Most Atmospheric RPGs

Nephologist said:

The Trollshaws were amazing. Remember the first time you walked over the ridge and got the first sight of Rivendell? Or how about wandering through the creepy Old Forest and stumbling upon Tom Bombadil's house? The huge statue across the lake at Evendim? The northern lights of Forochel? Magical is correct.

I have to say though I have a soft spot for both the Lone Lands and Forochel. I spent waaaaaaay too much time grinding reputation in the Lone Lands just so I could get the Eglain's mount, the Appaloosa style painted horse.

I haven't played LOTRO in almost 4 years, now I'm getting the itch to again.

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Absolutely, man. Tom Bombadil's appearance and location was amazing. Evendim was gorgeous. Forochel was a lonely, cold wasteland, and the nighttime sky was beautiful. The winding paths in the Trollshaws, my god. The music that played when you would wander into a dangerous path that wound through the mountains. Magical indeed.

When I played, I loved the Tshaws so much that I served as a sort of guide there. I would help people find their way, whether it was navigating their way to Eregion, or finding a good place to hunt for Elven relics, I would hang around there and help people. I think I impressed a few people when I would ride up on my trusty Elven steed, because when I was playing, most people skipped the Tshaws altogether, and never were able to build up enough rep to get the steed. I was pretty thrilled when I finally got that far, and I showed my love to that area by helping people.

I hear they are redoing it soon or have redone it already. I will probably go back sometime and load up my level 56 Ranger and check it out.

Fluent said:

Absolutely, man. Tom Bombadil's appearance and location was amazing. Evendim was gorgeous. Forochel was a lonely, cold wasteland, and the nighttime sky was beautiful. The winding paths in the Trollshaws, my god. The music that played when you would wander into a dangerous path that wound through the mountains. Magical indeed.

When I played, I loved the Tshaws so much that I served as a sort of guide there. I would help people find their way, whether it was navigating their way to Eregion, or finding a good place to hunt for Elven relics, I would hang around there and help people. I think I impressed a few people when I would ride up on my trusty Elven steed, because when I was playing, most people skipped the Tshaws altogether, and never were able to build up enough rep to get the steed. I was pretty thrilled when I finally got that far, and I showed my love to that area by helping people.

I hear they are redoing it soon or have redone it already. I will probably go back sometime and load up my level 56 Ranger and check it out.

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Oh, yes...I remember grinding those Elven Relics so I could get my Rivendell dress...oh, memories...

Atmosphere for me is really about creating places that feel, if not real, then at least natural and memorable. It takes a good mix of graphics (art direction, most of all), sound, and even UI. There needs to be a lot of cohesiveness and density. Games that achieved such for me:

- Ultima VII: Arguably the most atmospheric game in the series, and for me, the immersiveness of a purely virtual world will never be trumped by multiplayer games, so it comes out ahead of Ultima Online as well. The portraits alone were so lovingly done, but with the environments and music each location in the game had a distinct atmosphere that made Britannia feel truly like a little world of its own, rather than a collection of places. Not to mention the countless tidbits of people's everyday lives that you'd either never heard in other games or didn't care about.

- Might & Magic VII: The atmosphere for me is the sole reason to play MM6-8, and 7 comes out on top for me for the locations. The different races all had their own touch to their domains, and the music and voices had that 3DO era feel that makes those games special to me. It was a clear step up from 6 where the world seemed too cobbled together, and IMO better than 8 as that was a bit far out with the races.

- TES: Arena: Such a bold game for its time, with so many different locales. Nothing like travelling from the deserts of Hammerfell to icy Skyrim, picking your way through pixelated snow while soothing tunes chirp to your enjoyment While I can't entirely put my finger on it, no later TES game achieved that fuzzy feeling for me.

Honorable mention to Dark Sun: Shattered Lands. Very few games manage to portray a desolate environment in a way that you really want to preserve the lives of NPC's instead of slaughtering them.

Dungeon Lords for all categories? Ask Mike if you won't take my word for it.
Justt kidding i liked Gothic best

On the PC, for me it would be Gothic II.

However, overall, I would have to rate From Software's King's Field series at the top of my list when it comes to atmosphere.

Nephologist said:

Arkenstone as well, although not because I actually knew anybody on that server. It just happened to be first on the alphabetical list of servers when I first signed in.

I had (have?) a level 50 something minstrel as my main that I played though most of the SoA content and just into Moria before I got burnt out. Then real life issues intervened that limited my gaming time, and as we all know limited gaming time and MMOs just don't mix. Last time I logged in was sometime in the summer of 2011.

