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Good uses of water in games - can be locations, characters, graphics, anything.
- Thread starter SolVanderlyn
- Start date
I did spend quite a few hours at launch playing solo, but the only time I had fun was with people from the ERA of Thieves club on Xbox. I'm honestly not sure if anyone really "uses" that club anymore, but I'd assume there has to be some people there still.
I just recently got all my friends playing.
But before that it was just me joining random crews for the past year. It's still fun when you find a good crew of randoms, and if you're actively looking it's not hard to make friends through the game that you can play with again. Lots of people use mics in random/open crews.
Yeah. Abzu was forgettable to me. Different opinions and all that.
I really liked the Turning Point trailer from Tomb Raider, great use of water as a dangerous element, and an embodiment of Lara immersing herself into this new world. Here's Visualwork's Takeshi Nozue explaning a little bit of their creative process for this cinematic reveal video:
Also, a mention for this game:
Fluidity, a game that uses water as a great game mechanic
Hope's the game Nintendo is gonna brought back :') FluidityBound by PlatinumGames :v
Also, a mention for this game:
Fluidity, a game that uses water as a great game mechanic
Hope's the game Nintendo is gonna brought back :') FluidityBound by PlatinumGames :v
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is the king of water levels. I would include some GIFs and music but posting on mobile Era is a mess. If you're curious, look up the level Amiss Abyss and its accompanying theme song, plus Irate Eight - Tension. The underwater controls are silky smooth to the point it puts every other game that's not Rayman Origins/Legends to shame.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory had a map called Siwa Oasis in which there were flooded tunnels. By building a pump the water would start to lower, opening another route to attack. The defending team could also blow up the water pump to close off that route.
As usual. Water in the title? Came for this. Not disappointed.
Edit: This thread just made me want to drink some water.
I always feel like people sell water levels short in games. The peak of quality for them is definitely the Mario games, 3d Mario being my personal favorite. Thinking back, Galaxy 1 and 2 have incredible ones in them, while the whole series has some of its best songs in these levels. Mario 64's water theme is one of gaming's best tracks ever.
Don't remember the place that well, but Tales of the Abyss' water city has one of my favorite Tales tracks ever
https://youtu.be/24tx13MNKS0
It just.. sound water-y, idk.
https://youtu.be/24tx13MNKS0
It just.. sound water-y, idk.
Yes'm this. Even in my second or third play through I still held my breath.
It's nothing amazing, but I said aloud "neat!" when I was watching a video about the game "Green Hell", a survival game for PC that takes place in the rainforest and focuses on a lot more realism than most survival games. After finding a coconut and breaking the shell to take out the meat and the coconut milk, if you drop the shell in such a way that it's hollow inside is facing upward like a bowl... over time, it'll collect rainwater that you can drink to quench your thirst.
Pretty neat IMO.
Pretty neat IMO.
Feel like everyone is going to hit great ones like BotW and KH3 so I'm gonna go with a niche one I was impressed by when I first played the game.
https://youtu.be/hiC8h0fs4A0?t=1759
When I first played Resistance Retribution was for a review on the site I wrote for and was genuinely impressed when the water actually moved and had some surface reflection, I thought for a single stick system they did so well with water levels, and overall thought the game was better than the PS3 games.
https://youtu.be/hiC8h0fs4A0?t=1759
When I first played Resistance Retribution was for a review on the site I wrote for and was genuinely impressed when the water actually moved and had some surface reflection, I thought for a single stick system they did so well with water levels, and overall thought the game was better than the PS3 games.
The original Donkey Kong Country is surprisingly great in terms of water levels. I HATE water levels in platformers. As far as I see it, they're usually one of the worst parts of any game they're in, and it's very rare (no pun intended) that a game gets them right. DKC's water levels aren't my favorite part of the game, but I was never unhappy to be in one of them, which again, is quite rare. I mean part of it is because you're actually pretty fast when swimming, compared to other 2D platformers (or games in general that try to mimic the realism of moving slow in the water). But even more than that, there's a very specific reason I liked these water levels, and it's because of this musical masterpiece:
I don't know what it is with 90's Rare's musicians, but every single one of them were far too good at their jobs for their own good.
I don't know what it is with 90's Rare's musicians, but every single one of them were far too good at their jobs for their own good.
Yup! It really sells the feeling of being in an alive, and slightly unnerving underwater world. Last game I played that made me feel that way was Ecco the Dolphin on Sega Genesis. When you can't see the surface, and the ocean floor just drops out into a black, foggy abyss... fuck.
Yep.
The initial starting area is so calming and exciting at the same time, so good.
Then you get further away and it becomes a horror game.
I really wish my first experience with Subnautica was with a top tier VR headset. I would've needed an artificial jaw and a whole wardrobe of brown pants.
Lol. This is exactly what I thought of when I saw the thread title.
