5- Persona 3
One of the most notable qualities of Persona 3 was its presentation. Because of its unique character design, story, and music, Persona 3 had left a mark on every one's radar. If you had purchased the FES version of P3 you were given the treat of a new remixed music track that consisted of catchy J-pop /J-rap. In combat you would summon your inner persona with an "Evoker", which resembled a gun. Your avatar would aim the Evoker to his/her head and force their persona from out of the depths of their minds, this alone made a big impact on players for obvious reasons. P3 had an aesthetic appeal to it that kept people coming back for more.4- Psychonauts
When Psychonauts came out on September 21st, 2005, it had reached a high level of critical acclaim but in turn had poor sales. The most intriguing aspect of this game was its great use of metaphor in terms of its level design. In Psychonauts you would travel into the minds of your fellow camp-mates. Each level was a completely new and surreal experience. The levels would vary depending on the person's personality; One character is a paranoid conspiracy theorist, so his level is filled with undercover agents pretending to be suburbanites, another character is a self proclaimed war hero, so his level is a military training ground, what Psychonauts lacked in gameplay prowess it made up in thematic elements, each level really felt different and fresh, no two levels were ever the same. The world's were so out there, and well designed that you truly felt compelled to go on just to see what else the game had in store for you.3- Persona 4
What Persona 3 achieved in aesthetic design Persona 4 achieved in ambient design. Persona 4 did some great things when it came to contextualizing its gameplay. In P4 you play a nameless protagonist much like its predecessor, you're apart of a group of friends who decide to investigate on a missing persons case. You later find out that these people have been missing in an alternate dimension, how did they get there? Well, they went through their T.V s, isn't it obvious? Of course it is fucking deadbea--Ahem, excuse me. Inside these alternate dimensions characters are forced to face their true selves; their Persona, their other self. The game goes to great lengths to explore the concept of the other, fake halves of ourselves that we project onto the world and the real person deep down inside of us. P4 is extremely interesting in this sense, it tends to go into some dark, and even phlisophical territory.2- Bioshock
Bioshock will forever be ingrained in my mind as the best example of developing strong atmosphere in a game (Apart from Half-Life 2). In Bioshock you travel through the underwater utopia "Rapture", broken down from its former self, now in ruin. Rapture is designed with one concept in mind: Environment telling a story. In Rapture you'll find audio files from the previous residents of the city, giving you a glimpse into its dark past. Each level of Rapture has an eerie feel to it, you can almost picture each room in its former glory but now all that is left is rubble. The guys at 2k did a great job in giving the player enough room for themselves to create their own image of the Rapture prior to this one, by doing this it adds a layer of mystery to itself, something that a lot of games don't necessarily try to do now a days.1- The Metal Gear Solid Series
I still believe to this day that Hideo Kojima is a genius. He has this thing about him where he can write the most ludicrous, out of this world shit that I've ever heard of and he still finds a way to make me all fall for it. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Liquid Snake allegedly is still alive after his death in the first game, he's still alive because he is actually Revolver Ocelot's arm. Pretty god damn stupid sounding coming from my shitty writing, right? The scary thing is, when I heard this line in MGS2, I bought it. I didn't bat a fucking eye lash to what has just been said. I think this is a testament to how well Hideo can write a character and develop a world. He does it so well that he can make the most outlandish garbage sound...believable.
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