Do they still run the Seasons festivals? I had a great time playing the fishing mini-game during the Summer festival and hanging out in the Shire setting off fireworks.

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Aack! Sorry, I didn't see this before!

The last time I was on, they did. And they try to introduce new horses and items every year, at least a few. I used to collect all the horses but it all got to be too much work…

Though I remember joining the Inn League and how the Inn League tokens made it easier. You know they did away with those? At least I think they did…I didn't see them when I logged in last. Inn League tokens + hunter teleports made festivals easier…

Ugh. Did you get burnt out before Moria, or in it? Moria was burnout central for me (and my partner)...

I actually loved Moria, but ironically, that is the same time I got tired of the game as well. Well, I had basically finished Moria and needed to take a break from the game. I had played for hundreds of hours to get that far (I leveled up slowly and took in all the sights), so it was just a natural timing for me to move on.

You guys are talking about the turbine MMO right ? I had a completely different experience. I was already tired of the grinding after the starting area and quit. Maybe I should have given it more time and it opened after that. Cant remember exactly but the first big city (strider's city) I came across looked bland and uninteresting. It just filled me with dreadfulness and I quit, again maybe I should have stuck with it. Oh well.

ilm, It's a beautiful, immersive Middle Earth to explore. It opens up after about level 10, if I recall correctly, and you're able to visit different 'zones' that you may be familiar with from the lore. If you follow the main story it doesn't have much of a grind feel to it, and you meet some familiar faces as well.

I absolutely loved it. Loved it to the point I was taking screenshots everywhere I went and even grinding myself just to do certain things. I still have a lot of fond memories from the game and I plan on going back sometime in the future. I HAVE to see Lothlorien.

Lotro was better in the early days; anyone playing recently would run a high chance of burning out simply due to the prevalence of people rushing through the game. Early on, it was very different without a F2P icon on every UI widget, with no skirmishes to sprint you through levels, and with no legendary items to introduce MMO grind mechanics to the game.

Still a good game, but levels 1-50 remain the best. And it's difficult to get into without friends these days, as the likelihood of running into likeminded, smell-the-grass players is ever-diminishing.

Every now and then, I get a a hint of curiosity in regard to the new race introduced last year. Despite having upward of 30k lotro points accrued by now, that's all it remains - a hint of curiosity. The game really lost its way; it's just become increasingly stale with each expansion. DDO as well. YAY TURBINE/WB !

Drithius, it's funny you say that, because I was literally the only person I really knew of in LOTRO that took his time and "smelled the roses", as it were.

I even purchased the "No XP Gain" item from the shop, because I simply didn't want to rush through levels. Stayed away from all those instances, skirmishes and the like and just had fun questing and getting the story bits from NPCs, while exploring and seeing the sights at my own pace (despite nearly everyone in my Kin doing the opposite).

It was glorious, but I was often taken aback by the rush of nearly everyone to get to max level. If you're just rushing to get to the max level, you miss out on the lovely stuff. IMO, of course.

Yeah, Ilm. In my experience, it didn't start getting really fun until after the starting zone. That's when things got really interesting. It's not like WoW where it's designed to hook you right away. You need to get out of that first zone.

I'm assuming you played as human? If you'd given it just a little while you'd have gotten to Bree, which is one of the biggest cities in the game. I promise that that's more interesting than the human starting area.

But yeah. It was way more fun in the glory days before it went F2P…the game felt cheaper, somehow…dirtier…more run down after that. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what did it.

I was hooked by it *because* it was F2P. I'm thankful the option existed (and I ended up spending some money on the game as a result.)

But I did miss some things. Complete white-out snow storms in the Misty Mountains, Moria super darkness and difficulty level, etc. etc. A lot of things were revamped and changed by the time I got around to the game, for better or for worse.

Dagar said:

However, overall, I would have to rate From Software's King's Field series at the top of my list when it comes to atmosphere.

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I loved the King's Field games for their atmosphere and exploration which were unique for console RPGs back then. They were the first true 3D RPGs I ever played, and they were released when PC games were still using 2D engines. The soundtracks are especially amazing and remain among my all-time favorites.

Unfortunately, they haven't aged well at all, especially the PS1 titles. I tried replaying them recently and was appalled at how ugly and clumsy they seemed. As I've said before, I'd love to see them get remade for modern systems.

Aubrielle said:

For real. LOTRO oozed atmosphere. I actually got seriously creeped out way out in the Lone Lands and up in the North Downs when night came and you started hearing those drums way, way out in the distance…

I still shiver thinking about it.

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Let's not forget Angmar itself. Dark and ominous. My all time favourite across all games i've played.

