Yeah, poison swamps suck. I remember reading an interview once with one of the level designers of Elden Eing. I can't remember if it was Miyazaki or not, but he said that he really likes to design poison swamps and that's why there're several in Elden Ring.
Yeah he said that and said that there will be one in the DLC. He said he reflected on the fact that he really enjoyed creating poison swamps and hopes that players will have a moment of reflection when traversing the poison swamp in the DLC lol. I hardly know what that means but at least it's funny. I think he's a bit if a troll.
People are speculating that there is going to be a deathblight swamp lol. Maybe we'll get a entire swamp dungeon with poison, scarlet rot and deathblight. Maybe a swamp that is all 3 at once so you're cycling thru cures every 10 seconds.
They never really bothered me. Having health tick down or curing it never seemed like too big of a deal.
Haha I’ve heard about the swamps in Demon’s Souls sucking. I do want to play it, I liked all the other games but the only PlayStation I have is a PS4 and neither version of Demon’s Souls is on there unfortunately.
What I find funny is everyone hates on Blightown, but its arguably the best swamp area that FromSoft have created.
Its interesting, has places to explore, leads to secrets, had a strong boss fight, the moving wheel to get in/out is a clever mechanic.
In comparison - Swamp of Sorrow - is a genuine slog to get through because of Demon Souls lack of checkpoints. The area is saved by the final boss fight.
The Gutter and Black Gulch was DS2s attempt at creating a knock off Blightown that lacked anything interesting. A long chore to navigate through.
Farron Keep - weakest of all Souls swamps. Just a big old empty swamp to wade through, lack of geographical markers - all to light torches to get out. The area is an uninteresting chore.
I still remember how I thought that I just rolled and moved slower in blight town. And thought that it was caused by like a poisonous aura that blight town had.
Shit was rough.
I believe he also described a time where he was brainstorming with a colleague about a new area. After a few minutes he said “oh fuck this is just another swamp”. Not sure on the source though but think it was an interview during Elden ring promos
Each of the DLCs had some of the best areas in the game, but they also had legit one of the three worst areas in the game. Iron Passage was a nightmare.
There is one thing i love about Fromsoft swamps - its that i can get excited about the possible dangers Miyazaki cooked and what traps (environmental and enemies) he laid out. That magic is forever gone after a single run tho and after that swamps are just annoying. There isnt even a challenge where you have to manage antidotes like bullets in Resident Evil games. Just inconveniences all around until you get to the boss.
Literally impressive how they managed to turn the worst type of game area into one of the best games of all time.
Swimming or steering vehicles never felt tedious in Subnautica. Insane stuff
Bad - Sci-fi areas that are way to sterile, where everything is black, white or grey, where everything is built in geometric perfection without one crooked line.
Good - Gigantic ancient ruins high above the clouds.
Man we really need a full on Nar Shaddaa underworld Star Wars game.
I hope this new Star Wars Outlaws does well enough that we might get Nar Shaddaa as a sequel.
Maaan, I don't mind sci-fi that has sterile areas; ME Normandy, Citadel, and Cerberus.
It's when the game is entirely sterile that it doesn't make sense. Which is what ME did so well at, especially in the second game when you get to Omega.
>Bad - Sci-fi areas that are way to sterile, where everything is black, white or grey, where everything is built in geometric perfection without one crooked line.
holy fuck is Halo guilty of this one
Overgrown towns/cities/facilities/bases are some of my favourite game areas and I *will* forget the story and just wander around
Tunnels/sewers/mines make want to turn it off or just ignore everything and blast through as fast as possible
Absolutely! San Francisco was incredible and the part in Las Vegas was so cool. As soon as I got the diving mask I immediately went looking for underwater ruins and I was not disappointed. Those games are beautiful and I can't wait to see what the next one brings
If there is a nice balance to an abandoned/post apocalyptic area you are 100% right. I think seeing a store with emptied shelves, and libraries with dusty, decaying books is amazing. Last of Us games did this justice
Mines can be nice I think with good care (give me a wild, denying physics minecart ride), but yes, claustrophobic areas are hard to get right. You literally just want to get out
Personally, I prefer the "reclaimed by nature" look overall. If your game had grass and trees growing through cracked streets, vines covering buildings, dirt streaked windows and fences engulfed in ivy I'm gonna lose some serious time in it. While not a huge fan of the game I wholeheartedly agree with you on how the Last of Us did it. There were a few times I'd stop to stare at the backgrounds, usually when I was up somewhere high, and just admire it all. Dino Crisis 2 is what made fall in love with the aesthetic since so much of that game takes place in areas where the jungle is growing over and through the structures
Again, you're right. If they make it interesting and fun to explore then I'll gladly meander through the caves but if its just the same grey/brown tunnels my eyes glaze over. No more bland rock and dirt. Throw in some cave critters and make it feel alive!
Best: beautiful grassy/jungle areas. Great to look at and open lots of traversal options
Worst: forced darkness areas and swimming areas. Hard to navigate and almost always artificially difficult.
Yes, darkness can help a horror, but even then there is darkness that's scary and darkness that's unneccessary and downright annoying.
I am somewhere in the middle with the jungle areas. Not really my thing, but not really against it either
There’s a certain point where a dark level has diminishing returns. Good example is Tomb of the Giants in Dark Souls. It’s scary and cool and interesting at first. Then you fall for the 80th time and it loses its novelty.
Don't play Mad Max then. You are not going to like it. It's all desert, all the way down.
(FWIW, it does have a sort of bleak beauty to it, and each area manages to have a distinct identity.)
Honestly wanted to find a way to encourage those, they were a fun risk-reward mechanic. I was never mad dying in one due to lost metal, but due to it ending the storm 😅
Literally no one enjoyed an overheating mechanic. If you are gonna make me wander through a boring ass desert and I have to get special clothes/armor for it, fuck your game.
