Environments are an enormous a part of what offers a recreation a definite character. Some video games create cozy, comforting worlds for gamers to discover (and/or enhance), whereas others supply creepy settings that also handle to be inviting, regardless of the unsettling vibes.
We at Polygon have performed by a great deal of unimaginable video games this 12 months, from terrifying horror titles to charming bookshop administration sims and every part in-between. Whereas most of the video games we performed have been visually gorgeous, some went past magnificence, that includes attractive environments that made us want we may waltz into the sport itself and arrange store.
Here is a better have a look at all the perfect gaming environments of 2025 — a group of areas so sumptuously rendered, we need to stay in them. —Claire Lewis
The Crossroads (Hades 2)
The central hub areas in every Hades recreation couldn’t be extra completely different. The Home of Hades within the first recreation looks like a jail, however all through Hades 2, the Crossroads is a mysterious and magical refuge, the one protected place in a legendary apocalypse. A lantern-lit sanctuary that exists exterior the traditional move of time, the Crossroads is the one place within the universe that Chronos can’t attain.
Early-game flashbacks depict protagonist Melinoë’s childhood within the Crossroads as a cheerful one filled with video games like conceal and search, regardless of her total household being faraway from time itself when she was only a child. Hecate, the Titan goddess of Witchcraft, is nothing in need of intimidating. But she raises Melinoë with a substantial amount of tenderness — and likewise trains her to be a strong witch able to taking down Chronos.
True to developer Supergiant Video games’ format with these video games, this central hub begins out easy with only some NPCs to speak to (together with the overtly hostile Nemesis). As you progress by the sport, Melinoë gathers the sources to craft gadgets that make the Crossroads a comfy little dwelling the place mundane routines turn into a restorative respite between the frenetic violence of every run. A small backyard rewards persistence, a bustling tavern offers a pleasant place to chill out over a pint of Ambrosia, and you’ll even go fishing together with your besties now and again. You get a lot character growth on the Crossroads over time, and the actual spotlight is the entire “bonding” that occurs on the Scorching Springs… the place characters strip down bare to unwind and unburden themselves of their worries, if just for a short time. —Corey Plante
Zephyr City (Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar)
Who wouldn’t need to stay in a tight-knit, walkable neighborhood dwelling to a thriving weekly market, to not point out a inhabitants packed to the brim with charming singles? That’s the world of Zephyr City in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, the 2025 remake that expanded and improved upon the 2008 Nintendo DS model in almost each manner. Recognized for its windmills and bracing breezes, one of many methods gamers get round city is by floating on the breeze with a glider, which is likely one of the most whimsical types of transport I can think about. Zephyr City embodies the platonic ultimate of neighborhood, with a mayor who’s simply as pleasant because the little previous girl who runs the café, and with its lush greenery crammed with nature sprites, its total oeuvre is that of pure magic. —Deven McClure
That camper I embellished (Camper Van: Make It Residence)
Considered one of my dream trip eventualities includes renting a camper van, driving across the nation, and staying anyplace that takes my fancy for so long as I need. Camper Van: Make It Residence lets me stay out a bit little bit of that dream. Of the various (many) vans I’ve designed, my first one, a comfy little nature-toned retreat nestled beneath a lighthouse on a seashore, nonetheless stands out as a favourite. It is easy, perhaps even barely naked. However the thought of laying again on that comfortable mattress, blanket, e book, and headphones in attain, watching the clouds roil and tumble over the ocean, the faint promise of someplace new lingering simply past the place the solar meets the horizon? Pure, unfiltered bliss. —Josh Broadwell
Bookstonbury (Tiny Bookshop)
Tiny Bookshop was such a comfy refuge for me when it launched over the summer time. It provided an enthralling tackle a actuality I do know all too properly: the horrors of working retail. In Tiny Bookshop, I may promote books all day lengthy with out having to fret about leaky bathrooms or clients staining my books with espresso. Higher but? I made a lot financial institution; Bookstonbury’s residents seemingly purchased books and solely books. It provided the best world for a bookseller to stay in. I additionally received to undertake a canine that frolicked by my tiny bookshop. Quick 10/10.
