What is the best video game fantasy world?

[shortylickens]

Wow, surprised nobody said Lord of the Rings or Age of Conan.

I dont think any current lord of the rings game covers any decent percentage of middle earth.

 

[TheSlamma]

Forgotten Realms followed by Tamriel

 

[Dankk]

Minecraft. :awe:

 

[pontifex]

u guys seem to have missed the Cthulhu Mythos all together

i only know of 1 Cthulhu game...which is set in real world small new england fishing town in like 1930s or something...not exactly a huge fantasy world...

 

[thespyder]

Wow, surprised nobody said Lord of the Rings or Age of Conan.

If you are talking reading books, Middle Earth is the best (followed by the Westeros). However, as has been stated the CRPG presentation of this world is not as well realized or represented as it could be.

And age of Conan is just the one game, right?

 

[DeathReborn]

Dune would be pretty epic.
Worms for the sheer lunacy.
Elder Scrolls for the grandness and variety within such a small space (single world).
Duke Nukem... need I say any more about this.
Discworld, I mean come on it has everything, even a post office. A satirists dream fantasy world.
Sacred/Diablo, everyone needs a bit of action.
Need for Speed, fast cars & the occasional cop chase.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I really like the entire parallel world of Fallout.

Mass Effect has excellent potential and would make a good movie.

Ultima back in the day.

 

[DigitalWolf]

A couple others mentioned: Ultima, Fallout.


Tho I would say the old Bard's Tale world as well. Any place with a slogan of:


When the going gets tough, the Bard goes drinking...


is my kind of place.

 

[Coltaine]

The problem is that most of these fantasy worlds aren't just computer game fantasy settings, most of the good ones are almost solely fleshed out by books, not the games...

Planescape is an awesome campaign setting, but as awesome as Torment was it didn't do it justice...

NWN, BG, Menzoberranzan etc wouldn't have had a fantasy world worth mentioning if not for the 50+ FR books I read...

LOTRO does a good job by developing the world/story through its quest lines, but its the books that shaped the world...

Warcraft and Starcraft have books that I'm not familiar with at all, but WC2, WC3 and WoW (esp the caverns of time stuff) do a pretty good job...

Ultima has the world/story developed through a ton of SP games, and an active staff running a long storyline in their MMO...

Elder Scrolls had some good open world games that explores their world...


Personally for computer game fantasy world, even tho hes a total nutcase now RG just did too much developing of the Ultima worlds for me to vote for anything else...

Fantasy game setting in general, pre-4th Edition FR is the best D&D setting, more interesting than the sci-fi stuff out there, and beats the crap outta any of the crazy vampire/werewolf crap... so thats my vote for generic fantasy game world setting...

As far as books that set up fantasy worlds that would make for insane games, theres too many of them...

 

[Garou24]

Warhammer 40k!

 

[CheckmateNL]

WOW! A screenshot of the Atari Adventure game! Brings back memories... :awe:

 

[AFurryReptile]

Not that it's all that big, but the world presented in Alice: Madness Returns is amazing, visually. The colors and level design in particular is unprecedented.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Personally? The Prison colony in Gothic.

Also:

The Sword Coast
Dereth

This. Oh God this.

"The Story So Far" from Asheron's Call:

Three thousand years ago, a tragedy occurred. Harken; it shall now
be told.


A herald burned across the southern sky one morning; a fiery drop,
like the Watcher that visits Auberean every few hundred years, yet moving far
more quickly. Shortly after this sign, a veil drew over the sun. Rain fell, and
the drops were black and cold. The trees and grasses withered. The clouds built
until noon was mere twilight, and the wind blew as cold as stone in winter. The
people wanted for their crops and herds. Some called it the end. Some said it
was the judgment of light, and that evils must be atoned for.


"Surely," they reasoned, "it could not be any evil of ours that
invoked this calamity." Many turned to the Dericost. "It must have been those
miserable, tainted people. Did their ancestors not bind their own to rotting
flesh, and seek to bring the world under their heel? This must be their fault.
The mercy we showed them has turned the light from our shoulders. Now we must
force them to atone for their infamy."


So the Dericost were starved.


What little could be grown was taken from them. They died by the
millions. And as they died, well-fed missionaries told them, "You brought this
on yourselves."


So they hated.


One among them, a man of the village of Daralet named Ilservian
Palacost, could endure no more. He spoke in anger to the Elders, saying, "You
have food enough for many years in your storehouses. Yea, for centuries you
have tithed the crops of all in this land, while mouthing pretty words of light
and mercy and redemption. Now you feast while we starve! My firstborn son shall
die anon. He is an innocent. Share out your food, and spare him!"


