Incline Adventure Game with the Best Atmosphere?

[Jools]

As simple as that. Which (adventure) game delivers the best atmosphere, making you really "feel" as if you "were there" while you're actually just slouching in front of your pc, with dreamy eyes and your mind racing to those pixel-build worlds?

Here's a couple of mine, off the top of my head.

The Dig - see dedicated thread (where I also mention my love for Full Throttle's general "feel");

Indy4 - Better than any of the movies (oh yes, I went that far), some sections are just really too atmospheric to withstand (Knossos palace is one of my favourite, and for some reason the very short bit in the Azores as well);

Monkey Island 1 - all of it. See my avatar. Also applies to MI2;

Syberia 1/2 - very good atmosphere overall, a great melancholy/noir/decadence/steampunk mix;

TLJ Dreamfall - the Casablanca bit is really good, and the Newport one too. The game itself is poor/shit overall, but it does deliver some nice atmospheres;

Beneath a Steel Sky - very short game, but the atmosphere is as intense and good as the game is short (3-5 hours? not kidding), and just left me wanting for more;

Gemini Rue - fairly recent indie gem, this short adventure is ALL about atmosphere.


Reminder: this is about atmosphere. Some games are shit gameplay- or story-wise, but still do a great job at delivering a decent/good atmosphere.

 

[Jools]

I forgot a honourable mention:

Fahrenheit (aka Indigo Prophecy in KWA, for whatever reason). This game manages to both deliver a great atmosphere throughout most if its entirety (more or less until it goes "ALIEN BEASTS FROM ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY"), AND at the same time be one of the worst adventure games ever to be released, gameplay-wise (shit mechanics, shit puzzles, shit camera, shit controls, shit everything that is even remotely gameplay-related).

 

[DraQ]

Reminder: this is about atmosphere. Some games are shit gameplay- or story-wise, but still do a great job at delivering a decent/good atmosphere.

Like Syberia.

Not much of an adventure player here, but I recommend Azrael's Tear.
Also Amnesia and Penumbra.

 

[evdk]

Sanitarium - the last two chapter are a bit weaker, but the atmosphere in the beginning is great.

 

[Ulminati]

Jools got most of the important ones down. But the lack of Grim Fandango on his list is a criminal oversight. Especially chapter 2 is dripping with noir atmosphere.

Just a shame you have to get through the petrified forest to reach it. The weakest sequence in the game by far

 

[DeepOcean]

Blackwell games, mostly the second one but the others are decent too.

 

[Jools]

Jools got most of the important ones down. But the lack of Grim Fandango on his list is a criminal oversight. Especially chapter 2 is dripping with noir atmosphere.

Just a shame you have to get through the petrified forest to reach it. The weakest sequence in the game by far

I have a confesshun to make. I only played Grim Fandango once, and hastily so. Always wanted to go back to it, but never got around to. I swear I'll do it, sooner or later.

If anything, I feel kinda guilty for leaving out Myst or 7th Guest, but again, that was a "off the top of my head" list, written on impulse, and by no means comprehensive.

I feel TLJ also should be mentioned, it did have some good moments.

 

[Animal]

Loved Full Throtle myself. Played it in one sitting, through the night.

 

[abnaxus]

Salammbo: Battle for Carthage

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

The atmosphere in it is superb. I've never played it during the premiere, it was one of those "must play" games on my oldies list. I had a great time with it, more immersive than any new full 3d game, with the music emphasizing the serious tone of the story.

 

[Jools]

The atmosphere in it is superb. I've never played during the premiere, it was one of those "must play" games. I had a great time with it, more immersive than any new full 3d game, great music emphasizing the serious tone of the story.

Ah, Dreamweb, yes! I do have a fond memory of it.

 

[Eyeball]

Discworld Noir. It really IS Noir. Also extremely discworldy.

Bonus points for doing the "combine clues in notebook to make conclusions" gameplay gimmick before it became commonplace and doing it very well indeed.

 

[Marquis de Lirium]

Anchorhead. I wish there were more games just half as atmospheric with the help of graphics and sound as Anchorhead is without.

 

[JudasIscariot]

Primordia has a great atmosphere, imho.

 

[Pyke]

The Dig is probably my favorite game for its world building. The music is incredible and the environments are incredibly alien.
Second I would say is The Neverhood. That entire game just oozed atmosphere and style.
And of course - Blade Runner. Cos its Blade Runner.

 

[Urbanolo]

Gabriel Knight (the first one) had a great soundtrack that really added to the eerie atmosphere.

 

[mindx2]

I also thought I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream was really well done and had a very... twisted atmosphere.

 

[Darth Roxor]

A few ones I'd also name have already been mentioned in this thread, so I'll drop one that hasn't been.

Goblins 3.

This might appear strange to those familiar with it one way or another because it looks/feels a lot like just a silly cartoon. But I find that layer to be kind of superficial and hiding the game's true value as something genuinely fantastic, in that oldschool French kind of really bizarre fantasy with a penchant for the philosophical (well, it is a French game so go figure).

First, the entire gameworld really feels fantastic in the deepest sense of the word 'fantasy'. Everything is like this big flight of fancy of the authors, everything is weird, non-familiar, but there is sense to all this strangeness, it never really goes full retard. It has its moments that are like a fairy tale (the vision of Wynona in the tavern sword, the level where Blount grows wings, the dragon, etc), but it also has others that are a total and utter mindfuck, like the early 'afterlife' level after Blount gets beaten up by a wolf or the entire final section. It's also just great how the game gradually turns from this whimsical start to the weirdness of the final maze. Not to mention how glorious is the soundtrack and how good of a job it does at upholding the atmosphere (I particularly dig some of the jazzy tunes that should, logically speaking, feel completely out of place, but actually end up fitting).





