Your favorite underutilized settings in games?

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Videogames tend to be overly homogenous when it comes to setting (banal fantasy setting, banal sci-fi setting, urban military tacticoolness, etc; nihil sub sole novum). What in particular are settings you love and feel are underrepresented?

For me:


TRAINS:
I was raised on Hitchcock, early Bond, and the general rail-obsession of the late 50s-mid 60s. This shit is awesome and I love it. Any game featuring trains gets an instant glance from me. The setting also lends itself to excellent level design, imo, although it does somewhat restrict scope.

DESERTS:
For some reason suits seem to think that desert settings won't sell well, but I personally love them. High, low, dry, or salt doesn't matter to me. They're all fun to explore.

OCEANS:
I definitely suffer from thalassophobia, but oceans are also really fucking cool. Subnautica is the only game I know of that takes advantage of this.



Anyways. What are your favorite underserved settings? Why?

 

[Ghulgothas]

The Industrial Revolution, both as-was and fantastically heightened. Particularly versions that aren't glossed-up, quirky Themeparks like 99% of contemporary steampunk.

Related; dense and labyrinthine Urban Cityscapes of Gothic, Victorian or otherwise Euro-historical aestheticizing. The only examples that come to mind is Thief's City and Dishonored's Dunwall.

Also, the kind of primordial jungles commonly associated with pre-Columbian South America and Darkest Africa; think the Act III Jungle from Diablo II.

 

[Wunderbar]

When it comes to fantasy, it's always based on medieval europe or norse mythology.

Would be nice to have a fantasy game set in a setting inspired by Slavic folklore, Arabian Nights, gothic novels, or hell even Aztecs/Mayans.

 

[Rincewind]

Ancient Greek and Roman settings are obscenely underutilised, probably those are my favourites. I'm one of those people who think HBO's Rome series is the best thing ever. And like Wunderbar said, various national folklores would also make for very interesting settings.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

A well-rendered cyberspace/matrix with interesting gameplay or battling AI, ie Neuromancer or Dex. There should be a game that takes place in both the real world and where you can jack into a truly massive cyberspace that genuinely gives the impression that it's near infinite in size with every online computer in the world that you can access if you can figure out how; to hack or crack it's "ice."

 

[Falksi]

For RPGs, Hell. There's only Disgaea what I can think of which has you actually living in the "underworld".

It'd be nice to have a wonder round the fiery realm, have a cup of tea with Satan, a chat with some of the Demons, learn a few bard skills from Jim Morrison and Lemmy, and romance/torture a few demonesses along the way etc.

It's been used a fair bit in action games, but as far as actually roleplaying in Hell I can't think of many RPGs which go there?

 

[Valestein]

When it comes to fantasy, it's always based on medieval europe or norse mythology.

Would be nice to have a fantasy game set in a setting inspired by Slavic folklore, Arabian Nights, gothic novels, or hell even Aztecs/Mayans.

Could use more early modern Europe like this title:



Killing the supernatural with a rapier and musket is pretty dope.

 

[Sjukob]

Biopunk. Cyberpunk is everywhere nowadays, but biopunk with it's organic implants, impossible mutants, living houses, fleshy computers, eugenics in general and other things is nowhere to be seen.

 

[Rincewind]

living houses, fleshy computers

This reminds me of the movie Naked Lunch.

 

[Wunderbar]

living houses, fleshy computers

This reminds me of the movie Naked Lunch.

that's because it''s Cronenberg's bread and butter. Videodrome had an organic TV, and Existenz featured living gamepads that you plug into an organic socket connected to your spinal cord.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

The ratio of "high fantasy" vs. "space opera" is something like 500 to 1 in the genre.

Alien environments of any kind; alien ruins, space, alien jungles, derelict ships, alien deserts, are all woefully absent.

 

[Vlajdermen]

Ww1 desperately needs its own Company of Heroes.

Like louis said, a good space opera arr pidgey loaded with Age of Discovery optimism would be lovely.

Something inspired by Jules Verne, that actually captures his spirit of adventure and curiosity. 19th century sci-fi, but the kind that's fascinated with the world around it, the different cultures, nature, geography, and the possibilities of the undiscovered, rather than faggoty introspection, lore dumps, politics, and pseudo-philosophical posturing.

Modern-day Russia. Games only ever acknowledge the soviet union, or imperial russia if it's a 4x or economic sim. Modern russia would be perfect for a GTA-style game.

The mexican jungle. Would be perfect for an RTS or RTT set in aztec times.
I respect Forza Horizon 5 for being set in Mexico, so games can finally get some use out of that country and its look and geography.

More obscure fronts of WW2, or even the well-known but underutilized ones like Francoist Spain or the Yugoslav Partisans (for the love of Allah, don't make me play against Franco).

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Would be nice to have a fantasy game set in a setting inspired by Slavic folklore, Arabian Nights, gothic novels, or hell even Aztecs/Mayans.

I'd love for there to be a low & dark fantasy setting rooted in East Asian mythology and folklore (hell, I'd settle even for a Warhammer Fantasy RPG taking place in Grand Cathay and/or Nippon). Alas, best we can get is wuxia kitsch.

