Games with great environments

[StarSock64]

In honor of VGR's reboot and in hopes of generating some discussion, I thought I'd make some threads about things I like to talk about with people outside of the forums, which generally revolves around effective/ineffective design choices in games.

Note: If someone doesn't agree with you, don't get upset about their opinion. Focus your arguments on what was/wasn't effective and why, not on being "right" or "wrong." If you can't come to an agreement, just move on.

Fur Fighters

What makes the areas in Fur Fighters so good is the sheer amount of content in them. It's a third person shooter, but there are a lot of puzzles, collectibles and secrets in it. The levels are designed so that you're constantly given something new to look at, and many of these things have some form of interaction.

The hub world has all of the playable characters' houses, which adds to their...well, character. There are also unlockable minigames on the consoles in each of their houses, which is nice.

There's a PS2 version with cel shaded graphics and voice acting, and the original version with different graphics and weird simlish grunting on Dreamcast (which is the version I own). It's a little obscure so it's hard to find great pictures/videos of it

Images

(DC version)



(PS2 version)

Videos

I think embedding the videos might mess up the time stamps so
Intended stamp: 46m04s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSRf8Si2aCo&t=11m35s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDGgYcbNy9c&t=20m14s

Mega Man Legends/64

Legends 2 has some good environments too, but I'm going to stick with 1 for now.

MegaMan and co. crash land on an island called Kattelox, which has a city that opens up to you more and more after various licensure procedures, as well as ruins that lead to underground treasure.

The Apple Market is a totally iconic place and a nice little spot that's open to you at the beginning. It's lined with stores that you can actually enter, including clothing stores (which don't serve much function besides being interesting), a music store (that has samples of different genres of music that you can actually listen to), and the junk shop where you buy gameplay-relevant things.

And of course, there's the easter egg where you kick the can into the bakery and get money for keeping the streets clean.



The rest of the city is filled with stuff as well. There's a hospital, a bank, and a library. There are vending machines and moving cars. There's a police station, and the police are actively involved in whatever happens on the island. There's a TV station and a news crew that broadcasts your attempts to stop the pirates. There's a part of the game where the pirates destroy buildings, and the extent of the damage is dependent on your ability to defeat the pirates quickly. Then after that, donations open up, and if you donate enough zenny to the town, you get to see the buildings return from their ruined state. It feels like there's an active, moving world, and you get to feel very much a part of it.

Images

Check out some of how awesome Uptown is at:
http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Uptown

The ruins are pretty empty and not the fanciest thing to look at, but they have really iconic...walls. Seriously, though, the textures are cool. I don't think I'd even consider the emptiness a flaw, considering the long hallways and tight rooms contribute to the feeling of being isolated underground. The sound design really helps down there too, keeping the music quiet and making prominent the echoing sounds of Reaverbots you have to look out for.

Images

(PS version)


(64 version)


There's even a minecraft texture mod based on the aesthetic!