What Are Some of The Most Atmospheric Games?

[BurningDoom]

What Are Some of The Most Atmospheric Games?

The Resident Evil games come immediately to mind. At least the early ones before they started becoming cliches of themselves. The sound of shuffling of zombie feet, hearing a moan in the distance, the creaking of a door opening, or when the music suddenly picking up as a zombie reaches out for you as you run around a corner, or even the dripping of water from a sink. Every little detail is noticed because you're so alert as you play through these games.

Super Metroid is a great pick for having a creepy, alien sound atmosphere to it. The music and the sound effects complement the feeling perfectly. Even the look of the graphics in this game give you and eerie feeling.

On the same note as Super Metroid; the Metroid Prime series does a fantastic job of setting the mood. The alien world, the deep and dark catacombs, the strange-looking and sounding alien creatures, the desolate and mostly empty ancient ruins, and the absolutely superb soundtrack that is playing along with it really sweeps you into this game (as does the first-person view). The first moment I walked into the Pheandra Drifts (the snow area) the combination of the stunning graphics, the ambient music, and the light-bird/bug things flying gracefully through the air was stunning. It was a perfect gaming moment.

The King's Field first-person view action-RPG series on PS1/PS2 has always done a great job of making you feel isolated, alone, and vulnerable as you explore it's massive worlds and deep catacombs. Again the music seems to fit the mood perfectly with this series.

The Halo series needs a nod here, too. I know that a lot of retro-gamers love to hate this series. But you can't deny the production values put into it. It's a well-polished, well-made game with great voice-acting and a fan-freaking-tastic soundtrack that just adds to the epic sci-fi storyline being laid out before you in the Campaign mode. And some really cool cutscenes that look great to this day (seriously, watch them sometime, don't skip them). Everything put together leaves you with the same feeling after beating one these games that you get after seeing a great summer blockbuster film that actually delivers on the hype.

[Opa Opa]

The Silent Hill titles feature some of the most unique atmospheres in gaming that range in feelings of morose and depressing to outright hellish and grotesque. The fog and darkness surround the player leaving them with a sense of abandonment that no other game series has yet to match (from what I've played, at least).

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Gonna add Valkyrie Profile. Mostly because it belongs on every "Best game" list.

Sly 2 had a really cool atmosphere, but it wasn't scary and foreboding - it was fun, daring, and very exciting!

Shadow of the Collosus and Ico, for sure.

VVVVVV had the coolest retro atmosphere ever. Couldn't stop playing!

Legend of Mana has a really cute, winnie-the-pooh like atmosphere

Ace Combat 5 feels like a real battle sometimes, with Japanese screaming radio chatter and aircraft exploding all over. Awesome.

Mirror's Edge is very shiny and the atmosphere focuses on an impressionist light-reflection, hardly realistic feel that I think is really good for the gameplay

FFXIII is also shiny. I mean, the mechanics weren't that good, but the pop-strings music and paradigm shifts actually drew me in a lot. Other FF games like IX and VI were pretty atmospheric too.

Zelda games. All of them...except Twilight Princess. Great game, but still not that atmospheric.

Defender on PS2...not exactly awesome but still pretty tense.

[KDub]

Eternal Darkness is one of the best games for setting a mood via atmosphere. The sounds and empty feeling of everything do more to creep you out than anything else in the game (god I love that game).

Half Life is also a good example of a really setting you up with just the right visual and sound cues to get you in the mood for each level. With the beginning feeling mostly like a survival horror game to the end where it is all about shooting first and asking questions later.

Minecraft is really pure atmosphere. I like the game, but after a while you realize that it is super repetitive and really just about doing daily chores and do them without being killed by random wild creatures. What keeps you going is that atmosphere of being in this huge world all your own trying to get supplies and survive.

[Xeogred]

Super Metroid, Secret of Mana, Deus Ex, drown me in their atmosphere whenever I play them.