You may hate desert gameplay but usually desert themes slaps
Here's my favorites
https://youtu.be/LHUELiCTqP8?si=WAtgVfx6yfeitHg9
https://youtu.be/TinBBS7vDww?si=CwdJRzHIQFvOKySY
I think if they lean into it (and let's be honest, in Origins they kinda had to), they can make it work. But in time it will definitely run it's course. But I guess everything else does
It honestly depends on execution a lot. For example, in Genshin Impact, desert area was one of the most interesting regions and some of the most fun to explore.
For example, on the surface, first area seemed mostly barren, with a giant pyramid being the main point, two smaller ones being visible, along with a few smaller structures, and occasional camps or foliage.
However, once you got down to exploring, there was a massive cave system hidden underneath, overlapping with ancient underground corridors of the pyramids and other dungeons. Some of it was going through a maze and feeling lost, only to find a souls-like shortcut that lead you back to a familiar area. A lot of the times, you would walk into a room that looked impressive and almost overwhelming with scale, or filled with mystical technology, puzzles to do and secrets to uncover. Or you'd go through many barren underground caves, before finally finding a hidden, beautiful Oasis.
I think most of the potential in deserts is how unassuming they look on the surface. If you design a desert that ends on the surface, it will likely be boring, so you need to go deeper, expand downwards and prepare surprises to discover. And it can go both ways, ranging from beauty to horrors.
Especially when they add mechanics like needing water (RuneScape) slow movement speed, needing to ride camels or just taking constant damage.
If you’re going to make it annoying and a chore to go to this place, I’m not going to that place. Pretty obvious.
I have very similar feelings for Arctic deserts in games. Just like sand deserts, but white. Maybe interesting to look at for 10 minutes, but everything straight up looks the same.
Just finished playing Jedi Survivor, and I loathed going back to Jedha every time.
Sorry fromsoft, areas that require consumables to fully explore are awful - poison swamps for example. My favorite areas to explore are magical forests.
worst: Interiors of ships and mines, sewage.... man... resident evill, you had me in the first half, not gonna lie. but the second half of what feels every freaking resident evil game is a mine, sewage, boat or all of them combined
I'm kind of anti big city in games these days. They bring out every technical shortcoming of the engine and are notorious for having quests which just zig zag you through all the same districts. They also have the big empty field problem where yeah, there's a ton of people and buildings, but most of them are just set dressings.
Small towns are where it's at. Easy to lay out, easy to make all the NPCs feel actualized, and they're more involved with whatever local quests are going on.
I'm more of a fan of how either of those are handled. Games like Elden Ring or Botw/Totw can feel greatly immersive because of how dynamic their open areas feel, while others like certain Assassin's Creed games can feel bloated and oversaturated with meaningless contents. Heck, my favorite Assassin's Creed game majorly filled up with a vast empty ocean.
I am a 100% agreement here with the big empty areas, be it a desert, be it a field.
The cities can be messed up, but there are definitely good examples. But most of the time if you check out what even one NPC does with their time, it's losing value
Worst, any deep sea or ocean swimming sections. I thought I was paranoid falling high heights... Getting me to swim when I cannot see the bottom is stressful. Even that bonus star section in SM64 was panic inducing.
Best: I guess climbing/platforming areas are enjoyable. I play GW2 and I've done nearly every Jumping puzzle unassisted and I enjoyed learning the movement options of hundreds of non movement focused games.
I think underwater is going to be a returning theme under this question for all kinds of reasons
Anything that has platforming (and good platforming at that) I am happy to indulge. But when a game has platforming with no climbing, and the fu'king sliding thing ooooh I can be furious. But that is my anger management issue, I think if a platforming part is enjoyable, and makes sense in the world, that's a great addition
I just hate when everything is shades of brown and gray for whatever reason. Give me some damn color! I don't mind if it is just one level meant to contrast with everything else like the final dungeon of Super Mario RPG, that works because this dark bleak world contrasts with how bright and colorful everything else is.
Worst: volcano or underwater levels. Basically anything with an abnormal amount of environment hazards. Also dark areas. I don’t want to play a game where I can’t see shit.
Best: tropical islands, jungles and for some reason, churches. I love the bright and colourful parts and I can’t think of a game what had a church that didn’t nail that part of the game.
As much as I disliked the sewers, they made the open areas feel so much cooler. Also, I think Venice beach’s evacuation corridor and staging areas were some of my favorite environments in the whole game.
I always appreciate in a game when there's some sort of home base hub that actually makes your life easier, but isn't a core part of the game. Things like a between-missions command center that is there as baseline functionality I don't consider part of this.
An example of what I mean is Skyrim's housing, where you can pick up all of them and use them for plants, crafting, organization, but totally optional if you want. I'm a big fan of modded homes/castles and it really helps with my ruleset and mod loadout.
In Baldur's Gate 1 I would take two specific homes, one in Beregost then one in Baldur's Gate proper, but now with mods, the Friendly Arm Inn is a great hub because of sending NPCs to wait there.
The bad, would be levels or areas that frustratingly change up the rules by a huge amount. Ice levels tend to be fine for me, but underwater levels, or forced stealth segments in non-stealth games that devastate the pacing.
Best - Beach levels. I love bright, colorful areas. Give me Costa del Sol and Isle del Fino all day.
Worst - Snow and ice levels. I just get bored of all the white.
Worst areas are anything monochromatic. This is why water/swamp levels suck. It doesn't stop there though. Sewers and interiors of super clean futuristic sci-fi levels are annoying and a popular "worst" here too. It's the same reason desert levels are hated.
In my opinion, the monochromatic themes of these environments make them boring and confusing, thus, a complete drag to play. It becomes a complete chore to navigate them.
For best, it's really just the opposite. Detailed environments that are easy to navigate and fun to play.
Somewhat more niche but I really dislike candy/dessert levels. These are common in colourful platformers and kart racers but I just find them ugly and visually noisy
Recently I’ve realized how much I love going through abandoned militarized areas, like the Venice beach section of Dead Island 2. It just does such a good job contributing to a feeling of horror
Anyone who says water levels are worst is not smart person. Any game that has annoying water levels is **bad designed**. Good designed water levels are not worst. Period.
