Games with environments that fully engross you.

I'm interested in games that make you feel like you are really a part of the environment created by the people who put the game together. However they do it, through graphics and music, sound design...

The best two I could come up with were, Phantom Dust for XB. It is set in a steam punk environment and somehow when I played that game I really felt like I was a part of the game world. Yakuza was another one.

I found Oblivion really immersive played in first person view, also when walking down the road outside after playing (a lot) I saw a bush covered in pollen and my brain focused on it like I wanted to harvest lol (not a joke, that sadly happened :?).

The Witcher (design and mechanic ex. choosing moral choices)

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (puzzles involving environment)

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (puzzles involving environment)

Crysis (environment: technical graphics)

Portal: The First Slice (solving puzzles involving environment)

Call of Duty 4 (environment and sound design)

Here are some games that have really sucked me into the environment:

Half Life 2 (X360 or PC)

Realms of the Haunting (old PC game)

Bully (PS2)

Oblivion and Morrowind (PC and XBOX)

Clive Barkers Undying (PC)

Fatal Frame 3 (PS2)

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (Xbox)

Oblivion. Not only the environment, but the life you can live. Even when your not spelunking or blasting demons, you can read a book, or cook a potion or a spell, talk to the citizens, burglarize a home. /sigh

I love that game.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sucked me in real bad.

Also, Alien vs Predator 2 back in 2002 looked so real it scared the screams outta me.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sucked me in real bad.

Also, Alien vs Predator 2 back in 2002 looked so real it scared the screams outta me.

Black_Knight_00

It is too bad I can't run S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and I have vowed to no longer upgrade my PC each year. If it was out on a console, I would jump on it in a heartbeat. :(

Unfortunately, I don't really find this in many games.

But one game that does stand out is MGS3, in particular the section where you fought The End, I think it was the animals and the whole terrain that was immersive -- I don't know, it just felt real.

This thread needs pictures! :P

Here are some of my favorites:

The jungles in MGS3 are great...

Oblivion has eaten my soul. I love wandering around in this game.

Morrowind's swampy goodness is pretty fun to wander around in too...

San Andreas is easily my favorite world to explore. It feels so alive for a last-gen game.

Here are some of what I know:

-Bully

-Gears of War

-Call of Duty 4

-Silent Hill 4: The Room

-Metal Gear Solid 3

Heroes of Might and Magic III - it's still one of the best-looking and most immersive games I have ever played in all its 2D brilliance. The gameworld is just so wonderful and exciting to explore, I could lose myself in it for hours and hours - which, in turn, lasted for years and years (about seven years, to be exact).

Half-Life 2 - you can read people's faces in City 17 and they will tell you all about oppression, desperation and propaganda. It's one of the most engrossing gameworlds ever created.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - 1986. Miami. Music. Crime. Art-deco. Sex. Drugs. Rock and roll. Miami Vice. Scarface. Need I say more?

Fable - its environment is one of the major reasons why I absolutely adore this game despite its obvious faults. It's simply a wonderful fantasy world I wouldn't mind living in.

Fable - its environment is one of the major reasons why I absolutely adore this game despite its obvious faults. It's simply a wonderful fantasy world I wouldn't mind living in.

UpInFlames

Definitely, Fable's game world is very charming.

There were a few glaring flaws that I really didn't like about the gameplay, but as far as immersion goes, I think Bioshock is pretty much the most immersive game I've ever played from making an unbelievable world believable. It was pretentious, easy to the point of being flawed, and a little too chatty, but from an immersion standpoint, it's pretty much the gold standard based on what I've played.

Oblivion is also high on the list, as is GTA, but they trail Bioshock by a good margin.

The Grand Theft Auto games (mostly Vice City).

Metal Gear Solid 3

Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion

Medieval total war an odd choice maybe but i felt like a king, an emporer, leanding my nation to greatness , to ruin, to war, to riches. Then the battles were amazing you felt like you were at the battle field and the tatics made it even better.