I think Sea of Thieves is possibly the best water I've seen in a game though. Good lord that water looks fantastic.
[Warning: The following post contains some spoilers for Fire Emblem Fates.]
Fire Emblem Fates is thematically based on Taoism, which it constantly evokes with its imagery of black-on-white, representing the warring kingdoms of Hoshido (lit. "Land of the Stars") and Nohr (lit. "Darkness"). There is literally even a chapter in Conquest simply titled "Black and White".
Fittingly, the main character, Corrin, is a water dragon. Water represents the Tao, the immutable Truth of the universe. And, like the Tao, Corrin is neither this, nor that, but a perfectly flexible and indefinable combination of all. They are "a dragon neither white nor black" (indeed, their outfit is a very meaningful gray), seeking out Peace and the Truth of the world, and, in the true route, successfully unite both Hoshido and Nohr to defeat the true evil. White and black are revealed to be two sides of the same coin, just as in the famous symbol of Taoism, the yin-yang.
Azura (who is called Aqua in Japanese) is another character represented by water, and is your ever-present guide to the Truth. Water floats around her in her dance at the Colosseum, which shines with the Truth and pierces the facade surrounding King Garon. And water is the means by which she crosses over into the hidden kingdom, where the Truth of the world's conflict is brought to light. Even when you choose the two paths of illusion, she calls out to Corrin: "You are the Ocean's Gray Waves, Destined to seek Life Beyond the Shore just out of reach".
In the Revelations route, the true villain of the game is revealed to be the same as every other Fire Emblem game: a mad dragon. In Fire Emblem lore, dragons are awesome beings whose sheer existence is a curse: their power is too much for an intelligent being to handle, and so it slowly destroys them, converting them from a living divinity to "no more than a caged beast". Realizing their fate, many of the dragons opt to take their own lives before it's too late, passing on to the next world and becoming legendary gods. However, some dragons cling to this world because they love humans too much, and for their intemperance pay the ultimate price. Such is the pitiable case of the Fates dragon - who indeed, is revealed in an out-of-game codex to be the father of one of the characters. His obsessive emotion is a violation of Zen (the Japanese form of Buddhism that is heavily based on Taoism), and he is doomed to the karma this sows. However, being himself a Water Dragon, well versed in the Tao, he sees the error of his ways even as he is too weak to prevent them. In his "Song of Prophecy", he "Sees his future self", and laments, "The Rain Falls, But Can't Wash Away the Mud"; he rues the coming day where he will be inexorably Blinded from the Truth, and calls to the keepers of the Water, Corrin and Azura, to do what needs to be done.
One of the most obvious assertions of the theme comes in Chapter 18 of Conquest - the one we referenced earlier, that is titled "Black and White". In it, Archduke Izana of the neutral kingdom of Izumo invites both the Hoshidan and the Nohrian royals to a dinner, just before they are due to start an all-out war to kill each other. While seemingly a bizarre scene, this is actually quite in line with Bushido, the samurai practice of Zen principles. Before a heated battle, samurai would sit down for tea and zazen meditation, and occasionally this even did involve inviting representatives from the enemy camp, who would hours later become targets. This is in keeping with the Zen teaching of "emptiness" (or, at least, the version of the teaching warped by professional killers for their own purposes); man is but an "empty" and fleeting vessel, not possessed inherently of the Truth, and as such is not separable from the ground he walks, nor other persons, nor indeed his enemy. During the predictably-awkward dinner, the Water Dragon Corrin is the only one who sees the Tao, and comments on how similar the two families are despite expressing hatred for each other. Black and white. Two sides, of the same coin.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk on how Fire Emblem Fates has a much deeper and more meaningful story than you ever give it credit for.
Fire Emblem Fates is thematically based on Taoism, which it constantly evokes with its imagery of black-on-white, representing the warring kingdoms of Hoshido (lit. "Land of the Stars") and Nohr (lit. "Darkness"). There is literally even a chapter in Conquest simply titled "Black and White".
Fittingly, the main character, Corrin, is a water dragon. Water represents the Tao, the immutable Truth of the universe. And, like the Tao, Corrin is neither this, nor that, but a perfectly flexible and indefinable combination of all. They are "a dragon neither white nor black" (indeed, their outfit is a very meaningful gray), seeking out Peace and the Truth of the world, and, in the true route, successfully unite both Hoshido and Nohr to defeat the true evil. White and black are revealed to be two sides of the same coin, just as in the famous symbol of Taoism, the yin-yang.
Azura (who is called Aqua in Japanese) is another character represented by water, and is your ever-present guide to the Truth. Water floats around her in her dance at the Colosseum, which shines with the Truth and pierces the facade surrounding King Garon. And water is the means by which she crosses over into the hidden kingdom, where the Truth of the world's conflict is brought to light. Even when you choose the two paths of illusion, she calls out to Corrin: "You are the Ocean's Gray Waves, Destined to seek Life Beyond the Shore just out of reach".
