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  • What is the most immersive game you played (for it's time)?

Back in the early 2000's I discovered a game called Vampire the Masquerade and bought a cd of it. This was at a time I did not play video games. I was running a martial school and children's home in Oregon and did not have the freetime. But the local store had this game on clearance for $5 or something and I bought it on a whim.

For the first time I felt like I was in a story not just pushing buttons. Since then I am always on the lookout for a similar experience. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Baldur's Gate, Pathfinder, Divine Divinity, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts all had that experience for me. But most games I play I find them to be just button mashing and I do not connect with them.

The graphics are mind blowing for many of these games, the art, music, and theme are awesome. But I find the gameplay boring and replayability of zero.

I guess the bioshock and the dishonored are close to being in the list but I dont replay them after I know the story. But that initial playthru was awesome.

What games do you find connect to you and immerse you deeply? I am allways looking for a hidden gem I have miised.

I would say the original Deus Ex was a good one. I think that was the first game you could like open a trash can, pick up the trash, and find a half filled beer bottle, drink it, and get drunk. The first time I did that I couldn't believe they put so much effort into it. The newer versions are much better in terms of the graphics and controls and the action, but they are missing some of the world building and immersion.

System Crash was really great. It's a 2D card game, which wouldn't seem immersive, but the writing is excellent and the story is very good. Also the gameplay gets so exciting, I have 51 hours clocked on it, it's very long for a card game (there was DLC and I played it twice, you could probably beat the main campaign in 20 hours).

Dying Light was one of my favorite games of all time. It's a first person parkour action survival horror game. Basically you run around this very large city and have to fight zombies, and there could be like 100 zombies on screen at once. The weapons are basic, mostly melee weapons you can find or craft. Like you can get a baseball bat, and then combine it with barbed wire to make a better weapon. And the weapons break or wear out, so you have to find new ones. There are people you can talk to, and do side missions, you have to find supplies and there are RPG elements to leveling up your character. Good graphics too, really an amazing game.

The Forest is pretty crazy. It is a survival game. Your plane crashes on an island, and you have nothing. There are monsters on the island, and you have to find weapons and craft supplies, and build forts to protect against the enemies. You have to eat food, so you can hunt animals and cook the meat. You have to drink water, and you can't drink sea water unless you boil it. You get cold and need to make a fire. It's super realistic. Still need to finish this one, it's pretty hard.

I also really liked the Metro series. I think the second one is the best, but they are all good. It is first person survival horror shooter. It's hard and you are in the Moscow tunnels and need to fight monsters. But you have very little bullets and need to conserve. There is also no money, bullets are currency. So you have to make a choice between buying a better weapon and losing all your bullets. You can even go to the central area and pay for a lap dance in bullets. There are also human enemies like a Neo-Nazi faction and you have to infiltrate their base and shoot them too. You can also go stealth and fight with a knife (this works on human enemies, you can't stealth the monsters). It's really good.

Did Dues Ex grow out of System Shock or vice versa?

I saw you mention The Forest earlier and will look at it. I have watched game play of metro and it was fun to watch :) Dying Light is an intense game!

No, Deus Ex was it's own thing. System Shock was the basis for Bioshock, some of the same developers and similar gameplay.

I couldn't even think of what immersion really means anymore until Cybereality mentioned Deus Ex. I felt like my experiences in that game were real. Later in life I think so many games failed at it that I quit caring about that idea in gaming and transitioned only into playing sandbox games where I and others could make the immersion ourselves. Deus Ex was amazing.

Wow I dont remember if I ever played Deus Ex. Like I said my gaming really didnt start till later in my life. Maybe I should look into it.

I know that I loved Divine Divinity Original sin and Baldur's Gate and so was hyped up when BG3 was released. I own it and played all the way to the underworld. But the controls and bugs ere so janky I did not enjoy it as much as the previous games. I plan on trying again soon. But having ti start over from scratch with ever major update is a turn off for me.

Have you played Divinity 2 the Dragon Knight saga yet? You can actually turn into a dragon in parts of it and fly around blowing stuff up and burning things down with your dragon breath. :)

i really enjoyed the first 2 thief games. so much atmosphere in those games

I liked the newer ones too, but the original Thief games are certainly timeless classics.

Ooooh I could just go a list lol:

  • I think you'd love Disco Elysium if you like VTM.
  • X2: The Threat. Not any of the dialogue or missions, god no. But the general space trading/simulation aspect of it absorbed me for months. It's sequals never quite reached that peak.
  • Morrowind. Do I need to explain this one?
  • Bioshock Infinite. Or more specifically Elizabeth, as there's plenty of aspects about the game that I don't think work well.
  • Final Fantasy 8. Nostalgia bate for me
  • Grandia 1. Same as FF8, just great character writing.
  • Stalker. Buggy mess, but my god when it came out it was surreal. First time I saw real-time crepuscular rays and been in love ever since.
  • I've only just started it, but Hellblade is already drawing me in pretty quick.

Unfortunately, plenty of big-budget games these days realised they could adopt MMO like fetch quests in single-player games but with minimal dialogue/explanation or world/character building. It even invaded games that built their fanbase off the opposite (I'm looking at you Bethesda -.-). Original Sin was rife with this and hell even the FF series dropped NPC dialogue from most of the BG characters >.>

@jbskaggs said: Wow I dont remember if I ever played Deus Ex. Like I said my gaming really didnt start till later in my life. Maybe I should look into it.

I got pretty far in the game when it came out but never beat it. I tried playing it recently, but it's kind of dated. Even with the HD texture mod, it was just hard to play since it's so old. I do still want to finish it eventually, but some of those early 3D games are difficult to play now. It's strange, because I can play like SNES games on the emulator and they are still good. But I think with early 3D they were still experimenting and the hardware wasn't very good so they don't hold up as well.

Deus Ex is one of the few games I feel still does hold up. The first level is just woefully bad and always was. The early/mid-game recovery is real though. Just reminded me of OG Max Payne which I'd put on my list too, can think of no game more deserving of an engine-level remaster.

Oh, Silent Hill 2. That should be on the list for sure.

I loved Max Payne but they used a weird control system. I tried to play it like a year ago and it was so hard (on the controller on PS4, I think on the PC it may be easier, or I could remap the control).

oh yeh legit mouse and keyboard game. It'd be like trying to play GTA5 without the aim assist otherwise.

Well the problem is the Windows version of the game doesn't work anymore. I bought it on Steam and it just crashes (and the developers don't seem to care, it's not working for anyone). I guess Windows XP was the last OS that worked. That is why I bought on PS4. But maybe it would work on Linux.

Oh, you were right, it was the Ryzen thing. It works now, you're the best. Thanks.

Also installed the ultrawidescreen fix and HD texture pack, it actually looks quite good right now.