10. Killzone: There's something compelling about the conflicts and politics of that world, but it never really get's fleshed out. Which is too bad, because I feel like there's probably a great deal of quality fiction to told there.
9. Assassin's Creed: The Templar vs Assassin thing is okay, but what really got me was the fucked up shit they added in the second game. The vault at the end, the hidden messages: you know the stuff I'm talking about.
8. Elder Scrolls: Personally, the overall setting of Tamriel can be pretty generic, but I pretty much have to include this because it's so well-realized as a game world. It's not one of my favourite settings, but it's one of my favourite game worlds to visit.
7. Fallout: Fallout's world is pretty compelling (even if the hokey music in the newer games becomes grating), but the East Coast stuff never held my imagination like the stuff from the first 2 and New Vegas.
6. Rocksteady's take on Batman: At once homage and reinvention: take the feel of the animated series, the diverse lore of the comics, and ad a pinch of Nolan-esque grit and you've something which stands as it's own, unique, video game Batman world (although Batman should probably lay of the 'roids).
5. Hitman: The world of Hitman is like a fun-house mirror pointed at the absolute worst parts of humanity. It's a bleak place filled with corruption and depravity, but also with wry cynicism and black irony. If you enjoy black humour, it's actually one of the funniest games series, in my opinion.
4. Deus Ex: Cyberpunk is cool. Cyborgs are cool. Conspiracy theories are cool. Dystopian futures are cool. Deus Ex is cool.
3. The world of team Ico: i.e. the world in which Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and the Last Guardian are, presumably, set. I dunno if the devs have come out and said it's all in the same world, but it sure as hell feels like it.
2. Uncharted: Weird choice? Consider that it exists in a world, ostensibly like our own, but which is filled with lost and ancient supernatural stuff lurking just outside the reach of the mundane, but there for anyone with the know-how and guts to find it. As someone who studies ancient history and myth and has had more than a passing exposure to archaeology, it's the perfect fantasy world.
1. Mass Effect: No other video game franchise has hooked my like that world. I know way, way too much about this fictional setting; I own most of the books and comics as well as a bunch of collectables (I've even considered shelling out cash for the replica Avenger rifle, but even I can't rationalize spending that much). Really, it's a sickness and it needs to stop.
Honorary mentions: The Witcher, Metro 2033, Warhammer 40K, Forgotten Realms. Because, well, they're based on books or role-playing systems (or both), so they're not technically game universes.
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