[General Discussion] Gamings best ever backgrounds

For me, when I'm trying to describe to another a point in gaming when I was enraptured in the moment and really felt a part of a certain ambience the game was sending out, I find the background is perhaps the central article that I need to describe in order to convey how a location affected me. They're hugely important in giving a 'feel' to a location; they give a sense of greater scope and a world much farther reaching than just the very immediate vicinity that has been coded for you as a playground.

This is all if you're like me of course, and find truly immersing yourself in a game as best as you can - headphones, darkness, reduced outside distractions, etc - to be one of the important pre-conditions needed to get the best out of certain games that were meant to swallow you in their universe.

First let's define 'background'. It's the far distant scenery and surroundings of a location, that the player cannot usually reach or interact with in any way. Backgrounds aren't usually rendered in code like the tangible physical reality of the protagonists immediate surroundings, and are instead essentially flat pieces of artwork.

Tellingly, any time I think of a background in the affecting way I mentioned in the first paragraph, it's mostly from a first person shooter. This is to do with that genre perhaps being the most immersive of all, so the weight of background importance in that genre could either stem from the you-as-the-protagonist viewpoint, forcing you to consider the surroundings more as you would were you actually there than any other genre; or it could simply mean that the games artists put more thought into the background precisely because it would have more attention. It's probably both.

Alright, enough of all that shite. Here's a background I like.

Deus Ex - Liberty Island

Liberty Island at night time. It's your introduction to the ever shadowy and downbeat - alright, I'll say it - 'cyberpunk' future of Deus Ex. Sneaking around Liberty Island, you feel very much cold and isolated on that dark little place, and this sense is heightened hugely by your location being offset against the warm distant glow of the New York City skyline. It looks positively inviting. An awesome feeling. I can sum up my immersion in Deus Ex by this atmosphere of Liberty Island, and a lot's owed to its backdrop.

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Ok, well in a similar way, Liberty City from GTA3. I mean it was so dank, depressing and scummy, especially Portland, but I fucking love it. When you’re on a hill looking over the city and something catches your eye. Planes flying in the distance, or police cars in pursuit of someone else, I had to stop and admire it.

Everyone will say it’s been bested since, probably, but 4 or 5 years ago when it was new, the backdrop of Liberty City was fascinating, almost. That's stayed with me since.

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This is a bit of a deviation, but:

Lava Reef - Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Especially right before the boss arena. The place looked fucking MAGNIFICENT.

Chaos Angel - Sonic Advance 3. No other Sonic game beats that "end of the world" feel like this stage does.

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Resident Evil. The back story to all of those games is so amazingly well put together i still never get sick of playing through those games. I have yet to find a game with a story more engrossing that this one.

Zelda would be number one for me, if the games actually referenced themselves. Resident Evil flows with each game, but Zelda is a new story starting all over again with each game. The story within each game is amazing though. Some of my favourite moments in Ocaraina of Time were when you were hearing those long explanations of the history of the game, because of how well it was thought out, and written.

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VP1 and 2 were pretty nice, when you consider the backgrounds. Aesthetically and story-wise. Then again, I've always been a nut for Norse mythology. The way they portrayed Asgard was absolutely astounding.

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God of War. It made me feel like I was really there, from the city of Athens to the Giant sword you walk over as a bridge becoming a sword you wield later on in the game...the backgrounds there were fantastic.

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I've alway enjoyed the Casino backgrounds in the Sonic games. Not sure how many have them, but I remember Sonic 2 and Heroes being especially nice lighted nightscapes. I'm a sucker for those...

Same thing: always enjoyed the Bay one in Final Fight. Reminded me of being on the boardwalk. Sort of...

Always liked the old CPS2 backgrounds for Capcom's VS games. Marvel vs Capcom 1 was just beautiful to look at, especially (you guessed it) the final fight on top of the building, with yet another good nightscape.

Oh and basically everything in Valkyrie Profile 2...Jaggies aside, that game is just sickeningly detailed and beautiful all around.

Lastly, I thought Magic: The Gathering Battlemage was a crap game, but the views of the areas before entering were quite nice. Wouldn't mind having them for screensavers.

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Quote:

First let's define 'background'. It's the far distant scenery and surroundings of a location, that the player cannot usually reach or interact with in any way. Backgrounds aren't usually rendered in code like the tangible physical reality of the protagonists immediate surroundings, and are instead essentially flat pieces of artwork.

