What are your favorite games from a worldbuilding standpoint?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨tal@lemmy.today⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

What games have what you’d call really good worldbuilding, and what in particular do you like about them?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world or setting, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing the world with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, culture and ecology is a key task for many science fiction or fantasy writers. Worldbuilding often involves the creation of geography, a backstory, flora, fauna, inhabitants, technology, and often if writing speculative fiction, different peoples. This may include social customs as well as invented languages (often called conlangs) for the world.

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Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Trails in the Sky

I got sick about dystopian chaotic worlds that don’t work - where the hero’s journey is about saving the world from some impending ruin, or about preventing a starving dystopian city from being blown up.

In Trails, the conversations you have with NPCs remind you that while you’re on the trail of some bandits or suspicious people, other people are not evacuating, sheltering in fear, etc; they’re living their lives, keeping up to date on modern trends, making travel plans to other countries.

So, so many worlds just don’t have space for characters to have those thoughts. It’s always fear around impending disasters, or how to respond to a fight, or grim poetry about how much the world has fallen into darkness.

It especially hurts that some people live so much of their lives in these fictional worlds that they start to believe people would be like that when they go outside. Worlds like the one in Trails, even if they spend a lot of time being boringly polite, are a nice call back to reality.

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TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
The TES series in general for its massive, expansive lore.

But Morrowind in particular has absolutely incredible world-building with incredible creativity and originality. There is a reason why so many people keep going back to the n’wah simulator and it’s because the world is so rich and incredible. So much of the following games was built off Morrowind’s incredible work.

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- rustydrd@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  As someone whose first TES was Morrowind, it set the bar so high in terms of worldbuilding, I was honestly a bit disappointed with the later entries into the series. Oblivion (more generic fantasy setting) and Skyrim (nordic with dragons) definitely played better, but the worlds were much less unique and memorable.
  
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- SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Underrated because the game itself was often kind of lacking in terms of solid foundational TPG systems…
  
  Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
  
  Pretty good attempt at putting a Middle Earth type world ahead a few hundred years in the midst of an Industrial Revolution.
  
  Really thoughtful stuff like the labor exploitation of certain races like orcs, with quests like a half-orc you can help start a labor union or help the shop boss shut down the nascent union.
  
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  - FishFace@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yeah. And Skyrim really needed better VAs. That one guy who voiced Farengar just did not properly understand some of his lines and consequently butchered them.
    
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halendos@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Disco Elysium, such interesting and complex world building beneath the drunken detective murder mystery. Shame ZA/UM ruined everything with the devs and we probably won’t get anything else out of it.

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- dukemirage@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I could have listened to the rich lady‘s reality rundown for hours.
  
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weebkent@ani.social ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Suzerain.

I mean, its kind of a given since the game is effectively a politics simulator choose your own adventure romp. But seriously, I don’t think I’ve seen many other games be this detailed. There’s wikipedia page level text for countries, individuals in your and other governments, cities, factions, and others that, while overwhelming, also shows just how many factors and information you have to understand as a president of a nation — it adds to the pressure and sense of responsibility that you have to make heads or tails on all of this.

No matter how good intentioned you are as a president, you’re still just a person. You’re bound to not know everything. You’re bound to be overwhelmed. And your lack of knowledge, intentional or not, leads to bad stuff… Recession, losing your popularity, waning influence in your party, broken family life, assassination, all out war with a neighboring country… Worst of all, you are to blame since they’re all consequences of your actions.

Better get to reading those entries.

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rustydrd@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Mass Effect completely blew me away when it came out. Loved the overall lore about the Reaper threat and how the different species were connected to each other.

Horizon: Zero Dawn was also great in that regard, and the world felt really well out together, even though the lore wasn’t quite as deep.

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Pazintach@piefed.social ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Apart from Mass Effect, Pillars of Eternity, and Deus Ex as others have already mentioned, I’d like to also add:

Grim Dawn.

The conflicts in its Universe feels reasonable, all the factions have their history and reasons of existence, there are beneficial and selfish, but no clear black and white, and everything interacts. The Lore is very good for an ARPG that focuses on combat, loots and built.

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Simulation6@sopuli.xyz ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The Portal games, but mostly Portal 2.

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VaalaVasaVarde@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Half-Life 2

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- FishFace@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yeah, that is a great classic example. There’s a lot of environmental storytelling so you can get an idea of what’s going on, and what it is is very interesting, but it doesn’t get in the way of the game or its story.
  
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blave@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Fallout

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FooBarrington@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Not sure if it’s my absolute favorite, but Pathologic has fascinated me for years.

There are so many strange and unique aspects to the world (especially the Polyhedron, an impossible tower floating above the town) that already make for excellent world building, but when they come together it creates a feeling I haven’t felt from any other world.

You know how Lovecraftian horror has a very distinct feeling? The world of Pathologic makes me feel something vaguely similar, but completely unique - no horror or aliens, but the feeling of powers existing far beyond our understanding combined with people who somehow do understand small parts, and the consequences of their choices affecting everyone… it’s really hard to put into words, but it feels like it created its own genre.

