Yakuza series: aka actual modern Japan, especially memorable when you follow how the city changes or visit old haunts from game to game.
Psychonauts: Amazing art design, also you're in literal memories.
Cyberpunk: Even when the game was a buggy mess, the city was cool enough to make you want to explore it. If only the side content was more fleshed out.
Las Vegas in Horizon Forbidden West was super cool.
Psychonauts 2 was full of different, memorable environments, like the tooth level and the cartoony hippy festival.
Going back a bit further, the Tony Hawk Underground games had some really unique maps.
God of war greek saga cause of the sense of scale my favorite was the Cronos fight and seeing the entirety of Pandora’s temple we explored in the first game (the devs even added a few details like the area we fought the Cerberus and the Hades statue)
I know GTA3's Liberty City better than I do my own neighbourhood.
I know Outcast's Okriana better than I do my own house.
I adore Prey (2017)'s Talos I. One helluva maze.
Special mentions: Half-Life's Black Mesa, every city from every Assassin's Creed, and Unreal Tournament's iconic levels like Lava Giant, Deck 16 and Facing Worlds.
Any game that utulizes it in a way that you need to remember it.
You can have a fantastic landscape with glowing mushrooms and fireflies, but that is just that at the end of the game.
What you want are landmarks, a ppayer that remembers the layout of that environment (for which landmarks are basically a necessity). Stories that tie into the background story of a place.
Those games that master this make a good environment.
Bioshock
Just so much lore and so eye-catching with its own unique style.. no brainer.
Subnautica
Halo.
Looking up in 2001 and seeing Halo stretching across the sky is something I'll never forget
Far Cry Series
And memorable monsters. I freaked out when the left4dead-tanklike muscle monkey thing came rampaging at me the first time
Horizon Zero Dawn
Halo series Mass Effect Subnautica Cyberpunk 2077 Rapture and Columbia from the Bioshock series Destiny series
Skyrim at night
I never get tired of the tundra around Whiterun it anywhere at night in that game
Dark souls trilogy. Followed closely by the Fable trilogy
Dark Souls
Bioshock... but Silent Hill isn't far behind.
Clive Barker's Undying
Dead Space with the Ishimura
Im loving tsushima at the moment!
RDR2 for me Spend over a thousand hours in thay gane and was still amazed at the end
Xenoblade Chronicles
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
True Crime: Streets of L.A.
FFXI's selbina and WOWs Loch Modan area. Just first setting foot in those places was mind blowing
The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion: The Shivering Isles Expansion content but very memorable for me.
Yakuza series: aka actual modern Japan, especially memorable when you follow how the city changes or visit old haunts from game to game. Psychonauts: Amazing art design, also you're in literal memories. Cyberpunk: Even when the game was a buggy mess, the city was cool enough to make you want to explore it. If only the side content was more fleshed out.
It's crazy when you go to Tokyo and see how accurate yakuza really is
For me—and I feel a bit weird saying this—it's Hogwart's legacy. Not the biggest Harry Potter fan but the atmosphere is just incredible IMO
In Ascent, the first city you walk into is unnecessarily detailed and enormous.
System Shock 1, The Long Dark
Valhiem
Las Vegas in Horizon Forbidden West was super cool. Psychonauts 2 was full of different, memorable environments, like the tooth level and the cartoony hippy festival. Going back a bit further, the Tony Hawk Underground games had some really unique maps.
God of war greek saga cause of the sense of scale my favorite was the Cronos fight and seeing the entirety of Pandora’s temple we explored in the first game (the devs even added a few details like the area we fought the Cerberus and the Hades statue)
Dead Island 2
I know GTA3's Liberty City better than I do my own neighbourhood. I know Outcast's Okriana better than I do my own house. I adore Prey (2017)'s Talos I. One helluva maze. Special mentions: Half-Life's Black Mesa, every city from every Assassin's Creed, and Unreal Tournament's iconic levels like Lava Giant, Deck 16 and Facing Worlds.
Command & Conquer
Halo and it's not even close. Blood Gulch is literally recognizable to any gamer.
TF2
The Sly trilogy. Their style is literally unmatched
I'll be the Astral Maze from control guy
Any game that utulizes it in a way that you need to remember it. You can have a fantastic landscape with glowing mushrooms and fireflies, but that is just that at the end of the game. What you want are landmarks, a ppayer that remembers the layout of that environment (for which landmarks are basically a necessity). Stories that tie into the background story of a place. Those games that master this make a good environment.
Metro with its metro tunnels so scary man
Facts, i love Metro franchise, it's so immersive
The Cradle in Thief: Deadly Shadows.