There’s no denying that storytellers love New York City. It’s a huge hub of all sorts of action. Many may consider it the center of the world at the moment. So of course, movies, TV shows, and comics use it as a backdrop for their stories. The same goes for video games.
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It’s also not limited by genre. New York City is the setting for science fiction games, crime games, and even superhero games. It’s a place that can be dark and gritty as well as lively and vibrant. Here is a list of some of the best games that feature New York City.
10Assassin’s Creed III
Assassin’s CreedIII mightseem like a strange gameto consider in a list of New York City games, but the city does play an integral role. This was a time before the city exploded into the metropolis of skyscrapers that it is today. Instead, it was a city still very much building itself up into a center of the new world.
Of course, the city also played a large role in the American Revolution, which the game is all about. The city was plagued by sickness during this time, which the game also portrayed well.
9The Warriors
The Warriors is a cult classic film that has a gang stranded far away from their home turf of Coney Island. The film chronicles the Warriors as they have to get back home after being framed for murdering a rival gang leader. Decades later, the film is an unlikely contender for getting a next-generation game adaptation.
But it did, and the game did a great job bringing the New York City of the seventies to life. Like most cities, New York has a different vibe depending on the time period. The Warriors game captured this well.
8The Darkness
New York City isn’t thought of a lot when dealing with The Darkness. The comic from which it is based deals heavily with New York City’s crime families. Of course, the game takes place in that city as well, but it’s much more focused on its characters than highlighting the city.
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Still, the city plays an integral role in the action that unfolds. It merges the classical notion of New York City’s crime families with dark supernatural elements. The result is a unique twist on a popular New York City genre.
7True Crime: NYC
Some of the best video games about crimeare broken up into two categories. They can focus on the police trying to stop the criminals, or they can focus on the criminals trying to commit crimes. Sometimes, these stories have some crossover as a hardened cop trying to stop hardened criminals has more in common than one might think.
True Crime handles this subject well as an ex-gang member joins the force to combat his legacy in organized crime.
Stories love to create a fictional dystopian hellscape out of New York. This happened in the film Escape From New York as well as The Day After Tomorrow.Crysisfollows this trend magnificently. The first game took place in a jungle that was isolated and wild.
The sequel decided to change locations from the middle of nowhere to write in the hub of one of the most famous places on Earth. Of course, the city was largely abandoned, but that doesn’t stop Crysis 2 from having intense sci-fi action.
5Max Payne
Max Payne is another game that takes the beautiful grittiness of New York City’s streets and alleyways and uses it perfectly to tell a dark noir story about a troubled police officer. The game’s levels ooze with New York City grit on every turn.
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The ambiance the city sets is perfect for telling Max’s journey about pain and loss. The game,an underrated one from Rockstar, ultimately shifts the setting for its third installment, but the first two games encapsulate what it’s like to go on a vigilante rampage in the city that never sleeps.
4Marvel’s Spider-Man
Out of all of Marvel’s heroes, it’s hard to think of one that embodies all of New York City more thanSpider-Man. Of course, Luke Cage has Harlem. Daredevil has Hell’s Kitchen. And even though Spider-Man hails from Queens, he’s known throughout all of Manhattan as a staple superhero.
His new string ofgreat superhero games from Sonyhandles this well as it has a fully fleshed-out New York City for the wall-crawler to swing through. The skyscrapers of the city are Spider-Man’s playground, and it’s a true treat for fans.
3The Division
In many ways, The Division is the worst fear for many New York City residents. It’s about a very strong plague outbreak that effectively grounds the city to a standstill. Even more than that, police completely lose control of the city as it becomes a reckless war zone filled with gangs.
Specialized soldiers are deployed in the city in order to restore order and get to the bottom of what caused the outbreak. Even more than a great story though, the game does an excellent job of recreating landmarks.
2Ghostbusters
Any fan ofGhostbustersknows just how tied to the city the franchise is. Unlike a lot of stories, which treat New York City nearly as a backdrop for its story, Ghostbusters intrinsically ties its characters and plot lines to the city itself.
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The game does a phenomenal job following through on this idea. Very rarely do spin-off games of successful franchises do such a great job encapsulating the atmosphere of the original. Ghostbusters is definitely one, and it has New York City to thank for that.
1Lego Marvel Super Heroes
There’s no denying there New York City plays a major role inMarvelComics. Rather than setting their heroes in fictional cities like Gotham or Metropolis,Marvel’s most popular superheroescontrol all the neighborhoods of the Big Apple. So a game based on Lego versions of these heroes took advantage of building a fairly accurate New York City.
It even has iconic Marvel landmarks like the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building. To expand the game’s reach, it also has an upstate area that’s home to the X-Men’s famous mansion.