Pibbur who at the moment happily wanders said area as a hobbit warden.

pibbur who said:

Let's not forget Angmar itself. Dark and ominous. My all time favourite across all games i've played.

Pibbur who at the moment happily wanders said area as a hobbit warden.

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The spiders in Angmar were more disgusting than spiders in any other part of the game.

But I did love the ruins in Angmar. They *felt* ancient beyond imagining, and you knew they dated back to the First Age. There were corpses that came at you, and arms that would inch their way across the ground. It was truly terrifying.

For not being a 'horror' game per se, LOTRO sure had some scary parts.

And Fluent, imho, you missed some of the best of the game. I'm still glad it hooked you, though...it's still a remarkable game.

Aubrielle said:

Aack! Sorry, I didn't see this before!

The last time I was on, they did. And they try to introduce new horses and items every year, at least a few. I used to collect all the horses but it all got to be too much work…

Though I remember joining the Inn League and how the Inn League tokens made it easier. You know they did away with those? At least I think they did…I didn't see them when I logged in last. Inn League tokens + hunter teleports made festivals easier…

Ugh. Did you get burnt out before Moria, or in it? Moria was burnout central for me (and my partner)…

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In it. I got to the first quest hub area in Moria when I got burnt out. There were a number of reasons why, but I hated I couldn't use any of my horses. I spent tons of time grinding rep and festival tokens to acquire a large number of horses and I couldn't use any of them in Moria. So it took forever to get anywhere and I really didn't feel like riding a goat

The other problem I had with Moria was that it was (at the time, not sure about these days) the only level 50-60ish area available. All other lower level ranges had multiple areas available, if you got sick of one you could try another. Not so with Moria. Plus you couldn't even get access to Lothlorien.

Seems I missed a lot I started to play right after it became f2p and I can remember Bree as the first city. I think I did too many subquests instead of following the main storyline.

I prefer to use the word "immersive" than "athmospheric", because immersion is created by an certain "athmosphere".

My personal favourites :

- Drakensang 2
- Zanzarah - in the woods there, especially, the other parts didn't create that much of immersion / athmosphere for me
- Fable 1, also especially the woods and the roads, they did it pretty well for my taste
- Gothic 1
- Icewind Dale
- Indiana Jones And The Fate of Atlantis - THIS is the measure I take to every game !
- Monkey Island 1 (MI 2 as well, but not that much) - my second measure
- brand new addition : The Monkey-Island-like island on Rishi in SWTOR - they were able to get some sort of "pirate flair" there, although it still looks like Star Wars Sci-Fi … But just looking at the stars in the sky and the luminous trees there … well made, well made.
- Dragon Age was also able to create some "immersion" for me - albeit mostly in the tunnels as well.

Which leads me to the curious sensation that it's mostly dense places, thick with "athmosphere", thick with feelings, which are able to create the best immersion for me.
Which wears out for me if the tunnels are too long.
Thick, immersive woods are far lesser implemented. I think Zanzarah and Drakensang 2 did it best. But that's my personal opinion. And I'm not a player of many games.

I still firmly believe that everyone should turn the speakers on, and play Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis. The feeling it creates is still unrivalled. At least for me.

Seems like I am bringing some games to the table which were not, or hardly mentioned before.

I am not so sure whether games actually became less atmospheric, or it's simply much harder now to impress me and I became more analytic, seeing straight to game mechanics.
It might actually be a mixture of both.
In any way, there are hardly any RPGs in the last year which completely impressed me atmospheric wise.
In addition I have several memories of RPGs of which I have strong atmospheric memories from single parts of the game, while other parts of the game were more mechanical. I guess nostalgica also plays a big role as this helps to blur the lines and a atmospheric scene often becomes an atmospheric game if you wear nostalgic glasses.

Anyways, here are my picks, some of them are just scenes, others are complete games:

One of the oldest games which had a very atmospheric scene was Realms of Arkania 1 - Blade of Destiny (1992). While the game was cool overall, I found and still find that the intro was done incredibly well. It builds up, explaining all the background, supported by great music and ends in the phantastic perspective of an adventure group, who knows nothing of it, but is eager to travel the world for adventure. It's amazing how some pictures, some text and great music accomplished that atmosphere.
I'll link the German CD Version as it just has the coolest Audio:
The Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yWxQVgYOEQ

Shortly before that is Eye of the Beholder 2 (1991). Same thing. The game was quite good, but what I found was incredible was the intro, in particular when in the Mages Chamber.
Again it's a great combination of Graphics, Text and Music. Westwood did a great job generall regarding Audio and Graphics. Love that in all their 90s games.
The Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0lteK-l7YQ
Also check out this amazing cover of the theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_sLUsxDc1U

