Immersion breakers

[SonicWaffle]

Having to push a button in the middle of a cinematic sequence; Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit are prime examples. I either play a game or watch a movie, I don't want to do both.

And also any storyline that involves "anchent mystikal cult" heavily. Thats the reason I chucked Fahrenheit away,

A mystical cult isn't always a bad thing, if done right. Unfortunately, so many writers seem to use them as a modern version of 'a wizard did it' - bad shit happening? Not really sure why? Well, it must have been the ancient mystical cult! Those guys are such dicks, they're always doing things like this...

I find it strange that nobody ever uses an ancient mystical cult as a red herring. The hero encounters an ancient cult and, being the genre savvy fellow he is, immediately sets out to bring down their evil mystical conspiracy! Except it turns out that the ancien mystical cult mostly do charity work these days, and the real Big Bad put you on their trail to distract from his own diabolical schemes. It'd work really well because nobody would see it coming; we're all so used to believing that ancient mystical cult = evil that we don't give it a second thought.

 

[CheckD3]

I know this is weird, but dying in Fallout 3, because it makes you redo the things you just did so far back that you don't WANT to replay all that you just did, you want to keep going. I almost wish they pulled a Peter Molyneux and let you get a scar or a exp. reduction to come to life, hell, there's enough radiation, why not have that bring you to life?

I love Fallout 3, but dying just breaks the flow to the point that I don't want to even play with it anymore...

 

[SimuLord]

Having to push a button in the middle of a cinematic sequence; Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit are prime examples. I either play a game or watch a movie, I don't want to do both.

And also any storyline that involves "anchent mystikal cult" heavily. Thats the reason I chucked Fahrenheit away,

A mystical cult isn't always a bad thing, if done right. Unfortunately, so many writers seem to use them as a modern version of 'a wizard did it' - bad shit happening? Not really sure why? Well, it must have been the ancient mystical cult! Those guys are such dicks, they're always doing things like this...

I find it strange that nobody ever uses an ancient mystical cult as a red herring. The hero encounters an ancient cult and, being the genre savvy fellow he is, immediately sets out to bring down their evil mystical conspiracy! Except it turns out that the ancien mystical cult mostly do charity work these days, and the real Big Bad put you on their trail to distract from his own diabolical schemes. It'd work really well because nobody would see it coming; we're all so used to believing that ancient mystical cult = evil that we don't give it a second thought.

And because anything worth doing is worth overdoing, the mystical cult turned out to be evil all along, and after you beat the Big Bad, he reveals there's a REAL Big Bad...who is worshipped by the ancient mystical cult!

Somebody get Square Enix on the phone.

 

[Terramax]

My biggest immersion killer is repeated sounds when a continued action is going on...

For instance, in Just Cause 2 (One of my favourite games of the decade by the way), I have found very few immersion breakers, but when I am on a road trip on a motorbike, when I reach top speed, the top speed noises repeat over and over and over again, and it's really noticable...

That was exactly the same with the bikes in Test Drive Unlimited. When you reached top speeds the bikes would make a really annoying screeching noise, which would not go away unless you slowed down (which you didn't want to do).

 

[Project .hack]

I don't have many cases of games that I just truly frustrated with because I was pulled out of the immersion of everything. But off the top of my head it would have to be kingdom hearts. I love that game, and I can get really into the story and cutscenes...that is...until goofy opens his damn mouth and starts "gorshing" everything. Makes me want to punch his babies...in the face...twice.

 

[SonicWaffle]

I know this is weird, but dying in Fallout 3, because it makes you redo the things you just did so far back that you don't WANT to replay all that you just did, you want to keep going. I almost wish they pulled a Peter Molyneux and let you get a scar or a exp. reduction to come to life, hell, there's enough radiation, why not have that bring you to life?

I love Fallout 3, but dying just breaks the flow to the point that I don't want to even play with it anymore...

Frequent saving is the key. I've lost so much time on games because I'm used to autosave, I'll just plow through a couple of hours before dying and thinking "Well bugger, that was a waste" because autosave works in a really sporadic fashion. I'm looking at YOU here, Dragon Age!

Then again, Oblivion goes the other way; with my current settings it autosaves whenever I sleep, wait, gain a level in a skill or often walk through a door. It makes it annoying to rely on them because sometimes you'll go in the wrong door, fuck things up, and then when you try to reload you either have a save from an hour previous or the autosave of walking through the door that caused everything to go so very wrong...

