in the game were also top notch. They still look pretty damned good today. That says a lot. The Predator had all 3 vision modes, which was just awesome for the time. IT was, certainly, unexpected. All 3 of them were useful as well.
This is a game that many people missed out on, simply because it was on a system that no one owned. That is sad though because anyone that has actually played the game will probably agree with me in saying that it was, easily, the best game on the system, and it presented a fantastic FPS in 1994 that wasn’t just a ‘Doom clone.’ From the graphics to the sound to the simple fact that it let you select from 3 very different characters to play as, each with their own unique story, it was several steps above anything else at the time.
My Epic Battle Cry goes out to System Shock 2. Bioshock would not have been the atmospheric game it was if irrational games hadn’t first cut it’s teeth with this game. While not a widely know game to the average gamer, System Shock 2 was a sci-fi action rpg that placed you on a derelict space ship overrun with an infection that turned the crew into quasi-zombie creatures. The game had an incredible sense of dread that was complimented by your enemies shouts for you to put them out of their misery. You also felt very alone as your only contact in the game was with an artificial intelligence named SHODAN. The game was light-years ahead of it’s time and i believe has influenced games ranging from Bioshock, to Dead Space, to even fallout 3.
My battle cry goes out to the Silent Hill series never have i been scared to pick up a game and not wanting to play it again, with a game like this it felt like a true survival horror as you have limited ammo and only a radio to warn you of any danger. Like all horror products it really shines when the lights are off and you’re alone in the house with no one to hear your screams.
There one part in the series above the rest which has haunted me for the rest of my life is in the 2nd game where you are going through the apartment building and can only hear your footsteps, as there is very little music in the game, which really draws you into suspense and waiting for something to jump but only when you’re off guard. For me this is the game that captures the essence and atmosphere of a good horror that will make you do more then shit yourself.
It’s been mentioned once already in the last few weeks, but my battle cry goes out to a game that did not only have a very good story and really nice visuals, but a groundbreaking merge of the RPG and FPS genres as well as, what I consider to be one of the most important parts of any game; the music.
I am of course talking about Deus Ex.
It’s been 10 years since it was released, but I still hold it to be one of the absolute best games ever released and one it’s extremely easy to just get sucked in and actually become JC Denton, and feel his need to help his brother and be dismayed by the betrayal of his comrades in his quest for truth.
This game was as linear as they come, until the very last level, but it still feels like it’s you who are making the story and not the story draggin you along. That is something most game developers still havn’t learned.
And I still get goosebumps whenever I pop on the soundtrack..
My Battlecry goes out to the whole Survival/Horror genre. Dead Space, Silent Hill, all Resident Evil Games before the more kinda action focused RE 5 and last but not least the Alone in the Dark Games. Some Shooter did also a good job in bringing the player into a creepy expirience like Bioshock and F.E.A.R.
As a whole, games which made me think twice before going on or made me fear for my virtual life are in my opinion the most immersive/atmospheric ones, but clearly, i am more the Survival/Horror genre type.
For me to have a immersive gaming experience the Setting has to be Dark & creepy, the Story must be complex with twists (like you think you know who the bad guy is but then you don´t … i love that) of course the soundtrack must fit the Setting and some shock-effects are also nice to raise the heartbeat per second.
If i had to pick one i would say Silent Hill like Thoraxe and DukeNukemForever said before me. You are right Guy´s this game was the scariest i have ever played. The crackling sound when enemy´s are nearby so you know something is there but u cant spot it through the Fog, just awesome.
So, let’s see. I’m somewhat of an atmosphere junkie when it comes to games. So i feel it’s importaint to mention, that the actual season of the year has a role in how the game will affect you. Being that it’s winter and all, i’m going to give out my BattleCry to the defining winter-game when it comes to atmosphere.
The one i’m talking about is the first game in the Max Payne series released in 2001. Playing this game is purely amazing, especially during the winter with the blizzards raging on both inside the game and outside the window. With only a few hours of sun during the day, the dark melancholic atmosphere of the game’s “noir” touch completely eats you up. To add up, the inner monologue of the main character Max and how his character is portrayes drags you further into his situation and he himself as a person.
It’s maybe just me, but the dark, cold melancholic and partly norse mythos inspired city of “Noir York City” tells a story like few others can. I’ve spoken to many others about the city itself, and it’s almost as alive as the characters themselves. It renders a usually crowded metropolis of mankind an unforgiving empty landscape engulfed by snow and cold. It sort of reflects on the personality of the main character, as it also adds up to the overall mood and pace of the game.
Of course, the characters add up to the experience with an awesome set of voice actors, in particular the voice of Max who even succeeds to bring some of the “noir” feeling into his voice. And i have to say, the sequences of “graphic novel” style really sets the mood for some reason. The artwork fits like a glove together with the game’s style overall.
On conclusion of the setting, it really sucks you in.
Not to forget, just adding a few lines about the amazing graphics who really were state of the art back in the days with the MAX-FX engine. And as it might sound, it helped putting on the overall atmosphere as well. You know, i love FFVII as much as any bloke, but it’s kind of a challange to get emotionally upset when Aeris dies, being that she looks like 6 enlarged pixels.
Maybe this is some kind of “winter” thing that mainly applies to northern-europeans. Or that i have to suck up to my neighbour Finland (where the game comes from).
But heed my advice, if you haven’t played Max Payne during the freezing winter with snow falling outside, you’ve missed one of the most atmospheric experiences possible in games.
Plus, the “heavy” theme played on the piano is like almost as awesome as baconnaise.
My Battle Cry goes to Resident Evil. When I first played this game as a teen, it totally changed the way I look at games. For one you really didnt see alot of horror games. The parts with the dogs crashing threw the windows…and Ken from Bravo team meeting his demise, those are gaming moments ill never forget. The Atmosphere was incredible…music, monsters, the layout of the levels all were amazing for the time. This game really made you fear what is coming around the next corner. Even though the later sequels got more “action movie-ish”, they still make you fear whats gonna happen next. Thats my battle cry
Great Work Guys!
Honestly, I consider S.T.A.L.K.E.R one of, if not the most atmospheric game franchise of all time (at least in my opinion).
It may not be an entirely original setting but it does pull of the post apocolyptic setting extremely well but making you feel as though you are the only person around for miles and miles until you find a near by settlement with a few people in it.
Everytime I play S.T.A.L.K.E.R I get sucked in to its setting and can’t stop playing because it is believable and despite all its faults, it really does succeed at making you feel part of the disaster that occured at Chernobyl and that is why I think it is the most atmospheric game thus far (and plus i’m a huge S.T.A.L.K.E.R fanboy)
I can list a lot of games that I think has great atmosphere but most of them has already been “battlecryed” about. So instead my Battlecry goes out to indie game developers that can create really atmospheric games with very small measures.
The game “Small Worlds” created by David Shute is a pixelated game with a three pixels high main character and five small worlds to explore. Despite the game being only 30 minutes long and very minimalistic i still think the game delivers an amazing atmospheric experience.
“Don’t Look Back” created by Terry Cavanagh is another minimalistic game with a melancholic atmosphere and (with some imagination) a gripping story.
Amon26 is the developer behind the two games ”Au Sable” and ”All Of Our Friends Are Dead ”. both games has a similar depressing atmosphere and scary grafics.
These are the games that I first thought about when I heard this weeks topic, but i know that there are a lot of other indie games with good atmosphere. So for those of you that like games with atmosphere check out the indie scene.
I think that Kings field 2 for the Playstation 1 is the most ATMOSPHERIC game of all time. becuase of the slow movments and the huge map that takes hours just to walk through.
and narrow caves and big monsters that slowly comes at you. and the soundtrack is so atmospheric. and the mystic feel in the world.
I have to give most atmospheric to the Silent Hill series, at the time the first one was released the survival horror genre was more or less about scare factor (enemy jumping from windows or being behind a corner where you can’t see thanks to lack of camera angle control). Silent Hill provided a second direction the genre could branch into by not focusing so much on things jumping out at you but by creating a creepy unsettling environment which left the player feeling very isolated and vulnerable. It also took the type of enemy you encountered away from the traditional more culturally accepted zombie and introduced the player to a much more psychologically (and artistically) twisted selection of foe that loosely resembled some sort of symbolic retribution or a deep seeded fear within key characters in the story…a style of enemy design that has been mirrored in games like The Suffering and to a lesser degree Dante’s Inferno. Silent Hill in my mind was an evolution in the survival horror genre which was surrounded almost entirely around atmosphere. I don’t think you can look past the more traditional survival horror games and that they still are every bit as relevant in the genre as a less traditional approach. I also feel you have to take your hat off to Konami for doing something different at a time when it would have been so easy for them to shell out a carbon copy of what had already proven successful and call it a day.
I find that Persona 4 had one of the best atmospheres of almost any game I played. It sucked you right into it’s bizzare world, a mixture of normal school and teen life and a nuts tv world and dark detective setting. Everytime you watched the tv as it rained you where wondering who would be next and hoping you’d get em to safety before they ended up dangling from a light post.
This game proves the atmosphere can be achieved even without HD graphics and full motion cutscenes.
My epic battle cry goes out to Resident Evil 2. When it comes to atmosphere, RE 2 surely delivers. Sure, the voice acting is just as comedic as the last game, but anybody can see past and witness the true beauty of it: sense of no hope. Signs of struggle in city streets ends with utter destruction and defeat. Corpses found in unlikely place showing how people go to survive and escape. Even the destruction of the RCPD station shows signs of no hope when you the people sworn to protect fails to do so.
But the biggest sign of atmosphere was the music. Whether it was the escaping the underground lab or the safety of a save rooms, each track played delivered a sense of atmosphere. I love the soundtrack so much as go as far listening to it while playing Left 4 Dead.
