Most Compelling Game Worlds.

Video games have given us some very compelling worlds to experience. Here are the ones that I found most compelling based on lore, creativity, execution, characters or other similar factors.

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Half Life

Every time I play Half Life 2, I end up playing its episodes as well because it's hard to leave such an amazing world. It's dark and mysterious where aliens live along with humans ever since the events of Half Life. Some of them are allies while others are here to promote their agendas, yet there are those who are fighting just for the survival. As compelling as Half Life's world is, a lot more is going on behind the scenes, that is yet to be revealed but it's already exciting to think about the possibilities.

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The Witcher

CD Projekt has adopted Witcher novels really well and ended up pleasing both fans of the books and gamers as well. Witcher games takes place during medieval times but with fantasy elements. The world is full of flawed characters with deep personalities and different races. It's also full of magic, dangerous beasts, wraiths as well as violence, torture, rape, rituals, executions and so on. It's a dangerous place to live in but it's compelling at the same time.

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Thief

The City is a dark place to live in. It's home of supernatural forces, fanaticism, thievery, murders, poverty, corruption and plague, where everyone has to fight to survive. It is also the home of three big factions; The Hammerrites, The Pagans and The Keepers. Hammerrites are part of religious group that worships the Master Builder and they created the city several years ago. They promote steampunk technology and craftsmanship. The Pagans worship the Trickster and live in woods. Both Hammerrites and Pagans are at war with each other. The Keepers are part of mysterious organization, that keeps the balance throughout the city. They protect forbidden knowledge. As dangerous as the city is, it's also a place that you don't want to leave and can't forget after leaving it.

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Alan Wake

Bright Falls is a beautiful place that also holds a lot of dark secrets. After few good days, there comes a time when dark presence starts to take over this beautiful town turning good folks into the Taken, who are possessed humans beyond saving. Dark presence can also take over the objects and use them against the humans. Bright Falls' most mysterious location is the island on Couldron Lake, where words become reality. After every few years, dark presence chooses its new host body and uses it to brainwash writers who come to visit the island. They are forced to write stories that make dark forces more powerful as these stories continue to unfold before them. However, the place looks so beautiful and innocent during day time that it's easy let your guard town and completely forget about the horrors that wait for you at night.

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Deus Ex

Deus Ex world is the home of conspiracies. In the not too distant future, mankind becomes obsessed with physical and brain enhancements made available through machines that turn humans into cyborgs. A lot of people are not willing to accept these changes so, riots are pretty common on streets. Others use their enhancements for dirty deeds and consider purists inferior to them. Some of people are also forced by their employers to have some of these enhancements because they have no place for those who can't keep up or survive. There are also those who want to take over the world and are part of kidnappings , cover ups, assassinations, brutal interrogations and so on. Our future might be dark but there is also room for a lot of other possibilities.

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Warcraft

Several races live in Azeroth. All of them have multiple factions with different leaders and ideologies. They all fight for different purposes and form alliances for the good of their people. Warcraft is epic in scale and has everything that you expect from a fantasy world; Magic, giant beasts, sorcerers, warriors, archers, dragons, orcs, elves, ogres, humans, goblins, zombies, druids, flying ships, demons, sea creatures and so on. Azeroth is also full of likable characters. Some of them are evil, while others are heroes who fight for the good. And did I mention that there are also Kung Fu Pandas?

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Mass Effect

Mass Effect is the home of many species and likable characters. Some of the species hate each other, while others are at peace. It's a great place to live in where you can go anywhere in the galaxy you want thanks to the discovery of mass relays, that are used for fast travel between different star systems. You can kill time in bars with other species or explore the galaxy with your own ship. However it's also a place where some races are fanatic by nature and there are rumors surrounding the arrival of an ancient race that wants to wipe out everyone.

