PigLick on 17/5/2017 at 02:58
It all relative, I mean I would have definitely said Bards Tale was immersive when I played it at the age of 12, but not now.
Also EELS, up inside ya
[video=youtube;0AckvdGbk4w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AckvdGbk4w[/video]
Starker on 17/5/2017 at 04:25
Immersive here doesn't mean "engaging", which nearly all games aim to be. It means the game aims to evoke a specific feeling of being there in the game world, which means the game has verisimilitude, good worldbuilding, realistic level design and so on. This is also why first person view is so crucial to the concept. An immersive sim wants you to forget that you're playing a character and convince you that you
are the character.
Just a couple of snippets from a Doug Church interview that help illustrate the concept:
Quote:
(
http://ttlg.com/articles/SSint2.asp) http://ttlg.com/articles/SSint2.asp
...the emphasis is on giving you a feeling of being there, in this rich, exciting, active environment you can work with.
Quote:
So what are you proud of in System Shock? What makes it great to
play?
Doug Church: The immersive environment. Trying to set up a world which looks unique
and interesting, which begs you to look around the corner, or down into the
chasm, or up toward the cathedral-like ceiling. We've always felt that
first person games are maximally atmospheric, and in System Shock we are
pushing that in as many ways as we can.
If you want atmosphere in a game, things have to look real, and they also
have to *feel* real. So in addition to the 3-D physical environment, we
have a plot that goes beyond "bad things have happened, go and kill
everyone." There are mystery elements, as you go through the space station
and unravel what actually happened. There are log messages and email
messages from the past and the present that you read during the game, and
we've tried to make them more than "you must pull lever N" and instead make
them feel as though they came from and are going to someone real.
Quote:
So System Shock is an action-intensive 3-D game, but the real focus is on
making the 3-D world really immersive and interactive, "you are there", and
that's the goal which motivates these really cool things in the game.
PigLick on 17/5/2017 at 04:37
I wouldnt say its absolutely crucial, for example I found GTAV totally immersive even though its 3rd person. Due to its worldbuilding and realistic design, of course.
icemann on 17/5/2017 at 04:41
Watch Dogs 1 & 2 for similar reasons.
Starker on 17/5/2017 at 05:06
I'm generally put off by the open world stuff, but from what I watched of other people playing GTA, they really did go to great lengths to make the city feel like a real place. I'd argue that it would still be more immersive with first person view, though.
PigLick on 17/5/2017 at 05:17
The thing I find with 1st person in a lot of games is the lack of peripheral vision, it actually can lessen the immersion because it feels wrong.
henke on 17/5/2017 at 06:00
Quote Posted by Starker
from what I watched of other people playing GTA, they really did go to great lengths to make the city feel like a real place. I'd argue that it would still be more immersive with first person view, though.
There
is first person view in the newer-gen version of GTA V.
However immersive sim isn't just about feeling like you're there, it's also about player agency, about the gameplay allowing you to tackle obstacles in a variety of ways. And, as I said earlier about Ubisoft's openworld games, but it applies to Rockstar and most others as well, while you're given a lot of freedom in the open world and sidemissions, when it comes to storymissions your agency is often stripped away in favor of having to follow the game's "script" to successfully finish a mission.
Hence, they're not immersive sims.
Starker on 17/5/2017 at 06:07
Quote Posted by PigLick
The thing I find with 1st person in a lot of games is the lack of peripheral vision, it actually can lessen the immersion because it feels wrong.
It's less about the view and more about the character doing things versus you doing things. For example, when you are in third person, the NPCs look at your character, but when you're in first person, the NPCs look at you.
@henke
Yeah, it's basically a lot of the LGS design philosophy packed into one concept. I don't think immersive sim is necessarily the best name for the genre, but I've yet to see someone come up with a better one.
SplitterTrace on 17/5/2017 at 07:25
Quote Posted by Starker
It's called "immersive sim", not "most immersive sim". And they are called simulations because things happen in the game as a natural result of physics and/or other game systems interacting, as opposed to being scripted.
Then most modern open world sandbox games would be immersive sims. Wouldn't it?
Many games like the modern Far Cry games, Dying Light, and the GTAs allow for unpredictable results since due to interacting game systems/mechanics/physics.
Malf on 17/5/2017 at 09:00
Quote Posted by Abysmal
What developer worth a snuff actually thinks fully scripted on-rails gameplay is a positive?
[pedant]Rage Software, the same guys who then made Hostile Waters. I seem to remember Incoming Forces being almost exclusively a Rail Shooter.[/pedant]
