Every game is good in its own right, but to truly have your time engulfed by a game is something else.
Immersion doesn’t only have to come from open-world games, it can come from almost any style of game if it’s done well enough. Whether open-world or linear, good or average graphics, if you lose track of the hours then immersion has gripped you.
This list is all-inclusive and there are certainly plenty more that could be included but for now, these are the titles that we felt deserved a mention.
Alien Isolation
Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox One/360, PC
Average Play Time: 18 hours
Released in 2014, the graphics weren’t too shabby. With the constant threat of the eusocial Xenomorph on your tail and the rogue Androids wanting to shut down your plans to escape Sevastopol Station, you can’t help but have the constant feeling of dread throughout the game.
With first-person view you get the full effect of everything you interact with, from wearing the MK50 compression suit to using the Arious motion tracker, it all gives a very real feel to the experience of one of the best “space games” to date…Oh and let’s not forget that if you die one too many times, the Alien starts to figure out your style of play and if your mic is connected, enemies will hear every sound that is picked up and hunt you down…yay for realism!
Metro Exodus
Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, PC
Average Play Time: 25 hours
This 2019 release brought a slightly different feel to the post-apocalyptic game world.
With its FPS story-driven take on the nuclear war aftermath, Exodus gives you a combination of both linear-style and fairly open-world gameplay. With a selection of 10 guns to choose from you can rest assured that you will never run out of ammunition with the Tikhar. With ball bearings to supply the ammunition and being virtually silent, this gun is powered through a pneumatic system which can be over-pressurized for extra power…just remember to keep the air pressure up otherwise you’ll be in a bit of a pickle with the next enemy encounter.
Certain zones require you to put on your gas mask, necessitate air filter changes, and to actually repair it when it gets damaged all while making your way across the Russian landscape, experiencing all four seasons and a day/night cycle.
Dying Light
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Average Play Time: 19 hours (main storyline)
Delving into this 2015 title, you are set in the slummy city of Harran. With some of the best parkour mechanics to date, this FPS survival horror is vastly open-world, has some pretty great crafting available, and awesome combat including the ability to dropkick various zombie enemies.
This is a much more hands-on game with majority combat being melee. There are over 100 standard weapons available and over 1000 including craftable weapons, which are pretty darn innovative, to say the least.
There’s also a day/night cycle like no other when the Volatiles come out to play, the ability to resourcefully set up traps, a weather system, and physics-based lighting.
Days Gone
Platforms: PS4, Xbox, PC
Average Play Time: 40 hours (main storyline)
Released in 2019, this third-person adventure-horror-survival throws you into another post-apocalyptic world filled with literal hordes of Freakers (…zombies). You need to keep up the scavenging and survival while making sure to maintain your trusty motorcycle, this includes having to find fuel to keep it running. Although not the most attentive game to the much smaller, intricate details for collectables and item-finding, the Oregon landscape with its changing day/night cycle and weather features are truly something to indulge in.
Ghost of Tsushima
Platforms: PS4, PS5
Average Play Time: 25 hours (main storyline)
Playing as a Samurai in this 2020 release has you fighting back against the Mongol Empire in this stunningly scenic action-stealth-adventure RPG, although it doesn’t entirely have the photorealism aspect, the combination of its artwork and lighting really give that surreal experience.
There is a weather system that can be subtly controlled with how you play and there are in-game cues for guidance such as the wind or golden songbirds which minimizes the need for map interaction and playing as a Samurai you can expect some beautiful combat fluidity.
With the option to minimize HUD clutter, you can truly immerse yourself in the balance of beauty and bloodshed.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Platforms: PS4. PC
Average Play Time: 23 hours (main storyline)
Released in 2017, this is an action RPG. It has a great combination of open-world with three main biomes and stunning graphics. There is crafting, scavenging, and much-encouraged exploration for collectables.
After the downfall of humanity in the 31st century, humans were forced to start anew tracing back to our roots, tribes were formed and villages erected. Hunters and gatherers are once more and the ruins of the futuristic cities and technologies have been deemed off-limits.
