Immersion breakers

[Flour]

Like how in Half-Life 2, Gordon Freeman happens to possess the only car known to man that is capable of driving itself around - steering and all.

It actually makes sense. The car is (barely) hidden from the combine and is nothing more than an engine with some wheels. It does have a poorly explained use. What were the rebels going to do with it? They can't use it to attack the combine since the whole area would have been filled with rollermines and striders.

I think you may have misunderstood me - Mr. Freeman's limbs are not visible while driving the car.

Ergo, the car essentially drives itself.

I actually hadn't noticed that. But it's been a while since I have played the unmodded Half Life games.(I prefer SMOD CSS Sci-Fi which is just a collection of CSS maps converted to Half Life 2 and given CSS-like objectives)

 

[SarahSyna]

Resident Evil 4 had it better with a square-based system. At least that has some flexibility though it was quite illogical as weight didn't seem to be any limit at all.

That's because if you're fighting a nutjob cult and you find a rocket launcher you are not leaving that SOB behind, no matter how much it weighs.

 

[Irridium]

The biggest immersion killer to me is when first person games don't let you see your damn feet.

I don't care how immersive your story is, how amazing and atmospheric it is, its all fucking pointless if I can just look down and realise I'm just a floating camera with .

Nothing rips me out of immersion more...

Well I see it the other way, there are worse things than seeing no feet, like looking down and seeing feet that just don't move right.

See the standard FPS controls it is easy to get the camera to move around smoothly and naturally as if it were a real point-of-view. But trying to stick a body underneath that that moves properly has been notoriously difficult in the past, the legs can seem to just skitter around like a zombie moon-walking on ice.

I'd rather see no feet than feet that can't interact well with the ground.

This isn't a problem with 3rd person games as the camera is not fixed to wherever the head is, but can just hover behind the avatar.

I personally don't mind if the feet aren't implemented perfectly, I just want to be able to see them. At least then I can see that I'm controlling a character, and not a floating camera with arms.

Yes, it is hard to implement well, the only game I can think of that did it really well is Halo 3.

But still, it should be mandatory for games that require lots of precise jumping. I can't judge a good jump if I can't see where my feet are positioned!

I ran into that problem many times in Half Life 2.

 

[Crispee]

One thing that is always sure to break the immersion for me is all the NPC's acting like robots, even though they're supposed to be people with lives of their own, they might as well just replace all the people with signposts the amount of difference it would make.

And even though I like the new Pokemon HG/SS games, it seems that the entire life goal of everyone in the game is to help you with one specific thing and remind you of it when you speak to them again. Even giving the characters the ability the phone you occasionally doesn't distract me from the fact that they likely haven't moved an inch, despite what they say.

 

[Seldon2639]

The worst thing, I think, is having to create my own character.

I know that sounds weird, but nothing drags me kicking and screaming out of immersion more than the Fallout 3 (or DA:O) method of "he has no personality, no character growth, no development, and no really defined motivation" makes it much more difficult to be into the game in the way I want to be.

Instead of being immersed in the game, the story, and seeing the characters as people I can care about, I'm given instead a constant reminder that this character is simply an avatar, a stand-in. And it means I can never really care about the characters.

 

[Phoenixlight]

Well I can't think of any immersion breakers within a game. However, in season 3 of Lost when charlie is in that underwater room, a diver taps on the window with a grenade and it just looks stupid resulting in a loss of immersion.

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

Yes, the scaling enemies really broke immersion for me too. Marauders and Bandits with more powerful gear than royal guards. Minotaurs and Ogres suddenly plaguing the land and killing all the guards who are supposed to be tough and awesome.

Fortunately PC gamers can get an Adventurer Mod that puts rare and powerful items/monsters in rare and interesting places so Liches don't become what they should never be... Commonplace.

 

[CyberAkuma]

"The .exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience"

 

[CatAttack]

In mass effect 2 where it portrays Jack to be some uber super powered biotic and when you put her in your squad there's nothing special about her...

 

[zhemis]

Stairs.

Why in the name of God can't someone program an animation for climbing stairs in which a persons feet actually contact the stairs in a normal manner.

Total immersion killer when you're in 3rd person and the characters' feet can seemingly find purchase in the gaps between steps just as well as the actual steps themselves. (see any FPS or Oblivion for examples..)

You beat me to it. I totally agree.

 

[Kaedechtu]

My current big immersion breaker is SAVE SCREENS THAT DON'T FIT IN.

For example, in earlier games when you wanted to save, you might write down a record in a book. In that case, the save screen might look like a piece of worn parchment that you're recording your travels on.

