10 Best Video Game Cities You Must Explore

As video games have evolved over the years, the settings and level designs have become much more important. From the early beginnings of the 8 and 16 bit games to the 3D graphics of the revolutionary PlayStation and Nintendo 64 and now to the high power console that offer HD and 4K resolutions, one thing that gamers have always been in awe off is the worlds in which the games take place.

Whether it is the 16 bit worlds of Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger or the sprawling open spaces we are offered today in the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Assassins Creed we love to feel like the game world we are immersing ourselves in really feels lived in and what better way is there to make a video game world feel lived in than to have it based in or centered around a sprawling city or metropolis?

Let's take a walk down memory lane and through the streets of some of the finest video game cities, big and small, that allowed us to really feel like we were part of that games world.

Rapture was an underwater utopia designed to be a self sufficient haven where free thinking and enlightenment would be encouraged and where scientific progress would truly flourish. The brainchild of Andrew Ryan, the city was to be unaffected by the corrupted politics and religions of the world above. Of course, anyone who is familiar with the game or other attempts at creating utopias in fiction know that the aims of Rapture, while noble, are likely to fail due to human greed.

The Rapture that the player visits is far from the one pictured by the cities founder and without giving away too many spoilers, the in game city is one that has clearly be torn apart by the very corruption and greed that Andrew Ryan sought to avoid by taking the world's brightest and best and going under water.

The opening scene as the player descends into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean listening to inspiring monologue by Ryan that then opens up into the city of Rapture is juxtaposed with an eerie tune and creates the sense that all is not well in the city.

Drawing on influences ranging from Gotham City to the Rockefeller Center, the city of Rapture presents and stunning backdrop to the events of BioShock. The influences do not stop there. The rich backstory of the city is steeped in Orwellian traits and the horrific sense that you are trapped and being hunted in a city like this draws from works such as the Shining. While not necessarily an open world game and not as free to explore as other cities on this list, we can not help but be awed by the scale and magnificence of Rapture.