My battle-cry goes to gothic, a fairly unknown game and franchise, at least in the US. No other RPG has ever shown the rising of a person in a sandbox environment like this one. Like many others it is starting you off with literary nothing but clothes, making you kiss everybody´s ass, end ending you up being able to kill everybody, more like a god then a person. And it´s not like in Oblivion, when although you´re the king at the end, no one is really seeing you as one.
This game makes you care, not only about your character, but about the fortune of all th other people.
At this point I also would like to honor all the underrated games, which have been he topics of so many discussions with friends, but never had success with the gaming crowd.
I’d really like to be able to pick a series, as there are a lot of atmospheric games out there such as the Thief series, “old” Fallout, Zork and so on. But if I were to pick, I’d say.. Anachronox, System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Omikron Nomad Soul, just for the feeling they entail, tech/cyberpunkish and the fact that those types of games are nonexistent these days… I’d really like to see more games with that attention to detail but as lately the only companies beeing able to create such vast and immersive worlds seem to be blizzard or bioware and them having their hands full… eh..
My battle cry goes out to Bioware. The team at Bioware can create immersion in atmosphere from any point of view. The best example would have to be Knights of the Old Republic.
In that game Bioware took an established franchise and gave gamers a winner. They created a full scope game and characters that had great personalities, taht you grew to love and/or hate them. Also Bioware created an atmosphere by making KOTOR play like your own adventure. KOTOR gave you the opportunity to make your own choices and to shape the universe. Without KOTOR we would not have the immersion we get from the Mass Effect franchise.
My battle cry go’s out to dead space. it really immersed me beculse with the atmosphere of a broken down ship and the very idea that when turn the very next corner a necromorph is gonna jump out and tear your face off is thrilling and out right scary when i first played it in the dark and with surround sound i nearly sh*t my pants i’ll tell ya that.
My battle cry goes out to Rez for the PS2. That game placed an unprecedented amount of work into creating a trippy, psychedelic atmosphere that was as fun to play through as it was to stare at. The element that really set it apart from other games of the time, though, was the music. The way every attack, action, and combo went along with the beat created a level of immersion that you just couldn’t help but be sucked in by. It may not have been that long of a game, but I guarantee that it’s one that you didn’t put down until the end.
The most immersive and atmoshperic game that I played is Half-Life 2.
First of all, this game had great graphics when it came out and they still hold up pretty well by today’s standards ; those realistic looking zombie headcrab models only help the immersivity aspect of the game. And that first-person perspective really puts you in Gordon Freeman’s shoes and in the middle of the fight making you care for the game’s outcome.
The second aspect of that game that makes it so unique and unforgettable is the incredible sound design. I think that everyone who played the game was crapping themselves after going through Ravenholm and I still consider that to be the scariest place depicted in a videogame.
Who can forget those terrible growling noises made by the zombies? I still hear those when I go to sleep and I haven’t played that game for about two or three years… damn scary.
In the end, I believe that everyone should give this game at least one play-through because it’s so friggin amazing and there’s no FPS like it.
And with this occasion: WTF’s up with Valve? Where’s HL2:Episode Three ?!
P.S. : please don’t make fun of my username.
I don’t own a wii and never will.
It’s something that I came up with 4 years ago when I actually thought that the wii is a great console.
I would have to say that Metroid Prime (series) has one of the most unique atmospheres in any game, the complete prime series is undoubtedly one of the best in gaming ,that feeling of desolation and loneliness only truly achieve in those games, when you play you feel a peaceful silence that although you’re not afraid always puts you on hold, it is very difficult for me to describe , I would say that games do not always need tremendous graphics to create a world that feels alive provided that you have a unique style and an immersive atmosphere
My battle cry goes out to Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem on the Gamecube.
Dennis Dyack and Silicon Knights delivered on the promise (what a suprise!) of a wholly immersive game that just oozed atmosphere and mood. From an epic storyline spanning numerous characters and eras to the inclusion of a ‘sanity meter’ the game took the dark and forboading mood conveyed in the game and caused it to seep into the gamer’s life.
From the TV being ‘muted’, having ‘bugs’ crawl down the screen or getting a warning that your game was erased ‘Eternal Darkness’ broke the forth wall in a way rarely seen in gaming.
There are numerous games that I am compelled to play through because I am enjoying them, but Eternal Darkness was the only one I can think of where my motivation for finishing was to gain some internal solace and closure.
My battle cry goes out to Demon’s Souls.
The most atmospheric and immersive game I have played in a long time has to be Demon’s Souls. While there are games such as Bioshock, Mass Effect (1&2), or even the Half Life series where the atmosphere is more obvious and easier to see the way the atmosphere was integrated in Demon’s Souls was much more subtle and seamless. Yeah the story was wasn’t really there in Demon’s Souls, but when I was in the valley of defilement I actually felt dirty, or when I was in the tower of latria I felt this extremely oppressing loneliness. This is the first video game that has made me phsycially feel what I saw on screen and for that Demon’s Souls is easily the most immersive and atmospheric games I have ever played.
My battle cry goes out to the Aliens vs Predator franshie.
The story & atmosephere is just great and its been like 20years sence the first time we layed eyes on one of these monsters and they still coming back ripping our faces off. Iam realy exited for the new one coming soon and been playing the AvP demo alot and its great. 1999´s AvP was also great and i loved that game, one of the best games ever and i hope this new one keep the same standard. And the alien3 on snes was awsome to, check that out if you missed it. AvP made a snes game to i think, when you play as a predator and in 2-D just beat the shit out of aliens, awsome. when its come to atmosephere everybody nows the details, dark,slime elephant-sounds making aliens with blood for acid and the wet & scared marine with beep-beep sound for radar, and the teeth grinding predator, what can top that? the atmosephere this guys universe bring is the best, i loved these guys sence i was just i child and they still scares the living shit out of me 20 years later.
I forgot all about STALKER (just visualize the dots). The setting had been done a million times before but never with that atmosphere.
It actually made me feel like I was there and the world felt real. Agreed 100%.
My battle cry goes out to the game Condemned: Criminal Origins for the 360.
I rarely am frightened by video games but holy balls is Condemned scary. The main reason for this fear comes from the atmosphere created within the game. Playing this game was a chore for me simply because on one hand I didn’t want to know what twisted and shocking event was around the next corner, but on the other hand, I was counting down the seconds to when it would happen.
One of the best parts of the horror in the game comes from its lack of cheap scares (coincidentally the biggest problem with the film industry is relying to heavily on these “jump scenes”). Aside from a bird flying into a window at the beginning of the game, all the frightning things happen in the environment or in the way the enemy ai reacts to the player, which leaves you with a constant feeling of dread through out the entire game.
Condemned is really one of those games that are begging to be played in the dark with headphones on. Mannequins and a cut off arm hanging in a gym are some of the biggest scares in the game, but the entire game as a whole is beyond great, due much in part to its atmosphere.
Definetly S.T.A.L.K.E.R, maybe it has some issues, maybe it had allot of bugs at start, but the fact that it is based on a real place is superbly atmospheric. The devs recreated the landscapes of Chernobyl (after the incident) flawlessly, you lonely wander a deserted place something where people acctualy used to live and you feel that in the game too, the claustrophobic feeling of wandering alone, the lonely stalkers sitting around the fireplaces playing guitars, joking about the zone in human “populated” camps/citys, the feeling of being inside while it rains outside and actually feeling warm. Its too awesome to describe with words. Just try to play the newest Call of Pripyat when the sun goes down and you only see 3 feet in front with your flashlight and hear mutated dogs howl in the distance, every single wind sound or accidently stepping in a puddle makes me jump in my chair. Scary as hell and as atmospheric as video games can get, STALKER franchise is THE MOST ATMOSPHERIC franchise of all time, no doubt.
p.s. Im sorry if I misspelled something, english is not my main language
My battlecry goes to S.T.A.L.K.E.R francise. In this day of gameing must fps has a pretty boring atmospheric ( Call of duty)But in 2007 a game callade Stalker : shadow of chernobly came from the greatness that is GSC Game World ( also the makers of Cossacks) And showed us that other games then Half-life and bioshock could have great atmosheric. i still remember the first time i stept out of the bunker at the little shithole of a village and just looked around. There were soldiers on patrol, bandits sneaking around, blind dogs eating on a fresh corpse of some unlucky basterd and some big mutant werehog walking in the woods. And this was just the first thing i sawed. When you are looking at cars, pipes and houses you can see they are decreasening in qulatiy. The cars and the pipes are rustig, the house is starting to fall over and you get a sense that the natur is taking back it place.
My battle cry goes out to a game that not many would consider to be on this type of list. When people ask about immersion in a game, I could never relate because I have such a firm grip on reality when playing. However, I was recently granted immersion into a universe that has forever change my views on the subject. The game I’m talking about is none other than Modern Warfare 2.
Now just wait a second, I’m not saying this as a fanboy. In fact, I didn’t even buy the game myself. However, when I got to the level Whiskey Hotel *upcoming spoilers* I was blown away. As you run up the White House and hear “Hammerdown” over the radio, I didn’t really care and had no idea what they were talking about. It’s just a game, right? Whatever it is I would survive. However, by the time I have 2 minutes to get to the top, I suddenly realized what it meant. At that very moment I felt like I was in the game’s universe. I had nothing on my mind except to get to the top and pop the green flares. It became absolutely essential to me. By the time I did it I sat back, realized it was just a game, and waited for the next loading screen thinking “What just happened?”, while my heart raced and adrenaline rushed.