 

[TheRocketeer]

two can play at that game

No, Half-Life is single-player.

Try Counter-Strike.

Obviously never heard of Sven Coop.

Maybe I count semi-obscure modifications for years-old games as relevant to their advertised and intended fuctions, and maybe I don't.

But one thing I don't do is take quasi-antagonizing forum posts into anything resembling serious consideration, which is critical intelligence if you planned to be at this a while.

Otherwise, I'll see you when I get home from work. Have a great day! Play nice!

 

[SonicWaffle]

Having to push a button in the middle of a cinematic sequence; Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit are prime examples. I either play a game or watch a movie, I don't want to do both.

And also any storyline that involves "anchent mystikal cult" heavily. Thats the reason I chucked Fahrenheit away,

A mystical cult isn't always a bad thing, if done right. Unfortunately, so many writers seem to use them as a modern version of 'a wizard did it' - bad shit happening? Not really sure why? Well, it must have been the ancient mystical cult! Those guys are such dicks, they're always doing things like this...

I find it strange that nobody ever uses an ancient mystical cult as a red herring. The hero encounters an ancient cult and, being the genre savvy fellow he is, immediately sets out to bring down their evil mystical conspiracy! Except it turns out that the ancien mystical cult mostly do charity work these days, and the real Big Bad put you on their trail to distract from his own diabolical schemes. It'd work really well because nobody would see it coming; we're all so used to believing that ancient mystical cult = evil that we don't give it a second thought.

And because anything worth doing is worth overdoing, the mystical cult turned out to be evil all along, and after you beat the Big Bad, he reveals there's a REAL Big Bad...who is worshipped by the ancient mystical cult!

Somebody get Square Enix on the phone.

And then when you beat the real ancient mystical cult, it turns out that they were just manifestations of your own subconscious guilt about all the innocent people you killed to get to this point! Except that when you try to banish your personal demons the Big Bad you defeated re-appears and tells you that he made you hallucinate those things! And then it turns out that all of your party members except the hero are members of the ancient mystical cult which worships the Big Bad! And then it turns out that there never was an ancient mystical cult, it was all a GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY!

Man, we are going to be millionares!

 

[StarofAzura]

Quick time events. I hate them, hate them, hate them.

I'm normally VERY forgiving of immersion breakers as long as they're in the run of gameplay, but when a gameplay mechanic makes itself obvious and says "HEY! Guess what? You're playing a video game!", that's where the line is crossed.

Exactly. I've been playing Dante's Inferno, and oh my god it pisses me off sometimes with the I AM A GIANT QUICK TIME EVENT. PRESS ME TO NOT DIE.

Hate. Hate hate hate.

Oblivion, for all it's flaws, I can forgive the immersion-breaking aspects because there are NO QUICK TIME EVENTS and so many things that DO immerse you - like the fact that you can sit in an actual library and read for hours if you want to, if you're a dork like me and find that stuff interesting.

 

[Souplex]

That whole Half Life/Bioshock/whatever first person game you want that is copying Valve at the moment (With the exception of Portal because it was all aboot isolation and whatnot) where you play as a floating pair of hands (First person game with no cutscenes, reflective surfaces, Character dialog from the PC, or legs when you look down.) and everyone keeps on talking about you/at you.

 

[Gauntes]

Though the entire course of System Shock 2 was fairly immersive, The tutorial at the beginning was a Huge immersion breaker. kinda like hearing NPC saying "Press B to Jump"....

But I found the rest of the game fairly intuitive (Not weapon degradation mind you...) and atmospherically enjoyable.

another game that I felt like it broke its existing immersion was in Half Life 2 where one of the Metro cops hits the can off the trash can. It was fine until I found out I can levitate things. (I'm probably referring to some popular web comic here, but I could be wrong)

what else.. oh yes, I was very much immersed through the first half of the Ace Combat Zero. Then, they introduce a giant phallic symbol that shoots laser out of its tip. (oh the image..)
Took me a while for me to gather up enough courage to turn on my PS2 again.

