Editorial RPGDot 2003 awards: Gothic II wins for atmosphere

[Spazmo]

Tags: Gothic II; Piranha Bytes

Today, <a href="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</a> have the award for best atmosphere in a CRPG. The winner is <a href=http://www.pihrana-bytes.com>Gothic II</a>, with <a href=http://www.swkotor.com>Knights of the Old Republic</a> and <a href=http://www.elderscrolls.com>Morrowind: Bloodmoon</a> as runners up.
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<blockquote>Every good game has an atmosphere in which the player feels comfortable and in which the player almost can feel that he or she is part of the experience. A game can have stunning graphics or awesome sound, but without a decent atmosphere it won't last very long. And here are the games which are known to give this experience.
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The winner: Gothic 2
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The howling of a wolf will surely send shudders down your spine... after all, you're alone in the woods, unarmed - and you know that wolves always hunt in packs...
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The unique atmosphere which was at the core of what made the first game in the Gothic series so memorable has been brilliantly ported to its second part. Baroque forests, spooky caves, realistic animal behavior, day-and-night cycles, weather effects and haunting sounds combine with unique NPCs and a clever news system to create an immersive and quite unforgettable gaming atmosphere.</blockquote>
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Based on the reader's picks thus far, it looks like those three ganes are set to sweep the awards this year.
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[Anonymous]

Why exactly is Bloodmoon in all these? Morrowind was awful and Bloodmoon doubly so, OH YAY, MORE FETCH QUESTS BUT IN THE SNOW NOW.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Why exactly is Bloodmoon in all these? Morrowind was awful and Bloodmoon doubly so, OH YAY, MORE FETCH QUESTS BUT IN THE SNOW NOW.

You mean the others were better ?

2003 was a crappy year for commercial rpg.

 

[Rayt]

Well, Morrowind may have had shitty dialogue, crappy combat and an uninteresting story, it did have atmosphere. The whole island felt 'alive', so in my opinion it was a crap game in the long run but the first 10 hours you didn't notice because you were too busy walking around, visit villages and sight seeing. After a while you noticed that the people all had the same thing to say and that the gloriously made outdoors couldn't make up for the shitty quests.

I don't know Bloodmoon, but if they improved even further the feeling of wandering around freely in a living and breething world, I don't see why it shouldn't have been nominated for best atmosphere.

 

[Trash]

I don't know Bloodmoon, but if they improved even further the feeling of wandering around freely in a living and breething world, I don't see why it shouldn't have been nominated for best atmosphere.

Because good old gothic 2 beats morrowind pants down on the 'living breathing world' stuff and KOTOR really managed to convey the star wars universe?

For atmosphere I personally would have never nominated Morrowind. It´s a great sightseeing and hiking game, other than that it feels like a spreadsheet with pretty graphics.

But I have to admit, it seems strange that only kotor, mw and gothic get any real recognition. There are quite a few other rpg´s around, like Prelude to Darkness, Toee and NWN: hou that people liked.

 

[Volourn]

I want to kill MW. That game is so arr.. It's the only popular crpg that I just don't udnerstand why people like it so much. Oops... sorry., I do. It's BIG.

Out of that list; I only played 3 games - KOTOR, TOEE, and HOTU. They all did well with the atmosphere for the most part...

 

[Killzig]

ToEE didn't really have atmosphere to me, maybe it was just first impressions but the town of homlet seems like a total waste of space. Everyone is just standing around waiting for you to come talk to the miller or jaroo for them. At least in Nulb there were things like "yeah every night we pirates go brawl at the bar!" that's about it. And in the temple the little feud going on between the elements but beyond that the game world lacked personality. As Chris said earlier in this thread it's been a very disappointing year in the RPG market.

 

[Volourn]

Homlett was poor in the atmosphere (actually everything there was poor) department; but the main part of the game - the temple - had good, solid atmnopshere. Not great; but good.

 

[Killzig]

Agreed, but at least they got the TB combat right.

 

[Transcendent One]

ToEE had good atmosphere in the tutorial. Why the heck did Troika dump the room descriptions for the game itself? I thought Hommlet was atmospheric, but the atmosphere itself, that of a boring village, stunk. The moathouse had zero atmosphere, but the temples, I agree, were not bad.

As for Morrowind, it seems to me that all its strengths are concentrated into the graphics. At first the game was really immersive - I was wandering, looking at beautiful environments (yes, I think Morrowind has pretty graphics), ash filled plains, beautiful forests with wierd but pretty trees, etc. Then the wow effect wore off, and so did the rest of the game.

If anything this year should win for atmosphere, I think it's Gothic 2. Seeing people cook on the streets in Khorinis, people talk on the streets exchanging various rumours, people getting mad when you walked into their houses was really cool.

 

[Volourn]

Don't you mean beautiful brown trees? Beuatiful brown plains? Beuatiful brown swamps? etc., etc...

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Morrowind does have atmosphere, but it only works when you gaze over the land, not when you interact with it.

 

[Transcendent One]

Don't you mean beautiful brown trees? Beuatiful brown plains? Beuatiful brown swamps? etc., etc...

It's been a while since my last game, but I do believe there were plenty of green trees, and the swamps weren't brown, they were dark green, and the ash plains were black, and there were red lava puddles with black chunks of stuff floating in them. And the buildings (at least in Balmora) were grey, were they not? And the sky was blue during the day (grey in some areas) with a pretty sun shining, and it was really cool during the night when all the stars came out and you could see the two huge moons, and they weren't brown, one was reddish as far as I can remember, and then there were the spell effects that were not brown at all, and the ogrims and those dinosaur type thingies with daedra hearts (which were pinkish!) were green, and those machine thingies were yellow I think, and the water was blue.

 

[Volourn]

Hmm.. I very much saw most things with a deep brownish colour. Hmm...

P.S. It was not my computer which can show colour just fine in other games ala NWN, TOEE, et al.