To me, when THAT happens you KNOW it’s immersion. When you can feel like you’re in the game and part of the struggle, not just influencing it, you have the most amazing experience imaginable (game-wise).
My battle cry goes out to Super Metroid for Super Nintendo.
This is single handedly one of the best games ever made and contains an atmosphere which I got lost in each and every time I play it. It has an amazing story, one of the greatest game heroes of all time in Samus Aran, some of the best music to ever appear in video games today, and stunning visuals that blew away the competition at that time. Also the game offered some defining elements that are prevelant in todays industry and allow the gamer to be fully immersed in the atmosphere.
It offered an overall map of the entire area which showed the player how massive the game is. It also allowed players to re-enter areas that had previously been to search for powerups and upgrades. Also featured the forever talked about end game where you have to escape the station before it explodes.
I can remember playing for hours straight being lost in Super Metroid looking for powerups and upgrades until I was literally falling asleep to the music in the game. Nothing has lived up to this game for me since.
Every year I play through it at least three or four times and it has not lost its flavour and ability to immerse me in the world of Samus Aran, Ridley, and Mother Brain.
My Epic Battle Cry goes out to one of the best first-person shooters of all time, Black.
The story didn’t have a lot of substance but the graphics and particles were stunning at the time, the movie-like music was so good it was frightening at times and it only took an enemy rocket launcher for you to freak out and lose focus.
Immersion came in a nice hot cup of adrenaline and keeping it short and simple, Black is the most immersive game of all in my book.
My Battle Cry for most immersive and atmospheric goes out to a seemingly overlooked shooter in the Star Wars universe, Star Wars: Republic Commando.
The game made you feel as if you truly were part of a squad. You could issue orders, heal them, and they could even bring you back from death. All of this was done extremely well that it felt very natural.
Not only does the game make you feel like you are a leader of a squad of Republic Commandos but it makes you feel like you are in the Star Wars universe. The sounds ranging from the blasters to ships flying overhead it made you feel like you were there.
No other game has pulled me in so well into the Star Wars universe. Of course then they had to destroy with quite possibly one of the worst the endings…..
My Battle Cry goes out to “Star Wars: Republic Commando” because it was one of the only star wars games out there aimed at a mature crowd and didn’t even have a single lightsaber in it. This is good because it shows that star wars is good for other reasons other then jedi. Your role in RC is that of “Boss” who is the leader of a 4 man Commando Squad known as “Delta”. What made this games atmosphere awsome is because it was a dark and very gritty version of star wars that a lot of people who only know of the movies or other video games has never seen. The soundtrack as awsome and it really played well with the gameplay as well as the emotional connections you made with the characters throughout the game(for anyone who played it they might know what I mean). One thing that surprized me is that it didn’t sell very well(personally I think it didn’t because it had no jedi)
but it was good enough to produce a novel series written by Karen Travis who is a fairly well known author of star wars stuff among other things. I loved the game so much that it actully inspired me to go read the books(which I enjoyed as well). Some recent events involving Lucas stepping over the “non-canon” expanded universe made the author stop writing the books because it was screwed with all her older work(which really sucks btw).
My Battlecry goes out to the Original Metroid Prime on the Nintendo GameCube. It had amazing atmosphere. Each world had its unique effects on the HUD; Rain drops tapping, steam from pipes causing your visor to fog, sound being muffled when underwater and many more emmersive effects. Even eatch weapon had a cool effect, while most games had a simple weapon switch, Samus’s cannon shot many things and had different animations when changing power and different animation for each weapon fired. Seing Samus’ reflection on the visor because of a blast near your helmet was absolutely amazing for its time, Samus’ Hud felt like it had its own depth and atmosphere at times. The entire games atmosphere was multiplied by the ammount of visors you had, that says a lot.
Who could forget its amazing levels and lonely yet immersive music. It was one of the first FPS games to have native creatures, whether they were harmful or not, unique to every world.
It ran the gammut of level design; Rain, Lava, underwater, ruins, mechanical, snow (Riddly’s shadow was awesome!), Phazon “mines”, and im sure im missing more… The Metroid Prime level had so much atmospheric immersion that it could compete with any game of this generation…. Just remember the Phazon Blast at the final bosss fight… E.P.I.C.!
Hi. I’m from Latvia so my english is bad. My Battle Cry for most immersive and atmospheric goes out to S.T.A.L.K.E.R francise. It have 3 games. And i have every one of them. Even my 48 year old dad is playing that game. Atmosher in game is the best their is. So i think that is the best FPS game i ever know. At least this games have story non like MW2.
For my money one of the most atmospheric games would have to be Condemned 1 and 2 by Monolith and Sega. (particularly the first game Criminal Origins)
Those two games were positively dripping with atmosphere, the dark seedy visuals combined with the excellent sound effects an creepy score (not to mention scarcity of any ammunition) put you right in the middle of that story. I dare you to turn the lights off and the sound up and play that game by yourself and NOT fill your pants.
When you’re creeping through a run down abandoned hotel with nothing but a lead pipe and no bullets left and you hear some psychotic junkie’s footsteps pounding across the floor above you as he searches for you, there’s few games that can match that level of “holy shit”.
Everybody needs to play these two games.
My battle cry goes out to StarWars:Knights of the Old Republic. The game was a sleeper hit that blew millions of people away with it’s great D&D style RPG action and engrossing story. Despite all these promising aspects about the game the one that single handily brought me into the experience was the atmosphere of the game. The worlds, characters( alien and human) were all believable and as a Star Wars fan it was a dream come true. The game was also revolutionary in the sheer content of great voice work that was available, you could talk to just about every NPC in the game and all had amazing voice work to go along with it.
My Battle Cry goes out to atmosphere that the character Cloud helped shape in Final Fantasy 7 combined with the story and other elements of the game, it was an experience that games of our generation still strive for.
As the graphics where not quite as realistic as they are now games needed to rely on fun game play and enveloping storytelling. Cloud only speaks a few words during the course of the game, However this connects the player to the character much more then usual because it does not force ideals on you that you don’t believe, in the same token Cloud himself was a very well flushed out character with a back story and zero to hero tale, he was generally the leader and interesting (not just along for the ride like the main character in FF12). Many games have taken note of this I.E Mass effect although Bioware changed the formula by allowing Shepard to speak, YOU decide who he/she will be, not the game.
FF7 had enveloped us by not alienating the main character and the player. The atmosphere is masterfully fulfilled with one of the most remembered HOLY $(&# moments of all time, crescendoing to an epic finale that has set precedents for games to this day…. FFS even Square Enix is having a hard time getting it right again.
My EPIC! battle cry goes out to Super Mario 64. As far as immersion goes this was IT. The first time going through this game was an experience that has never been matched by any game since. It was the first 3-D game many had played, and with the new Analog Stick that was on the controller it was a huge jump in immersing the gamer in the game-world for the time. As far as atmosphere goes the first time you go to face bowser and hear that music play…just epic man.
My member battle cry goes out to Advent Rising on the original XBox. I know, I know, a lot of people didn’t either play this game, or just didn’t like it. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about controls and what not. Well, for me, I don’t know what it was, but the controls just clicked for me, and the intro to the game had me on the edge of my seat and literally gave me goosebumps. Due to the sights, sound and not to mention constant action, I felt like I was in the middle of a galactic war, and an important part of that universe.
I played that game beginning to end I was there. I was in that game. I was the last human and the key to intergalactic peace. To date, I have never been more emotionally connected to a situation, and the fact that the sequel will never happen breaks my heart. If you’ve never played it, you should try it, and if you did but gave up on it… sucks to be you, because you missed out.
My battle cry goes out to Splinter Cell:Chaos theory
The story was excellent and made you want to find out what happened next every step of the way.
It was made very easy to connect with the main protagonist, and you knew he was an asshole with a heart of gold kinda thing.
The enviroments were all believable and drew you into the expierence with all the dark corners making you feel at home.
The soundtrack was an eery mix of bass that got your heart going. The most immersed in a game I’ve been to date.
Resident Evil. The music, the old, creepy, dark mansion where in every corner death awaits.
I have finished that game countless times.
Too bad Capcom destroyed the franchise, but till Code Veronica, Resident Evil is one of the most imersive franchises i’ve played.
A lot of franchises spawned, following the success of Resident Evil, like Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, but Resident Evil was more “real”, is wasn’t fighting ghosts or the devil, but your friends, ordinary people, citizens. Resident Evil 2 went deeper on that, when you see the streets of Raccoon City, but the first one started something the i can only compare, on the level of atmosphere, with GTA 3.
My battle cry goes out to Fallout 3 as probably the most atmospheric/immersive game I’ve ever played.
There’s nothing like traveling the waste of D.C. listening to Pete the Butcher on Galaxy News Radio while wearing a pint sized slasher mask, and then running into a patrol of enclave fighting raiders who were attacking merchants that were being pestered by a crazy women dressed as a giant ant.
Then a death claw comes in and kills them all…then, finally sees YOU…lol
It’s one of the very few games that has an open world where every corner and under every rock you might find a vault filled with odorless crazy gas, a society of friendly cannibals, or a teddy bear protected by a giant mutant behemoth.
To summarize, when you have an open world game where you want to do nothing but explore every inch of it you know you’re playing a game made for the immersive/atmospheric experience.
It’s one of those games you can’t get enough of even after a babbling dis-functioning robot crosses your path and shoots your head off.
