Best Videogame Levels Visually (Environments)

Considering how well the soundtrack thread went, this is worth a shot.

This is not a joke thread (I stopped trolling - no fun anymore)

This has been done before on other forums. Bit of a cliche. Tnl can do it better. TNL THE BEST.

I care less about how my character looks - whether he is japanime as fuck like El Shaddai or macho as a mufukka like Marcus from Gow. HOWEVER, I totally give a shit about the design of a level.

I could be pressing one button the whole time, like in Shenmue II in the last stage, but if the level is pretty I don't care. I like the idea of hiking through the woods with a canteen of iodined water, but prefer the reality of sitting in a comfortable chair in my den with a beer much more. So I'm more of a virtual tourist than an actual one. I hope people can relate.

I'm looking for more obscure suggestions that nobody has heard of for me to check out in the future, but I'm going to start off with some relatively obvious levels to get the thread rolling.

Dark Souls Anor Londo
Much has been written about the environments in Dark Souls. My payoff for slogging through this intense, difficult game is seeing the next beautiful piece of medieval/fantasy scenery. Every level I've played is very well done (just got through Anor Londo). Anor Londo takes the cake for the lighting and sense of scale. Praise the sun

Jet Set Radio Future Rokkaku-Dai Heights
The soundtrack plays a big part in this level's charm but the visuals are very crisp and there's definitely an otherwordly feeling that is really appealing.

Grand Theft Auto V everything
The game that made me want to start this thread - everything in this game is pretty perfect, from the high rises downtown, to the whitewater rivers in the sticks. A masterpiece in environmental design. Bravo Rockstar

I have to go to work soon so that's it, please list some choices others wouldn't have heard of, I just made these choices as examples of ideal environments, it's up to you to pick that obscure JRPG only the hardest of the core have experienced (Xenoblade Chronicles?)

If anyone trolls this thread my retirement from trolling will be postponed long enough to make an off color comment about your mother's anatomy. Namaste

Ecco the Dolphin (DC, PS2) - Hanging Waters

Phendrana Drifts.

http://www.abload.de/img/gm8e01-76w7jn4.png

...Wow, that has aged badly.

Mafia II Garden of Eden.

Have to agree with Anor Londo, first time I saw it I rode the demon back to Sen's just to ride him back and see that skyline a second time, then spent 5 minutes admiring the view. I'd give another nod to Sen's Fortress for being one of the coolest castle environments I've ever played through. It's usually where new players get the most frustrated because of all the traps and pitfalls and enemy placement, but once you know whats up you can breeze through the level in a near pacifist run in 5 minutes. Then when you want to, there are tons of secret or secluded areas, all of them dark and foreboding. Perfect.

Skyrim - Blackreach
Choosing a single place in Skyrim to talk about awesome level design or just plain pretty levels is almost impossible, the environments are easily one of the best looking aspects of the game, and all of them have a GREAT amount of detail. I stumbled upon Blackreach on accident about 150 hours in, and I was floored by the amount of space this underground level took up. It's simply massive. In a nice change from other caves and caverns, the lighting was done up different with giant iridescent mushrooms and cool looking Dwemer shit. I searched for hours for 50 (maybe 30?) Crimson Nirnroots and only found 13, so I didn't even see half the area apparently. Awesome stuff. Honorable mentions goe to Apocrypha and The Throat of the World.

Probably more but I just can't think of them right now. Seconded on GTA 5 though, the game looks beautiful everywhere you go. Good thread.

El Shaddai: Take your pick.

The Boss fight at the end of MGS3.

American McGee's Alice had some bad ass stuff in it

but really this should be a Crysis 3 thread. the opening rainy sequence on ULTRA 1080P is ridonkulous

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pineapple

Skyrim - Blackreach

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Yes! I kept thinking it had to be something underwater, but I couldn't come up with the right example. You nailed it.

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