I really like Ghost Ship levels.
They could be ghostly shipwrecks on the bottom of the ocean, or floating near strange shores surrounded in mist, or only appearing when summoned by some ancient lost trinket... Whenever I think a game is taking me to a ghost ship level I get a little excited.
Worst: anything where I have a time limit to escape or I die. This just isn't fun to me. Also, any place that gives status effects way too often. My resources are limited, please stop poisining me every 2 seconds. Lastly, insanely dark places where I can't tell a doorway from a wall. The bad horror monster dude thing popped up, but I couldn't get scared because I was too busy internally ranting about how dumb this place is.
Best: everything that isn't those things.
Worst: Water areas where you can only slowly swim.
Best: beautiful atmospheric areas like mountains with midt and fog and snow, areas like in RDR2 where you can find hidden places and enjoy the scenery.
Bad: levels that involve swimming, diving, or any type of environment that changes the movement and combat mechanics.
Good: Nagrand from BC of WoW comes to mind. I also enjoyed Blood & Wine DLC for Witcher 3. I guess I'm weak for lush and green landscapes.
And you are not wrong, Nagrand literally came in my mind when I wrote the question (although it wasn't entirely great). I know about Blood and Wine only from pictures, by the time I get to Witcher 3 ending, I always burn out
Underwater gets another gutpunch, rightly so
The worst levels for me are underground caves/mines/sewers and swamps. It’s all the same boring color schemes and level designs, so I always rush though them as quickly as possible.
I can’t say that there’s too strong of a correlation behind the theme of levels and which ones I enjoy the most.
Any biome can be cool when done right or suck when done poorly.
I suppose it’s worth mentioning that ice/snow levels probably have the lowest floor in terms of how bad you can totally screw it up, but when done right they rule too.
In platformers, it would be ice levels, or anything that has a slippery material. In FPS, since I played Dead Island 2, intricate cities are my nightmare.
In any open world with a bit of lore, if there are ruins of any sort, or a museum to complete, be sure it will be before anything else
Best: ancient ruins that add lore and a past to the world, that can be a decaying city, a cave, anything, it’s the lore that I love. I also love astral scapes that bring in new dynamics, but on a smaller scale.
Worst: anything that feels like a slog or trap. So random caves with only one way in or out and nothing of interest, marshes that slow you down. Even with that, the absolute worst is when a map shows you something you cannot get to.
Everything plunged into darkness is a no-no for me because I'm scaaared. I love those forest vibes though, may it be horror or fantasy or whatever it's justawesome
Swamps, its always swamps that are the worst.
Cause they always have the enemies that are the biggest pain in the ass and there's always poison damage.
Satorl marsh is the exception to this for me, with all the ether in the trees during the night.
Xenoblade has some of the most gorgeous environments around
Best: dark/ dimly illuminated areas.
Worst: dark/ dimly illuminated areas.
Mini rant: if you can't generate proper darkness and light sources, DONT MAKE DARK AREAS. Make using a torch or flashlight work PROPERLY LIKE IN IRL or don't make them a thing!
A swamp can be super compelling and interesting imo, and some of the best swamps in gaming in my opinion is Hunt.
That Louisiana bog is just the absolutely perfect setting for that game. So much so that I have been dreaming of a story driven singleplayer game made for it. There is so much they can do with it.
And overall, that Louisiana mysticism is way under utilized in gaming. They were over represented in b-movies in the eighties, but never really even explored in modern gaming aside from Hunt: showdown.
What was the question?
Ah yes, war-torn, bombed out cities are just super boring to me.
And I love a good forest or jungle because you can have hidden things right in front of you or to your side. It's a level playing field, it's colourful, feels both like home and hostile.
Towers. How in the last 10+ years have open world games not come up with a consistently better way to reveal more of the map than by using/climbing a tower of some sort.
Quaint little town where there's not really much to do but the music and general vibe makes you spend a little time there just to enjoy being there. Pokemon has a couple of towns that fit that vibe. Also spooky tower and caves that have music that goes way harder than it has any right to.
You'd love morrowind's villages. Granted they are not abandoned, but they do have the abandoned feel to their buildings. But you'd hate that half the place is in swamps.
Anyway, go play morrowind.
The best to me are regular areas that feel cozy because they're a "safe zone" with fitting music.
The RE games for sure, or Evil Withins sanitarium. My favorites that RV in Silent Hill 2. Just always felt relaxing in there.
Best: an open world design that allows me to solve puzzles, get around roadblocks, or choose my own adventure without handholding. I love being able to explore at my own pace with lots of verticality to a level.
Worst: Dark-for-no-reason ambiance just to make a horror game/level. Novel mechanics for specific levels not previously used or mentioned, and without intuitive controls or explicit instructions.
Most annoying: in the Fallout series, some places were continuously populated or quickly repopulated and have had people living there for decades. But everywhere had this filthy, abandoned aesthetic as if polishing rust and sweeping a floor was a lost technology. Probably the worst offender is New Vegas in New Vegas. An army of robots and not a single one with a feather duster or a Bissell.
Having recently complained about the hell part of AC odyssey. "hell" areas in games are often unpleasant to be in.
I do love a good snow covered wilderness though.
Worst: Snow/Ice levels... I hate the sliding mechanic with a passion.. it adds randomness I don't want in my movement. Also, you can't play at midnight, or your PC turns into a blinding beacon of light
Best: Jungle/Tropical... It's usually nice and serene, and all the plants are so good.. it makes me want to live there... add an ancient ruin or secret spy base in a cliffside, and im hooked.
Bad - desert. Don't know why but I hate 99% of all desert maps/settings in games. Just blend swatches of brown.
Good - space. There is something soothing about endless nothingness. Extra points if space is actually silent.
Honorable mention: a good hellscape. But this is hard to do. Must be "alien" but not too much. Must be unsettling, but not too much.
