Games with a great atmosphere.

[Anah'ya]

Yeah, get it for PC and not for console, though, although it's quite demanding. From what I've heard, everything from the AI to the combat functions and graphics are worse in the console version.

My advertisement for the game just tripled. Now that's what I call efficient teamwork!

God I want Metro...

As the Hairminator said; get it for the PC if you can. There is a demo available so you can make sure your rig is able to handle it properly.

.. and back on topic: The original F.E.A.R had a fairly good atmosphere for an otherwise generic shooter.

 

[Vkmies]

Bioshock, Portal, Red Dead-series, System shock 1 and 2. Silent Hill 2. Condemned. Fallout 1 and 2. Planescape: Torment. Dragon age: Origins. Metroid Prime-series. Thief-series.

 

[BakaSmurf]

Just because no one has mentioned it yet, Cryostasis. God damn did that game just ooz atmosphere, you feel cold to the bone and truly alone when playing that game. A ghost ship in the middle of the arctic is quite the haunting place it is.

Marry me.

...*Ahem,*

Halo: Reach, the game did a really great job of making you feel like you were just a smaller part of a much bigger battle that you're progressively losing. The growing sense of dread as you progress is just... Awesome.

 

[M4A1Sopmod]

Metro 2033, STALKER, Amnesia The Dark Descent, GTA4 and Borderlands strangely enough. There are so many others but these are a few of the games that really stick out in my mind as covering their other gaping design flaws with their awesome atmosphere.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I'll have to say Metro 2033. I didn't really like the game much but it did build a believable miserable little world.

 

[Enemy Of The State]

Heavy Rain, Red Dead Redemption, anyone?

Red Dead Redemption had an amazing atmosphere. Even the travelling was interesting because of the environment, soundtrack and the sense of freedom (despite John being there against his will).

Heavy Rain did a good job of making the player feel what the characters are feeling: anxious, sad, curiousity, and through the game having the right atmosphere about it this actually works.

 

[CheckD3]

The first 15 minutes of Bioshock were set so well that I thought I'd love the game. Then reality sunk in and it lost it's charm. If I could fix it, I'd make Big Daddies almost not fightable, ammo super rare, money found in super small increments and the plasmids and wrench the main combat choices. Oh, and while vita chambers are nice, punishing us for them would have made it more tense

My fav. part was when you heard screaming of splicers as you stood in the only lit area, I fired my shotgun all around me freaking out, then the lights came on and I saw all the bodies and though Holy Shit that was fucking awesome!

Also, Metroid Prime, the first one most of all. The Ridley fight and the dodging during it had me freaking out and moving my chair as I dodged attacks...it's one of those immersion settings that had you feel as frantic as Samus was, don't know if that counts as atmosphere but whatever, I was frantic and I'm sure Ms. Aran would be too if she had a voice (her Other M voice is a cross between Little Neil during Rocky Horror and a 20 year old college student who parties and drinks and sucks cock for "fun"...not the battle hardened 30-40 year old who sounded like the Samus I know and love)

 

[Anah'ya]

The growing sense of dread as you progress is just... Awesome.

... there was dread? Where?

There was atmosphere? I must have played a different Reach. Then again I found the Smurfs atmospheric when I was a kid. Not so anymore.

 

[Okuu_Fusion]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City...

The characters, setting, and music create the perfect 80's atmosphere...

 

[nx8freegames]

I think

Crazy Taxi
Need for Speed(Carbon)
Age of Mythology

all of these games consist of great atmosphere.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Penumbra(overture) - Pantshitting horror, fascination

Every Bioware game I have ever played (all except Jade Empire)

Assassin's creed

From what I've played of Condemned, it's got plenty of atmosphere

Silent Hill 2

Oblivion

 

[Bihac]

How did so many people go for Fallout 3... but only one person mentioned Fallout 1 and 2. (Not saying 3 was bad.) Everything from the difficulty to get initial weapons, the constant lack of ammunition to the fact it took (in game) days to get to the next settlement.

The second Assassins Creed game.

As has been said by many Metro 2033, ME1 and ME2

 

[Snor]

RDR, AC2... oblivion (the sheer size + my own imagination let me feel as a true prisoner turning knight turning champion)

mass effect was nice too

 

[NewYork_Comedian]

I think

Crazy Taxi
Need for Speed(Carbon)
Age of Mythology

all of these games consist of great atmosphere.

alright then...

 

[Ultress]

Devil Survivor, I get a little down just by playing the game,everything goes into the dark and dank breakdown of society.

 

[Kurokami]

Dead Space?

Halo: Reach?

Portal?

I'm not gonna delve into Reach, because despite my assumptions, I haven't played it so I've no foot to stand on, instead I'll take your word on that.

But Portal, how did that have a good atmosphere? Don't get me wrong, the game was great, but the atmosphere was for me purely casual, the game was there only to be completed, not explored, I didn't feel like I was the one hopping around portals so much as I was just trying to get from point A to B while destroying or bypassing every other obstacle of a latter in there. Then ending was better, I'll admit but I wouldn't say atmosphere was what the game had going for it so much.

(Then again, I tend to measure atmosphere by how much it draws you in and little else, so perhaps I'm just looking at it wrong)

Oblivion and Fallout 3 for the first several hours.

 

[CheesusCrust]

Silent hill
Amnesia: The dark descent
Fallout 3
Dead space

 

[BakaSmurf]

The growing sense of dread as you progress is just... Awesome.

... there was dread? Where?

There was atmosphere? I must have played a different Reach. Then again I found the Smurfs atmospheric when I was a kid. Not so anymore.

The dread that comes from watching your squadmates die one-by-one, witnessing the Covenant mercilessly beat civilians to death, flying from rooftop to rooftop in your Falcon as Covenant Cruisers glass the city around you as you desperately attempt to save as many as you possibly can, with the knowledge that regardless of what you do, the planet will fall, and most of the population will be slaughtered, yourself included.

The final battle was an especially powerful scene, especially when you consider what your final objective objective is.

 

[Nouw]

Bioshock easily.

 

[pyrosaw]

HL2, Batman Arkham Asylum. Oh, and Portal.