Biomechanical fauna and flora are what cover and roam the Earth, but with the Focus that provides you with an augmented reality, you are able to override most of these creatures. With the regression to tribal living you use collected shards and materials to trade and your weapons & outfits are customizable.
As the outcast of your tribe, playing as protagonist Aloy who dedicates her life to finding out the truth, you are led to much more than you expected…the All-Mother, The Goddess.
Far Cry Primal
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Pc
Average Play Time: 15 hours (main storyline)
An extremely underrated 2016 release, Primal took us back to the beginning of the Mesolithic era, playing as a Wenja tribesman in the open-prehistoric world. Playing as the Beast Master you will be able to tame and even ride some of the primordial beasts that inhabit this great wilderness. While taking on the chief role of the new Wenja village to be rebuilt in the land of Oros, you will need to bring in any remaining lost Wenja that you come across while fending off the two other tribes that you will encounter.
The Aztec-like Izila tribe are masters of fire and worshippers of Suxli, they are the “modern-day homo-sapiens” of the game and make regular human sacrifices of the Wenja and Udam. The most primitive tribe of the game are the Udam, cannibalistic Neanderthals that favour the flesh of the Wenja.
Primal is quite historically accurate and gives you a good feel of what it was like to craft your weapons, gather and hunt for your resources, building a village, and even experience the visions induced with hallucinogenic mixtures from the tribes’ Shaman.
Fallout 4
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Average Play Time: 28 hours (main storyline)
Although this 2015 RPG title is in a post-nuclear-war setting with the style of early 1950s, it starts off in 2077 where you end up being held in cryogenic stasis for about 210 years only to awaken as the sole survivor of Vault 111 in the year 2287.
With the god-ol’ Pip-Boy to assist along the way, you’ll make your way all over the Commonwealth wastelands while gunning down the numerous mutated enemies that lurk about. As you scour the lands in search of answers you will come across survivors, although not all are to be trusted, settlements will need to be established and slowly you will unravel the mysteries of The Institute and their synths.
Near-endless amounts of side quests, loads of minor details to explore & uncover and the adoration of Dogmeat is more than enough to keep you hooked on this for months on end.
Skyrim
Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox One/360, PC, Nintendo Switch
Average Play Time: 37 hours (main storyline)
What more can I say about this 2011 release except that it’s very clearly the best Elder Scrolls title to date (for most anyway) and one of the most well-known games out there?
This fantasy RPG is hugely open-world, has an almost infinite amount of side quests, has some majorly intricate lore, ten different playable races, twenty Dragon Shouts or “Thu’um” (twenty-seven including expansions) to master, eighteen skills to branch into & upgrade, spells & alchemy, owning a home & cooking 4E 201-era recipes and this is to name but only a small fraction of what is available in this absolute gem of a game.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Average Play Time: 49 hours (main storyline)
This 2018 release throws you right back into the days of the Wild West as an outlaw running with your gang. One of the most meticulously detailed games around, this title boasts gorgeous graphics, attention to even the smallest of details from story & quests to environment & random activities.
You can build (or break down) relationships with people and your horse, choose how you want to turn out as a person by making good or bad choices (yes, this does affect certain outcomes in-game throughout the world), you can eat and bathe, go to the stores and post offices, there is an amazing weather/season cycle and to top it all off, RDR2 is historically accurate for its setting.
If you take careful note throughout the game, you will see how the times progress as you do, small details change such as if a house is being built and you come back later, it will be further on; certain parts of a town will be really shabby at the start of the game but go back near the end of the main storyline when a fair amount of years has passed and you will see telephone lines being erected.
It is subtle details like these that aren’t usually noticed but make all of the difference when you realize that you are truly living in the Wild West. There is no way to explain this beauty that will do it justice, you will need to play it for yourself to understand the full extent of what greatness really is.
On that note, it would be awesome to hear from our readers what some of your most immersive experiences have been, leave a comment on our site or any of our socials under this article, and let us know!