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Atmosphere in games
Thirith
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
One thing that I keep realising over and over again is that when it comes to game visuals, I'm not all that much into sheer technical prowess, but I do love games that evoke a certain atmosphere. Obviously the tech bells and whistles help with this, but several of the most atmospheric games I've played aren't all that impressive tech-wise, or at least they don't rub their "Most Shaders and Polygons Ever!" in your face.
Two things that, when done well, make a game so much more atmospheric for me: credible lighting and dynamic weather. GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption do so well with the lighting; there's something to the quality of light in Liberty City that almost makes you feel the sun filtered through smog on your own skin, even while the shadows are iffy and there's clearly visible pop-up. Similarly, some of my favourite moments in games such as the Stalker series are changes in the weather, shadows being thrown by lightning in the distance, or the cone of your flashlight illuminating just enough of the Zone for you to know that you're truly screwed. Talking of shadows: well done shadowing immediately makes a game world more credible for me. It's one of the reasons why Oblivion and Falout 3 don't pull me in quite as much as a game where the environment throws shadows that wander over time. (I'm a sucker for well done 24-hour time lapse videos of games.)
There are also other aspects (sound effects, music, the game world existing independently from the player) that generate atmosphere for me, but lighting and weather are probably at the top for me.
What makes a game's atmosphere for you? And which games do you consider most atmospheric?
Red Dead Redemption time lapse
Assassin's Creed time lapse
Two things that, when done well, make a game so much more atmospheric for me: credible lighting and dynamic weather. GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption do so well with the lighting; there's something to the quality of light in Liberty City that almost makes you feel the sun filtered through smog on your own skin, even while the shadows are iffy and there's clearly visible pop-up. Similarly, some of my favourite moments in games such as the Stalker series are changes in the weather, shadows being thrown by lightning in the distance, or the cone of your flashlight illuminating just enough of the Zone for you to know that you're truly screwed. Talking of shadows: well done shadowing immediately makes a game world more credible for me. It's one of the reasons why Oblivion and Falout 3 don't pull me in quite as much as a game where the environment throws shadows that wander over time. (I'm a sucker for well done 24-hour time lapse videos of games.)
There are also other aspects (sound effects, music, the game world existing independently from the player) that generate atmosphere for me, but lighting and weather are probably at the top for me.
What makes a game's atmosphere for you? And which games do you consider most atmospheric?
Red Dead Redemption time lapse
Assassin's Creed time lapse
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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But if I had to explain it, it would be a distinct sense of place with strict design philosophies in place.
Far Cry 2 and Crysis had these moments where I was just tooling along and suddenly it was there, I was in the jungle, on the savanna and it was just perfect and serene.
Open world games really shine when you have that moment where you move across the map and suddenly you realize that your control of your characters was 1 to 1 of what you would have done in real life and dammit it was awesome.
ramble
ramble
ramble
What were we talking about again?
Far Cry 2 worked relatively rarely for me, perhaps because I could never 'unsee' the game itself. There was a weird muted quality to the graphics that made it look slightly fake for me.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Oh, and in Thief 3, when you're on that quarantined ship was very nice, especially with the noises that the undead guys would make, which would really set me on edge.
Alot of it come from how intricately detailed the world is.
Also demon's souls, it can really create tension just from how hard it is, but it also does well by tying in various aspects organically, like its multiplayer. Also great art style.
But back onto Far Cry 2, it was hard sometimes, you'd get into the game and it wouldn't "click" for a long while.
Oh, and it was also scary as all hell, with the backwards talking ghosts in the first game and creepy steampunk era biomechanical servants in the second.
The Stalker games get an honourable mention because of good lighting and sound design as well, but nothing beats Thief 1 and 2 in my opinion.
Stalker is wonderful for creepy atmosphere, the tension in the air at night is unmatched, and the exploration of abandoned buildings is amazing. The random events and unsettling noises that occur while you explore. Nothing has come close personally for creepiness.
Fallout's desolate open atmosphere is wonderful, the feeling of being a smaller part of a bigger picture is pretty great.
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Tomb Raider legends in part had great atmosphere due entirely to the excellent composition by Troels Folmann.
Brutal Legend had an excellent heavy metal world, because all the little details made the world come alive.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Whenever I think of games with a good atmosphere, they're usually scary games, not that they have to be, it's just what I think of.
For modern, Bloodlines. They nail the World of Darkness feel. No modern RPG like it.
For straight up creativity, SMT Nocturne. The Vortex World is just like nothing else.
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This... This is what open world games a missing...a little home with some maids and servants to hire and keep things tidy while you go out and save/conquer the world/avenge your gang/explore the universe.
(Blowouts are added with a mod, so that scripted NPC event yaps on as if nothing is happening)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi43xuf1N_M
Moving away from realism, The Void has a really great, creepy, dreamlike atmosphere. The use of color as a life force/weapon and the almost fairy tale logic of the game world also helps.
Speaking of realism, I have to say that the much-reviled Kane & Lynch 2 took an admirable risk with the "cheap digital camera footage uploaded to YouTube" visual style, and to me the atmosphere that style created was both more "realistic" and more interesting than going for pure photo-realism.
Some people complained that there was nothing to do in the overworld, that there should have been little enemies to fight or something, but I honestly think that would have detracted from the game.
I spent hours riding around just looking for stuff. I could find something as mundane as a pond and react by going "OH COOL A POND" and then swimming around in it for 20 minutes, grabbing onto fish and letting them drag me around.
