Thread: Most Immersive Games of All Time
How's Minecraft and Super Mario 64 immersive? What's the definition of immersion?

it's gonna vary.

I dunno about Mario 64.

Minecraft is a game that you begin and then you're playing immediately. You can go in any of 1000 different directions / goals at any time, mostly without the guidance of quests or waypoints.

One way that games break immersion (for me) is when I try to use the tools / physics in the game but for artificial reasons I can't. Minecraft has plenty of limitations but as far as open-world games go, it's one of the most immersive
 
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Shenmue
Full day and night cycle, Magic Weather System w/ real-time weather effects, NPCs that all had their unique daily schedules, in-built mini games including a couple of Sega arcade classics all wrapped up in a highly detailed interactive world that was unprecedented for its time.
 
Mario Kart if immersion = rng rage

Look at that immersion ric flair wooooo



I started playing MK8D on Switch and I got to like the 2nd speed class and I just quit due to RNG blue shells and such lol, not very fun when playing on your own. Its best to brute force the cups via MP I think, so even if you get fucked another human can take first.
 
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Before you know it you've ran 50+ hrs through the game wondering where the time went. It's almost a straining effort to make the game's story last as long as the countless hours of exploration that remain for the player
 
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Some good one listed already. Alien Isolation, YES! That game scares me too much to even play it hardly. Just a brilliant sense of fear, isolation(!!) and uncertainty.

MineCraft is also great for immersion. The first time I played Survival mode it was a fucking experience. I felt like the apes at the start of 2001 discovering tools. Then having to build impromptu shelters to survive the nights. Just fantastic.

BOTW for similar reasons to MineCraft. In the beginning you are so weak and the world is so massive and filled with perils. You spend a 5 or 6 hours just trying to survive and survey the local area. Crossing a small river seems like an insurmountable task.

I would submit RDR2 due to the breadth of content. I WAS a cowboy named Arthur Morgan*. Seriously by about mid Valentine you have been sucked into this world real hard. And that excites you cuz it is obvious you aint seen but the tip of the iceberg. All the random members of you gang go from damn near unknowns to characters you deeply care for (or hate). Hell I loved my horse.
 
I like a lot of the games already mentioned.

For me:
1. Breath of the Wild -- You start from basically nothing and have to grow up to get out of the starting area. From there, it's a long series of discoveries that keep you hooked. I'll never forget the long walk I had as I approached the dragon on top of Mount Lanayru. Then that air battle that followed... OH MAE GAWD.

2. Minecraft -- again, you start from absolute nothing. Blocky world. Trees. Hills. Caves. MOBs. Hey, the sun is directly overhead... and wtf it's moving kinda fast. Need an axe. Ok, I can apparently use my bare hands to cut wood. Now what? NOW WHAT? OK, I'll just bury myself for the night. Damn, how long is night?? F--k. Ok, dawn. Got an axe. I need some coal. I need torches. And a door. Time to build home base, then its time to wreck some baddies. To this day, it still pains me that there isn't a more fleshed out RPG world that encompasses everything that is Minecraft Survival + a more civilized world. Maybe there's something in the marketplace that fulfills this. I've never been bold enough to spend a lot of money on games built in Minecraft, so...

3. Metroid Prime -- Few games have left such a strong impression as those opening moments on the overworld. It's dark and it's raining. Water droplets trail down your visor. You jump off into a pool of water to emerge on the bank on the other side. Water quickly runs down the visor. Everything in this game is atmospheric. There are so many things to scan and so much world detail to learn. Every area of this game represents a different atmosphere and set of environmental effects. I would pay $60 for just this remastered in 1080p with updated effects and models. We'd be fortunate if Nintendo simply made 1080p this available with no updates, of course.
 
Thought of another...

CRYSIS

I logged so many hours just pretending to be the predator in this game. I threw so many hapless bodies around and blew so much shit up. I loved running around that island wreaking so much mayhem.
 
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Mass effect 1 and 2. A caveat is that this is outside of the combat for ME1. That was atrocious.
Battlefield 1: Specifically the opening segment of the game that has you experience the weight of death in WW1. Also the MP was very immersive with squad leaders whistling commands. It did not try to be the most realistic but it sure was immersive.
Heavy Rain: Memes/jokes aside, this game has the ability to really connect to the player.
RDR2/GTA5: These games just have so much attention to detail with crazy random events that appear.
 
Minecraft.
I'll raise you one... Minecraft VR.

I remember getting it set up for the first time (roomscale and with a fan blowing on me for that extra immersion) and being so blown away I had to show everyone. I also remember the first time I mined up and a whole pile of gravel fell on me. As well as meeting my first giant spider...

But the best part was crafting my mountain side house. I'll never forget it.

I also nominate Alien Isolation as a very close second. I haven't played it in VR yet (last I heard there were no roomscale mechanics) so it might end up taking top spot...
 
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Depends what you definite as immersive. For me, that pretty much says first person, so I'd probably say NMS in VR, that's pretty amazing.
 
Alien Isolation. Perhaps one of the most UNDERRATED games of all time. It's so rare I play a game where I actually FEEL dread.

Division 1 and 2. The subject matter makes playing these games creepy as fuck. Seeing giant landfills pilled with body bags and the back stories you discover define immersion.
 
Just finished Fear 2 which really did it for me. Obviously all the Elder Scrolls games. They spawned a lot of imitators but I don't think anyone has recaptured the way they use their open world together with the first person perspective together with the score and the lay of the land. One really great modification that takes it to new heights is to make the trees larger, I love losing myself in some of those forests.

Not an orthodox choice but I would actually say Crusader Kings. The music, especially the second one, just kind of submerses you into the map if that makes any sense and before you know this world of characters starts coming alive. I remember the first time I had a long session, late night infomercials started playing from the background and the sun started coming up without me realizing how late it was.
Division 1 and 2. The subject matter makes playing these games creepy as fuck. Seeing giant landfills pilled with body bags and the back stories you discover define immersion.
Dark Zone is definitely immersive.
 
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The most immersive games for me are games in VR. Skyrim VR, Fallout 4 VR. But the most-most immersive game was Elite Dangerous VR. I was living there, being space ship commander, wearing VR headset for hours straight, pushing hotas from morning until late night all weekends, forgetting to eat dinner sometimes. It was complete insanity.

Strangely, Minecraft in VR was less immersive for me than on flat screen. Cubic structure of the world looks unreal in VR and it break my immersion.

Other, non-VR games... I remember Crysis, opening scene on the beach and sun rises from the sea. I totally forgot about objectives, I enjoyed beach and palms, felt myself like on vacation and even jumped into the sea to swim a little. Spent ten minutes there at least. I'm the kind of person who often gets carried away with visuals and sounds and my brain dives deep into the world. I usually spend a ton of time just sightseeing, trying to feel the world I'm in, notice all the little details put there by designers. I've spent half an hour in Jensen apartments in Deus Ex doing nothing, looking out of the window. That's why my games playtimes are so big - a large part of it is just fucking around admiring the worlds.