Game Worlds You've Gotten Lost In

What are some game worlds you've gotten lost in? By "lost" I mean, you're thinking about them even while you're sitting at work, just waiting to get back into the game just for the world, you feel like you're really "in" it. Sometimes it's not even conscious, for instance you're driving along the interstate and see a large boulder off to the side of the road and your brain shouts "Stop! We need to mine that node!" before you remember this is the real world.

For me I have 4 big ones that spring to mind:

Everquest 2
Dark Age of Camelot
Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout 3

In Everquest 2 I was in a raiding guild and, at least early on, you still had to grind away for hours on end to level up so the sheer amount of hours I spent looking at that landscape gave me a real sense of place. At that time I was spending about 50 hours a week at my job and probably another 50 in EQ2. That's just the world I would run to to get away from it all.

DAoC was my first MMO and I was just blown away by how big the world was. I still have a lot of fond memories of going on raids into warzones, dodging enemies on my home turf, and exploring caves that weren't really meant to be explored alone.

With the Fallout games I attribute a lot of my love for that world to the music and aesthetics rather than the often wooden NPCs or overall story. When I'm just out exploring the wastes with Bing Crosby coming through on my crackling radio, a taped together beat up hunting rifle slung over my shoulder, and raiders terrorizing a town off in the distance, I'm happy.

It's been a long time since I've been that immersed in a world. Eve Online was probably the most recent (this decade, at least) game that I spent a nearly-unhealthy amount of OOG time involved with.

Before that it was RPGs like Final Fantasy VII, Phantasy Star Online, and Heroes of Might & Magic. Those games in particular stuck with me in ways most games didn't, either for their music, their lore, or their core gameplay loops that made me think about them even when far away from the console.

I've found myself stuck in my stealth Skyrim character mode... thinking I have that amazing sneak ability...

There have been many but I think the first was Daggerfall.

I'd had other games that really pulled me in and Daggerfall wasn't the first open world game but I think it was the first I really invested in. I remember creating a custom teleport spell and then anchoring one point so that I could not get lost in the dungeons.

I played multiple characters. They had their own backstories. I played the game differently depending on which character I was playing. I participated in some online character catalog thing with screenshots. I really invested in that game despite all the horrible horrible bugs.

I remember initially being disappointed that Morrowind was so much smaller but unfortunately it kind of exposed how shallow Daggerfall was. Still, it was the first game for me to take a deep dive in. Ironically, I think it is the only Elder Scrolls game that I got that involved in but never finished. (Arena and Oblivion do not count as I never really got into them)

I never played Daggerfall despite it being released during the peak of my crpg playing days. How was it shallow? Was it basically just a large empty world?

Here are a few that come to mind. I think one important aspect for these was that I didn't have major preconceived notions of how the games were to be played.

Wing Commander Privateer - I really liked that this had no starting direction, Just do some missions for cash to get out the Troy system. Hmm, some people are talking about New Detroit and some other systems, I'll try to make to one of those. Oh, there's someone at the bar to talk to...

Morrowind - I had played Might and Magic games before and thought those were open world but this really opened it things up bigger than I was expecting. I remember driving on the interstate on a foggy day and thinking of how it looked like Morrowind.

Might and Magic VII - Other than the music I'm not sure why I liked this game so much. It was just a fun open world with lots of things to do.

Using the "immersion" definition of lost, to the point where I'm thinking about the game a lot when not playing the game, there have been plenty. A few for me include Diablo II, Saints Row The Third, Red Dead Redemption, and Banished.

Using the literal definition of lost, I'd have to go back to the days when games didn't have an in-game map. So, something like Doom.

Oh how could I forget Red Dead? That game almost made me want to buy a pair of old style western boots. Almost.

I didn't know where the hell I was going in Soul Reaver. I got lost in there all the time.

I feel embarrassed that I forgot about WC: Privateer. I think that was before Daggerfall even. Amazing how long it took to get us a decent open universe game after it was released.

Kehama wrote:

I never played Daggerfall despite it being released during the peak of my crpg playing days. How was it shallow? Was it basically just a large empty world?

It was procedurally generated for a lot of the dungeons and even some towns. Which sounds great on paper but PC's didn't have all that much power so it was very identical. There was very little dialogue outside the main quest, but the main quest wasn't terribly interesting. Still, it was fun going from town to town trying to find that one piece of armor or weaponry to complete the full set.