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AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
If we’re including fan games for preexisting games, I so far absolutely love Pokemon Empire, the Reborn style difficult fan game set in a region that basically just finished a full-on civil war and you and a friend are finally able to return to the region. Not really spoilers since you are basically told that in the first part of the game.

I am not gonna give away spoilers if possible, but the region feels like it’s divided after the war, which gives it a more real feeling than any official game or basically any fan game. Various NPCs question whether things were better before the war, some want the old monarchy back in power, some are more in favor of the new government, etcetera. It feels less like a typical run through the gyms, defeat evil team, beat elite 4 and champion style game so far with what I have played and how far they are in development.

I like how the writers didn’t just decide to make everyone into a hivemind of “villain team bad!” ( or more than likely just ignore them, like in majority of the official games ) and have people who support them and people who start to question whether or not the villains are in the wrong or not.

I also like how in the tilesets they used, some parts of the region look like they are wartorn to a degree and are a region that is starting the rebuilding process.

I wanna say more things, but then I’d be spoiling stuff and I really don’t wanna spoil things for this game.

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- ICCrawler@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The fuck. I’ve never heard of this. Haven’t heard anything that interesting in pokemon since years ago back when I was using smogon university to dig into the meta and play on some online simulator where everyone just locked their pokemon at lv50 and could choose all their IV/EV distribution, natures, and move loadouts for the ultimate meta experiance.
  
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  - AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The fun part about this is I didn’t know it existed until maybe a few years back when someone I watch on yt who plays pokemon fan games and ROM hacks ( HeroVoltsy ) played it. And even then, I think I only found out by scrolling through his playlists.
    
    Will say, just like a lot of fan projects like this, the game requires you to join their discord server if you don’t already have the download link. Sadly probably one of the best and worst ways to try and keep the project going while also keeping the corpo lawyers off their back and also being accessible to the majority of people.
    
    Can’t say I know what simulator you are talking about, though. I think the only one I know of is Showdown.
    
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e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Gothic one and two are really good. In the first game you are dropped into a prison colony and very soon a guard will try to extract protection money from you. In any other game the guard would just kill you, instead you will meet another guy asking you for help. He then lures you to a secluded space reveals that he was sent by the corrupt guard and beats you unconscious to steal your money.

Another game I will never stop recommending because of its worldbuilding is the excellent Enderal: Forgotten Stories. I really like how it depicts the theocratic society of the continent the story plays out in. The story about what initially seems like a standard fantasy thieves guild but is actually a cult that shuns emotion and try to transcend the physical body, is also really good and ties in with the overarching plot of the game.

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BroBot9000@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Hollow Knight.

Absolutely can’t get enough of the world and all the interesting characters and hidden lore.

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rafoix@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Fromsoft and Larian are great at this.

BioWare 20 years ago was guaranteed. We might never get another BioWare game I would purchase.

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- FishFace@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  “Zanzibart, forgive me”.
  
  Nah, Fromsoft has great vibes. But the worldbuilding and story is all deliberately obscured because of Miyazaki’s love of sci-fi he couldn’t properly read. That makes it a trove for obsessives but it can’t really be called good.
  
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  - rafoix@lemmy.zip ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    It’s definitely good and it is done in a way that can only be done in video games. Too many video games depend on passive exposition instead of finding actual lore in the world.
    
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  - Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    So your reasoning for saying it isnt good is because you actually have to work to see it instead of it being spoonfed to you? Is that right?
    
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- dukemirage@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I hope you don’t mean Baldur‘s Gate when you say Larian and BioWare.
  
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teawrecks@sopuli.xyz ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Rainworld

spoiler
All living things are trapped in “The Cycle”, and no one likes it, they all want to die and be free of the burden of living. They called this “The Big Problem”. To try and find a solution to “The Big Problem”, people* built 3 AI that would constantly be running to try and compute a solution to The Big Problem. This requires a ton of energy, and an ocean’s worth of water to keep them cool. The AIs are generating so much heat that it evaporates oceans worth of water, resulting in periodic violent rainstorms (thus the name of the game). People moved to structures built above the clouds to be safe from the rain. One day, one of the AI finally solved The Big Problem, notified the other AIs that it was solved…and promptly died before sharing it. The remaining two AI (named “Looks to the Moon” and “Five Pebbles”) continue to iterate on solving the problem, but both have all but given up hope. You play as a Slugcat, a species specially evolved by the AI to squeeze through pipes and keep their systems clean.

…but when you start the game, you are merely trying to survive and explore a living ecology full of hostile creatures. The game doesn’t care if you understand any of the lore, it doesn’t care if you “finish” the game, it’s just there to be experienced.

