Ion Storm rivals Looking Glass Entertainment as one of the bigger disappointments of the 1990s PC gaming scene. Both companies produced an incredible roster of games -- Thief, Deus Ex, and the amazing System Shock series (which managed to frighten so much with so little) -- then vanished after figuratively lighting money on fire.

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.

What exactly do you mean by sparse and minimal? Thief I can see, but Deus Ex had 11 different skill areas; nanoaugmentations; weapon upgrades; a well written, branching storyline that incorporated every conspiracy theory known to man; multiple ways to complete missions; etc.

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.

I think I wrote that part while thinking about running around in Thief, hearing the guards call me a taffer. Memories... :)

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!

>Games that are sparse, minimal, and full of atmosphere and character?

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.

Love all three that you mentioned, looking forward to Bioshock: Infinite.

> Games that are sparse, minimal, and full of atmosphere and character?

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'll have to give the L4D games a shot--I hear they're excellent. Does Xbox v. PC matter at all?

At the risk of sounding like an elitist, I don't think there's an FPS in existence where console vs PC doesn't matter. You need a mouse.

I would take the PC on general principle. I can vouch the L4D games on PC are fantastic, especially when playing with some friends.

Minimal and full of atmosphere? I would prefer DayZ then (even if it seems it has had its best days,at least as a mod). Never played another game which can be so intense and get you really frightened..

If you're willing to sacrifice sparsity and minimalism to play a game that's full of character, I'd try the first Metroid Prime game.

Probably the most authentic sense of wonder I've felt since Riven.

The first Metroid Prime is one of my favorite games. Great atmosphere, soundtrack, and level design. I should get my Gamecube and run through it during the holidays.

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series is a standout. All the rough edges just make you love it more... when you're not bleeding to death in an irradiated sci-fantasy anomaly minefield.

The all-on-one-page URL is http://www.dallasobserver.com/content/printVersion/274134/

(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? :-) )

Adding /all to the URL also works and keeps the layout: http://www.dallasobserver.com/1999-01-14/news/stormy-weather...

The book "Masters of Doom" tells more about it. And of course the story of id software, Doom, Quake, Carmack and Romero.

I've read masters of doom. Why does the Sweeny/CliffB partnership work, while Carmack and Romero failed?

My guess is ego impacted by fame, Sweeny/CliffB managed to not be quite as personally famous as Carmack and Romero. While I play video games, and recognized Sweeny/CliffB it took a search to place them as the fathers of Epic. I recognized Carmack/Romero without the need of Google.

It's interesting to contrast that with the way Valve was run, given Half-Life was a contemporary of Daikatana, but obviously did much better.

They even made it work with the Quake 1 engine in 1998 whereas Ion Storm decided that they had to switch to the Quake 2 engine 1997.

I agree, that history was a very interesting take on the nature of business.