What kills your immersion?

[RatRace123]

Generally, stupid AI.

"Hey this is great, me and my squad is kicking ass, we're saving the world. OK, let's just check on how everyone's doing, and... he's stuck behind a tree. Oh, I'm not saving the world, I'm playing a game, in my room, in the dark... alone. Damn"

 

[alittlepepper]

When your random AI buddy blurts out some useless little thing about you that either they couldn't possibly know just from glimpsing you (Looking at you, Oblivion.) or something completely obvious. Pretty much any time an AI pal feels the need to make a comment in a game it seems totally unwarranted and just yanks me right out of the game. Mercenaries 2 was a fair example with the enemy mercs...UP I think?...constantly calling and bitching at their supervisor and repeatedly belting out that delightful tidbit about how my character got shot in the backside in the opening cutscene. Those of you who know that bit will know pretty much entirely what I mean; enemy or otherwise, that sort of comment just annoys the hell out of me and will oftentimes end up just killing the game entirely.

Also the sheer stupidity exhibited by most main characters in any JRPG. Seriously, no one is as stupid as some of those guys. Hard to get into a game when you actively hope your character is going to bite it five seconds after you get control of him.

 

[alittlepepper]

Three main things for me-

1. Quicktime events- no matter what the game WAS, it's just become dance-dance-revolution.

2. Scripted events- when I know that a tower will collapse or a tanker truck will explode in exactly the same way every time I go through a level, that whole singleplayer experience instantly gains 0% replayablility.

3. The worst of all- Mollycoddling. So I'm supposed to be this badass spy/soldier/thief whatever, with this amazing reputation, and yet I can't do ANYTHING without some 'helpful' voice blabbering in my ear about what to do, how and when to do it, even if it's as obvious as having a vent grate to open RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.

Also this, particularly point 3 to go with all that other stuff I said up there.

 

[mattttherman3]

Motion controllers. Also the dogs barking, the phone ringing, loud noises, etc.

 

[Oktanas]

loosing few hours of gameplay when game crashes

 

[Mr. McFuzzers]

God damn achievements!

"Thank you my young apprentince you saved the grand soul stone, now I can tell you the secrets of the universe. Listen to my words...*BING* SAVED THE SOUL STONE- 50G *BING*..now with that knowledge you can finnaly life in eternal peace"

Gee, that would have been an amazing moment if that huge annoying achievement didn't pop up to spoil the whole damn story.

 

[onewheeled]

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a real easy game to get sucked into. But there's one thing that bugs the living hell out of me whenever it happens.

See, when Batman is talking to Oracle, he puts his hand to his ear and slows down. As in, snail's pace, unable to walk faster than a 92 year old man with a walker. It just kills the immersion for me.

 

[PTSpyder]

Gameplay breaking glitches do me in instantly. Some good examples of this would be...

Targeting system meltdowns - Honorable mention here goes to GTA4. It drives me over the edge when the damn gun wont retarget, especially when it gets it stuck in its pea-brained little head that the biggest threat to me is someone who is forever hiding under cover, not shooting at me.

Overly complex controls failing the player - Honorable mention goes to RD-R. How annoying is it when you want to shoot this guy, who you have the drop on, and you would have easily killed, but you were too close so now you started pistol whipping him. He falls back from the impact, and shoots you dead because the character is still standing there pistol whipping nothing like a total twat.

Online lag - Honorable mention goes to Tekken 6. Lag is unforgiveable in any type of gameplay except for co-op, and then its just completely unaccpetable. But lag in a fighting game is just controller smashing frustrating. This may explain why I despise almost all forms of online play.

So, yea. I guess my immersion is mostly broken by things that piss me off because they are not working the way they were intended to.

 

[superbatranger]

That damn doorbell. Almost every time I'm on an important part, like a boss battle, the doorbell rings. Did I mention it's always door to door salesmen?

 

[UkibyTheMaid]

shitty check point systems. if done right, like infamous, you barely notice death.
if done wrong, well....

