Beautiful games?
Suggest some beautiful games. Genre doesn't matter. 3d or 2d no big deal. Hyper Light Drifter, Satisfactory, Cliff Empire, etc.
Mostly I'm talking about moments in the game where you can just stand there and look at the world and not be bored.
Thankssss.
Journey still looks pretty pretty.
Not sure whether it's still enjoyable to play, since probably not many people are playing it these days.
Mmm yess. Recently did a play through, and luckily I played most of it with a fellow pilgrim. IMO Journey will always be gorgeous. The graphics are perfectly balanced between realism, performance and art. To me, it's a timeless classic.
If you enjoyed journey for its beauty and the experience, I strongly recommend checking out their most recent game, Sky: Children of the Light
Oh wow, if it's still possible to meet with online players, then I might want to replay the game again.
Still possible! Go forth!
Though exclusively single player, ABZU is also a nice, atmospheric game as well.
17 years on, Okami is still one of the best.
Just picked up the HD remake and was thrilled to see someone made a mod to patch out the film grain and motion blur. I'm puking rainbows.
Hell yeah. I love that game, but got stuck on the last block guard guy. :_(
Use a piece of paper :)
Just gave me a flashback of my friends and I doing the same thing on a CRT lol.
That's how these puzzles are meant to be solved and I won't accept any other answer! Lol :D
I came to say the same thing
Hollow Knight, if you're not afraid of bugs.
That first City of Tears moment is incredible.
Music in this game is probably in my top 5
I read recommendations for this game so often I'd be remiss to not try it at least once.
it's great! but it's hard. if you don't have patience for difficult platforming and/or difficult 2d combat, it might not click for you.
I think I got it on my third attempt. Though I haven't actually finished it yet! Only 2/3 in and then something shiny distracted me - I'll pick it up again soon. People described it as a soulslike, so after Elden Ring clicked for me I decided I would try the funny bug game again. Glad I did!
I think getting platinum for that game on ps is my crowning achievement of my gaming career, I'm never going to able to do that again.
Can't wait for silksong!
Subnautica.
Damn fine game, too, if you look past the engine bugs.
Subnautica legitimately made me stop and stare at my screen with mouth agape at the wonder and terror of a glowing undersea behemoth. I've never had a game provoke pure awe like it does.
The excellent sound design helps, too. :)
Subnautica is on a whole different level. They made some wild impressions with the first game.
Too bad they dropped the ball on "below zero."
Firewatch is a very beautiful game
Was coming here to say this. Game is good, but the artwork and feeling of the game is amazing.
Outer Wilds.
Really encapsulates the meaning of beauty a couple different ways.
Tetris Effect, particularly if you can play in VR.
Though if you're strictly talking "aesthetically pleasing", the options get wider. I absolutely loved the aesthetics of Hi-fi Rush. The absolute beauty of this comic-esque, cel-shaded world with every element, background and forground, moving to the rhythm of the soundtrack just blew me away when I started playing. But I'm a slut for rhythm games, so there's just something about everything tiny fiber of the space connecting and syncing up that gets me.
"Ori and the Blind Forest" and "Ori and the Will of the Wisps".
Gris, it has an exceptionally good art. Great landscape, sound effects and the storytelling.
Currently playing that game, and I fully agree.
The soundtrack by Berlinist is on Spotify.
Stray. There were lots of times I'd perch up high and look around at everything going on below.
Horizon Zero Dawn. The sequel is likely even more beautiful but I haven't played it yet
@M1st3rM @loops
It's good! A bit "You have five minutes to save the world, but please take the time to do my side quest", but good!
fr lol. My first play through I completed the storyline but wasn't able to fit the Frozen Wilds into the narrative.
NMS is amazing to play in VR.
Ori (both ones). Absolutely stunning platformer. One of the best games I've every played, just started a second playthrough.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps has gorgeous art. The Luma Pools area is my personal favorite.
Abzu has a few moments like that, especially towards the end where you're swimming through more and more densely packed environments.