In the Revelations route, the true villain of the game is revealed to be the same as every other Fire Emblem game: a mad dragon. In Fire Emblem lore, dragons are awesome beings whose sheer existence is a curse: their power is too much for an intelligent being to handle, and so it slowly destroys them, converting them from a living divinity to "no more than a caged beast". Realizing their fate, many of the dragons opt to take their own lives before it's too late, passing on to the next world and becoming legendary gods. However, some dragons cling to this world because they love humans too much, and for their intemperance pay the ultimate price. Such is the pitiable case of the Fates dragon - who indeed, is revealed in an out-of-game codex to be the father of one of the characters. His obsessive emotion is a violation of Zen (the Japanese form of Buddhism that is heavily based on Taoism), and he is doomed to the karma this sows. However, being himself a Water Dragon, well versed in the Tao, he sees the error of his ways even as he is too weak to prevent them. In his "Song of Prophecy", he "Sees his future self", and laments, "The Rain Falls, But Can't Wash Away the Mud"; he rues the coming day where he will be inexorably Blinded from the Truth, and calls to the keepers of the Water, Corrin and Azura, to do what needs to be done.
One of the most obvious assertions of the theme comes in Chapter 18 of Conquest - the one we referenced earlier, that is titled "Black and White". In it, Archduke Izana of the neutral kingdom of Izumo invites both the Hoshidan and the Nohrian royals to a dinner, just before they are due to start an all-out war to kill each other. While seemingly a bizarre scene, this is actually quite in line with Bushido, the samurai practice of Zen principles. Before a heated battle, samurai would sit down for tea and zazen meditation, and occasionally this even did involve inviting representatives from the enemy camp, who would hours later become targets. This is in keeping with the Zen teaching of "emptiness" (or, at least, the version of the teaching warped by professional killers for their own purposes); man is but an "empty" and fleeting vessel, not possessed inherently of the Truth, and as such is not separable from the ground he walks, nor other persons, nor indeed his enemy. During the predictably-awkward dinner, the Water Dragon Corrin is the only one who sees the Tao, and comments on how similar the two families are despite expressing hatred for each other. Black and white. Two sides, of the same coin.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk on how Fire Emblem Fates has a much deeper and more meaningful story than you ever give it credit for.
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My favorite is the Lisa from PT swap, and instead of shoes it's the chickenbaby.
Super Mario Sunshine managed to make water "fun" by making it a part of the gameplay, and it worked! Still craving a simar mechanic in other games as water is awesome to play with.
Star Fox Adventures, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Wind Waker managed to make water very relaxing with the sound effects and thematic areas involving water, I could absorb myself in its' experience without actually playing the game, it felt alive in a different way.
I hope more companies will look for ways how water can be made into gameplay by utilising physics correctly though, that could certainly add another dimension of immersiveness.
Star Fox Adventures, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Wind Waker managed to make water very relaxing with the sound effects and thematic areas involving water, I could absorb myself in its' experience without actually playing the game, it felt alive in a different way.
I hope more companies will look for ways how water can be made into gameplay by utilising physics correctly though, that could certainly add another dimension of immersiveness.
I love water in games.
Original Tomb Raider, was the first time I remember being enchanted by water in a game. I used to spend ages just jumping in and out and swimming, diving etc just for the sheer pleasure of digital water.
Water in AssCreed Origins was really good.
God of War 2018 was graphically very good, but bizarrely I found the water graphics to be a bit of a let down. I didn't think they were very good.
Bioshock water was great, blew me away at the time.
Morrowind on the PC, the first time it rained and you got the drop effects on the surface of lakes, ponds etc. I'd never seen that before, that was an exciting moment for me.
What was that game on 360, third person thing where they had physical water sloshing about. It was on a sinking ship or something? It was a terrible game if I recall, but the water as a physical thing was quite cool.
Original Tomb Raider, was the first time I remember being enchanted by water in a game. I used to spend ages just jumping in and out and swimming, diving etc just for the sheer pleasure of digital water.
Water in AssCreed Origins was really good.
God of War 2018 was graphically very good, but bizarrely I found the water graphics to be a bit of a let down. I didn't think they were very good.
Bioshock water was great, blew me away at the time.
Morrowind on the PC, the first time it rained and you got the drop effects on the surface of lakes, ponds etc. I'd never seen that before, that was an exciting moment for me.
What was that game on 360, third person thing where they had physical water sloshing about. It was on a sinking ship or something? It was a terrible game if I recall, but the water as a physical thing was quite cool.
Flood on Amiga was a platform game in which you had to complete each level before it filled with water. I remember thinking it was pretty clever for the time, since the water flows dynamically around the levels how you'd expect, rather than just upwards rising from the bottom.
