Games with a stark, bizarre atmosphere

[Blowhard]

There's a sense of largely narrative-less atmosphere in several games I can think of that I would lump together as delivering a unique feeling that is fairly similar. I'll list them off to get things started, and I hope others can see a common thread in their general feel, but I'll give some thoughts as to why these games made me feel the way they did. It is the most highly sought after atmosphere, in my gaming experience, and is brought about mainly by feelings of silence, isolation, emptiness, alien worlds or vistas, and surrealism.

King's Field, Shadow Tower, et al
Pathologic
The Void
Mask of the Betrayer (Torment feels actually a bit more friendly, more "in your face," and less strange imo)
Diablo
Morrowind
Armored Core: Last Raven (very interesting game that puts you in a world which is functionally already dead. not only that, but watching other Ravens on the list show up as DEAD as the game goes on makes you realize that even if you do "win", what will be left?)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Demon's Souls
the supernatural levels of Thief: Gold
Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land
Silent Hill
The Legacy of Kain
Tomb Raider
Dark Spire
Baroque

Anyone want to try their hands at adding to this list?

 

[Baron Dupek]

E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy
It's WH40k cheap ripoff, the only WH40k where you see something else than SPACE MARINES, and it's only FPP game in that setting I remember.
And if you read any book from WH40k where action take place in hivecity - you get the idea.

 

[Akratus]

Dark Souls
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Maybe inquisitor? Haven't played it.
Half-Life 1 and 2 a little.
The Witcher 1.

 

[Jick Magger]

Digital Devil Saga (do like the bizarre, post-apoc feel the game has, and how even the characters seem to acknowledge how it makes nearly no sense)
Nier (I'm a sucker for ultra cynical post-apoc settings, where the world is irreparably fucked and all we're watching are the final candles to go out, and this game nails it along with a lot of punches straight to the feels)
Sluggish Moors: A Delicate Time in History (An hour long freeware game that's loaded with surreal imagery, an esoteric sci-fi setting, and a whole lot of shit that just makes your head hurt. Only an hour or so long, so I'd recommend it)
Metal Gear Solid 2 (JACK, TURN OFF YOUR GAME CONSOLE RIGHT NOW)
Bloodborne (probably the most out of the souls games, since dreaming and insanity is a recurring motif within the game)

 

[Akratus]

Oh and, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.

 

[Jick Magger]

Forgot one as well:

Soma - (tickles my love for cynical post-apoc and kinda reminds me of your description of Last Raven). It's pretty much establish from the get-go that the human race is pretty much gone, and all you're really doing is trying to ensure that their last, pathetic attempt to ensure that our civilization isn't completely forgotten succeeds. Game is never particularly scary, but does maintain a consistent tone of melancholic dread, as you go through the logs of the last few humans alive in a base at the bottom of the ocean as they gradually succumb to despair and are killed off, with themes surrounding the nature of artificial intelligence and what truly makes man and machine different.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Anyone want to try their hands at adding to this list?

Eversion. It actually does one better and shows you the transition of the world from this bright, vibrant happy place...to what it eventually becomes.

 

[Neanderthal]

Severance: Blade of Darkness nails that moody magnificence, soundtrack an everything, an has that weird Zoroastrian background lore that gis it an original edge.

You put down Legacy o Kain, but i'd just like to add Blood Omen 2s Eternal Prison, right weird place an really spooky in sections, highlight o that game for me which were mostly shit.

Thief?

 

[Baron Dupek]

Yeah, Thief series (not sure about Thi4f cause it's shit game so no urge to try it an check) plus The Dark Mod (based on Doom3 engine no less).

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

I wish they'd make a new Blood Omen, but I doubt Crystal Dynamics has it what it takes.

 

[dunno lah]

Fallout

 

[ManjuShri]

The Cosmology of Kyoto CD-ROM comes with a bare minimum of instructions, informing me in a few words how to move within the images. No goal is established and no points are scored; the game never informs me what the object is, although it discreetly tracks the levels of karma and cash I have attained and keeps an inventory of my possessions. The disc comes packaged with a large fold-out map showing the streets and principal buildings of Kyoto – circa 900, when, as Heiankyo, it was the capital of Japan. I begin to wander the streets.

The richness is almost overwhelming; there is the sense that the resources of this game are limitless and that no two players would have the same experience. I have been exploring the ancient city in spare moments for two weeks now, and doubt that I have even begun to scratch the surface. This is the most beguiling computer game I have encountered, a seamless blend of information, adventure, humor, and imagination – the gruesome side-by-side with the divine.

In this medieval Kyoto, people exist alongside ghosts, demons, and goblins. On my travels I have met – and interacted with – a dog eating entrails, long-winded old farts, tradespeople (who offered me medicines, dried fish, cloth, rice cakes, amulets, and a chance to lose money on a cock fight), a monk leading a prayer meeting, kids playing ball in the streets (one is beheaded by a passerby), a friendly guide dog, a maiden with an obscenely phallic tongue, and a gambler who taught me a dice game.

The graphics are hauntingly effective, using a wide-screen landscape format. The individual characters are drawn with vivid facial characteristics, a cross between the cartoons of medieval Japanese art and the exaggerations of modern Japanimation. The speaking voices are filled with personality, often taunting, teasing, or sexy. There is the sense, illusory but seductive, that one could wander this world indefinitely. This is a wonderful game.

 

[ManjuShri]

The Blade Runner game also fits I believe; somewhat starker than the movie.

 

[xxxCatholicKillahxxx]

Zeno Clash and Machinarium.

I got that same feeling from a setting as familiar as Darklands.

 

[Neanderthal]

I wish they'd make a new Blood Omen, but I doubt Crystal Dynamics has it what it takes.

Has thy heard o that Blood Omnicide mod? Remaking original Blood Omen apparently, looks good an all.

 

[octavius]

Tir Na Nog is probably the first game I played that oozed of atmosphere.

 

[pippin]

Maybe inquisitor? Haven't played it.

From what I remember, Inquisitor has plenty supernatural elements, but it's still related to many historical elements. It's a more lowkey, eastern european version of Lionheart, in a way.

 

[kwanzabot]

sanitarium

 

[Menckenstein]

Shenmue but it's unintentional.

 

[Farage]

Don't starve

Spoiler

Abe's Oddysee

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Heart of Darkness

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Diablo 1

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MediEvil

Spoiler

 

[warpig]

Another World - no description needed here XD
Bioforge - Alone in The Dark clone: dark sf, lost alien civilization, sick experiments, violence - this type of stuff.
Dark Earth - another AiTD clone: weird post apocaliptic world
The Swapper - atmospheric puzzle platformer
Axiom Verge - very cool and somewhat dark/weird retro "metroidvania"
Perihelion: The Prophecy - old Amiga RPG set in a strange, dark futuristic world
Armored Core For Answer - my favourite AC game it's dark and depressive atmosphere/story-wise
Earthsiege 1 and 2 - maybe not super fitting here but since we already have AC...It has a nice post apo war feel, reminiscent of Terminator 1 and 2 "future war" scenes.
Wipeout 2097 - yeah I know, future racer...but I find the game to be atmospheric and somewhat dark (also has a really cool soundtrack)

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

I wish they'd make a new Blood Omen, but I doubt Crystal Dynamics has it what it takes.

Has thy heard o that Blood Omnicide mod? Remaking original Blood Omen apparently, looks good an all.

The first bitter taste of that terrible illusion... Hope.

 

[warpig]

Since Blood Omen is mentioned, what about Soul Reaver? Imo fits very well here.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Metro 2033

 

[NullFlow]

Space Funeral