The Elders' pointed beards wagged over their round bellies as they
said, "It is for your own good." Ilservian was run out of town, though not
before he vowed to find the edge of the darkness that hung over the eaves of
the earth.


He did not depart alone. His closest friends accompanied him.
Elithra, a Haebran mage possessing a wintry beauty unsurpassed save by
Leikotha. Ler Rhan, a once-corpulent scribe who spent much (some said too much)
time spinning tales for the children of the town. Omadin, a rough farm boy
embittered by the starvation of his entire clan. Ferah, a tall warrior woman
whose blue-green eyes bespoke Falatacot blood. Foremost stood Isin Dule, a
failed seminary and friend of Ilservian since childhood. A small group of
sympathizers also joined them.





They wandered far into the endless frigid mud of the wastelands,
vainly seeking light. At last Ilservian called to the darkness in anger. At
this, many deserted him. His friends did not. But there was no answer, save
perhaps a sibilant ghost of a laugh. Ilservian pressed on, growing weaker,
shouting his fury and anguish into the wind and rain.


At last, something answered.


Many turns of the world later, a shadow fell upon Daralet. The
rains had ceased by then, and the world enjoyed an extended spring. But in
Daralet, the children disappeared. One by one, at first, and then in numbers.
First the poor and unwanted, then the children of the garrison. Whispers filled
the night. Malevolence brooded on the hills around the town. Stupefied with
terror, the people boarded themselves in their houses.


Word reached the outside, and an army was dispatched. It found
only empty buildings, in many cases still boarded from within. On the city
wall, the Elders were found impaled, and with their blood was written: "The
proud shall know damnation." With these words had the victorious troops of
Yalain and Haebrous put the last undead nobles of Dericost to the torch.


The army marched beyond the desolate town, and found a valley
filled with a strange, whispering darkness. Above the shadows, the crowns of
trees stood black and wasted. One was seen to subside into the mist, melting
away like ice. Before the army went away from there, huge coils of grey
entrails were seen above the mist, rising and diving again like the fins of
great sea creatures.


The army encamped upon a plain that night, and none saw them
again. A lone girl, driven mad by horror, returned to tell the tale. The watch
fires trembled and bled away. The stars faded. The ground turned grey and
swallowed men. The general Lord Atlan was ripped apart. The Shadows had come
alive and taken them.


Ranks of living night swept across the continents of Dericost and
Haebrous. A black beast led them, howling at the forefront of every charge. The
few survivors called this apparition the Slayer of Hope. Armies were put before
it, and swept aside.


The Emperor convened the five most learned mages of the land for
council. Old Viceroy Uweden Kormar came clad in the frost blue robes of Gelid,
the Dericost province he had governed before its fall. Lord Kerenth Portenaer
was promoted from the ranks of the Hieromancer Order, where he was held in
great esteem. Lady Adja, prophetess and priestess, sailed from far Ithaenc.
Lady Rajael Fellarien was released from her lonely tower in the austral wastes.
Maila Realaidain, the gentle widow of Atlan, completed them.


They studied, and they worried. It seemed the enemy's strength
flowed from some other place, an abeyance of light deep within the earth, yet
beyond the world they knew. A power, potent and invasive as nerve poison,
leached from this other place, to the Hopeslayer, and on to his horrifying
servants. At Dernehale the council fought a shadow-woman calling herself
Elithra of Daralet, and only with the greatest of efforts was she defeated. The
Imperial Archives were consulted, and in a brief dispatch from Dericost, that
name was found among the exiled companions of Ilservian Palacost. The true name
of the Slayer of Hope was known.


An impetuous boy, talented only with a small ability for noticing
details and drawing connections between them, called the work of Nilrhem Facill
to the attention of the council. It was possible, he said, to seal Ilservian in
a small portion of the "alternate world" Facill wrote of. The council agreed.
As the island city-states of the Empire withered and shrank before the crawling
chaos, they constructed a device that would realize the boy's plan.


The last enchantments were bound to the mechanism of the trap on
the island of Ireth Lassel , later called Dereth. The council worked
feverishly, as did the boy, knowing damnation was stretching forth its hand
across the water. The darkness raced across the seas, as if called by the
sputtering, flaring energies of the other plane.