Another game which had a great atmosphere of a completely different kind was Daggerfall (1996). I don't know if you necessarily call it atmospheric in terms of this thread. The atmosphere of Daggerfall was not generated by Story, Graphics or Sound. But by size and freedom of possibilities, similar to Elite 2. You could just venture out and had an unfogiving (and completely bug ridden) world which didn't give you anything without fighting for it. I mean 47 regions, 15000 towns and 750000 NPCs. And this atmosphere is also why all the successors in the Elder Scrolls line were disappointments to me. I hope that Malevolence and Elite Dangerous, both games of a similar scale will bring back the atmosphere when I am going to play them.
Some random gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2xa2r-0bTI

Next up is Albion (1995). This is also a game which did not just have some atmospheric parts, but was a very atmospheric experience as a whole (or at least the first dozen of hours or so where you were in the first area type). The reasons for that are again the graphics, which were kinda exotic as they were "rounder" and you were able to go full 3D in dungeons, the setting (you played some space travelers who crash landed on a planet, waking up in a djungle with exotic catlike habitants) and the sound background (djungle noises). A great experience in a game which is hardly known.
Random Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iadPq6KwvYU

Next is one of if not the most atmospheric games I can remember: Stonekeep (1995). This game I actually took as "consolidation" game instead of Dungeon Keeper at my birthday as Dungeon Keeper was -again- postponed. And while Dungeon Keeper later on was a big disappointment for me, Stonekeep, which I took due to the promising Box Art, however completely grabbed me.
While the intro special effects were really horrible and the graphics in the game were not so good either, almost trashy at some point, the sound environment was one of the best I have experienced.
The intro still gives me goosebumps due to its music (at 1:40 onward at the link below) and the whole game was extremely atmospheric as well. A great mixture of music, sound effects (the footsteps alone are amazing), and a dungeon which actually felt alive for a change.
The Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0VSop8sJr4
Random Rameplay (with footsteps!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSd4QePlOA0

Then there is Diablo 1 (1996). What I really love about Diablo 1 is the extremely dark vibe it sends out by it's dark graphics, and gloomy sound and music. The atmosphere in Diablo 1 is imho not reached by D2, which receives more love than D1 from everyone I know, or D3.
Random Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl5I5CUTqh4

Another underdog is The Fall: Last days of Gaia (2004). While it had a horrible release, it was well patched later on. This post apocalyptic game provided the most atmospheric quest I ever experienced, where I was sent to a journey to a distant place called Eden, where should be Water and Vegetation. I won't spoil what happened, but it was really amazing as far as I remember. The rest of the game was quite atmospheric, and decent.
I think the story and the music provided the biggest part of what made the atmosphere so good. The music is just amazing for a post apocalyptic game.
Official Trailer with Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzGgqiaDzKA
Playlist of Songs which I actually uploaded myself some years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zyScCU_O4E&list=PL89D631BACCCD1385&index=20

Time for another game with lots of Desert and the only MMO in the list: Anarchy Online
Anarchy Online was buggy as hell when I played it at release. But what was absolutely stunning was the music, which made it an extremely atmospherical experience when it actually ran.
In addition it had one of the most moving Intro videos imho, which was also a great way to introduce the world.
Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YKJM0vOroc
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg8ryBJPTCg

We are not leaving the Deserts yet. Of course there has to be a fallout title in the mix.
Personally the most atmospheric were actually single parts of Fallout 3 (2008). While quest and gameplay wise the inferior game to Fallout NV, in my eyes it had the better setting and the quests which were in the game, were more memorable than the ones in NV. But what was most memorable for me were all these little grim sceneries, which made you shiver or go wow!. Like a little room under a bridge where some dude searched shelter and in the end went crazy. Satellite dishes which were misused for a apocalypse party, skelletal remnants of a dead and couple with their child lying in a bed, where they decided to kill themselves rather than live in a post apocalyptic world.
That's the post apocalyptic atmosphere I find really fascinating.
Besides of that Fallout 3 also put TONs of work into tiniest details. Like a house of rubber and pens on some desk. Things like that made the world feel alive (and then there was also the horrible grind...)
Some Gameplay with Eastereggs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy-4v43HxmU

The last and most recent game I want to mention provides a very different atmosphere again. An atmosphere which fits perfectly to the setting of Spaniards meeting native Americans in Expeditions: Conquistador (2013). The Game did overall a great job in representing the game of that time, treating both sides with respect and giving you lots of choices.
What I will link here is probably not the most representative, but my favorite track in the OST:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-woF5nb7H4&list=PL7n9Lk9WUhM--QO2z4VyhYFU-lBHIPlbq&index=3