The link to the story of ION Storm and the game Daikatana he mentions was a really interesting read as well. Talk about a complete mess of a company.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/1999-01-14/news/stormy-weather...
Can anyone point to companies producing games like this today? Games that are sparse, minimal, and full of atmosphere and character? I'd really like to find a few before I give up and buy Halo 4.
I'm sure you're familiar with them but all of Valve's first person shooters fit this mold (maybe not minimal...). The Left 4 Dead series especially has the atmosphere down.
I'm not certain what type of game you want. The obvious suggestions in terms of well-crafted atmosphere and high-quality narrative might be Portal and the follow-on to the above, Deus Ex: HR and Bioshock.
Probably the most authentic sense of wonder I've felt since Riven.
It's funny that you mention Halo 4 - I thought the original Halo had some of the best atmosphere of any FPS game ever, especially the Flood levels (people seem to be split on whether they loved or hated them). I thought it did a fantastic job of conveying the sense of a desperate fight for survival, and the final escape was just incredibly thrilling, especially in co-op. Halo 2 and 3 didn't come anywhere close to that. I haven't played ODST or Reach, so I'm curious if anyone agrees with me about Halo 1 and would recommend either of those.
As far recent games - if you want a sparse, minimal, terrifying game, try Amnesia: Dark Descent. It's so minimal that you don't get any weapons. There's also an XBox game called Alan Wake that was superb. Going back a little farther, there's an older Russian horror game called Pathologic that's terrifying, if you can find it and get past the bad translation and voice acting.
They're anything but sparse and minimal, but the recent Fallout games (3 and New Vegas) are full of atmosphere and character. Red Dead Redemption has some of the most beautiful and emotionally charged uses of plot + visuals + music I've ever experienced in a game.
But yeah, I agree--DX was a mishmash of a game. I liked how it experimented with some FPS conventions, though--it was very cutting-edge from a gameplay standpoint.
Agreed on the Flood levels in Halo--those are excellent, and arguably unparalleled in any other Halo game. I'm looking for stuff like that, to be honest! If I can man up I'll give Amnesia a shot, and what I've seen of Pathologic on YT looks very atmospheric.
I think that's actually a good list moving forward: Amnesia, Red Dead Redemption to cleanse the palette, then Pathologic. Maybe I'll finally get to Thief: Deadly Shadows after that.
Thanks!
(surely I'm not the only person that has discovered copy/pasting stories into a text editor to read makes it look like you're doing work? :-) )