Kehama wrote:

What are some game worlds you've gotten lost in? By "lost" I mean, you're thinking about them even while you're sitting at work, just waiting to get back into the game just for the world, you feel like you're really "in" it

This is so very true for me, and is a big factor in how memorable and beloved a game becomes for me.

I can't even begin to try to go through my whole gaming history and spew them all out, so I'll instead hit upon a few of my most beloved gameworlds of all time that truly drew me in.

My original MMO experiences of Everquest and Asheron's Call are certainly significant one in my gaming journey. In both cases, I was always preoccupied with thoughts of where I would journey and explore in my next gaming session, and I couldn't resist poring over maps of the games (which were fairly sparse on details) in anticipation.

Daggerfall was another major event for me in the construction of a truly immersive and fascinating gameworld for a single player game. I've been lost in the world of the Elder Scrolls games ever since.

The PS2 brought me the gift of what ended up being two of my favorite gameworlds ever, in the form of Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy XII. I've recently been replaying DQ8 off and on, and the sheer joy of simply wandering the gameworld has not dissipated with time. It's been long enough that my memories only provide fuzzy details, so there is still the excitement of wondering what treasure, monster, or vista awaits me over the next hill or around the next forest. After that, I look forward to returning to Final Fantasy XII (hopefully via an HD remake, but I'm not holding my breath) and the same sense of excitement and wonder that wandering the wilds of that gameworld engendered in me.

The Dragon Quest games, while I was a latecomer to them (I didn't really delve deeply into one of them for the first time until late college), have proven to be a treasure trove of gameworlds to lose myself in. They appease my inner cartographer by providing rambling overworld maps to wander and catalogue; something that we have lost from jrpg's in general anymore.

The most recent jrpg gameworld that gave me such an experience was Ni No Kuni, with its utterly beautiful overworld map and many gorgeous and varied locations to explore in more detail.

Moving away from traditional rpg's, the Souls games have given me very compelling gameworlds that worm their way inside my head and keep me preoccupied until I have ferreted out all their nooks and crannies! Dark Souls and Bloodborne in particular were amazingly crafted and compelling, with Dark Souls providing the absolute pinnacle of adventure gaming worlds I have ever explored. It's amazing to think of how exploring gameworlds in adventure games has progressed from my first experience of such (the Ocarina of Time on the N64) to now.

And it's not just adventure games anymore either. I still can't get Sevastopol Station out of my head, and we wrapped up the GWJ month-long adventure of Alien Isolation back in August!

I love games of all kinds, sure. But the games that compel me, that keep me coming back, that truly and deeply engage my mind, are the games that build sprawling and interesting worlds to explore. That will always be my true gaming passion, and I hope to see many more such gameworlds to explore in the future.

Kotor, Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, Mass Effect - basically, if Bioware touches a game, or is tangentially involved, I'll be thinking about it for weeks

I think I didn't consider most of the BioWare stuff simply because I've read way too many books set in the Forgotten Realms and Star Wars universes that brought those worlds alive for me while the games felt like only a small window into those settings. I still love them and they definitely get the feeling right but, if anything, they just made me want to read more of the books.

It's sadly been a while since I've felt this way (here's a Kotaku article that I think does an admirable job discussing why it's the case). I would probably say when I first go involved with vanilla World of Warcraft through Wrath of the Lich King was my greatest example.

Those were the days I could not stop thinking about where to go and what to do even outside of the game.

Game worlds I've gotten lost in? Ironically, I think you could look at this in another way. If the game world were real and I was magically transported into a random spot, would I be able to quickly find my way around? These are the games whose entire geography I remember in fairly intimate detail even years after playing. They were all both highly immersive and I spent a ton of time "living" in them.

System Shock- The first one, with the original Citadel Station. It's old enough that my memories have faded, but it stuck with me for years.

WOW- Of course. Up to and including Lich King.

Morrowind and Fallout: New Vegas- My favorite two of the Bethesda open world games. Haven't played Skyrim yet though.

Half Life 2
Left 4 Dead 1+2
Bioshock

There are lots of games that come close for me, but don't quite reach the level of these (many Bioware games, Fallout 3, Portal, Dead Space 1+2, Alien Isolation, early levels in Doom 1+2, Borderlands series, Midgard in DAOC, GTA Vice City, Far Cry 3, Arkham Asylum and City, parts of Deus Ex). Games like Deus Ex, Dishonored and Knights of the Old Republic don't seem quite as "real" to me since they're broken up into smaller areas and you don't get the feeling that it's one contiguous world.

