Hey all, I’m on the hunt for games that really suck you into their world, the kind where you look up and suddenly three hours have gone by.

Games I’ve loved and couldn't put down:

• Plague Tale
• Horizon
• Subnautica
• Mass Effect
• Expedition 33
• Homeworld

Doesn’t matter the gente, as long as it’s got that vibe where you just exist in the atmosphere and forget about everything else.

What are your go-to games when you want to disappear into another world? Bonus appreciation if it’s something underrated or off the beaten path.

Edit: Thank you all. I will definitely keep this thread bookmarked. You all dwarved what I found on Reddit ir any other platform! Well done!

Red Dead Redemption (both games) would get my vote. Easily in my top 5 games.

I just finished Kingdom come Deliverance, and I plan on starting the sequel tomorrow. I really connected with my Henry.

I just played Valkyrie Saga, so I'll suggest that.

I liked Metro exodus. Black mesa is a nice re-imagined mix of half life I and II

Assassin's Creed: Black Flag offered a welcome reprieve from the real world ten years ago. I loved cruising the gorgeous Caribbean looking for treasure and adventure. The recent remake seems to be even prettier if unfortunately buggy still.

Satisfactory was this for me.

While I was going through it, i couldn't stop thinking about ways to optimize things while I was supposed to be working, and then after work, I'd make all those changes. This went on for a solid month.

most city builders. "cities: skylines", "nova roma", etc.

a couple of diorama kind of games:

• tiny glade
• dystopika
• koi farm
• universe sandbox

Try Valheim. It leaves Early Access in less than a month. It's real good and pretty.

Valheim

Freelancer was such a game, it's old though. Wish there was anything like it.

Obvious TES 3-5, bg3, Cyberpunk, Gothic 1-2, Elden Ring.

Tainted Grail.

Crimson Desert is the world I'm currently lost in.

Dragon's Dogma 1 is also good. The second is prettier to explore, but IMO is a weaker game on the whole compared to DD:DA. 2 is also getting a Dark Arisen dlc, but I don't think it's gonna fix a lot of the fundamental issues the base game has.

I found that abiotic factor does a good job of that. The game is heavily inspired by half life 1 vibes and in my opinion they nailed it. It's a survival crafter to give you an idea of the kind of game play. They're still adding updates after their 1.0 release and have some DLC coming out soon™

Ghost of Tsushima.

Going old school here: Final Fantasy 6

Breath of the Wild

A series I haven't seen mentioned yet is mass effect, atleast uptill Andromeda.

First time playing RDR2, I waved at a dude on a carriage and asked him to stop. Next thing I knew I was being shot at by the sheriff. No idea why that would be considered bad or a punishable offense. Lost all interest in playing after that sadly. And it was like in the first town you get to visit in the game too.

The Death Stranding games are fantastic for immersing yourself into the world. I'll also shout out Batman Arkham Night (second game in the series) as that's one of the few games I've played in the past decade where once I beat it I just sat there in silence as the credits rolled..just..contemplating life. It was great.

Isnt rdr2 just wild west gta? Why not just shoot back or reload and avoid him? I'm just curious

Death Stranding

Go retro and play System Shock 2. Just trust.

.

Prey (2017)

There were so many moments where I got lost in the environmental details. One of the more memorable ones was finding an office environment where almost everybody is emailing each other about how much they hate a guy because he's too hardworking and overzealous.

When you actually find that guy's desk, it's obvious that he's been given no resources to do his job... and that he's only trying to contribute any way he can. Even worse, he's got a whiteboard that if you flip it around, you find that it's got mathematical equations on it, hinting that he might have been a lot smarter than people gave him credit for.

EDIT:spelling

Outer Wilds

Space puzzle exploration game. It’s the kind of game where it’s best to go in as blind as possible. I will say no more.

A lot of zombie games try to be realistic, but Project Zomboid is the only one that genuinely feels like reality. It uses zoomed out isometric graphics and is still miles more immersive than any first person zombie survival game out there.

Agree with folk who said Valheim.

Project Zomboid is really immersive to me. Such a great game.

Cyberpunk 2077 and the DLC. Just, so preem.

I bought it two years ago, still haven't played past the first little cave thing. I suppose I'll find my way back to it this winter.