Surprised Bioshock hasn't really been mentioned as much in this thread, I wanted to (and did) explore every nook and cranny of that amazing world. Whenever I fire it back up I'm continually impressed at the care that was put into creating that game, it never fails to suck me in. There's many others from recent memory that fit the bill as well (Oblivion, GTA San Andreas, Fable, and Assassin's Creed are all great choices) but when I think of engrossing environments, I think of Bioshock.

Surprised Bioshock hasn't really been mentioned as much in this thread,viberooni

Unfortunately, I don't really find this in many games...

MetalGear_Ninty

I agree, and I wonder why that is. As I look through this thread I se the same games come up again and again and wonder why it's such a small group of games. It must be difficult to create a world that pushes the play past the lin eof "playing a game" into "I'm a part of this world" -- to the extent that you're not saying that you are a part of the world, you're just taking it all in -- like those games that have perfect controls where the controller melts away and you forget there is something other than mind controlling the action.

Why is it so hard?

There are a few games that do it for me. MGS3 was a good one making you feel like you were right there in the jungle with Snake.

GTA as people have said already is pretty immersive, as was Assassin's.

Have to say though you fully believe you are in the World Of Warcraft.

i like WOW best,cause it have the best stories and perfect graphics. there is no other games for me to pay so much time on it,damn i love it!

Bioshock

Fable

Half Life 2

Oh, and System Shock 2. Very scary game. And a game is only ever scary if it sucks you in. Did that too well

.. :Turns around with wrench ready to battle Hybrid:

STALKER, Morrowind, Call of Cthulhu are some of the earlier ones that were mentioned that I agreed with.

Personally I would add Crackdown to that list. It actually had the feeling I was playing as a super hero destruction machine. I still remember being blown away by shooting out the rear tires of cars, watching them trying to speed off only to fishtale, jack knife into a crowd and flip over guard rails.

And when the expansion came out with the Harpoon gun, It added even more fun yo the game, I would try to hit gang members with grenades so they'd fly in the air, then pin them to objects mid air with the harpoon gun.

The city just had a heavily populated and unique feel to it.

Condemned: Criminal Origins almost made me wet myself the environments were so enthralling.

Shadow of the Colossus was another. When I was riding around on Argo I felt very serene and at peace. A feeling that matched the atmosphere of the barren landscape I was exploring.

The Gothic series has always had amazing environments to explore.

You guys already named many of the games that I felt had really immersive environment but here are a few that you didn't

- Chronicles of Riddick

- Deux Ex

- Oddworld's Stranger Wrath

- Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

- MDK2

- Red Dead Revolver, mostly because of the awesome score

- Conkur's Bad Fur Day, in an odd was suprisingly immersive

- Medal of Honor: Frontlines

definately metroid prime. retro made a sci-fi world with its own culture and history, and then fully implemented it into the gameplay. most objects are scannable and each give just a little more background to the area you are exploring.

the history of the chozo ruins is eched in its walls. there are just so many contrasting elements going on at once. you have this super advanced civilization that oddly lived along with nature. you can see the unique style of their arcitecture and it really brings the level to life. but at the same time, the chozo are no more and their once great civilization lies in decay.

the remnants of the chozo are contrasted with the blunt and brutal industrialization of the invading space pirates. as you progress through the game, the ratio of nature to machine changes until you are surrounded by the freak experimentations of the space pirates.

metroid prime is a great artistic acheivement in video games.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sucked me in real bad.

Also, Alien vs Predator 2 back in 2002 looked so real it scared the screams outta me.

Black_Knight_00

Wow, those were going to be my answers. I could also add Condemned, Halo and the Minerva mod for HL2.

Shadow of the colossus, proabley one of the most artisitc games out there.

Morrowind, Azuras cost is one of my favorite game locals

This ones kinda old but : Kings Quest 6, my favorite in the serise, the ilse of wonder kicked a**.

One of the most engrossing would have to be Pong.

If you have ever watched anyone play Pong and seen them shift in their seat from side to side as they try to hit the blip with their paddle then you know just how engrossing the game can be :)