Ilservian came to the site of their work. His chaotic mist ate
away the rock below the fortress. His Thorns loomed close, blasting the walls
with entropic energies. The desert plain below was black with a living carpet
of Shadow-entities. Ilservian stormed through the corridors, slaying all who
tried to stop him. At the end, he came before the council and the floating
stones of the trap. As if ensorcelled, he waded through them, crushing Uweden's
skull, reaching for the pulsing violet light.


The council cast their final spell, and Ilservian was thrown into
the other realm. Everything for over two-thirds of a human mile around the site
was utterly destroyed, and a vast wasteland of cracked and scorched earth
marred the southwest of Ireth Lassel. The council was slain, but the darkness
ebbed and slipped away. It did not leave altogether. That which had empowered
Ilservian's rage remained, shrieking, waiting. Its remaining servants in this
world melted away into a thousand hidden places. The surviving members of
Ilservian's inner circle, too powerful to be killed, were merely made
discorporate by the blast.


The trap burst into six fragments, but the Empire was only able to
recover five. The last piece was never seen again by living eyes. That should
have been the end of the tale, save for the Gelidites.


The capital of old Dericost, home to the dread necromancers, was
the brooding Plateau of Gelid. Its living population had been rounded up by the
victorious armies, and marched to reservations on the plains of Haebrous. But
they were sore abused there, and found comfort in an apocalyptic faith based on
half-remembered prophecies. After an age of cleansing ice, they believed, they
would master the globe once more. After a particularly brutal inquisition, many
fled to Ireth Lassel. There they hid themselves away in the mountains, and
excavated an underground city.


It was during the digging that a young mage named Frisirth found a
beautiful, sparkling crystal. Over the years, he studied it intently. He found
it had an unusual magical connection to the deep earth, a potential to draw up
and store vast amounts of energy. Frisirth announced to the Gelidites that the
fulfillment of prophecy was at hand. By enchanting the crystal, they could
extract the heat energy from the ground.


They bent their own energies to this task. The world cooled. Far
above, where now new kingdoms lay, snow began to fall. Yet at the last moment,
disaster struck. A human expedition bumbled into their lost city, and the
Gelidites were forced to slay them. Other humans came in search of the lost
party. They slaughtered the Gelidites, and destroyed their "Great Work." As the
malignant crystal shattered, darkness swallowed the center of the room, and a
faint, eager chuckle was heard.


The sixth piece of the council's snare was never seen again by
living eyes. But the Gelidites, desiring to witness their prophecy fulfilled,
had used the proscribed arts of their ancestors to turn their backs on time,
and chain their wills to dead and rotting flesh.


The Shadows began to venture from their hidden places of power.
Ilservian's surviving friends became corporeal once more and raised the Thorns,
using them to alter the patterns of magic in the world. Ferah and Ler Rhan
weighed the measure of the strange outlanders that had come to their world with
probing attacks and individual trials. Only two proved useful to them: the
"Dark Masters" Blackthorn and Vidorian. They were given items of power, and
told that they would be called upon in the great days to come.


But Isin Dule had misgivings. He remembered the final days of the
last war, his friend's blank expression when the planar energy was felt, and
the compulsion that had come upon him. "It is likely a trap, brother," he told
Ilservian, and still they had gone.


Dule, brooding in the wastes, steered a fateful course. He took
his portion of the Shadows into his confidence, telling them that the pieces of
the council's trap must be protected. If his friend should be released, he
feared it would be the end of all. Ilservian was not fully in control of his
own mind. What would happen after his vengeance was slaked? The price that the
darkness of the wasteland would demand of them was not yet known. But Dule's
first attempt to stave off disaster failed. The humans of Ispar gained access
to the Nexus Facility, and a second piece of Ilservian's prison was destroyed.


There were remnants of Dericost in the world beyond the shattered
Gelidites. On far Aerlinthe, the Lady Aerfalle observed the passing days and rising
blight with worry. She sent her emissaries into the world, contacting her old
friends and enemies.


The fractious Undead came to rare accord, and massed an army. For
its commander, they chose Anadil, the last great general of their old realm. He
set his banner in the creaking jungles of Ithaenc Isle. At his side stood
Asmolum, an ancient schemer and diviner. Asmolum's agents soon located three
more fragments of the council's device. But others under the night sky observed
their scurrying. . .


Anadil sent a force to garrison two of the fragment vaults. Dule's
Shadows, following them, moved to defend the third vault, named Caulnalain. But
Dule's fellow generals had also witnessed the movements of the Undead, and made
ready an assault. This, they decided, would be the decisive battle of the
campaign to free their friend.


