What games have the best atmosphere? Top 3?

Hello friends, it's another shitty low quality thread where don't have to think too hard. A bit of fluff.

What 1-3 games would you say have the best execution of the atmosphere they are going for?

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These are my bad top 3 with a bunch of pretentious shit no one will read, or scoff at and criticize heavily -

Stalker - Lacks the typical feel of attempting to emulate a Hollywood movie. No American accents. No player powerhouse. No overly elaborate world design too beautiful as to be phony. It feels like a real lived in place with the player a cog in the wheel, punctuated by a sense of dread and occasional, not redundant horror sequences giving a sense of weight.

A perfect mix of beauty with desolate, supernatural with grounded and horror with mundane, it's a cocktail few, if any game will ever achieve, superseding the games well documented problems to elevate it well beyond it's release as a classic in the minds of many.

Hitman: Contacts - The other entries attempt to portray Agent 47 as a hero, or at least an anti-hero with a moral compass as to not feel bad about murdering people alongside clearly defined villains accompanied by blustering orchestral scores swelling up that at times is in direct conflict with what the player is actually doing.

From the opening title screen it's obvious this game is going for something different. Brooding music, in out of consciousness fever dream with every level taking place at night utilizing a murky diffuse color pallet. Each setting presents a generalized cynical viewpoint of the world than the atypical mustache twirling villain of other entries, nasty, grimy, with our titular character the outsider looking in. Contacts oozes 1970's cinema. It's not quite the Shindlers List of gaming, but it could be Taxi Driver.

Metal Gear Solid - To me this is by far the most atmospheric of the series. It's more that than the writing that holds it up. The terrific melancholic music score, muted colors, heavy use of black fog (hardware limitation) and flat 2D art work as opposed to 3D used in later entries, a lot of people attribute the writing, because people say a lot of shit. Or it has a word salad of thematic elements, which means deep. Really, they are all assholes and wrong, and wish ill upon them.

The gameplay evolved to become significantly better, the stories became more bloated and self-indulgent, but the atmosphere here is spot on.

Tough, so I'll list what comes to mind.

1. Freedom Fighters
2. GTAIV
3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Condemned: Criminal Origins

Outlast

Stalker is a great choice though.

Demon's Souls and Miles Morales.

Ok I am gonna answer with my fav genre JRPG for this. Games that oozes so much atmosphere (and world building) for me is:-

3. Shadow Hearts - especially Koudelka, Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts Covenant. The games has so much atmosphere and character. The common things about Shadow Hearts is the mature, dark, horror RPG, with some horror elements can be quite disturbing for a JRPG. The 3 games sets around 10 years before and during the events of WWI and in one game the protagonist is a German soldier and with real historical characters so it has that certain real world charms.

2. FFIvalice Alliance games - FF Tactics, Vagrant Story and FFXII. Only the 3 ivalice games directed by the creator, Matsuno Yasumi. FF Tactics and Vagrant Story really oozes some amazing atmosphere and world building. From the use of classic/Shakespeare English, the different cultures of regions and religions, to the very heavy politics, really hard to match the atmosphere of the games even in modern non jrpg franchises.

1. Persona 3 - god I love Persona 3. Best atmosphere in a Persona game with the whole theme of death and everyone seems like they have stupid amount of depressions. Lots of characters die and the game has the best written Social Link character ever, Nozomi Akinari. Hero dies at the end of the game too so its a bittersweet journey.

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The real winner is Bloodborne. Bloodborne is best game ever made.

Incredible choices cup.

I would say

1. STALKER
2. Metro series
3. Doom 3

Hitman contracts was most atmospheric Hitman and while MGS also had incredible atmosphere that badly need modern remake.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Dragon Age: Origins

Fallout 3

Bloodborne. All other answers are incorrect.

Bloodborne

Super Metroid

Blasphemous

• Silent Hill Shattered Memories
• Mirror's Edge
• Sleeping Dogs

Honorable mentions, GTA Vice city, Condemned 2 bloodshot,Crysis ,Farcry 2, Indigo Prophecy, Until Dawn, Remember me.

STALKER, obviously.
Super Metroid (play it you bastard)
Half-Life 2

Honorable mentions:

Metroid Prime
BioShock
Wind Waker
Breath of the Wild
Alien Isolation
Dark Souls
Bloodborne
Dead Space
Diablo 1&2
Morrowind
Neverwinter Nights
Inside

Alien: Isolation

Another World

Half-life 2

I can't name three and certainly not in order. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne all have great atmosphere. Bioshock, Dead Space, Fallout 3, Fallout NV, Half Life 2, Stalker, all three Metro games as well. I am most likely missing at least a dozen more. I always had an obvious number one, but i can't even think of it right now 😭

RDR2 and Sea of mofo Thieves, crushes all other contenders.

