Your favorite (most atmospheric) locations in RPGs (and other games)

[Fargus]

Too many to list. So i stick mostly to rpgs since this thread is in rpg discussion:

Neverwinder Nights. CH1 Neverwinter City.
Bloodlines - Ocean House Hotel and Downtown LA hub are my favorite.
Morrowind - Vivec. And some the most unpleasant places to be are Urshilaku burial grounds, Kogoruhn and Ilunibi.
Deus Ex Hells Kitchen and Battery Park in Jew York are just oozing with atmosphere of amerimutt's dream. It's beautiful.
New Vegas - Vegas Strip and Freeside. I usually have a bunch of mods that add atmosphere, but these places were pretty memorable on their own.
Baldus Gae 2 - Underdark in general, and especially Ust Nata. Athkatla's port, temple district and slums.
Arx Fatalis - Overall very atrmosheric game with great sound design. My favorites are Dwarven Kingdom, Goblin Kingdom and the Crypts.
Fuckout 1 - Glow was good, and that's about it.
Fallout 2 - I like New Reno and Vault City the most.
Arcanum - Tarant obviously. But i also like the small town vibe of Stillwater.
Archolos - Vardhal and Archolos city itself.
Gothic 1 - Every camp has distinct atmosphere but my favorite would be Swamp Camp where you can chill with your bald bros and smoke some weed.
Gothic 2 - Khorinis was good but i liked surrounding villages the most. And of course Minental or what's left of it.
Dragon's Dogma - Everfall.

 

[Nano]

The gameplay isn't impressive, but the first few licensed Harry Potter games on PC are unironically atmospheric as fuck. The soundtrack is some of Jeremy Soule's best work.

 

[0sacred]

Your village (forget what it's called) in Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
Moonglow in Ultima VII
Aman'lu in Dungeon Siege 2

 

[Nifft Batuff]

The Nostromo in Alien Isolation.

 

[Carceri]

On top of my head:

Kuldahar and Frozen Temple in Icewind Dale
The Glow in Fallout
Sierra Military Base in Fallout 2
Vendigroth Ruins in Arcanum
Santa Monica and Ocean House Hotel in VTMB
Hydroponics in System Shock 2
The Tower Cells in Sanitarium
The Sunspire in Unreal
Gardens of Kadesh missions in Homeworld
Catacombs and BBI in general in Dragon's Dogma

I think these had the biggest impact, though I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting many of them.

Edit: Alpha Centauri and Age of Wonders in general

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Tristram

 

[NJClaw]

Hard to pick a single area from the Icewind Dale series. Kuldahar, Targos, Easthaven, and Lonelywood are all amazing. The combination of beautiful sceneries, sense of adventure, and incredible music make them all unforgettable to me. I'm happy to see that, at least when talking about atmosphere, these games get the praise they deserve.

As for non RPGs, I'd say the assault on Braithwaite Manor in Red Dead Redemption 2. The gameplay gets a bit too absurd for my taste with all the people you have to kill there, but the scene with the gang slowly walking, guns in hand, toward the manor is beautiful and the accompanying music is perfect.

 

[__scribbles__]

Deus Ex - ALL of Hong Kong. The music really makes this area, it imbues it with a sense of life and activity that wouldn't be present had it had a slower, less active track like the NY sections.
Gothic - Old Camp. Establishes the entire world, from the rules to obey in gameplay, to the way you're treated and the "might makes right" ethos the colony operates on. Sets the stage for the rest of the game.
Planescape: Torment - Smouldering Corpse Bar, with the actual flaming corpse and a lot of other interesting characters, including one of the best companions in RPG history.
System Shock - Security. Basically what the entire game has led up to. This level doesn't have a respawn point, you're constantly shot at and resources start running low. It actually feels like the stronghold it's been hyped up as by the logs.
System Shock 2 - Engineering. Very tense, first with the tight corridors and later with the wandering robots in the storage area. MedSci is pretty forgiving, but Engineering stops pulling the punches.
Ultima Underworld - The entire Abyss. Exploration, there is so much to find and the different little kingdoms and settlements are pretty interesting and fun to meet (especially the little lizardman place on floor 3)
VtM: Bloodlines - Hollywood. The music carries this area for me, but I still like the clubs and quests you stumble on to, such as the Asp Hole and the Ash Rivers thing.
Wasteland - Sleeper Base. The Glow nine years before The Glow. Primarily non-combat focused dungeon focused on atmospheric storytelling. This is also where you gear up for the endgame, and it feels fucking GOOD.

 

[Iucounu]

SOMA: most outside areas.

Stalker Clear Sky: Red Forest (much thanks to the music).

 

[Oreshnik Missile]

 

[NecroLord]

Rpgs:
-TOEE: Hommlet (mainly for ambience, NOT the low level fetch quests). Also the Moathouse, one of the best starting dungeons in a video game (and potentially very lethal).
-Arcanum: Caladon, also Stillwater and Roseborough
-Morrowind: Vivec City, Ald'ruhn, most of Solstheim.
-Deus Ex: Hell's Kitchen, Brooklyn Naval Shipyards, Paris Cathedral.
-Fallout: The Glow, Necropolis, The Hub, The Boneyard, Brotherhood of Steel bunker
-Fallout 2: The Den, Modoc, New Reno, Redding.

Non RPGs:
Thief: Down Into the Bonehoard, Cragscleft Prison, The Sword, The Haunted Cathedral and Song of the Caverns, all these missions have perfect atmosphere.
Thief 2: Blackmail, First City Bank and Trust, Casing the Joint/Masks.
Unreal: The Sunspire, Na Pali Haven, Nali Castle.


Too many to list, but those are the most prominent.

 

[Incognito]

 

[Shuruga]

Quest for Glory IV... all of it, really, but especially the town, castle, and temple.

 

[DannyRope]

Necropolis in the first Fallout.
Enclave Oil Rig in the second Fallout, especially because it comes after the epic-tier cinematic of the repaired pre-war ship sailing the sea again. Goosebumps.
Pretty much all of them in Bloodlines.

 

[NecroLord]

Necropolis in the first Fallout.
Enclave Oil Rig in the second Fallout, especially because it comes after the epic-tier cinematic of the repaired pre-war ship sailing the sea again. Goosebumps.
Pretty much all of them in Bloodlines.

Necropolis is great, but The Glow still remains one of the most atmospheric areas in an RPG.

 

[DannyRope]

For sure, The Glow is top shelf. I'm only honest with what resonates more with me. A city of ghouls ruled by Set, who is one of my favorite characters voiced by the same guy that provides the voice of the Master, and also, most likely, it's the first time you encounter Mutants. And all that while sounds my favorite track in the score, City of the Dead. But we're talking about the gold standard, it's the highest rated RPG in the Codex, isn't it? Almost any location could be highlighted. But yeah, at the very least, The Glow would be a close second. Its importance cannot be overstated; a turning point in the game, gaining the trust of the Brotherhood after what was supposed to be a wild goose chase or a suicide mission if taken seriously. Better pack big amounts of Rad-X.

YOU'VE RECEIVED A LARGE DOSE OF RADIATION