Over the past 15 years, PlayStation aficionados have been treated to a wealth of sumptuous locations to explore spanning countless franchises, from dilapidated mansions, sprawling metropolises to evocative fantasy worlds. Having recently kick-started a new series of features examining some of the PlayStation brands most celebrated heroes and villains, we at PSU thought it was time to shift some of the focus to extolling some of the most memorable game locations and environments to have hit Sony’s consoles over the past few years.
Join us now as we count down the Top Ten most iconic game locations to grace a Sony platform. As always, we welcome your feedback, so if you think we’ve missed out some killer locales, be sure to post them in the comments section and let your voice be heard. Enjoy.
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10 – Mallet Island (Devil May Cry, PS2, 2001)
Capcom’s sumptuous gothic playground remains one of the most aesthetically pleasing locales in Devil May Cry’s illustrious history to date. Infested with marauding demon puppets, scythe-wielding spooks, and hulking boss creatures, Mallet Island is chock full of diverse, meticulously realized hotspots, including a sprawling, crumbling castle, lush garden, a creaky ghost ship and a portal to the demon underworld. Dante’s inaugural demon slaying romp offers a fine showcase for the talented art design team at the Capcom code house, and the team’s arduous research period – which involved travelling to Europe and scooping out creepy old castles among others – certainly shows itself here. It is an immersive and visually stimulating locale that remains a firm favorite here at PSU Towers.
9 – Trial Mountain (Gran Turismo, PSX, 1997)
As a staple of Polyphony Digital’s racing extravaganza since its first appearance in the original Gran Turismo, the ubiquitous Trial Mountain track has become something of a quintessential warm up experience for newbies and hardcore GT aficionados alike. Approachable yet technical, Trial Mountain is ideal for taking your latest motor for a spin and in our eyes certainly earns itself a place among the PlayStation brand’s most iconic locations to date – we can’t wait to see what Yamauchi-san and his team does to spice up this memorable track for GT5.
8 – The Lost Valley (Tomb Raider, PSX, 1996)
We racked our brains for hours thinking of a suitable entry for the Tomb Raider franchise in our list, and while there were ample pickings, we just kept coming back to The Lost Valley. In essence, this perilous pit single handily encapsulates what Tomb Raider is all about; stumbling across long-forgotten areas ripe with intrigue and suspense, heaps of pugnacious wildlife, and a healthy dose of puzzles and treasures thrown in for good measure. Indeed, back in ’96, coming face to face with a horde of Raptors and a hulking T-Rex was about as exciting as it got, and thankfully, things were made even more exhilarating in the remade Anniversary edition of the game over a decade later. Whether it involved the nimble Miss Croft battling for her life, solving riddles or climbing her way precariously along the valley walls, the Lost Valley will certainly go down in history as one of the most compelling videogame locations to date.
7 – Manchester Cathedral (Resistance: Fall of Man, PS3, 2006)
Sony and Insomniac Games attracted much controversy with its depiction of a dilapidated Manchester Cathedral in alien blaster Resistance: Fall of Man upon its UK release in 2007. Lamented by the Church of England for allowing gamers to fire weapons in and around such an iconic building in a city already plagued with gun crime, the hardware manufacturer was forced to issue a formal apology to Cathedral leaders later that year, though ironically all the hullabaloo did nothing but to boost the game’s sales in the charts. Controversy aside, the Cathedral itself is immaculately realized, and makes for a striking landmark when juxtaposed with the wrecked cars and burnt out buildings of Manchester despite having also come under attack from the Chimera invaders.
6 – Brookhaven Hospital, Silent Hill (Silent Hill 2, PS2, 2001)
While the fog-bound streets of Silent Hill are filled with enough haunts to warrant its own holiday brochure, none have quite managed to staple themselves firmly on the consciousness of brave gamers than Brookhaven Hospital. Popping up in Silent Hill 2 and its sequel, this dilapidated hell house is home to the infamous mutated Nurse creatures that have become as synonymous with Konami’s franchise as its evocative soundtrack and fog-swept streets, and remains one of the most compelling locales of the entire series. And let’s be frank here – in a place associated with death and disease that just happens to be in the center of a cursed town infested with grotesque monsters, would you expect anything less? Nope, didn’t think so. As such, Brookhaven has it all; scum-infested walls, corpses strewn about the place left to rot, fiendish riddles, hidden rooms, hordes of gruesome baddies and numerous diaries of patients and employees alike for your viewing consumption that tell a horrific tale in their own right. Oh, and who could forget that gripping sequence when Pyramid Head chases SH2’s James Sunderland and Maria down a hallway, only to brutally dispatch the latter just as the pair reach the relative safety of an elevator? If there’s one place we’re itching to revisit that remains a highlight of our gaming pleasures over the past decade, it’s Brookhaven.
