There's no immersion in 3rd person games

[mhitman]

If it's 3d but with its camera behind the player, (like in mass effectt & fable 1) then i get immersed.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

I can't play 3rd person, its too annoying, I like to see through the eyes of the character.
I've tried Mass Effect and Dead Space amongst others, and I just can't get into them. If your in a space ship or vehicle its ok, but there is no immersion playing in 3rd person.

The best are games which you can switch between the two but don't have to play as one.

Then you have never played Shadow of the Collosus.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I'm sorry, I was immersed in Mass Effect, what did you say?

Third person game can be immersive, if they're done right.

Hell, I was immersed in Fable 2.

 

[soren7550]

Bull Crap!!! TPV can be immersive as hell! I can't tell you how many times that I've become so engrossed in Fable 2 or Mass Effect and how often I just forgot everything else because they were so good.

But to each his own I guess.

 

[Chishandfips]

I've always found third-person games to be more immersive simply because you can see the character. I'm not saying that there aren't any first-person games that pull me into the story (The Half-Life series being a personal example), but when I'm playing as a camera in the head of a character who, more often than not, doesn't even have feet, I find it hard to really believe I'm part of the world.

 

[GyroCaptain]

Key here is that for the OP, immersiveness == seeing from a first person perspective. In other words, either immersion is being misappropriated to mean direct character displacement and empathy, or the OP has trouble externalizing.

In either case, making a blanket statement that third-person games aren't immersive is laughably easy to disprove in any case but the specific.

 

[ModReap]

I would have to agree that 3rd person shrugs off immersiveness but not so much that it can't still suck you in.

 

[Isick]

KOTOR

 

[blankedboy]

Play Jak 2 and Jak 3 for the PS2. Epic 3rd person games.

 

[Gamer137]

To each his own I guess. My question is, how do such small things affect immersion? I hear complaints like this as well as switching discs, glitchy animations, etc, and I just don't get it. How does being in third person hurt any more then having a targeting reticle or health meter? How does having a voiceless character, unrestricted movement, removing cutsceans, etc, help make a game be better? These small complaints really confuse me. I do understand immersion. I can get into a game and play no stop; but how can a game be condemed for having such small errors?

 

[TK421]

I belive that both KOTOR and KOTOR II were quite immersive. Maybe its just because i'm a Star Wars nerd. (see name and/or picture)

 

[Ancalagon]

As a kid, I got immersed when playing Zaxxon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaxxon]. So perhaps the OP can't get absorbed into a game unless it's a first-person perspective, but that's not the case for everyone. (Or, going by the responses here, even the majority.)

-- Steve

Long live Zaxxon. I played a Zaxxon clone on the BBC Micro in the mid-eighties, and when I played it again a few weeks ago, I could still remember the best route through the level. Makes me wonder if my inability to find my way home in real life is linked to the huge set of computer game level maps that I'm holding in my brain.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

God of War, the most immersive game I've played in ages.

 

[Squarewave]

I prefer to play in 1st person as it feels more immerisive. As if I was in the shoes of the character, making the choices, and saving the world

I can get immersed in a 3rd person game, but it's not the same type of immersion. When I play I 3rd person game it feels like watching a movie or reading a book, that my guy doesn't represent me but is the star of the show and all I'm doing is guiding him around.

It's just that when it comes right down to it, 3rd person games can be replaced by a movie, tv show or book, while a 1st person can't. First person story telling a unique experience that can only be told properly in gaming, giving them a bit more weight when choosing if I want to play a game or watch a movie

 

[LeonLethality]

.hack games were immersive anything that longs me to get into the story makes me feel a rythm in battle/puzzle and makes me feel for the main character/s

 

[Twilight_guy]

I disagree. I think that Immersion really is more about making you care about the story and characters. It doesn't matter if your avatar is a dude walking on screen or a disembodied hand, its the atmosphere, script, and ambiance that form immersion for me.

 

[Nostalgia]

I don't really like first person view in general. It doesn't feel immersive to me, and it certainly doesn't make me feel like the character. If anything, it actively destroys my ability to feel like the character. I always feel like a camera floating six feet off the ground.

What he said.

 

[Emeli]

I don't really like first person view in general. It doesn't feel immersive to me, and it certainly doesn't make me feel like the character. If anything, it actively destroys my ability to feel like the character. I always feel like a camera floating six feet off the ground.

And for the record, "immersive" doesn't mean that you feel like you are the character. It means that the game draws you into its world. Some examples of the effects of immersive gaming are: Games that you can't put down because you have to see what happens next, games that genuinely quicken your pulse or make you cry, and games that give you "bleed through" where you start seeing peices of the game in the real world.

FPS's almost never give me these sorts of feelings. In fact, the bulk of FPS games I put down halfway through and never pick up again because I couldn't take one more level of the same point and click shooting (unrelated note: Do FPS's feel like graphics heavy mouse tutorials to anyone else?).

- J

I second all of that.

The only thing I know is that the only two games that I stopped playing because I looked up and realised it was 3am were Fallout and Baldur's Gate.

 

[balimuzz]

i found RE4 to be incredibly immersive. i think it has more to do with the atmosphere than whether the camera is lodged in between your eyeballs or floating about 5 feet above you, if the game sets the mood and atmosphere well, then it's going to be ridiculously immersive.

 

[PirateKing]

The problem is platforming in first person.