Games with really good atmosphere?
- Thread starter Rasseru
- Start date
I'm really surprised when people say The Division has good atmosphere. Whenever I play it the game feels really lifeless and dull. The city is pretty much empty, the few NPCs you come across are either mindless shoot on sight enemies or lifeless civilians. You can't interact with either, you shoot the enemies or you listen to the scripted 'conversations' the civilians have. Occasionally you'll run into a civilian that wants something, and it's 'press key to give a medkit' but it just feels so lifeless. There's no story or real impact to giving or not.
The city feels dead, you can't get into the majority of the buildings making the game feel very on rails. It feels pre-destined what buildings or rooms the game will let you enter, very much 'game says no'. I can't go into this building, why? The door is glass, why can't I break the door down? No reason, just because the game says so. Traversing the city feels akin to climbing over and around loads of cubes scattered around a map, with city textures on them. Some cubes you can go in, most you can't - but essentially cube navigation feels like the bulk of the game.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the game for what it is and I've bought most of the content for it. The multiplayer aspect is it's saving grace as far as atmosphere goes. But it really doesn't come to my mind as being a game that has 'really good atmosphere', personally I feel like the atmosphere is one of the worst and least engaging I've played.
The city feels dead, you can't get into the majority of the buildings making the game feel very on rails. It feels pre-destined what buildings or rooms the game will let you enter, very much 'game says no'. I can't go into this building, why? The door is glass, why can't I break the door down? No reason, just because the game says so. Traversing the city feels akin to climbing over and around loads of cubes scattered around a map, with city textures on them. Some cubes you can go in, most you can't - but essentially cube navigation feels like the bulk of the game.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the game for what it is and I've bought most of the content for it. The multiplayer aspect is it's saving grace as far as atmosphere goes. But it really doesn't come to my mind as being a game that has 'really good atmosphere', personally I feel like the atmosphere is one of the worst and least engaging I've played.
Fixed
Nonsense. Despite the narrative you may have been fed by the media or reviewers or the internet or whoever, if you actually play the games yourself and think for yourself, the atmosphere in Bioshock Infinte was amazing, arguably even better than the rose-tinted views of the original in parts. And despite the internet telling you you’re not allowed to enjoy Bioshock 2 (or its atmosphere which was, if you think about it, the same as the original!) when you get towards the end of the game, the gameplay was even better than the original, which certainly added to the atmosphere for me. But you won’t read that in the reviews, especially since many reviewers don’t even finish games before they write their ‘review’.
You're missing out.
I hate this. It jogged me out of the immersion in fallout 4 when it happened. Even just an empty husk of a room would work. Also, witcher - there has been loads of times in the forest i'm following the map and i get stuck because I cant walk off a 2 foot ledge or get through a 3 ft gap in trees. Although i've only just started the series and apparently it redeems itself
Soldato
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Has a lot to do with the soundtrack and the overwhelming sense of foreboding. A sense of atmosphere can be very subjective based on a persons experiences. Sounds deep, but it's the truth. Also you talk about the game mechanics, and I agree to an extent, but that can at times have very little to do with the games ability to create an atmosphere. Keeping the player immersed is an entirely different ball game.
It was a bit tongue in cheek, however I've played all 3, completing 1 and 3. I just couldn't push myself through to the end of 2 for some reason.
For me personally, 3 was good fun and an artistically amazing game but I didn't feel like it had an amazing atmosphere. Maybe I just enjoyed the claustrophobia and isolation of the first game.
Soldato
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fallout 3 and NV
You expect to be able to walk into any building, anywhere in the city? How many hundreds of thousands of buildings and rooms do you think that is that would need to be created, rendered and tested?
I didn't say I expected it. It takes the player out of the atmosphere of the game, it reminds me that I am playing a game. It's immersion breaking. I just wouldn't use The Division as an example of a game which has a good atmosphere. Ignoring your passive aggressive tone, whilst I don't necessarily expect every detail replicated even an empty room shell as Rasseru said would be fine. Perhaps an empty room procedurally generated would have been enough. Just a 'you shall not pass this door' isn't enough for me. Each to their own.
Soldato
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Plays like a Stephen king novel. A friendly descent into familiar terror. Dont often complete games as they often wear thin but this one didnt, they should make more
legendary for other reasons also
In my top 3 favourite writers, defo fave for sheer time enjoyed. You just made me buy it, £2.50, and I dont know anything about it. Recommendations ftw
Just OT but about books, if you have never read 'the house of leaves' by mark danielewski, then dont read any synopsis or reviews, and go for it. My fave horror novel ever.
Soldato
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I was loving Alan Wake when I played it a few years back however I never quite got to grips with the combat - either that or I couldn't stay calm enough to fight effectively - I remember it being truly terrifying and I was loving to the story but in the end wussed out and gave up. I must go back to it now that I have few more horror games completed under my belt...
Soldato
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I'm playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent just now. If you're looking for atmosphere, this game has you constantly on edge - it's great!
It's a very subjective thing. To me, atmosphere in a game is the tipping point where reality is suspended and I feel like I'm part of the game world. That really doesn't happen very often.
Dead Space, Bioshock, Fallout 3, Deus ex HR come to mind but not many others. Original Resident Evil??
Dead Space, Bioshock, Fallout 3, Deus ex HR come to mind but not many others. Original Resident Evil??
I didnt like the look of infinite at first, only just getting round to playing it now, and it really is a brilliantly made game. Simple mechanics at its core, its everything else that is handled with such skill that really takes it up a level for me. & The racism in the story makes it all the more messed up because some bits are part of our history.
Pretty excited to see what ken levine comes up with next, I would love to see him make something slower & more thoughtful, but freakier than all the 'shocks
in VR, obvs