Assassin's Creed game worlds don't stick with me that much to be honest. They all start to feel the same. But if I'm playing one long enough, I'll start automatically surveying the environment for places to free run.

I haven't played in 5 years but I still think of Azeroth as a place where I lived.

Good lord where do I even start? There are so many...I can get really sucked into a game easily.

Oblivion
Fallout 3
Fallout NV
Skyrim
Everquest 2
Uncharted 1,2,3
Mass Effect 1,2,3
Jade Empire
Dark Souls
Red Dead Redemption
Grand Theft Auto >3
Last of Us
Diablo 3
Batman Arkham Series
Bioshock

I'll just stop there but I could probably go on and on

I really enjoyed the world of Far Cry 2. I can still close my eyes and recall places in that game.

WizardM0de wrote:

It's sadly been a while since I've felt this way (here's a Kotaku article that I think does an admirable job discussing why it's the case).

Nice article. The last time I became that immersed in a game was actually a year or two ago when I played Ultimate 7 part One and Two, and before that it was Shenmue which was around the same time.

Abstraction aside, I think that article is right in that it's partially what "out of game" resources a game makes you use when you play that helps with immersion. With U7, I loved sitting with my Fellowship book out and my note pad and pencil and translating Britanian and searching for places on my cloth map and actually using my brain to figure out what to do and why things were happening. Before I knew it, I was thinking about the game nonstop and was engaging in multiple hour play sessions like I was 15 years old again.

I think the mass consumption model of games these days that are under the guise of respecting your time--objectives are all spelled out for you with large glowing dots, points of interests all have exclamation points over them, every shred of lore is spelled out in tomes, etc.--is the flip side of gamer "locust syndrome". I think somewhere along the way a lot of people started wanting to buy games more than play them, so is it any surprise that when you're playing a game and in the back of your mind you're kind of waiting for it to be over so you can play the other games you just bought that cut scenes become interminable, meaty games are just way too long and that you aren't getting sucked in to any one game as much?

The fewer games I've bought, the more I've personally been sucked fully into what I am playing (this year it was The Witcher 3--whose UI I turned almost completely off to play--and MGS 5 which I'm still in the middle of 130 hours of play and counting) partially because I have nothing else on deck. Other than that, I do believe that there is room for a renaissance in game design that allows for a lot more imagination to come into play. Pillars of Eternity and its ilk might be some examples of that, but could still go farther. One reason people usually think books are better than movies are for the reasons that Kotaku article spells out.

Tldr: As I bought fewer games I've gotten sucked into them more, especially if they're older and allow for more imagination.

Asheron´s Call (my first MMO)
Mafia
Sid Meier´s Pirates! was probably the first for me.
Dragon Warrior/Quest 1

Warriorpoet897 wrote:
WizardM0de wrote:

It's sadly been a while since I've felt this way (here's a Kotaku article that I think does an admirable job discussing why it's the case).

Nice article. The last time I became that immersed in a game was actually a year or two ago when I played Ultimate 7 part One and Two, and before that it was Shenmue which was around the same time.

Abstraction aside, I think that article is right in that it's partially what "out of game" resources a game makes you use when you play that helps with immersion. With U7, I loved sitting with my Fellowship book out and my note pad and pencil and translating Britanian and searching for places on my cloth map and actually using my brain to figure out what to do and why things were happening. Before I knew it, I was thinking about the game nonstop and was engaging in multiple hour play sessions like I was 15 years old again.

I think the mass consumption model of games these days that are under the guise of respecting your time--objectives are all spelled out for you with large glowing dots, points of interests all have exclamation points over them, every shred of lore is spelled out in tomes, etc.--is the flip side of gamer "locust syndrome". I think somewhere along the way a lot of people started wanting to buy games more than play them, so is it any surprise that when you're playing a game and in the back of your mind you're kind of waiting for it to be over so you can play the other games you just bought that cut scenes become interminable, meaty games are just way too long and that you aren't getting sucked in to any one game as much?

The fewer games I've bought, the more I've personally been sucked fully into what I am playing (this year it was The Witcher 3--whose UI I turned almost completely off to play--and MGS 5 which I'm still in the middle of 130 hours of play and counting) partially because I have nothing else on deck. Other than that, I do believe that there is room for a renaissance in game design that allows for a lot more imagination to come into play. Pillars of Eternity and its ilk might be some examples of that, but could still go farther. One reason people usually think books are better than movies are for the reasons that Kotaku article spells out.

