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[MaddenNFL64]

Just nothing super imaginative yet. Love Mass Effect, but it's trying to stay realistic to what planets can sustain life. You always land mostly on "garden worlds" which are earth like.

 

[Im_So_Pringles]

The Metroid series has kicked ass at this since the very beginning.

I agree with this statement. No other series has come close to me.

 

[The Technomancer]

Guess that depends on what games you're playing. Being a Ratchet & Clank fan, alien worlds still seem as imaginative as ever to me.

http://monstervine.com/wp-content/2009/11/RaCFACiT_GreatClock.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
Yeah, R&C have some great direction.

 

[Nirolak]

Do worlds in parallel universes count?

If so I'd nominate Dark Seed I and II.

 

[VGChampion]

I didn't know Killzone 3 stepped it up that much. Probably give it a try some day. It does have the usual tentacle plants though that seem overdone but it definitely makes me want to give it a shot.

 

[Neuromancer]

Do worlds in parallel universes count?

If so I'd nominate Dark Seed I and II.

Whoa

Crazy H.R. Giger shit!

 

[water_wendi]

i think the largest problem with alien worlds and aliens in general is that the effort goes into the artistic design and not so much the creation of an alien culture.

 

[The Technomancer]

Do worlds in parallel universes count?

If so I'd nominate Dark Seed I and II.

http://www.abload.de/img/darkseed_2_9685bxol.jpg[IMG]

[IMG]http://www.abload.de/img/tumblr_lacg5jatih1qcwte91a.jpg[IMG]

[IMG]http://www.abload.de/img/dark20seed20ii_3jzdl.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
Oh yeah, if those count then the Myst games have some of the best, bar none.

[IMG]http://myst.szm.com/html/gallery/exile/amateria2.jpg

 

[Green Mamba]

I would love to see a game based on Wayne Douglas Barlowe's alien designs from his book Expedition.

EDIT: Seriously, gigantic living sea that has these behemoth creatures walking on top of it, sucking parts of it through their feet for nourishment.

 

[Mineshaft_Gap]

Super Metroid wins and it's from the 16 bit era. Nothing else has beaten it since. It's the most isolated and alien world in any video game.

OP made me realize just how shit and unimaginative most games are when it comes to Alien worlds.

 

[Nirolak]

Also, some of the realms in The Longest Journey.

 

[Iwatas Magic Sports Coat]

Games that get put on Alien worlds for the sake of it being an Alien world like Halo, suffer in the art department. Games where being on an Alien world actually has a purpose, it could look incredible.

 

[SolarPowered]

People fear what they do not understand. Why would they pay for something that they do not understand?

 

[ZeroRay]

Even though it was never fully realized, the explorable alien worlds in Mass Effect made me feel like what it would be like to be an explorer on another planet when humanity finally figures out interstellar travel.

 

[metareferential]

Games that get put on Alien worlds for the sake of it being an Alien world like Halo, suffer in the art department. Games where being on an Alien world actually has a purpose, it could look incredible.

Halo CE is set on an artificial ring, created by an not-so-alien race which happens to be quite similar to the human race. The ring itself resembles an earth-like plane, it's a replica of an earth-like planet.

Forerunners structures are great, to be honest. They don't feel alien, they feel futuristically familiar, if such an expression makes some sense.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Even though it was never fully realized, the explorable alien worlds in Mass Effect made me feel like what it would be like to be an explorer on another planet when humanity finally figures out interstellar travel.

Like driving a weightless dune buggy over several overly long ramps?

 

[WanderingWind]

Notice a theme here? Almost ever game mentioned here that tried to create alien worlds has failed commercially.

 

[The Technomancer]

Halo CE is set on an artificial ring, created by an not-so-alien race which happens to be quite similar to the human race.

So really like Ringworld then, hehe.

 

[UrbanRats]

Machinarium and Samorost were great:

 

[water_wendi]

Notice a theme here? Almost ever game mentioned here that tried to create alien worlds has failed commercially.

What about the ones listed in the OP?

 

[Nirolak]

What about the ones listed in the OP?

Well, Oddworld is kind of a zombie, Chahi bailed out of gaming for almost a decade, Appeal is dead, and Planet Moon finally got shut down a few weeks ago.

 

[Kuran]

 

[water_wendi]

Well, Oddworld is kind of a zombie, Chahi bailed out of gaming for almost a decade, Appeal is dead, and Planet Moon finally got shut down a few weeks ago.

The companies might be defunct now but were those games commercial failures?

 

[bloodforge]

I would love to see a game based on Wayne Douglas Barlowe's alien designs from his book Expedition.

EDIT: Seriously, gigantic living sea that has these behemoth creatures walking on top of it, sucking parts of it through their feet for nourishment.

There was a show on the Discovery channel that had these in it.

Edit: Was called Alien Planet.

 

[Iwatas Magic Sports Coat]

Machinarium and Samorost were great:

Oh hell yeah. Machinarium rocks.

