Locations in Video Games that are Strikingly Realistic

Video games are like music. I want different things all the time. Sometimes the soul demands something fast, unlike the real world, such as GTA V online tutorial, and sometimes you need to urgently fall into a virtual world.

So that to forget the real world, which requires not just a pretty picture, and realism, which provides an immersive effect. And now we are going to talk about 15 of these games.

About the games that have such locations, that at one time struck with realism, and even continue to strike now.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Yokohama)

Japanese game developers very rarely please us with beautiful graphics. Therefore, the city of Yokohama, shown in the game, could not surprise us with its technical execution quality.

Not the most modern graphics was complemented by unusual emptiness of the streets, that is not very realistic for the Japanese megalopolis with almost 4 million inhabitants.

But what we can not take away from it, it is an abundance of small details. Real cars drive on the roads, following the real rules.

Traffic lights work and work right, everything is dotted with road signs, there are bicycles, trash bins, proper shadows cast by buildings, homeless people lying in alleys – all this commands respect, and if you’ve never been to Yokohama, but would like to visit, you can try this game.

Mafia 2 (Winter Trip from the Station)

First of all, the developers perfectly, albeit glimpsed, showed the train station, which was rendered exactly as in the movies about those times from Coppola or Scorsese.

An even greater surprise occurred when Joe took his guest around the evening, winter-covered Empire Bay.

The advertisements in the streets, the steam from the sewer manholes, the smoke from the pipes, and the passersby wrapped in warm clothing were all on the verge of genius.

Mafia: Definitive Edition (Lost Heaven)

Mafia again, but this time a remake. With some clumsy game mechanics, in general the picture of the city of Lost Hope is excellent, with the highest level of detail and graphics.

For example, many objects here are not nailed to the floor, and react to the hero. If it’s raining outside, the wipers on the cars work.

If you break a headlight, the glass will break first, and then the bulb. In turn, the broken headlight will not shine as well as a whole headlight. Not all cars on the streets are clean.

It is possible to meet the same models, but with different degree of dustiness. If you speed near a police patrol, Tommy will look in the rearview mirror for a possible chase. If you put the car in neutral, it will roll downhill.

If you kill the streetcar driver, the streetcar won’t go anywhere. Broken windows make distinctive noises when you walk on them. A fire hydrant can be partially broken. Water will come out of the damaged area. Even the dishes in the cabinet will jingle.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Wilderness)

Perhaps, of all modern games, this cowboy adventure is the most high-tech and because of that amazes with its realism.

Especially the surprising feeling is in the first missions, where it seems there is nothing but snow, but the fact that the snow is made perfectly.

No other game than Red Dead Redemption 2 has anything like that. What about the possibility of falling through the ice if you jump a horse in a bad spot? Again, tracking animals by trace, including bloody, is implemented better than in most hunting simulators, and yet here it’s just one of the mechanics.

Otherwise, everything is also at the highest level: when people talk, steam comes out of their mouths, the snow in the place where the horses are tethered is trampled and yellow, and the wind blowing in different directions intelligently takes particles of snow with it and tears the hair of the animals and people.

Then, when our gang arrives at the first more or less populated area, the realism starts to go off the charts again, but the first impressions of being in the wilderness are still incomparable.

The Last of Us Part II(The Ruins of Seattle)

Next we have another game whose realism is surprising. For example, the abandoned arcade in Seattle.

You could see that the developers weren’t fantasizing, but driving around similar places, stocking up on photos and video footage, or maybe even doing 3D scanning.

Tables, chairs, slot machines, all sorts of foosball tables and an air hockey table all give the impression of complete reality.

The cash register at the bar is covered with dust, and its monitor is covered with someone’s fingerprints, the glasses are hanging upside down as they should be, the seats of some arcade rides are worn out, and the handles are greasy and frayed.

In short, very believable. If you go out and take a boat ride, for example, you’ll be surprised at how well the water surface reacts to this very boat.

And if it rains at that moment, you can see thousands of little water fountains forming in places where the drops hit the water.

The Division (New York City)

Did the graphics of Division impress us?

Yes, it did and very much so. Winter New York, with the sun, snow and empty streets was reminiscent of epidemic games, when there is no one on the streets, with trash left over from the night walkers lying around everywhere.

Those who had been to New York reported that the developers had rendered many elements in the highest accuracy.

Many things, from the color of the brickwork of some building, to the accurate rendering of the play of light at different times of day, were very well done by the authors.

It was the first game in the world with such a quality of snow and frozen puddles, with all due respect to Skyrim.

Death Stranding (Wasteland)

Somehow, video games have accustomed us to the fact that there are no dull places in the world. Even in the most remote desert, or, for example, somewhere on a snowy plain in the Arctic, every now and then something interesting will happen.

In this plan ahead of the planet with their Far Cry, where every square meter is an animal, or just something interesting. That is why Hideo Kojima should not be scolded for Death Stranding, which rightly many people find boring.

This is just a tribute to realism. To make a game so believable in its boredom is an extremely brave act, which hardly anyone else would dare to do. So yes, the local wasteland is very boring, but at the same time it is very realistic and beautiful.

And the way the physics of the character’s movement is implemented, the meticulous detail with which he reacts to the unevenness of the terrain and to the peculiarities of the cargo – deserves separate praise.

And for the scene where Sam had to carry the corpse of the president, which constantly tends to fall to the side – you have to give a medal. So yes, Death Stranding is a game that impressed with its realism, despite its mysticism and futurism.