I appreciate good checkpoints. That's the only reason I didn't go insane in Red Dead Redemption XD

I die all the time and the checkpoints at least don't force me to go all the way back, like nothing happened >_>

 

[TheTaco007]

Seriously? Nobody's mentioned loading screens yet? WTF? Those are my main immersion killers! I'm in the middle of a fight, I finally kill the last guy, I can see the next room, but as soon as I set foot in it:

LOADING...

 

[PTSpyder]

That damn doorbell. Almost every team I'm on an important part, like a boss battle, the doorbell rings. Did I mention it's always door to door salesmen?

Once, a long time ago, I was in the middle of a quest on Monster Hunter on PS2. It was a difficult quest that required the entire time doing the right things, at the right time. Just before I switched zones, the only time there is a moments break in the 30 min long ordeal, someone started ringing the doorbell.

The bastard was insistent and rang like 4 times, so I threw down my controller, ripped open the door and shouted "WHAT!?!?" The guy stood there for a moment, studdering and trying to find the words to say he wanted to sell me a new roof or something. He got less than a sentence into the thing and I cut him off, said "I dont have time for this right now" and shut the door in his face. Went back and finished the quest before I had the chance to explain to anyone what happened, but everyone had a good laugh.

 

[superbatranger]

That damn doorbell. Almost every team I'm on an important part, like a boss battle, the doorbell rings. Did I mention it's always door to door salesmen?

Once, a long time ago, I was in the middle of a quest on Monster Hunter on PS2. It was a difficult quest that required the entire time doing the right things, at the right time. Just before I switched zones, the only time there is a moments break in the 30 min long ordeal, someone started ringing the doorbell.

The bastard was insistent and rang like 4 times, so I threw down my controller, ripped open the door and shouted "WHAT!?!?" The guy stood there for a moment, studdering and trying to find the words to say he wanted to sell me a new roof or something. He got less than a sentence into the thing and I cut him off, said "I dont have time for this right now" and shut the door in his face. Went back and finished the quest before I had the chance to explain to anyone what happened, but everyone had a good laugh.

I think I'm going to use that on any and all future salesmen. Brilliant!

 

[PopperThingi]

Really nasty graphic glitches, and characters that say the same lines when you talk to them.
About the first one, It hit me big time once in Fallout 3. I was wandering around in a way to a quest and suddenly I found this raiders camp and started killing them. The last one had a sniper rifle that I was craving for, but when I killed him his body rocketed to the sky with all his gear. I was like, "what the fuck"? And I just couldn't let it go the entire play session, ruining any chance to getting immersed back into the game.

 

[Gondito]

dying kills my immersion. which is ironic.

and also strange since i almost never die.
which makes me very very pissed when i do die!

Wait, how is that ironic?

 

[Spazztic]

Graphical glitches or oversights mainly.

i.e. The Witcher, in the first cutscene where BLADES OF GRASS STICK THROUGH A CART
or in, well, just about any game where there are walls...if you run into the wall YOU JUST KEEP RUNNING

 

[Harlemura]

When you see an AI get stuck on something, usually when they're trying to walk around.
That was one of the few immersion breakers for me in Final Fantasy XIII. Everything can move around fine, except one little sheepie thing that tries to walk up an invisible wall.
It was funny, but still broke immersion.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Whenever anyone in the game refers to the control scheme. It totally breaks the 4th wall.

"Soldier, to get over that wall, you're going to have to tap the A button".

It's even worse if they actually say it, not just in text.

It's actually funny if they intentionally break the forth wall with it, like in Super Paper Mario when Mario asks "What is the A button?" and only gets "those who watch us will know" for an answer.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Dying for sure. One moment you feel so bad ass and into the game and the next you are pulling your dick out of it realizing how disappointed you are now.

 

[JPH330]

For me it's usually bad facial animation during dialogue. A lot of games don't do their characters' facial expressions very well, it ends up looking really robotic and unrealistic.