 

[SonicWaffle]

That whole Half Life/Bioshock/whatever first person game you want that is copying Valve at the moment (With the exception of Portal because it was all aboot isolation and whatnot) where you play as a floating pair of hands (First person game with no cutscenes, reflective surfaces, Character dialog from the PC, or legs when you look down.) and everyone keeps on talking about you/at you.

Uh...didn't Valve make Half-Life and Portal?

 

[SarahSyna]

I personally don't mind QTE's, within reason. If I have warning that I'm coming to a section of QTE's or something like Fable 2 blacksmithing then hey, alright. I'm fine with that. I have warning, I know what I'm in for and I know to be ready.

But the random ones in the middle of cutscenes (I'm looking at you, Assassins' Creed 2!)? They can fuck right off and into a bloody tree.
Pardon my language.

 

[Drakmeire]

mine is when I fall out of the level in games. In fact it bugs me so much when I get into game design I'm going to add a running gag to one of my games that parodies bad game design and clipping as well as unoriginality.

 

[Tharwen]

Getting stuck on tiny objects and doorframes. I think this is the biggest not-quite-an-issue in games at the moment. If someone could make a game where the character can feel his way into a doorway without the player looking at it, it would make me happy.

 

[DeepComet5581]

Uh...didn't Valve make Half-Life and Portal?

Yes, they did.

Half-Life and Portal were very good when it came to immersion except when it came to the player characters. Neither Gordon Freeman nor Chell (Portal) utter even the smallest word. Even when being cut up by Combine rifles or surrounded by zombies, Freeman remains magically calm and silent.

You also never 'see' Freeman. You get a pair of floating hands, as mentoned, but you never see him in his lab coat at the beginning of HL1 or in a Civilian jumpsuit at the beginning of HL2. You also never see anything of his HEV suit besides it being displayed in a futuristic cabinet before you put it on and the right forearm afterwards. There aren't even any reflective surfaces for him to admire himself on.

I also agree with your opening post about Oblivion. I myself am quite an avid player (I've clocked up 245 hours so far) and absolutely hated the immersion-killing features you mentioned. However, using the Construction Set and other people's mods from The Elder Scrolls Nexus has made the game much more realistic and therefore more immersive. I managed to play for over 150 game days before getting bored!

 

[SonicWaffle]

Uh...didn't Valve make Half-Life and Portal?

You also never 'see' Freeman. You get a pair of floating hands, as mentoned, but you never see him in his lab coat at the beginning of HL1 or in a Civilian jumpsuit at the beginning of HL2. You also never see anything of his HEV suit besides it being displayed in a futuristic cabinet before you put it on and the right forearm afterwards. There aren't even any reflective surfaces for him to admire himself on.

I've never actually played more than about an hour of Half-Life. I had it on PC waaaay back in the day, but never got into it, mostly because FPS feels more natural to me on console. As such I don't really know about his visibility, but Chell was fairly easy to see. It was, however, totally pointless as she was incredibly plain and dressed in a dull fashion

I also agree with your opening post about Oblivion. I myself am quite an avid player (I've clocked up 245 hours so far) and absolutely hated the immersion-killing features you mentioned. However, using the Construction Set and other people's mods from The Elder Scrolls Nexus has made the game much more realistic and therefore more immersive. I managed to play for over 150 game days before getting bored!

That's...uh..that's a lot of playtime. I don't think I've ever stacked up that much on anything, except maybe Tetris on the original Game Boy. Oh, and Goldeneye 64 if we're counting multiplayer...

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Since all the usual things have already been said, I guess I can just add two things to the thread: controllable jumping. In games like Oblivion, you press jump and forward, and you jump forward, but you can reverse direction in mid air. I know it's a gameplay mechanic that serves a purpose, but momentum is conserved, even in fantasy worlds. Besides, if the character has the aerial mobility of a bloody dragonfly, why would he even bother to walk when he could jump anywhere?
And finally, regenerating health. Yeah, medpacks weren't exactly realistic, but it's more believable that you feel better after some bandages+painkillers, right? Besides, serious injuries tend to get worse if you ignore them, unless your character is incredibly delusional and gifted at suppressing pain.

 

[achilleas.k]

NPC during prologue of KotOR: "Use the mouse to look around and right click and blah blah blah"

When the player character doesn't turn to the NPC and say "what the f*ck is a mouse?" it kinda breaks it.

That's the only one I remember off the top of my noodle.