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chrissiediego

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Games in a real world setting?

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Following on from Luhr28’s post about AGs leaning overly towards fantasy/sci-fi, how about some suggestions of games in more of a real-world setting? Bonus points if it’s not a detective/spy/conspiracy genre piece!

Edited to clarify:
I’m looking for games taking place in basically the real world, preferably in the present day. That doesn’t mean it has to be a real specific location - if it’s a made-up town that might as well be a real one with the name changed, that’s fine - but with no fantasy/scifi/supernatural elements in the setting or story. If it’s an entirely realistic setting up to the point where aliens land, that’s not what I’m after.
Detective games (or other obvious genre pieces such as spy or conspiracy thrillers) count as long as they don’t have fantasy/scifi/supernatural elements, but they’re less impressive examples because they’re set within the stylised world of the genre.

I’ll start with:

Little Kite
A Normal Lost Phone
The St Christopher’s School Lockdown
INFRA

     
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If it’s about setting only, then Gabriel Knight and Broken Sword series immediately pop to mind. I think they did a wonderful job introducing real-life locations and filling them with fictional events. I’ve never been to New Orleans, and though I’ve been to Paris, those games are the main reason why I’m so drawn to them Smile Also the recent Unavowed is full of New York streets, there’s even a long list of cafes in the credits that appear in the game.

     

PC means personal computer

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Those feature real-life locations but then populate them with fantastical events - as in the previous thread I was more looking for games that could take place in the real world (even if the specific places aren’t real, if that makes sense!)

     
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Walking sims count? Gone Home, Firewatch, etc

Phoenix Wright (well, except the mediums)
Professor Layton (nothing far fetched about the twists… lol)
Police Quest
Adventures of Willy Beamish
KGB / Conspiracy

     
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I think there are probably more than we may realize. It’s just that not all of them are… well, good

Safecracker
The Shivah (not 100% sure that it doesn’t end with a supernatural twist)
Still Life
Blue Force
Countdown
Traitors Gate
Spycraft
Qin: Tomb of the Middle Kingdom (again, not 100% sure)
Carol Reed games

     
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Gray matter
kathy rain
Randal Monday
What Remains of Edith Finch
unforeseen incidents
Alter Ego
Firewatch
Black Mirror
Art of Murder
Dead Synchronicity
Leisure Suit Larry
Memento Mori
Memoranda
Moment of_Silence
Overclocked
Runaway
Secret Files
Undercover Wintersun
Alpha Polaris
A Golden Wake
Phantasmagoria
Gone Home
To the Moon

     
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I haven’t played all of these so I could be wrong.

SPQR: The Empire’s Darkest Hour
Three Skulls of the Toltecs series
Gold Rush series
Backpacker: The Lost Florence Gold Mine
The Adventures of Down Under Dan
Casebook


What about games where the majority of it is realisticish like Indiana Jones and the last Crusade?

     

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SpeedBo - 14 August 2018 12:38 PM


What about games where the majority of it is realisticish like Indiana Jones and the last Crusade?

Of course!, i think even DotT could fall under this category bc while its cartoony is happens in real-world** setting, never mind the tentacles as they are only characters

     
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There is the small matter of time travel being an integral theme! Wink

     
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SpeedBo - 14 August 2018 12:38 PM

What about games where the majority of it is realisticish like Indiana Jones and the last Crusade?

No, I don’t think so. Because of the whole supernatural element, eternal life and a man crumbling to dust after drinking from a chalice.

     
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Advie - 14 August 2018 01:11 PM
SpeedBo - 14 August 2018 12:38 PM


What about games where the majority of it is realisticish like Indiana Jones and the last Crusade?

Of course!, i think even DotT could fall under this category bc while its cartoony is happens in real-world** setting, never mind the tentacles as they are only characters

Of course you realize that isn’t what I was saying. Last Crusade has a realistic setting, and a mostly believable story. It’s just the very end where things turn to fantasy.

Oscar - 14 August 2018 01:16 PM
SpeedBo - 14 August 2018 12:38 PM

What about games where the majority of it is realisticish like Indiana Jones and the last Crusade?

No, I don’t think so. Because of the whole supernatural element, eternal life and a man crumbling to dust after drinking from a chalice.

Yes of course, all I meant was that for most of the adventure it is realistic.

