Favorite Game World

jasonbarron

jasonbarron
I've noticed that in general my favorite games are one's that I feel the most invested in their world. It doesn't necessarily have to be an open world game, or a sandbox, but that certainly helps.

Here are my top 5 all time favorite game worlds:

1-Grand Theft Auto V
2-Riven The Sequel To Myst
3-Bioshock
4-Assassins Creed: Origins
5-Skyrim

GTA V story mode actually towers over the competition, as much as I love the other games (and plenty that are not in the top 5) on the list. The environment screams for exploration and experimentation, and in conjunction with the fantastic writing that somehow manages to be satirical while at the same time channeling epic movie sagas such as the incomparable Heat yields a world that is as much fun to observe as it is to play in. And boy oh boy is there a lot of play to be had.

What are some of your favorite game worlds and why? Is it even that important to you?
 

Vasea Azure

Vasea Azure
I play many games but mostly because I like game play, I sometimes even skip story/logs in some just to move on to another cool sequence. But there are few that I just had to experience in 100% - Mass Effect, Dark Souls and Witcher 3. I had to read every item description, every lore info, playing those games made me looking for lore books/comics outside of game itself. Those are just very carefully and beautifully crafted worlds (yes Witcher is based on books already but there are lots of new things in game adding to the universe). This is why I`m so depressed with Mass Effect Andromeda, it suppose to be a part of my #1 gaming universes and... it did not work.
 

Dsign

Dsign
I would have The Witcher 2/3 in there aswell, mostly because of the novels. I just like the dark atmosphere the games have.
 

StiTch

StiTch
Bioshock's hot. Excellent atmosphere. And gotta give it to 'em for producing a sequel which - at least IMO - was as good as the first. Infinite...well, we'll forget that exists for now.

Ark: survival evolved wins the award for my most loved world of recent game worlds. I reckon players should be forced to experience a few days of Ark before they are allowed to raise gank complaint threads; when you respawn on a pack of raptors and get butchered, and then respawn in a pack of poisonous dragonflies (come on, that's not even supposed to be fearsome) you just gotta have the ability to throw your head back in laughter at your own misfortune. ED's ganking even from other players is a n00b compared to Ark's. Overall though, the best survival experience I've played to date. Shame about the VR support.

Gotta give Borderlands 1 an honourable mention for a lovable game that proves realism is overrated in immersing you, Spore a slightly weird honourable mention for an inexplicably engaging environment (when everything looks stupid, your four eyed blob with mouths on your feet sorta...fits in) and Unreal Tournament for being, well, Unreal Tournament.

Actually, I'm starting to feel that the more effort gets put into realistic graphics, the less immersive the game is. I wish we'd stop regurgitating the same games every year with slightly better graphics that you forget about five minutes in.
 

Vasea Azure

Vasea Azure
I forgot to add my fav 4th one - Fallout New Vegas with its crazy si fi/wild wild west vibe - I made my journey there many times.
 

Red Anders

Red Anders
I've always loved the Deus Ex game world right from the first game. Still recognisably 'our' world albeit at a more technologically time, only pretty much every conspiracy theory you can think of turned out to be true; meanwhile humanity is exactly the same screwed up mess that it is today, just with bigger guns, biomechanical augmentations and cool blue swords.
 

CmdrKull

C
Thief for sure. Fanatics vs pagans, magic, zombies, steam punk, and that cool mix of new built on top of ancient.

Plus they got the bear pits.
 

askavir

askavir
For Game World alone, I'll have to go with Skyrim. Simply incredible, I never get tired of roaming it. The changing weathers, the changing seasons, the day/night cycle, the fact nearly all NPCs are sandboxed and have their own homes and daily routines, the lore, that fact that everything, big and small, just fits together... Skyrim's game world is a bloody masterpiece. Can't wait for Elder Scrolls 6...

It's the game where I have sunk the most embarassing amount of hours since ever. I still play it today (the new special edition, heavily modded).

Witcher 3 comes as close second, and even though W3 is a superior game as a whole, Skyrim still has the best game world and much more replayability.
 