Now, being a PS3 player (not sure if it's the same for other consoles), every single game's save screen is the default one for the playstation console. It brings me crashing right out of the game and reminds me that I'm just sitting in my room playing this on Playstation, rather than being actually in the world that I'm playing in.

 

[lacktheknack]

OP: Mods. Mods mods mods mods mods. Unless you're on a console (sucker).

I can't STAND it if I'm walking and there aren't any footsteps. It drives me ABSOLUTELY BONKERS.

 

[Treblaine]

The biggest immersion killer to me is when first person games don't let you see your damn feet.

I don't care how immersive your story is, how amazing and atmospheric it is, its all fucking pointless if I can just look down and realise I'm just a floating camera with .

Nothing rips me out of immersion more...

Well I see it the other way, there are worse things than seeing no feet, like looking down and seeing feet that just don't move right.

See the standard FPS controls it is easy to get the camera to move around smoothly and naturally as if it were a real point-of-view. But trying to stick a body underneath that that moves properly has been notoriously difficult in the past, the legs can seem to just skitter around like a zombie moon-walking on ice.

I'd rather see no feet than feet that can't interact well with the ground.

This isn't a problem with 3rd person games as the camera is not fixed to wherever the head is, but can just hover behind the avatar.

I personally don't mind if the feet aren't implemented perfectly, I just want to be able to see them. At least then I can see that I'm controlling a character, and not a floating camera with arms.

Yes, it is hard to implement well, the only game I can think of that did it really well is Halo 3.

But still, it should be mandatory for games that require lots of precise jumping. I can't judge a good jump if I can't see where my feet are positioned!

I ran into that problem many times in Half Life 2.

Aww but then it looks weird with ledge-edging. You know, how you can run along a ledge that only protrudes an inch away from a wall, your feet would actually be pressing against thin air.

Also remember Half Life 2 came out in 2004... same years as Halo 2 and subsequent episodes have just been upgrades.

Lacking a body is a very effective way of making a First-person perspective much more fluid to control. Trust me, adding in a full body to interact with everything would make the game much more clunky to control and THAT can ruin immersion just as much. Like in Crysis, can't just pick something up, have to reach out, grab. It can get really annoying.

And I remember playing Halo 3 and other FPS games 'with feet' and I never found the feet position much help with jumping as a foot may in fact be over the edge of a cliff and you won't fall. Many third person perspective games do this as well (in a round about way) I've seen slow mo video of Tomb Raider if you press the jump button even while Lara has a foot well beyond the cliff edge she can jump even though pushing against thin air! Many platforming games allow this to allow for more freedom for the player to make errors.

I wish games could implement a jumping system that was used in classic Tomb Raider games. You run towards a ledge and just before you reach the ledge you Hold-Down the jump button/key. When the game detects running + held down jump + ledge then it automatically has you jump at just the moment you reach the ledge. It worked perfectly for tomb raider games.

The problem is most people didn't read the manual, and thought they had to tap jump at just the right moment to jump a gap and so so many frustratedly abandoned the game after only a short play as the game "doesn't register my jump commands".

In fact without jump controls like that and the edge-air-jump feature, even third person games are just as hard to control as 1st person games.

The thing is, if you are jumping a gap in real life, do you look down at your feet to make sure of your position? No, even by the feel of your legs you can wait to feel till you're over the ledge, you'll be falling by then. Jumps are times by anticipation and timing.

Sure the car thing Valve could have made it just like modern racing games where you see your hands on the wheel and all, but that can make getting in and out of the vehicle a slow automated process. I mean ever played GTA game where you can just take SOOO LOOONG to get into a car while police are shooting from all sides?

 

[lacktheknack]

Stairs.

Why in the name of God can't someone program an animation for climbing stairs in which a persons feet actually contact the stairs in a normal manner.

Total immersion killer when you're in 3rd person and the characters' feet can seemingly find purchase in the gaps between steps just as well as the actual steps themselves. (see any FPS or Oblivion for examples..)

I know this is going to make you sad, but Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness actually DID (if you went straight up or down). Nice bit of polish in a VERY unpolished game.

 

[CrashBang]

Bad voice acting does it for me. If developers want me to be immersed in the story then they need characters to really express that they are struggling/happy/in love/whatever it may be. If they're attrocious like over half the actors in Heavy Rain then the experience is just broken and I can't become immersed in it

 

[ginty2]

in white knight chronicles, you kill a set of monsters and that exact set is there when you return to the same site. i am willing to accept random monster encounters in RPGs, but not the same fucking set! especially when they make you go through the same areas several times to solve a puzzle.

other than that, the other immersion killer is when my wife walks in front of the TV.

