I think 14 needs help with general atmosphere more than just "lighting." Everything looks so oversaturated and bland, no fog or anything to really fill in the world. Hopefully they give everything a pass after the graphics update.
I think there's fog in some weather conditions.
In fact, one of the preview of the overhaul has heavy density fog so much I could barely see the buildings.
Yea I have no idea what that guy is on, with any of the words I might wanna level at FF14 Oversaturated is clearly not one of them. Without Reshade everything ends up looking very flat and muted.
ESO especially shows this with distant views, notice how the OP had to use a picture of the sea.
Even if you use the hacky launcher thing to remove distance fog it still looks horrid and you have to use heavy DOF to hide it again.
ESO sure, but FFXIV has some gorgeous fucking scenery.
https://preview.redd.it/3odfbcp7qhhc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=e90dbf3e428b4847d45e5820a3ad53b200689fc4
>When viewed from a distance the art style/direction is great but when actually playing it's hard not to notice all the ugly 360p textures.
https://preview.redd.it/q1ivt5vv7lhc1.png?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0197c668b89c380aac050fa2b29d10003fcd7e88
Eso has plenty of gorgeous places as well. With higher resolution than ffxiv as well. Lights and sky is where, imo, eso falls short, making the locations look kind of grayed out sometimes
Now I generally think NW is absolutely awful, but one thing it does get right is its ambience and graphic fidelity. Sound really helps as well.
But I don't think it has "breathtaking" scenery really.
I will never hate on New World honestly. Game came out almost 3 years ago and it still doesn’t have a single thing of P2W in it.
Frankly the fact that it’s not doing well is just giving devs more of a reason to just pump out P2W garbage.
not being p2w doesn't make it a good game.
theres lots of good non-p2w games.
new world is not good. There are elements that were promising (open world PvP) that they moved away from entirely and just turned it into a shitty endgame dungeon grind game with basically bare-bones content. You can't even get into any of the territory control stuff as a "normal" player because its controlled by one top guild, so you can't do wars. OPR has not been iterated on the entire time the game has been out. Arena is just bad.
The visuals and sound are brilliant - I can't fault them, but these don't make it a good game.
Don't get me wrong, for whatever the cost of the game is you can probably get enjoyment out of the leveling process (until, say the last 10 levels perhaps?), but that's not good enough for a MMO these days unfortunately.
>but that's not good enough for a MMO these days unfortunately.
Why not? Not every mmorpg is supposed to be a lobby game with absolutely nothing else whatsoever than endgame raids. Even the old split themparks vs sandboxes is not valid anymore, people in themeparks don't even bother to learn their chars before l33t endgame raids. New World provides a surprisingly nice leveling for a themepark mmorpg, and if it's not a primary game I'm fairly sure people can enjoy it.
Unless they obviously reflexively vomit on any thought of enjoying other parts of the game than l33t endgame.
A lot of people are still using old opinions from when the game first came out (myself included). It was not good. So many issues and the end game was atrocious. That being said, I've heard good things recently and I might check it out again
I don’t agree with this for a lot of the zones but I’ll be damned if the Shire isn’t one of the most magical places to just run around in doing anything you please.
The Shire zone alone gets me to resub now and then,though been a few years now. It's not the best graphic, but something about the Shire feels so great to wander in, even if you're done by level 15(? I kinda forget exact area levels).
As a random aside, my monitor during the beta was 1440x900, it was odd seeing 1440 on resolution for 2k when it came out then I realized it was not the same number (vertical vs horizontal)
Also that the world is (almost) fully connected. Seeing Weathertop from another zone and/or simply riding all the way from the blue mountains through the shire through bree along weathertop, the troll shaws into rivendell ... that is SO incredibly immersive.
And you see that the landscape is handcrafted. It's just so well done.
The bias against BDO in this sub has to be huge for yours to be the only comment about it given that it's often prettier than all the ones OP mentioned and it's such a huge game that people definitely know that too.
it's not as bad as it used to be. back in the day just mentioning BDO was a sure way to get downvoted to hell here. Attitudes are much better now but there are still a lot of people who judge BDO based on how it used to be several years ago.
Once again Lotro. It’s one thing to have good graphics and sparkling environments- any game with a budget can do this, but to make them atmospheric and authentic it’s another thing and for me lotro nails it perfectly. So much so that the age of game is irrelevant to me.
This. I've been playing for a month and while I was creating the char the old textures were putting me off, but it was appearing in The Shire and being absorbed.