Thanks! The same publisher is working on Nivalis, I'll definitely check that one out sometime.
Sable. No fighting. Just exploring and getting immersed.
That ones on my wish-list already, now it's on my actual wish-list in my head.
Just a heads up the game kinda made my head hurt physically. The characters move at like 24-30fps while the background moves at a full 60 (or something >30, was not sure). It's a stylistic choice which I can respect but I couldn't get into it due to the stark difference in fps between the two which made it feel laggy.
Transistor - really any Supergiant game, but Transistor in particular.
I think if you enjoyed the beauty in Hyper Light Drifter, then you will be entranced by Tunic. Bonus points for being one of the best puzzle exploration games of all time.
Spiritfarer is very, very pretty as well. It is dripping it atmosphere and I often found myself just afk breathing it all in.
Tunic is an amazing experience, I filled multiple pages of a notebook trying to figure out the puzzles, I wish I had more games that made me do that
Not only is tunic beautiful; the experience is amazing. It's even better if you try to solve the main optional puzzle as you go.
Definitely agree that it's one of the best.
Gris.
Half Life 2: Episode 2. Especially the Citadel with the portal storm, White Forest itself, just so immersive.
Ghost of Tsushima for sure. I didn't see anyone else mention it, which is a big surprise to me.
I really liked the look of Stray and Biomutant too, but they are a bit more on the cartoon side
Witcher 3. The scenery there is just beautiful. And you get your first beautiful scenery pretty much immediately in the tutorial, just go to the balcony in your room and look.
Esp. when you get to the Blood and Wine expansion. The stars at night are beautiful.
Guild wars 2 has one of the best artstyles of any game IMO. Also very nice to just explore the world and the core game is free 2 play with a generous way to buy and keep forever without sub or mtx.
People already said Horizon, which is my #1 choice, but I'm surprised I didn't see anyone say Sekiro. That game is gorgeous. I'd often stop and look at the environment when I wasn't killing people lol
tbh my most recent one is probably Forza Horizon 5. I'm not really a "car guy" but nothing beats getting high and doing sick jumps over gorgeous natural landscapes in bodacious sports cars. Bonus points if your Ferrari has an anime girl spraypainted on the hood.
A car of culture as well I see.
Outer Wilds has a lot of beautiful things to look at, whether it's a planet or moon soaring overhead impossibly close, or something more cosmically spectacular. The music and sound design enhances the experience a lot too.
I take it your server has been BUSY.
Ori, both of them.
Journey
Ico / Shadow of the Colossus / The Last Guardian
No Man's Sky
Second for Journey, it's a master class in non-dialogue storytelling, and it's just a beautiful game all around. I got introduced to it through its music (via a cover artist) and have fallen in love with the game.
Second Shadow of the Colossus. The moments where you can just sit and look, coupled with the soundtrack, are some of the best in gaming history. Plus that bit of tension knowing what you're about to get into...
The Witness
I love how distinctive the art style is, but also how the gameplay rewards you for paying attention to the world and design.
For some strange reason nobody mentioned Tunic yet. Definitely take a look at it!
Factorio, I've never had another game keep me so focused I forgot the sun would eventually come up.
I really dig that art style, it's sort of the logical conclusion to things like Diablo 2 or Age of Empires 2. Something about the high fidelity 2D rendering of 3D objects from an isometric perspective is so aesthetically pleasing.
It feels more descriptive of the reality of the world and less stylized even though it's, of course, its own style.
I've given ~2000 hours of life to that game as well.
The factory must grow!
Fire watch
I strongly suggest Gris. A 2d platformer with an art style and sound track that makes me reflective and emotional.
Loved that game. Came here to mention it as well.
