It's the little things. Attention to detail in games

[The Fair Lady]

I approve of basically any game where your choices make a difference. As Thane previously mentioned, the Mass Effect trilogy is chock-full of details that can alter the story. Another minor example, which is from the third game, deals with Joker's sister.

 

[LordDarkrai]

It seems whenever I play Xenoblade, I discover something new. Playing it on the New3DS, I had my mind changed about the quests. I first thought that they were not important to the main story, but the ones with named NPCs works really well on the world building aspect. You know how Colony 9 got attacked in the beginning? There's quests that shows how people are coping from that attack. Like in one quest, you can fix this light so people can be distracted from their problems. Or you don't fix it so people can move on in their lives. You really get a sense of what people and the world are like and it gives a lot of reasons to care for them.

Another detail I love is when you reached Gaur Plains, you can see the Mechonis in the distance showing that you got a long way to go in this huge world.

So yeah, I love this fucking game so much.

 

[Thane Krios]

In Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag there is a mission where you have to kill an Italian diplomat for his clothing in order to sneak into a party. The diplomat is voiced by Roger Craig Smith, the man who voiced Ezio Auditore in 2, Brotherhood, and Revelations. I thought it was a funny throwback to Ezio with this whiney man complaining about the British and how people drink so much rum.

 

[Watcher]

There are ice cubes in MGS2 that melt realistically. There's nothing special about them and they only appear in one location, Kojima added them because he wanted to see if it was possible.

The Tanker chapter in MGS2 is full of dozens of little details in almost every part of it. Like there are small props in a store room that upon shooting them fall over. And it was all hand animated because the game was made before physics middleware. It's to the point where people have speculated the reason why Kojima made the tanker chapter so detailed was a blatant bait and switch. Essentially giving you "the perfect Metal Gear Solid sequel" in the first hour and then making fun of you during the rest of the game when you play as Raiden, with the game pointing out pretty often how all you wanted was to play a game that was like MGS1 all over again.

 

[Anchuent Christory]

Metroid Prime does an incredible job of placing you in a world that feels like a genuine place. Samus' visor mists up when passing through steam jets, raindrops cover it of you look up and her face will be reflected in it when a bright flash occurs nearby. The effort that went into the level details blows me away to this day, the Chozo Ruins section in particular where apart from a couple of transitional corridors every room is unique with detail that's entirely unnecessary other than the fact that it sells the world and its history. You can peer through gaps in walls and see machines pulsing away, cables snake across floors and pass into crevices, I could go on.

One of the moments I consider to be the most profound in my game playing history is the courtroom scene in Chrono Trigger. Seemingly minor things you did in an earlier section of the game that appeared to be just a bit of fun suddenly effect what is said about you during your trial by character witnesses.
I recall being gobsmacked by this when I first played it back in the 90's because it was the first time I'd seen this kind of continuity in a game before.

 

[Dio Brando]

I don't know if this completely counts but Ravenholm from Half-Life 2. What is probably the most disturbing and frightening part of the Half-Life 2 games. Not a lot of information on Ravenholm's past is given other than it used to be a big hideout for rebels, now they simply say "We don't go there anymore", allowing for you to make your own implications on just how devastating the Combine attacked the town. You're completely isolated except for when Father Grigori shows up to give you some help, and he's mentally unstable enough as it is. The way the shadows are placed, the traps, the decorations of hanging corpses (both human and zombie), and the seemingly eternal night brings everything together to make a very scary moment in the game. What's more disturbing is you and Grigori are likely not the only survivors, if you're in a quiet area you can sometimes hear people screaming somewhere within the town. It doesn't help that the zombie screams are really "OH GOD HELP....GOD HELP ME!" played in reverse, again giving the implication that the zombie victims are likely still conscious and have no control over their actions.

 

[DuskEngine]

In Dishonored's tutorial, you see a character getting their portrait done next to a table with a bottle of cider, which you can drink. When you find the painting much later in the game, it changes to reflect your decision about a completely meaningless interactible in the game's first level. That is attention to detail right there.

