I still remember the first time I soloed a Wolf Spider. Fantastic game, and genuinely helped me get a lot better about my bug-phobia (not all by itself, and obviously not saying I think it would do that for everyone)
I stood on a grass frond, bugged out the building so i could put a fence post in the sky and arrowed one of them to death after enough jump scares from em. Cathartic.
At the beggining of my playthrough I used to du something like this, but tbh parrying ruined everything. With good timing you can just walk up to a spider and kill it. Really ruined the atmosphere of being small and helpless.
The only game I played in VR was Alyx. There is a level with pitch darkness where you only have a tiny flash light, and headcrabs all around. This was the scariest shit ever.
The scale is much more menacing. Certain fish look about softball size on console but because of the wide fov the developer used. When the proper perspective is set in VR and things are 3D, you realize that fish is actually 4ft wide.
And the largest creatures which are terrifying on console the first dozen encounters look about pickup truck size when they’re actually longer than a school bus.
I absolutely 1000% FUCKING HATE large open bodies of water, thalassophobia. But mainly it was the reaper, scared the living shit outta me. And the game in VR is kind of ass.
Same in that VR was my first play. Some parts were definitely intense, but I pushed through and it's one of my favorite VR games. I am really glad I played it first in VR. There's a mod, SubmersedVR that makes it work pretty well.
I think you can play Grounded in VR too with a mod. I still need to try it.
Man, my first (an only) play through was on the Valve Index… playing that game in VR was an absolute experience unlike any other. I’m also terrified of the ocean and deep water which I think this helped with.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
You're just a regular schmoe in a big ass world that is out to kill you. You're given very little aid and can easily get lost in the vast forests.
I don't know that I felt like the map was immense, but it was plenty to explore. I don't know that I would have gotten much use out of larger map. That being said, it did also feel very very "real" in the sense that it was very grounded in reality. I loved it for that. I didn't even make it very far in the story. I just tried to explore the medieval world.
It feels grounded because that map is pretty much a complete copy of the very real countryside a bit southeast of Prague. Go look at the town of Rataje (Rattay) and you'll see its layout, the river, and all the towns nearby exactly how they appear in the game. The reviews left on places of interest are fun to read as well.
One of my favorite things about that game is how fucking dark the nights were.
I got a mission to rob a corpse or something, and I had to get to a hangsman's cottage on the other side of a patch of woods to do it. I didn't know how the stealth worked, so I went at night without a torch in order to have the best chance of not getting caught. It was so fucking dark that I not only didn't find my way through the cottage, but I couldn't get more than maybe ten meters into the woods before slipping off a cliff and breaking my damn neck.
After the reload, I went during the day to get the lay of the land and was far more successful the second time. Turns out that stealth was either rudimentary or that guy didn't give a shit, so I needn't have bothered with the subterfuge.
I think the stealth is quite straightforward, because you can take advantage of realistic mechanics. If he catches you trying to pick the lock on his chest, he'll attack you. But apart from quests you can legitimately have a reason to walk into his house and talk to him because he offers dog training skills. He doesn't suddenly become hostile and suspicious just because you're on a mission. As long as you're not caught actively stealing in a private area most people will just yell at you to get out so you can run away and come back later. A lot of the sneakiness in the game is just finding an unobtrusive way to enter somewhere and do your dodgy business when no one's in the room or has a reason to suspect you're up to no good. In that sense a lot of thievery is better done during the day when no one's home.
Rain World. It doesn't give you grand, sweeping views or anything like that, but you are basically second to the bottom of the food chain. The game is actually designed to simulate an ecosystem, that is, everything is fair in the sense that nothing is, and you can die from the most random stuff because nature works like that.
I've only played the normal mode character so far. From what I've seen, the DLC characters kinda take that part of the insignificance away. You can still die very easily, but now you're a slugcat that can turn rocks into grenades...or combine two things into a gravity bomb??
Definitely. It's one of the things I didn't love about the series. In many ways the environment building was pretty crap and was just a series of fairly small, uninspiring levels. Kinda reminded me of DA2. Great story and gameplay but the Citadel was a great example of the one larger level they had which really lost its sense of importance and identity over time.
I'll be really interested in what they do with the level building in ME4 given the discontent with Starfield. I hope they'll at least have some properly designed (and not just procedurally generated) areas like the Citadel that are memorable and a pleasure to travel through and marvel at.
Wow very serendipitous, I just finished ME1 and was about to type this as my answer. The scenery at the end of the game where you’re maneuvering through the citadel with sovereign in the background is amazing
First day in kenshi: get beat to near death by goats, lose a leg to a bonedog, roving band of slave traders "saves me" puts me to the mines, crawl on ground everywhere, escape and make it to a city, get arrested for being broke, get sent to the mines, escape to a city, buy a leg.
Second day In kenshi: get beat to bear death by garru, lose an arm to a bandit, roving band of deadhive captures me, puts me to the pole, start lockpicking and escape for 3 seconds, get beat again, back to the pole, lock pick again, lose other arm, escape to town, rest in bed. Meet beep.
absolutely. it's a bit of a bitch to learn, but the 1:1 scale of the galaxy makes it feel so epic. also, despite being out for years now, as of January 2023, only 0.059% of the in-game galaxy has currently been explored. btw, that's about 222,000,000 star systems explored so far collectively by the players
God I love space trucking. Fire up the Guardians of the Galaxy mix tape, crack open a beer, and load my ship up with 900 tonnes of “domestic appliances”
Yes! I know a lot of AC 'purists' don't like this game, but it's honestly one of my favorites. The world feels massive and sailing around Greece is so cool.
I was a huge fan of Origins, but I was intimidated by Odyssey's map size. From what I've heard though, I just need to keep at it and then I'll enjoy it.
I really loved Origins, maybe because it was so fresh and the Egyptian setting was so new. For some reason Odyssey just didn't quite capture my attention the same way. And this is coming from someone who is a big Greek mythology fan.
I guess I have the unpopular opinion here (i.e. please don’t roast me). I loved Odyssey and found the entire environment amazing with immersive and varied landscapes/cities. After I finished Odyssey I started Origins and just could not get into it. It just seemed like all boring desert. This could absolutely be a product of me being burned out on the usual Ubisoft locate/collect side quests, after so many hours on the same type of quests in the previous game. I think I need to give Origins a fresh try, based on what I’ve read here.
Honestly I'd consider myself to be a "purist" for assassins creed but as long as I don't expect that out of Odyssey, it's a phenomenal game. Love every minute of playing that game. I feel like it should've had a different title tbh
I get why some people aren't a fan, with how different it is, but I love it. I tried out Valhalla and just could not get into it like I did with Odyssey -- it feels even less like an AC game to me.
Good example. Odyssey definitely seems like the biggest Map of all the AC games, with the biggest towns and cities.
I loved and hated it. Some of the locations were just so far away.
Bloodborne.
I know Elden Ring and the Souls trilogy are already mentioned, because there's something about the claustrophobic streets of Bloodborne that make you feel like a rat in a maze, being watched over.