Tldr: As I bought fewer games I've gotten sucked into them more, especially if they're older and allow for more imagination.

Well said but I disagree on a few minor points. I do feel that it's more a case of gamers changing than the games changing. As you get older you lose some of that sense of wonder and awe, it's totally natural and happens even outside of gaming. When I was younger and visited a new real life place I always felt a sense of magical mystery. Now I'm 45 and still enjoy it, but I approach it more cerebrally.

There are some things you can do to help immersion. Next time there's a game that might do it for you try this -

1- If possible, tell the family you don't want to be distracted. Leave the phone in another room or turn the sound off and flip it face down
2 -Turn down the lights so the only illumination is from the TV/Monitor
3 - A good sounds system can help a lot. If you have surround sound that's great, if not, consider some headphones
4 - Get your favorite gaming beverage & snack ready
5 - Let yourself get immersed. Seems like a silly one but it's true, when you're younger your imagination is always toggled on, when you get older you sometimes have to help it along

Make a good immersive game a super awesome rewarding ritual

I tend to get really immersed in the environments of most games I play, but one thing really stands out. When I was heavily into Assassin's Creed II I often found myself looking at buildings downtown thinking how easily I could climb them. But, alas, I noticed a disturbing lack of piles of leaves and hay laying about.

I don't know if I have ever been lost as you describe. I don't think that it helps that I often listen to podcasts and the radio when I play.
Bloodborne is the closest for me. I was certainly emersed in that game and can recall the world better than most.

Aristophan wrote:

I really enjoyed the world of Far Cry 2. I can still close my eyes and recall places in that game.

Yeah, I can close my eyes and then hear a truck spawning in out of thin air to run me down.

WoW, Arkham Games and Zelda. Specifically Ocarina of Time.

I haven't really got lost in any game over the course of the last years. I start playing games and I rarely finish them AT ALL. I don't even think it has got anything to do with the quality of the games... just with the money at my disposal. When I was young, I could only afford to buy one game every three months or so. Naturally, I got lost in those games trying to squeeze as much out of them as possible. Now, I buy a game and after roughly 5-10 hours I stop playing those games the moment something boring happens... and this is coming from someone who dumped perhaps 30 hours into breeding those bloody chocobos in FFVII. (I'd never do that again now and hopefully they speed that process up in the upcoming remake.) The last time I clocked in more than 30 hours was in Pillars of Eternity, but even though that's an awesome game I haven't even finished that one yet...

Tanglebones wrote:

Kotor, Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, Mass Effect - basically, if Bioware touches a game, or is tangentially involved, I'll be thinking about it for weeks

I thought of KOTOR and especially Mass Effect when I read the question. I think a big part of the reason is that they establish so much background story and lore that it really feels like a real place while I'm playing it. While most RPGs only establish characters insofar as they matter to the central story, Bioware gives even minor characters a lot of depth. It makes their universes feel more alive, so it's easier to get lost in them.

Final Fantasy 7 & 8
World of Warcraft (during my short time playing)

For me it's hours in a game, if I get over about 50, and the world is big enough and well realised (pretty much a pre-req for that many gameplay hours) then I'll be thinking of 'going back' often when im not playing. Quite surreal.

Games in the STALKER series, despite their low-budget appearance in some places.

The bleak, oppressive landscape just seeped into my bones until I felt nothing but fear and anger. No sorrow for the death of my comrades. No reaction to mutant animals torn apart by anomalies.

Grim satisfaction after every headshot and heartstopping tension during some of the underground segments. Sheer panic when I'm out in the open and hear the warning siren in the distance.

Such is life in the Zone.

Hmm

Here are some that come to mind.

Dark Age of Camelot
Half Life 2
World of Warcraft
Guild Wars 2
Mafia 1+2
Company of Heroes series

Deadmonkeys wrote:

The bleak, oppressive landscape just seeped into my bones until I felt nothing but fear and anger. No sorrow for the death of my comrades. [...] Grim satisfaction after every headshot and heartstopping tension during some of the underground segments. Sheer panic when I'm out in the open and hear the warning siren in the distance.

Such is life in the Zone Russia.

I really want to enjoy Stalker, but it's just so incredibly depressing to be in a place where life is so nasty, brutish, and short. And in the game!