For me, atmosphere is more important than graphics or even gameplay! No atmosphere equals boredom.

I still love playing OoT, Deus Ex, STALKER and Monkey Island 2.

Their looks might be dated, their gameplay might not be up there with modern games... But they have atmosphere.

Its the atmosphere that makes a game world feel alive. Not the looks, not the clever details or animations that todays games are full of. Atmosphere.

If game dont have atmosphere, the game gets boring real fast, no matter how great the gameplay or the graphics are.

Example: Dragon Quest XI vs FFXV. DQ looks real pretty and has great gameplay. But the game totally lacks atmosphere. Which is the reason the game world feels dead. FFXV, on the other hand, feels alive, because of the great atmosphere the game world has.

Watch Dogs vs Watch Dogs 2. First game had great atmosphere to the city, which is why its ways better than the second that totally lacked atmosphere..

I have not been able to determine where the atmosphere comes from. Some games just have an atmosphere that make the game world feel alive, and some, almost identical games, dont. Its a mystery for sure!

Any thoughts on this matter?

Agreed. Atmosphere made RE4 for me.

alrighty.

Hmm, I thought an AD gamer wouldn't care for older stuff. :D

I agree though OP, atmosphere keeps me coming back to a lot of stuff which has long since been outclassed graphically and gameplay-wise.

Thats the best thing about atmosphere: it does not disappear with age. Looks will go, gameplay will start feeling archaic, but atmosphere stays ever on!

Shooters such as Quake 2, Halo 1 and the original Doom still got their atmosphere intact, even tho they're dated badly in many other ways.

Yeah, atmosphere is very important in games for me too. STALKER still gives me goosebumps.

Many games lack this, and yes, they get boring much faster. Atmosphere helps a lot to make me revisit games. It makes me remember how I felt while playing the game and makes me want to experience that feeling again.

Yes..Atmosphere is important in Gaming..Nice Forum thanks for sharing.

Considering my favorite game of all time is Silent Hill, yeah, you could say that atmosphere is pretty damn important to me.

For me sound is the thing that sets atmosphere more than anything else. Pretty visuals are all well and good but without a good soundtrack it all feels flat and lifeless.

Take GTA for example, it looks nice and is a sprawling world with lots of stuff going on, traffic, people, animals, general everyday living noises, it's a great experience and very immerse.

Now imagine the game without any of that, it would be a very different experience entirely and nowhere near as much fun to play.

Atmosphere is the reason I've been a Metroid fan since 1986

I love all the games people are listing and saying atmosphere is more important then graphics as when said games released they were the pinnacle of graphics for their day.

Irony.

Atmosphere in games is good. But, it also depends on the player's tastes. For example, some here like music to go along with their gaming for immersion. For me? It's more the environment, including the sounds. Having background music playing will destroy any immersion I'm experiencing unless it was the NPCs themselves who are the source. I want to tune in to the environment, listening to every little sound; looking for any movement of light or shadow that may signal danger.

Or, when all else fail, my instruments will show subtle signs that something is not right. The best example I can think of is the chimera in STALKER: Call of Pripyat. Most here would think encounters with the chimera are random. After 9 playthroughs, I know for sure they're not. The chimera is a predator and it hunts the player like a lion or tiger would. It'll use any available cover so that it won't show up on my detectors except briefly when it moves from one cover to the next. It'll do so until it's within striking range. If I hadn't decided at that point to run like hell, it's too late. I love it.

The chimeras I encountered (unscripted) in vanilla Call of Pripyat have a freezing attack that pretty much renders the player's character unable to move or fight, which means it's Game Over. Strange that I never seem to see that in most YT videos.

Atmosphere is more important than graphics. But not as important as gameplay.

Ditto to this.

I value gameplay more so then raw graphics or even atmosphere.

Atmosphere is huge I also agree about the original Watch Dogs having better atomsphere then the second game. For me these games have my favorite atmosphere. It's a strong reason I always go back to them.