 

[SarahSyna]

I agree. For a game that's so reliant on immersion it did throw in a lot of stuff that flings you out of the game. My favorite part was when Weynon Priory was atacked and the NPC ran to tell me about it and we had a mildly long conversation while the enemy was chasing him! But it's ok, because the enemy respectfully stood completely frozen in the background when I talked to the NPC.

This is possibly my favourite thing in games.

I just love how polite everyone is, even while they're trying to wreck the place, kill your mother and have it off with your dog.

 

[Irridium]

Aww but then it looks weird with ledge-edging. You know, how you can run along a ledge that only protrudes an inch away from a wall, your feet would actually be pressing against thin air.

Also remember Half Life 2 came out in 2004... same years as Halo 2 and subsequent episodes have just been upgrades.

Lacking a body is a very effective way of making a First-person perspective much more fluid to control. Trust me, adding in a full body to interact with everything would make the game much more clunky to control and THAT can ruin immersion just as much. Like in Crysis, can't just pick something up, have to reach out, grab. It can get really annoying.

And I remember playing Halo 3 and other FPS games 'with feet' and I never found the feet position much help with jumping as a foot may in fact be over the edge of a cliff and you won't fall. Many third person perspective games do this as well (in a round about way) I've seen slow mo video of Tomb Raider if you press the jump button even while Lara has a foot well beyond the cliff edge she can jump even though pushing against thin air! Many platforming games allow this to allow for more freedom for the player to make errors.

I wish games could implement a jumping system that was used in classic Tomb Raider games. You run towards a ledge and just before you reach the ledge you Hold-Down the jump button/key. When the game detects running + held down jump + ledge then it automatically has you jump at just the moment you reach the ledge. It worked perfectly for tomb raider games.

The problem is most people didn't read the manual, and thought they had to tap jump at just the right moment to jump a gap and so so many frustratedly abandoned the game after only a short play as the game "doesn't register my jump commands".

In fact without jump controls like that and the edge-air-jump feature, even third person games are just as hard to control as 1st person games.

The thing is, if you are jumping a gap in real life, do you look down at your feet to make sure of your position? No, even by the feel of your legs you can wait to feel till you're over the ledge, you'll be falling by then. Jumps are times by anticipation and timing.

Sure the car thing Valve could have made it just like modern racing games where you see your hands on the wheel and all, but that can make getting in and out of the vehicle a slow automated process. I mean ever played GTA game where you can just take SOOO LOOONG to get into a car while police are shooting from all sides?

I don't want it all to be perfect, I just want it to be there.

I'm used to things not working/looking as they should, so most of the problems you described wouldn't bother me.

I guess its all based on opinion though...

And with the car thing, most of the time in Half Life 2 and its episodes, it looks like your jumping into the car. After all, I can't remember any vehicle you used in the game having a door to open, so they could just do a quick animation with the arms like in Far Cry 2 when getting into a buggy.

 

[Mirrored Jigsaw]

The list goes on and on and on and on.

-When someone who is part of a quest has some information that you need and there's absolutely no way to get it out of them because the option "Where is 'x'" doesn't not exist.
-When NPCs repeat the same dialog over and over again.
-When it's an MMO, and I make contact with ANY OTHER PERSON.
-Item screens.
-When I'm required by the story to do something fucking retarded. Prince of Persia 2008, I'm talking to you.
-Any bad voice-over work. Silent Hill, I'm talking to you.
-When the obvious option isn't even possible, ala invisible walls, dialog options, etc.
-When the main character has the same armor and abilities as everyone else, but for some reason has the health of a goddamn refrigerator or otherwise take out an entire army of logistically equal enemies. That's right, Halo is more immersive than Call of Duty, AND MORE REALISTIC!! At least Halo has a reason that you can kill everything; you're a damn Spartan. The Arbiter is kind of pushing it, but at least Master Chief makes sense.
-Side missions that are just a dumb game...Prototype.
-Whenever I die and respawn makes no sense. Bioshock, Borderlands and World of Warcraft at least tried.
-etc.

Basically, I can't sustain immersion in games, because immersion is a damn hard thing to do. In Heavy Rain, I got sucked in after a couple hours, and the only time I was knocked out significantly was when I was playing as the FBI agent trying to talk to that black guy at the chop shop, but I couldn't find the piece of evidence that allowed me to go on to the next scene.

I felt like I was meandering around doing jack shit, and after I found it, I just got that "FINALLY" feeling, but the immersion was gone, and it wasn't coming back for another hour or two.