 

[KittenMaster]

I never got to Xen in HL1, but all of the enemies in that game actually being pretty alien is one of the reasons I prefer HL1 over 2.

In HL2, the only real alien stuff you really see that isn't a variation on human things or passes off as zombie horror are the

Spoiler

giant legged things

.

Also, this thread is pretty much the very subject where I can bash Metroid Prime and get away with it. I can finally complain about how

Spoiler

the space pirates suddenly ahve all of this techno-logic armor and military bases and science labs and stuff that makes them seem far less alien than they actually are. Oh and Ridley is a robot now, instead of a real alien.

 

[Nirolak]

The companies might be defunct now but were those games commercial failures?

These are pretty old, so the numbers are hard to come by, but here's what I could find.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto:

Review aggregators Metacritic and Gamerankings calculated scores of 85 and 86.7% from their selected reviews for Giants as of 2007. Although most critics had awarded high scores to the game, GamesRadar and GSoundtracks reported the Windows version sold poorly.[56][75] In contrast, the Mac OS X version sold out within months of its release,[76] in spite of its smaller market base.[77] According to the quarterly sales reports by NPDFunWorld, the PS2 version sold 11,272 copies in the US for the six months since its release. This is a poor sales figure compared to the 51,726 copies of Shadow Hearts and 753,251 copies of Max Payne sold in the same period for the PS2.[78] Despite the poor overall sales, reviewers have nominated Giants as a game deserving a sequel,[79][80] and have kept it on PC Gamer UK's Top 100 as of 2007.[81] In 2009, Andrew Groen of GameZone ran a retrospective on Giants and suggested that the game's mix of humor and action inspired later games such as Ratchet & Clank and Jak and Daxter. He further commented that games of 2004–09 were influenced by Giants in one way or another.[82]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants:_Citizen_Kabuto

Outcast:

Outcast is an action-adventure video game by Belgian developer Appeal and released by Infogrames for the PC in 1999. A Dreamcast port of the original was also planned,[1] but was shelved when the PC version failed in the marketplace.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outcast_(video_game)

Another World:

Another World, also known as Out of This World in North America and Outer World in Japan, is a 1991 cinematic platformer designed and developed by Eric Chahi. Selling around 1 million copies in the 1990s,[1] Another World was innovative in its use of cinematic effects in the graphics, sound and cut scenes, with characters communicating through their facial features, gestures, and actions only. This cinematic style granted Another World cult status amongst critics and fans.

Originally developed on an Amiga 500 for the Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIGS and MS-DOS platforms, the game was widely ported to other contemporary systems. Later efforts resulted in several game engine recreations for the game that permitted it to run on modern computers, consoles and mobile phones. In 2006, Chahi independently released a 15th Anniversary Edition for Windows which allowed the game to be played on modern computers with original or enhanced visuals.

Oddworld:

There were a lot of sequels, so I have to assume the original was successful.

However, Stranger's Wrath totally bombed, which is what killed the series.

---

It seems these types of games didn't start bombing until around the 2000s.

 

[Buttchin]

*beaten

 

[water_wendi]

tons of stuff

Ouch. Didnt think it was that bad. i dont know why i didnt think Outcast to be a commercial failure lol

 

[Nirolak]

Ouch. Didnt think it was that bad. i dont know why i didnt think Outcast to be a commercial failure lol

Generally, as we've gotten more photorealistic, the mass market has got less and less accepting of things that are different.

First crazy worlds started to die when we hit around 1998-2002, then the vast majority of anime designs followed (in the West) when we hit this generation.

We seem to have homogenized our regular people into the very specific archetype of 30 something brown haired male in the last couple of years as well, while we push harder and harder into having games take place in either the present day, a real historical period, or a future that is very similar to the present.

 

[Rattles]

At what point does it go to far and we just look at it and go wtf? We have to be able to relate to it in some way to understand what we are looking at in the first place.

 

[starsky]

Do worlds in parallel universes count?

If so I'd nominate Dark Seed I and II.

http://www.abload.de/img/darkseed_2_9685bxol.jpg

http://www.abload.de/img/tumblr_lacg5jatih1qcwte91a.jpg

http://www.abload.de/img/dark20seed20ii_3jzdl.jpg

Oh my... so pretty. It's too bad I didn't know of these games before .

 

[Teknoman]

Wow...Darkseed looks creepy as hell. I just remember seeing the boxart in Electronics Boutique and Babbages as a kid...never got the chance to play it.

 

[Chatin]

There was a show on the Discovery channel that had these in it.

Edit: Was called Alien Planet.

Thank you! I was wondering why I had such vivid images of something like that lodged in the back of my brain!

And I echo the sentiments on FFXIII. The mountain range early on was great.

 

[AlimNassor]

Wow someone else who has played Dark Seed...

bad mojo...it takes place on Earth but you play as a roach and everything looks so alien.

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

The Shivering Isles was a fantastic world. Very alien and very imaginative. Loved the night sky.

 

[HELLA_MONEYZ]

It seems like there are a fair number of sci fi games, mainly shooters out there, taking place on other planets. But it seems like they all might as well be on Earth. They all seem to follow the Halo mould at their most creative.