     

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dumbeur - 14 August 2018 01:16 PM

There is the small matter of time travel being an integral theme! Wink

but the setting has nothing to do with the story, right? me i guess, as the cartoony artwork too has nothing to do with anything being realistic or not, i.e South Park, wasnt it happening at a realistic real-world settings

     
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Advie - 14 August 2018 10:05 AM

Gray matter
kathy rain
Randal Monday
What Remains of Edith Finch
unforeseen incidents
Alter Ego
Firewatch
Black Mirror
Art of Murder
Dead Synchronicity
Leisure Suit Larry
Memento Mori
Memoranda
Moment of_Silence
Overclocked
Runaway
Secret Files
Undercover Wintersun
Alpha Polaris
A Golden Wake
Phantasmagoria
Gone Home
To the Moon

Well Phantasmagoria is definitely not “real world” unless you think evil demons are real. Same with Black Mirror and Kathy Rain. Dead Synchronicity is post-apocalypse and isn’t real-world. Gray Matter has mumjo-jumbo about communicating with the dead in the afterlife. Randal’s Monday features an outlandish time-travel plot and Alpha Polaris features mythical beasts and spirits.

     

Member of the NAALCB - (North American Anti- Lobster Cop Brigade) since 2019.

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Donuts McGee - 14 August 2018 09:58 PM
Advie - 14 August 2018 10:05 AM

Gray matter
kathy rain
Randal Monday
What Remains of Edith Finch
unforeseen incidents
Alter Ego
Firewatch
Black Mirror
Art of Murder
Dead Synchronicity
Leisure Suit Larry
Memento Mori
Memoranda
Moment of_Silence
Overclocked
Runaway
Secret Files
Undercover Wintersun
Alpha Polaris
A Golden Wake
Phantasmagoria
Gone Home
To the Moon

Well Phantasmagoria is definitely not “real world” unless you think evil demons are real. Same with Black Mirror and Kathy Rain. Dead Synchronicity is post-apocalypse and isn’t real-world. Gray Matter has mumjo-jumbo about communicating with the dead in the afterlife. Randal’s Monday features an outlandish time-travel plot and Alpha Polaris features mythical beasts and spirits.

i don’t know why you all are mixing real-world settings with stories elements., unless it is a culture thing and i understand it differently than you all, but let us look at each separately

Phantasmagoria is for me is set*** in a real world not some fantasy era like i.e KQ’s, Adrienne and Gordon live in a normal house, they have a car and the settings around them are of a real world, same as any of the same kinda horror movie, with shops and everything, i,e Pet Cemetery is a similar thing like Phantasmagoria’s real world, unless the former is not supposed to be thought of as it is happening in real world.

i lived my life thinking that the imagination of Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery of make-believe of people coming back after their death, is more of the idea of scaring viewers by giving them the horror thru a real-world settings and real-life outlook (or it would not have the effect on them that is needed) and everything must be set like their’s, which is the only way they can get terrified thru the movie by seeing or putting themselves in the heroes boots, thinking if they have the ability like them to bring their beloved ones back from death, however, shape they will be in when they do would be like!.

so there is no way concerning Phantasmagoria’s settings that is not happening in the real world, but the story can go where ever the writer wants to and would not change the idea of the settings around or within the story, everything from the timing it takes place at or atmosphere and everything that is seen is just nothing but as in a real world.

unless you would consider James Bond movies not happening in a real world as there is nobody who can accomplish what he does, and maybe its supposed then to be tagged as fantasy movies, or dont tell me that Angel heart would turn out to be set and be happening in a fantasy world because there is a devil in its story.

i would like to go on with all the games you mentioned explaining how i see them happening at/in a real-world settings, but then this would be a very long post and it could intimidate anyone to even start reading the first 2 lines of it, all i can say, at last, you can have a werewolf at fantasy world and you can have him at real-time/world and those two approaches could be too different considering how much of this and that are seen or used thru the whole product, but anyways you need to at any visual media to separate the story from the settings because certainly, they are both two different things.

     
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I agree with Advie on this. A real-world setting does not mean that the story can’t have any fantasy/supernatural elements.

So we can have the CSI-games and Law & Order games in the same category as The Cat Lady.


wilco - 14 August 2018 07:27 AM

Phoenix Wright (well, except the mediums)
Professor Layton (nothing far fetched about the twists… lol)

The Phoenix Wright games take place in an alternate near-future version of Japan, not the real world.
The Professor Layton games are one big anachronism stew of present day and early 1900s, which gives it a steampunk-y atmosphere. Also not the real world…

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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You guys could have saved yourselves a lot of time by reading the 3rd post by Phlebas:

Phlebas - 14 August 2018 07:24 AM

Those feature real-life locations but then populate them with fantastical events - as in the previous thread I was more looking for games that could take place in the real world (even if the specific places aren’t real, if that makes sense!)

Games with werewolves or ghosts cannot take place in the real world, period.

The Cat Lady is a tough one since the fantasy elements are in dreams and visions, but I still don’t think it’s in the spirit of the thread. The perspective of the entire game is from a near-delusional and severely depressed subject, and not a realistic/objective one.

I mean you could say Monkey Island is “real world” and merely the dreams of a little boy, but lines have to be drawn somewhere. Otherwise the thread serves no purpose.

     

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