best complex/city in a VG

[jefferiestubes8]

Hey guys,
massive locations?
Sure we have
240 square miles of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

the 100 square kilometers of Alan Wake.

the sprawl of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

hundreds of sqare kilometers in Columbia in 2005's Boiling Point: Road to Hell

The quality of the gameplay, plot, characters, voice acting aside-Instead of bigger is better. How about great design of locations?
You know the levels or scenes that have locations that you just go "wow!" when you first see them?

What are your favorite location/cities within a VG from a interior design/architectural perspective?

I thought Half-Life 2 & Mass Effect 2 has some great design I think.
Mass Effect2 for more of a scifi futuristic Blade Runner/The Fifth Element look.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

My last major city in SimCity 3000 was awesome. I stuck a small mountain within a green belt area in the middle of the city and added lots of trees. It was a big city in itself.

 

[23skidoo]

What I find frustrating at times is some games give you this huge area to explore, but saddle you with time limits and missions. Some games offer "sandbox" options, but there should be more.

Anyway, although the individual maps weren't necessarily huge, I've always liked the design of Half-Life2's outdoor areas (actually there are some pretty damn huge areas to explore), especially the city you start out in. Likewise Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and even Postal2 offer some very striking-looking urban areas. And I loved the cyberpunk settings of Thief 2.

And yes I know all these games are pretty old!

Alex

 

[jefferiestubes8]

My last major city in SimCity 3000 was awesome. I stuck a small mountain within a green belt area in the middle of the city and added lots of trees. It was a big city in itself.

I'm talking about a city or location that was designed and created by a art director for a videogame not a DIY from a virtual home depot and virtual lot...

 

[Zulu Romeo]

My last major city in SimCity 3000 was awesome. I stuck a small mountain within a green belt area in the middle of the city and added lots of trees. It was a big city in itself.

I'm talking about a city or location that was designed and created by a art director for a videogame not a DIY from a virtual home depot and virtual lot...

My point exactly. Why play in someone else's city when you can design one of your own that grows and lives and breathes (and dies)?

 

[clint g]

I've never really been able to get into games with wide open cities and stuff. I prefer smaller, more scripted cities like those in Mass Effect 2

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Likewise Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and even Postal2 offer some very striking-looking urban areas. And I loved the cyberpunk settings of Thief 2.

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines Official Trailer
those nighttime city locations remind me of a movie studio citystreet backlot. heh heh.

Thief 2 The Metal Age Mission 4 - Speedrun on Expert (Ambush)
interesting castle-like locations. I didn't see cyberpunk looking stuff. Do you another video link to a specific locale?

 

[SlaveOfSeven]

Sure we have
240 square miles of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

240 square miles? That might have been what was originally intended, but that's not in the game. The 30 square kilometres figure from your link seems about right, and even then only one map is a city map. Still, it's a pretty good map, though not as open to exploration as it could be.

The city hubs from Bloodlines can hardly be described as complex or massive, but I have to agree that they were great locations, full of atmosphere.

I thought Washington D.C. from Fallout 3 was pretty impressive. Again, not as open to exploration as I (and most players presumably) would have liked, but it can be quite eerie and haunting poking around the ruins.

Vizima from The Witcher was quite large and well done. It also had a more authentic pseudo-medieval feel than the usual Ye Olde Townes you see in games. (Authentic pseudo... oh well.)

 

[judge alba]

saints row 2 wasnt a bad city always something different happening

 

[General_Phoenix]

One reason I love the GTA series so much is the open exploration. San Andreas took it to another level with the vast areas to explore, a few different cities to go to, and the rural areas to go adventuring in as well. Plus with no visible loading times between destinations was pretty cool. GTA IV was fun to explore, but after the DLC I'm burned out on that city for awhile. Vice City wasn't as much fun to explore, but the fun gameplay/story by far made up for it.

 

[Reverend]

Of all the games I've played, San Andreas is the clear winner in terms of size and variety. I had the game on PS2 for year and never got past that bike/train mission, but still never felt a lack of things to do. It's only now I've got the PC version on Steam and have unlocked all the other areas that I fully appreciate just how huge it all is. I'd like to say I like GTA3 and Vice City too, but I can't get the bloody things to work!

Fallout 3's capital wasteland is a close second for pure scope and atmosphere. However, it suffers somewhat for a lack of things to do outside of the main story. A couple of repeatable side-quests like rad-scorp hunting or caravan escorting would have gone a ways to alleviating that I think. On the other hand, there's no getting away from all those copy/paste locations, which was a shame though not nearly as chronic as say the first Mass Effect game.

Half-Life 2 defiantly deserves a mention, not because there's so much exploring to do but because it fools you into thinking there is and not really noticing you're actually being led along a very linear path. Superb work. Valve are masters of immersive gameplay...pitty they haven't got the knack of release schedules yet.

 

[JonathonWally]

While not "huge" I loved the cities and visuals of both Assassin's Creed games. Especially Florence in AC 2.

 

[scnj]

My favourites are still probably Hell's Kitchen and Hong Kong from Deus Ex.

 

[D Man]

Of all the games I've played, San Andreas is the clear winner in terms of size and variety. I had the game on PS2 for year and never got past that bike/train mission, but still never felt a lack of things to do.

I couldn't get past that stupid mission either, but I never ran out of far more fun things to do in the game. It also has the benefit of having some of the coolest cheat codes I've seen. Flying cars + cars fly away when you hit them + a bazooka for target practice = fun for hours on end.

 

[General_Phoenix]

Of all the games I've played, San Andreas is the clear winner in terms of size and variety. I had the game on PS2 for year and never got past that bike/train mission, but still never felt a lack of things to do.

I couldn't get past that stupid mission either, but I never ran out of far more fun things to do in the game. It also has the benefit of having some of the coolest cheat codes I've seen. Flying cars + cars fly away when you hit them + a bazooka for target practice = fun for hours on end.

I never had much of a problem with the missions in San Andreas, or Vice City either. I think the GTA games have gotten easier and easier since GTA III, which I think is the hardest, mainly because it seems the higher end weapons like the AK just burns through your armor like nothing. There's a rather sandbox style to the other GTA games that has been getting more fine tuned and scripted which each new game, now in GTA IV there is generally only one way to beat a mission - no more thinking outside the box, or trying something new in order to beat a mission. In GTA III, Vice City, and in some missions in San Andreas, I probably rarely ever play a mission the same way twice.