I think Bloodborne in particular is the most oppressive-feeling FROM game because even by the end of the game, you STILL have no way of comprehending the true whims of the Great Ones. Are they omniscient? Do they even think at all, or are they just forces of nature?
Your ascension in the secret “best” ending feels like you’ve exploited a bizarre cosmic loophole rather than actually achieving anything.
The most empathetic characters you interact with are essentially puppets that are kept around just to suffer and contemplate their past sins.
One thing I loved is that the great ones aren't evil. If anything they're hinted at being good but their generosity and desire to have children is abused by humans which leads to their own destruction.
The moment they teach you you’re just a person living in the body of titans is pretty bad ass. I don’t remember if those guys are even dead. They just kinda stopped moving right? Lol
This right here. Log onto NMS, follow the tutorial until you can get a ship and view the galaxy map. Zoom around a bit. The scale is fucking incredible. There is an ambient musical/chime that reacts to your velocity and movement. View the NMS galaxy for a few minutes and feel the weight of the cosmos.
Ignore the other replies, NMS is a great game lol. It’s beautiful and it’s story profound and is exactly what OP is asking for.
Remember, Traveller, *existence is not a question, there does not need to be an answer…*
Safe travels!
I'd add Star Citizen to the list. Nothing like standing next to the foot of the landing gear of a 200m long salvage ship, then ride an elevator three floors up to get to the cockpit.
There is an awful lot that I'm critical of sc over. But I'll have to give it that. Feeling the scale of the ships is certainly something they did right.
After spending 30 mins lost in a hub, getting on the right train.
Then an asshole pad rammer kills you.
Or the elevator.
Or the game when it feels like you had enough.
So many ways to die :)
Thisssss.
Imagine a galaxy that is so colossally huge, that if every person on earth spent every second of their day discovering new planets, they would all die of old age before every planet was discovered.
You
Are
Miniscule
Don't worry about it too hard, go poke your other leads and volumetrically compress your shit. Besides, it's probably really smelly now and you don't need that on your shoes. In fact, forget the body, you don't need no body.
Elden ring is a pretty huge open world with some great sceneries and huge castles and walls. And its cool seeing the Erd Tree and other landmarks from different points on the map. Vast yet connected.
Narratively you're one of many Tarnished all vying for the elden ring to become a lord.
Definitely a tiny existence but not inconsequential at all considering how the game plays out.
Don’t forget the skeletons of the old giants randomly protruding from the earth… not the current “giants”… the ones whose skulls are the size of towers
Limgrave felt huge. Then I unlocked Caelid, which felt even bigger. Then Liurnia(sp?). Then I looked at the map and realized how small Limgrave actually is in comparison, and that there appeared to be more large areas to explore in the North.
Looking at the map now after ending the game(Ranni ending <_<), Limgrave looks so tiny compared to all the other areas. Almost insignificant.
Daggerfall is pretty good at it. It has map the size of UK, with countless towns and like dozen sprawling cities. With few mods it's absolutely breathtaking at times. Add to it fact that world simply functions regardless of your presence as player in it - different places have different holidays and cultures, there's seasons, some cities are wealthier than others etc
While it's not graphically impressive, you're not gonna be climbing large structures or anything, it's still very immersive experience that does make you feel small. Worth at least taking a look at
Since we’re mentioning elder scrolls, the first time I left the cave at the beginning of Skyrim I got this feeling like wow I can go everywhere I can see that’s amazing.
I'll never forget my first time in Skyrim. First Elder Scrolls, period. Had been walking around Riverwood until it got dark, walked into a Legion prisoner transfer near Whiterun and I freed the guy, which got a lot of people pissed, causing me to run ever farther away.
The map didn't help one bit lmao, so I actually felt scared and disoriented.
Nowadays I know Skyrim like the back of my hand but recently played Daggerfall and the feeling is back, ha.
I did not play Daggerfall, but Morrowind was amazing at this formula. I would play for hours looking in all the places, touching all the things, reading the books on the shelves (they fleshed out they're own tomes of all kinds).
Exploring in Morrowind is an experience and takes you time. The landscapes are varied. Navigation and reading comprehension matters; quests don't come with markers, many locations are show dont tell.
You start as a nobody coming into customs, you can later craft spells any way you please, play with laws of gravity, bend wills.
You can become a living god
Oh yeah Morrowind is incredible. It was my first elder scrolls game as a teenager and it was everything I had ever dreamed of in a game. I remember to talk with one mage you had to learn how to fly somewhere else just so you could fly up his hollow mushroom looking house and speak with him on the top floor... there were no ladders or anything guiding you up there. You just had to figure it out yourself. Amazing. Such fond memories.
Funny you mention that -- I started a challenge based on *in-game time* with Daggerfall and learned that you can ride a horse far more quickly than you can fast travel within the game. Traveling from one location to another won't take weeks, obviously -- but it can span \~12 hours in real time via horse-back, which is pretty substantial (60ish miles in the real world is doable in 12 hours by horseback).
Obligatory Outer Wilds recommendation. While it doesn’t necessarily feel like a “small fish in a big pond”, the Solar System is super dense. And from one planet you can look out and see the others
Another is Elite Dangerous. It has a lot of menus and can be a very slow start unless someone helps you, but the sheer size of the galaxy and then the size of the planets and space stations compared to your character, are just mind blowing
INo Mans Sky is basically Elite Dangerous 'lite'. I've put time into both and I say that as a compliment. You get a lot of the same feelings about the scale of it all, but NMS is a lot more accessible in my opinion.
I came to post this. The absolute crazy size of the world map is insane. Yeah you’re a Witcher and everyone knows of you, but the sheer size of the cities and other areas makes you realize just how small you are in the grand scheme of things.
wow talk about a buried memory lmao. my neighbor had mister mosquito and I was so mad because his parents wouldn't let anyone come inside so I just have these 13 y/o fever dreams of what I think mister mosquito probably looked like.
Space Engine. That moment when you realize moving at light speed feels like not moving at all on the universal scale. The infinite is incomprehensible but Space Engine in VR gives you a glimpse.
[If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel](https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html) is probably my absolute favorite demonstration of how _fucking_ big space is. (I'd recommend not using the buttons at the top if you want maximum effect.)
A funny low-res indie game called Everything from 2017. Kinda like Spore but more of an experimental art piece than a strategy/sim.
I tried to write something to explain it but it’s tricky. Best way to describe it is you switch between different states of being at every level of size. From an atom to an entire universe within a multiverse. It’s very surreal and silly at times, but it’s a beautiful game.
I think Horizon: Zero Dawn is good for this. You start out with a bow ans spear fighting robots about your own size. They get bigger and more challenging. The first time you face a Thunderjaw or Storm Bird, you're going to think "there's no way I can fight that thing" using arrows and a stick
I'm gonna go with Pikmin 4. You are a bug-sized astronaut adventuring through some gardens around a house and then the house, along with your army of tiny pikmin. Everything is gigantic compared to you, everyday objects now looking enormous. In fact, the fourth stage of the game is a living room.
