Most immersive games you ever played?

I just realized that I experienced an extreme degree of immersion/investment last month when I played Doki Doki Literature Club. That's mostly because the game's content is highly familiar to me-- I have been in the situations that that game places the player in, so it triggered the same emotions and instinctual reactions that I had when living those experiences in my youth. I got very caught up in the drama, I did exactly what the game wanted me to do.

See, Dwarf Fortress I can absolutely understand, Terraria as well to some degree. But Minecraft to me, just like WoW, Counter Strike, LoL, etc, is a meme (even though I hate that term). I'm not necessarily hating on them, it's more that I just don't understand them.

Velvet Sundown

Persona 4 is definitely the big one. Mass Effect 2 and Breath of the Wild are close for me too.

Persona 4 was so immersive that I spent days worrying about how my choice to date Chie would affect Yukiko and vice versa, even outside of the game. So immersive that I actually got worried about Nanako when she was kidnapped and sad to see the house so empty. So immersive that I teared up like a baby when the ending rolled around because it felt like I as really saying goodbye to the best friends a guy could ask for.

There's a reason it's my favorite JRPG and on my favorite games list.

Mass Effect 2 is a close second.

Metal Gear Solid 3. Due to the length of the first game, and wildness of the second, I'd managed to develop the opinion that the only way to play these games was in dedicated, single sittings. It took me about 17 hours to beat MGS3 the first time, and the next two times I played it it took about 14. The third time a friend spent the night at my house both to see the game and for me to prove that's how I played that game.

To this day I feel like I may never play that game again just because I don't think I could find the attention span to bear down on it like that anymore. I still have extended, 5-6 hour play sessions of games from time to time - I beat Horizon and Rise of the Tomb Raider in about four/five days each this year, and several six or seven 9 inning baseball game days with MLB The Show - but those feature plenty of pausing, reading articles, running a podcast in the background while I complete menial side tasks, etc. With MGS3, it was just me, the Dual Shock 2 and the 27" Philips CRT.

The closest I come to that other feeling of immersion is certainly Rockstar's games. I would take breaks from the story of GTA V just to wander around the city taking photos of things; along with No Man's Sky, it's the only video game I actually made a photo album of on Facebook. Going back to GTA III, I've always had a love for firing the game up and just following traffic laws and observing the A.I., or sometimes taking a walking-pace walk down the sidewalk and eavesdropping on NPCs. GTA IV had amazing cellphone conversations and a lot of great group dialogue in the projects areas, while GTA V often gave me the impression that there was some kind of procedural conversation engine running in the background at times the way pedestrians would interact. Back when I smoked a ton of weed in college, one of my favorite ways to play the GTA IV was use a taxi to get where I was going whenever I wanted to take a smoke break, and not skip the ride and just listen to the sounds of the city and look around while I had myself a bowl or joint.

Man, I need to reinstall GTA V.

World of Warcraft when it first came out. I was young and out of school for 2 weeks when it launched, so I did nothing but play that game non-stop. By the end of the first week I could scarcely believe I was actually on planet earth anymore. I might as well have been hooked up directly into the Matrix by that point. I eat, slept and breathed that game. I wanted to explore every nook and cranny of every zone of it, I wanted to do every quest, every dungeon. I wanted to try every class, both factions, meet as many people as possible. At the end of the first week, the dreams I had about it were constant, and very vivid. When I had to go back to school I became incredibly depressed that I couldn't spend every waking moment alive playing WoW.

After that, I had snapped out of it, went back to school and started socializing again. That's not to say I didn't still play like 4+ hours a day until the end of Wrath of the Lich King, but it wasn't 16+ hours a day, at least.

@doctordonkey: I’m with you. WoW blew my mind when it first came out. The world was alive with people, and unlike EQ, everything seamlessly loaded up. Watching people going about their lives below you while you flew on a flightpath and he vertical existence of the world while you were flying were both incredible things to experience back almost 15 years ago.

For me, my most immersive experience playing videogames was in Saints Row IV - I don't even own the game, I was just playing it with a friend. There was just something about the jumping which felt incredibly rewarding. I didn't really care about the plot, or the shooting mechanics, but jumping from one jump upgrade to the next wasted 3 hours of my time - and I'm sure much more if I owned the game. I think that it was a perfectly implemented element, and hence I dub Saints Row IV "Jump Simulator". It was just something that stood out from any other game I've played.

