Have you ever wanted to move upwards, or perhaps even downwards without much physical exertion? Well then lucky you, because elevators exist! Ah, but elevators aren't always there for us and in those cases, we have to resort to using our legs on those pesky stairs.
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Sometimes, simple things in games are actually incredibly difficult to create. You can look up countless tales of the absurdity of creating a working door while the entirety of a landscape is simplicity. Elevators and stairs in games, meanwhile, are at times seen as simple ways to hide loading sequences, but these games go a step further, making them a real part of the experience.
Rocksteady's Arkham games created a fundamental shift in how people designed games; the simple set of buttons and quick movement becoming the basis for every game that struggled to think up their own. It did plenty of other things too, such as creating a Batman and his villains in a game that were so well-realized that plenty of other games and films struggle to compare to.
The opening of Arkham Asylum is a terrific one, the dash into the Asylum with the Joker already in tow. It's a gloomy night and everyone is on edge. Except Joker, of course. The journey down the elevator with him is brief, but every second of waiting for those doors to open feels like horror, as though you just know something is going to go wrong, the second the lights flash off feeling like that exact moment. Nothing goes wrong there, but it sets a wonderful tense tone for the night ahead.
Arkane are experts in the immersive sim genre, with the likes of Dishonored and Deathloop being prime entries in their almost flawless catalog of games. Prey, though unfortunately named for the series it was taken from, is an incredible game, and maybe not exactly what was expected from Arkane. Yes, it's an incredible immersive sim with great depth and replayability, but perhaps most impressive is that it's a terrifying horror game too.
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Every step in the Talos 1 space station is taken carefully. Flickering lights the sign of an impending threat. Everyday objects now subjects of destruction for fear of being a Mimic. Nothing ever feels calm or safe in Prey - not even the elevators you use throughout the game. Just when you've gotten used to them as loading screens, you let your guard down. You can't use your weapons after all. Then a Phantom appears in one of them, and you're trapped, your heart likely beating much faster than it was just a few seconds ago.
Kingdom Hearts, regardless of your opinion of the series, is undeniably something special. With the corporate sludge that has become every aspect of Disney's interconnected universes, Kingdom Hearts is weirdly fresh in its rather surreal expression of it. It doesn't feel like IP showcases, but a nostalgia trip. It feels almost innocent. It also helps that Disney is mostly window-dressing compared to the downright hilarious lore and characters of Kingdom Hearts.
Every word uttered in Kingdom Hearts deserves an award for its sincerity, despite it meaning next to nothing. One of the most special moments in Kingdom Hearts comes from a moment that doesn't feature Sora, Donald and Goofy at all. In KH2, there's a scene where a cloaked figure walks down a great spiral staircase. The whole thing. It's a very big staircase. No joke, they walk down the stairs for a solid two minutes.
FromSoftware have been having a pretty good time this last decade, releasing critically acclaimed hit after hit. Demons' Souls may have had a rocky start, but Elden Ring shows the power of their perseverance, a revolution in open-world design and their own Souls formula. Exploring that world and discovering the secrets and enemies around every corner, over every hill and in each valley, is a true joy.
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One of the greatest discoveries is in the great rivers in the Lands between Ainsel and Siofra. Likely, you'll stumble across Siofra (which is Irish, by the way) by accident long before you need to go there, and the journey down is one you'd struggle to forget. Every time the blue-streaked elevator seems like it's about to end, it reveals a new scene. The peaks of distant buildings, the waterfalls, the sky of false stars, the rolling streams. It's a beauty that truly needs to be experienced yourself, organically.
One of the jewels in Bioware's crown of beloved RPGs, Mass Effect is known for its great characters that you truly feel grow, alongside a growing series of choices that you can genuinely see reflected between games. Mass Effect also came with its fair share of elevator sequences that did very obviously hide loading screens.
Though there are many, the elevators of the Citadel in the original were comedically long, random tidbits of news and conversation playing between the on average minute-long loading sequences. The Legendary Edition fixes this without cutting out any dialogue whatsoever, though gives you the choice to spend a little longer in the elevator if that nostalgia-fuelled awkwardness is more your thing.
Kojima's ego gets massaged enough as it is (he has a podcast called Brain Structure, even!) but where he deserves some praise is in the Metal Gear Solid series. Few others have ever even attempted to create such scathing, politically-informed games, not that many major publishers would likely even allow it, but Kojima did it with ease. Many people somehow miss this glaringly obvious political story, talking instead about Kojima's genius in gaming sequences.
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The thing is, Kojima does actually have a pretty unique way of exploring his themes. For example, the ladder in Metal Gear Solid 3. Everyone knows of it, though experiencing it is something special. After defeating The End, you climb this ladder in silence before the vocals of Snake Eater kick in, your remaining climb filled with the emotions of where this journey has brought you so far.
The original Final Fantasy 7 was a big gamble for Square Enix, bringing the series into 3D while on a very tight schedule, but, incredibly, they succeeded, making one of the most acclaimed games there is. Amazingly, against all odds, the Remake actually lived up to the hopes set by its long development time, and the interesting direction it brings the story in.
By the end of the Midgar section of the original FF7, you're tasked with taking an elevator or individual stairs up 59 floors, having to actually scale each and every step. With flying colors, the Remake exceeds this scene, with bountiful dialogue to occupy the stupidly long climb when you could've just taken an elevator. Sephiroth can wait, after all, for you to get your cardio in for the day.
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