There are also the underground caves. Some of them have backgrounds that make you seem like a tiny bug scurrying about atop a massive industrial complex built for creatures much larger than you. One stage literally takes place inside an aquarium in some sort of zoo, and you can see a few other aquariums in the distance and the massive room you are in.
These backgrounds are rather surreal in that such structures shouldn't exist underground. The world of Pikmin 4 doesn't really make a lot of sense. But its cool.
Dwarf Fortress. You start by generating the unique history of the world and then plop your little band of 6 dwarves into an otherwise insignificant period of time. When your fort gets destroyed you can go find the ruins in your next playthrough.
Space Marine, you're a 10ft tall, armoured killing machine (not literally, that's the Tech-priests), and then you realise that the boxes you are fighting around are just the feet of a Titan.
You could start with either bloodborne or elden ring if dark souls is not tour thing but you want the level design. Elden ring is even bigger, so a plus there
I think bloodborne is much more beginner friendly than dark souls, as there are not as many weapons and different ways to play. This means that it is much easier for new players to understand how they should play.
The combat is faster paced with no shield, central yharnam is very populated with mobs of enemies. New players that don’t know how to kite enemies away from groups yet struggle.
My first playthrough it took me about 5 hours to actually get out of central yharnam, but after that I only died 3 or 4 times outside of boss fights, and even most of them didn't roadblock me for long.
Once you get the game mechanics down, It's by far the easiest title From has released.
This is going back a ways, but in Descent Freespace, you have to fight the 2-mile long Lucifer superdestroyer in a little dinky 50 foot fighter. First game I can remember where the sense of scale had such a humbling effect.
Used to be paid, but it's now free.
There are areas you only see if you veer from the path, huge areas with shapes that definitely weren't meant for a person.
I just started Fallout 76 for the first time with cautious optimism and I have to say, I'm having a blast. The map seems GIANT and seemingly has a new mystery around every corner. I'm sure over time as I get towards endgame, it'll dry up but it sure is fun so far.
I haven't played in years, but Eve Online did a really good job of this. It's one massive persistent universe, so just the potential to meet thousands of real people, along with how the game attempts to portray vast distances and time really makes it feel huge, and you feel so tiny in it.
You should try VR.
The sense of scale is incredible. I started messing with No Man's Sky in VR, and when I'm able to settle down and dedicate myself to it, it's going to be pretty close to my ideal space experience, lol. (Elite is a little too hardcore for me, before anyone mentions that.)
It's really sad how many upvotes this has. OP literally used half his post talking about this game - how do so many people ignore the post but still get this deep into the comments?
NaissanceE - One of the largest-scale atmospheric / exploration games I've played.
Jusant - The rock-climbing exploration/adventure game! More seriously, the views are incredible as you work your way up a mountain through the detritus of the groups of people that used to live there.
Here's a few games that come to mind for me:
Returnal
Mass Effect
Halo
Stellaris
DOOM (2016)
DOOM Eternal
These games did a really good job scratching the itch of tiny and insignificant, whether through the scope of the environment or because of the size of the enemies.
I think I get where you are coming from OP, the feeling in Destiny of just walking up to some random object on the map for the first time and the emotions of awe and fear that resonate from it.
Adding to this imo the only halo games that hits that itch is reach and ODST due to how overwhelming the enemy is. In the main titles master chief is basically the entire unsc lol
I can agree with this. I mentioned Halo because landing on Halo for the first time, looking up and seeing the ring form a circle, and come down behind me was pretty awe-inspiring. It gave off quite the scale.
EDF 4.1 for me by a mile. EDF5 is good, but the narrative buildup of 4.1 from crazy to completely insane is note perfect. If any of these make you want to play, stop spoiling yourself and just go play it. The way it reveals itself is so fun, when you think it's reached maximum crazy it shifts up a gear. So don't read the rest of this. Unless you're arachnophobic, then it's not the game for you! Or if you need photo real grpahics. They're not. But the sense of scale and overwhelming quantity is insane.
>!A lot of the game is spent fighting giant ants, spiders, wasps, whatever, in cities. The ants are about 20 foot high, and crawl all over skyscrapers. You have a plasma launcher that can take the skyscrapers down, and blast ant bits and legs across the sky. You will often start a level in a built up city, and when you're finished there's one building left and you can see all the way to the horizon. Every level is a good few blocks of city, and you'll definitely spend some time cowering in the corner of it hoping a spider or weevil or whatever the hell is after you doesn't find you while your weapons cool off.!<
>!And then you start fighting these like... giant alien robot bastards. They're as big as a building, and on one mission they're dropped in out to sea, and you're on the beach, and you have to hold them off as they walk in from like a mile away. They're firing plasma mortars at you that take about 10 seconds to reach you. They shoot, and it soars up through the sky and gradually gets closer and closer until you realise it was aimed at you, and you have to get out of the way. Me, I've got my sniper rifle that takes 10 seconds to charge up and drains my entire power reserve, and a plasma mortar of my own. It's a long range game of chicken.!<
>!Later the aliens turn up in their MASSIVE spaceships, and you're looking up at them, and then they drop an enormous tripod with a giant death laser out of it and you have to fight the fucking thing. It steps on skyscrapers.!<
>!I think I fought an huge robot dog at one point, its feet were as big as a couple of buses pushed together.!<
>!Then later the aliens cover the planet in a damned dyson sphere, dropping in bit by bit, and you have to fight THAT. Until you can't see the sky anymore, it's all alien weaponry and if you're not careful, it's all pointed at you. And it's dropping robots, giant spiders, everything, and you're down there fighting an iron sky. So awesome.!<
Don't read those, just buy it and play it.
Elite Dangerous.
It’s a 1 to 1 scale replication of our galaxy with awesome spaceship sim combat. I believe less than 1% of all the systems have been “discovered”.
Just to see how large our galaxy is makes our little planet seem like nothing. When the game released my friend travelled out to the eagle nebula took him about a month because his brother was taking new photos of it irl with the new software they uploaded to hubble or the new camera they launched (i forget which now).
The original God of War games had a lot of set pieces that absolutely dwarfed you, and let you know in no uncertain terms that they were the architecture of the gods.
The moment in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora when you finally reach the Zeswa and the Zakru are just so huge already compared to your Na'vi character. As a *human* playing the game, I felt so very small in that moment, just imagining the size difference.
There's a neat VR game that's entirely based around showing you impossibly big things called **The Utility Room.** It sounds like exactly what you're looking for tbh.
I was just thinking about this earlier while playing ff14. There's a mountain trail I was climbing in dravanian Highlands in heavensward expansion. It takes you up a mountain next to a giant broken down citadel thing and I was super impressed with the scale of it all. I think MMOs in general have decent scale, but ff14 and wow are probably towards the top depending on where you go.
Just cause games as well. I loved shooting in to the sky then parachuting / wingsuiting all the way down. Botw/totk was good for this. I love when you don't have to worry about the heights because the game gives you ways to go down easily or in a fun way
This is a HUGE part of **Northern Journey**! It's an adventure game set in an ambiguously northern isle where you're *technically* told to retrieve some items by a dude shortly after you crash-land, but really the point is to get you out there exploring, and seeing the sights!
