Strongest atmosphere

D

DArtagnan

Guest
What 3 games and 3 movies have the strongest atmosphere, for you?

As in, what games and movies transported you to another world most efficiently?

Games:

1. Bioshock
2. System Shock
3. MYST

Movies:

1. Alien
2. Star Wars
3. Blade Runner
 
Bioshock above System Shock, and no Gothic?

Have you been drinking? ;)

Anyways.. no way I could make such a list and limit it to only 3 games. My head would explode.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,136
Location
Florida, US
Actually, I have consumed a bit of wine today… It's been a tough week ;)

Bioshock does have a stronger atmosphere, yeah, but that's the only aspect of the game that's better than System Shock.

I know 3 is limiting, but I have to make it feasible to list answers…. But you're free to name as many examples as you wish :)
 
What 3 games and 3 movies have the strongest atmosphere, for you?

As in, what games and movies transported you to another world most efficiently?

Games:

1. Bioshock
2. System Shock
3. MYST

I mostly agree with this list with one exception:

1.Bioshock
2.Myst
3.Amnesia:dark descent.

Also I never played system shock I probably will buy it on GoG one day.
 
Joined
May 21, 2012
Messages
1,436
Location
Sto plains
We've discussed this before. I don't generally get excited about atmosphere in my games so my list would largely be empty. With one exception: Bioshock. It may not have been the best game, but that game just dripped with atmosphere. From the setting to the "people" to the sound effects, just completely engrossing from top to bottom. I even picked up Bioshock2 because of it, and will very likely pick up Bioshock3 when the time comes.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
13,535
Location
Illinois, USA
Bioshock stopped being interesting for me pretty quickly. Amnesia had so much atmosphere I had to turn it off. It was too late for me to find System Shock immersive - its too bad I missed it when it was first released.

Gothic? Meh, I stopped playing it pretty quickly. Still not sure what the big deal is.

Icewind Dale - I actually felt cold playing it. I wanted to wrap myself up in furs and put on thick gloves.

How about Bard's Tale? The color and animation in Skara Brae was coupled with music we never had before.

Myst - one of my colleagues had his wife start playing it. She had to quit and she couldn't put into English how it made her feel. It has been critiqued by the press as "lonely". I suggested the word she was looking for was "creepy"

The Residents: Bad Day at the Midway

what about that Kafkaesque adventure game where the player wakes up to find himself a cockroach?
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
5,212
Location
The Uncanny Valley
Movies:

1. Blade Runner
2. Once Upon a Time in the West
3. Stalker

Number one is the only film I´m really sure about since it came to mind immediately, the position of the other two is a bit shaky (some of the other contenders would be Aguirre, The Wrath of God, 2001, Ugetsu monogatari or Brazil).

Games:

Bloodlines, System Shock 2 and Gothic 2: NotR came to mind the fastest, so I´m settling on them, but I´m not going to give an order of preference since I´m really not sure.
 
Joined
Apr 4, 2008
Messages
2,437
Location
Prague
It was too late for me to find System Shock immersive - its too bad I missed it when it was first released.

It's never too late to find System Shock immersive. You should give it another chance. There are mods that add higher resolutions and mouse movement now.

When I think about it though, System Shock 2 was actually superior to me when it came to atmosphere. Not saying it's a better game overall, but it had me looking over my shoulder even more than SS1.

Gothic? Meh, I stopped playing it pretty quickly. Still not sure what the big deal is.

That's exactly how I feel about Myst. I never understood the popularity, even back in the 90s'.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,136
Location
Florida, US
I'm with JDR on a couple of things, first that Myst blows and second that picking 3 is insane. however i will comply by listing the 3 games i find most immersive and believable atmospheres in no order.

Bioshock - pretty much any Ken Levine and Co game would fit this one really, especially System Shock 2, hell even the Swat games and throwing Thief in might be a good substitution as well

Gothic - from start to finish even with the demo, i've never felt a game world come so alive and a medieval prison colony was certainly a unique setting to do it. as much as i love all pirahna bytes games the first is still the sweetest.

Stalker - any of the 3 games really. despite the decent amount of bugs in all versions, though primarily the first 2 nothing could detract from a mighty fine shooter RPG that also had survival horror bent to it. not to mention it taking place in a more or less an actual historical location.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
1,386
Location
California
It is indeed very hard to choose just 3 each but here are some that I feel are worth mentioning (in no particular order, off the top of my head):

Games:

Diablo 1 - In large part due to Matt Uelmen's superb score.

Morrowind - I really felt like I was in another world with this one, all the more interesting because of its alien, non-traditional aesthetics.

Demon's Souls - This captures the feeling of a lone warrior battling through a dark, oppressive, hostile environment perfectly.


This thread reminds me I really should get around to playing the "Shocks" and Gothics!

I'll have to think about movies for a bit…. though Alien probably tops the list, no doubt.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 19, 2011
Messages
510
Location
Oregon
Games: Realms of the Haunting, Gothic, Morrowind. And System Shock. And Lol 2. And Hexen ... and so on.
Movies: Vidocq, Westworld, Zero Population Growth.
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
3,754
I have a short memory for these things but Ultima 7, which I've been playing lately, is very atmospheric once you spend a bit of time on it. The graphics, music and story line all work well together.

GTA Vice City and Boiling Point: Road to Hell also sucked me right in.

Movies: Alien (the first one), The Thing, etc. All the usual suspects.
 
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
371
Location
Australia
Games, in no particular order, some of which have been mentioned by others:

- XCOM / UFO: Enemy Unknown
- Outcast
- Gothic
- Diablo 1
- Unreal
- Zork: Nemesis (one of the first games I remember to feature surround sound via headphones)
- Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva
- Trackmania Sunrise (huh? yeah.. carefree car racing with jumps and a sunshine feeling, best played in hot summer)

I'd even throw Populous and Civilization 1 into the mix, although I'm not sure how much nostalgia plays a role with those — which is probably also the reason why there aren't many new games on the list (and I haven't really played a lot of newish games).
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
3,486
Games, none that haven't been already been covered in excessive detail.

Movies, Dark City absolutely must be mentioned.
 
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
5,978
Location
Florida, USA
Lots of good mentions ;)

Stalker and Diablo are definitely high on my list as well. Diablo is noteworthy, because I usually don't get immersed in games using that isometric perspective.

Somehow, the combination of fantastic music and full-on gothic mode made it all work :)
 
I will never forget how I lost track of the paths in the deep, thick woods of Zanzarah. Never.

But that was almost 10 years ago. I wonder how it will be today ... But to me, this was a much impressive experience. The forest was so thick as if someone had been in a really thick real-life forest and try to model it after that. Very well done ! I'd say from today's perspective.

The rest of the game, however, didn't have such a great athmosphere, but rather a cute one.

What had impressed me very much were also the camps of Gothic 1 - this was new to me, then.
The landscape between them, however, was not that much impressive to me (and too dangerous anyway.
What I loved of this game was this "sense of wonder" : You could always find something surprisingly new and unpredicted.

The third setting that had a lasting impression on me were the Elven Woods in Drakensang 2. With this music ! A wonderful dream ...

Monkey Island 1 also had its very own, very unique athmosphere.
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,908
Location
Old Europe
Games:
1. PS:T
2. Morrowind
3. Martian Dreams (not sure about that one)'

Movies:
1. Alien; that threatening feeling
2. 6th sense
2. Silence of the Lambs

A fourth film might be Seven, I've never managed to watch it again because of the ending.

pibbur who sees dead draenei
 
Back
Top Bottom