Best Game Universes (Series) and Worlds (One Offs)

[Widey85]

What are your favourite gaming universes (going across multiple games or media) and worlds (limited to a single game)?

I love a good story, and become a bit of a geek when I love a gaming universe, watching and reading all the additional media, or if it’s just a single game that sticks with me reading everything I can on the lore.

I was wondering what everyone’s favourites are? Not only to give recognition to some of the greats, but it may give the rest of us something to check out

Universes

For me, the best universes have generally been:

• Mass Effect - the obvious choice, the Normandy is still my favourite spaceship ever (the Orville is a close second) and I really love the in-depth lore even down to actually enjoying planet scanning as I love the little nuggets of information about what explorers have found that often never gets explained
• BattleTech - setting for the MechCommander and MechWarrior series, one of the few I got into the books before I got into the games, but just like Mass Effect there’s so much depth in all the nations and their political and military histories
• Halo - while Halo 3 with my uni housemates will forever be a special time in my life, I do enjoy the lore too - and actually really liked the TV series (particularly as by the end they were really starting to get it) as well as the books

Honourable mentions for the Witcher and Dragon Age series, both of which I’ve enjoyed reading up on the lore and for the former watching the TV series, even if it’s not quite reached the heights of the game - while Kingdom Come: Deliverance did make me do a deep dive in the history of the period, as do the AC games which don’t quite make the cut for me as I’ve zero interest in the Animus part of the story.

The Elder Scrolls and Final Fantasy have had some games really grip me in their worlds (I have read far too much ES lore!) but given their often standalone nature (the whole “a few hundred years later, your choices last time mean fuck all” of ES does annoy me a bit!) means I can’t quite put them up as a great for me - Fallout is another that I loved the TV series but the games I’ve always found the world just a bit too depressing (and I don’t like Westerns which they feel a bit too much like).

The “Deliver Us” series have also really stuck with me as brilliant world-building games, but without the ending yet it’s difficult to know if they’ll stick the landing.

Worlds

While the best single-game “worlds” for me have been (likely some recency bias taking place here):

• Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden - while it’s technically part of the Vampyr world, there’s so little crossover I consider it standalone, and the difficult decisions and heart-wrenching stories of its inhabitants stayed with me long after I finished the game
• Road 96 - while it does have an expansion, I consider this more of a single-game world and one I loved visiting and learning more about, with the themes explored having emotional impact while still remaining reasonably light-hearted
• Immortals: Fenyx Rising - probably because I adored AC Odyssey, this game really got me reading up on ancient Greek mythology and felt like such a breath of fresh air while still being a great world to get lost in

Honourable mentions to Unpacking, Escape Academy, Botany Manor, Pentiment and GreedFall (although that’s soon to have an expansion) for really telling a great story despite not being AAA games and having enough lore or storytelling within to suck me into their worlds.

Mafia I’m not quite sure which category to put in as they’ve generally been standalone games, but is another one where the world came to life and I ended up really getting into it - the ending stayed with me for years and the game itself got me into the Godfather and other films.

What about everyone else? What’s your favourites? Are there any you particularly dislike / can’t get into?

(Credit to ScreenRant / BioWare for the banner image)

[SheepDip]

A favorite of mine is the planet Midden from the game Sable. I love the feeling of exploring a desolate sci-fi desert. Lots of cool vistas, ruins, settlements, cultures, and the game hints at the background lore, without overdoing it.

[Widey85]

@SheepDip

…c976e690-8b5e-4401-a397-2557a4077d941920×1080 287 KB A favorite of mine is the planet Midden from the game Sable. I love the feeling of exploring a desolate sci-fi desert. Lots of cool vistas, ruins, settlements, cultures, and the game hints at the background lore, without overdoing it.

That’s one game I do need to give another go - I started it, reached the first “area” I think and then bounced off as some big game had come out.