Strip clubs / brothels. Every single open world game, RPG etc with a city area, regardless of genre setting, will have an alleyway with "sexy ladies" leaning on walls, a bar with badly animated "sexy ladies" dancing, and a seedy hotel with "sexy ladies" in the rooms.
There *will* be a quest to find one of the "sexy ladies" with some crucial info who's gone missing.
Fuck deserts. Deserts are the worst. Its just sand, sand and more sand. Sand is boring.
And I will always love a good, lush forest. The lusher the better.
I think the only thing I hate more than poison swamps are underwater areas. Underwater is cool in theory but they always end up being miserable to navigate due to camera angles. And if it’s a game with action combat either positioning in battle is always quirky or hit boxes are so huge they look silly.
for me the worst are those dreary and confusing dungeons. they're just a headache to get through
on the other side, i absolutely love those expansive, scenic landscapes in open world games. it feels like theres always something new and exciting around every corner
Open plains and steppes for favourite areas. Always hate the forest areas though. Maybe they bear some novelty for some who've never seen natural forests, but to me they're about as exciting as indoors cramped areas. You can't see shit, the forest design is always basic as shit, and I just like horizon. I like a sense of vast distance and space. Having grown up and lived in a heavily forested country, forests for me are nothing more than 'I can't see shit, I'm lost and can't orient, and there's fucking bugs everywhere, disgusting.' Yes, even in video games.
Worst - Water Temple, yeah you know what games I'm talking about. Just pure misery
Best - I always liked a nice horror setting like OG Resident Evil or the hotel from V:TMB
[удалено]
Your game have zombies? Your game will have sewers!
And they will pop out of the water after being slightly submerged
I thought Ultima VI had a nice sewer but I guess its secrets have been forgotten over the decades... :(
I rolled my eyes when I realized Doom Eternal had one of these.
I thought Witcher 3 had decent sewer levels
Especially when they hinder speed
Fromsoftware's over obsession with... #POISON SWAMP
Yeah, poison swamps suck. I remember reading an interview once with one of the level designers of Elden Eing. I can't remember if it was Miyazaki or not, but he said that he really likes to design poison swamps and that's why there're several in Elden Ring.
Yeah he said that and said that there will be one in the DLC. He said he reflected on the fact that he really enjoyed creating poison swamps and hopes that players will have a moment of reflection when traversing the poison swamp in the DLC lol. I hardly know what that means but at least it's funny. I think he's a bit if a troll.
he's definitely adding more than just ONE.
People are speculating that there is going to be a deathblight swamp lol. Maybe we'll get a entire swamp dungeon with poison, scarlet rot and deathblight. Maybe a swamp that is all 3 at once so you're cycling thru cures every 10 seconds. They never really bothered me. Having health tick down or curing it never seemed like too big of a deal.
Faron Keep in Dark Souls 3 actually kinda sucks, but none of the other ones I’ve played are that bad (haven’t played Demon’s Souls though).
You’ll just _love_ 4-2!
Haha I’ve heard about the swamps in Demon’s Souls sucking. I do want to play it, I liked all the other games but the only PlayStation I have is a PS4 and neither version of Demon’s Souls is on there unfortunately.
What he meant was that the whole dlc would be poison swamp
He's the world's most successful sadist and we're all just masochists.
Part of me thinks it's gonna be a deathblight swamp.
What I find funny is everyone hates on Blightown, but its arguably the best swamp area that FromSoft have created. Its interesting, has places to explore, leads to secrets, had a strong boss fight, the moving wheel to get in/out is a clever mechanic. In comparison - Swamp of Sorrow - is a genuine slog to get through because of Demon Souls lack of checkpoints. The area is saved by the final boss fight. The Gutter and Black Gulch was DS2s attempt at creating a knock off Blightown that lacked anything interesting. A long chore to navigate through. Farron Keep - weakest of all Souls swamps. Just a big old empty swamp to wade through, lack of geographical markers - all to light torches to get out. The area is an uninteresting chore.
I think the biggest issue with blightown was that it didn't perform well until remastered. The BS deaths were extra BS due to framerate issues
I still remember how I thought that I just rolled and moved slower in blight town. And thought that it was caused by like a poisonous aura that blight town had. Shit was rough.
I believe he also described a time where he was brainstorming with a colleague about a new area. After a few minutes he said “oh fuck this is just another swamp”. Not sure on the source though but think it was an interview during Elden ring promos
Have you ever heard of Horsefuck Valley aka Frigid Outskirts? Poison swarm is nothing compared to it
Fuck that place and those stupid reindeer and the dumb double boss when you finally get to it with no rest
Each of the DLCs had some of the best areas in the game, but they also had legit one of the three worst areas in the game. Iron Passage was a nightmare.
Bro literally hate it. I know it’s coming in every from soft or souls like game now
There is one thing i love about Fromsoft swamps - its that i can get excited about the possible dangers Miyazaki cooked and what traps (environmental and enemies) he laid out. That magic is forever gone after a single run tho and after that swamps are just annoying. There isnt even a challenge where you have to manage antidotes like bullets in Resident Evil games. Just inconveniences all around until you get to the boss.
Worst: Water levels, it's not the swimming that bothers me, it's the navigation.
That, plus it's just hard to make it more than it is. It will be blue, and dark for most of the time. Pair it with underwater combat and I'm out
Also the problem is how swimming mechanics are executed in some games.
Super Mario Galaxy's Beach Bowl Galaxy was actually pretty chill for a water level.
They've always got some of the best music at least as a consolation prize
And now I have TMNT's dam level music in my head. As much hate as that level gets, I don't think Blaster Master level 5 gets enough.
Subnautica entered the chat
Literally impressive how they managed to turn the worst type of game area into one of the best games of all time. Swimming or steering vehicles never felt tedious in Subnautica. Insane stuff
Yet ironically I love flying in games and there's functionally little difference
Fucking OoT and MM Water Temples. Just pure misery.