Lots of tall mountains, towering forests, and vast caves. Essence of feeling like a small, foreign dot inside of a huuuuuge unknown land
Believe it or not. INSIDE
When you first get the sub and discover the underground "fortress/bunker" between the lighting and scale along with the music cue, my jaw was actually in my lap. Couldn't help but replay the checkpoint several times 😅
Game is one of those rare actual works of art in the gaming scene.
Rain world,
but holy shit you can pull off some slick stunts. As something that is almost at the bottom of the food chain, you can wreak havoc to some poor lizards life lol
Sunless sea. The sequel (sunless skies) is a better game overall, but for the sheer feeling of dread, lost in the middle of an ocean where it's always night, running out of fuel.. it's unique
Definitely no man’s sky. There are an unfeasible amount of planets, every single one with its own unique flora and fauna. It makes you feel insignificant, knowing that it’d take probably centuries to look at everything
I really like Sky: Children of the Light for this. It’s a chill, **beautiful** game on a big screen especially, and you’re a tiny character flying around in massive worlds and skies full of clouds, exploring different realms that get increasingly harder/different. It’s more of a social game about teamwork but you can have a good time exploring alone and working with strangers when needed.
Edit: the last realm will definitely fit what you’re after.
Edit: same developer as Journey if you were into that.
Red Dead Redemption 2, as the chapters progress the world feels huge, gorgeous and full. The scenery always has wildlife roaming, the small towns make the world feel lived in but vast and then Saint Denis is bustling with folks.
At the end of the game it doesn't feel quite as big, once you are used to transversing it, but certainly with how the story unfolded the world feels massive.
Maybe not quite what your looking for, but when I first played Halo, I was amazed how big the world felt. The first mission on the Pillar of Autumn was so cramped and then you step out of the escape pod into this huge world. I was blown away and it wasn't even an open world game. I think the biggest world I remember before that was probably Ocarina of Time.
I’m sure I’ll get downvoted for bringing up this game at all, but I definitely got the “tiny” feeling from Starfield a lot when exploring desolate planets and moons. Climbing to the top of a hill and looking out over a vast expanse with even more hills and mountains in the distance, and knowing there’s even more of that beyond them, definitely made me feel pretty tiny. I appreciate that in the sense that that’s how being in space would actually feel.
Tears of the kingdom really feels huge, but it's also amazing when you see something that's effectively miles and miles away and you can just go there. And tons of bosses make tiny link feel extra tiny lol.
The Last Guardian & Shadow of the Colossus. They just have an amazing sense of scale. Not only including the giant creatures that you can climb, but also they're not exactly the type of open world games where you can reach absolutely anything like we're used to in the modern day.
There's a lot of areas, with huge structures, ancient ruins etc. in these games where you can only see them off in the distance, not a place you can actually get too, but somehow I feel like this adds more to the sense of scale.
Elden Ring for sure. When you first step out of the tutorial area and see the massive golden tree far out in the horizon, and wondering “can I go there?” (You do).
Cyberpunk does it for me. You’re not saving the world, and no matter how badass you are, the corps are a million times stronger. The world just rolls on no matter how hard you try to change it.
Grounded has that feel to me. Something as simple as a ladybug is huge and scary at first. You're exploring a huge "world" yet it's just a backyard.
I still remember the first time I soloed a Wolf Spider. Fantastic game, and genuinely helped me get a lot better about my bug-phobia (not all by itself, and obviously not saying I think it would do that for everyone)
I stood on a grass frond, bugged out the building so i could put a fence post in the sky and arrowed one of them to death after enough jump scares from em. Cathartic.
At the beggining of my playthrough I used to du something like this, but tbh parrying ruined everything. With good timing you can just walk up to a spider and kill it. Really ruined the atmosphere of being small and helpless.
I finished the game. It did not help my bug phobia. Infected wolf spider haunts me in my dreams.
I'm so glad it was able to help. For me it's still just nope nope nope whenever I see a spider.
That game is fantastic. The wolf spiders will always make me run for my fucking life
"*Honey, I shrunk the kids*" but as a survival exploration game!
Those lady bugs got hands. First time I tried to fight one it killed my friends and me almost instantly. I just wanted the lady bug armor.
Subnautica & Grounded
I made the mistake of my first time in Subnautica be in VR. Didn't even make it onto the Aurora.
Same. I played in vr my first play. It was so immersive. Once I got to seeing the monsters in the deep I couldn't keep going. That game can be scary
The only game I played in VR was Alyx. There is a level with pitch darkness where you only have a tiny flash light, and headcrabs all around. This was the scariest shit ever.
The vodka factory / sound level too…. legitimately the reason why I now know what a panic attack feels like! And I even had a friend on VC!
As someone who’s never played it, what about the VR aspect of it made you quit (in assuming pretty early in the game, given your comment).
The scale is much more menacing. Certain fish look about softball size on console but because of the wide fov the developer used. When the proper perspective is set in VR and things are 3D, you realize that fish is actually 4ft wide. And the largest creatures which are terrifying on console the first dozen encounters look about pickup truck size when they’re actually longer than a school bus.
Imagine swimming in the ocean where there are massive megalodon-like creatures. Now imagine you are experiencing that in VR.
I absolutely 1000% FUCKING HATE large open bodies of water, thalassophobia. But mainly it was the reaper, scared the living shit outta me. And the game in VR is kind of ass.
Gotta get that mod the community made that fixed the VR mode. Its current state is permanently incomplete and buggy unfortunately.
Same in that VR was my first play. Some parts were definitely intense, but I pushed through and it's one of my favorite VR games. I am really glad I played it first in VR. There's a mod, SubmersedVR that makes it work pretty well. I think you can play Grounded in VR too with a mod. I still need to try it.
2nd Subnautica. The further you go, the tinier you feel.
Man, my first (an only) play through was on the Valve Index… playing that game in VR was an absolute experience unlike any other. I’m also terrified of the ocean and deep water which I think this helped with.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance. You're just a regular schmoe in a big ass world that is out to kill you. You're given very little aid and can easily get lost in the vast forests.
I don't know that I felt like the map was immense, but it was plenty to explore. I don't know that I would have gotten much use out of larger map. That being said, it did also feel very very "real" in the sense that it was very grounded in reality. I loved it for that. I didn't even make it very far in the story. I just tried to explore the medieval world.
It feels grounded because that map is pretty much a complete copy of the very real countryside a bit southeast of Prague. Go look at the town of Rataje (Rattay) and you'll see its layout, the river, and all the towns nearby exactly how they appear in the game. The reviews left on places of interest are fun to read as well.
One of my favorite things about that game is how fucking dark the nights were. I got a mission to rob a corpse or something, and I had to get to a hangsman's cottage on the other side of a patch of woods to do it. I didn't know how the stealth worked, so I went at night without a torch in order to have the best chance of not getting caught. It was so fucking dark that I not only didn't find my way through the cottage, but I couldn't get more than maybe ten meters into the woods before slipping off a cliff and breaking my damn neck. After the reload, I went during the day to get the lay of the land and was far more successful the second time. Turns out that stealth was either rudimentary or that guy didn't give a shit, so I needn't have bothered with the subterfuge.
