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What are examples of games with "living breathing worlds"
- Thread starter bomblord1
- Start date
I know OP is probably aiming for something else, but I think these are the most.
The Bethesda-type of RPG's, especially Fallout New Vegas. Not only is the world vast, the characters seem to have their own personalities with their own routines and your interactions with them often have impact (moreso than the Bethesda games, but those games have this as well). There are countless of random events and interactions between characters and the world. I think the reason these games are often so buggy is partly due to this complexity.
Also, Metal Gear Solid 3 and GTAV feel very alive in different ways.
The Bethesda-type of RPG's, especially Fallout New Vegas. Not only is the world vast, the characters seem to have their own personalities with their own routines and your interactions with them often have impact (moreso than the Bethesda games, but those games have this as well). There are countless of random events and interactions between characters and the world. I think the reason these games are often so buggy is partly due to this complexity.
Also, Metal Gear Solid 3 and GTAV feel very alive in different ways.
Icyflamez96
Member
What'd he do?
Uh yes, parts of those games have those elements.
terrisus
Member
It won't.
In fact, it will probably be the exact opposite - a huge world, with little activity.
I think there are several elements which can go intro creating a convincing "secondary world", but some hold a larger weight than others.
Speaking of NPC routines, Oblivion advanced quite a bit on that front. NPCs had dynamic schedules to keep involving daily activities, sleeping, traveling, etc. It didn't live up to the "Radiant AI" that was touted in the early PR talks, but it was an improvement over the mostly-stationary NPCs of Morrowind. That said, why is it that Morrowind is constantly brought up and praised for its world and Oblivion isn't? Because Morrowind was a success in world-building, one that hasn't been repeated in subsequent Bethesda titles. The amount of detail put into the world is fascinating, from the culture, alienation of foreigners, imperial aggression, religious backgrounds, clothing, language, etc. Most games only put enough detail to fool your initial superficial view of it, but here is an example of a game which put world-building as its first pillar of design, and even though many would overlook it, it's there, and rewards scrutiny from the player. This image is a good summary of some of the minute details present:
A great example, and one which in many ways has yet to be surpassed.
More in line with what the OP wants.
TW3's sense of place is unrivalled imo, it truly feels like a living world.
It might not have the most complex NPC behaviours, but it does have some very nice subtle persistent elements.
For example (mild spoilers) a certain quest has you converse with a women about feral children stealing hens from her stock. Resolve the quest and
The game has lots of these scattered throughout. Also little touches such as roaming merchants.
TW3's sense of place is unrivalled imo, it truly feels like a living world.
It might not have the most complex NPC behaviours, but it does have some very nice subtle persistent elements.
For example (mild spoilers) a certain quest has you converse with a women about feral children stealing hens from her stock. Resolve the quest and
you're given the option to suggest she take the children in. She'll tell you she'll think about it.
Come back in a few days and you'll see the children happily scurrying around her yard.
Come back in a few days and you'll see the children happily scurrying around her yard.
The game has lots of these scattered throughout. Also little touches such as roaming merchants.
spoilers, no?
His Majesty
Banned
How can Oblivion be a living world if each city has max. 20 inhabitants?
Baron Von Beans
Member
The environments in Evolve are quite alive. I know in my many hours of playing I have come across herds of animals moving from location to location, packs picking off smaller weaker species, two brutes battling over turf, and more. I haven't yet seen animals hunting others for food, but I know that the devs created a large ecosystem for the hunt to take place in, and it certainly is alive and well with or without your involvement.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
AC:Unity and Witcher 3 are both what the standard for me in terms of believable living breathing worlds. I mean just some of the stuff that you'd never notice in Unity especially.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...d-unitys-bugs-lurks-a-surprisingly-human-game They legitimately made a city.
Then the Witcher 3 comes out of nowhere with the most cohesive world i've ever set foot in. Never before have I felt like I was truly riding across the country side, and you find all this little stories which lead to quests. You actually feel like i'm in this region, and then you go to another equally big region with it's own fully realized culture that's very different from the other region in the game. It's insane.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...d-unitys-bugs-lurks-a-surprisingly-human-game They legitimately made a city.
