Games with your favourite lore/worldbuilding

[Arithmetician]

Mass Effect and Horizon are great shouts, and I obviously love Final Fantasy Tactics.

However, I'm shocked that no one has brought up Disco Elysium yet. That game is a towering achievement in world building. Revachol feels like a melancholic and fading yet real and endlessly detailed place, in a way I don't think any other game has matched.

 

[caseyg]

HighFleet
House of the Dying Sun
Suzerain

 

[spad3]

I have a few I absolutely loved:

1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution/Mankind Divided
2. Horizon: Zero Dawn/Forbidden West
3. Mass Effect/2/3
4. Batman: Arkham City
5. Red Dead Redemption/2

 

[TeenageFBI]

The first games that come to mind are the Thief series and Dishonored. I ate up every bit of worldbuilding in those games. Mass Effect's encyclopedia is great too.

Don't forget Planescape: Torment, although that might not count since so much of the lore was created for D&D, not the game.

However, I'm shocked that no one has brought up Disco Elysium yet. That game is a towering achievement in world building. Revachol feels like a melancholic and fading yet real and endlessly detailed place, in a way I don't think any other game has matched.

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AND THIS.

Trails series.

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As much as the more recent games are annoying me, the worldbuilding is still very interesting and I love how the technology changes over time.

 

[Hilarious_Bearious]

I'm going to be boring and go with the really obvious picks of Bloodborne, Horizon and Disco Elysium.

Also Death Stranding. It was do interesting unravelling the stories surrounding the people and the world itself. A top 5 game for me.

 

[JuniperAndSage]

Sable.

 

[Thisisme]

Metroid Prime Trilogy.

 

[sosainas]

Soul Sacrifice.

 

[Waiting4East]

ah.
Hard to decide.
Maybe witcher or Octopath Traveler ...while the Scroll Of Taiwu is also cool.

 

[Villa]

Yep, gonna agree with Mass Effect. The different alien cultures, politics and history are all interesting, which the vast majority of games fail at. But I actually wanted to read the codex, especially in the first game. I wish we had more games that went for this type and scale of world building and lore.

Hollow Knight is another fantastic one. There is a lot of vague-ness, unanswered questions and things up for interpretation, but that only adds to the mysterious vibe of the world. The slowly unravelling story of the titular character is sooo good too. Possibly the most immersed I've been in the world of a 2D game.

I also loved the world and story of the FreeSpace games.

 

[YukiroCTX]

Soul Sacrifice.

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Love SS and also Elden Ring. Probably my two favourite ones.

I wish there was another SS game.

Also enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn whole back story.

 

[Hilarious_Bearious]

Sable.

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Oh wow, that's gorgeous. I'm going to have to check how well this runs in Proton 🤔

 

[Lukemia SL]

Metal Gear Solid or Resident Evil when the cutoff point is the third game.

 

[Ckoerner]

How is it mindblowing? You learn that within the first couple hours of the game. Are people just forgetting the game or did everyone just not pay attention?


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH2Fc6Cnk48

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It's been two decades since I played it! I was a goober kid and didn't pay attention I guess. :p

 

[Phellps]

It's Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Fallout for me. I just feel so immersed in these worlds that whenever I go back to them I feel right at home.

 

[Ra]

Mass Effect. Bioware went from nothing to having a fully fleshed out galaxy in one game. Superb.

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Felt completely realized right from the intro cinematic, a truly remarkable accomplishment.

 

[giapel]

I have a few I absolutely loved:

1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution/Mankind Divided

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Finally somebody mentions Deus Ex. It's the first thing that comes to mind. Fantastic world building, no only with audio logs and notes but environmental detail, dozens of optional locations, characters and fleshed out side quests. It's so comprehensive it feels like it's an actual place. I though HR Detroit was slightly better than MD Prague but both were great places.

 

[Xils]

FFXIV for how it's integrated into the story and makes you feel like a part of it.

Arknights's is probably my favorite newer universe with how vast the world feels with varied culture and politics.

Fate's lore has become fucking insane with Grand Order. Now King Arthur being a woman is probably the least surprising thing about it. Now we have some historical figures being host to Lovecraft deities, unmanned intergalactic fleet becoming gods (with the ability to combine like Megazord, of course), and there's even an entire Star Wars parody universe in there with its own lore.