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STALKER

After nuclear disaster a place in Russia now known as the Zone becomes unsuitable for normal life. The past events bring out anomalies, beasts and supernatural forces. There are also Stalkers who are guns for hire. They are hired by different contractors who pay them after they've completed their tasks. Sometimes different groups also end up fighting each other for resources, which are pretty scarce in the Zone. These groups sit around fire and sing songs to pass their time when not on work. The place may be dangerous to live in but it also makes you a real man.

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Share your list and tell us why you think those worlds are so compelling.

Excellent list! Totally agree with all of those. Kind of want to replay STALKER now...

I'd also like to add:

-the "world" of The Elder Scrolls. Such A diverse territory, huge, and full of all kinds of wonders.
-Wizards of the Sword Coast (Faerun?), or rather the DnD world featured in many awesome RPGs. I'm not sure if every DnD game took place in this world, but I think many many did.
-Star Wars
-Diablo, such a grim world.
-Middle Earth (Lord of the Rings)
-Hyper Light Drifer, I seriously have no idea what's going on in this game plot-wise, but it is so beautiful and filled with neat stuff I love it.

Just a personal one for me.

Spira from Final Fantasy X

I think the Myst/Riven universe is great. So unique and with a cool back story

Mass Effect

Elder Scrolls

The Witcher

Assassin's Creed 1 & 2

Dragon Age

Chrono Trigger

Any Final Fantasy

I never explore in games ... even in open world, to much time waster over nothing.

The only game were the story around it is interesting is Deus Ex since it is a possible future for our race.

Legend of Dragoon
Final Fantasy series
Spyro (PS1 series)
Warcraft
Elder Scrolls

Excellent list. Deus Ex is paranoia fuel incarnate, especially because the open-ended nature of the original game meant you're never quite sure of the consequences to your actions and decisions.

Mass Effect is basically an encyclopaedia of pretty much every sci-fi trope under the sun. Blue-skinned sexy aliens? Starship Troopers-esque alien bug war? Klingons-like proud warrior race dudes? Battlestar Galactica-style fleet of wondering exiles? The Force-like space magic powers? Check, check, check, check and check, and the list goes on and on.

And special mention has to go to the world of The Elder Scrolls, which is centred around Mundus, the realm, within which is the world of Nirn, a region of which is Tamriel. Casual players might not realise how rich and utterly fantastically weird the world of TES is, but you have a moon that's actually a corpse, the stars are actually puncture holes into heaven, dark elves that rely on giant floating bugs for transport, wood elves that practice cannibalism because they don't want to hurt the trees, and people regularly trap and use souls for enchanting and recharging magical weapons, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Elder Scrolls remind us that there is a certain weirdness to the fantasy genre, and this is the series that have fully embraced that weirdness.

• The Witcher series
• Dragon Age Origins & Inquisition
• Mass Effect series
• Fallout 4
• Deus Ex series
• Dark Souls series
• Assassin's Creed's Venezia, Firenze, London, Roma
• Resident Evil series
• Prince of Persia series
• Devil May Cry series
• Bioshock series
• Splinter Cell Double Agent
• Dishonored
• Beyond Good & Evil
• Alan Wake
• Hitman Blood Money
• Half Life 2

Dishonored definitely tops my list. A real shame the rest of the game doesn't really match up to the level of detail poured into the world and lore surrounding the game.

I'll also list Warhammer 40000 and Battletech as well if they count (they didn't originate in games). The former is incredibly grim and dark (hence the oft-repeated opening lines) with incredible detail and the latter is exceptionally deep in terms of history, lore and backstory. I'm not sure which I like more. I've been with 40K for over a year now and just got into Battletech a few weeks ago (thank you Razorfist, asshole). And while 40K has the Imperial Knights, there is just something special about BattleMechs that 40K just doesn't do for me.

How has nobody listed Zelda yet? C'mon peeps. I like what has been listed so far. Here are some more...