My BattleCry goes out to Dead Space. We’ve all played horror games in a spaceship before, that’s nothing new, why Dead Space get’s my attention for best atmosphere is for 2 reasons. The HUD, which is completely in game and futuristic. And because when you die, you see the main character get ripped to shreds. It’s too often in games where you’ll get hit by something and die of the same generic death animation. In Dead Space each enemy has a special way to kill you, and the main character’s desperate screams make the deaths all the more enjoyable. The game in itself is not scary at all, but watching a man get ripped in half or eaten slowly is down right terrifying.
my battle cry goes out to dead space, the stretch hallways with the possibility of something that is going to jump on you, the creatures on the walls.
it was a unique setting
Immersive games tend to be some of the most memorable experiences I’ve had in gaming, and I can say without a doubt, that although some RPGs and Adventure games have plenty of immersion, like Morrowind or Mass Effect, the horror genre dominates this field.
My battle cry goes out to the Penumbra series. I was between System Shock 2 and Bioshock but even though both of those series are incredibly immersive, Penumbra has an atmosphere I’ve never once felt in a game.
Most games, even the horror ones, you feel like you have more power than in real life. Sometimes it’s the power of choice, sometimes it’s a kick ass weapon, but penumbra strips all that away. The game has almost no interface and the physics engine it uses is fantastic. Although it can be tedious as all hell, there’s something interesting about trying to open up a drawer in a desk and actually having to make the motion with your mouse.
The game is frightening. Most of the time you are in the pitch black underground and your lantern has limited batteries. There are basically no weapons in the game and you are completely helpless. Should you stare into something scary your character might become paralyzed by fear. On top of that, there’s not much you can do in combat so often you find yourself running away, and let me tell you, when you got something that you cant see chasing you in the dark and you are in a panic, and you cant quite make the right mouse movement to open the door because you’re so anxious, then that’s pretty freakin scary.
The game instills a sense of helplessness that we might all truly feel in a situation like that, rather than being a hero or badass. When you play it in the middle of the night and you’re in those dark narrow halls and you hear a sound you don’t recognize echoing from what can only be described as “too close for comfort” then you might be afraid to look around the corner too.
My epic battle cry goes out to Metal Gear 4 and the Darkness for their immersion. What do the 2 have in common? Live action. At the start of mgs4 that intro was STUNNING. And it really immersed me straight away. In The Darkness, there were TVs that showed old movies and heavy metal clips. I had a mate over for a few drinks, we sat for well over 2 hours with The Darkness showing clip after clip of heavy metal. It was awesome. I can’t understand why more games don’t do that! Most use FMV’s.
I also agree that the survival horror games are the most immersive, and they HAVE to be to achieve their goal of scaring the piss out of you. Silent Hill 2 is the best game ever, it was the game that set the bar for how a story in a game could really get to you.
My Battle Cry is of a different flavor, I know the chosen subject is atmospheric games, I however can’t help but sound off on something else from the episode. There is something that I have been saying this for a long time now when it comes to games with online multiplayer and DLC. I feel that multiplayer games, especially on consoles, should always include 4 player split screen and have system-link/LAN capabilities, so those that enjoy playing them can have options to continue enjoying what they spent their hard earned money on for as long as they want. These companies rake in tons of money off gamers, but once they decide their games and services are no longer viable, they walk away without a second thought. I also think that once these systems and titles for said systems are no longer supported they should post all DLC and updates on their sight and they should make them available for free, at least for a time.
Sitting here now I feel like a big pussy admitting this but back in the day one of the most immersive and atmospheric games that I played was the original clock tower on ps1. The eerie music that played when scissor man came after you and his slow plodding pace combined with the fact that all you could do was run and fucking hide scared the shit out of me time and time again. For an old point and click game it was immersive as hell. The twisted characters only added to the overall feel. I wish there were more games like this today.
Hey it’s Vamp back,
My EBC goes to a forgotten game from one of the less successful consoles of Nintendo. Not the Virtual Boy, but the Gamecube. The Game is Eternal Darkness every time someone mentions a game as Immersive or atmospheric this game comes to my mind; From memorable characters to a creepy story and cool gameplay mechanics, this game makes you feel so into the story you really get scared and creep out. If you haven’t played this game this is a must buy. I just need to remind you of a little something on this game called the SANITY METER!!
My Battlecry goes out to the Survival Horror masterpiece: Penumbra.
This game scared the hell out of me. There are a couple of things that went into that, allow me to explain. Firstly, the story is simple, your father has disappeared somewhere underground in some northern wastes in the early 1900 or so. You travel by ship and find a hatch that takes you down into a abandoned mining tunnel system that was used during the war to stash supplies and other such equipment. Everything you need to let you know things aren’t about to go well in your favor. Armed with only a flashlight and some hopes and dreams, you find yourself in a near pitch black environment, and the first thing you realize is that you aren’t turning around and going back home, you’re trapped. This is only the beginning.
Dark hallways, engaging physical and mental puzzles, demon dogs, insane survivors, spiders, mutated worms that eat people… its got everything.
When asked what do I think makes the atmosphere for a game? I’d say that its the player AND character’s response to the setting AND story. Allow me to go through what makes you and your character form that special bond:
The sound: Described to me initially as “3D sound”, the game has a way of letting you know that there is something behind you, and no, you do not want to look. Crawling through tunnels and here spiders skitter from every direction while reading about someone who was once trapped there makes you want to get the hell out of dodge, and fast. Hearing the tunnel behind you collapse because something is now chasing you, while make you scream a little, even if you have hair on your chest.
There are no weapons. You can use the pick axe and hammer against the general enemies but it is extremely difficult, which means your hiding until they pass buddy. And when they start to chase you, you panic. I can’t tell you how many times I BOOKED it into a room and let out the breathe I was holding for the duration, scared out of my wits, and then to have the door broken down by the thing that just almost gave you a heart attack, just piles on that immersion.
Your character is scared. Your character is literally, freaking scared out of his mind. When hiding behind a box, and you peek out to see whats walking past, he panics, and can’t control his breathing, and it can give away your position. I’ve played plenty of games that have sections where your character gets scared because of something in the story, or someplace you need to go into before you come out the other end to sunshine and bunnies. But not Penumbra, the entire game your character is as scared as you are.
The friendly neighborhood chums. You encounter two people. One of which is insane. Completely. He speaks to you over a short wave radio and guides you through part of the game, spouting utter nonsense and yelling at you for things you can’t understand. The other one is no more than a voice. Hes locked in a room, and hes frightened. And remembering the audio is giving me chills as I write this.
Puzzles. Its got a lot of Half-life style puzzles, using switches for this and that, moving this object to here. Creating a fuse for a barrel of explosives to clear a path, switching off refinery crushers. Jumping over chunks of frozen ice on a frozen lake. They are all very well placed and thought out, never making you feel like they are arbitrary. They keep the game moving and you engaged in whats going on, they never take you out of the game, so you’ll never find yourself forgetting the enemies you just slipped past.
Chases. There are two that stand out and are frightening. One of which takes place in a small tunnel system, where you are being chased by a horde of spiders, and you must collapse sections of the tunnel to keep them from getting to you. The other is in party of the more constructed section, where you are chased by a giant worm, and you must close doors to prevent him from keeping up, and placing barrels right to jump blockades.
Information Gathering. Like most games, where you are contains little things that you find about it, that don’t have anything to do with what you are trying to accomplish, but give you something interesting to know. This game has plenty of letters and books that give you tidbits of info that are enjoyable, and never bring you out of the game, mostly because you can still hear everything around you while you read, like spiders.
And the most immersive part of the game is how you interact with the environment. Opening and carrying objects is done with the mouse. Clicking to grip, and then pulling or lifting. This system is one that can be ruined, very very easily, but in Penumbra is amazing. Everything feels right, its easy. But it’s also what makes this game so frightening. Hearing something on the other side of a door, and actually being the one to open it, is something else. Press X to open the door ahead to see what was making that growling just doesn’t cut it. Hearing the growling of something unnatural on the other side of a rotted old wooden, creaking door that you must open as the player, is just something completely different from other games. You are constantly forced to have a hands on experience for everything, using the pick axe, blocking doors, carrying barrels of explosives, you have to do it all.
And that’s all only the first game.
Some people might read this and think I’m fluffing it up, but honestly I feel like I’m not doing this game justice. It must be experienced. The level of immersion in this game is unmatched in my opinion. So many things just get you into it, and never let go. You and your character have a bond, and you fear for his life, and yours.
I highly recommend everyone picking this title up, giving it a try, and just experiencing its grip on your soul, and how it throws it around. And I hope you also come out of it completely satisfied with the game, as I did. It was worth every penny in my opinion.
In short, to summarize I guess, my battlecry goes out to Penumbra, it had an incredible atmosphere that was built around all the components of the game and its immersive d00d, word.
My Member battle cry for most immersive or atmospheric game goes to the Thief series. When I got my hands on the first game I couldn’t put it down and have been playing every release of the series since then. One of my favorite levels of the series is The Shalebridge Cradle mission. That mission alone is packed full of immersion and atmosphere. It is also one of the scariest parts of a game I have played.
My battle cry for atmosphere goes out the sequel to Myst, Riven.
From the very start you’re pulled into this fully living breathing world and the urge to explore is immense. The sounds of the animals around you fill the air, freaky ambiance and music hangs over you and you hear the sounds of every object and it’s breathtaking. Some moments that still shine above all would be the vehicle transitions and that weird whale you could piss off.
That whale still scares me to this day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRRvSSTxYTQ
too bad I never came anywhere close to beating this game but the world made it worth while to walk around and press buttons just to see what might happen.
When you talk about games that are immersive and atmospheric there is simply one game for me that embodies these two words, and that is Dead Space. The developers did an amazing job of making you feel the isolation of space, the confines of the ship, and the fear of the unknown. The level design is original and creepy, but what really makes it atmospheric for me is the audio. Whether it be the hollow sound of swinging metal banging against the ship, or the sound of necromorphs crawling through the ducts, this game kept me on the edge of my seat and my heart beat steadily above 100 bpm. Dead Space for me is the standard for atmospheric and immersive gaming and I hope that future titles in the series will focus on that aspect of the game success and hopefully continue to provide a similar horrifying experience.
