So, I was just playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl, and I was thinking to myself man, this is immersive (especially with the Complete mod. I especially love that little mod they included that makes storms actually move and approach you instead of just spontaneously appearing). Everything about the game just comes together into an extremely immersive (cross-hairs notwithstanding) experience, to the point that I'll often subconsciously tilt my head when looking around corners. Also, exploring The Red Forest for the first time in the middle of a night-time thunderstorm? Not pleasant. I ended up seeing a fire in the distance, wildly running to it, and getting obliterated by the bandits sitting around it. >.>

Aaanyway, to the point: I'm just curious what the most immersive games you guys have ever played are, thought it might be interesting to hear people's experiences.

Thief series
SWAT 3 & 4
Vampire the Masquerade-Bloodlines
Amnesia/Penumbra games
Morrowind
Mount & Blade: Warband
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series

I was borderline delusional from Lineage 1 at certain points between 2000-2003. I was addicted as hell, of course, more addicted than I was with cigarettes @ 2 packs/day. I was so into the game I was dreaming almost every single time I slept (which wasn't equal to every single night) as my in-game character, in third-person view, and when I saw forests, I half-seriously expected werewolves with maces to pop out for me to kill. I know it's weird because the game is made entirely of 2D sprites, but I lived and breathed inside that game. The hunts felt real, the castle sieges felt real, the super-fast shelob chasing after me felt real, the assholes killing my dog and running I really wanted to kill. Lolz. I think the immersive background music played a large role in all that, though. I never played with the music off because I felt jarred somehow without it.

I think Shadow of the Colossus is a good one...
The feeling of loneliness in the vast plains while you search for the giants on your war horse is just great... ;p

STALKER series
Bioshock 1 (2 to a lesser extent)
Amnesia/Penumbra
Morrowind
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Guild Wars (Seriously, it's just beautiful and immersive)
Terraria with the right seed
Bastion
Aquaria
Crysis
Fallout games
Limbo
Metro 2033
The Path
Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
The Guild
Heavy Rain
Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit wherever you live)
Riddick games
Far Cry 2

I also hear that game Life can be immersive if stoned enough.

Monster Hunter - The game play was tight and serious, cooperation was a necessity. The monsters were towering, detailed and ferocious and the way your character plodded about you could tell that he was sweating hard under that heavy armour - Especially in the desert stages.


Robot Alchemic Drive - It was actually like playing with a real six story tall remote controlled robot.

Would have to be Thief I&II, Morrowind, Ultima Underworld I&II, Jedi Knight II + Standalone Expan (Academy), Egosoft's X series and of course Freespace I&II.

Jedi Knight II is mostly because I enjoy hacking people with a light saber (the highlight of the Star Wars series for me), force pushing them off cliffs, force pulling their guns away and outmaneuvering them with force jump. Mind Trick is for sissies :P.

The level design was also great and at least some of the puzzles were interesting.

The other games speak for themselves I think.

Don't ask me to choose which amongst them is the most immerse for me. My brain would shut down before yielding a result.

I agree about STALKER. It's a brilliantly realized, dangerous, immersive

I also +1 most of the other games mentioned - Thief, Amnesia/Penumbra, Bioshock, Heavy Rain, Fallout, etc.

scratches- this game accomplishes immersion with simple little things, waiting around for a phonecall... doing work on your novel, waking up in the middle of the night. Instead of feeling like playing through game levels, it feels like going through the role of this character who is spending a weekend in this creepy old house.

darkstar: the interactive movie- there are many different ways to die in this adventure game.. to the point where youll worry about touching plants or any piece of furniture just in case... thats immersion to me. It also has really great music and it just feels like a great space b-movie.

L.A. Noire- theres so much detail in the buildings that you never really use... streets are full of traffic.. and the chase scenes would pull me in. On top of that, you play through all these cases that integrate random happenings with plot points pretty seamlessly.

I would have to say Ultima VII The Black Gate. It felt more like A vacation than a game. Britannia seemed alive, and I actually began to care about each citizen of the land. I have replayed the game many times, and it never gets old. Despite the isometric perspective, the game really felt like you were a part of the world. I even had Ultima VII dreams in which I was wandering around Britannia. True immersion is when a fictional world becomes so real to you it enters your everyday life for the brief time you are enjoying it. The Black Gate definitely did that.

After that, I would have to say the early Zork games (the ones without graphics) were also incredibly immersive in that they were like reading good books (which are always immersive) with the added factor that the player is the central character. After the Zork games, I would say The Elder Scrolls series. Although they are getting fairly close, even after 20 years, no game has really reached the level of interactivity and immersion The Black Gate reached for me.

Probably TIE Fighter or X-Wing Alliance - not only did I regularly duck as an enemy ship went screaming overhead, once or twice I may have turned round to try to track it...

Kotor 1 and Kotor 2
The fallout series (so much to say about this, so little time!!! )
Elder scrolls

^^^^^ The best. ARROUUUUNNNDDD!

Battlezone series (especially the original, the sequel not quite as much)
Thief series
Operation Flashpoint (not in the same way as the other two, but at the time it was just groundbreaking in terms of making you feel like you were in a real war)

Stalker series, Penumbra/Amnesia,call of Cthulhu DKotE, Dark souls,
the last express

System Shock 2, out of all the immersive sims that one lives up to the genre name the best by far imo.