5 – The Spencer Mansion (Resident Evil, PSX, 1996)
Utilized by the pharmaceutical giant Umbrella for covertly conducting illegal experimentation in bio weaponry, Spencer’s sprawling abode remains unequivocally one of the most iconic videogame locations to date, and a firm staple on the minds of horror fanatics worldwide. Taking the premise of being trapped in a house surrounded by flesh hungry undead (see Night of the Living Dead) one step further, Capcom filled the mammoth estate full of nightmarish beasts from zombies, hell hounds to giant snakes, packing in a healthy dose of hazardous traps for good measure. Who could forget nabbing the Shotgun only to be locked in a horribly claustrophobic death trap in the form of a falling ceiling, or encountering the mutated snake in the attic (affectionately dubbed ‘Yawn’)? Combine this with the narrow corridors, haunting soundtrack and mutilated bodies of your fallen comrades and you have the stuff of nightmares.
4 – Shadow Moses Island (Metal Gear Solid, PSX, 1998)
Shadow Moses Island provided the iconic backdrop for Metal Gear’s emphatic leap from pixel to polygon back in 1998, and later cropped up in Snake’s swansong epic Guns of the Patriots. Formally used as a nuclear waste disposal facility, Shadow Moses later formed the playground for the unscrupulous Foxhound rabble, where Snake found himself up against the likes of an M1 Tank, a Hind D and eventually, Metal Gear itself. The base itself houses a diverse range of environments, from tight corridors and offices to sprawling snowfields, hangers and communications towers, ensuring our gruff hero has to adapt different tactics as he progresses, from stealth-based infiltration to all-out guns blazing. Snake’s return to the now-abandoned complex in MGS4 was particularly poignant, serving as a reminder of where it all began a decade earlier, accompanied by the hauntingly beautiful ‘The Best Is Yet To Come.’ Magic moments.
3 – Shambala (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, 2009, PS3)
An utterly breathtaking locale, Shambala is a fine testament not only to the talented bunch over at Naughty Dog, but a fine example of the extra pushing power afforded by Sony’s black box. Bathed in sunlight, Shambala finds Nathan Drake and co. fending off hordes of mutated humans while traversing meticulously detailed ruins amidst a sprawling forest zone. Chock full of eye candy, this massive environment effortlessly captures the feeling of an ancient civilization all but lost to the modern world.
2 – Liberty City (Grand Theft Auto III, PS2, 2001)
Grand Theft Auto’s 2001 transition to the realms of 3D gaming presented gamers with an unprecedented degree of freedom in the form of GTA III’s mammoth metropolis, Liberty City. Here, you’d be hard pressed not to find something to stimulate your mind, whether it’s tackling missions, taking a leisurely cruise in some flash motor, beating on unsuspecting civilians, evading tenacious coppers, even picking up local prostitutes. Sure, visually it may not be the most jaw dropping of experiences, but the sheer scale of the place ensures this crime-ridden metropolis remains a perpetually compelling experience from the get-go, and for the first time in a videogame, you actually felt as if you were part of a living, breathing city.
1 – Midgar (Final Fantasy VII, PSX, 1997)
It feels like only yesterday we first clapped eyes on that iconic opening. First we clock innocent flower girl Aeris as she wonders down a dark, damp alleyway, followed by the camera spanning back to reveal a bustling street, before pulling all the way back to unveil a sprawling metropolis. Indeed, while FFVII’s story spans entire continents, Midgar is quite possibly one of the most memorable of all, serving as the backdrop for the first few hours of the game and introducing us to protagonist Cloud Strife and fellow chums Barrett Wallace and Tifa Lockheart. Run by the unscrupulous Shinra Corporation, Midgar features a distinct class separation, with the more aristocratic types living in luxury above a massive dividing plate, while the poor folks slum it out below. Architecturally, the city is a diverse beast, boasting everything from hulking skyscrapers, shantytowns, strip clubs, a bustling market and a spooky train yard. While there are ample pickings to be had in regards to the most iconic locale on a PS platform, nothing quite registered with the PSU staff more than this legendary city.