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Caramel Clown

Caramel Clown
It must be Nirn. Amount of lore and depth already piled up to a point it would be enough to keep making games, books, movies, and fan fiction for decades. World with one of the most intriguing history and mythos.
 

Rob At Work

R
The makers of GTA list Elite as their inspiration to making GTA.

Master or Apprentice - you decide.

On Topic

Theme Hospital - them Bloaty Heads

World of Tanks - Just for the Bants
 
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Navigare Necesse Est

Navigare Necesse Est
"World" as in setting or level design?

Setting: Witcher 3 (Witcher 2 also, but the gameplay was crap), dark Normandy of ME1, early Warframe

Level design: Bethesda worlds
 

Fishy

Fishy
Too many to list, but for a recent thing, I'm enjoying a lot Hong Kong as a setting, having gone through Shadowrun Hong Kong over the holidays, and going through Sleeping Dogs right now. There's something fascinating to the contrasts it offers, with the mix of eastern/western culture, the traditional and the high-tech, the wealth and the poverty... Sleeping Dogs also adds up its own contrasts with having you play both the criminal side and the law enforcement.
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
One of my favourite game world's is actually I-War, 1 and 2.

Not particularly open world, (especially not the first one). It just felt very real.

The game, if remade, could have loads of potential for being an ED rival.
All 3 layers of flight mechanics trump ED's (IMHO).

Skyrim and Oblivion also had great game world's.
 

hypervoodoo77

H
That's a harder question than it seems at first.
I think my choice would be:
1. Gta
2. Skyrim
3. Xenoblade chonicles x
4. Mass effect.
5. Red Dead redempion

I think I like these world's best
 

lysan

lysan
jasonbarron said:
I've noticed that in general my favorite games are one's that I feel the most invested in their world. It doesn't necessarily have to be an open world game, or a sandbox, but that certainly helps.

Here are my top 5 all time favorite game worlds:

1-Grand Theft Auto V
2-Riven The Sequel To Myst
3-Bioshock
4-Assassins Creed: Origins
5-Skyrim

GTA V story mode actually towers over the competition, as much as I love the other games (and plenty that are not in the top 5) on the list. The environment screams for exploration and experimentation, and in conjunction with the fantastic writing that somehow manages to be satirical while at the same time channeling epic movie sagas such as the incomparable Heat yields a world that is as much fun to observe as it is to play in. And boy oh boy is there a lot of play to be had.

What are some of your favorite game worlds and why? Is it even that important to you?
Click to expand...

yeah I would add TW3 game worlds too, it's pretty impressive as well.
 

Bomba Luigi

Bomba Luigi
Bloodborne comes to mind, very interessting setting with some of the best level design you can find. Same for Dark Souls really, there aren't many 3D games that can give that high class leveldesing as those two. I would even say the only one that can possible rival (or even surpass) them is the first Metroid Prime (Super Metroid also is one of my favorite 2D settings).

When it comes to just settings and what happens in the setting in regards to story and characters Witcher has to take the top spot for me.

And Big Open worlds to just explore around then Bethesda always does really good stuff here (Yes, even Fallout 4. For all his faults and how dissapointing it was, the World itself is pretty good). Tough Breath of the Wild has taken the Top spot here for me when I just wanna explore and fool around in a world.
 

Gun Star

Gun Star
My favorite would have to be Mass Effect. Shows humans are not the center of the galaxy or are a utopian race like Star Trek always like to force on us. Shows we are still a very war like race like the Turians.

Next one would have to be Fallout world. I mean who doesnt love post nuclear dystopian stories. I think fiction wise those stories are my favorite.
 

[VR] optimal_909

[VR] optimal_909
Elite is the top for me for nailing a sci-fi world without having humanoid aliens and other BeeEss. Also the glorious galaxy with a hint of realism and Earth in it...

But I agree with OP about GTA V for the contrary - these days 99% of all games are sci-fi, fantasy or whatever, in GTA I love the fact that it is based on real world, and this is why I regret that the whole online has to detached to something nonsense.

XCOM EU/EW was great for a similar reason, that the aliens have arrived to our present reality. This was one of the reason XCOM2 never clicked.
 
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