And that's barely scratching the surface. You could be walking and suddenly you hear a bunch of people singing in a cafe, you can walk in and see them all partying with individual animations. Just insane. Even down to the fact that couples associate with each other, if a couple is walking down the street, and you separate them, they will look around and seek each other out before locking arms again and continuing on their day. What other game has ever done this?
Then the Witcher 3 comes out of nowhere with the most cohesive world i've ever set foot in. Never before have I felt like I was truly riding across the country side, and you find all this little stories which lead to quests. You actually feel like i'm in this region, and then you go to another equally big region with it's own fully realized culture that's very different from the other region in the game. It's insane.
pantsonhead
Member
hosannainexcelsis
Member
I'd nominate Trails in the Sky. It doesn't have an elaborately crafted, visually ambitious, townspeople walking around everywhere open world like many of the mentions here, but what it does have is excellent writing. Each of the many NPCs has their own personality and their own stories which steadily unfold as the game progresses. It's one of the rare RPGs I've played where it doesn't feel like the world revolves around you. People have their own lives to live completely separate from your agency and intervention, whether it be a wife who picks up her husband's hobby of fishing to get back at him for spending so much time away from her, or a shopowner touring the country researching how different regional shops operate. Even when the national newspaper reports on events you were involved in, it never mentions you but instead focuses on the more important and famous entities who were involved. It's a prime example of how carefully planned writing alone can create a world that feels alive, a world that doesn't stop at the boundaries of the game, a world that you can fully immerse yourself into.
Far Cry 3 also has some great moments where the NPCs and wildlife interact.
Can occur anywhere in the open world. Stalking an outpost silently only to turn a corner and see a sly tiger with the same idea. Your plans can go to hell in an instant, it creates some unique gameplay moments.
Can occur anywhere in the open world. Stalking an outpost silently only to turn a corner and see a sly tiger with the same idea. Your plans can go to hell in an instant, it creates some unique gameplay moments.
Cow Mengde
Banned
Animal Crossing and Majora's Mask are the only 2 games with living worlds that really feel like it's alive.
MilkyJoe
Member
Yep
Also anyone getting consistently ripped to shreds by mountain lions every time you go for a wander in the wilderness, since the latest patch?
The first was mentioned, not the second. There is a difference in Xenoblade Chronicles (1 which has been out for years), and Xenoblade Chronicles X (2 not released US side anyhow). I don't get what he was trying to stop.
STALKER franchise is best for me.
RDR, Oblivion, Skyrim, Morrowind, Deus Ex and others also do a very good job too.
But nothing beats STALKER. The day/night cycle, the random events that require you to handle them (for example the radiation storms where you have to find a safe haven). It not only feels alive but randomly alive (and not in a glitchy manner - well not these days!) with the real sense you're just there, an individual cog with everything going on around you whatever you do.
Metro games are also very good but they're much more linear than STALKER.
I'd love a game that really went with this in terms of ditching having a central plot at all and just gave you a living breathing world and various "options" to do as you please.
RDR, Oblivion, Skyrim, Morrowind, Deus Ex and others also do a very good job too.
But nothing beats STALKER. The day/night cycle, the random events that require you to handle them (for example the radiation storms where you have to find a safe haven). It not only feels alive but randomly alive (and not in a glitchy manner - well not these days!) with the real sense you're just there, an individual cog with everything going on around you whatever you do.
Metro games are also very good but they're much more linear than STALKER.
I'd love a game that really went with this in terms of ditching having a central plot at all and just gave you a living breathing world and various "options" to do as you please.
Alebrije
Member
The problem with The Witcher 3 is that once you go underwater you barely see a living world, in fact its just an empty mass of water with only some random fishes and little enemies.
In fact most of open world games lack in that area.
Also animals in the Witcher behave very bad , you can see deers near the towns among the people NPC, rabitts that do not move when you are near , etc. Wolfs near deers that do not attack them.