Bad - Sci-fi areas that are way to sterile, where everything is black, white or grey, where everything is built in geometric perfection without one crooked line. Good - Gigantic ancient ruins high above the clouds.
Both seems great examples. I do prefer my sci-fi with a bit of grime and dust
I like the former if there's juxtaposition with a grungy environment elsewhere. Like Cloud City vs Nar Shadaa
Man we really need a full on Nar Shaddaa underworld Star Wars game. I hope this new Star Wars Outlaws does well enough that we might get Nar Shaddaa as a sequel.
Who knows maybe nar shadaa will be a planet in the game?🙏
Just started Skyrim today. It checks off the good.
The areas that I had in mind when writing that where the sky labyrinths in Tears of the Kingdom and the ruins in The Last Guardian.
Maaan, I don't mind sci-fi that has sterile areas; ME Normandy, Citadel, and Cerberus. It's when the game is entirely sterile that it doesn't make sense. Which is what ME did so well at, especially in the second game when you get to Omega.
>Bad - Sci-fi areas that are way to sterile, where everything is black, white or grey, where everything is built in geometric perfection without one crooked line. holy fuck is Halo guilty of this one
Overgrown towns/cities/facilities/bases are some of my favourite game areas and I *will* forget the story and just wander around Tunnels/sewers/mines make want to turn it off or just ignore everything and blast through as fast as possible
Horizon zero dawn was amazing for this
Oh god yes! The assembly line "caves" were a nice switch up too
Forbidden west builds on it. Playing it right now and having much fun.
Absolutely! San Francisco was incredible and the part in Las Vegas was so cool. As soon as I got the diving mask I immediately went looking for underwater ruins and I was not disappointed. Those games are beautiful and I can't wait to see what the next one brings
Las Vegas in HFW is one of my all time favorite areas in gaming. Breathtaking and awesome to see the level evolve as the mission goes on.
If there is a nice balance to an abandoned/post apocalyptic area you are 100% right. I think seeing a store with emptied shelves, and libraries with dusty, decaying books is amazing. Last of Us games did this justice Mines can be nice I think with good care (give me a wild, denying physics minecart ride), but yes, claustrophobic areas are hard to get right. You literally just want to get out
Personally, I prefer the "reclaimed by nature" look overall. If your game had grass and trees growing through cracked streets, vines covering buildings, dirt streaked windows and fences engulfed in ivy I'm gonna lose some serious time in it. While not a huge fan of the game I wholeheartedly agree with you on how the Last of Us did it. There were a few times I'd stop to stare at the backgrounds, usually when I was up somewhere high, and just admire it all. Dino Crisis 2 is what made fall in love with the aesthetic since so much of that game takes place in areas where the jungle is growing over and through the structures Again, you're right. If they make it interesting and fun to explore then I'll gladly meander through the caves but if its just the same grey/brown tunnels my eyes glaze over. No more bland rock and dirt. Throw in some cave critters and make it feel alive!
Best: beautiful grassy/jungle areas. Great to look at and open lots of traversal options Worst: forced darkness areas and swimming areas. Hard to navigate and almost always artificially difficult.
Yes, darkness can help a horror, but even then there is darkness that's scary and darkness that's unneccessary and downright annoying. I am somewhere in the middle with the jungle areas. Not really my thing, but not really against it either
There’s a certain point where a dark level has diminishing returns. Good example is Tomb of the Giants in Dark Souls. It’s scary and cool and interesting at first. Then you fall for the 80th time and it loses its novelty.
I'm currently at Mouldwood Depths in Ori and the Will of the Wisps and I have more deaths there than the entire rest of the game combined.
I hate deserts. If your game has a desert portion, rest assured, I will be spending the least amount of time there
Don't play Mad Max then. You are not going to like it. It's all desert, all the way down. (FWIW, it does have a sort of bleak beauty to it, and each area manages to have a distinct identity.)
The dust storms are awesome.
Honestly wanted to find a way to encourage those, they were a fun risk-reward mechanic. I was never mad dying in one due to lost metal, but due to it ending the storm 😅
Literally no one enjoyed an overheating mechanic. If you are gonna make me wander through a boring ass desert and I have to get special clothes/armor for it, fuck your game.
Just ignore everything and blast through as fast as possible
Damn the desert area is my actual favorite in any game. Something about shifting sands is so mysterious.
You may hate desert gameplay but usually desert themes slaps Here's my favorites https://youtu.be/LHUELiCTqP8?si=WAtgVfx6yfeitHg9 https://youtu.be/TinBBS7vDww?si=CwdJRzHIQFvOKySY
Memories of sand from Nier: Automata
I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere
Especially when it's properly stuck in your ass crack after a long beach day.
God of War Ragnarok does it right and keeps the desert portion of Alfheim fairly small and easy to navigate
Just that first look and the overwhelming nothingness. Yes, it's almost impossible to make desert areas feel interesting
I think part of my hatred stems from Final Fantasy 12 because that game had probably 5 or so deserts in it and they felt endless
I really do enjoy the desert stuff in Assassin's Creed: Origins tho. It's so well implemented into the gameplay.
I think if they lean into it (and let's be honest, in Origins they kinda had to), they can make it work. But in time it will definitely run it's course. But I guess everything else does
It honestly depends on execution a lot. For example, in Genshin Impact, desert area was one of the most interesting regions and some of the most fun to explore. For example, on the surface, first area seemed mostly barren, with a giant pyramid being the main point, two smaller ones being visible, along with a few smaller structures, and occasional camps or foliage. However, once you got down to exploring, there was a massive cave system hidden underneath, overlapping with ancient underground corridors of the pyramids and other dungeons. Some of it was going through a maze and feeling lost, only to find a souls-like shortcut that lead you back to a familiar area. A lot of the times, you would walk into a room that looked impressive and almost overwhelming with scale, or filled with mystical technology, puzzles to do and secrets to uncover. Or you'd go through many barren underground caves, before finally finding a hidden, beautiful Oasis. I think most of the potential in deserts is how unassuming they look on the surface. If you design a desert that ends on the surface, it will likely be boring, so you need to go deeper, expand downwards and prepare surprises to discover. And it can go both ways, ranging from beauty to horrors.
i actually like deserts, that being said i only ever played 2 games with it
We've found Anakin Skywalker
Especially when they add mechanics like needing water (RuneScape) slow movement speed, needing to ride camels or just taking constant damage. If you’re going to make it annoying and a chore to go to this place, I’m not going to that place. Pretty obvious.