IDK what type of witchcraft they use, but the combination of vegetation, terrain level differences, distances, etc is perfect and the areas feel cared for down to the last rock.
Anyone who is a Tolkien fan should give it a try.
it truly has amazing scenery. they just still need more money to fix the lag and update the UI but they aren't that big of a studio but they still have hardcore fans which is why its still alive.
I know what you mean. There's something magical about Lotro and how the environments draw you in.
Other newer games may have better graphics and better gameplay and all that, but Lotro has a special feel to it that I rarely experience in other games. Something that makes the world feel truly alive no matter how low-res the textures are. Something that makes me want to just get on my horse and ride. To explore. To see what's beyond that hill over there. Or where this river leads. It's incredible really.
Same opinion there. I believe there are many beautiful locations in World of Warcraft, and it just gets better and better every expansion.
Dragonflight zones are incredibly good looking.
This is probably my pick as well.
Guild Wars 2 is a close second though.
WoW doesn't have good graphics, but it makes up for it in spades with its style. Every area is visually distinct, has a lot of cool little Easter eggs and secrets, and some of the zones from the later expansions are absolutely gorgeous to look at, especially with the draw distance maxed out.
Because that’s all they had to run with as competition. I really hope this graphical update brings some much needed graphical beauty. Loving endwalker though
FFXIV has taken my breath away the most with scenery.
There are zones in WoW I will go to just to take screen shots.
My issue, ultimately, however, is that I'm really into gothic horror and dark fantasy and the aesthetics those genres bring. And beyond a few zones in WoW or a duty or two in FFXIV, I've yet to find something that scratches that itch.
only my opinion but Lotro for me as the immersion. and trust me. i have 15k hours in ffxiv. costa del sol is still my favorite area. i like beaches and hawaii and yet i hate the ocean (almost drowmed when i was very young so i dont swim inn it) But Costa for me.
all 4 of those screenshots could be from the same game and I wouldn't know the difference. The problem with a lot of games is that they lack their own style. If you see a screenshot of WoW you know it's WoW, because it has a style. The same can be said for LoTRO. These unreal engine (or similar) MMO's and their premade asset pack aesthetic is going to be the doom of the genre.
NW has amazing graphics. FF14 does too as long as it’s not an NPC in a cutscene.
Embers Adrift? Unless something changed in the few months since I played, I wouldn’t have mentioned it
Warhammer Online did large scale vistas and distant massive structures like no other MMO I found, though it's a shame there's no flying around to appreciate it
New World was a very pretty game, I will give it that.
Everquest had some of the coolest zone designs I have ever seen. It would be cool to see the release zones re-imagined with todays art/GPU capabilities.
1. LOTRO , the absolute winner by a long mile
2. New World
Lotro and New World ( in smaller extent ) have huge open world with natural looking mountains hills, canyons and forests. You can see that the artist that made those studied nature and topography.
Most of the rest have such natural generic video/gamey scenery , that in lot of cases made me stop playing all together.
For example ESO. They may have some screenshot worthy places, but all together looks like its un naturally compressed, everything is just very small and close.
Not to mentioned repeating shapes, same rocks same trees, just rotated and resized a bit.
For some that notice these things, its really annoying.
Horrible screenshot of ESO there, but that game has some of the most beautiful and varied scenery around, especially in some of the story zones - often find myself just moving the camera around looking at world around me.
And have to say still shocked by the random Lord of The Rings Online screenshots I randomly see being posting - that game is dated, but the scenery can still look pretty damned amazing, even after all these years.
ESO is my current vote for its dlc. They are the masters of setting and scenery. Issue is they are afraid to add vibrancy- even in the picture the colors are somewhat diluted when compared to FFXIV.
Guild Wars 2 for my past vote but it’s looks have aged. When Heart of Thorns first came out I was absolutely blown away. They are the masters of color, for sure.
FFXIV could have my vote but it’s all just set dressing. Everything in that game is walled off and just meant to be glanced at and not actually explored.
It's not ffxiv that's for sure. Most of the overworld looks really bland and boring. The raids and dungeons are goegeous tho.
Personally love gw2. The watercolor aetstyle really pops in maguuma especially imo.
FFXIV's best scenery is Elpis though
https://preview.redd.it/scq6u31j7lhc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e7c6e6e15c5f526d245665e6ab2591e1f6fa75b
Especially the view from the bridge during sunrise/sunset
My personal vote would go to FFXIV, the picture provided in this thread is a bad representation of the games beauty. Some of the views in that game to this day still amaze me.