Complicating things further, there was a third faction of Shadows
in the world, predating Ilservian. They were neither loyal to him, nor to the
rogue Dule. These Shadows were even farther from what they had once been. They
were a single mind in myriad bodies, subordinate to the will of. . . something.
It was these ancient creatures that brought about the Darkest Night. While
Ferah and Ler Rhan's Thorns attacked Cragstone and Arwic, drawing the
attentions of the defenders, the elder Shadows destroyed a long-buried circle
of standing stones beneath the oasis of Tufa.


Even as the rubble of Arwic was settling, Ler Rhan's forces
invested Anadil's garrison at the Fenmalain vault. The fighting was fierce and
lethal, but ultimately indecisive. Reinforcements promised by Dule failed to
arrive. Ler Rhan, livid, accused Dule of treason. Before any action could be
taken by the divided Shadows, the Isparians came into the fray again. They
swept through all three vaults, battering through both Anadil and Dule's
defenders, and destroyed all three crystals. Again, the immigrant races had
served as an unpredictable force of change.


The fate of the world hinged now on the final piece of the
council's trap. This was the most cunningly hidden one, titled the Shard of the
Herald. The Undead found it first, again through the divinations of Asmolum. It
brooded in the catacombs beneath the Cathedral of Ithaenc, near at hand to
Anadil's encampment.


Almost as soon as Anadil was informed, the Shadows knew, for they
had long infiltrated the rotting army. When the Undead attempted to gain
access, they found the final portal had been altered such that only those who'd
sworn themselves to Ilservian could pass through.


Taken aback, the Undead leadership split the key to the catacombs
into three pieces. The first remained in the keeping of Aerfalle, the second
given to the commander of the Undead legion from Chalicmere Castle in the
Direlands, and the last to the head of the legion lent by Aerfalle's own
political faction. Again, the Shadow infiltrators among the Undead foiled their
plans. The last commander was murdered, and his key given to the keeping of Ler
Rhan's Shadow Children.


Anadil sent emissaries to make contact with the enigmatic Virindi,
knowing them to be similarly distressed by the chaos of the Shadows, and thus
potential allies.


One last time, the humans acted unexpectedly. Finding new paths to
Ithaenc, a tide of human warriors and mages flooded Anadil and his army. The
old general was slain, but not before asking his attackers to take up his
burden. "Don't let it end like this, young ones. If you must send me to the
wind, my task is yours to complete. Protect the stone."


And so they did. An unprecedented coalition of Isparian barons
recovered the pieces of the key, and set a watch on the catacombs and the
terrible, hallucination-inducing black stone that hummed and spun at its heart.
The stalwart members of the Shard Vigil repulsed several attacks by humans in
the service of Ilservian.


Frustrated, Ferah and Ler Rhan assumed human guise once more to
contact the Dark Masters. Blackthorn, who had turned his coat and become a
member of the Vigil, wisely disappeared for a week. Vidorian, however, sought
out her aggrieved masters, and begged forgiveness for her failure to break the
Vigil and the stone.


On a quiet night in the third week of the Vigil, the two Shadow
generals and Vidorian swept into the dungeon, driving the defenders back and
shattering the Shard of the Herald. With a shriek that could be heard across
worlds, Ilservian Palacost was freed.


Isin Dule knew his time would be all too brief once Ferah and Ler
Rhan spoke with Ilservian. Thus he offered assistance to the fledgling
Virindi-Undead alliance.


With a heavy heart, I decided I must also cast my die with this
unsavory coalition.


All unknown, we gathered in the wastelands that mark the wreckage
of the Jailne Lyceum -- the place at which Ilservian was last defeated. Each of
the inhuman powers held an item that would sap the power of our Enemy. I
believed I had the knowledge to combine these items into a single, united
thaumaturgic assault.


But the time was not yet right; the items had to be prepared. So
it was that I challenged Ilservian openly. It was nearly my end. That which
empowers him is far beyond my feeble powers. Had he not been determined to toy
with me, I should have died most swiftly.


While I distracted the Enemy, Lady Elysa Strathelar set her feet
upon the roads of the world, seeking knowledge of which monarchs could be
trusted and which could not. She charged those who walked in light with the
recovery and safe transport of the various pieces of the spell. The items were
to be delivered to Luminary Golems in the Isparian capital cities. These
entities, relics of ancient and lost demiurgic arts, were immune to the
influence of shadow.