 

[Maxie]

heroic high fantasy without any retarded psychological or political undertones

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I want some proper two fisted globetrotting. In an rpg no less. A proper sword and sorcery game would be pretty ace.

heroic high fantasy without any retarded psychological or political undertones

Goddammit this too. I see so many twists of Arthurian myth recently that I wonder where the game that is faithful to Arthurian tales went.

 

[Vlajdermen]

I want some proper two fisted globetrotting. In an rpg no less. A proper sword and sorcery game would be pretty ace.

heroic high fantasy without any retarded psychological or political undertones

Goddammit this too. I see so many twists of Arthurian myth recently that I wonder where the game that is faithful to Arthurian tales went.

All fantasy game devs should watch Excalibur (1981). That shit was reverence incarnate, and as such a reminder that these are stories worth revering.

 

[Zibniyat]

The Elder Scrolls universe. So much potential, so underutilised.

Someone mentioned historical settings of this world. I hate them all and find them uninspiring. From ancient Greece, "Arabian Nights" (this one is the worst to me), to Aztecs, they can all rot in the Hell of Oblivion.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I want some proper two fisted globetrotting. In an rpg no less. A proper sword and sorcery game would be pretty ace.

heroic high fantasy without any retarded psychological or political undertones

Goddammit this too. I see so many twists of Arthurian myth recently that I wonder where the game that is faithful to Arthurian tales went.

All fantasy game devs should watch Excalibur (1981). That shit was reverence incarnate, and as such a reminder that these are stories worth revering.

Absolutely

 

[Norfleet]

I was raised on Hitchcock, early Bond, and the general rail-obsession of the late 50s-mid 60s. This shit is awesome and I love it. Any game featuring trains gets an instant glance from me. The setting also lends itself to excellent level design, imo, although it does somewhat restrict scope.

We have a fair selection of train simulators and train tycoon games to choose from. But setting any other kind of game on a train tends to run into a problem: Literal railroading of your entire campaign. It doesn't get more on rails than literaly being on a train.

DESERTS:
For some reason suits seem to think that desert settings won't sell well, but I personally love them. High, low, dry, or salt doesn't matter to me. They're all fun to explore.

But it's full of sand. It's coarse, and rough, and it gets everywhere.

OCEANS:
I definitely suffer from thalassophobia, but oceans are also really fucking cool. Subnautica is the only game I know of that takes advantage of this.

There's an entire genre of boat games from pirates to modern naval. But the ocean itself tends to be an example of boring terrain, commonly used as a barrier in games where the characters are people. Outside of a vehicle game, there's not much to be had there. Maybe if your game was about fish people. But people like to play games about humans, not Deep Ones, and humans don't survive terribly well on the open ocean outside of a vehicle.

 

[laclongquan]

Fallout New Vegas is desert theme~ I dont know about underutilizing~

 

[Rincewind]

Videodrome had an organic TV, and Existenz featured living gamepads that you plug into an organic socket connected to your spinal cord.

True, now that you mentioned I remember I liked those parts a lot in ExistenZ too. Still haven't watched Videodrome yet, should fix that omission soon!

 

[curds]

Standard High Fantasy done tastefully is the most setting without question.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

"invert mouse y axis".
i wish more arcade games would use this setting.

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

I feel you there. The lack of options has made me forcefully retrain myself to always play with non inverse y axis. A painful and arduous process for sure. Like retraining from left to right handed, or learning to walk again after a stroke.

 

[Valestein]

Ww1 desperately needs its own Company of Heroes.

Like louis said, a good space opera arr pidgey loaded with Age of Discovery optimism would be lovely.

Something inspired by Jules Verne, that actually captures his spirit of adventure and curiosity. 19th century sci-fi, but the kind that's fascinated with the world around it, the different cultures, nature, geography, and the possibilities of the undiscovered, rather than faggoty introspection, lore dumps, politics, and pseudo-philosophical posturing.

Modern-day Russia. Games only ever acknowledge the soviet union, or imperial russia if it's a 4x or economic sim. Modern russia would be perfect for a GTA-style game.

The mexican jungle. Would be perfect for an RTS or RTT set in aztec times.
I respect Forza Horizon 5 for being set in Mexico, so games can finally get some use out of that country and its look and geography.

More obscure fronts of WW2, or even the well-known but underutilized ones like Francoist Spain or the Yugoslav Partisans (for the love of Allah, don't make me play against Franco).

The China/Burma/India Theater is by far the most overlooked aspect of WW2. Some of the biggest blood baths of the entire war occurred between the Chinese and Japanese, not to mention that one of the biggest defeats inflicted upon Japan was inflicted by British India at Imphal and Kohima. Then there's the the Soviet invasion of manchuria, northern korea, south sakhalin and other areas towards the end.

Other major wars that don't get much, if any coverage are the Korean war(WW2 and post War Soviet and American gears facing off) or the Iran-Iraq war(largest air war since Vietnam).