Best use of interactive environments

[Gamerforlife]

Many games use the environment as a backdrop, there to be seen and admired for its amazing graphics and nothing else. I love it when a game lets me use the environment in some way, especially against my enemies. I like impaling an enemy on a background object in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks or throwing a vampire into an oncoming train in Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the Xbox or the wanton destruction that you can do in Stranglehold, blowing up a building and everyone inside it or crushing your enemies under a rockslide

What other games can you think of where the designers made good use of the environment rather than just using them as a backdrop for the action

[brunoafh]

Madworld let you do some pretty gnarly stuff with the environment, but it got a bit on the repetitive side.

The old Armored Core games really made you work with your environment strategically in a way that I haven't really seen done so well ever again honestly.

Also the Ryu ga Gotoku games make awesome use of your surrounding when you do heat actions in combat.

[o.pwuaioc]

The Red Faction games you could blow up the environment. I loved being able to blow up bridge (to the point where it actually hindered you) or tunnel through walls. Especially in multiplayer mode, where you can make sniping positions in the wall. I never got too far into current and last gen FPSs, so I don't know what other games copied that.

[Flake]

Batman Returns for the Super Nintendo. The background was one big painful weapon.

[Gamerforlife]

Batman Returns for the Super Nintendo. The background was one big painful weapon.

Yeah, that was pretty cool just throwing people into windows and stuff in 2D. That's got to be the most brutal 2D Batman game

[J T]

Minecraft, obviously is all about what you do with the environment. The same holds for some of its immitators like Terraria or Neverdaunt 8bit.

Also, I've never played these games, but the Dead Rising series is known for letting you use just about anything you can find as a weapon.

Another set of games that comes to mind are the Tecmo Deception and Kagero series (also TrapT). Instead of using any traditional weapons, these games are all about setting traps in the environment for enemies to walk into.

[hashiriya1]

First one that comes to mind is Shadow of the Colossus. Ico, too.

[Gamerforlife]

Minecraft, obviously is all about what you do with the environment. The same holds for some of its immitators like Terraria or Neverdaunt 8bit.

Also, I've never played these games, but the Dead Rising series is no for letting you use just about anything you can find as a weapon.

Another set of games that comes to mind are the Tecmo Deception and Kagero series (also TrapT). Instead of using any traditional weapons, these games are all about setting traps in the environment for enemies to walk into.

Oh yeah, the Tecmo Deception games are a GREAT example, especially since some rooms already had built in hazaards that you could use in addition to the traps that you could place in each room.

[molotovwars]

The Red Faction games you could blow up the environment. I loved being able to blow up bridge (to the point where it actually hindered you) or tunnel through walls. Especially in multiplayer mode, where you can make sniping positions in the wall. I never got too far into current and last gen FPSs, so I don't know what other games copied that.

My first thought was Red Faction as well.

[RXRob]

Silent Storm (PC)

One of the most criminally under-rated games ever in my opinion. It's a turn based combat game set in WWII, but it's built using a fantastic physics engine meaning that you can kill the enemy by sneaking around the building; lacing it with explosives and demolishing it.