This isn't really a flat image of a background, since you can travel to these areas so I don't know if it'll count..but i'll say it anyway. The view on top of Dive Rock in Oblivion is simply superb and fantastic. I literally sat there, drooling over the gorgeous scenery and the endless forests laying before me. Man, I love how largely scaled Oblivion is.

I also really, really liked where the final act of Gears of War took place. The red apocalyptic sky was very well done combined with the effects of mass havok done onto the city buildings. all whizzing past you on a high-speed train, of course.

EDIT: Another choice I would have to pick would be the backgrounds in Soul Calibur II, especially the Eurydice Shrine Gallery--Cassandra/Sophitia's stage with the small shrine built smack right on a mountain. The view and colors/tones of that stage is gorgeous.

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Chinnens background in Matrimelee was very nice - lightyears ahead of every other background in the game. The multilayered bg scroll gave back the "forest shrine" feel very nicely, and of course the animation was fully synched with the otherwise awesome music.

Most of the backgrounds in Metal Slug 1 were also breathtaking. Especially considering the amount of destroyable landscape, and the ridiculous amount of concept art it took to design them.

And I can also mention C&C Tiberian Sun. While it doesn't ahve a "background" as it is a RTS game from "heaven point of view", it sure does have a post-apocalyptic, mutated, tiberium infested landscape. One of the strong points of the game was this mood (next to the soundtrack, level design, and FMV scenes).

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I've always thought the backgrounds of Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 were fantastic. It's exceptionally easy to ignore them while focusing on the gameplay, but the scenery is beautiful, and despite all the details and little animations, the gameplay never suffers from slowdown.

an area from SMB1:

an area from SMB2:

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Unreal Tournament - Facing Worlds

Facing Worlds is a CTF map set on a rock floating through space, with two towers either end and a stretch of open air ground between them. It was the background that I thought truly special about this map - unusual as it may be to like an online fragfest game map for a non gameplay element. The rock was spinning whilst orbiting close to the Earth, so over the course of a game a huge looming Earth would be moving around the screen giving off this bright white-blue glow, which constrasted with the vast expanse of black space and dull rocky browns filling up most of the rest of the screen.

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I've always loved the art to Legend of Mana, and I've always loved the feel of each point of interest in the game. The areas seem alive and the music adds to the feel - love it.

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I've always liked the backgrounds in the newer Prince of Persia games (SoT, WW, TTT). Some of the background shots lets you see far off into the distance. The backgrounds in every area of the games are all very well done, very artistic.

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Ok, so somehow i misread the subject of the thread. I thought background meant backstory.

Um, if we're talking scenery in a game, i'm still gonna have to go with Resident Evil remake for the GC. Never have i felt so really into the game before. The environment was done PERFECTLY!

I'll have to think about it some more.

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I really enjoyed the scenery from Shadow of the Colossus. There was much detail in the environment while simply walking through or while in a battle. Everything was colorful and lush.

Another would be the overall setting for the Resident Evil remake (GC). I still remember how surprised I was when the double doors opened in the beginning of the game, and an improved mansion was revealed.

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Whew, Deus Ex is tops when it comes immersion. Though I didn't actually get that feeling you're talking about in Deus Ex until I reached Hong Kong. When I saw those streets alive with people it just suddenly hit me that I was playing one of the best that gaming had to offer. I felt it again at the DuClare Chateau where if I recall correctly you're hit with a rather startling revelation. Man, I need to play that game again. I just wish that I didn't get headaches when playing the PC version.

I agree with the Helloween that Resident Evil has typically had good backgrounds. Primarily the mansion of the first game (moreso in the REmake; redone Aqua Ring = unforgettable) and Raccoon City (especially the police station) in the second game. Those places really came to life with all of the events and creatures involved. Despite the cheesy dialog, those were great times. I knew Resident Evil 2 was destined for greatness when those zombies came crashing through the window in the gun shop and started feasting on that poor guy. It was like, "Whoa, I'm really in danger here!"

Metroid has often impressed me, and the two backgrounds that stick out the most are Brinstar from Super Metroid and Phendrana from Metroid Prime. The former for providing a lively and appropriately lush alternative (in both sound and visuals) to the dank caves of Crateria and the latter for its pristine quality. Ice Valley is of course a remarkable piece of music that only further cements your arrival at the Phendrana Shoreline as a truly special occasion.