• Mirror's Edge the sunny skies and color palette.
• Sleeping Dogs Hong Kong at night with the neon signs.
• Silent hill Shattered Memories the snowy town.
• GTAV the sunsets are amazing.
• Remember Me Neo- Paris futuristic setting is beautiful.
• F.E.A.R. the office levels and looking at the night sky through the windows.
• Max Payne Dock level snowing and hearing the ambient noises in the background.
• GTA Vice City Miami Strip.
• GTA SA countryside.
• Resident Evil 4 village.

I agree. In fact atmosphere might be the most important factor affecting my enjoyment of a game.

Yeah, atmosphere when done right is very important... some of my favourite games have incredible atmosphere. Like BioShock, Inside etc.

The Witcher 3 has the best-looking, most color-saturated sunsets ever depicted in a video game. Love that atmosphere.

I'm in the same boat - atomsphere and immersion are #1 in my books

I agree with you that atmosphere is more important than graphics. That's why I still prefer the original versions of Ocarina of Time and Shadow of the Colossus over their remakes. The remakes made the graphics prettier, but they ruined the atmosphere in those games.

Nothing is more important than gameplay though. Without good gameplay, the game isn't worth playing.

@henrythefifth: Yeah well said dude! Goldeneye N64 is another one that lives on thanks to the good atmosphere, especially the multiplayer.

I still play Goldeneye N64 from time to time.

@davillain-: A man of fine taste. ??

But great graphics helps bring the atmosphere to life.

Na, I'm just a Man of culture ;)

@davillain-: Lol ?

Atmosphere, gameplay and graphics are all important for me, probably in that order.

I mainly play RPG and Open World games so from that perspective all three are important e.g The Witcher 3 and Assasins Creed..

@henrythefifth: did you seriously just compared FF15 to DQ11 and claimed that plastic liveless piece of junk world have more atmosphere???? Kids these days....

@henrythefifth: For me, it's all about how fine-tuned the experience is. That can mean a plethora of different things depending on the game, but in a nutshell, it's when the game designers are on the same page with the people who play their games, thus creating an experience where the player doesn't feel like they're battling with the game when they play it.

I finally gave The Witcher 3 a shot, and I've been struggling with this. The sight lines in the over worlds aren't clearly defined, so instead of enjoying the fantastic scenery, I'm watching the mini map more often than not, following the dotted line like a mouse in a maze. It feels unfair to always compare everything to Breath of the Wild, especially when it's a game that came out before it, but the over world in BOTW was very much in unison with the layout of your map, in the sense that you would mark something on your map, and you could then look out into the distance and go, "yep, I know *exactly* where I'm going." I haven't found that to be the case in The Witcher, and I'm finding that to be true in every aspect of the game. Any time I encounter something new, it's a process of trial, error, and research to find out what I'm supposed to do. A well designed game would provide the tools necessary for the player to figure that out on their own.

A different example would be Hearthstone. The game's balanced in a way that whenever I lose a match, I don't feel like the game has cheated me in some way. A loss always feels deserved.

Gameplay is a pretty big thing to overlook in lui of atmosphere.

Gameplay will always be king.

Atmosphere is important but Watch Dogs is horrible and Watch Dogs 2 is pretty good btw.

Yup, if you get sucked into a game's world, it becomes hard to leave it again. And you will start to forgive anything like quirks, or a bad story, as long as the setting draws you in.

People at Rockstar, Valve, Arkane, 4A games are absolute masters at this world building.

Yeah, I'm enjoying Watch Dogs 2 a lot, it has a lot more fun with its concept. I also like how the game emphasises to use stealth.

Awesome list there. Could not agree more with those picks.

I have played both, and unfortunately DQXI is one of those games that have pretty looks and ZERO content. All you do in DQXI is grind before hitting the next boring dungeon. The most boring JRPG this gen. And the dead world with zombie-like npcs just dont have any atmosphere at all. FFXV does everything so much better. Fact.