I am the world's biggest Qud stan and will always up vote it in the wild

It's a very weird game, but if you can pierce the surface of it, it has such an incredible amount to offer you.

I bought it specifically because its soundtrack was absolutely amazing (not knowing anything about the game itself).

Unfortunately, it did not play as well as it sounded 😿

Kingdome Come Deliverance 2 is a fantastic game to just get lost in. They did a great job world building.

Homeworld sucked you in??? That's pretty cool for a rts. Have you gotten your hands on a copy of the lorebook it was sold with?

Since you're not picky about genre, look at Prey (2014). It has really nice environments to just chill in and great art design. It's an art déco space station

I tried it. I think I'm not smart enough for the puzzles. I go to a place and don't seem to be able to complete much. It says there's something left, and I can't find it. It gets frustrating. I still have it installed because I love the atmosphere so much.

Mission 1 - the intro - was cool, mission 2 introduced the first enemy with a badass musical score and mission 3 sucked me in. Unforgettable.

Prey was so immersive! Couldn't put it down.

Keep an eye on "Underspace". Could be your thing.

I have it installed. Trying to get through the story now that of it's out of EA. I played this too much.

Other great ones: Synergy, Farthest Frontier, Wandering Village.

There is a little horror game called withering rooms, and i loved every minute of it, it has this weird quirky, mean spirited aura of old adventure games and a great setting. Also i made myself a shotgun witch.

Dude everything about it is just so perfect. It was my first rts and I've just never been able to get into another one because games about war don't have that kind of emotionality.

That game was hard. :-)

Supreme games. Except the ridiculous ending of part 3. But otherwise: brilliant.

I'm on my third playthrough. Mods to add immersion, nothing more

Turned the hud and mini map off and walk everywhere within the city. For the first time in hundreds of hours, I'm actually learning the city instead of following lines.

This is by far my favourite playthrough. Maxed out street cred before meeting Panam.

I heard someone say how amazing it was to turn off all the visual clutter and they were so right.

What a game!

Just two that I feel I want to mention in here:

Duskers. What a game!

Dave the Diver. We all know it already, I trust.

The first game that came to mind after reading your post is Subnautica, such a great game!

I'm going to recommend 3 smaller games that I found to be very atmospheric.

The Invincible: A scifi walking simulator based on an iconic novel. The music and the graphics suck you in and the voice acting helps keeping you interested. I recently replayed it and loved it again.

Gris: A small platformer on the easier side with beautiful hand-drawn graphics and (IMO) great music. It tells a sad story without words, so good.

Oxenfree: A scifi thriller in the form of a side-scrolling platformer. I played it years ago so I don't remember much of it (my memory is crap like that) but I know it left a very good impression, especially its atmosphere.

Honorable mention to Valheim, which I see mentioned in the thread ore than once. Great atmosphere and gameplay loop, although for me it lost some of its charm in the later biomes they released afterwards.

I hope you find any of these to your liking.

I’ve got this problem too. I played a bit more than you, but now I’m stuck and don’t know how to proceed. It’s more frustrating than engaging. I feel like I already looked for every hint the game provides.

Also I never experienced the much hyped revelations or what everyone talks about.

When it comes to atmosphere and immersion, nothing beats Gothic 1 for me. The original from 2001 has very dated graphics and janky controls, but its immersion is unparalleled.

I have not tried the remake, but have heard mostly positive signals about it.

Another one that impressed me with immersion - mostly in its lack of UI and definitely its sound design - is Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Use headphones!

Stage coach robbery.

Oh, another one: Syberia 1 and the 4th The World Before. They are point-and-click adventure games.

Siberia 2 is also good but IMO weaker than the first. The third is pretty bad.

Unfortunately Syberia 1 does not work well on modern systems. There is a remake which is a mixed bag. It went too far with adding helper features and changing some puzzles, but the camera and visuals are good.

Modded Minecraft with shaders. Frankly I haven't found a more immersive game for me than that, but I also haven't played much of my library. I wanna try Satisfactory at some point too since I imagine it might meld with my brain in a very similar way.

I could check a guide. But am too stubborn to do that. Checking a guide feels like falling. 😄