Games with exceptional locations

[saluraropicrusa]

i'm surprised no one's mentioned Okami yet. that whole game is absolutely gorgeous. and, from what i've seen, The Journey is made up entirely of one big exceptional location.

also, i'd say that in both Mass Effect 1 and 2, the Normandy is beautifully designed. towards the end of the game both versions of the ship started to feel like home. a calm, quiet place to relax and talk to your crew. not to mention that both games had some pretty cool set-pieces (like that ship in 2 that had crashed and was perched precariously on a cliff).

 

[shimyia]

well... here are a few:
Dear Esther' incredible island, Assassin's Creed (the whole series)'s gorgeous landmarks, Prince of Persia:Sands of Time's castles in general, PoP 2008's incredibly memorable and beautiful levels , American McGee's Alice's fuken twisted world, Beyond Good & Evil's exotic world, Psychonauts' mind levels (are fuken incredible),
and many others...

 

[Wayneguard]

Morrowind has... Vvardenfell. That will be all.

Also, final fantasy 8 has Esthar which is a seriously cool high tech cyperpunk city. The entirety of final fantasy 9 is one giant storybook location and it's really freaking cool. I liked Noveria from Mass Effect 1 as well. It had a cool asian-fusion zaibatsu feel to it.

 

[Berenzen]

Guild Wars is quite pretty, hell, they made a wasteland look aesthetically pleasing.

Spoiler: some screenies from the first campaign

For a game that's 7 years old. That's not too bad.

 

[Singapore Sling]

@lacktheknack: Haha, I know, I know. I'm quite the "new gamer", and I still need to play Bioshock, Half Life, Portal (*gasp*). But I should...

 

[GameChanger]

This will blow your fucking mind

Blow it right the fuck away. Seriously, I want the next Portal to be like this and fuck with my perceptions of reality. Or maybe a game where you go mad and this is what happens to the levels?

Prey? Anyone? I'm pretty sure I saw most of that before.


Also on topic: I just loved the Myst games, dearly with my soul.