 

[ghibli99]

Having just finished BioShock for the first time today, that gets my vote. Rarely do games make me want to hop back in immediately for a replay to dig into the stuff that I didn't understand the first time through, but to discover new stuff I missed as well. It's such a beautifully and convincingly realized world and characters. I can see how this must have blown people away 15 years ago and continues to do so today.

 

[Hexa]

So many facets tied together so well.

 

[Freeglader]

FF12 happens before Tactics. It's the world that existed prior to the cataclysm mentioned in Tactics.

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That reminds me of one of my favorite fan theories regarding XII and Tactics:

Spoiler

The party's actions in XII, by ending the influence of the Occuria and gathering up all the explicitly evil Espers together, may have eventually led to the cataclysm referenced in Tactics that wiped out all the non-Hume races. Once the Occuria were out of the picture, who was to stop the Espers from wreaking havoc on Ivalice a few generations post Ashe and co?

 

[Hokey]

The Shadow of the Colossus - A mysterious world inhabited by giants (purposely) forgotten because of a dark evil.

Bioshock - Basically Atlantis

 

[Jetsun Mila]

Easily everything in Ivalice, especially FF12. Each town is so full of little stories, and I just love how there are characters from mutliple races interacting with each other.

 

[Hambulance]

I think the WH40K games win for me, just a ridiculously large pool of things to draw from.

Dawn of War 2 was my introduction to the universe, and it's a huge rabbit hole from there.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails probably wins if its ingame lore only.
I really like(d) learning the histories of all the various locales in each arc so far.

 

[spad3]

Finally somebody mentions Deus Ex. It's the first thing that comes to mind. Fantastic world building, no only with audio logs and notes but environmental detail, dozens of optional locations, characters and fleshed out side quests. It's so comprehensive it feels like it's an actual place. I though HR Detroit was slightly better than MD Prague but both were great places.

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Honestly, it was probably the only game I've ever played where the optional content is just as fantastic as the main story. Every side quest, log, and hell even the navigation felt like it fit perfectly. Even the hidden pathways felt natural and not intentional (even though they were intentional). I did like Detroit better than Prague, but Prague's navigation was much better developed.

I want to go back and do a pacifist Ghost run of HR. I did a pacifist Ghost run in MD and aside from being challenging, it actually made you use all the stealth systems that are provided to you in a creative way.

 

[Mechaplum]

Mass Effect and Dragon Age, which hurts even more that the most recent games are so subpar.

I also like the pathfinder world and lore.

FF14? Lots of stuff fleshed out, though I really do not like whatever's in Shadowbringers. Cared even less than ARR, which is shocking.

Last one is the more esoteric Drakengard/nIer twisted world.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Bloodborne and Returnal are both tremendous slices of cosmic horror, with the latter throwing in a couple of great sci-fi concepts as well (dead alien civilizations always work for me). And Horizon"s old world stuff and climate change metaphors are very compelling.

 

[SEATLiens]

The Last of Us 1

 

[Amnesty]

Suikoden was great because for 1-5 it felt like engaging with a detailed world history project, examining pivotal eras in particular regions.

 

[ara]

It was trails.

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Lol, good answer. I've played the Sky games multiple times despite not really enjoying the main cast or story because of all of the NPCs and how well they build the world up. Pretty excited to replay the Crossbell games when they're officially released for the same reason. But with the continuing drop in quality that started with Cold Steel 1, the world building/lore aspect of the games has started to feel a lot messier and dumber too.

Mass Effect is another one for sure. Actually just nabbed the Legendary Edition the other day, looking forward to replaying the trilogy later. Going to play on hardcore and really dive into the world, do all the side quests, read all the codex entries, etc.

 

[Killyoh]

Mass Effect, Souls/Bloodborne/Elden Ring, Dishonored (and that other game) has amazing lore, Disco Elysium too ! I really want to read the book taking place in the same universe. That lore is incredible. Half-Life/Portal universe has very interesting implications too, can't wait to know more.

 

[Finaika]

Xenosaga

The scope in both time and space is huge.

 

[McPedie]

Anything Warhammer related B)

 

[julia crawford]

Sable.

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Not of a lot of them but Sable has some really really good moments where the scale and weirdness of things increases tenfold.

I love Sable so much.