It's not really a background in the singular sense that you're talking about perhaps, but those Bramble stages in Donkey Kong Country 2 have always had a certain quality about them. I find the whole game to be something of a work of art though.

I always liked the feeling of isolation that the original Silent Hill provides. The school and the hospital were very well realized. The hellish transitions from normalcy to the twisted world of Silent Hill were so effective in that game. I remember how crazy it got in the sewers after I reached for that key.

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ICO wins this hands down. The windmill area (where you had to climb up on the windmill to reach higher, run around and pull a lever to open the bridge and let Yorda jump, so you could catch her) was one of my favorite areas in any video game of any time.

Also the feeling of smashing up people in Streets of Rage II was great. The enemies felt real, like you were actully physically damaging them, and the ability to hurt your own partner only made it more realistic. Some of the enemies were freaky as hell (purple sisters, for example) and they were actually a pretty good challenge.

Fantastic Dizzy (for the Megadrive/Genesis) felt quite atmospheric for a 2D game as well. The entire forest would change from night to day and back and it'd just make everything feel more pleasurable to play.

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Anything from Zelda: Wind Waker. Probably the most imersive backgrounds I've seen, each temple and each island set the tone so perfectly.

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The Elder Scrolls games for background in the story sense, and Morrowind and Oblivion in particular for the aesthetics. As far as story goes the Elder Scrolls lore goes into the 1500 pages, I think, so it's damn detailed. Aesthetically, areas like the Ascadian Isles (Morrowind) and most of Cyrodiil in Oblivion are some of the best I've seen in games. Granted, I rarely play and my PC is crap (so I only saw Oblivion's beauty in screenshots, unfortunately...), but apart from the pure eye-candy of the scenes I really enjoyed immersing myself in those environments.

One trick Morrowind had was that most of the game is actually played in an ugly landscape (the Blight, the Red Mountain, certain parts around the coast) so that when you reached an area of beauty you would really appreciate it.

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I forget what part of FFXII this was, but you get out of this cave after beating a boss, the cave collapses behind you. When you get out you're out in the desert and there a few "lizard-men" npc's hanging about. It plops you into East Westersand I think. At this moment of repose I took the time to move my character to the edge of the small summit and take a look around the horizon and for the most part, the desert was drawn out to the detail of those big shade rocks that stand out. I felt pretty immersed at that moment, when I started aligning my characters in certain cinematic fashions and rotating the camera slowly.

I agree with Kolba about Liberty City, the feel for that part is just perfect. I also agree with what Megavolt said about the intro to Resident Evil 2. In retrospect, I really like when the RE games start out with the character mostly being stuck by a bunch of zombies without a weapon. It starts shit off really well. All that fire in the beginning of RE2 helps, too. I believe there was a fire-start in RE3 too.

Legend of Mana had a high immersion factor agreeably because of the music and the art, and story. I also felt quite immersed in Baten Kaitos. Those lush visuals are amazing.

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The "centre city" in Planescape: Torment (name escapes me at the moment, maybe someone can fill in). Stepping out of the morgue and into that city was just wonderful, such a weird and fantastic place. The city really helps to draw you into the game, great NPCs and a nice feeling of danger. And just the absurdity of some things, really great.

Many of the locations in FFIX were nice. The cities were atmospheric, particularly Treno and Lindblum. I really liked the design of that game, it just hit the right mark and didn't take itself to seriously.

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Metroid Prime - most of the game, most of the time when I jump from a high place I get this "elevator feeling" in my stomach , sometimes I'm just scared to jump XD

And also some places in FFIX, like treno as Starwars already said.

And Lineage 2 , also the elevator feeling and, some parts in the game.

Soul Calibur 2 and 3 , I love the backgrounds

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Zenan Bridge from Chrono Trigger leaps to mind as one I was in awe of when I first saw it. Actraiser also had some beautiful ones.
That said, my favorite overall background in a game is probably the background to the Running Battle in Pocket Fighter. Capcom nirvana.

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Medal of Honor Frontline - When its dark in the one of the towns and you have to move around all stealth like. It felt so much like it was real, especially with the surround sound and larger TV. It really felt like WWII.

Resident Evil for Gamecube - When underground with water running with no music but creepy noises.. WOW.... it was the most amazing experience I ever had. I felt truly immersed then..

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Koorong in SaGa Frontier is pretty awesome because it reminds me of a future city with background alleys, too. Also, just about the entire SaGa Frontier II game because hand-drawn backgrounds are quite awesome.

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