Red Dead Redemption is a better example for what OP is asking.
In fact most of open world games lack in that area.
Also animals in the Witcher behave very bad , you can see deers near the towns among the people NPC, rabitts that do not move when you are near , etc. Wolfs near deers that do not attack them.
Red Dead Redemption is a better example for what OP is asking.
DryvBy
Member
This. RDR is still the king, imo. I love The Witcher 3, but RDR really feels like you're roaming around small towns with limited people in them. Then the wild life feels like it's hunting you or scared of you. Just epic.
Belgian Dude
Member
Splatoon's hub world really seems like my classroom with all the hipster clothes and dank meems.
But for real? Probably not an answer you're looking for, but Roller Coaster Tycoon - after the initial step you can build a park and just see how people interact with it through its lifetime, without interfering. They are gonna mess up your paths, each will follow a different line of thought with likely differents walks of life.
Gonna agree with Bully.
But for real? Probably not an answer you're looking for, but Roller Coaster Tycoon - after the initial step you can build a park and just see how people interact with it through its lifetime, without interfering. They are gonna mess up your paths, each will follow a different line of thought with likely differents walks of life.
then you name the guests and watch as Bobby Johnny goes outside the edge of the map back to his house in another state
, if you don't drown Bobby Johnny first
Gonna agree with Bully.
I didn't know this game, I will give it a try.
On the thread topic I will say Skyrim was one of the best that I had played until Witcher 3 came out.
Host Samurai
Member
Bully
Shenmue
Yakuza
Shenmue
Yakuza
Summer Haze
Banned
Red Dead Redemption and GTA V. No one can do open-worlds like Rockstar imo. The attention to both visual and audio detail in GTA V especially is astonishing. Especially in areas such as Franklin's neighborhood, Sandy Shores, and Downtown LS. Sometimes I would just walk around in that game for easily few hours just exploring and getting immersed.
Shenmue came out like 4 years earlier
Summer Haze
Banned
Until you hack into someone's phone and realise that what they were saying beforehand does not match with what the hacked call is playing to you. Instant immersion-breaker. Missing little details like that is why Ubisoft aren't on the same level of Rockstar when it comes to open-world games.
Rockstarfanboyrant/
herbchamberz
Member
Right. I think the style of the game went hand-in-hand with the hardware and tech.
For instance in GTA, you have a city setting, and you would expect hundreds, even thousands, of people. But technically, that's just way too difficult and intensive. But in RDR, populating those little towns is easy, and fits perfectly with the time and setting.
Wolkenballer
Neo Member
-
The first game I thought of, and still one of the best in this regard.
And it did it before a lot of people on GAF were born!
The only real answer in my humble opinion. It creates a world that reacts to your actions appropriately in a way that is only really possible within its framework. Nothing else even comes close to it.
Well even the first gothic did something like that very well.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Sounds like you haven't been playing the Witcher 3.
Space Rangers 2
There is a war in the game, and the sides will fight it without you. You may be affected by it, like a coalition taking a stellar system that makes you go around it but then you don't have enough fuel to get to your objective, etc.
Or you can see a gathering of forces preparing a new strike and you can join to them.
Or you can donate money to a research center that will help the R&D department and therefore increase the odds of winning the war against the enemy.
Apart from having normal civilian and traders traffic, pirates, bandits, other bounty hunters like you which you can meet & collaborate, several factions and you have different reputations with each one...
The whole "npcs move around in the day, then go to the bed when night comes" is unsurprising at this point. RPGs with more than 20 years did it.
Now I want to play this.
This best exemplifies the OP out of all the games I've played. And honestly, it is for this sole reason that I consider it the best Zelda game ever. You get invested in saving the people of Termina because they actually have lives and stories of their own.
hobblygobbly
Member
For singleplayer I'll say STALKER, bandits and shit are happening whether you're around or not, you can hear bandit quarrels in the distance, etc. Shit is just happening with no player around or involved.