I can give the nod to the first Halo. It more than likely took cues from Unreal, the atmosphere tells the whole story in Unreal, amazing game that more people need to know about (it's more than just a multiplayer series!), System Shock 2 is a good one as well. The game felt so claustrophobic in a scary but awesome way, and early on in the game when you're low on ammo it's often best to just run from enemies, making it even more frantic and crazy.

STALKER, goes without saying. When it comes to the underground industrial segments and all it blows FEAR, Half-Life, etc, away. There were hardly any cheap "jumpy" scares too, but the atmosphere and sound design was just way too good, so it was so intense. That said FEAR and the Half-Life series still have amazing atmosphere themselves. Condemned was a really good one as well.

Ocarina of Time still gets me. Back when it was brand new the game really pulled me in, with the scary cave themes, dark tones and stuff, it was really awesome.

[Gamerforlife]

The original Tomb Raider - That sense of mystery and solitude that was largely lost in all later Tomb Raider games

Dead Space - There are probably going to be way too many survival horror games in this thread, but this game was pretty creepy throughout

Viva Pinata - It's just amazing when you have a large garden, seeing all the different wildlife running around, doing various things and making all kinds of noises, watching the day turn into night, seeing different NPCs randomly walk into your garden and interact with everything, noticing a predator come in to stalk one of your animals, seeing some new animal you have never seen before stroll into your garden and start nibbling on something you have growing in there or various other things. There's so much activity going on when you get a really large garden with lots of plants and wildlife it can really draw you into the game along with how beautiful all the various grass, ponds, trees and other beautiful things you can create look in the game

Lord of the Rings Two Towers
Lord of the Rings Return of the King

There were levels in both of these games that really made you feel like you were in the midst of a big, epic, large scale, medieval battle. Orcs and NPCs doing battle everywhere and all kinds of chaos and crazy shit going on around you as you cut a swath through any thing that dared attack you while simultaneously fending off arrows and keeping an eye out for other stuff like those damn ladders those orcs were using to scale the walls, waiting to be pushed off by you

Grand Theft Auto III - I'm not a big GTA fan, I dropped off after playing Vice City. That said, the first time I played GTA III I truly felt like I was in a real city and I got sucked into that game's world and wanted to explore every inch of it

I think one thing Burningdoom left out about Halo, was how lively, animated and smart the covenant were in the first game, which is the only Halo game I put significant time into. That went a long way towards making me buy into the original Halo's world as those aliens felt so real and didn't come across as dumb, AI bots but real creatures that were reacting to everything I did in their unique, individual ways

[Jontendo]

* Resident Evil 4 (the first survival horror I ever played) was definitely an unforgettable experience. Creepiness, despair, astonishing and satisfying.
* "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" had a distinctly memorable atmosphere as well IMO. All the better once you eventually get past the elevator segment.
* "Beyond Good and Evil" Ok, it wasn't super atmospheric, but the stealth sections combined with knowing you're the persona non grata unraveling the Alpha Sections/DomZ conspiracy made for some very tense moments. Still crossing my fingers for a part 2 to this one.

Zelda games. All of them...except Twilight Princess. Great game, but still not that atmospheric.

Wait, am I really to infer that you found "Zelda II: The Adventure of Link" more atmospheric than Twilight Princess, or 'Am I error'?

[ExedExes]

Shenmue does it for me. The first night I played it, just the degree of control from walking around a Japanese style house, the ability to open any door or drawer you come across, the objects that you can interact with and examine, the attention to detail in graphics and sound, the authentic experience of the entire game does it for me every time.

I'm gonna second Deus Ex too. Something about that game as well, makes you forget its an FPS/RPG/whatever -- I think its the darkness and the mood and the same types of interaction which was something new back then too.

[Hobie-wan]

Another vote for Stalker. Especially the Red Forest and lab X-19.

[Jmustang1968]

Fallout games, old and new.

Gears of War series also does a good job at capturing the atmosphere.

I also liked the feel and world of the old Shadowrun Genesis game(never really played the SNES version so I cant speak for it)

I definitely add a +1 to the Silent Hill games


FFVI, the vast changes from the first half the of the game to the 2nd really sets the mood of the world