 

[Strelok]

For about 15 min I was trying to fix a strange graphical glitch in GTA V. Namely whenever I swapped into first person view, the color pallete became... off for lack of a better term. After messing with a few graphics settings and rebooting the game, I realized the reason it was off was Michael was wearing some godawful purple lens sunglasses at the time. That's a nice touch.

iRacing meanwhile does one of the things I wish all racing sim games did, and that's use the real billboards from when they collected track data. Nothing ruins my immersion faster than seeing 30 repeating billboards advertising the game I'm currently playing. Assetto Corsa was the worst in this regard when they put their logo as Nordschleiffe graffiti, which is basically sacrilege.

 

[Randall Fragg]

In Dishonored's tutorial, you see a character getting their portrait done next to a table with a bottle of cider, which you can drink. When you find the painting much later in the game, it changes to reflect your decision about a completely meaningless interactible in the game's first level. That is attention to detail right there.

Dishonored has some fun moments like these. In the first mission, you're given an optional objective to save a guard officer from your target, who plans on poisoning him. If you break the bottle of poisoned wine, the target will lead the guard to his personal quarters to grab another bottle, as well as to show off the painting you mentioned in your post. Now, the guard will attack you anytime before then. However, if you follow them to the the target's quarters, and wait until he draws his sword to attack the guard before killing him, the guard will blink in confusion, thank you for saving his life, and flee the area, completing the objective.

Later, there's a level where you sneak through a base full of assassins. You come across a reference to the original Thief, in the form of an obstical course being run by a recruit. If you take out the assassin assessing the recruit and drag him off, when the recruit comes back to the starting position, he'll look around, crouch down, draw his word, and start searching the area.

 

[Atsimuel]

The only thing that comes to mind right now is in Hotline Miami 2. While playing the detective's first level, I noticed that if you go to the back of his car, the boot opens. There was just random crap in there, but I figured I'd keep checking on it in his levels just in case I find something interesting.

Spoiler: Don't click if you haven't finished Hotline Miami 2

Sure enough, about half way through the game you can find a trussed up man struggling in his boot, apropos of nothing. In a later level you find the same man's dead body at a Miami Mutilator murder scene, revealing that the detective is the serial killer well before you're meant to find out.

There are a lot of neat details in Haunting Ground.

• In the old mansion, there's a mummy sitting on a couch. If you examine it, leave the area, and then come back, the mummy will be in a different position. It moved.
• There's a stuffed wooly mammoth in one room that seems to follow you with its eyes. I still can't tell if it's an optical illusion or not.
• Near the beginning of the game, you can walk in on the maid Daniella cooking something in a pot. After she's left the kitchen, you can examine the pot, and Fiona will say that its contents look like angel hair pasta. Examining it a second time will make Fiona notice that it actually looks like hair. Later on, Daniella serves it to her for dinner, and Fiona ends up feeling sick. Why is this so creepy? Fiona's mother had blonde hair.
• You can tell your dog companion, Hewie, to shake by pressing down on the left analog stick. It doesn't serve a purpose other than being cute. In addition, you can also play fetch with him if you find the toy ball.
• If you kick a rocking chair when Hewie is near it, he will sit down and watch the chair go back and forth while wagging his tail.

I did not notice that about the hair. I'll have to play it again at some point.

 

[exball]

Dishonored has some fun moments like these. In the first mission, you're given an optional objective to save a guard officer from your target, who plans on poisoning him. If you break the bottle of poisoned wine, the target will lead the guard to his personal quarters to grab another bottle, as well as to show off the painting you mentioned in your post. Now, the guard will attack you anytime before then. However, if you follow them to the the target's quarters, and wait until he draws his sword to attack the guard before killing him, the guard will blink in confusion, thank you for saving his life, and flee the area, completing the objective.

Later, there's a level where you sneak through a base full of assassins. You come across a reference to the original Thief, in the form of an obstical course being run by a recruit. If you take out the assassin assessing the recruit and drag him off, when the recruit comes back to the starting position, he'll look around, crouch down, draw his word, and start searching the area.

Dishonored was great. Too bad it wasn't longer.

 

[dabluearmedbandit]

As you advance throughout the eras in Civilization, the years between turns gets shorter. It's a nice way to represent how technology leads to more technology faster and faster. For example, 10 turns will take like 500 years in the Bronze era, but later when you're in the Industrial era 10 turns will only takes 10 years. I always liked that, and I think a lot of people don't even notice it.