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Best immersion in a game?
sacredfool
Member UncommonPosts: 849
Al-right, so, approaching the MMORPG genre from the RPG side, which game would you guys advise for someone who is looking towards making meaningful decisions and actually associate himself with the character played?
Basically, i am looking for a game with a meaningful story/main quests or meaningful factions which make the story. Or both 
I recently played Age of Conan. the game was not bad, but there was no climate, no atmosphere to the game. Killing the "big bad guy" was a quest like any other, and the fact that for example Stygian Necro's could walk into Mitran temples and be treated like everyone else completely spoiled the game for me.
I want a game where I am restricted ingame, but free to make my own decisions.
A big plus would be if the game had a good group system (preferably not so raid orientated) and maybe was not high-fantasy (or at least surprising if thats too much to ask).
I was looking at Fallen Earth, but am open to suggestions.
SF
Originally posted by nethaniahSeriously Farmville? Yeah I think it's great. In a World where half our population is dying of hunger the more fortunate half is spending their time harvesting food that doesn't exist.
Comments
Star Wars the Old Republic kinda fits your description, you will probably like it if you are into Bioware rpg's. It still in developement though.
Dragon Age Origins
Great story. Great immersion. Single player game though.
MMOs aren't good for immersion. Not like someone doing an anal meme in general chat to ruin the immersion.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
I'm actually going to suggest Fallen Earth, even though I no longer play it. Some missions make you take a choice between two sides of a conflict, and later on you have to make a choice in which faction to work for. It's pretty a pretty immersive world too, you can roam for hours on horseback or in vehicles, and there are tons of mobs and resource sites to collect from. In fact, besides Auto Assault, this game does resource gathering well. If you see a broken down car you know what comes off of it (glass, rubber, steel and fasteners), it's pretty cool to that aspect.
Only problem with the game is that it's highly soloable.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
For roleplay its LoTRO RP servers or Face of Mankind if you prefer sandbox.
If sick of fantasy check out mass effect along with the second one, both are made by the same devs (bioware) and are too excellent games. If your into a more open ended game style check out bethesda games, better ones being oblivion and fallout 3.
Got to agree with G on this one, FE did grab the immersion concept with me. I liked the first 15 levels that really made the player feel...part of. I thought Auto Assault was weak in the craftsman feild but, I am not big on crafting.
I have never been able to be immersed in a MMO not for the lack of trying. Only been able to do that in single player rpgs. Should a good post Apocalyptic be released one day, maybe that will change.
Well really I think it's hard to be immersed in an mmo, unless you are really into killing boars.
For immersion... Fallen Earth I think is the best these days.
For role play, Lord of the Rings Online I think.
I said Auto Assault handled resource acquisition right. All you had to do was blow up objects and run over the remains. Buildings, fences, anything broke when ran into or shot at and turned into craft materials - and it was awesome.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
In terms of gameplay immersion, WOW. Runner-up Planetside (cheating a little since it's MMOFPS.) Both of these games' gameplay sucked me in for thousands and thousands of hours.
In terms of world immersion, Darkfall I suppose. First-person cameras are much more immersive (much more capable of giving you the sense that you are the character.) Darkfall has solid level design on top of this, which combines to create a rather excellent world. Only place it stumbles is in the ridiculously steep inclines you can walk up. Kinda dumb that you can basically run straight up a mountain as long as it's not a cliff :P
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Eve Online. Go to their website and just start reading the lore of the game. Theres an overwhelming amount of it. I also like how the developers take in-game events that take place and write them up in RP fashion on their site from time to time.
Ultima Online was similiar to this, not sure if it still is but those two MMO's immersed me the most into my character and game world.
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a robot foot stomping on a human face -- forever."
PreCU SWG for world immersion by a long way.
In terms of sitting down and losing 2 days, probably Planetside.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
Thanks everyone for the replies.
as soon as i finish ME2 i am gonna download Fallen earth trial and see.
as for the DA:O suggestions, it might be a great game, but it takes more then that to make me play a fantasy RPG these days (last time i played was The Witcher - crap engine, but great game).
DA:O seemed a bit Avatar-ish to me. Does everything done previously, but in an unbeatable way. Unfortunatelly, i am more demanding of 70h long games then i am of 2h movies.
Following a path invisible barriers, in small maps almost zero exploring dragon age immersion lol thats new.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
One big open beautifull world with no limits on where to go exploring has never been so great as in Darkfall thats immersion.
Now we need good enviroment sounds and good weather system and for next 10years no game can beat darkfall if it come to world immersion.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Following a path invisible barriers, in small maps almost zero exploring dragon age immersion lol thats new.
It is still more immersive than any mmo out there though.
You could always go with Iron Realms solution, you won't get much business but it's depth is like nothing else.
/signed
Best immersion I've had yet other than Vanguard when it comes to the world.
Best gameplay immersion I've had yet has to go to Pirates of the Burning Sea, though.
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I don't think 99% of developers have created a game that was really an immersing MMO. All of them have too many flaws, feel too much like games, have clearly the same mechanics as every other game, don't even try to make the players think or read about story or anything, and lack the ability to change the world in a meaningful way.
That being said, EVE Online is the only game that feels really like you are a part of something and change stuff and like your actions actually shape anything. The only problem is that the gameplay of that game bores me to tears every time I try to like the game. I just can't deal with the menus, how far to orbit stuff, mining is all menus, traveling is just waiting.
If there was a game that had actually controlled actions, but still had the same mechanics as EVE Online I would play it simply because I need to actually be in control of what my avatar is doing. I don't even mind spaceships, just hate the gameplay.
I have been waiting to play Perpetuum for this exact reason. I finally got into the damned CB and my gaming comp is being abused by the Geek Squad. >.>
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I have been waiting to play Perpetuum for this exact reason. I finally got into the damned CB and my gaming comp is being abused by the Geek Squad. >.>
Yes you can control your mech in perpetuum, but there really isn't any point in doing so since most prefer the stay in one spot and let the auto attack kill the other thing off.
You need a game where the gameplay is in harmony with the story and lore, where you dont see compromises and contradictions at every turn..... Matrix Online was my best experience (at least in the first few years) sadly that is no more, from the posts here I am tempted to give FE a go (The fantasy genre really leaves me cold so that's 90% of mmos out of the window - if you can't buy the idea then a game about the idea won't immerse). But its DCUO (for the hero vs villian play) and SW TOR that seem to offer the greatest potential for immersion looking ahead.