For me it's The Witness. I think I could live on that island, it would make an amazing weekend room escape/retreat if somebody could build and maintain it :p

Bit generic but God of War has sucked me in completely. Trying to get every collectible in that game is so addictive, and the mix of difficulty to level makes such a linear game such fun to explore. Before this, I was definitely addicted to finishing the Wolfenstein series, although I disagree with the change in the Cap's voice actor for 2

In terms of being fully immersed in the story, original Bioware RPGs did it for me - Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2 etc. I didn't even really know about wider D&D lore at the time, but I consumed those games. The Witcher 3 is the only modern game that has fully scratched that itch for me. There's plenty of other games that I enjoy the world in, but it's been a while since any have truly grabbed me. Probably Fallout 3 as well when it first came out.

God of War is my game at the moment that is pretty immersive.

Resident Evil in VR. Still cannot finish it. It scares the shit out of me

Witcher 3 is arguably the best game in terms of building immersion, but it never really clicked for me. The ones that really hooked me were:

Dark souls, which I thought was just a dungeon crawler at first, but man was I wrong. That game has amazing depth to its story and level design.

Morrowind, because of its alien world, no fast travel, and actual destinations worth exploring, it was so easy to get lost in. Especially the desolated hell-scape of the Red Mountains and the Ghost fence that surrounds them.

WOW; that game came out when I was a teenager and the sheer size and depth of it blew my mind. It also helped that the game came out before the internet provided everything about every game and there was no mystery to find for yourself.

Persona 3 and 4 had me more invested in and attached to the world/setting and characters more than any game, but Resident Evil 7 and Prey the top contenders for being fully engaged with the game and feeling "like I'm there"; both have killer atmosphere and design, and Prey in particular had the immersive-sim game elements that felt more engaging than many other games.

For something different. The most immersive games I've played:

Test Drive Unlimited 2 (Xbox 360). I was in awe of the 24-hour time cycle and dynamic weather effects, the details in the interior of the cars were really nice and the engine sounds pleasant. Combining this atmosphere with huge open-worlds, where I had the freedom to just drive around in my favourite cars, was a fantastic immersive experience. I couldn't wait to dive into this world and work my way up to getting faster cars and bigger houses.

Euro Truck Simulator 2. I was immediately taken-in by the immersion of this game; the weather, the sounds, the convincing game-world. It was, and still is, a pleasant and addictive form of escapism for me.

GTR – FIA GTR Racing. This was my first venture into "hardcore" sim racing. The first thing that struck me was the sound; it did not have the clean and polished sound of a Forza or Gran Turismo game. Instead it sounded raw and "gritty". It was the first racing game to really immerse me with both sound and physics. Although I've moved on to RaceRoom, I have very fond memories of this game.

SBK 08 (Xbox 360). This was the first superbike game where I decided to race in 1st-person view. It raised the level of immersion dramatically, and completely changed how I played and experienced these games. I still go back to these SBK games since nobody does them anymore, and they are actually more challenging to play than the modern MotoGP games.

WRC Rally Evolved (PS2). This game made rally stages feel alive, something modern rally games still haven't been able to do, to the same extent. At the time it made the Colin McRae games feel very stale in comparison. It was also the first rally game that made me feel part of a real event.

As for non-racing games: the Yakuza games have always really engaged me with their luxurious Japanese athmosphere, the Uncharted series with their character-depths, I did everything there possibly was to do in Red Dead Redemption, I've played every Assassin's Creed game "to bits" just to spend more time in the game worlds.

I think one of the oddest/immersive times I had was in the nightclub in Vice City. After a while if you'd listen in on the NPC's, they would be asking; 'Why am I here? 'Why am I wearing these clothes? 'Who am I?' It was very eerie.

I know it has been mentioned a ton, but STALKER; SoC had an immersion that I could only call organic in terms of story, setting and atmosphere. It communicated these things so well.

In terms of actual play time, I've probably finished the original Devil May Cry like.....30 times at least, might be even way higher. MGS 2 is high up there too.