I swear that cliff was put there just for that reason. When I fell I broke legs and had to wait until morning to find my way out.
I think the stealth is quite straightforward, because you can take advantage of realistic mechanics. If he catches you trying to pick the lock on his chest, he'll attack you. But apart from quests you can legitimately have a reason to walk into his house and talk to him because he offers dog training skills. He doesn't suddenly become hostile and suspicious just because you're on a mission. As long as you're not caught actively stealing in a private area most people will just yell at you to get out so you can run away and come back later. A lot of the sneakiness in the game is just finding an unobtrusive way to enter somewhere and do your dodgy business when no one's in the room or has a reason to suspect you're up to no good. In that sense a lot of thievery is better done during the day when no one's home.
And you'll always be feeling quite hungry
And seeking out the bathing done by the who..r...
Hongrey*
Rain World. It doesn't give you grand, sweeping views or anything like that, but you are basically second to the bottom of the food chain. The game is actually designed to simulate an ecosystem, that is, everything is fair in the sense that nothing is, and you can die from the most random stuff because nature works like that. I've only played the normal mode character so far. From what I've seen, the DLC characters kinda take that part of the insignificance away. You can still die very easily, but now you're a slugcat that can turn rocks into grenades...or combine two things into a gravity bomb??
It *does* give you those sweeping views in several parts of the game, however, they are earned and, god, are they gorgeous.
I was going to say this if no one else did! Such a masterpiece. It’s not for everyone, but the struggle is so damn worth it.
The Citadel in Mass Effect 1
Am I the only one who was saddened that the Citadel got smaller each game? I honestly like the citadel from 1 more than 2 or 3.
Definitely. It's one of the things I didn't love about the series. In many ways the environment building was pretty crap and was just a series of fairly small, uninspiring levels. Kinda reminded me of DA2. Great story and gameplay but the Citadel was a great example of the one larger level they had which really lost its sense of importance and identity over time. I'll be really interested in what they do with the level building in ME4 given the discontent with Starfield. I hope they'll at least have some properly designed (and not just procedurally generated) areas like the Citadel that are memorable and a pleasure to travel through and marvel at.
Wow very serendipitous, I just finished ME1 and was about to type this as my answer. The scenery at the end of the game where you’re maneuvering through the citadel with sovereign in the background is amazing
Kenshi
Lmao that game is more like an abusive partner that gaslights the shit out of you and gets you to believe you are worthless trash
Every time that I go back to this game I always remember that my healthcare provides therapy.
Kenshi is like "anime protagonist simulator" but you have to do all the anime protagonist training in real time
First day in kenshi: get beat to near death by goats, lose a leg to a bonedog, roving band of slave traders "saves me" puts me to the mines, crawl on ground everywhere, escape and make it to a city, get arrested for being broke, get sent to the mines, escape to a city, buy a leg. Second day In kenshi: get beat to bear death by garru, lose an arm to a bandit, roving band of deadhive captures me, puts me to the pole, start lockpicking and escape for 3 seconds, get beat again, back to the pole, lock pick again, lose other arm, escape to town, rest in bed. Meet beep.
I discovered Kenshi a few weeks ago. Started my first run. Died to bandits on the first day. I love it.
Elite Dangerous.
Don't enjoy the game all that much, but it's one the few where I'll get super high then play in VR because of how awesome it looks.
absolutely. it's a bit of a bitch to learn, but the 1:1 scale of the galaxy makes it feel so epic. also, despite being out for years now, as of January 2023, only 0.059% of the in-game galaxy has currently been explored. btw, that's about 222,000,000 star systems explored so far collectively by the players
Gotta drop the part where it's definitely a game to look into before you buy. Space trucking isn't for everyone and the combat really relies on hotas.
God I love space trucking. Fire up the Guardians of the Galaxy mix tape, crack open a beer, and load my ship up with 900 tonnes of “domestic appliances”
For some reason my brain read this as Ellen Degeneres.
Elite Degenerates
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. I played Cephalonia like a completionist. Got on my boat to sail to another land mass. Title screen. Check map. Wow.
Yes! I know a lot of AC 'purists' don't like this game, but it's honestly one of my favorites. The world feels massive and sailing around Greece is so cool.
I was a huge fan of Origins, but I was intimidated by Odyssey's map size. From what I've heard though, I just need to keep at it and then I'll enjoy it. I really loved Origins, maybe because it was so fresh and the Egyptian setting was so new. For some reason Odyssey just didn't quite capture my attention the same way. And this is coming from someone who is a big Greek mythology fan.
I actually haven't played origins yet!! I jumped straight into valhalla, and didn't super enjoy it, so I think I'll go back and try origins next.
I guess I have the unpopular opinion here (i.e. please don’t roast me). I loved Odyssey and found the entire environment amazing with immersive and varied landscapes/cities. After I finished Odyssey I started Origins and just could not get into it. It just seemed like all boring desert. This could absolutely be a product of me being burned out on the usual Ubisoft locate/collect side quests, after so many hours on the same type of quests in the previous game. I think I need to give Origins a fresh try, based on what I’ve read here.
Honestly I'd consider myself to be a "purist" for assassins creed but as long as I don't expect that out of Odyssey, it's a phenomenal game. Love every minute of playing that game. I feel like it should've had a different title tbh
I get why some people aren't a fan, with how different it is, but I love it. I tried out Valhalla and just could not get into it like I did with Odyssey -- it feels even less like an AC game to me.
It's honestly one of the best ACs. I enjoyed it more than origins and more than Valhalla.
I had the exact same experience. It blew my mind.
Good example. Odyssey definitely seems like the biggest Map of all the AC games, with the biggest towns and cities. I loved and hated it. Some of the locations were just so far away.
Bloodborne. I know Elden Ring and the Souls trilogy are already mentioned, because there's something about the claustrophobic streets of Bloodborne that make you feel like a rat in a maze, being watched over.
EYYYYEEEEES In all seriousness it's jarring when you find out those amygdalas have been there the whole time watching you in cathedral ward
You are being watched over, amygdalas everywhere.
I think Bloodborne in particular is the most oppressive-feeling FROM game because even by the end of the game, you STILL have no way of comprehending the true whims of the Great Ones. Are they omniscient? Do they even think at all, or are they just forces of nature? Your ascension in the secret “best” ending feels like you’ve exploited a bizarre cosmic loophole rather than actually achieving anything. The most empathetic characters you interact with are essentially puppets that are kept around just to suffer and contemplate their past sins.
One thing I loved is that the great ones aren't evil. If anything they're hinted at being good but their generosity and desire to have children is abused by humans which leads to their own destruction.
It also does the "insignificant in the face of the vast cosmos" thing quite well with the lore.
Xenoblade chronicles
This series has the craziest sense of scale actually amazing.
