DoomMunky

Games that nail atmosphere and immersion

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I played Metroid Prime without music this summer (and then wrote into Idle Thumbs about it!), I was amazed at how immersive it became. Just make sure that you try it with the Trilogy version. Meta Ridley was given a goofy-ass stomp attack for the Wii rerelease for some reason, and it makes a rhythmic metallic clanging noise that acts almost like a natural score. It really adds a lot to what's already a very tense personal duel.

Did they read that on the podcast? I think i remember hearing that.

I'm amused that somebody other than myself actually did that with Metroid Prime.

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I just got around to playing Alan Wake's American Nightmare, and while I thought it kinda missed the mark on the whole Twilight Zone homage (except for an awesome Rod Serling-esque narrator), it did remind me how much I loved the atmosphere in the original Alan Wake. Really well detailed environments...like before it would get dark and baddies would pop up you would have a chance to explore the areas and I remember them all feeling very real/lived in. And once it got dark the sound design and lighting were really excellent.

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Soul reaver completely swept me away when it first came out. Such a cool precise.

That sound track is dripping in atmosphere

(Square Enix just registered a Legacy of Kain related domain http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2013/02/square-enix-registers-legacy-of-kain.html fuck new consoles, this'll be the highlight if E3 for me)

Fuck me that intro was amaaaaaazing, I just got all emotional watching it

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Well, if the "game-y" things aren't somehow part of the world, then yes, the more the game makes you forget about those things the more immersive it is. But if it's a football game, forgetting about the score is not more immersive. The point for me is that immersion is about feeling like I am in the narrative as a participant, specifically as the participant the game has cast me as, just like being immersed in a movie consists in feeling like I'm actually watching the events taking place on the screen rather than watching a projection on a screen in a movie theater.

Yes. Immersion is inherently tied to suspension of disbelief. I think immersion happens when a game has the right magic mojo that makes me say "OK my brain can mostly pretend this is real life for a bit." It can have very little to do with the aesthetic qualities of a game. The typeface of a good book is not what makes you immersed in the book. Perhaps it comes down to how much the individual player just WANTS to be immersed. Often when a friend says a game didn't immerse them it sounds to me like they're saying "I just couldn't play make believe for these reasons..."

Look at the dozens of Skyrim screenshots people have taken when the game glitches (due to broken vertices, missing textures, etc.). We think these moments are especially funny and weird because prior to that moment our brain was immersed, and then the bug shattered our suspension of disbelief.

Also, this is why the Nintendo Wii kind of was a let down (at least to me). It was sold to us on the premise that motion and movement would make us more immersed. It worked at first though not because of the controller, but because of the simple and engaging games Nintendo made for it. There are many Wii games that implement the motion controller well but are just bad games, completely unable to create a suspension of disbelief. Immersion had nothing to do with the Wii controller in the end.

EDIT (I hate being that guy that posts links to his horrible blog on forums, but I once wrote a post about this on my horrible blog: http://negatendo.net/blog/2010/03/11/total-immersion-is-total-crap/)

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Going to come out of left field and say Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, for a strategy game it did an amazing job at establishing atmosphere, or is that tone? I'm going to say atmosphere, I felt like I was some commander of this weird sect of human civilization reading data pads and over a strategic map. They also had these interludes that we're just written text that ackowledge you as a character in this world, it was really cool.

Which reminds me, DEFCON had great atmosphere... unless, again, I'm mixing up atmosphere with tone.

Yes to both those games. I didn't really enjoy the gameplay of DEFCON, but it had so much personality & atmosphere it was difficult not to get sucked into that Cold War nightmare.

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^ Now I remember I have to actually get around to playing that game sometime, dammit.

The original Fallout had a absolutely brilliant post-apocalyptic theme which I feel Fallout 2 and to a lesser extend the more recent games have missed.

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Did they read that on the podcast? I think i remember hearing that.

I'm amused that somebody other than myself actually did that with Metroid Prime.

Yeah, episode 88. It was the last reader mail that episode.

That was the one! I hope they don't still think I'm a guy.

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It's a toss-up with those made-up -egan names. I went to high school with a girl named Degan and a guy named Kegan.

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Some standouts for me are FarCry, Deus Ex (roaming around unatco HQ was pretty amazing at the time), Half-Life...

Some others: Mafia, Fallout, X-Com, Soldiers at War, & Hitman, it's hard to be completely immersed when it's 3rd person or isometric, though. Grim fandango probably deserves to be on the list as well. Going way back, Return to Zork is probably one of the first games I can think of that really captured me.

Oh, thought of another. KOTOR II (I never played the first) Call my crazy but I was pretty immersed into that game, between the character interaction, story, the ship, etc.

I think I agree with everyone's contributions so far, though. Atleast of those that I have played.

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Has anybody mentioned Homeworld yet?

Homeworld.

Now it's been mentioned.

The entire campaign of that game, from the opening cinematic to the final credits, it just works splendidly as this one contiguous, enveloping ride.

I cannot think of a single other RTS that has made me feel as invested in its story as Homeworld did.

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So I've been playing Deus Ex: HR and sweet Jesus this game has such a great, utterly enveloping atmosphere. Even right now as I sit at work I can't stop thinking about much I want to get back to it. Shieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

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Strange how different games do this to different people. I was excited about DE:HR before it came out - after playing it for a couple of hours, it was more 'meh'. It bored me silly.

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That's interestingly how I felt about the original Deus Ex, but for some reason this one has totally bitten me. I think part of it is all the corporate politics stuff and feeling like a small part of a thriving bigger whole, along with the negatives that go with it. It's something I can really relate to during the current point of my career.

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Today's update to the Don't Starve beta implemented a function / feature that I feel has rocketed this game up in terms of atmosphere. It certainly had a tone of its own and all, but the 'Insanity' function of the game has implemented some aesthetic choices throughout every layer of the game that has blown my mind (IGN.com). I don't want to outright say what it is though because it would ruin the impact.

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It's a toss-up with those made-up -egan names. I went to high school with a girl named Degan and a guy named Kegan.

My name's not made-up! :getmecoat

You know, the first twenty minutes or so of Limbo really make me sad that the rest is filled with gravity switches and magnet puzzles and junk. That game was so much more interesting when it was stark and terrifying with some implied Lord of the Flies stuff going on in the background.

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I disagree with that about Limbo. If limbo was just being in a dark scary world the whole time, I feel like the horror elements would have dissipated on their own at the same time and it would have gotten tedious. It's a very content-driven, as opposed to systems-driven, game. Maybe the designers could have done it, but I dunno if it would have been better. It was fun by me.

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Has anybody mentioned Homeworld yet?

Homeworld.

My favourite RTS game of all time. Its atmosphere alone is enough to put it on the top, even if it were a terrible game (which it isn't). And speaking of no-HUD, Homeworld had none! (until you start to interact with a unit that is) A rarity in an RTS.

I'm really looking forward to their next project, Hardware.

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Of recent games, Path of Exile is really doing it for me. You wash up as an exile and all the early-game armour and weapons are really grody. The sun is low and there's all kinds of weird creatures... it just clicks with me somehow.

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