Environmental Matters

No, I'm not talking about saving whales or buying a hybrid.  I'm talking about the atmosphere or setting where a game takes place.  I've played a lot of different games that takes place across a wide spectrum of settings.  Here are some of my favorites.

1.) Rapture--BioShock/Bioshock 2.  Let me first just say that I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to freaky games.  I try to avoid the scarier games so I can sleep at night.  Rapture is definitely one of the scarier atmospheres for a game.  From the first moment you sink down under the ocean you are filled with a sense of wonder at this beautiful, underwater city.  But once you step out of your bathysphere you realize that this utopia is broken and filled with genetically addicted and completely crazy splicers.  The shadows on the wall and screeching voices tell you that there is trouble up ahead...or maybe there isn't?  You turn around and bam, there they are.  Freaky-eyed little sisters dance through the leaking bulkheads accompanied by their hulking big daddies.  It's a shock around every corner.

Just wait till you get inside...

2.) Azeroth--World of Warcraft.  I have always enjoyed the variety of atmospheres in World of Warcraft. One minute you can be in a boiling lava cauldron and the next in snow capped mountains.  Depending on which faction you pick you can hang out in some unique cities that reflect the culture of that specific group--Orgrimmar with its pointy, orcish structures or Stormwind with its sweeping castles and cheery town buildings.  The towns and camps of the night elves were always my favorite with their adaptation of nature.

Winterspring.  One of my favorite zones.

3.) The Northern Kingdoms--The Witcher/The Witcher 2.  The Witcher series is filled with both beautiful and ominous environments.  In The Witcher you spend a lot of time in cities, but the cities are filled with many interesting areas.  The slums where the non-humans are forced to live are dirty and crowded.  Dark graveyards are filled with monsters that pop out from the shadows.  The sewers are dark, dank, and filled with monsters.  The Witcher 2 is where the environments truly shine.  The very first set of quests in the game have Geralt taking his place by the king's side in the middle of a medieval style siege complete with siege towers and ballistas.  It just gets better from there as you travel to the backwater town if Flotsam with its dark, looming forest.  Forests filled with monsters, of course.

This forest is creepy.  Watch out Geralt.

To be continued...