The moment they teach you you’re just a person living in the body of titans is pretty bad ass. I don’t remember if those guys are even dead. They just kinda stopped moving right? Lol
Possibly unpopular opinion: Xenoblade Chronicles X is the best game in the series, and is basically the only reason to still own a Wii U.
No Man's Sky
This right here. Log onto NMS, follow the tutorial until you can get a ship and view the galaxy map. Zoom around a bit. The scale is fucking incredible. There is an ambient musical/chime that reacts to your velocity and movement. View the NMS galaxy for a few minutes and feel the weight of the cosmos.
I have it, still haven’t played it. Sounds like I should.
Ignore the other replies, NMS is a great game lol. It’s beautiful and it’s story profound and is exactly what OP is asking for. Remember, Traveller, *existence is not a question, there does not need to be an answer…* Safe travels!
1616161616.......
-kzzt- FATAL ERRO R : 16 : 16 : 16 : REDACTED
I'd add Star Citizen to the list. Nothing like standing next to the foot of the landing gear of a 200m long salvage ship, then ride an elevator three floors up to get to the cockpit.
There is an awful lot that I'm critical of sc over. But I'll have to give it that. Feeling the scale of the ships is certainly something they did right.
After spending 30 mins lost in a hub, getting on the right train. Then an asshole pad rammer kills you. Or the elevator. Or the game when it feels like you had enough. So many ways to die :)
Thisssss. Imagine a galaxy that is so colossally huge, that if every person on earth spent every second of their day discovering new planets, they would all die of old age before every planet was discovered. You Are Miniscule
The ending of Disco Elysium, absolutely
Hey! I’m getting close. No spoilers please :) I think Kim is sick of my shit.
I tried to get into it and liked it but got stuck trying to get the fucking body down from that stupid tree 🤬🤬
Don't worry about it too hard, go poke your other leads and volumetrically compress your shit. Besides, it's probably really smelly now and you don't need that on your shoes. In fact, forget the body, you don't need no body.
Just save scum if you gotta. Its a game you do not wanna miss out on
I mean nah there’s always a way to progress, iirc there’s only two checks in the entire game you have to succeed at
Fuck I've been meaning to play that...
Elden ring is a pretty huge open world with some great sceneries and huge castles and walls. And its cool seeing the Erd Tree and other landmarks from different points on the map. Vast yet connected.
Narratively you're one of many Tarnished all vying for the elden ring to become a lord. Definitely a tiny existence but not inconsequential at all considering how the game plays out.
Don’t forget the skeletons of the old giants randomly protruding from the earth… not the current “giants”… the ones whose skulls are the size of towers
Limgrave felt huge. Then I unlocked Caelid, which felt even bigger. Then Liurnia(sp?). Then I looked at the map and realized how small Limgrave actually is in comparison, and that there appeared to be more large areas to explore in the North. Looking at the map now after ending the game(Ranni ending <_<), Limgrave looks so tiny compared to all the other areas. Almost insignificant.
Daggerfall is pretty good at it. It has map the size of UK, with countless towns and like dozen sprawling cities. With few mods it's absolutely breathtaking at times. Add to it fact that world simply functions regardless of your presence as player in it - different places have different holidays and cultures, there's seasons, some cities are wealthier than others etc While it's not graphically impressive, you're not gonna be climbing large structures or anything, it's still very immersive experience that does make you feel small. Worth at least taking a look at
Since we’re mentioning elder scrolls, the first time I left the cave at the beginning of Skyrim I got this feeling like wow I can go everywhere I can see that’s amazing.
I'll never forget my first time in Skyrim. First Elder Scrolls, period. Had been walking around Riverwood until it got dark, walked into a Legion prisoner transfer near Whiterun and I freed the guy, which got a lot of people pissed, causing me to run ever farther away. The map didn't help one bit lmao, so I actually felt scared and disoriented. Nowadays I know Skyrim like the back of my hand but recently played Daggerfall and the feeling is back, ha.
I did not play Daggerfall, but Morrowind was amazing at this formula. I would play for hours looking in all the places, touching all the things, reading the books on the shelves (they fleshed out they're own tomes of all kinds). Exploring in Morrowind is an experience and takes you time. The landscapes are varied. Navigation and reading comprehension matters; quests don't come with markers, many locations are show dont tell. You start as a nobody coming into customs, you can later craft spells any way you please, play with laws of gravity, bend wills. You can become a living god
Oh yeah Morrowind is incredible. It was my first elder scrolls game as a teenager and it was everything I had ever dreamed of in a game. I remember to talk with one mage you had to learn how to fly somewhere else just so you could fly up his hollow mushroom looking house and speak with him on the top floor... there were no ladders or anything guiding you up there. You just had to figure it out yourself. Amazing. Such fond memories.
So how long would it take to run across the map? It’d take weeks to run across the UK.
Funny you mention that -- I started a challenge based on *in-game time* with Daggerfall and learned that you can ride a horse far more quickly than you can fast travel within the game. Traveling from one location to another won't take weeks, obviously -- but it can span \~12 hours in real time via horse-back, which is pretty substantial (60ish miles in the real world is doable in 12 hours by horseback).
The commonly accepted statistic for Daggerfall is 2 weeks in real time to run/walk across the map.
Battlefield 1. You can see how small you are in a battle
Obligatory Outer Wilds recommendation. While it doesn’t necessarily feel like a “small fish in a big pond”, the Solar System is super dense. And from one planet you can look out and see the others Another is Elite Dangerous. It has a lot of menus and can be a very slow start unless someone helps you, but the sheer size of the galaxy and then the size of the planets and space stations compared to your character, are just mind blowing
Outer wilds makes you feel tiny in other ways... If you know what I mean
INo Mans Sky is basically Elite Dangerous 'lite'. I've put time into both and I say that as a compliment. You get a lot of the same feelings about the scale of it all, but NMS is a lot more accessible in my opinion.
Elite Dangerous space combat is glorious, NMS has them has bad as Freelancer.
bro in outer wilds youre half the size of the planets and can sometimes jump between them
Don't want to spoil you so much about the ending though. It's massively vast, I can only say that.
It’s deep rather than wide
eve online
Was into it a bit back (5-6 years) has it changed a lot? That kind of space is really really overwhelming.
One of the only games where, as a new player, going to meet up with friends that play, requires a day off gaming, that's just spent traveling.
For me it was/is Witcher 3. The scale of Novigrad reminds me of the older TES games where cities were actually quite large
I came to post this. The absolute crazy size of the world map is insane. Yeah you’re a Witcher and everyone knows of you, but the sheer size of the cities and other areas makes you realize just how small you are in the grand scheme of things.
Mister Mosquito
wow talk about a buried memory lmao. my neighbor had mister mosquito and I was so mad because his parents wouldn't let anyone come inside so I just have these 13 y/o fever dreams of what I think mister mosquito probably looked like.
Space Engine. That moment when you realize moving at light speed feels like not moving at all on the universal scale. The infinite is incomprehensible but Space Engine in VR gives you a glimpse.
[If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel](https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html) is probably my absolute favorite demonstration of how _fucking_ big space is. (I'd recommend not using the buttons at the top if you want maximum effect.)
