What are your favorite game cities? Do you like a 3D world to be beautiful or is there something else that captures your attention?
I moved to London in 2011, but I’ve been at home in digital cities for much longer. Take, for instance, Saints Row. A game created in 2006, its sole purpose was grabbing a slice of Grand Theft Auto’s lucrative sales at the checkout, a pound-shop version of its more iconic inspiration. In its city of Stilwater, a clip of submachine gun ammunition was $5. A burger, on the other hand, cost $150. Little wonder the residents of this city were so quick to turn to crime.
Over the years, Saints Row carved out an identity for itself: riding the heady rainbow of memes. The last game in the series, released in 2015, had long vacated attempts to create a sense of legitimate place and had you flying around an open-world version of Hell firing a gun that shoots cake batter, the series now fully retreated into the safety of its niche in order to avoid the stiff competition of its modern contemporaries.
To render a city is no longer enough. Capturing its soul has become one of gaming’s biggest obsessions.
Make sure to check out the full article with the analysis of 6 outstanding game worlds here.
What are your thoughts on the soul of 3D cities? What are your favorite digital worlds? Shared your ideas in the comments below.