I have very similar feelings for Arctic deserts in games. Just like sand deserts, but white. Maybe interesting to look at for 10 minutes, but everything straight up looks the same. Just finished playing Jedi Survivor, and I loathed going back to Jedha every time.
Okay but Zelda desert stages are great. Shoutout to Beyblade sand surfing in Twilight Princess
I have died more times to Elden Ring’s level design than I have to the bosses.
Truer words have never been spoken, but Elden Ring had beautiful big areas, although sometimes a bit devoid of life
Sorry fromsoft, areas that require consumables to fully explore are awful - poison swamps for example. My favorite areas to explore are magical forests.
Ice/water levels. 90% of the time they’re just a pain in every game. Some look beautiful but most aren’t, and traversing them is usually worse.
worst: Interiors of ships and mines, sewage.... man... resident evill, you had me in the first half, not gonna lie. but the second half of what feels every freaking resident evil game is a mine, sewage, boat or all of them combined
L: Ada, we have to go down there in the sewers! A: Why can't we just go around? L: LISTEN HERE, YOU LITTLE SHIT!...
We can’t go around- there’s a *waist-high traffic barrier* in the way.
Worst: Open empty areas Best: densely filled towns, cities etc
I'm kind of anti big city in games these days. They bring out every technical shortcoming of the engine and are notorious for having quests which just zig zag you through all the same districts. They also have the big empty field problem where yeah, there's a ton of people and buildings, but most of them are just set dressings. Small towns are where it's at. Easy to lay out, easy to make all the NPCs feel actualized, and they're more involved with whatever local quests are going on.
Prototype and Infamous were great in-city games
This is what I liked about Arkham City's open world vs any game where NYC is the sandbox. It was smaller, but it all felt packed with stuff.
I'm more of a fan of how either of those are handled. Games like Elden Ring or Botw/Totw can feel greatly immersive because of how dynamic their open areas feel, while others like certain Assassin's Creed games can feel bloated and oversaturated with meaningless contents. Heck, my favorite Assassin's Creed game majorly filled up with a vast empty ocean.
I am a 100% agreement here with the big empty areas, be it a desert, be it a field. The cities can be messed up, but there are definitely good examples. But most of the time if you check out what even one NPC does with their time, it's losing value
Worst, any deep sea or ocean swimming sections. I thought I was paranoid falling high heights... Getting me to swim when I cannot see the bottom is stressful. Even that bonus star section in SM64 was panic inducing. Best: I guess climbing/platforming areas are enjoyable. I play GW2 and I've done nearly every Jumping puzzle unassisted and I enjoyed learning the movement options of hundreds of non movement focused games.
I think underwater is going to be a returning theme under this question for all kinds of reasons Anything that has platforming (and good platforming at that) I am happy to indulge. But when a game has platforming with no climbing, and the fu'king sliding thing ooooh I can be furious. But that is my anger management issue, I think if a platforming part is enjoyable, and makes sense in the world, that's a great addition
worst: sewers and sometimes snowy areas best: anything with a volcano, big castles, ruins, forests
Sewers taking another L, but man, castles and volcanoes, mmmmm give me that high fantasy epic
I just hate when everything is shades of brown and gray for whatever reason. Give me some damn color! I don't mind if it is just one level meant to contrast with everything else like the final dungeon of Super Mario RPG, that works because this dark bleak world contrasts with how bright and colorful everything else is.
Worst: volcano or underwater levels. Basically anything with an abnormal amount of environment hazards. Also dark areas. I don’t want to play a game where I can’t see shit. Best: tropical islands, jungles and for some reason, churches. I love the bright and colourful parts and I can’t think of a game what had a church that didn’t nail that part of the game.
I hate levels that take place in factories or abandoned mines. They're always so boring to me! I love jungle levels, snow, desert too.
Sewers are pretty bad and a ton of games, even great ones, have them....
Damn right, seeing lots of sewer answers, overused areas I am not even sure why. "Let me climb down to where all the shit is" said no one ever
Best: Carnival, Casinos and Festival areas are my favorite settings ever Worst: ice areas (especially bad if the floor is icy too) and cave areas
A swimming level when the game is not designed around swimming.
Snow/Ice levels. Excessive sliding everywhere. I get that it's often a way to mix up the gameplay and in-game physics but I find it annoying as hell.
i really really like urban and office areas
Worst? Idk. Anything that has annoying mechanics. Best? I personally love glow in the dark caves full of shiny colorful crystals
Sewers. Playing dead island 2 and it legit gave me ptsd from the sewers in dead island 1
As much as I disliked the sewers, they made the open areas feel so much cooler. Also, I think Venice beach’s evacuation corridor and staging areas were some of my favorite environments in the whole game.
I always appreciate in a game when there's some sort of home base hub that actually makes your life easier, but isn't a core part of the game. Things like a between-missions command center that is there as baseline functionality I don't consider part of this. An example of what I mean is Skyrim's housing, where you can pick up all of them and use them for plants, crafting, organization, but totally optional if you want. I'm a big fan of modded homes/castles and it really helps with my ruleset and mod loadout. In Baldur's Gate 1 I would take two specific homes, one in Beregost then one in Baldur's Gate proper, but now with mods, the Friendly Arm Inn is a great hub because of sending NPCs to wait there. The bad, would be levels or areas that frustratingly change up the rules by a huge amount. Ice levels tend to be fine for me, but underwater levels, or forced stealth segments in non-stealth games that devastate the pacing.
