As a species, exploring the unknown is something we have always been obsessed with, and there’s no greater unknown than the vast expanses of space. And as is the case with so many other things, video games often help us fulfil these fantasies- some with more grounded attempts at simulations, others not so much. In this feature, we’ll be taking a look at fifteen games that, in one form or another, allowed us to do just that.
METROID PRIME
Nintendo’s seminal Metroid series has always seen us explore wondrous and unearthly alien vistas, and Metroid Prime was no exception to that rule. As the game that took the series to 3D, in fact, it presented us with more starkly realized alien landscapes than any game in the series has before. Tallon IV is a beautiful, desolate planet haunted by the remnants of the Chozo, and as you dig deeper into its secrets, you find threats hitherto undreamt of. There are many reasons to play a game as stellar as Metroid Prime, but the star of the show is the world it has you explore – few outer space games have achieved a setting as rich or as well realized as Metroid Prime did.