If we're talking in terms of "feeling the game world/atmosphere ", easily The Last of Us.

Real immersion for me means I'm never or very rarely reminded of a game's systems or quirks, via bugs, glitches, or crappy design stuff that distract and pull me out of the world and story. While I love rpgs, the fact that you're in their worlds for so long, it's hard to stay sucked in, or to keep digesting all the lore when often there is a metric shit-ton to see and read.

Anyway, ME1, 2, and 3 all grabbed my complete attention and curiosity; the character developments especially, and the decision outcomes were largely responsible. Oblivion because it was my first ES game and it played amazingly clean. Fallout: NV and FO4 playing survival/hardcore both had massive suction. RDR was really pretty long but that world and all its parts had so much continuity and environmental atmosphere, all while having a good story, so it kept me feeling part of the world and constantly intrigued. Dark Souls just drips with atmosphere and weirdness in very a good way, and it managed to stay very immersive despite the constant trial and error/retry combat.

However: The first game that came to mind after reading the thread title was Last of Us. I remember being completely sucked in and constantly afraid for Ellie and Joel. Every situation in the game had me wincing and expecting the worst. I was absolutely relieved when I was finally convinced the game was over(never trusted that there wouldn't be some real tragic event even at the very end...so many kudos to the ND devs)and they'd made it through. I was completely immersed in the world, the character's stories and fate, and the visceral and intense combat, throughout the game. Nothing pulled me out and everything kept sucking me further in.

Dead Space is the king of this for me. The sound design and UI really put you there.

The original Deus Ex is my favorite bit of world building in any game, but I think it's brand of immersion hasn't aged quite as well.

Recently PUBG. Never felt so tense playing a game...

The last game I played obsessively was P4 Golden and I really did feel invested in that world. Would love to spend a couple more years there.

The Dragon Age games for me, yes all of them. The Witcher 3 as well. The new God of War. Mass Effect series. I will throw in Persona 5 because I really enjoyed it and put over 100 hours in it.

Metroid II Return of Samus

Gadget: Invention Travel Adventure

Marathon Infinity

Riven: the Sequel to Myst

Thief: the Dark Project

Silent Hill 1

Ico

Metroid Prime

Portal

Risen

Dark Souls 1

NaissanceE

Obduction

The photo realism of P.T. had me dreading turning a corner/walking down a hallway more than any horror game before or since. Even the VR horror games pale in comparison to P.T.

It will be no shock when I say that BioWare, Obsidian, CD Projekt Red, and (most notably) Bethesda have all had a hand in creating the most immersive experiences for me.​

If memory serves, there was a moment when I had fought my way deep inside of a Dwemer ruin and found myself in a caged-off area that contained, among other things, a skeleton. Seemingly belonging to the skeleton, there was a book that told the story of a master lock picker’s apprentice who had been locked in a room with a slumbering vampire. He was tasked with picking his way out before sunset, when the starved vampire would obviously awaken... and then it occurred to me that I was playing a video game called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

That was probably the most immersed I've ever been, and the memory of that moment has stuck with me since.

Project Breakdown

Those first-person melee fights and locked-animation soda-drinking blew my fucking mind. On the one hand it's like "why the fuck would they keep it first-person when I'm getting thrown and the camera's flipping about and I'm staggered and these fucking arms are blockin my view," but on the other it's like "holy shit this is legitimately first-person and i'm feeling very immersed right now."

Mirror's Edge, also very immersible.

Winner: Bloodborne

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Shadow of the Colossus

Witcher 3

Assassin's Creed: Origins

The Witness

Ori and the Blind Forest

My top three immersive games (The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, The Witcher) have already been mentioned. So for something a little different I'll tell you the first immersive moment that came to mind.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Walking into the first Ayleid ruin. It's all dark, I can hardly see a thing. Pulling out a torch. The warm glow of the fire illuminating my surroundings. I remember being just giddy with excitement at that moment. It really felt like I was exploring an ancient ruin. So good.

My top three (oldie, last year, current)

• Skyrim (if not applicable then: Daggerfall. Yes, not Oblivion/Morrowind but Daggerfall)
• Assasin's Creed: Origins
• iRacing in VR