The children of the other sun recovered the items. The great
binding was cast, and Ilservian was much enfeebled. At this, humanity charged
into the breach. Their losses were terrible. The man of Daralet had already
surrounded himself with the misbegotten leavings of elemental chaos. These
things lurked among the flapping, green-tinted membranes of his inner sanctum,
where the walls breathed and ate the flesh of men. After numerous assaults, a
coordinated team of mages, warriors, and archers destroyed the physical form of
Ilservian Palacost.


But this was not the end of him; rather, it was the end of the
part of him that remained mortal. His dark spirit descended, summoned by whatever
created him. Before he left, his scream of betrayal was heard by the triumphant
humans. "Dule! Base traitor! I sense your art in this artifact assembled by the
last Yalain. Thee and thine are banished from Our sight for all time, and ye
shall be hunted until the stars fall from their course! Marked are thee!"


Ilservian's story, then, has not ended. He goes on. His generals
Ferah and Ler Rhan go on. And his best friend Dule, somewhere in the lonely
wastes, also goes on. The seeds sown here may not be reaped for a generation,
but their poison will spread. There will be accounting. We have only won a
reprieve.


These were the reagents of the binding. A fragment of the Virindi
Singularity was used to divert a portion of Bael'Zharon's power into the wilds
of portalspace. The Heart of Shadow, supplied by Isin Dule, was a partial
manifestation of Bael'Zharon's connection to the Shadow World. Its destruction
sapped him of still more power. Last came the skull of a child, enchanted with
lost Falatacot bindings by the Dericost Undead.


The skull of Avroen Palacost, the son of Ilservian. The skull of a
child of Daralet.


Think kindly on Ilservian, if you can. Who among you can claim
that your grief should be less?


For my part I will bow my head, and pray that father and son may
find peace.


-- Asheron Realaidain

 

[StinkyPinky]

The problem is that most of these fantasy worlds aren't just computer game fantasy settings, most of the good ones are almost solely fleshed out by books, not the games...

Planescape is an awesome campaign setting, but as awesome as Torment was it didn't do it justice...

NWN, BG, Menzoberranzan etc wouldn't have had a fantasy world worth mentioning if not for the 50+ FR books I read...

LOTRO does a good job by developing the world/story through its quest lines, but its the books that shaped the world...

Warcraft and Starcraft have books that I'm not familiar with at all, but WC2, WC3 and WoW (esp the caverns of time stuff) do a pretty good job...

Ultima has the world/story developed through a ton of SP games, and an active staff running a long storyline in their MMO...

Elder Scrolls had some good open world games that explores their world...


Personally for computer game fantasy world, even tho hes a total nutcase now RG just did too much developing of the Ultima worlds for me to vote for anything else...

Fantasy game setting in general, pre-4th Edition FR is the best D&D setting, more interesting than the sci-fi stuff out there, and beats the crap outta any of the crazy vampire/werewolf crap... so thats my vote for generic fantasy game world setting...

As far as books that set up fantasy worlds that would make for insane games, theres too many of them...

Richard Garriott went into space a few years back. Nutcase he may be, but that's awesome. Apparently he blew a lot of his fortune doing that. Don't blame him at all.

 

[bigsnyder]

Zork

 

[raasco]

fallout

+1

 

[pw38]

I prefer either Fallout (3 and later specifically) or Elder Scrolls.

 

[nalooh]

Skyrim and World of Warcraft, always the best and my favorites...

 

[Elcs]

Warhammer 40k hands down...

Props goes to Battletech though.

 

[Kathi201]

I think Ultima this one is fit

 

[PrincessFrosty]

It's awfully tempting to say Fallout because it's so well fleshed out and dark/tragic, and I just love post apocalypse.

But honestly I think the Thief universe is brilliant, it's medieval steam punk, with some magic thrown in for good measure, and allows for things like zombies and ghosts...it kind of has a bit of everything without being the traditional fantasy of trolls, elves, goblins and whatnot. It's kind of more subtle and believable but has a decent amount of interesting lore based around the factions that exist in the city.

 

[linthat22]

Kyrandia

I can totally see that. I miss the Fable & Fiend series.

For me personally, I enjoyed the world in Ultima VII and that Nordic island in TES: Morrowind.

 

[MrDuma]

Don't know why but for me the 1st dungeon siege was epic; also maybe because it was one of the 1st games i came in touch

 

[Arg Clin]

The Witcher.