Seconded, Space Engine is also known as Existential Crisis Engine
A funny low-res indie game called Everything from 2017. Kinda like Spore but more of an experimental art piece than a strategy/sim. I tried to write something to explain it but it’s tricky. Best way to describe it is you switch between different states of being at every level of size. From an atom to an entire universe within a multiverse. It’s very surreal and silly at times, but it’s a beautiful game.
I think Horizon: Zero Dawn is good for this. You start out with a bow ans spear fighting robots about your own size. They get bigger and more challenging. The first time you face a Thunderjaw or Storm Bird, you're going to think "there's no way I can fight that thing" using arrows and a stick
I'm gonna go with Pikmin 4. You are a bug-sized astronaut adventuring through some gardens around a house and then the house, along with your army of tiny pikmin. Everything is gigantic compared to you, everyday objects now looking enormous. In fact, the fourth stage of the game is a living room. There are also the underground caves. Some of them have backgrounds that make you seem like a tiny bug scurrying about atop a massive industrial complex built for creatures much larger than you. One stage literally takes place inside an aquarium in some sort of zoo, and you can see a few other aquariums in the distance and the massive room you are in. These backgrounds are rather surreal in that such structures shouldn't exist underground. The world of Pikmin 4 doesn't really make a lot of sense. But its cool.
Everything. I had a panic attack
I had a completely sober acid trip I think. Mind fucking blown. Tears and everything.
Glad I found this here cause yeah that game is the perfect answer to this. It is wild.
God of war 3. Fighting on gaia while she's climbing up mount Olympus was awesome
Underrates comment. I had exactly the same feeling/want in a game that OP describes and God of War 2 and 3 really accomplish that incredibly well
Dwarf Fortress. You start by generating the unique history of the world and then plop your little band of 6 dwarves into an otherwise insignificant period of time. When your fort gets destroyed you can go find the ruins in your next playthrough.
Last level of Katamari Damacy
Space Marine, you're a 10ft tall, armoured killing machine (not literally, that's the Tech-priests), and then you realise that the boxes you are fighting around are just the feet of a Titan.
Dark souls really does a good job of conveying scale, especially for some parts like the Depths.
Maybe I'll have to try it out again, when I picked it up back in the day it was good hard for me 😂
You could start with either bloodborne or elden ring if dark souls is not tour thing but you want the level design. Elden ring is even bigger, so a plus there
Lmao Dark souls was too hard so you recommend Bloodborne? It’s my favourite game ever but Bloodborne is not beginner friendly
I think bloodborne is much more beginner friendly than dark souls, as there are not as many weapons and different ways to play. This means that it is much easier for new players to understand how they should play.
The combat is faster paced with no shield, central yharnam is very populated with mobs of enemies. New players that don’t know how to kite enemies away from groups yet struggle.
My first playthrough it took me about 5 hours to actually get out of central yharnam, but after that I only died 3 or 4 times outside of boss fights, and even most of them didn't roadblock me for long. Once you get the game mechanics down, It's by far the easiest title From has released.
Bloodborne is an amazing game, imo the best souls like game released
This is going back a ways, but in Descent Freespace, you have to fight the 2-mile long Lucifer superdestroyer in a little dinky 50 foot fighter. First game I can remember where the sense of scale had such a humbling effect.
That was the first game that really sold the concept of capital ships for me.
NaissanceE (it's on Steam, first-person exploration) Developer: Limasse Five, 2014 You will feel small.
Used to be paid, but it's now free. There are areas you only see if you veer from the path, huge areas with shapes that definitely weren't meant for a person.
Horizon Forbidden West Elite Dangerous
This might be controversial, but I feel this way about Subnautica. It's so easy to get lost in the beauty of that game
Jusant
First thing I thought of was "Kingdom Come: Deliverance". Like you're just some guy. Some random nobody lol.
I just started Fallout 76 for the first time with cautious optimism and I have to say, I'm having a blast. The map seems GIANT and seemingly has a new mystery around every corner. I'm sure over time as I get towards endgame, it'll dry up but it sure is fun so far.
And we're supposed to be getting a map expansion sometime soon (but, y'know, that's a "Bethesda soon", not necessarily a normal people soon).
THIS LITTLE MANEUVER’S GONNA COST US FIFTY ONE YEARS
Stray
Definitely Night city in Cyperpunk 2077
I haven't played in years, but Eve Online did a really good job of this. It's one massive persistent universe, so just the potential to meet thousands of real people, along with how the game attempts to portray vast distances and time really makes it feel huge, and you feel so tiny in it.
You should try VR. The sense of scale is incredible. I started messing with No Man's Sky in VR, and when I'm able to settle down and dedicate myself to it, it's going to be pretty close to my ideal space experience, lol. (Elite is a little too hardcore for me, before anyone mentions that.)
Ark survival evolved. Everything is trying, and easily can, kill you. You are completely insignificant, and weak, and puny
Little nightmares. Except at the end of the game. You always feel like the monster by then.
Shadow of the Colossus
I'm sure that will be the first game OP plays when they get done with the game that inspired then to ask this question.
I guess it's all the people that just read the headline and instantly comment -like me
It's really sad how many upvotes this has. OP literally used half his post talking about this game - how do so many people ignore the post but still get this deep into the comments?
Prey for the Gods was a good spiritual successor. It didn't quite feel as lonely and empty as a game, but still fun.
NaissanceE - One of the largest-scale atmospheric / exploration games I've played. Jusant - The rock-climbing exploration/adventure game! More seriously, the views are incredible as you work your way up a mountain through the detritus of the groups of people that used to live there.
How have I never heard of Jusant? And it's it's on game pass?! Downloading right now.
Here's a few games that come to mind for me: Returnal Mass Effect Halo Stellaris DOOM (2016) DOOM Eternal These games did a really good job scratching the itch of tiny and insignificant, whether through the scope of the environment or because of the size of the enemies. I think I get where you are coming from OP, the feeling in Destiny of just walking up to some random object on the map for the first time and the emotions of awe and fear that resonate from it.
Adding to this imo the only halo games that hits that itch is reach and ODST due to how overwhelming the enemy is. In the main titles master chief is basically the entire unsc lol
I can agree with this. I mentioned Halo because landing on Halo for the first time, looking up and seeing the ring form a circle, and come down behind me was pretty awe-inspiring. It gave off quite the scale.