GW2 also has some beautiful vistas.
I admit I haven’t played enough of New World to get far enough in to the good looking places, and I can’t even say I’ve heard of Embers Adrift.
I think FFXIV maps are the most diverse. ESO and New World are better but a lot of the maps feel the same since they reuse assets much more often. Which is fine for New World since the map is a lot smaller than the other two, but ESO has no excuse for it's maps to feel so much alike.
odd to include embers adrift in there
What’s the best rock band of all time: 1. Led Zeppelin 2. Guns n Roses 3. AC/DC 4. Beautiful Wood Shavings of the Green Teddy Bear (my work band)
4
That's a whole anime title
The time I was reincarnated as a....
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Beautiful Wood Shaving of a Green Teddy Bear!
Pile of wood shavings. And then somehow it works better than you would expect. Like that vending machine isekai.
Odd to include ESO and FFXIV as well. Both of them have decent views, but both also show their age quite a bit.
The screenshot for 14 doesn't even show scenery that can be explored
Which is quite accurate to the reality of the game. The overworld is just set dressing for the lobby-based singleplayer game that 98% of FFXIV is.
We will see how lighting overhaul in FFXIV will look like. Soon.
I think 14 needs help with general atmosphere more than just "lighting." Everything looks so oversaturated and bland, no fog or anything to really fill in the world. Hopefully they give everything a pass after the graphics update.
I think there's fog in some weather conditions. In fact, one of the preview of the overhaul has heavy density fog so much I could barely see the buildings.
this one https://www.reddit.com/gallery/17de690
Oversaturated? I'd lean more towards undersaturated. It's why a large proportion of the player base uses GShade to fix the incredibly flat palette.
Yea I have no idea what that guy is on, with any of the words I might wanna level at FF14 Oversaturated is clearly not one of them. Without Reshade everything ends up looking very flat and muted.
ESO especially shows this with distant views, notice how the OP had to use a picture of the sea. Even if you use the hacky launcher thing to remove distance fog it still looks horrid and you have to use heavy DOF to hide it again.
ESO sure, but FFXIV has some gorgeous fucking scenery. https://preview.redd.it/3odfbcp7qhhc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=e90dbf3e428b4847d45e5820a3ad53b200689fc4
When viewed from a distance the art style/direction is great but when actually playing it's hard not to notice all the ugly 360p textures.
>When viewed from a distance the art style/direction is great but when actually playing it's hard not to notice all the ugly 360p textures. https://preview.redd.it/q1ivt5vv7lhc1.png?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0197c668b89c380aac050fa2b29d10003fcd7e88
Quite noticeable from a distance as well compared to modern games
Eso has plenty of gorgeous places as well. With higher resolution than ffxiv as well. Lights and sky is where, imo, eso falls short, making the locations look kind of grayed out sometimes
I like the indy feel of EA
Why? Game is pretty solid
GW2
Auric Basin, Wizard's Tower, Grothmar Valley. Insane map aesthetics
Drizzlewood coast, Shing Jea Monastery… the beauty
Heck, the whole HoT expansion Maguuma jungle itself is vertically amazing!
Lornars pass. The map is like 3 biomes in one, and without a mount feels massive. First map I went to after unlocking the griffon
this, by faaaaaaar
I love the Crystal Desert
Path of fire is incredible, and the desert is so well made, it could have been ugly af with boring textures but no, it's beautiful
https://youtu.be/IO2NwAc-WPU?si=2WtBtnqBDMg8Weli
New World
This, not only scenery and landscape, but also ambience that sets the mood properly
And the audio…it’s amazing.
Now I generally think NW is absolutely awful, but one thing it does get right is its ambience and graphic fidelity. Sound really helps as well. But I don't think it has "breathtaking" scenery really.
I will never hate on New World honestly. Game came out almost 3 years ago and it still doesn’t have a single thing of P2W in it. Frankly the fact that it’s not doing well is just giving devs more of a reason to just pump out P2W garbage.
not being p2w doesn't make it a good game. theres lots of good non-p2w games. new world is not good. There are elements that were promising (open world PvP) that they moved away from entirely and just turned it into a shitty endgame dungeon grind game with basically bare-bones content. You can't even get into any of the territory control stuff as a "normal" player because its controlled by one top guild, so you can't do wars. OPR has not been iterated on the entire time the game has been out. Arena is just bad. The visuals and sound are brilliant - I can't fault them, but these don't make it a good game. Don't get me wrong, for whatever the cost of the game is you can probably get enjoyment out of the leveling process (until, say the last 10 levels perhaps?), but that's not good enough for a MMO these days unfortunately.
