What's your favorite video game universe?

[Arkitech]

Out of all the games you've played which universe pulled you in the deepest?

For me it's Fallout, The Elder Scrolls and althoughI've yet to play it the Borderlands universe looks incredible.

 

[Arkitech]

Forgot to mention Dwarf Fortress. Oddly enough it's yet another game I have'nt played, but I'm completely fascinated by the stories of other people who play it.

 

[Zenoth]

Probably Mass Effect's universe, especially if I consider only that of the original, rather than including any of the content within that universe from the sequels, with perhaps the exception of Omega which I really liked and believed it to be very fitting (mostly due for it being the lawless pit of the Terminus Systems).

If not, probably Dragon Age's and I wouldn't include Kirkwall (I would include some of the characters such as Varric, but not the city itself, there's nothing about or within Kirkwall as a city that spells or rings "Dragon Age" to me, just feels like "a city" and that's about it). But if I had to choose yeah I'd go with Mass Effect. In ME's case it's not just about the characters but also the locales, planets, rich codex, etc. Although arguably Dragon Age has a more detailed and fleshed out codex than even Mass Effect's (the original I mean), difference being that there's less species/racial variety in Dragon Age than in ME, and what makes Dragon Age special is more the characters themselves and their own stories rather than the "whole thing", in my opinion.

But ultimately both ME and DA are just plain awesome universes, one is fantasy the other is science-fiction, so it's a matter of preferences, and I have a personal preference towards science-fiction most of the time. Also I adore the Warhammer 40,000 universe, but I've known about that one from many years ago thanks to the table-top games I played back then so I rarely include that universe within the "video games" domain, rather I mention it when I can just go "overall" (literature, movies, games, etc, then I pick up WH40K).

 

[Craig234]

MMO's - EQ, WoW.

Someone should list Psychonauts. Infocom. Gabriel Knight II.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Warhammer 40k, Forgotten Realms, Halo.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Roughly in order:

Fallout (and Wasteland which inspired it)
The Old Republic (KOTOR 1-2 much, much more than SWTOR)
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (Word of Darkness) -- sadly we're getting an MMO not a sequel
Elder Scrolls (despite the weak main quests)
D & D (especially Planescape)
Mass Effect
Borderlands (Pandora)
Saints' Row (much more fun for me than GTA's sandboxes)

 

[thejunglegod]

The Warcraft universe for me. Arthas, Thrall, Illidan, Archimonde are all larger than life characters for me and the lore is deep and detailed right from the early titans. I know what I mean when I say I'm in love with the Warcraft universe.


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[lehtv]

Out of all the games you've played which universe pulled you in the deepest?

Bioshock and X-COM: Terror from the Deep

 

[BladeVenom]

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

 

[Albatross]

Deus Ex,that game oozes the intelligence of its creators.

 

[Red Storm]

Mass Effect, specifically the first game. Felt like I was playing an awesome sci-fi movie.

 

[shortylickens]

Forgotten Realms and Star Wars both have the most untapped potential, but thanks to industry bullshit we will probably never see it all. OH, and the post-apocalypse that is Fallout.

So far The Elder Scrolls has actually realized as much of its potential as possible. We saw everything in the first game, but it wasnt very detailed cuz of the limitations computers had back them.
We've seen more and more of the individual nations in detail thanks to the next 4 games, and while the graphics quality might improve each generation, the setting itself gets a little more generic I am sad to say.

 

[Necc]

Lineage 2 - I love lineage 2 universe with dragons castles knights pirates merchants fairys unicorns mythical bosses mixed with a little steampunk.

Mass Effect - Iwish iwas one of shepards crew

 

[Grimbones]

Where to begin?

Warcraft consistently amazing. Though i wish they'd get done with WoW sooner than later, and move in a non pandaren direction.

Starcraft also, though not quite as strong as WC imo.

Bioshock was insane when it dropped. One of my favorite games ever. So damned creepy and amazing. The story was so great.

Mass Effect was very well crafted. The story just bought it to life.

Dragon Age is also very awesome. I guess i'm one of the few people who liked both games in the series, although yes, the first one was much stronger.

Tamriel from Elder Scrolls. I swear the only reason i buy Elder Scrolls games is just to run around in the woods and harvest plants and look for caves...which is ridiculous!

Everquest will always have a special place in my heart. Game made me fall in love with MMO's. Exploration

In that vein, City of Heroes environment was always great. I loved actually saving bystanders from harm, made you feel actually heroic. And for some reason i can still remember the newspapers blowing in the breeze.

I know it's not on PC's, but i implore any of you who have not played RED DEAD REDEMPTION, that game was probably my favorite game ever...It's impossible for me to narrow these things down, but its up there with bioshock, and Mass Effect for this generation of games. The story, the vast open environment....so much to do. So amazing.

I'm also a big fan of the minesweeper universe...okay maybe not that one so much. It's fraught with mines and frustration.

 

[MustangSVT]

sexy beach. straight to the point!

 

[Chaotic42]

Probably Final Fantasy 3. For PC games? Probably Mass Effect.

 

[spaceman]

mass effect,l4d,fallout

 

[_Rick_]

KKND. The original probably more so than the sequel.
Command and Conquer's GDI vs. Nod conflict was also well told. Red Alert was also nice and campy.
The Legend of Kyrandia was a brilliant universe.

I might in each case be tainted by childhood nostalgia though

 

[Agent11]

world of darkness, anarchy online, the elder scrolls, mass effect, dragon age, witcher.

 

[Dijeangenie]

Fallout
Deus Ex
Warcraft

 

[cbrunny]

Mass Effect is the best, no question.

Borderlands - interesting that you've suggested that one, OP. Having played both, I'm a fan of the gameplay of the BL series, but the universe is nothing special. I felt the characters added the character to the game, rather than the setting. Not so with the Mass Effect games. There, the universe created an often emotional experience that was incredible (yes, I do like the 3rd game).

 

[drebo]

Best ever? Secret of Mana.

On PC? Ultima Online, with Dragon Age as a close second. Diablo 1 and 2 had great worlds as well.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I really like the witcher and Mass effect universes.

I agree that star wars universe has the most untapped gaming potential. We haven't had a truly amazing star wars game since Tie Fighter. Xwing Alliance was good, but the story was lacking.

The dark undertones of the Tie Fighter games were simply amazing. Being the bad guy rocked and seeing how it was twisted so the rebels were evil and you had to kill them to protect the empire was just awesome. Kinda gives some insight into how people get caught up in the wrong side of a conflict and may never know that they are the evil one.

 

[snickersnack]

I've found Ubi's Ashan game world that they use for their Might & Magic franchise to be pretty fun. It looks like a generic fantasy world but has a fair number of oddities that give it a unique taste. It doesn't hurt that it absorbed a lot of Arx Fatalis 2 when Arkane made it into Dark Messiah for Ubi.

 

[Kalmah]

I think the best game universe's are probably going to be the ones that are already fleshed out prior to the game. (Forgotten Realms for dnd games, the Star Wars universe etc...)

If we are talking about universes made by the game developers themselves, I was really impressed with Dragon Age Origin. The backstory with the Templars was pretty neat amongst many other things.