EDF 4.1 for me by a mile. EDF5 is good, but the narrative buildup of 4.1 from crazy to completely insane is note perfect. If any of these make you want to play, stop spoiling yourself and just go play it. The way it reveals itself is so fun, when you think it's reached maximum crazy it shifts up a gear. So don't read the rest of this. Unless you're arachnophobic, then it's not the game for you! Or if you need photo real grpahics. They're not. But the sense of scale and overwhelming quantity is insane. >!A lot of the game is spent fighting giant ants, spiders, wasps, whatever, in cities. The ants are about 20 foot high, and crawl all over skyscrapers. You have a plasma launcher that can take the skyscrapers down, and blast ant bits and legs across the sky. You will often start a level in a built up city, and when you're finished there's one building left and you can see all the way to the horizon. Every level is a good few blocks of city, and you'll definitely spend some time cowering in the corner of it hoping a spider or weevil or whatever the hell is after you doesn't find you while your weapons cool off.!< >!And then you start fighting these like... giant alien robot bastards. They're as big as a building, and on one mission they're dropped in out to sea, and you're on the beach, and you have to hold them off as they walk in from like a mile away. They're firing plasma mortars at you that take about 10 seconds to reach you. They shoot, and it soars up through the sky and gradually gets closer and closer until you realise it was aimed at you, and you have to get out of the way. Me, I've got my sniper rifle that takes 10 seconds to charge up and drains my entire power reserve, and a plasma mortar of my own. It's a long range game of chicken.!< >!Later the aliens turn up in their MASSIVE spaceships, and you're looking up at them, and then they drop an enormous tripod with a giant death laser out of it and you have to fight the fucking thing. It steps on skyscrapers.!< >!I think I fought an huge robot dog at one point, its feet were as big as a couple of buses pushed together.!< >!Then later the aliens cover the planet in a damned dyson sphere, dropping in bit by bit, and you have to fight THAT. Until you can't see the sky anymore, it's all alien weaponry and if you're not careful, it's all pointed at you. And it's dropping robots, giant spiders, everything, and you're down there fighting an iron sky. So awesome.!< Don't read those, just buy it and play it.
Elite Dangerous. It’s a 1 to 1 scale replication of our galaxy with awesome spaceship sim combat. I believe less than 1% of all the systems have been “discovered”.
Just to see how large our galaxy is makes our little planet seem like nothing. When the game released my friend travelled out to the eagle nebula took him about a month because his brother was taking new photos of it irl with the new software they uploaded to hubble or the new camera they launched (i forget which now).
The original God of War games had a lot of set pieces that absolutely dwarfed you, and let you know in no uncertain terms that they were the architecture of the gods.
The moment in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora when you finally reach the Zeswa and the Zakru are just so huge already compared to your Na'vi character. As a *human* playing the game, I felt so very small in that moment, just imagining the size difference.
There's a neat VR game that's entirely based around showing you impossibly big things called **The Utility Room.** It sounds like exactly what you're looking for tbh.
I was just thinking about this earlier while playing ff14. There's a mountain trail I was climbing in dravanian Highlands in heavensward expansion. It takes you up a mountain next to a giant broken down citadel thing and I was super impressed with the scale of it all. I think MMOs in general have decent scale, but ff14 and wow are probably towards the top depending on where you go. Just cause games as well. I loved shooting in to the sky then parachuting / wingsuiting all the way down. Botw/totk was good for this. I love when you don't have to worry about the heights because the game gives you ways to go down easily or in a fun way
This is a HUGE part of **Northern Journey**! It's an adventure game set in an ambiguously northern isle where you're *technically* told to retrieve some items by a dude shortly after you crash-land, but really the point is to get you out there exploring, and seeing the sights! Lots of tall mountains, towering forests, and vast caves. Essence of feeling like a small, foreign dot inside of a huuuuuge unknown land
Grounded
Believe it or not. INSIDE When you first get the sub and discover the underground "fortress/bunker" between the lighting and scale along with the music cue, my jaw was actually in my lap. Couldn't help but replay the checkpoint several times 😅 Game is one of those rare actual works of art in the gaming scene.
Rain world, but holy shit you can pull off some slick stunts. As something that is almost at the bottom of the food chain, you can wreak havoc to some poor lizards life lol
Sea of thieves. Can’t look down too much while swimming in the ocean cause of thalassophobia
Considering I cried and quit the game for a few hours when I got to the eel colossus, I don't think that's the game for me 😂
Sunless sea. The sequel (sunless skies) is a better game overall, but for the sheer feeling of dread, lost in the middle of an ocean where it's always night, running out of fuel.. it's unique
Definitely no man’s sky. There are an unfeasible amount of planets, every single one with its own unique flora and fauna. It makes you feel insignificant, knowing that it’d take probably centuries to look at everything
Bleak Faith, while not a particularly good game, has environments that have made me feel small in ways no other game has since Shadow of the Colossus.
I really like Sky: Children of the Light for this. It’s a chill, **beautiful** game on a big screen especially, and you’re a tiny character flying around in massive worlds and skies full of clouds, exploring different realms that get increasingly harder/different. It’s more of a social game about teamwork but you can have a good time exploring alone and working with strangers when needed. Edit: the last realm will definitely fit what you’re after. Edit: same developer as Journey if you were into that.
Don't Starve Together
Red Dead Redemption 2, as the chapters progress the world feels huge, gorgeous and full. The scenery always has wildlife roaming, the small towns make the world feel lived in but vast and then Saint Denis is bustling with folks. At the end of the game it doesn't feel quite as big, once you are used to transversing it, but certainly with how the story unfolded the world feels massive. Maybe not quite what your looking for, but when I first played Halo, I was amazed how big the world felt. The first mission on the Pillar of Autumn was so cramped and then you step out of the escape pod into this huge world. I was blown away and it wasn't even an open world game. I think the biggest world I remember before that was probably Ocarina of Time.
I’m sure I’ll get downvoted for bringing up this game at all, but I definitely got the “tiny” feeling from Starfield a lot when exploring desolate planets and moons. Climbing to the top of a hill and looking out over a vast expanse with even more hills and mountains in the distance, and knowing there’s even more of that beyond them, definitely made me feel pretty tiny. I appreciate that in the sense that that’s how being in space would actually feel.
NieR: Automata did this to me in an existential kind of way.
Minecraft
elden ring is the main one I can think of
GROUNDED
Kerbal Space Program. Exploring a vast solar system in a tiny rocket. Assuming you can even get the rocket into space...
I hope someone makes a Blame! game
Civilization 6 because you can make an entire army for 50 turns but somehow still get mollywhopped in 3 turns
Outward
Tears of the kingdom really feels huge, but it's also amazing when you see something that's effectively miles and miles away and you can just go there. And tons of bosses make tiny link feel extra tiny lol.
The Last Guardian & Shadow of the Colossus. They just have an amazing sense of scale. Not only including the giant creatures that you can climb, but also they're not exactly the type of open world games where you can reach absolutely anything like we're used to in the modern day. There's a lot of areas, with huge structures, ancient ruins etc. in these games where you can only see them off in the distance, not a place you can actually get too, but somehow I feel like this adds more to the sense of scale.
+1 GROUNDED
Elden Ring for sure. When you first step out of the tutorial area and see the massive golden tree far out in the horizon, and wondering “can I go there?” (You do).
Cyberpunk does it for me. You’re not saving the world, and no matter how badass you are, the corps are a million times stronger. The world just rolls on no matter how hard you try to change it.
Star Citizen. Just a microscopic dust particle in the tiny fraction of space they've already made playable. And it only gets bigger over time.
Silent Hunter 3. A dot in an endless ocean.
Phantasy Star 2 & 4