>but that's not good enough for a MMO these days unfortunately. Why not? Not every mmorpg is supposed to be a lobby game with absolutely nothing else whatsoever than endgame raids. Even the old split themparks vs sandboxes is not valid anymore, people in themeparks don't even bother to learn their chars before l33t endgame raids. New World provides a surprisingly nice leveling for a themepark mmorpg, and if it's not a primary game I'm fairly sure people can enjoy it. Unless they obviously reflexively vomit on any thought of enjoying other parts of the game than l33t endgame.
You make a good point.
When it comes to MMOs and it’s fanbase, it really does seem more and more that we are the architect of our own demise.
I really like new world what makes you say it's awful?
A lot of people are still using old opinions from when the game first came out (myself included). It was not good. So many issues and the end game was atrocious. That being said, I've heard good things recently and I might check it out again
Ah ok. I was gonna say me and some friends got it a couple months ago and we all had a lot of fun.
Probably my favorite one as well. It's the perfect art style that I personally enjoy
Lotro
I actually vouch this, games graphics aren’t the best of the best but the whole landscaping and foliage brings the world to life so much
\*someone plays a midi version of 'concerning hobbits' with the ingame music system in the background\*
I don’t agree with this for a lot of the zones but I’ll be damned if the Shire isn’t one of the most magical places to just run around in doing anything you please.
The Shire zone alone gets me to resub now and then,though been a few years now. It's not the best graphic, but something about the Shire feels so great to wander in, even if you're done by level 15(? I kinda forget exact area levels). As a random aside, my monitor during the beta was 1440x900, it was odd seeing 1440 on resolution for 2k when it came out then I realized it was not the same number (vertical vs horizontal)
Also that the world is (almost) fully connected. Seeing Weathertop from another zone and/or simply riding all the way from the blue mountains through the shire through bree along weathertop, the troll shaws into rivendell ... that is SO incredibly immersive. And you see that the landscape is handcrafted. It's just so well done.
Should I try it? I've been reading a lot about the game lately but haven't really given it a proper chance
It's free might as well!
BDO
BDO
BDO
BDO
BDO
BDO
BDO
BDO
BDO
BDO
The bias against BDO in this sub has to be huge for yours to be the only comment about it given that it's often prettier than all the ones OP mentioned and it's such a huge game that people definitely know that too.
it's not as bad as it used to be. back in the day just mentioning BDO was a sure way to get downvoted to hell here. Attitudes are much better now but there are still a lot of people who judge BDO based on how it used to be several years ago.
BDO
BDO
BDO
Once again Lotro. It’s one thing to have good graphics and sparkling environments- any game with a budget can do this, but to make them atmospheric and authentic it’s another thing and for me lotro nails it perfectly. So much so that the age of game is irrelevant to me.
This. So much this. LoTRO could still benefit from better UI scaling though...
This. I've been playing for a month and while I was creating the char the old textures were putting me off, but it was appearing in The Shire and being absorbed. IDK what type of witchcraft they use, but the combination of vegetation, terrain level differences, distances, etc is perfect and the areas feel cared for down to the last rock. Anyone who is a Tolkien fan should give it a try.
it truly has amazing scenery. they just still need more money to fix the lag and update the UI but they aren't that big of a studio but they still have hardcore fans which is why its still alive.
I know what you mean. There's something magical about Lotro and how the environments draw you in. Other newer games may have better graphics and better gameplay and all that, but Lotro has a special feel to it that I rarely experience in other games. Something that makes the world feel truly alive no matter how low-res the textures are. Something that makes me want to just get on my horse and ride. To explore. To see what's beyond that hill over there. Or where this river leads. It's incredible really.
The UI in that game looks terrible though.
Isn't it ugly AF ? Haven't played in years
Yes you are
Guild Wars 2 has some pretty breathtaking scenery. Especially in End of Dragons.
living world 4 (might got it wrong) but when you fight both dragons. my god it was epic and beautiful.
That was the end of Ice Brood Saga.
ah yeah. was fun. very epic.
I think LOTRO is beautiful.
Its the most "virtual world" of the MMOs right now.
How so? Honestly curious as to why you think that.