Even though it was already brought up last week (or so) I would have to say Shadow of the Colossus. That game reminds me of so many real life places that I have visited over the years and it definitely covers everything, atmosphere-wise, with almost terrifying detail. The music draws you in during the boss fights while the extremely lonely silence makes you feel like crap in between boss fights. Lighting, shadows, and the color pallet all add to one of the most memorable games I have ever played.
My Battle Cry goes out to Majesty2 and GTTV, because they forgot to review this great game. The game is the worthy sequel to Majesty1 an innovative, fun and underrated strategy game for the PC.
In Majesty you need to build up your base and train units (heroes) just like in any other strategy game, but you cannot assign any direct commands to your heroes. Instead you need to influence them by making quests and offering some gold for the heroes to take when the quest is finished.
You will also need to build shops so that your heroes can buy better gear, potions, and so that you can get back some of the money you invested.
This game received scores between 8 and 10 which means that critics realised that it was a good game. I honestly don’t understand why GT didn’t review it. This might not look like a big issue, but I think that GT should promote good games that aren’t as well known as Modern Warfare or FFXIII so people can notice it, buy it and enjoy it.
I missed the release date by two months because I was still waiting for the review!
So GT please review it! Better late than never…
My Battclecry is not about Daniel’s topic this week, it goes angrily out to Visceral Games and their approach to the recently-released Dante’s Inferno. I was never awaiting this game’s release, and was confused as to how someone would make a game about it, but after watching all nine developer documentaries last night, I count myself among the people who oppose the creation of this game. It is immediately obvious to anyone who’s watched those videos (or read the book) that it is not game material by itself, it is a book about the pitiful souls of the damned as observed by a pitiful politician making his slow safari through Hell (and later Purgatory and Heaven).
My biggest concerns are 1) that as an action adventure game, one of the key methods of increasing difficulty is facing new groupings of different enemies; however, it makes no sense that later on in the game, you’ll be facing enemies from every layer of Hell – the souls aren’t exactly free to roam around. And 2) the tone the developers took in their videos is exactly the tone that I despise in the gaming community: nothing is good enough until it’s extreme as shit. In a similar move, in Darksiders (a great game), there are no longer the horsemen Disease and Famine, they have become Strife and Fury (read: along with War and Death…). Why do we do this to ourselves as gamers!? Things are okay as they are, not everything has to be an Axe commercial on the Spike channel! And sure as Hell not the Inferno. The developers hinted at “future adventures,” and I really hope that doesn’t happen. Having their ridiculous version of the Poet tramp into Purgatory or Heaven would be like the next Duke Nukem game taking place in a day care.
My Atmospherical Battle Cry goes out to that one game that set the bar and was later defined on the gamecube with the amazing prime series. Of course im talking about Super Metroid.
This game might be even more of a prime example than its name wearing successor. Super Metroid became one of the best, if not the best, game of all time specifically because of the amazingly crafted atmosphere. It wont beat the prime series but in fair perspective and with the tools at hand in 1994, Super Metroid got as far as the Super NES could get.
Some examples:
Right at the beginning of game all human life that Samus would come across,.. is already dead. One of the reasons why Super Metroid succeeds in bringing this feeling of space to life. Because there is no real life whatsoever. Only monsters. Samus is left all alone in this cold and terrifying space that feels dead, but is very much alive.
The sound and music might be this games trademark. The best thing about the music, is that the biggest part of the game lacks of it. Its more some sort atmospherical soundtrack. I think if space would breath to stay alive, it would sound like that.
And this thought is carried on in the weapons as well. No fresh, high pitched an clear sounding explosions. But muzzy, dozy and mat sounding impacts. Exactly the effect of a place that has hardly any oxygen to carry sound.
So when does the awesome music start? When all hell breaks loose and youll have to beat one of the kick ass bosses, like Crocomire. An invulnarable monster youll have to push towards an edge, leaving it screaming in the lava, tearing of the monsters skin. No blood involved only a suggestion and feeling of cruelty.
Super Metroid redefined atmosphere and sucked every player in like a big black hole
Hi guys, my battlecry goes out to “out of this world” (or Another world as it is known over here in europe) as it is by far the most atmospheric game out there.
Featuring no dialog whatsoever and still managing to create a bond between the player and the characters is something that is rarely seen in gaming. It is also a damn good game that can be hard as all hell, many of my first tries as a kid didn’t last more than about a minute.
It is really a good example of the gaming medium as an artform and an early example at that, coming out in 1991. Giving you no HUD or instruction whatsoever it was up to the player to figure everything out from the controls to their own interpretations of the story. It is easy to see that Team Ico has drawn alot of inspiration from this approach to storytelling.
Here’s hoping that Eric Chahi get’s back in the gaming industry and starts giving us some new innovative experiences soon!
Cheers guys!
My battle cry goes to Silent Hill, I know a few people have already mentioned it but it has to be mentioned once more, because it’s Silent Hill and everyone who’s played it loved it. The series draws you in a small town where your avatar has 1 goal. Whenever you go into the world of the game you feel like you are the person you’re playing as and you feel a connection to this dark and disturbing town. I started the series on Silent Hill 2, i loved it, and it has to be one of the greatest games ever. The first Silent Hill brings you in the town and into a gigantic mystery, the characters are diverce (even though there is only a couple people) but they seem so bland and plain, you know? Silent Hill 2 is the best because even though you’ve been to Silent Hill before, the town keeps you guessing and scared, the story is fantastic and the few people they have aren’t that plain as the first, they each have their own personality and pretty much puts you into the story like you really can belive you’re James (the main character) The other Silent Hill games just build onto the gameplay, they all have great stroies, they keep you guessing, have good characters, but they pretty much just made gameplay a little different. Silent Hill is special in my heart, which is great that someone can be attached to a game (especailly at my age), and you all know it has somewhere in your hearts too.
My battlecry goes out to a slightly overlooked series. I’m referring to the PC exclusive (so far) Gothic, an action-RPG quite unique in regards to its atmosphere and believable world. The point that makes the game stand out from the crowd of RPGs people already mentioned is the behavior of the NPCs and animals that fill the game world. Each has a routine and acts according to what seem to be natural laws. People wake up in the morning, wash their faces, get some breakfast then head to work or chat by a campfire. Animals sleep, eat and hunt of their own accord, lending a unique flavor to the environment. Add those to a sandbox-styled game and you get the perfect game to be lost in hours at a time. To me that’s much more important and immersive than having my hand held through a pre-defined path of scripted events, cinematics or character reactions. That route may work the first time you see it in a game, but unlike movies it doesn’t hold a second playthrough.
Most atmospheric game for me was Mist. More specificaly the last game of teh series. Set in a unique world where your whole gameplay is exploring this facinating story. Few IPs have made me deeply immersed in their world and Myst is the best of them.
My Battlecry goes out to Silent hill 2.
To me it was one of the mind gripping games i ever played.
I have never experienced a game where the environments scared me more then the actual monsters themselves.
When your radio starts making white noise and you have no idea what is around the next corner, my hart rate would go sky high.
Other things to consider is the paranoia and the idea of where you would end up in the game.
When i first stood outside the hospital, my imagination was running wild at what environments i might have to face and deal with in the game.
Altough I think Half Life 2 is the most immersive game ever, my Battle Cry goes out to the first Deus Ex.
Everybody including myself is so excited about the immersiveness (is that a word?) of Mass Effect 2 and Fallout 3. Sadly, people seem to forget that Deus Ex was the first game that successfully blended a shooter with deep RPG-elements. Aside from an inventory, upgrade-system and other typical RPG-elements the game also had a well told story and a first-personview .
The game, just like Mass Effect 1/2, forced you to make tough decisions. The decisions and dialogue weren’t as impressive as the ones in the Mass Effect franchise, but still blew me away at the time.
Just like the first Mass Effect Deus Ex suffered from clunky shootergameplay. It didn’t matter too much though. The story, music, dialogue and decisions set in a futuristic sci-fi setting certainly added up to a truly immersive experience.
If only Deus ex 2 was what Mass Effect 2 was to Mass Effect 1…
Peace from Amsterdam, The Netherlands
My Battle Cry goes out to “Fear” and its original developing team. Not to be confused with the 2nd game which shouldn’t be counted as part of the franchise or the in between abominations created during that legal cluster fuck.
Fear was one of the scariest games of all time. There were parts in that game that were so intense i had to pause the game to remind myself nothing can attack you through a computer screen. I nearly fell out of my chair when Alma spider crawled out from a cubical and every single hallway had me dreading the ghostly cues. Setting out to scare you, they accomplished and perfected what the dooms and silent hills of the past sought to create. Even lacking in some standard game play elements, the story alone was so well written you needed to know why all these terrible things were happening to this poor little girl. the immersion into this horror drenched title created such a real connection to real life emotions that finishing the game felt like the only way to relieve the fear!
My battle cry geos out to the Blade Runner game released by Westwood Studios in 1997 on PC. It was a point and click and relied mostly on atmosphere and storytelling. There were berly no puzzles to solve. It was all about the choises you made and the the clues you discovered along your investigation. Each location you went to was crawling with life and even if you could not really interact with a lot of things. It made you believe you an existing beleivable world. What is lacking fro me in a lot of new Sand Box games these days. The maps and citys are huge but they feal empty and monotonous.
Blade Runner allso had amazing cgi cut scènes that still look pretty good now it had 4 deferent endings it bowored stuff from the movie and the book and immersed you in a unique adventur.
