Mike Mahardy recently tweeted about video game locations and it got me thinking: what are the best confined or limited video game locations. Not the best video game set in a 'bottle' location but the most interesting or coolest location that a game has confined you to for the majority of its run time.
For me the few that stick out are Portal 2's Aperture Laboratories and how it feels like you're peeling back layers of secrecy and history as you play through the game. The Last of Us: Left Behind's two Shopping Centers (Malls) and how despite how both are post apocalyptic remnants of days gone by they both elicit wildly different emotional reactions: you feel like one is a funfair to be explored and meandered through, while the other feels like a prison you can't leave, even as you're being hunted by humans and clickers alike, until you get what you came there for. Finally at the far end of the spectrum of 'one location' (and I'm probably cheating a bit here) but I loved how the mountain in Celeste mirrored the character's journey and only ever enhanced the story while tying into gameplay seamlessly and constantly.
So tell me what are the best locations in video games, get creative beyond the usual mansions, but any answer can be a right answer if you justify it. However their is a correct answer and I'll let y'all know by the end of the week.
Special shout out to the houses in Edith Finch and Gone Home for hiding some serious emotional gut punches in their rooms too!
Mike's tweet: https://twitter.com/mmahardy/status/1117513256527175683
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