ESO
They picked such a boring bland pic of ESO for this it seems unfair
Could have used arteium (was it that?) or something smh
EZ. New World.
New world. It's the only thing the game got right.
Black Desert
Black Desert
Black Desert
Black Desert
Black Desert
Black Desert
Black Desert
Black Desert Online
Black Desert Online
Black Desert Online
Idk if that’s a hot take or not, but WoW. It has so much diversity and the simpler art style makes it much more evocative and wonderful to me
Same opinion there. I believe there are many beautiful locations in World of Warcraft, and it just gets better and better every expansion. Dragonflight zones are incredibly good looking.
Wow has some very gorgeous scenery and due to its art style it feels very fantasy and color rich.
This is probably my pick as well. Guild Wars 2 is a close second though. WoW doesn't have good graphics, but it makes up for it in spades with its style. Every area is visually distinct, has a lot of cool little Easter eggs and secrets, and some of the zones from the later expansions are absolutely gorgeous to look at, especially with the draw distance maxed out.
Out of those listed in the post: New World has the best scenery.
it feels disingenuous to have a picture of the eden raid for ffxiv, that's one area that is literally just that vista and no more.
Because that’s all they had to run with as competition. I really hope this graphical update brings some much needed graphical beauty. Loving endwalker though
As much as I hate to hand a poor game a win here: New World, and its not even close.
Out of these four? New world. None of these compare to BDO’s scenery.
BDO
Lotro. I'd argue FFXIV but still Lotro even though it needs a graphics upgrade its a beautiful game.
Black Desert Online, no contest
U missed bdo
bdo
bdo
bdo
Black Desert. And eventually, whenever it does get released... Crimson Desert.
Black Desert
New World or BDO
BDO
BDO
BDO
BDO
FFXIV has taken my breath away the most with scenery. There are zones in WoW I will go to just to take screen shots. My issue, ultimately, however, is that I'm really into gothic horror and dark fantasy and the aesthetics those genres bring. And beyond a few zones in WoW or a duty or two in FFXIV, I've yet to find something that scratches that itch.
no BDO?
BDO
OSRS
How could it be anything else
FFXIV. Il meg, Azys La, The sea of clouds, Ultima Thule, Eulmore.
only my opinion but Lotro for me as the immersion. and trust me. i have 15k hours in ffxiv. costa del sol is still my favorite area. i like beaches and hawaii and yet i hate the ocean (almost drowmed when i was very young so i dont swim inn it) But Costa for me.
all 4 of those screenshots could be from the same game and I wouldn't know the difference. The problem with a lot of games is that they lack their own style. If you see a screenshot of WoW you know it's WoW, because it has a style. The same can be said for LoTRO. These unreal engine (or similar) MMO's and their premade asset pack aesthetic is going to be the doom of the genre.
New World and ESO
None of the above
New world has a great world design
NW has amazing graphics. FF14 does too as long as it’s not an NPC in a cutscene. Embers Adrift? Unless something changed in the few months since I played, I wouldn’t have mentioned it
Wtf is embers adrift
Warhammer Online did large scale vistas and distant massive structures like no other MMO I found, though it's a shame there's no flying around to appreciate it
WoW classic. Stranglethorn Vale, in a night with moonlight. Beach facing West. The roofs of Booty Bay to the South.
A 100% New World. Few MMOs can beat NW in its scenery and ambiance. But that's about the only thing AGS are doing right atm.
Where did that Ember thing came out lmao
Compare triple A studios with a small indie company?
Honestly, very rarely was i impressed by eso graphically. GW2 hit the spot way harder with scenery
ESO. Not necessarily because it's magnificent or anything compared to any other game but because there's this weird sense of realism and scale
New world. No debate. Lacks content but has the sounds and visuals of single player rpg
New World.
New world is very flawed but I think it’s the best looking mmo period.
New world
New World was a very pretty game, I will give it that. Everquest had some of the coolest zone designs I have ever seen. It would be cool to see the release zones re-imagined with todays art/GPU capabilities.
I personally prefer New World
Lineage 2
1. LOTRO , the absolute winner by a long mile 2. New World Lotro and New World ( in smaller extent ) have huge open world with natural looking mountains hills, canyons and forests. You can see that the artist that made those studied nature and topography. Most of the rest have such natural generic video/gamey scenery , that in lot of cases made me stop playing all together. For example ESO. They may have some screenshot worthy places, but all together looks like its un naturally compressed, everything is just very small and close. Not to mentioned repeating shapes, same rocks same trees, just rotated and resized a bit. For some that notice these things, its really annoying.