And second, after the general feel and atmosphere, I would like to come back to the philosophical aspect. There are some recurring themes, mostly those of duality, (light and darkness, good and evil, etc), that carry through the game from start to finish. Some of them are insanely subtle and only really become apparent after finishing the game, when you sit down and think about what kept happening all the time, how everything was presented, etc. There is a very well-crafted mystery running under the guise of comedy in Goblins 3, one that is at the same time philosophical, psychedelic, but also mundane, in the sense that it is common for everyone, and all of it can be traced to that one final in-game source that is the root of all discord.



Also, yet another adventure game that I'd point out here for delivering a truly fantastic world that keeps surprising you all the time is definitely Memoria. And Memoria also has an underlying mystery (more than one, too) that you are presented with at the beginning and which carries on to the very end, although it is much more... mundane/normal. Very well resolved, however, that is certainly true.

 

[MRY]

Anchorhead. I wish there were more games just half as atmospheric with the help of graphics and sound as Anchorhead is without.

Few games have made an action as anxious and terrifying as Anchorhead did for typing "z" while in the bonepit (the Aliens TC WAD for Doom is another). I thought the last third of the game was quite weak by comparison to the rest, though. (The initial research puzzles are sublime.)

Not sure if I agree with the definition of "atmosphere" given by Jools (which sounds more like "immersion" to me). I also think the list also skews a bit too heavily toward seriousness, when (as Roxor points out) sometimes atmosphere can be zany and fantastical. In any case, I'm inclined to just start rattling off games with well-developed tone and neat settings. To stop myself, I'll say this (which I think I mentioned once in another thread): I played Gabriel Knight as a kid, and then a dozen years later made it to New Orleans (for three days). I have never had the same feeling of deja vu induced by a game as I did on that visit: Sins of the Father is pretty perfectly captures the superficial, tourist image of New Orleans. (I can't say whether it goes any deeper than that.) When a marching band played "When the Saints Come Marching In" in the square outside St. Louis Cathedral, I practically swooned. A visit to the Voodoo Museum (complete with Marie Laveau artifacts and an authetic Caribbean zombie whip) sealed the deal. No other game (or work in any medium, really) has ever had that effect on me.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I really enjoy the atmosphere of both Laura Bow games, although they are markedly different.
The first game's decaying plantation is easily one of the most haunting and melancholy over worlds I've played through (especially if you bother discovering the entire history of the plantation and its inhabitants.)
The second game oozes a feeling of menace hidden by the glitz and glam of the flapper era.

 

[Jools]

This thread is delivering. So much stuff I need to (re)play.

Seriously, I think the Adventure subforum is probably the best and most part of the codex, and sure as the nine hells it's the most "retard-free".

you, guys.

 

[Cazzeris]

No love for LOOM? I was genuinely surprised by how the game achieved so much with so little. Those backgrounds still remain my favorite ones in the genre, some moments are blend with the music in a very impressing and memorable way, and there are some characters' close-ups and animations that still amaze me. I'll give some examples:

Spoiler

- The moment when Rusty's ghost gets angry due to being eaten by the dragon still creeps me out.
- Mandible's death looks bloodily awesome. I agree with B. Moriarty, it was the best animation ever created for a videogame.
- In the ending, when the swans are carrying the fabric of the universe there's a very well-done animation that adds a lot of "magical feeling" to the moment.

By the way, I'm talking about the 1990 EGA version because seriously; every version that came after the original one was worse one way or another.


Simon the Sorcerer 1 had a charming and nice fantasy feeling attached to it. Honestly, I didn't mind going through the forest so many times because the graphics were incredibly detailed and beautiful (the hidden faces located in the stones were a p. cool touch). The UI art was really neat too, and some of the voice acting has stayed glued to my head up to this day.

PS: x1000 to Darth Roxor. Goblins 3 is great.
EDIT: I've added graphical examples to illustrate the LOOM moments I've mentioned.

 

[DraQ]

Not sure if I agree with the definition of "atmosphere" given by Jools (which sounds more like "immersion" to me).

The ones I listed are highly immersive even in the modern, pathologically narrow sense.

I also think the list also skews a bit too heavily toward seriousness

Serious too.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Obligatory Scratches and Darkness Within mention.

 

[Jools]

Not sure if I agree with the definition of "atmosphere" given by Jools (which sounds more like "immersion" to me).

I admit it is a pretty fleeting concept, and I didn't put that much effort into describing it. Immersion definitively has something to do with atmosphere, but indeed, a game might be good at presenting, delivering, a certain atmosphere even without making the player "feel they were there". To me, the two abstracts go hand in hand and cannot really be split, but I do realize some people may not feel the same. Maybe I should have said "mood" instead of atmosphere, but that's also a very vague term. I was hoping that my examples and the discussion would have helped with making what I meant, clearer.

"Tone", which you mentioned, is another good word for it. Sometimes (often) it's just a combo of visual+sound, sometimes other elements are involved, dialogue, writing, gameplay itself.

For example, from the RPG genre, the first chapter from The Witcher 1 greatly conveys an atmosphere of decay, sadness, poverty and gloom, and it does so through all the elements: the visuals, the sound, the world design, the dialogue, the plot and the quests. That combination of elements, which stirs "feelings" up in me, is what I meant by atmosphere (so yeah, it's not just immershun or "feeling there", it's more about just making the player "feel").