Favorite Natural Environments in Video Games.

My Pick

Alan Wake

Some of the best looking environments I've ever seen. Technically games have surpassed it but none comes close when it comes to immersion, thanks to amazing art style and atmosphere of the game.

It's not just a shallow world where you just walk. In fact it feels like a place where people actually live, thanks to attention to detail, great looking environments, weather effects and background stories.

All of these aspects of the game are backed by amazing soundtrack and dark tone of the game.

This dark tone also makes this beautiful location feel like a mysterious place to live in, a place with a lot of dark secrets and past stories. It feels like every object wants to say something.

Share your picks and opinions below.

The Witcher 3 first comes to mind, Pair the lush world with the incredible weather effects, and you really have a thing of beauty on display.

I like environments that are vast. Goes for miles. Avalanche is good with that. Everything is just on a massive scale.

Before clicking this thread I couldn't wait to brag about the environments in Alan Wake, turns out I'm not the only one lol.

Agreed Alan Wake took place in a small town setting and felt more alive and open than all Assassins creed games combined. There wasn't much to explore but I found myself looking at every corner of the game, especially in the few daylight chapters.

Every event that happened was broadcasted on the radio and felt like the entire town knew about each chapter of the game as you progressed. The tree and forest rendering still haven't been surpassed as of this yen. The natural lighting was a first of its kind last gen and the music was top notch. The free camera roam patch on PC was a dream come true for those of us who would love to fully explore the games environment

I bought a Xbox 360 just for this game, bought it on PC again. But to bad Remedy left us with a cliff hanger and decided a completely new tv cinematic single player this gen Quantum Break seems like to much action for me.

In terms of art design:

Okami

The Witcher 3, so goddamn pretty!

I live in an area with extreme weather and it's right next to Hill Station (15-30 minutes away from my home), and that's one of the reasons why I like Alan Wake even more. They really nailed it. From radio broadcasts to weather effects and description boards in different locations, telling about the history of the place, everything is crafted beautifully.

AW 2 is coming (after QB). I can feel it.

Yeah, alan Wake had a cool setting. Forests and Jungles are always a good environment to sneak around in, be hunted, or just kill some bad guys.

Besides that I love going to historical locations, like in Assassin's Creed

Yeah I love the setting of Mad Max, it's a vast land. But it still got landmarks so you know your way around.

I'm sure medici will be a really fun place as well :)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: SoC. I can't place screenshots, as I'm currently at my office, but the environment really affected the overall atmosphere of the game, and made it much more suspenseful that it would have been without the setting.

I love Far Cry 4's environments, especially from the air. One of my flights:

@R4gn4r0k: How's Mad Max? Is it fun?

One of the biggest improvements in Far Cry 4: you can fire a side arm out of any vehicle.

I love shooting grenades from the air xD

yeah, it's pretty good. The combat is fun!

But what sells it for me is the amazing environment. It's not just some drab looking wasteland. It's good some really pretty sights. Plus it's well optimized on PC so you crank everything up to eleven with a decent right :D

Red Dead Redemption. Living in the desert of CA rockstar nailed it, the colors were perfect and not overstuffed Orange/ green like most other games. They created such alive desert foothills environment full of animals and random events. Even down to the manzanita shrubs

the ambient noise in the Witcher 3 is pretty great as well

Agreed about Witcher 3 (Especially Skellige, utterly breathtaking!) and Stalker: SoC.

Yeah Alan Wake was amazing.

The Witcher 3 is breath-taking ! just can't get enough of it ...it really differentiates itself from shallow and hollow worlds like Skyrim and Fallout ... I'm yet to take more shots but here's a few :

Let's have one from Batman AK as well (have taken it with Photomode) :

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

I really enjoyed the snow level in Uncharted 2. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm snowboarding enthusiast.

That plus you can either have a mercenary partner drive a vehicle for you or put the vehicle in autodrive, allowing you to concentrate on shooting bad guys. Or, you can drive with both you and the mercenary partner being able to fire back. Just like Far Cry 3 before it, I can't get enough of Far Cry 4. Even just flying around looking for targets of opportunity is fun.

A female merc riding bitch with me on the 4-wheeler. I love it.

Arma actually has some really nice environments, Atlis and Chernaraus feel like real places. Some nice custom maps as well (eg. Esseker, Namalsk)

@Basinboy said:

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Was just about to say the same. The setting is also very similar to Alan Wake.

I'll put a shout out for Mad Max as well, it amazing what they've done with a boring desert.

@GarGx1 said:

@Basinboy said:

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Was just about to say the same. The setting is also very similar to Alan Wake.

My thoughts exactly. When they first teased the game with early screenshots, most people (including me) said it looks like Alan Wake.

Alan Wake and The Witcher 3. Though I'd say the environment is better in Alan Wake (Very good northwest atmosphere and environment), the entire world (cities, civilization, variety of locations) is amazing in The Witcher 3.

Modded Crysis and of course Witcher 3

Stalkers interpretation of Chernobyl.

generally i love forest areas with snow.ice also. so skyrim (erm...with mods) and oblivion (again, mods recommended). also xenoblade. any games with long draw distances with forests and fields and snow and ice gets extra points. witcher 3...love it to bits. witcher 2 also.

i also love the setting for icewind dale (i must read up on the cannon for the 12 towns and the spine of the world).