At least until Everwild, gets here. :P

Not disagreeing with the above but rather to add a few I really love the atmosphere in:

Planescape Torment

Morrowind

Diablo 1

The original mass effect had a great base with the planetary exploration, genuinely felt very genre appropriate and very atmospheric, discovering downed probes, resource outcrops etc. Mass effect did an awful lot right in making the explorable planets feel like the frontier, which contrasted nicely with the citadel's ultra clean aesthetic.

Elder scrolls 4 Oblivion, from the moment you stepped out of the imperial sewers you felt sucked into that world, as a game very janky in places but in terms of the atmosphere created especially in certain quest lines it did a very good job.

The Witcher 3, just an outstanding product overall, but from Elven ruins, to Oxenfurt, to the swamps of Velen and the skellige archipelago, each area has it's own convincing atmosphere that feels different and once again draws you into the world and events therein.

@sonny2dap: good choices. My wife was just reminiscing last night about first emerging from the sewers in Oblivion.

Completely forgot about this, and you're 100% right. Amazing atmosphere.

• Bioshock 1&2
• GTA Vice City and GTA IV
• Dead Space 1&2

Also want to mention Half Life and Far Cry 2 for never taking you out the experience and some great world building when it comes to Half Life.

Dishonored and Prey are some other honorable mentions. Once I visit these worlds, I don't want to leave.

@Litchie: I could never get into that game, but it did have a fantastic atmosphere. Might have to give it another shot, haven't tried it since the SNES days.

On top of my head and in no particular order...

- Bioshock

- Breath of the Wild

- Metal Gear Solid

- Resident Evil 4

I'd say that the most atmospheric title i've ever played (for its time) is actually Oblivion. Most likely because of the my-first-open-world-game-syndrome.

Chaos Theory and Escape From Butcher Bay were also great in the department.

Three favourites of mine off the top of my head and in no particular order are:

- Breath of the Wild

- Mass Effect

- Resident Evil 4

1. Fallout 76
2. Resident Evil 7
3. Demon's Souls

Not many games can compete with the atmosphere in these 3 titles/ series. You can argue about a walking simulator like Soma... but these games have more interaction, while setting a mood and having very nice passive storytelling.

Same. It's way too sluggish and trial and error-y for me. Dat atmosphere though.

Edit: You did mean Another World, right?

2 of among my fav games of all time. Masterpieces in every way. shame we dont get games like those today.

Metroid Prime 1 and 2

• Morrowind
• Bloodborne
• Chrono Cross

(Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, Sekiro)

Dead Space, Fallout 3 and Oblivion/Skyrim.

• Panzer Dragoon Saga
• Shenmue II
• Bloodborne

-Stalker

-Cryostasis

-Mafia (original not the remake)

Thief series oozes atmosphere.

sucks turning up late for a thread like this, all the good ones have been taken. i'll add the original secret of monkey island

Bioshock

Donkey Kong Country

HL2

Easy, Majora's Mask, Cry of Fear, and LISA: The Painful RPG

Alan Wake.

In no order:

• Penumbra
• Bioshock
• Bloodborne
• Alien Isolation
• Demon's Souls
• Dark Souls

Sorry can't list just 3

Bioshock

BoTW

Metal Gear Solid 4

Castlevania SOTN or Super Castlevania IV

Ninja Gaiden Black

Resident Evil (gamecube remake)

plus a bunch of others i dont care to list.

• Bioshock
• Bioshock: Infinite
• The Last of Us
• The Last of Us 2

BioShock series
Fallout series
Ori

Alan Wake

TLOU

Metro 2033

Halo

Half life

• Bloodborne. That game practically breaths atmosphere, you truly feel inside a Lovecraft story.
• Hallow Knight. There is something so eerie about this game's atmosphere, like even the charming places seems to hide some sort of mystery, not to mention the melancholy and overall sadness .... love this game.
• Bioshock Infinite. Very unpopular opinion and i agree that the first game has great atmosphere too, but i always liked Infinite more in that regard, i truly feel they captured that 50's feeling with some unique twists here and there.

Half life alyx certainly springs to mind.

I would also stick HL2 on the list but thats 2 games from the same series which is cheating :P.

The first Deus ex was very immersive in it's day too.

In no order

• AC Odyssey
• Skyrim
• LoZ Botw

Honorable mentions

• Bioshock
• TLOU
• RDR2
• Black Desert
• Bloodborne
• FF7 Remake
• RE2 Remake
• Baldurs Gate 3 (honestly cant wait till the other acts are released)
• Swtor
• Total War Warhammer 2
• Dark Souls 3

SOMA

Dead Space 1

Amnesia: Dark Descent

1. Dead Space

2. Subnautica

3. Resident Evil 7