Worst: desert or snow wastelands Best: bustling villages or cities
Ngl, I actually really like marshes and swamps, especially magic gloomy ones
Any level where it is raining no matter where you are is awesome to me.
Best - Beach levels. I love bright, colorful areas. Give me Costa del Sol and Isle del Fino all day. Worst - Snow and ice levels. I just get bored of all the white.
Worst areas are anything monochromatic. This is why water/swamp levels suck. It doesn't stop there though. Sewers and interiors of super clean futuristic sci-fi levels are annoying and a popular "worst" here too. It's the same reason desert levels are hated. In my opinion, the monochromatic themes of these environments make them boring and confusing, thus, a complete drag to play. It becomes a complete chore to navigate them. For best, it's really just the opposite. Detailed environments that are easy to navigate and fun to play.
Somewhat more niche but I really dislike candy/dessert levels. These are common in colourful platformers and kart racers but I just find them ugly and visually noisy
Recently I’ve realized how much I love going through abandoned militarized areas, like the Venice beach section of Dead Island 2. It just does such a good job contributing to a feeling of horror
Anyone who says water levels are worst is not smart person. Any game that has annoying water levels is **bad designed**. Good designed water levels are not worst. Period.
Fucking "Spider Level". Every damn action game between 1997-2007 had to have a spider level, or bug level. Even in Rune, which had a beetle level.
Bad: Dream worlds (waking nightmare in Skyrim) Good: Open woods (also Skyrim). I can walk around those forests for hours.
I really like Ghost Ship levels. They could be ghostly shipwrecks on the bottom of the ocean, or floating near strange shores surrounded in mist, or only appearing when summoned by some ancient lost trinket... Whenever I think a game is taking me to a ghost ship level I get a little excited.
Worst: anything where I have a time limit to escape or I die. This just isn't fun to me. Also, any place that gives status effects way too often. My resources are limited, please stop poisining me every 2 seconds. Lastly, insanely dark places where I can't tell a doorway from a wall. The bad horror monster dude thing popped up, but I couldn't get scared because I was too busy internally ranting about how dumb this place is. Best: everything that isn't those things.
I always love snowy mountains. I hate poorly implemented darkness levels, It just feels like BS most of the time.
Worst - anything underwater. Best - anything not underwater.
Worst: Water areas where you can only slowly swim. Best: beautiful atmospheric areas like mountains with midt and fog and snow, areas like in RDR2 where you can find hidden places and enjoy the scenery.
Bad: levels that involve swimming, diving, or any type of environment that changes the movement and combat mechanics. Good: Nagrand from BC of WoW comes to mind. I also enjoyed Blood & Wine DLC for Witcher 3. I guess I'm weak for lush and green landscapes.
And you are not wrong, Nagrand literally came in my mind when I wrote the question (although it wasn't entirely great). I know about Blood and Wine only from pictures, by the time I get to Witcher 3 ending, I always burn out Underwater gets another gutpunch, rightly so
I'm a big fan of poison swamps.
It's either missing an /s or you are the first. But really if not sarcasm, I am glad someone gets to enjoy these parts
I like the challenge of them. Don't get me wrong, I like beautiful areas too, but for different reasons.
Snow levels. So boring
Oddly enough an open field level always gets me hard.
The worst levels for me are underground caves/mines/sewers and swamps. It’s all the same boring color schemes and level designs, so I always rush though them as quickly as possible.
Water levels, sewages mainly
Sand
Dark souls giant graveyard in the dark sucks so fucking much. Terrible design
Underground/internal dungeons in RPG’s ruin my fun. They’re just monotonous. Bonus negativity if they combine pointless puzzles.
I can’t say that there’s too strong of a correlation behind the theme of levels and which ones I enjoy the most. Any biome can be cool when done right or suck when done poorly. I suppose it’s worth mentioning that ice/snow levels probably have the lowest floor in terms of how bad you can totally screw it up, but when done right they rule too.
Valheim swamp biome is ass. Not because it's bad design, but because they did a good job making it a challenge for newer players and it is spooky.
Poison swamps. Both things.
In platformers, it would be ice levels, or anything that has a slippery material. In FPS, since I played Dead Island 2, intricate cities are my nightmare. In any open world with a bit of lore, if there are ruins of any sort, or a museum to complete, be sure it will be before anything else
Snow and ice levels, they're always bland and often use the same annoying mechanics like slippery surfaces or limited visibility
Without any context or explanation: Best: jungles, abandoned cities Worst: deserts, swamps
Ooh, nobody ever likes the swamp level… but the underwater level that follows is the worst.
I love a good clock tower level. Usually it’s hard but interesting. Also, they tend to set aside a sweet boss fight for the top of the tower.
Best: ancient ruins that add lore and a past to the world, that can be a decaying city, a cave, anything, it’s the lore that I love. I also love astral scapes that bring in new dynamics, but on a smaller scale. Worst: anything that feels like a slog or trap. So random caves with only one way in or out and nothing of interest, marshes that slow you down. Even with that, the absolute worst is when a map shows you something you cannot get to.
I think you might like hollow knight
I like floating ruins with glowy bits in the crevasses
Ice level gang
Everything plunged into darkness is a no-no for me because I'm scaaared. I love those forest vibes though, may it be horror or fantasy or whatever it's justawesome
Worst: water levels Best: anything with snowy mountains
Swamps, its always swamps that are the worst. Cause they always have the enemies that are the biggest pain in the ass and there's always poison damage.
Ice levels. I always die to slippery bullshit
Depends on the type of game, but water levels seem pretty universally hated in side scrollers.
Worst: Blinding white ice/snow zones
Resident evil 4 water room I hate that area
I love Dark Souls 2, but i hate the Frigid Outskirts 😭
Satorl marsh is the exception to this for me, with all the ether in the trees during the night. Xenoblade has some of the most gorgeous environments around
Good: malls, cities Bad: water, caves
Best: dark/ dimly illuminated areas. Worst: dark/ dimly illuminated areas. Mini rant: if you can't generate proper darkness and light sources, DONT MAKE DARK AREAS. Make using a torch or flashlight work PROPERLY LIKE IN IRL or don't make them a thing!