How come there is no real imagination put into worlds where they could essentially make anything they want?

Long gone are days where alien worlds looked like Oddworld, Another World, Outcast and Giants Citizen Kabuto

oddworld had soda dispensers, how crazy is that?

 

[Kuran]

Wow someone else who has played Dark Seed...

bad mojo...it takes place on Earth but you play as a roach and everything looks so alien.

Let me guess, Mac gamer in the 90's?

I loved Dark Seed 1, such atmosphere... It was very haunting. Only played the demo of Bad Mojo, but it looked nice.

 

[Ellis Kim]

As much hate as the game gets, FFXIII's environment truly feel otherworldly. Much more than the Mass Effect games.

Absolutely.

And I'm not sure if it'd count, but the environments in El Shaddai look fucking awesome, too.

 

[Nirolak]

If we're focusing on recent games, I would like to submit Alice: Madness Returns as well, especially based on the gameplay trailers.

 

[Angry Fork]

FF13 takes world design to another level imo. Looks absolutely gorgeous with so much detail and interesting locales. It's a shame people felt disappointed by the rest because the visuals are so amazing they should be seen by everyone. I wish they released an art book for the game like they do some others.

 

[woxel1]

The Dig

and of course

 

[Pudding Tame]

Games that get put on Alien worlds for the sake of it being an Alien world like Halo, suffer in the art department.

 

[MaddenNFL64]

The Shivering Isles was a fantastic world. Very alien and very imaginative. Loved the night sky.

Yes, it was amazing. Morrowind could be otherworldly as well.

But is that considered alien? It's Sheogoraths oblivion realm. And Morrowind is an island on Nirn, a landmass created from the flesh of a dead god. Or some shit.

Shivering Isles

Morrowind

 

[disco]

I wonder what you and Yves Klein would talk about.

 

[KenOD]

I would oh so love to see more non-future Human cities for alien worlds. Doesn't have to be all that "alien" though. Just a good microscope presents some ideas more then interesting enough that I would love to explore in a game.

Nerve cell

cigarette

Unfortunately I'm far more likely to see something odd and interesting to me in a fantasy game then a sci-fi title. Though I'm not going to point the finger at Halo or any other game, it's movies and television that really got us into this. Low budget and serial functions forced Dan Dare, Flash Gordan, and Star Treks to make human looking aliens on Earth looking planets, thus it's what people expect to see and what most think of and design first.

I am glad for this thread, made me look into some of those games and want to re-read The Dig.

 

[chase]

The work of creating a world that resonates with an audience has already been done. Why do it all over again to find that nothing has changed?

 

[samdavis]

I'd love to visit some speculator alien locations in the next-next gen games.

Something like from Michael Whelan would be amazing, not too crazy...but still alien

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/ph...helan-Wallpapers-fantasy-4334515-1152-864.jpg
http://images2.fanpop.com/images/ph...n-Wallpapers-fantasy-art-4333438-1152-864.jpg
http://membres.multimania.fr/skanlon/pictures/Michael_WHELAN/whelan15.jpg
http://www.galleryone.com/images/whelan/whelan_-_sentinels.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ucsME-AsF...AAGRA/05zLnxTCqGY/s800/Michael+Whelan++20.jpg

Syd Mead or gtfo. 100% agree with the OP by the way and I asked this very question (shameless plug perhaps but I can't create my own thread yet) on Kotaku's #speakup not too long ago - http://goo.gl/Zu8W9.

Imagine a more contemplative Sci-fi game (set on another planet or even on distant future Earth) that didn't rely exclusively on combat, or simply had an engaging story, but set here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/PmHwYpTWEc3PiPPlYFKycw?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/F5kMkUwDbm7CFRuRhSgz_A?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-pcJLQIMdPs9h3hJgtKFRQ?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/c4nyL8_IC5rDlfGo7QhBqA?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QY9sm8D6HtI2vrGNbfbMyg?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6LIoMQAn-aQWecEWXvAmwg?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/tbD2M7nRZWRuHfs4vaGU1w?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/atJMjSwgxr1tUip_4Hwrfw?feat=directlink

*The last couple aren't Syd Mead

Some of those just make you sit back and wonder "what the **** does the rest of that world look like?"

I wouldn't even be angry if someone got Syd's blessing, bit his style completely, and took that second to last image and made an entire universe based on it.

It's going to take someone like Irrational Games or Rockstar to do it though. It appears that whatever they attempt to make, no matter how against the grain it appears to be, their track record will see it properly funded and given a chance.

 

[TekkenMaster]

Metroid games kick ass at alien worlds, and sell very decently, if not spectacularly.

I really hope Retro makes a new Metroid for Cafe sooner rather than later.

 

[Unicorn]

While I'm not sure how well it holds up today, this was quite imaginative back when it came out.

Hell yeah!
Went through hell to get this working on my computer last year so my friend could nostalgia. Looked pretty awesome puzzle wise.