Xenoblade Chronicles : the Bionis world

Far Cry 3

Okami

Damn OP, you made me play Alan Wake again. Apart from Alan Wake, I'd say The Witcher 3 and Castlevania Lords of Shadows. And I guess, Prince of Persia The Warrior Within too.

I quite liked dark souls II in places where you see the world from the starting point but somehow it's different when you get there, or trying to imagine what a ruined area looked like before it got messed up.

Witcher III is OK, but it needed something more like a huge ruined city or a huge monument you can see from any point in the game. Then again I haven't been to the isle of mists yet, maybe there is another map and I can shut my mouth.

Hell, after making this thread even I have decided to play it again.

MGSV of course. Felt like the Rambo movies and predator movie without the predator of course. Snake can be the predator if you like lol.

TLOU. This game gives that nature taking back what it owned and apocalyptic setting very nicely. It felt like TWD with infected not your usual slow walker. I hope they let ND do a TWD game hehe.

Red Dead Redemption gets my vote.

I've never looked into that. How do you have an NPC drive with you ?

I've only thrown them out of their vehicles to be honest :P

@jun_aka_pekto said:

That plus you can either have a mercenary partner drive a vehicle for you or put the vehicle in autodrive, allowing you to concentrate on shooting bad guys. Or, you can drive with both you and the mercenary partner being able to fire back. Just like Far Cry 3 before it, I can't get enough of Far Cry 4. Even just flying around looking for targets of opportunity is fun.

A female merc riding bitch with me on the 4-wheeler. I love it.

IT really is incredible. The lsight breeze through trees and grass is amazing.

@yourdeadgrandpa: Yes, I was thinking that too. I really miss the in game map.

But I don't miss weapon jams. Though I'd love for more games to have this. it was really stupid only you had weapon jams and nobody else.

And I don't miss malaria, either. Malaria sucks! Having malaria sucks!

Far Cry 3&4 did improve a lot of things. But I would like this series to go back to "a stranger in hostile lands" and where you have to find your own way more.

The last FC's were pretty hand-holdey. So I would definitely like a return to: here is a map, find your own way !

@yourdeadgrandpa said:

I miss the real in-game map, weapon jamming, malaria, sunset, storm, desert, rain, hardcore AI, realism, buddy system etc in FC3, FC4. Ubisoft should have made FC4 a mix of the best things on FC1, FC2 and FC3, but instead they just made a copy and paste of FC3. I remember being blown away by Far Cry, it had the most realistic water, grass, foliage and lighting I'd ever seen. Not only that but Far Cry still to this day is one of the most immersive games ever made and for me it was a real glimpse of the future. A damned good Crytek experience that was then amplified by Crysis. I absolutely loved Far Cry 2. From the beginning you were thrown into the middle of an African civil war. I loved the density of the jungles the most, felt like I could get lost (which I did a few times). FC2 gave me a sense I was there. when you were in the game it was basically just you, your gun, your compass/map, and the stunningly beautiful African landscape. Nothing raised stress more than a weapon jamming in the middle of a fire fight, especially at close range. There was a real effort made in Far Cry 2 to keep you in the game, to never break that immediate first-person experience, and while a lot of that has carried over to the last two games. FC2 had the best immersion and ambient of them all.

I sill have the original Far Cry. It felt even more restrictive than Crysis because there were helicopter gunships to steer you back the proper track(s). That underwhelmed the exploration aspect to me. Overall, it was still an okay game. I haven't played Far Cry 2 yet. But, I may give it a try.

I find Far Cry 4 quite immersive when I turn the UI completely off. The only drawback is I need parts of the UI on because they are required in some campaign missions. To me, Far Cry 4 came into its own once I finished the campaign and I reset the outposts, turned off the UI. I have free reign on the explorable world. Enemies do respawn randomly but, that's fine.

Far Cry looked good for its time. But, it was too restrictive. Pesky gunships. ;)

Witcher 3.
Also AC2, Crysis warhead, AC4, Watch_Dogs, DAI, Mordor, Batman Arkham Asylum, list goes on.

Witcher 3 is a no-brainer for this. Also cannot agree enough with Alan Wake. A few more I'd nominate;

* Skyrim (mainly on PC)
* Assassin's Creed IV (not only the forests and jungles, but BEST water in a video game)
* Farcry 4
* Crysis

Arkham Asylum is a "natural" environment? You seem to have missed the point of this thread, lol ;)

Looks very immersive. Thanks for sharing.

FC4

Dying Light

Metro Redux

Tomb Raider - Reboot

I've not seen better realized natural environments than The Witcher 3.

The Witcher 3 world is simply incredible!

2D environments with great art design:

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Which is sad cause the place doesn't feel Arkam/Gotham. Though it's beautiful.

To name a few

Skyrim aka Godrim, The Witcher 3, Mad Max (this game seriously gets no love), MGSV, TLOU (certain parts), Spec Ops the Line, DAI and Until Dawn