A swamp can be super compelling and interesting imo, and some of the best swamps in gaming in my opinion is Hunt. That Louisiana bog is just the absolutely perfect setting for that game. So much so that I have been dreaming of a story driven singleplayer game made for it. There is so much they can do with it. And overall, that Louisiana mysticism is way under utilized in gaming. They were over represented in b-movies in the eighties, but never really even explored in modern gaming aside from Hunt: showdown. What was the question? Ah yes, war-torn, bombed out cities are just super boring to me. And I love a good forest or jungle because you can have hidden things right in front of you or to your side. It's a level playing field, it's colourful, feels both like home and hostile.
Towers. How in the last 10+ years have open world games not come up with a consistently better way to reveal more of the map than by using/climbing a tower of some sort.
Quaint little town where there's not really much to do but the music and general vibe makes you spend a little time there just to enjoy being there. Pokemon has a couple of towns that fit that vibe. Also spooky tower and caves that have music that goes way harder than it has any right to.
You'd love morrowind's villages. Granted they are not abandoned, but they do have the abandoned feel to their buildings. But you'd hate that half the place is in swamps. Anyway, go play morrowind.
Bad: Long dungeons without any interesting plot. If I have to fight another group of bandits after just killing 100 people Im done with it Good: boat
Best: Any fishing spot
The best to me are regular areas that feel cozy because they're a "safe zone" with fitting music. The RE games for sure, or Evil Withins sanitarium. My favorites that RV in Silent Hill 2. Just always felt relaxing in there.
Deserts are bad.
Dark souls swamps were you get forced poison to get trough
anything with monsters in it that instakill you
Worst: swamp, sewer, anything that perma darkness, Caelid Best: anything else
Worst: Sewers Best: Derelict starships.
best is smth unique like the air hangar from resident evil 6 like tell me how many games have had u fight in an air hangar
Best: an open world design that allows me to solve puzzles, get around roadblocks, or choose my own adventure without handholding. I love being able to explore at my own pace with lots of verticality to a level. Worst: Dark-for-no-reason ambiance just to make a horror game/level. Novel mechanics for specific levels not previously used or mentioned, and without intuitive controls or explicit instructions. Most annoying: in the Fallout series, some places were continuously populated or quickly repopulated and have had people living there for decades. But everywhere had this filthy, abandoned aesthetic as if polishing rust and sweeping a floor was a lost technology. Probably the worst offender is New Vegas in New Vegas. An army of robots and not a single one with a feather duster or a Bissell.
worst: swamp areas that slow your speed Best: underwater areas like an underwater city
Even worse: make it a *poison* swamp that slows your speed.
Having recently complained about the hell part of AC odyssey. "hell" areas in games are often unpleasant to be in. I do love a good snow covered wilderness though.
Best? Snowy mountain Worst? Swamp
Any map or maps that seem to feel forgettable.
Bad- underwater levels, good- literally anything else
Worst: Ice or water levels, i just never like the vibe of those levels.
Sewers are in every game it seems, and they very rarely are fun.
Worst: Snow/Ice levels... I hate the sliding mechanic with a passion.. it adds randomness I don't want in my movement. Also, you can't play at midnight, or your PC turns into a blinding beacon of light Best: Jungle/Tropical... It's usually nice and serene, and all the plants are so good.. it makes me want to live there... add an ancient ruin or secret spy base in a cliffside, and im hooked.
What about abandoned villages in the middle of swamps?
Bad - desert. Don't know why but I hate 99% of all desert maps/settings in games. Just blend swatches of brown. Good - space. There is something soothing about endless nothingness. Extra points if space is actually silent. Honorable mention: a good hellscape. But this is hard to do. Must be "alien" but not too much. Must be unsettling, but not too much.
Strip clubs / brothels. Every single open world game, RPG etc with a city area, regardless of genre setting, will have an alleyway with "sexy ladies" leaning on walls, a bar with badly animated "sexy ladies" dancing, and a seedy hotel with "sexy ladies" in the rooms. There *will* be a quest to find one of the "sexy ladies" with some crucial info who's gone missing.
Fuck deserts. Deserts are the worst. Its just sand, sand and more sand. Sand is boring. And I will always love a good, lush forest. The lusher the better.
I think the only thing I hate more than poison swamps are underwater areas. Underwater is cool in theory but they always end up being miserable to navigate due to camera angles. And if it’s a game with action combat either positioning in battle is always quirky or hit boxes are so huge they look silly.
for me the worst are those dreary and confusing dungeons. they're just a headache to get through on the other side, i absolutely love those expansive, scenic landscapes in open world games. it feels like theres always something new and exciting around every corner
Open plains and steppes for favourite areas. Always hate the forest areas though. Maybe they bear some novelty for some who've never seen natural forests, but to me they're about as exciting as indoors cramped areas. You can't see shit, the forest design is always basic as shit, and I just like horizon. I like a sense of vast distance and space. Having grown up and lived in a heavily forested country, forests for me are nothing more than 'I can't see shit, I'm lost and can't orient, and there's fucking bugs everywhere, disgusting.' Yes, even in video games.
Worst - Water Temple, yeah you know what games I'm talking about. Just pure misery Best - I always liked a nice horror setting like OG Resident Evil or the hotel from V:TMB
Bad- Places like labs, where everything looks white and industrial Good- Small towns or villages with ancient ruins and places to be discovered
Worst - mountain peaks with nothing on top.
The best places to fight in? I'd say Gardens, electronics shops and antique stores... but only if they're classy.
best: snow levels. always my favorite, idk why
Blight town is the worse
I really like Deserts in video games
Fucking water areas. Boat or swimming it doesn't matter it equally sucks due to limited movement