It was just such I beautiful game world, I wanted to see all it had to offer.
Anytime we have a big snowstorm and I walk outside in it at night, I instantly think of Max Payne and feel a little creeped out.
I totally want to play Max Payne now.
That game does an absolutely great job of establishing and maintaining and atmosphere that, unlike pretty much every other fantasy game, makes the player feel weak, bleak, completely overwhelmed, and about to die horribly any second.
No-one has mentioned X-Com.
Got this whole depressing Eastern Europe feel to the missions.
Which is weird, since the devs were Brits and the art style is very 90s. Still, it's right there.
First Metroid Prime had good atmosphere, thinking about it.
And Marathon Infinity's "Where are Monsters in Dreams?" is nicely odd.
Why I fear the ocean.
Yep.
It's a little disappointing to me the way the sword leads you directly to each colossus. I'd've enjoyed the game more, I think, if it were less straightforward, making exploration more a part of the game structure.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Funnily enough I started playing Fragile Dreams last night, and the atmosphere is really well done. It conveys a sense of sadness and loneliness in a post apocalyptic world that I haven't really experienced in any other game. It's super depressing so far, but also beautiful in an odd way.
It's a shame that the combat is so shitty and feels really out of place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckqx-JdppfM&feature=related
Another game that comes to mind is Silent Hill Shattered Memories (Silent Hill games in general really). I think what really added to the atmosphere of the game for was that I played it during a winter break. So I think it was this perfect combination of the actual season affecting my attitude toward the game.
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dis right here. Amazing sound and lighting in this game. The Penumbra games did a really good job with atmosphere too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tiAah2IwIs&playnext=1&list=PLD5093198D251EB52
Probably my favorite dungeon crawler of all time.
Hell, by posting that I made myself want to play Call of Pripyat again.
Most of the stuff I'd bring up has already been mentioned, but I have to reiterate Metro 2033.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iMlC9JXcZ8&feature=related
The detail in that game is astounding. Little things like the way your gas mask cracks as you take damage and frosts over as you walk around in the frigid wind. And the claustrophobic breathing when your filter starts running down. Everything about that experience is just so thoroughly oppressive and savagely bleak.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
If someone tells me x creature is a bitch to take down and many people die trying it has to be a bitch to take down. I need to be at risk of dying.
If I have to fight some huge thing I need to feel like it has a history behind it.
Given that this is a very particular definition, here are games that I define as being atmospheric.
Stalker series.
Demon Souls. (Boletaria is a real world. I went there for a while, it was scary. Such an impressive game. If you haven't played it or you gave up playing it because of its difficulty I pity you for your loss.)
SoTC. (I haven't played Ico.)
Half Life 2. (Not half life 1, at the time. I don't count retroactive. Half life 1 was very immersive but it was too disjointed and partly randomised to be atmospheric. Half Life 2 made you feel like the city existed even when you were not there, mostly because of the major city scenes and the backdrops as you fought, as well as the time skips where the world had moved on without you.)
Portal. (mostly because of the last parts of the game, it was so well done)
Dark Messiah (this is a strange choice. It is because of the intro sequence and the general level design, as well as some of the npc interactions as you go on and just generally the way the game presented it's story to you. It felt bigger than you were. It's definitely not as deep as the others here though. Think of it as atmospheric lite.)
System Shock 2. Others will explain this one better. It's hard to go back to this though.
Thief 1 and 2. (My god these games were good at atmosphere. I've never seen a better presented city.)
Games that I don't think are atmospheric but I do think are immersive include.
GTA 4. (Beautiful game. It's parody approach to the world holds it back. There isn't any sense that the world extends beyond liberty city.)
Assassin's Creed series (I don't think this needs to be explained but just in case, this series is too formulaic and it shatters it's own immersion too much with gaming restrictions and gamey elements. It's really ironic, given that it is based on history.)
Max Payne - It's a well told story but the world isn't presented beyond what max tells you. The levels are too linear and what you see is too limited. It's fairly immersive but I never wondered or imagined anything beyond what the next enemy might be like.
Bioshock (I'm sorry about this. Please read my reason before anyone gets too mad at me. It's really really immersive. But it's too focused around presenting a particular story and there's zero information about what's beyond the city. The player was also too important to the world. Rapture is a cocoon surrounded by a yawning void. System Shock 2 had you starting out in a different environment. There was a sense that the world would continue without you. It would just be a lot worse.)
Most games like bioshock that exist in a void don't have atmosphere by my particular definition. They don't try to use their ability to generate immersion as a tool to present to you a world that exists beyond you. They get to the immersion goal, do it really well, then sort of give up.
For an example of why immersion isn't enough: you could have a really immersive box. If someone worked hard enough they could create a game that gave you the sense that you were in a box. Atmosphere is what is beyond the box. Hearing the sounds of things moving outside the box, or seeing glimpses of it through holes in the box walls. Even presenting an environment like a house outside the box, or children playing outside and sounding like you are in an attic, stuff like that. Bioshock was a great big box. Demon souls has a horrible creature open the box and try to kill you.
Dragon Age is a special case. It could have been atmospheric. It really could. But text is not a substitute for using immersion to set someones imagination on fire. It was more like reading a really interesting history book about a really interesting fantasy world. It was very impressive that they did it all but it doesn't have any atmosphere. Baldur's Gate 2 as well.
I could go on but I was more focused on presenting examples of what I mean by atmospheric. I think there's enough now that anyone reading this can figure out any other game I would think are atmospheric.