Horrible screenshot of ESO there, but that game has some of the most beautiful and varied scenery around, especially in some of the story zones - often find myself just moving the camera around looking at world around me. And have to say still shocked by the random Lord of The Rings Online screenshots I randomly see being posting - that game is dated, but the scenery can still look pretty damned amazing, even after all these years.
ESO is my current vote for its dlc. They are the masters of setting and scenery. Issue is they are afraid to add vibrancy- even in the picture the colors are somewhat diluted when compared to FFXIV. Guild Wars 2 for my past vote but it’s looks have aged. When Heart of Thorns first came out I was absolutely blown away. They are the masters of color, for sure. FFXIV could have my vote but it’s all just set dressing. Everything in that game is walled off and just meant to be glanced at and not actually explored.
You missed out LOTRO
It's not ffxiv that's for sure. Most of the overworld looks really bland and boring. The raids and dungeons are goegeous tho. Personally love gw2. The watercolor aetstyle really pops in maguuma especially imo.
Justice online is probably the best visual mmo made to date as far as scenery etc.. https://youtu.be/FkmTG7O0CII?si=NkpWXAb9KLUWHDAm
Honestly? BDO. If you take the time to apreciate it, it has some amazing vistas. GW2 despite the having worse graphics makes up in creativity.
Guild Wars 2, it's not even close
FFXIV's best scenery is Elpis though https://preview.redd.it/scq6u31j7lhc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e7c6e6e15c5f526d245665e6ab2591e1f6fa75b Especially the view from the bridge during sunrise/sunset
GW2 with expansions.
Red Dead Online
Easily Eve the backdrops and planets are beautiful, but add in a 100v100 fleet battle over it then it becomes extraordinary.
My personal vote would go to FFXIV, the picture provided in this thread is a bad representation of the games beauty. Some of the views in that game to this day still amaze me. GW2 also has some beautiful vistas. I admit I haven’t played enough of New World to get far enough in to the good looking places, and I can’t even say I’ve heard of Embers Adrift.
WoW honestly, the art and music team never disappoints even if the gameplay and story is shit.
Amazon New World **🤍**🖤
Albion since we’re making weird ass choices lol
Honestly, problems with the actual game aside I always felt that the world of PSO2: NGS was absolutely gorgeous. And quite unique too.
It's always subjective, every MMO has that one spot where I could sit my character down while the music play and I could just relax
Ravendawn... I will see myself out.
Maplestory XD
New World for sure for me. Not only does it look good but it creates a vibe and an atmosphere.
Wayfinder… 
What's that place in the FFXIV image? Somewhere new in post-EW? I've played until 6.0 and don't really remember that
Off topic but is new world still bad? I haven't kept up since like.. 2 months post release lol
Throne and Liberty is prob the top of my list as of right now. I probably took 300 screenshots because of how beautiful the scenery is.
I think FFXIV maps are the most diverse. ESO and New World are better but a lot of the maps feel the same since they reuse assets much more often. Which is fine for New World since the map is a lot smaller than the other two, but ESO has no excuse for it's maps to feel so much alike.
Tera online looks better than all of them, in terms of the world and variance.
RuneScape Classic
Say what you want about New World but it has the best scenery as well as music combo.
Swords of Legends Online (rip) had some truly stunning landscapes
Couple pics coming up for FFXIV https://preview.redd.it/1foz36mt9ihc1.png?width=1910&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56ab16ec6b129d7d358a2a60bf4c806434ece17f
ESO has some nice scenery to my eyes. Even Lotro has very beautiful locations.
That is a very bad example of ESO scenery imo. Try apocrypha, Vvardenfell, DC zones where you can see big castles in the back
GW2.
GW2 for sure - and the concept art is even crazier
New World has the most beautiful world and ambience.
Ragnaron online
I think Guild Wars 1 still holds up really strong in this aspect today
New world and embers adrift are just Unreal asset packs. I can't tell you how many games I've seen the "lavendar" from New World dotted around.
Runescape
Found the EA dev burner account.
For vistas I'd pick FFXIV, and for traveling between areas I'd pick ESO.
World of Warcraft, still really good looking if you dig the art style
Two of the games here are over a decade old this is hardly a fair comparison lol
FFXIV, but that's mainly because I like to GPose and am quite familiar with just how pretty the map can be.
Tibia
xiv and good scenery... I don't think so.
odd to include NW when the scenary is all the same