Dishonored 2. The city of Karnaca is beautiful imo, even despite all the dirt and bloodflies
Chicory is an artistic top-down Zelda-style game that is not only adorable with its cute characters and world, but it also invites you to add color to the world and give it your own touch.
skyrim, i have loads of pictures just of the sky in that game
also hogwarts legacy has some very beautiful locales throughout the game, and hogwarts itself is wonderfully done
I played Skyrim AE right after Horizon Forbidden West and I kept finding the simplicity and visual clarity of the game to be so damn beautiful. The game has the right amount of clutter, right amount of volumetric fogs and right amount of texture detail to be easy on eyes and believable as a consistent and functioning world.
i like the ants marching on some of the logs, easy to see in riverwood by the area where gerdur talks to you after the intro
Inside and Naissancee have a lot of moments that just gave me a huge sense of awe. They have some really haunting, yet beautiful scenes.
Thumper just makes me constantly question how the hell the devs made the game look that way.
Half Life Alyx is weird because it didn't so much blow me away with the huge things as it did with the small things. There's so many small objects and details everywhere that stand up even when you're physically shoving your face into them.
Monster Hunter World is five years old and holds up great.
bask in the sun halfway up the Ancient Forest with a Tobi-Kadachi (giant white electric flying squirrelsnake; chill until you hit it)
climb up to the top of the Coral Highlands cat colony and watch the sky jellyfish float by in the sunset
share a hot spring with snow monkeys in the Hoarfrost Reach
They did a great job of making the maps feel like a living system that goes on while you're not there. (Sadly, this is much less true of the newest MH game, Rise, where the maps are full of traversal puzzles but the wildlife pretty much all exists only to attack you.)
+1 for MHW, the environments always felt alive and you start to learn the patterns of wildlife as you spend time in them
I liked rise because the gameplay felt more streamlined and flowy but I agree, the environments felt a little more stale
Most recently horizon: forbidden west had me moments that I would stop and just look the beautiful scenery. As a hardcore introvert, staying inside person I really admire such a great view.
I feel that. I'm anxiously waiting for it to be ported to PC. āŧāēļâŋāŧāēļ
Bastion from supergiant games, most of the game is hand painted, it gives a floating feeling, and given the game is on floating islands it gives really nice atmosphere.
On the other side, the art style of Katana Zero and Hotline Miami is dirty and distorted, but I really dig that style . Probably wouldn't work with standing still part, but in motion they are works of art.
most of the supergiant games tbh, hades and transistor both have some beautiful scenes as well.
I imagine you're not going to like this answer but since the genre doesn't matter: Genshin Impact
Journey?
Interesting, no one has mentioned Red Dead Redemption 2. Looks absolutely stunning.
The worst part of the game? Interiors, because of lack of RTX lighting, it will never look anywhere close to amazing, unlike the magnificent exteriors. Oh boy, have I lost myself in nature in that game...
The Octopath Traveler games
Such beautiful pixel art game. Really enjoyed playing it.
Ghost of Tsushina
Either in color or black and white, that is a gorgeous game
My recommendation list is going to be a wild mix of different styles. Basically aynthing in my Games Library that I find visually appealing...
Love that shot from Elite, nice work.
Thanks! I caught it more or less by chance though. I was just scanning all moons in the system, and thought that landing would be a nice break from the scanning routine. And then this happened. It looked even better a few moments before, when the sun that's visible in the shot was still partially occluded by the gas giant. Took me too long to fire up camera mode to catch that though...
Uncharted 4 looks amazing, I was surprised to learn it's almost 10 years old. Feels like it could be brand new.
This might be weird, but Just Cause 3. When I was playing it a lot, I would just stop and look around at sunset and marvel at the view.
Okami and Child of Light are good options.
Minecraft? Or if that's too detailed, maybe Manifold Garden.
DayZ. Walking in the woods and hearing a deer in the distance or going up on a cliff and watching the sunset is quite serene.
INFRA! Just look at the screenshots on the Steam page.
Death's Door
Season - A Letter to the Future
Endless Legend is the most beautiful 4x game I've seen so far. All of the races are great designs and feel really different in gameplay.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, but yeah, it's basically a tech demo/walking sim
Cuphead is absolutely gorgeous, it's just hard to appreciate because you're constantly trying not to die.
