Designs that stopped you in your tracks and made you go "Wow."

[RA92]

Well, the title is expository enough, I believe. Applies to any type of design in a video game: level design, vehicle design, character design, weapon design - anything goes.

Personally, this happens rarely for me. But right off the top of my head the ones I can think of now are:

Comebine Gunship
While running across Half Life 2's dystopian East European city, the last thing I expected to see flying over my head was this behemoth. A combination of a cyborg alien insect and a helicopter? Unbeatable, says I. The Gunship has to my favorite Synth in the HL franchise.
http://images.wikia.com/half-life/en/images/4/44/Gunship.jpghttp://images.wikia.com/half-life/en/images/5/5a/Gunshipbelly.jpg

Alpha Halo/ Installation 04
Being a PC gamer, I can't really associate myself with the XBox poster child Halo franchise. But when I first tried it out years back, I was quite taken aback by the second level of Combat Evolved. The way Installation 04 arced out from the horizon and and continued to form a full circle through the sky created an amazing sense of scale. I stood admiring it for quite a while, while everyone else was running around killing shit.

http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/5/57/Scrn_092.jpg http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/bb/AlphaHaloview2.jpg

Kushan Mothership
Homeworld was an amazing RTS title with innovative gameplay and an original storyline. And nothing was quite as epic as watching fighters and corvettes swarming out from within your immense mothership to lay waste to an enemy flotilla!

http://www.pixelshack.us/images/3661bb17c86379a6389824465ad3d3fb.jpg http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070909134727/homeworld/images/3/33/Egamespy_10.jpg

Sophitia's boobs
Of course, the 'Wow' factor here isn't like "Wow that's sexy", but more in the line of "Wow her boobs are larger than her head" or "Wow that's gonna cause some spinal injury" or "Wow the microchip industry is so going to run into a silicon crisis". Of course, this applies to around 90% of video game females, but I singled her out simply because of this...

http://vgresearcher.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/boob-evolution.jpg

Now, your turn.

 

[Worgen]

the pit lord from heroes of might and magic V has always blown me away, that game had such fantastic art direction

Spoiler

lets see, oh pretty much all the art from darksiders but especialy ruin and the angelic mount

Spoiler

yeah, I know it looks just like a flaming horse there but when you see.... him? animated in game its pretty impressive, all the details they added really make ruin standout from the rest of in game horses

 

[RA92]

Spoiler

yeah, I know it looks just like a flaming horse there but when you see.... him? animated in game its pretty impressive, all the details they added really make ruin standout from the rest of in game horses

I'm not exactly familiar with Darksiders... but the flaming horse looks pretty badass O_O

 

[Irridium]

Chris Redfield's biceps.

Just... wow.

Also, coming up on The Citadel from Mass Effect for the first time.


Just spectacular.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Spoiler: here's johnny

I found the Combine Citadel a fantastic sight when I first caught eyes of it.

 

[Gxas]

Spoiler

Am I doing it right?

But seriously, I have always found myself looking at screens from Shadow of the Colossus and just being blown away.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Chun-Li's thighs.
Should be self explanatory.

 

[Katana314]

Mirror's Edge's opening sequence felt very impressive. Also, many moments in adventure games that make me laugh, or make a neat reference. (Most recently, a small adventure game called A Vampyre Story)
Also, every one of Amnesia: The Dark Descent's scare sequences.

 

[SmilingKitsune]

The Old one in Demon's souls, fantastic and original design.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Spoiler: Obligatory SR1 Normandy plug

To be fair it didn't "blow me away so much as it did make me go "dayum!"

Same thing happened to me with San Andreas. Only difference was I was admiring the scale from an Apache and was wondering what to destroy first from all the sheer possibilities. Yes, I lose all sense of subtlety when playing GTA.

That actually reminds of a recent one, and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when I say: New Vegas. That was a sight.

EDIT: this is the only picture I found that even come CLOSE

But imagine it to be a LOT darker because a Mod turns the contrast way up.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

The first Soviet level in CoD1, while taken from Enemy at the Gate, is my favorite scene in any Call of Duty game. It was just awesome from the music to the speech at the beginning.

Spoiler: Back before CoD make you into some super soldier, you actually just played a conscript in the Soviet Army

Lake Bresha in FF13 was gorgeous

Spoiler

 

[chromewarriorXIII]

Derris-Kharlan in Tales of Symphonia. Seeing just how massive it is and the contrast of it with the Tethe'alla/Sylverant is incredible.

 

[mikev7.0]

the pit lord from heroes of might and magic V has always blown me away, that game had such fantastic art direction

Spoiler

lets see, oh pretty much all the art from darksiders but especialy ruin and the angelic mount

Spoiler

yeah, I know it looks just like a flaming horse there but when you see.... him? animated in game its pretty impressive, all the details they added really make ruin standout from the rest of in game horses

There were actually a few things that I could have listed as great designs but considering just how much love this great game (Darksiders) hasn't gotten, in spite of how much love someone(s) put into it I'm just going to agree with you. Completely.

 

[RA92]

The first time I climbed the Rock in Oblivion and looked down and saw... everything. And not only saw it, but knew that I could go ANYWHERE I saw. A lot of games are big (Assassin's Creed, for example) but there are always gaps. Always loading screens. But here, it was just... damn.

Same thing happened to me with San Andreas. Only difference was I was admiring the scale from an Apache and was wondering what to destroy first from all the sheer possibilities. Yes, I lose all sense of subtlety when playing GTA.

Spoiler: here's johnny

I found the Combine Citadel a fantastic sight when I first caught eyes of it.

Ah, Sovereign. How could I forget you? For me it was this scene:

http://images.wikia.com/masseffect/images/8/86/Ww.JPG

And yes, the Combine Citadel juxtaposed very well with the decaying urban setting to give off an alien vibe.

Spoiler

Am I doing it right?

You're doing absolutely fine. I myself was blown away by those... luxuriant eyebrows.

 

[[.redacted]]

While I have a number of things like this that I would have linked had I stored them, I have currently only two images that I can remember from this morning:

This is the art evolution of League of Legends, from early champion design, to the newest pieces. It's astonishing.

Spoiler: Katarina

Spoiler: Her first skin (artwork done a while ago)

Spoiler: New skin artwork (done recently)

And relatedly, but not quite the same:

Spoiler: Nidalee

Spoiler: Her first skin (artwork done a while ago)

Spoiler: Fan skin artwork (or so I believe), found on DeviantArt, go check it out

 

[Platypusbill101]

The RYNO 5 death cannon in Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time (sorry don´t know how to add pictures)
-Two overlapping miniguns that fire explosive rounds rotating around a rocket launcher that fires rockets in sync with Tchaikovski´s 1812 Overture

 

[Tartarga]

This place, and all the lost grounds is the .Hack G.U. games. I would go and just stare at them for hours listening to the music it played at them.

Spoiler

 

[SammiYin]

Seeing Gannodorfs fortress in Ocarina for the first time. In fact the whole Hyrule scene after you come from the peaceful happy place as a child.

 

[CATB320]

A lot of the background scenery in Bulletstorm, actually.
The beginning scene of the battle of Ostagar
That one uncharted planet in the first Mass Effect where there you could see a red and blue planet in the distance. That was really neat.