It helped too that the city of Bookstonbury was an enthralling place to inhabit, nestled alongside a New England-like seashore. Its folks have been nothing however type and welcoming, and I appeared ahead to each end-of-season celebration to hang around with the lot of them. I wouldn’t thoughts retiring in an IRL model of Bookstonbury sometime. —Austin Manchester
Vatican Metropolis (Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle)
Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle nabbed a excessive spot on Polygon’s greatest video games of 2025 listing for a lot of causes, together with its array of luxurious environments it sends you to. Like Anthony Bourdain’s Half’s Unknown or the Mission: Unimaginable movies, Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle doubles as an envy-inducing travelogue. A jungle village in present-day Thailand. A dusty desert camp by one of many Seven Wonders. And better of all, a small metropolis state smack within the middle of Europe’s third-greatest metropolis.
Sure, if I may go to anyplace from any 2025 recreation, I am availing myself of a one-way ticket to the Vatican Metropolis stage of Nice Circle — to not putz across the Sistine Chapel or something, however to make use of the chance to stroll 5 ft over to Rome correct. We’re speaking day by day Montepulciano within the Regola, sundown cocktails on a Trevi rooftop, hijinks in Trastevere. I might be at Jerry Thomas so usually they’d have to call a drink after me. (Is my want to observe in Indy’s footsteps merely to…. drink so much? Look, there are numerous wonderful watering holes within the Everlasting Metropolis. When in Rome!)
Italian cities have appeared in loads of video video games, however few have captured the vibe in addition to Nice Circle. It is nearly intangible, however the little particulars — the best way daylight illuminates rust-hued bricks, the best way everybody strikes at a pleasantly glacial tempo, the best way you may nearly scent the espresso and tobacco emanating from the display — seize its vibe in a bottle, spurring an unquenchable wanderlust in me like no different 2025 recreation. —Ari Notis
Ebisugaoka (Silent Hill f)
Previous to its launch in September, Silent Hill f’s creators said that they needed gamers to “discover the wonder in terror,” which could sound like a tall order for a horror recreation filled with disgusting monstrosities, copious quantities of physique horror, and intense jumpscares. However as I explored the foggy, flowered streets of Ebisugaoka — the sport’s fictional setting in Sixties Japan — I started actually warming as much as the place. Sure, there are terrifying monsters round each nook, however as soon as you’ve got cleared them out, it is actually not so unhealthy. The shortage of individuals on the streets makes for a solitary expertise, however the putting pink flowers masking a lot of the corrupted city’s actual property actually began to develop on me after a couple of hours.
There’s been numerous debate about what the “f” in Silent Hill f stands for. Some assume it means “feminine” (as a result of feminine protagonist and themes of sexism). Others assume it means “5,” as the sport is (arguably) the fifth mainline Silent Hill title. Personally, I believe it means “flowers.” Silent Hill f marks the primary time within the sequence that the corrupted “otherworld” has taken on a flowery aesthetic, moderately than the rusted, bloody look featured in earlier Silent Hill video games. Higabana (pink spider lilies, typically seen as an emblem of demise) cowl buildings and block pathways, whereas White Claudia (a fictional hallucinogenic flower typically featured in earlier video games) blooms close to waterways and rice paddies.
The top result’s a definite visible aesthetic that’s each spine-chilling and breathtaking. A number of the recreation’s monsters are even lined in flowers, and this juxtaposition of gorgeousness and grotesquerie finally made me need to crawl by my monitor, Samara-style, and take up residence in one in all Ebisugaoka’s many deserted, flower-covered houses. Positive, the place is about as cursed because it will get, however even the city’s freakiest supernatural inhabitants do not negate its impeccable vibes. —Claire Lewis