The art style and exploration did appeal to me though…

[Widey85]

Searching for a Mass Effect header now means I’m getting articles about it again - one ME3 moment just hit me all over again:

Mordin - “had to be me, someone else might have got it wrong”

Although I did love him whistling “I am the very model of a scientist Salarian…” as it all went boom

[Ironfistchinmi]

I’ll avoid repeating the ones already listed, so I’ll throw in Deus Ex, Panzer Dragoon, Red Dead Redemption, Shenmue, and Wasteland as my favourite universes. All great examples of being packed with lore and being fully fleshed out.

For one-offs, all of the 3D GTA games, Watchdogs 2, and Starfield (so far). I’ve yet to complete it, but Expedition 33 is off to a great start and will undoubtedly make the list.

Cyberpunk 2077 (just the base game, as I haven’t gotten to playing the DLC yet) would’ve made the list, but though Night City has the lore, plus looks and sounds great, there’s just not enough to interact with outside of missions and side quests.

[SilentJay76]

Atomic Heart comes to mind. Loved that retrofuturistic Soviet art style.

And I still have fond memories of cruising around the desert in Interstate '76, more than 25 years later. Still praying to the gaming gods (or Activision) that we get a remaster/remake one of these days, since it’s basically unplayable today. But to be honest, the atmosphere was the star of that world, rather than the world itself. (Alternate history 1970s American southwest.)

[Widey85]

@Ironfistchinmi

I’ll avoid repeating the ones already listed, so I’ll throw in Deus Ex, Panzer Dragoon, Red Dead Redemption, Shenmue, and Wasteland as my favourite universes. All great examples of being packed with lore and being fully fleshed out.

For one-offs, all of the 3D GTA games, Watchdogs 2, and Starfield (so far). I’ve yet to complete it, but Expedition 33 is off to a great start and will undoubtedly make the list.

Cyberpunk 2077 (just the base game, as I haven’t gotten to playing the DLC yet) would’ve made the list, but though Night City has the lore, plus looks and sounds great, there’s just not enough to interact with outside of missions and side quests.

Deus Ex is one of the few really long-running series that I’ve completed every game of - the original was one of the greatest things I’d ever played, a game where your decisions actually had an impact was so novel back then!

Really hope they’ll get to finish the new trilogy at some point…

Shenmue I was obsessed with from CVG and other magazines as a kid (it looked amazing compared to everything on PS at the time - I think only Driver and later on PS2 GTA3 came close for me), but I couldn’t afford a Dreamcast alongside my Playstation. I now own all the games on PC but haven’t got around to giving them a try.

[Widey85]

@SilentJay76

Atomic Heart comes to mind. Loved that retrofuturistic Soviet art style.

And I still have fond memories of cruising around the desert in Interstate '76, more than 25 years later. Still praying to the gaming gods (or Activision) that we get a remaster/remake one of these days, since it’s basically unplayable today. But to be honest, the atmosphere was the star of that world, rather than the world itself. (Alternate history 1970s American southwest.)

Atomic Heart I started on Game Pass, it’s one like AtomFall that I bounced off of for other things but need to go back and finish up - I liked the style as it reminded me of Fallout and The Outer Worlds, but so many games and so little time to play (stupid adulting )

I swear I remember Interstate 76 - I loved Carmageddon and think it was similar but with more combat or something? Shame there’s not a modern version or I’d take a swing through to see if I’m remembering it or another game (possibly another Carmageddon or even Road Rash)

[SilentJay76]

@Widey85

I swear I remember Interstate 76 - I loved Carmageddon and think it was similar but with more combat or something? Shame there’s not a modern version or I’d take a swing through to see if I’m remembering it or another game (possibly another Carmageddon or even Road Rash)

Not too familiar with Carmageddon. But yeah, Interstate '76 was a story-based first/third person vehicular combat game with guns on your car, stylized polygonal character models for the cutscenes (which were awesome!) and a '70s funk music soundtrack.