My battle cry goes out to the original Aliens vs. Predator for PC. This has been a series that has lived on not only in video games, but in comic books, novels, and crappy movies. However, through all of its incarnations, the only one that has really struck me as capturing the atmosphere best of all was the original PC game from the 90′s.
Aliens vs Predator is, by far, the most shit-your-pants terrifying game I have ever played. It was a technically-flawed game in some ways, and today, it looks downright primitive, but through its radically different styles of gameplay, homages to the films, incredibly tense settings, and outstanding sound, it was one of the most atmospheric games ever made. And the atmosphere it create was one of true horror.
AvP was an oppressively dark game, with the darkness itself being one of your greatest enemies, especially as a light-dependant human marine. The sounds, from the tense beeping of the motion tracker to the hiss of crawling xenomorphs to the electric roar of the pulse rifle to the awesome soundtrack which perfectly incaptulated the moods of all three species, it sounded spectacular and tense and mean. I still listen to that soundtrack today. Then, you have to consider the difficulty. Unlike most other games of the time, your enemies were truly powerful and could rip you to shreds in seconds. And then you hadto start all over, for you couldn’t save in the middle of a mission. Game over indeed, man.
Then there was the varied, three-species gameplay.
As a marine, you felt truly vulnerable. You were slower and weaker than your foes, who knew where you were at all times, whereas you could only see them when they were practically in your face. You constantly were throwing flares, trying to throw back the darkness in an attempt to spot your savage foes, the motion tracker telling you they were there, just out of sight and closing in for the kill. Your only defense was the weapon in your hands, which was quickly running low on ammo. You didn’t even have the comic relief of a sniveling Hudson to brighten the mood. You were horribly alone.
As an alien, the game became totally different. You had no projectile weapons, but you didn’t need them. You were the nightmare. You were the beast that roamed in the darkness, hunting your terrified prey and striking at them before they knew you were there. The dark was your home, and all the defenses of your prey could not stop you from infiltrating their homes and slaughtering them without mercy. It was a dizzying, thrilling, and sadistically fun experience to play as an alien.
And then there was the predator, which was, in a word, badass. In-between the marines and aliens, you felt powerful as the predator, with an array of exotic technology and weapons at your disposable and physical toughness exceeding that of your enemies. This wasn’t a fight for survival. This was a fight for dominance, to prove who was the toughest motherfucker in the universe, and you were perfectly equipped to win that fight.
So there you have it: my opinion of the most atmospheric game ever. Here is hoping that the new Aliens vs Predator game comes even close to the original masterpiece.
I must cry havoc for my slightly-post-Gen-X gamers and dub wunderveloper Shiny’s masterpiece Earthworm Jim 2 my #1 most atmospheric game of all time.
Earthworm Jim 2 SHOULD be a complete mess. There are a million things happening onscreen at once, and most of the imagery, though very funny, is completely impenetrable. Playing through the game, even now, I feel that there’s some utterly hilarious joke that I’m just somehow not getting.
And yet Shiny managed to turn each increasingly bizarre stage into a cohesive world, and a taxing one, at that. Part of what made the game so great was the fact that Earthworm Jim existed in a thoroughly disturbing reality wherein I was never sure if I should laugh, or wet my pants.
Talk of “immersion” in modern games always skews to a discussion of graphical prowess and ease of interface, but for me, the most important part of being immersed in a game is the suspension of disbelief. Both original Earthworm Jim games had this in spades. Of COURSE Jim is a salamander in this stage. Why wouldn’t he be?
Back in the 20th century, one game in particular made me LOL about this whole ‘reality-thing’ going on outside my room.
It was Activision’s 1998 PC remake of the Atari classic Battlezone.
Battlezone had it all. A revolutionary concept: RTS meets FPS. Great setting: A secret superpower-space-race-in-space in the 50’s. Good plot: First US vs. USSR (it made sense in this game), then side-by-side against superior alien-ancestors. Awesome gameplay: Combining first-person-shooting, resource management/base-building and commanding troups. And a great sense of scale. It just worked on every level. The enormous freedom and exploration where counterbalanced by a notion of inevitable doom and ‘being but a tiny dot in space & history’ throughout the story. This game (and everyone who ever played it) has personality, heart and balls of bio-metal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr2_gH5ixQg
My On-topic Battlecry of the week goes out to a recently released game which was kind of the sleeper hit of 2009. It was dark and gritty, it made you feel you were the character and that you were beating the crap out of your arch enemy and his henchmen. Im off course refering to Batman Arkham Asylum. This game gave you the ability to be the Bat.
Because of the great voice-acting of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy, allong side other great voice-actors and the beautifull, yet earie (is that spelled right?) look of the Asylum where the Joker was put, the emersion level was hightend. You were really battling inside the old cartoon from back in the day, mixed with the look of the more recent comics.
Great martial arts with a simple push of the button and Bruce was flying all over the place kicking scumbags asses.
You dangle as Batman on the gargoyles and take the armed guys out, while giving them the heart-attack of their life. Perfect. On top of that, this game proved that licensed games can be excellent!!
My Battle Cry goes out to Fallout 1.
I feel a large part of what makes a game immersive or atmospheric is the feeling of a rich, never before experienced environment. Fallout 1 excelled in this regard not only becuase it was set post nuclear apocalypse, but also becuase this harsh sci fi catastrophe was juxtaposed with the American 1950′s dream of the future. It is rare to find such a unique setting in a videogame and as such every encounter was new and broadened the horizon of the player’s expectations.
Unfortunately games tend to fall into categories of, fantasy, ww2, present day or sci-fi. The few that fall outside these timelines (like Mafia, Bioshock and Fallout) tend to offer rich and refreshing worlds.
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Tompta:
My battle cry geos out to the Blade Runner game released by Westwood Studios in 1997 on PC. It was a point and click and relied mostly on atmosphere and storytelling. There were berly no puzzles to solve. It was all about the choises you made and the the clues you discovered along your investigation. Each location you went to was crawling with life and even if you could not really interact with a lot of things. It made you believe you an existing beleivable world. Whatis lacking fro me in a lot of new Sand Box games these days. The maps and citys are huge but they feal empty and monotonous. Blade Runner allso had amazing cgi cut scènes that still look pretty good now it had 4 deferent endings it bowored stufffrom the movie and the book andimmersed you in a unique adventur.
My battle cry this week is off topic, and goes to Sony and who else has a say in this.
About 4 weeks ago my Blu-Ray drive in my ps3 died, so I made a backup of my HD (320GB) to an external HD with the backup system to be sure, and put the old 40GB back in before going back to the shop for rep.
Today I got my ps3 back, but it was not “mine”, it was a new one.
Now I have a big fat smile on my face, a new ps3, awesome! ..but from now on its down hill.
I update the system, re-create PSN account (using existing details), turn it off and put my old HD (320GB) in.
When I turned it back on, I had to format the HD for it to work on the new system, so I did. After all, I new I had a 94 GB backup on an external HD.
Formatting done, I startet to Restore from the backup and it was done in no time, nice!
After a reboot my fears came true. All my DLC and most of my save games were gone. Games like Dragon Age, Killzone 2 and Skate 2, all games Ive put more then 100 hours in.
After some time on Google I find out that some save games are system locked. WHAT THE FUCK??
If you have to lock it to anything, do it to the PSN acc!
Well DK your in for a lot of opinions here. What qualities and views do gamers have? Honestly I am kind of shocked at some of the opinions here. I mean to me I think what your asking is “What game did you just stop and stare at the world your in. Look at all the nooks and crannies and then put your controller down and marvel at the wonderment during the story” Thats what I think you want.
I could go into soooo many games. Zelda OOT was amazing. I beat it 6 times. Beautiful, varied, huge world for it’s time… Or how about Batman AA? It sure was beautiful, lore filled to the brim and so atmospheric and immersive that I just smiled 99% of the time. What about Dead Space? It was down right gorgeous and the atmosphere could not have been done better with all the writing that could be translated(If you copied it all down) and blood and body parts in zero G… No sound in space except your own breathing… Heck you could even read the inspection sheet in the elevator if you wanted. No details spared. How about Modern Warfare 1. I can tell you that as a vet of the Iraq war there were times I had to put my controller down and felt some serious deja vu. Or even GTA with it’s huge world. I remember walking down alleys and seeing graffiti or posters I never saw anywhere else in the game. Thats some amazing detail for something no one might ever see. Or how about the first time the bathesphere came over that underwater mountain and revealed rapture… I could go on for days and days but there is only one game that get’s a 100% for atmosphere and immersion from me. It may not be everyones taste but here goes…
I feel my member battle cry has to go to none other then the one and only ghost of god killing. Kratos… I just felt like the story was fantastic. I remember looking out at the horses in the second game. The gifts from Chronos and thinking “It’s gonna cut to a FMV or something and I wont have to walk all the way out to those. They are just background”… Well apparently not. I marveled at the scope and the scale that game brought to consoles. As well as games in general.
The variety of areas to explore and the architecture of each place unique and different from the rest. No detail was spared. Pandoras box, Jason and the argonaughts or even Icarus…
The Sisters of Fate, Ares, Charon, The statue of rhodes and the Minotaur are fights I will remember for a long time to come. With the re release of both the PS2 games I have rekindled my love of them all over again and I see that, unlike many other games, the have aged very very well.
I mean the first time you go up the stairs and see ares tearing apart the city… It was and still is really cool… Simple little touches made that game fantastic for me. I am super pumped for the new game. Moving titans and amazing graphics topped off by some of the most intense violence and over the top action ever.