I grew up with Felix the Cat and Popeye and Betty Boop on VHS, not because I'm super old but because we were poor farmers. Cuphead is the only game I've ever played that has recreated this ancient animation style and it is done so incredibly well. It's a masterclass in art style and gameplay at the same time.
Firelord is an old one but gorgeous. Chicory is pretty, in a colouring book sort of way. Child of Light and Forgotton Anne have fairly similar aesthetics but are both lovely.
These are maybe not what some would consider beautiful, but I love the variation in art styles and how they can be beautiful while either being simplistic or retro-inspired. All but Sea Of Stars were very cheap during the Steam Summer sale or in a Fanatical bundle that may or may not still be available right now.
Video game
Horizon has some beautiful moments
Back in the day, I thought Oblivion and Skyrim had some beautiful spots although it may not be as impactful now as it was upon release.
Board Game
Sagrada is a game where you are building stained glass windows and I think it's pretty.
Concrete Genie also had some beautiful moments!
Both Sludge Life games. A bit unconventional but I found a lot of spots in the games where I would just stand there and take in the various scenes going on. Both games can be beaten fairly quick but it took me hours to get through them because I kept stopping to just take in everything going on.
Only played the first but agreed, it was a nice little vibin' setting. Makes sense because if I recall there was a lot of picture-taking in the game
I can't believe no one has mentioned A plague tale - Requiem! It's a stunning game to just soak in the atmosphere of middle age France.
Monument Valley. Visually beautiful enough to warrant repeated play-through just to admire the design, and conceptually brilliant as well.
And another vote for Gris, too.
Many of those already mentioned are great looking. I would add a personal choice, aesthetically pleasing for my taste: Dyson Sphere Program.
Elden Ring looks beautiful. You just need to get used to fighting a boss 100+ times before killing him ;_;
Horizon series is good. The 2nd game, Forbidden West is so good I used to open the photo mode at random spots and take pictures because I found the scenery beautiful. I would definitely recommend it.
Ghost of Tsushima is also beautiful. However I got bored pretty quickly but others have enjoyed the game so maybe you'll like it.
Also Skyrim with mods (like ENB) can be beautiful as well :p
Arise: A Simple Story
I played Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart recently because it was available free on PS+ and it is the most gorgeous game I have ever played in my life.
The graphical capabilities are astounding, the aesthetic is pleasing, and there is charm out the wazoo. You can't look anywhere without seeing something interesting making use of all that fancy graphic tech. I kept it installed despite 100%ing it just to mess around with the photo mode.
I almost picked it up off GMG, but I'm really not a platformer guy.
I really like the hunter call of the wild. it's not perfect visually, but there have been moments when i just stop to look around and not even care about hunting
Rez
I find peace and beauty in the wilderness of DayZ
Blasphemous. Part 2 just released, btw
Both Subnautica games and Tunic.
I would definitely suggest Heaven's Vault, very good, vibrant artwork in that game, and lots of variety.
Not an entire game, but the freedom ending in The Stanley Parable is truly beautiful.
The Witness
From a "unity 3d how to make a game in 3 steps" kind of perspective maybe...
I don't appreciate the snark.
For more immersion, you might wanna try VR. And if looks is what you're after then PCVR for specific, although there are some impressive contents on mobile VR too.
A game I'm not seeing mentioned here but for me it's one of the top games is Ark. I have so many... Ok, it seems I HAD so many glamour shots of the world as I played it. HD death has lost me a bunch of largely meaningless micro-memories. Well, I still have the memories, but it makes it harder to share them. Here have this one:
Gorgeous!
Sons Of The Forest is surprisingly detailed, but you don't have much time to take in the sights and the foliage when there's cannibals chasing you through the woods.
The witness can be beautiful at times, although the colours can be overwhelming at times
Dust: An Elysian Tale. The art in this game is colorful and beautiful. It's one of my favorite games for many reasons.
Genshin Impact, Icarus, Valheim, Stray, Cloudpunk, Growing Up, The Division 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Blockhood, Eve Online, Days Gone, Dredge and the Metro Series. (ęá´ę)