In terms of a virtual world that accurately mimmicks out own in terms of everything? EVE Online. From politics, wars, economy to even player-run freight services exist. There is no freight/item delivery in the game for modules and ships, so due to the nature of player-driven sandbox mmorpg, players created corporations where other players roleplay/play as freight "space truckers" using freighters that can carry a lot of modules/ships.
So what players do if they can't don't have their own freighter, don't have a pilot trained to fly one or just don't want to bother at all, you can send in contracts to these corporations for deliveries, you can say "deliver my items from station a to b", send in contract, and these items are picked up and delivered, it's a courier service entirely run by players, no game design intentionally did it, just the tools/features in the game. They even have special types of orders you can fill if you need a jump freighter to do a quick delivery or deliveries into low-sec or null-sec systems. Thus players who might do regional trading in 0.0 alliance hubs don't need to risk their own freighters and hire a courier service instead, or instead of using their own freighters for inter-regional trade hub transport of items.
The game's so huge with all 60k+ people online all in one world/server that it feels like the largest game ever made and a truly "living breathing world" since there's so much going on around the cluster of the game, civil wars amongst the russian bloc in 0.0, wars going on small japanese groups, then big wars amongst the major alliances and how that affects the global economy of the game. Also small corps just minding their own business doing some mining for their industry line in maybe a larger alliance and that being dragged into some other war that they need to supply ships/modules for, shit is just always happening. It's why I love the game, in terms of real players, it's definitely the most alive virtual world thanks to the well designed sandbox player-driven nature of the game that enables it by CCP.
In terms of a virtual world that accurately mimmicks out own in terms of everything? EVE Online. From politics, wars, economy to even player-run freight services exist. There is no freight/item delivery in the game for modules and ships, so due to the nature of player-driven sandbox mmorpg, players created corporations where other players roleplay/play as freight "space truckers" using freighters that can carry a lot of modules/ships.
So what players do if they can't don't have their own freighter, don't have a pilot trained to fly one or just don't want to bother at all, you can send in contracts to these corporations for deliveries, you can say "deliver my items from station a to b", send in contract, and these items are picked up and delivered, it's a courier service entirely run by players, no game design intentionally did it, just the tools/features in the game. They even have special types of orders you can fill if you need a jump freighter to do a quick delivery or deliveries into low-sec or null-sec systems. Thus players who might do regional trading in 0.0 alliance hubs don't need to risk their own freighters and hire a courier service instead, or instead of using their own freighters for inter-regional trade hub transport of items.
The game's so huge with all 60k+ people online all in one world/server that it feels like the largest game ever made and a truly "living breathing world" since there's so much going on around the cluster of the game, civil wars amongst the russian bloc in 0.0, wars going on small japanese groups, then big wars amongst the major alliances and how that affects the global economy of the game. Also small corps just minding their own business doing some mining for their industry line in maybe a larger alliance and that being dragged into some other war that they need to supply ships/modules for, shit is just always happening. It's why I love the game, in terms of real players, it's definitely the most alive virtual world thanks to the well designed sandbox player-driven nature of the game that enables it by CCP.
Doc Holliday
SPOILER: Columbus finds America
I get that vibe from Shadow of the Colossus, all the colossi are just chilling until you disturb them. Everything just felt really natural.
deaderinred
Banned
Space Rangers 2
There is a war in the game, and the sides will fight it without you. You may be affected by it, like a coalition taking a stellar system that makes you go around it but then you don't have enough fuel to get to your objective, etc.
Or you can see a gathering of forces preparing a new strike and you can join to them.
Or you can donate money to a research center that will help the R&D department and therefore increase the odds of winning the war against the enemy.
Apart from having normal civilian and traders traffic, pirates, bandits, other bounty hunters like you which you can meet & collaborate, several factions and you have different reputations with each one...
The whole "npcs move around in the day, then go to the bed when night comes" is unsurprising at this point. RPGs with more than 20 years did it.
Came here to post this. No other game can come close to Space Rangers 2 in terms of this.
NPCs with schedules is just fluff, decoration. Its nothing new, or impressive.
I'd say Mount & Blade does about the same thing.