Batman Arkham

GTA

Red Dead Redemption

The Division

Metro

Mad Max

God Of War

Brutal Legend

Fable

Ico

Shadow of the Colossus

SOMA

Dreamfall/Longest Journey

The Last of Us

Enslaved

Journey

Ori

Darksiders

The world of Shadowrun. Excellent mix of sci-fi and magic.

And ancient powerful dragons as CEOs.

Yeah...Shadowrun.

Mass effect (reminds me of a cooler star trek)

Legacy of Kain series (coolest vampires)

Deus Ex (cyber punk is always cool)

Folsense from Professor Layton and Pandora's Box creates a super impact melancholic atmosphere with the art design and music the games do so excellently and being a Professor Layton, you just know the town isn't what it seems and they don't disappoint.

Majora's Mask should go without saying, the progression of the world throughout the three days is fascinating and rewards curiosity and exploration with both rewards to progress Link and emotional mini-stories.

Dead Rising does something similar to Majora's Mask minus the time travel, where you'll want to replay the game over and over to see everything the mall has to offer which is a ton.

Great list, but here's my personal favorite, Skyrim, Witcher 3, Mad Max, Alan Wake! Those are worlds that I can revisit time and time again.

.......and Dying Light, how could I forget that!

@Cloud_imperium said:

Thief

The City is a dark place to live in. It's home of supernatural forces, fanaticism, thievery, murders, poverty, corruption and plague, where everyone has to fight to survive. It is also the home of three big factions; The Hammerrites, The Pagans and The Keepers. Hammerrites are part of religious group that worships the Master Builder and they created the city several years ago. They promote steampunk technology and craftsmanship. The Pagans worship the Trickster and live in woods. Both Hammerrites and Pagans are at war with each other. The Keepers are part of mysterious organization, that keeps the balance throughout the city. They protect forbidden knowledge. As dangerous as the city is, it's also a place that you don't want to leave and can't forget after leaving it.

Which is why the Thief reboot sucks: they got rid of everything that made The City unique, along with all the factions, lore, colorful speech and the mix of medieval, steampunk and victorian styles. Instead they went for a flat clone of Dishonored with a predictable plot and a dull protagonist.

There are only 3 Thief games. New one is some hot garbage pretending to be Thief.

Great list and descriptions. My favorite game worlds are usually from my favorite games as immersion, atmosphere and world are what I love most about video games and media in general. So I'll just mention TES, Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Fallout, Dragon Age, Dishonored.

i'd absolutely agree the last thief game sucked. but i'd say dishonored has a kind of steam punk inspired art design too. i wouldn't say it was a dishonored clone as such. it was far too linear for that, but there were definitely elements that felt similar. plus it lacked all the depth, variety, charm, and exploratory level design of dishonored.

on topic, since all the well known ones have already been mentioned i'll throw a nearly 20 year old 2d game into the mix that has a wonderful atmosphere and compelling game world which still holds up well to this day - the curse of monkey island

I wouldn't go as far as calling it garbage: the game is competent enough, I suppose. That said, where they dropped the ball was in doing everything in their power to alienate Thief fans. Getting rid of Stephen Russell, hiring a writer who clearly was unfamiliar with (and had no interest in) the series' lore and last but not least making the main hub an illogical labyrinthine mess.

If we count 2D games then I'd say add Broken Sword 1 on that list too. Absolutely stunning atmosphere, beautiful soundtrack, terrific pacing and great writing/characters.

I do agree with most of these. But unpopular opinion here, HL2's story didn't appeal to me much and failed to suck me in. I know it has such a big fan base for its story but I played it for a few hours and just found myself incredibly bored and underwhelmed, and I am a big fan of story based games. Perhaps I could give it another shot but?... To be fair I have already attempted twice.

It's fine. Different people have different tastes in video games. TBH, I found myself enjoying Half Life 2's storytelling even more as I grew up and watched more story heavy movies and played more games. I was like "Man, this game got so many things right". Same with Thief series but that's just my opinion of course.