This franchise to me is what makes gaming great. Good story, Great graphics, intense action and puzzles paced perfectly, good characters, great set design and art and to top it off the most bad ass mo fo in video games… Thats is what it’s all about.
Game on everyone =D
My Battle Cry for most atmospheric game has got to go out to the original Silent Hill for Playstation. The atmosphere and the setting in this game are what made it popular, with a permanent, foreboding fog constantly lingering over a seemingly deserted town. The enemies that wandered out were frightening and inventive, blending perfectly with the overall feel of the game. Even the clunky uneven combat added to the feeling of tension and fear that the player felt as they wandered through the ghostly corridors. The hell sections were appropriate and scary and presented another dynamic aspect to the game with the constant wondering when the next section would appear. Silent Hill was the most atmosphere defining game that I have played, with the possible equal in Bioshock and Shadow of the Colossus (The best game of the decade in terms of defining games as art)
Runners up: STALKER, Ghosts N’ Goblins, Fallout series, Jade Empire, God of War, Resident Evil, and Half-life 2.
My battle cry gose to world of warcraft because it completly tacks over peoples lives
My Battle Cry goes out to the Thief franchise. While not necessarily the best of it’s genre, I can’t think of another game which got my heart pounding in quite the same way.
Like when you’re in a room and a guard comes in, sees a flicker of shadow as you hide, and starts searching for an intruder. He walks right up to you, face to face, and you literally hold your breath until he turns around.
My BattleCry goes out to Dead Space. I hate to admit it, but Dead Space had a sense of immersion I have not felt in any other game before. Trapped on a ship where enemies would randomly spawn in any and all directions, you health being displayed on his back, the little details reminding you are in space, the menus all happening in real time, the sense of fear knowing you have 3 bullets left and 5 foes around the corner, engines allowing for realistic interactions, the list goes on and on. Dead Space continues to prove itself by scaring the shit out of us.
Games like Split/Second have taken note from something like Dead Space by minimizing the menus and maximizing game play. On a side note I’ve read a few other crys, some saying Demon Soul’s was atmospheric. I don’t agree because the game play was more tension based. And if anything, reading and posting messages, seeing ghosts of other players, and etc. removes you from the experience because you know it isn’t just your personal experience.
My battle cry goes to legend of zelda ocarina of time
This game had an atmosphere that just surrounds you from the moment you start playing. Every location in the game gave off a feeling of desperation as you venture through the dangerous mountains to the desolate sands.
I had to make this my battle cry because even to this day i can’t go near even a swimming pool without think of creatures in the water temple.
My Battle Cry goes out to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, though this game may lack in certain areas, it has atmosphere and immersion in spades. There is something about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s choice of sound, graphic design and the way the characters and areas are setup really helps it capture a real sense of place.
From the open world with a really strong attention to detail to the hundreds of npc’s that all have their own little story about what is going on, the game really manages to capture the feeling of the cold dark place named “The Zone.”
With all the games i have played none have come close to matching the atmosphere provided from the experience of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. it has also made one of my future goals to go and visit the area in which it is based.
Also one thing that needs to be noted is this game benefits hugely from its modding community. Some of the mods that have been coming out of this game add to the immersion provided even more. Video for proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwXDRv8_vhY
My Battle Cry goes out to Dead Space, its wicked awesome and totally pulls the player into the world it creates. I was totally drawn in by the eerie atmosphere and the feeling of being alone. One of the best Survival Horror games in recent times. A serious ‘back to basics’ of horror genre game *thumbs up*
My battle cry goes out to Silent Hill 2. If you played the first Silent Hill, you could imagine what was coming in the second; a dark, moody survival horror that changed the world around you and pitched you against out and out demons or the monstrous human inhabitants of the town. With better graphics.
How wrong you were! True enough, there were beasties to be found. True enough, the world changed around you and the people you found were broken and sick. But coming from the tried and true ‘evil cult’ plot of the original, how different a tale did 2 provide when you found out exactly what happens to your character’s wife? How much did you feel sorrow or outright hate for him when you played the game differently and witnessed the different endings?
This was supported by one of the most resonant game soundtracks I’ve ever heard by Akira Yamaoka, almost perfectly capturing audio melancholy. The technically improved graphical design helped paint a better picture and what a disturbing and enthralling picture it was, all at once. It will always be a ’special place’.
Oh and Pyramid Head. That great abuser of mannequins. That’s one creepy guy.
[...] to Praxx and Ron Jeno’s MBCs about Metroid…You should most def check them out on the topic starter page. Anyway, hit the jump to read today’s Member BattleCry and be sure to sound off in the [...]
yo peeps.
My battle cry goes to dead space in terms of atmosphere in a game. The reason simple, IT SCARED ME F**KING SHITLESS. Every creek of the ship suddenly makes you think death is round the corner. The shadows moving across the walls of the ship make the player stop and think for those precious seconds. You hear the screams of someone then there corpse is lying there, with what killed them, free to hunt you down. You feel like a rat in a maze. On top of that every damned vent is like a doorway to hell, with the chance of being disembowelled by the abominations that lurk within the USG Ishimura.
The game has the atmosphere to scare the toughest son of a bitch on the planet.
My Battle Cry goes out to Shadow of the Colossus for the most atmospheric game ever. The games somber themes of isolation and desperation ring throughout the entire landscape. The lonely rides atop Agro across leagues of varied terrain creates an incredible feeling of isolation that is second to none. The natural world is saturated with muted browns and greens that emphasize the barren landscape. Another of the great details added was the hawk that would fly along side you during certain section. In those moments, I knew that this game could easily stand the test of whether games are art or not. The simplistic beauty of the whole game is reminscent of The Road whose stark desolation somehow feels beautiful. The whole of the game is fantastic and the best atmosphere that I have encountered in my long years as a gamer.
My battle cry goes out to The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. To me the Zelda franchise represents the spirit of adventure but among these games Majora’s Mask separates itself in a number of ways. Majora focuses on a small community with a group of NPCs going about their daily lives. All these NPCs have a daily schedule that plays out over the game’s three day time cycle. This is the most eerie and ominous Zelda to me for multiple reasons, when the third day roles around and the music becomes chaotic you feel that sense of urgency as all the NPCs freak out. The atmosphere is always a little eerie and this is helped in large part by long time series composer Koji Kondo, whether your in Ikana Valley or The Great Bay you feel that something is not quite right.
My battle cry is about innovation in games.
You see alot of reviews these days that say that a certain franchise doesn’t innovate enough to make it new and fresh, wich makes it review score lower.
But this isn’t just about that, it’ also about the franchise itself. Let’s take a look at the God of War franchise. OPM UK had an exclusive review of the game where they said that it gor pulled down in score because it was more like the old GoW games. Fair enough, but that leads on to a new question.
Let’s just use GoW as the main example. Would you really wanna see the franchise change it’s gameplay or maybe even put in certain things that might change the game alot?
What if that happens to GoW? If the gameplay changes to much because of some innovation then it won’t be God of War. Cus I would think people buy certain franchises for what it is. Just to use some other examples, God of war, Gears of war, Diablo and MW. But still there are other franchises out there that doesn’t change much and still don’t get a beating for not being innovative enough.
If you ask me I don’t mind new ideas being put into games, but when you have a good and esatblished franchise, why would you wanna change it to something it ain’t?
I’m not saying that all the ideas the developers might come up with will change a game dramaticlly but some franchises should’t change because it is what it is.
Let the franchises be what they are and don’t try and change them into something else. Look to other new IP’s and see what they might bring to life through the developers ideas.
My epic battle cry will definitely go to all of VALVe’s games. The first time I played a VALVe game i was five (currently 14) and i could not let go of the Half-life. The immersion factor of this and all of VALVe’s games in general is so amazing you don’t even notice it happens. With the perfect voice acting of all characters and the emotion that can be felt through the character in all of the Half-Life games is amazing. When you are left alone because of a crumbling wall and must shotgun your way through a forgotten zombie infested land you find yourself with probably the last human still residing there and you see him sacrifice himself to save you.In Team Fortress 2 similar things happens when team work is not vital but rewarding and how all the character classes have very distinctive personalities but are all there to defeat the other team. In Left 4 Dead 1&2 the bond that are formed with other players during a single match are very unique and can not be found in any other game of the genera. Finlay bringing me up to PORTAL the lonely voyage of a forgotten test subject that must complete challenge after challenge with a mysterious narrator that betrays you. All along finding clues to what happened in this once competitive laboratories. I loved how they made reference to Black Mesa and how the same happened during HL2 Ep. 2
-Jeff214z
My battlecry goes to Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 for what I believe to be the most immersive and atmospheric game in my books. The original style of Atlus’s persona games setting of being a high school student brings up the memories of my school life back in Korea which makes easier to relate to the protagonist’s life and the crazy serial murder in a small Japanese town that involves pushing people into televisions at midnight just sweetens the experience. I rarely play RPG’s multiple times, Mass effect being an exception to try make different decisions to transfer over to Mass effect 2, but I have played persona 4 multiple times to try different actions and answers to questions to see how the story progresses. If a game with a non-talking protagonist can make me play a RPG multiple times, it must be doing something right. The mix of the Japanese culture tied in with old fashioned RPG do-gooders trying to save the world was an interesting mix of atmosphere and immersive enough for me and was pleasing to many other gamers over the World.
My non-weekly topic related battlecry goes to Square-Enix and their marketing decisions. This battlecry is kind of insignificant, but something really annoying.
