Games with a great atmosphere.

[Aqualung]

Alan Wake, Heavy Rain, Red Dead Redemption, anyone?

That's why I got SO pissed when I noticed a bug/glitch in RDR. It was so damn immersive, and then something trivial would wrench me out of it, like a bucket of cold water >.<

Same. I actually have a love/hate relationship with that game, purely because it was released in what is arguably a crappy state. Sure, the game is great and everything, but the bugs are far too frequent and do actually interfere with gameplay. When I'm galloping faster than textures or people can load, there's a problem.

Especially a peculiar instance which occurred twice: while playing poker in Blackwater, all of the textures (LITERALLY, ALL of them) would vanish, making the character models into human-shaped blobs that made Zelda: Ocarina of Time look like Crysis. Absolutely inexcusable, in my opinion, for such a high-profile release with that big a budget to have so many game-ruining bugs.

 

[omicron1]

Far Cry 2 - for an evocative and at times quite beautiful African wilderness.

Age of Empires - for the best darn BC atmosphere I've ever had the pleasure of exploring. Also, the music and the campaign intros. So pretty...

Homeworld - yes. (no pun intended - cookies for reference)

Minecraft - to name an obvious choice.

Risen - all the different sections have their own atmospheres, aside from the final dungeons. And the night spent cooking meat by a campfire in the rain on top of an ancient unearthed temple of doom overlooking the island? Magical.

Darn. There's so many good choices.

Just gonna go with one more: Knytt. Extra cookies if you know what this is.

 

[Tanis]

Silent Hill 2
&
Fatal Frame 2


Great games with great atmosphere.

 

[theSovietConnection]

Call Of Pripyat is a great one, the Jupiter plant had me damn near terrified at night during a storm.

Cryostasis is another very atmospheric game.

 

[Savagezion]

Uuuh Mass Effect, I know it doesn't contribute but it is my favorite so far.

Red Dead Redemption is good if you play as the John Marston they want you to be. (Trying to turn over a new leaf.)

Force Unleashed if it werent for QTEs. But maybe that is a personal preference.

Tropico 1. (Havent played 3)

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.! Just... Every. Thing. About. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

 

[mParadox]

Half Life 2
Portal
Dead Space
Age of Mythology

 

[Siuki]

Fallout 3, Borderlands, Halo: Reach, Red Dead Redemption. All my top games.

Can't say Mass Effect because I haven't played it yet.

 

[elricik]

Metro 2033 had one of the greatest settings and atmosphere in any video game. I put up with the mediocre combat all the way through and barley noticed it just because the story, characters, and setting were so awesome.

 

[Bullfrog1983]

Red Dead Redemption
Star Wars: KoToR
Dead Rising

 

[PorkChopXpress]

Escape from Butcher Bay

Hate all you want, it's an awesome game

 

[Pyrokinesis1019]

Iji. Especially when you get out of the building, and the whole sky is full of alien ships and beams of death.

(and Knytt,too.)

 

[Mjolnir36]

Halo 3, the level Cortana when you are all alone in a FLOOD HIVE and Gravemind is fucking with your head, I was truly terrfied.

Also Mass Effect 2 in the Overlord DLC, when the compound was taken over by a rogue and hybrid AI, yet he really didn't attack that often just sat there and watched you...creepy.

 

[Sacman]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.! Just... Every. Thing. About. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

I agree...

 

[starwarsgeek]

So, to give a couple of games iv played that have a great atmosphere in my book:

Bioshock

Mass Effect

Stalker

Fallout 3

Yeah, i probably said half the games you guys were going to mention >_<

I was going to mention three of these (never played Stalker). Let's see if I can make it over half though:

Halo: ODST--
Lonliness incarnate...it's like the vidoe game version of the Firefly episode Out of Gas--which makes me wonder if the Firefly cast members were involved from the script stages...

Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker--
Whether it's an adventure on the sea or crawling through a pig-pirate fortress, this game can set a mood.

Resident Evil 3--
Personally, the Nemesis gave me the feeling that I was being stalked throughout the entire game.

 

[Snarky Username]

Definitely Amnesia The Dark Descent. It's easy to make people afraid of the dark. Not many games can make you afraid of the light.

 

[Erana]

I'm going to throw something a bit different out here and say a JRPG, Legend of Dragoon.
Its a decent PS1 JRPG that didn't really attract me, save for its world. Each city, town, and adventuring location was beautiful and unique, really drawing me in despite my general distaste for JRPG conventions.

It has everything I want in a fantasy world, with lots of unique settings and it does the generic locations, like forests, beautifully as well. It manages to have a lot of very scifi-esque designs and locations, too, while somehow still feeling strictly fantasy.
I luffs the game almost entirely for that.

 

[Blue Musician]

The Path, Silent Hill 2&3, The Void, Pathologic and some more I cannot remember right now?

Age of Mythology

And how the hell AoM got into the list? Don't get me wrong, AoM is one of my top RTS games, and one of my favorite games (not in my top 10 best games of all time BTW), and I played like for 6 continuous months. But I didn't find it atmospheric. I would rather say, It had probably the best sense of style in any RTS which is still unmatched. Atmospheric? For me no. With style? Of course!

 

[Wolfram23]

Demon's Souls, fantastic atmosphere.

YES! 100% Demon's Souls atmosphere is just... perfect. Every single world has it's own unique feel and atmosphere to it, but between all of them you get that overarching feeling of being alone and vulnerable. And when playing online, getting invaded or summoning allies just adds to the whole thing, because that's all possible thanks to a fundamental aspect of this lonely world... you just can't die, really. You become a phantom and can keep going... it's an incessantly lonely experience. Especially since you can't chat with other people.

 

[Polaris19]

KoToR just had...something. I don't know how to explain it, it was just amazing. It felt perfect, especially on Manaan. Something just felt...right there.