 

[Chie Satonaka]

Trails series.

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Yes.

 

[ehmprah]

I'll have to add a classic here: Secret of Evermore on the SNES was absolutely glorious in that regard.

 

[Thera]

Too many good candidate but I really prefer those who will give you lore in the game world rather than in any text / audio log format. So even if I think the Horizon lore is awesome, I really don't like how it is told.

The two winner are probably The Witcher 3 and TLoU Part 1.
And, of course, I can not mention Metal Gear. It's broken after MGS 3 but also have some fantastic things in it, especially at a time when lore wasn't that big in the medium.

 

[Androidsleeps]

Elden Ring
Mass Effect
Control
Bioshock
And of course, Dishonored

Can't get enough of the lore and incredible world building in these games and I desperately want to explore more stories in said worlds.

 

[Watershed]

The Shadow of the Colossus - A mysterious world inhabited by giants (purposely) forgotten because of a dark evil.

Bioshock - Basically Atlantis

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The world building in Shadow of the Colossus is fascinating! I loved exploring the forbidden land and noticing all the ruins and architecture.

 

[Karlinel]

I did love warcraft lore before WoW expansions retconned it again and again, and Dark Souls 2 lore is really nice. But, as mentioned by The Quentulated Mox too many times is used instead of a plot, which is a big no.

 

[Saito Hikari]

- Pillars of Eternity: I haven't played very many games that take place in a sort of pre-industrial/early industrial world state. It's also a bit refreshing to see a fantasy setting where the politics and the overall lore are largely driven by nationalism rather than racism (since the latter doesn't exactly have a place in a setting where everyone knows reincarnation is a thing). Not to mention all the stuff revolving around the gods is a hell of a twist, and it's one of the reasons I'm really looking forward to Avowed as a game taking place in the same world, especially if it turns out that it indeed does take place in the Living Lands.

- FFXIV and the Ivalice games: I'm sure I don't really have to explain this.

- Trails series: I'm sure I don't really have to explain this either, even if I bounced off hard after Cold Steel 1.

- Pathfinder series: While the series isn't largely focused on world building, the companions do a pretty good job at introducing other parts of the setting to you in a seemingly rather natural way, mostly through party banter. The first game had much more varied companions owing to the plot revolving around your player character trying to set up a new barony in an untamed wilderness with a bunch of misfits tagging along or arriving later, while the second game consisted of a completely different player character and party going on a crusade against demons, taking place in the same world a couple regions up to the north and a few months after the first game ended. Though the companions in the second game didn't exactly come from all over the world like the first game's companions, I consider the second game to be the current gold standard in terms of party banter/interactions.

- Dragon Age: The setting is rather compelling, even if the actual presentation of it in the first game wasn't that fleshed out. I've been replaying the second game lately, and while that game had a lot of faults, the writing and world building it does is by far the best in the entire series thus far, especially due to the game's unique story structure taking place over a span of 7 years. DA2's amazing execution of it is why I'm super stoked at the idea of FFXVI trying something similar over a span of about 20 years instead.

I really have to get around to playing Disco Elysium one of these days.

 

[Killyoh]

Oh I forgot to put it but Torment : Tides of Numenera! Didn't play a lot but absolutely stunned by the lore.

 

[Timelord19]

Metroid, I just want more Space Pirates lore, every log in Metroid Prime about them was so fun.

 

[Stairouais]

Recently: Sable.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

That reminds me of one of my favorite fan theories regarding XII and Tactics:

Spoiler

The party's actions in XII, by ending the influence of the Occuria and gathering up all the explicitly evil Espers together, may have eventually led to the cataclysm referenced in Tactics that wiped out all the non-Hume races. Once the Occuria were out of the picture, who was to stop the Espers from wreaking havoc on Ivalice a few generations post Ashe and co?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

 

[Elandyll]

Bloodborne by far.
I just would like to know more about the world, what's happening in other locales, what happened in the past, where do we go from here...

 

[Canucked]

For years I would have said Xenogears.

And then Control came along. That lore is just...amazing.

 

[Rhaknar]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-kT1RteLHg&t

 

[Lulu]

Spoiler

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can you explain to me the common theory on the FFT Lucavi and their relation to the Occuria

 

[entremet]

Mass Effect. No doubt about it.