Most JRPG keeps the OST from the Japanese version when they port it over to the North American release but have the original singer sing the English version of their Japanese song. I’m fine with this since they basically sound the same except minor differences, but still good nonetheless. Example of this is Kingdom hearts and persona 4′s OST. The game I have some minor annoyance with is Final Fantasy 13 and it’s English release OST. I don’t know why but I’m guessing it’s a publicity thing with Leona Lewis or something to have North American gamers more interested….not sure how that will work but who cares, the point is why do you use a song that’s not even remotely close to the original Japanese OST theme song? yes the lyrics share the same overall message, but the genre is completely different from instrumental J-Pop to a R&B that does not really suit this version of Final Fantasy. Although some of you may disagree with me and this is not that important, and yes it is not that important to the overall game, but still the fact that Square-Enix chose to do this for the North American version kind of looks like they care more for publicity either than fan-service, even though it’s really not that important..but still. I’m not saying Leona Lewis is a bad singer, the song is great but not really suitable for a Final Fantasy game. Doesn’t it cost Square-Enix more money to get Leona Lewis to use her songs in the game anyway? The point is if your going to keep all the OST from the Japanese version, why not keep the theme song?
I want to Bcry about voice overs, but that would take 3 times more than this so i’m saving this for next week’s battlecry…lol
My battlecry goes out to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.Shadow of Chernobyl.
Considering my library of games few come close to the Simply amazing Immersion of SoC. The music is haunting and the graphics are Perfect. From the start of the game it had me hooked and locked in.
The monsters are haunting and the guns feel realistic,yet still not powerful enough to keep you safe… I would recommend looking into getting it for anyone looking for a highly immersive and haunting experience they will remember for years.
~Canebrake
My battle cry goes out to the phenomenal but yet under-looked horror/crime series “Condemned”. This game seamlessly blends puzzle/action/drama and fps elements together to create an unforgettable experience that is quiet literally the scariest game I have EVER PLAYED! I specifically remember one particular scene from the game where I had to investigate an abandoned mall,in the dark (of course) as cliche’ as this sounds the eerie,ever present fear of being watched when scrambling through the building is one of the only times I have ever almost cried through pure fear. Its dark, its quiet, it immerses and its terrifying. If that’s not atmospheric, I don’t know what is!
LOVE the show guys
My Battle Cry goes out to not just a game but a few games from the same company, Bioware. The Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age, Baldur’s Gate, and of course the Mass Effect series of games have all been excellent games with deep story and characters which creates such an atmosphere that the player feels a connectivity to the game that no other company has come close to achieving. Like a great book series that draws you in with detail, emotion and romance, Bioware games seem to encompass all of this and bring an experience to the player that is unique and makes these games ageless.
This battle cry goes out to Super Metroid on the SNES.
There’s a constant feeling of isolation right from the beginning, you get compltely drawn into it, each of the different areas have a unqiue feel to them but each blend into each other seemlessly. And a note has to go out to Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano for the soundtrack, which is a major part of the immersion factor, from the gloomy sounds of lower Brinstar to the sparse twinkles in the depths of Maridia.
Super Metroid stands out on own on the SNES, Planet Zebes is a place you can visit again and again and still get that same eery feeling.
[...] Now, if you’re just joining us, we’ve had a good discussion going on this week about atmosphere and immersion in gaming. Some pretty awesome BattleCries have already been made, and we’re continuing that trend [...]
My Member battle cry goes out to the Resident Evil franchise. I haven’t made a battle cry before, but when i saw the topic was an atmospheric or immersive game I just have to give the serie justic. Especially resident evil 1 and its remake was incredibly atmospheric. I would dare too say that atmospher is one of the reason the serie got so popular. It really felt so realistic too me, you could picture your self being in that situation that your character was in, and just wanted to survive! Also the story made a huge impact on atmospher. The deserted mansion, experiments going horrible wrong. And actually something as benal as the files lying around in the game gave you an idea on what happen too all the poor people who had died. And last but not least the music made the game so scary, I still get paranoid when i hear a zombies near by.
My PERSONAL Battle Cry goes out to Far Cry 2.
Personally I can’t play very long games because I always want to try something new, but I got through the campaign (30+ hours) and replayed it. What kept me there was the atmosphere. Every time I booted up the game I knew I was going into a different world for a few hours. There’s various things that immmersed me. It wasn’t the “characters” and not as much the plot.
More than anything it was the attention to detail and open world nature of the game as well as the random encounters, that did it for me. Sometimes I’d just be going in a jeep and a gazelle would cross my path, making me stop. Other times I’d be taking out an entire base with the dart rifle without alerting anyone.
What I loved most about it was the way nothing was scripted. It was up to you to get to the best spot from where to snipe. It was up to you to invent another way of tackling a tricky situation because your main gun just jammed. The game never held you by the hand. When you cleared a base without making a sound there was no little triumphant sound or direct reward or cutscene, the game just went on. There was no meter telling you how hidden you were, It was all up to you. There was no mini map on screen, you had to take the real map out and look at it. And sometimes your perfect set up would be ruined because it would start to rain and you wouldn’t be able to burn the grass around a base and watch as it slowly, but inevitably would advancce on your enmies.
Because of the fact that the game never “helped” you, everything you did was by your own merit.
And the feeling the game conveyed was like no other. There’s nothing quite like riding a jeep into the sunset as you’re preparing to take out your target with your IED’s, supressed MP5 and dart rifle.
My Battle Cry goes out to first of all what makes a game immersive…
It’s often a task for developers to taylor a gaming experience so that it makes you fear for your characters life from an almost first person perspective, or feel the value of your charaters personal possesions as if they were your own.
so many factors can be used in creating this that hitting them all evenly whilst creating a game from scratch is so rare to find.
A game like Battlefield Bad company for instance, critically acclaimed by many for the power and depth of their sound effects but for me, lacked a little too much in the story to make the whole experience make me put myself in the character’s shoes totally.
(breath)……
Where Elder Scrolls as a saga manages to bring a great sense of personality to you character by letting you customise the hell out of them and with the vast inventory of common and not so common items to use for various applications to aid your adventure. Coupled with classically detailed scripts that use language in such a powerful way to set a scene of any one of the hundreds and hundreds of quests and that makes for a highly immersive game.
I however steer my conclusion to an unfortunatly understated developer, and perhaps for reasons slightly out of context.
Bohemia Interactive for many years have developed a software that was based on the origional Operation Flashpoint for use by International armies as a training simulator.
It was then moulded, eventually, into a little game called Arma II. In all the time i’ve been looking for a trully authentic representation of real world weapon systems used accurately with no corners cut, no details smudged over, and endless possibilities for even more critically accurate and useful content, it was right under my nose.
Now this game contains a single player campaign in which you play a character with very little to his history, oddly adding to the depth you can experience as you can just apply yourself entirely to the character. you feel like the characters are talking directly to you in the campaign due the seriousness of the events that take place. Using real world tactics to overcome the enemy threats that are impending due to completely independant and properly adaptive AI with no set paths to follow is a thrill in itself, as the endless consiquences that can be seen for small actions you make such as; moving across open ground too slowly or even just reloading your weapon when near an enemy can alert them to your presence.
The community is constantly working to add new content which just keeps adding diversity to the missions and campaigns and with the online play structure starting with the award winning Evolution mission in which you team up with others online and use what skill you have to recapture towns and villages over the massive 225 square kilometers that is the standard game map, it makes for a very comprehensive play incorperating many of the single player Immersion factors.
I’ll try to calm down now and wrap it up a bit …..
All in all these are so many things right with this game that they heavily out weigh and issues there currently are, and even they will soon be fixed by a developer in the community. with all the real world hardware in this game and accuracy in their reproduction it is a joy to play and so easy to get into when played properly.
I by no means think that this game is for everyone and in some ways that adds to how tied to it i am because everyone like something that is special to them.
I’ve delibirately avoided MMOs in this as the mere fact you play with real people all the time gives them an unfair advantage over games that cater to the SP experience and whilst i feel games like Fallout, F.E.A.R, Crysis and almost all Black Isle/Troika/Obsidian/Bioware developments been created deserve a mention in this field I’m affraid Arma II covers immersive, not perfectly, but very close to it for me.
apologies for what seems like a massive Rant also
zorilya
My battlecry goes out to publishers and developers trying to limit my rights as a consumers by doing tricks and gimmicks to kill the ability to resell a game.
I see several marketing moves and tricks, like with Mass effect 2 DLC being free to whom purchases the game new, but costing an arm and a leg to people who buy it used. Same happens with Madden I believe, and other titles.
More and more I heard about those moves, and the sole reason is to limit as much as possible the basic consumer right to buy and sell, something that belongs to me.
I dont buy the argument that publishers are “loosing” money with used copies. In order to used copies to exist, they have to sell them new first. And if those people want to sell something that they bought, they should be able to do so, without any penalty to the person who is buying it.
Game publishers are the ONLY people who think they should get money twice, three times, etc… for a single copy that they produce.
Imagine if car companies, wanted to get money from used cars. Or movies companies from used copies of DVDs. This is ridiculous, and once you buy your copy with the exception of pirating it, you should be allowed to do as you please without punishing the buyer.
I also do not buy the argument that a game does not loose its value, its the same game if you buy new or used, therefore the publisher developer should get some money. That’s not true, if that was the case, the game would cost $60 forever. ^ months after release a game already lost sometimes 50% of its original price. Therefore games loose value.
And now more than ever with those tricks a used game looses a lot more value than new.
Digital download is great, but that will destroy the consumer’s right. And that’s not right.
I believe my consumer right should be preserved no matter what the future of games bring
My battle cry was about ARMA II
Just realised my previous comment wasn’t really to the point and a hell of read just to find out what i’m on about.
[...] EpicBattleAxe.com Member BattleCry! Now, we’ve gotten quite a good response regarding this week’s topic and I’m thrilled to see how passionate some of you are about the most immersive and [...]
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