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AMillionMonkeys@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Pillars of Eternity. I really appreciate that they must have had some Anthropology majors on the team, especially for II, because the worlds feel much more exotic than other RPGs. It shows up just how generic Medieval Fantasy most RPGs are.
The tropical Roparu (?) society with its caste system is particularly interesting. The interaction of the various factions is believable. And of course the pantheon is well though out.
The downside is that they can be clumsy about exposition of the world - especially in the first one, you get these enormous lore-dumps.

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- Agent_Karyo@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I can't wait till they add true turn based combat to Pillars of Eternity.
  
  I played avout 3-4 hours and the setting and world, but the real time combat did not work for me.
  
  I don't mind real-time combat, but it has been in third person.
  
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- seat6@lemmy.zip ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I couldn’t agree more! It’s a fantasy game but it explores some really cool concepts; like colonialism and freedom vs order.
  
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Supervisor194@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Cyberpunk has a city that actually feels like a real city to me.

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- ICCrawler@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  After playing the story through a few times, it’s hard to actually stay invested in it anymore, I also did all side quests one run two, and I’m not keen on repeating that. However, 2077 is the only game where I will start it up just to drive around and listen to some music, whether in game or something I pick myself, and then just turn it off. Usuallt for 30-45 minutes. And I played many of the GTAs and all but the first Saints Rows. But only 2077 will I drive around just for the hell of it.
  
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  - itkovian@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I strongly agree. Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City feels amazing to explore.
    
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Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Subnautica and Raft

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EgoNo4@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Deus Ex, anyone?

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- chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  This one is it for me. The game really does so much with so little. The reality of the game is that it is a roughly linear sequence of closed levels (with some hub levels thrown in) that feels like a cohesive, connected world. It’s absolutely incredible!
  
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- ICCrawler@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yes, I go back and replay the game every few years. Its grittiness is definitely a bit silly to me now, but when I was a kid, I was enchanted by it. While the Jensen games did not have the charm of the OG, the first was still decent, and it’s a shame Square Enix drove it into the ground with the second Jensen title.
  
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  - deranger@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    DX:MD is one of the most fun stealth games, it’s just unfortunate they put vent shafts everywhere
    
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mintiefresh@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Mass Effect.

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Sybilvane@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Outer Wilds, especially with the DLC.

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severalkittens@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Dragon age

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- who@feddit.org ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Too bad they never made a sequel to Origins. ;)
  
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QuantumTickle@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Rimworld

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deranger@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
STALKER. The Zone is amazing.

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thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
World of Warcraft; Azeroth (the planet) lore is quite detailed and fleshed out - building upon the foundations of the original RTS trilogy.

It’s a bit of a shame a lot of it gets swept under the rug every major expansion and patch cycle, so it’s hard for new(er) players to catch up.

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- False@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Even Warcraft 3 was basically a giant retcon of the first 2 games (even as plot light as they were). The series has constantly pulled new stuff out of it’s burr.
  
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Agent_Karyo@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines - probably the most cliche answer possible, but Troika really did build a game that took you to the world of vampires in LA in the early 2000s.

Arcanum - a fantasy world undergoing industrialization with technology being in direct conflict with magic.

UnderRail - A society stuck underground connected by tunnels between towns/cities and nodes. The writing (quests/characters) is not that great, but the world-building is top notch.

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- popcornpizza@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
  
  I’d add Redemption as well. It’s super rough now, but I played it 20 years ago, and I was amazed by all the lore. I didn’t know until after I finished it, that the game was based on a TTRPG.
  
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nymnympseudonym@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
NetHack

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- i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  @
  
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- FishFace@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Eh?
  
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SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Elden Ring has the deepest, most complex worldbuilding of any game ever made, and it’s not even close. For anyone interested in worldbuilding I strongly urge you to watch some Elden Ring lore videos from The Tarnished Archaeologist to learn about the incredible techniques that the Elden Ring devs use to put incredibly deep and subtle worldbuilding into their games:

www.youtube.com/@tarnishedarchaeologist

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- FishFace@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Zanzibart forgive me
  
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  - drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The person that came up with that phrase is in charge of a game series with dialogue that makes your skull physically reform into a fedora.
    
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- itkovian@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  As deep as Elden Ring is, I hate how hopeless The Lands Between feels.
  
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  - SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yeah the bleakness of From’s settings is definitely an inherent part of their worldbuilding.
    
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Gonzako@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead! I kinda love how both wacky and coherent the world is

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homoludens@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Shadowrun - it had a tremendous effect on my actual worldview (as did other cyberpunk works). The near-future cyberpunk setting offers plenty of opportunity for satire, being rooted in this world makes some geography and history relatable and mixing it with fantasy elements does not only make it more colorful and varied, but also prevents unrealistic stuff from breaking my immersion, because it does not pretend to be realistic.

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- SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  As a young nerd obsessed with RPGs and William Gibson’s work I was outraged at the idea of putting Fantasy into cyberpunk. But then I picked up a damaged copy of the Shadowrun rules from a bargain bin and was blown away by the worldbuilding, they really found a way to make it all fit thematically and logically and I ended up running the game for years.
  
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