Quote from topic this list spawned of:
"We're talking about gaming experiences and whether or not they've lost their "magic" over the years on the PS2 boar. On the second page I wrote a large repy after some of us got into the topic of immersion and how the information age has made immersion harder, because the temptations of discussing a game on a forum or use a FAQ can quite often break yer immersion, or how in Online RPGs, the constant real life discussins ruin any immersion that one may have similar to an offline game like Morrowind.

Which lead to thinking of how a lot of it can't really be pigeon holed because of so many factors: from how you played the game; in a living room with friends, in a dark room with surround sound loud; how you experienced the game, roleplayed or acted like a popstar punk; to the game itself and it's music, world and art design, general atmosphere.

So I'm basically curious to hear about the most immersive experiences you've ever had in gaming. Where you've truely lost yourself for hours in a game world, where it really captured you. If you want to read that other thread also and elaborate on the factors you believe helped in the immersion, or just say the game name, that's up to you."

Note:
I only elaborated on the best of a number of genres. For example, Final Fantasy VII was the most immersive console single-player roleplay gaming for me. I could of elaborated other Final Fantasy games, the Suikoden series, Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana, and perhaps more. But without getting more specific for each game, I'd be reiterating that I found them immersive for their emotional stories, brilliant casts, and wicked world and art design.

Immersive Experiences

Firstly, personally I find real life setting critical. Large monitor in a very dark room being the complete center of attention, with high quality and load surround sound. The difference between this, and lounging on a couch with the radio on and friends eating pizza is really as different as night and day.

Onto my list of many of my most immersive gaming experiences:

Warcraft II

It really was. This was my first RTS game, and being primarely a console and Pen & Paper RPGer, my first Tolkien-esque PC game. So it wasn't really the great music, the point of view, the story, or anything that immersed me. It was simply that it was my first game that put me into a fantasy world I truely loved and make me a commander.

I remember spending hours playing simple maps, just customizing stories for them. Even on the very first map, after killing all the humans, I remember setting up patrol routes between the forest bottle necks. There was no need for it. From a gameplay stance, best to just keep yer grunts in yer base. But being able to set up patrol routes in a realistic fashion for my orc army is just a small example of what immersed me so much in Warcraft II. It's why I still prefer the single-player experience of RTS games today.

Deus Ex
It's a hard task explain to someone about how incredibly immersive this game is. I played the game a few years later, so it definetly wasn't the graphics. It's the combination of the game atmosphere, created by amazing world design, story, and music, combined with the non-linear nature of the game and giving you choices and freedom. I can't really say much beyond that. However, if I had to pick just one PC game for the most immersive ever, I think it would be Deus Ex.

Way of the Samurai
This is a console adventure game that is argurable the most non-linear game around. The game story itself only takes 2-4 hours to progress through. But you can litteraly beat the game 20 times and not explored every option. It's packed tight with scenes and events and for every scene, you have options, all of which effect future scenes, factions, and the general outcome of the game. Similar to Deus Ex II, but to a greater extent IMO.

The other big factor was "perma-death". If you died, there was no restart. You were dead. This really added a sense of risk and reality (thus immersion) to the game. It's easy to be the Hero when you can just "load Save game". But when you're risking 3 hours of work, your "life", to save those peasants.... well, being the Hero isn't so easy anymore. The general byproduct of perma-death, which many of us have experienced in Diablo II, really added a lot to this game and is a reason I was so immersed in it.

Final Fantasy VII
A fairly linear console RPG, quite the contrast from Deus Ex. What immersed me in this game was emotion. The emotions created by the story, from anticipating, true intrigue, excitement, and sadness on par with some of the most beautiful films I've ever watched. A remarkable story combined with one of the best gaming soundtracks ever produced, and brilliant art design that used violence and gore to high light intense scenes really gave the game a sense of atmosphere and brought it's already high level of immersion into one of the best ever, and thus this list.

Call of Duty
Action and sound. It's really that simple. The game makes you feel like yer living through Saving Private Ryan or some other powerful war film. The game litterally just assaults your senses and you feel like your right in the action.

ONLINE

Since immersion IMO is so immensely harder to attain in an online game, I want to elaborate on the two that did constantly for me, opposed to just when I was solo'ing and other rare moments in most online games.

Diablo
Part of it I think is because of how old the game is, or rather, our new it was when it released. The online support is quite simple. Your character exists in village with a few other characters, and that's it. No bombardment of trade spam and six chat channels. Just simplicity. Another key factor for me is the free Player vs Player in the game. It added a lot of suspense and thrill to the game. Whether it was by slowly moving through the catacombs and listening for the footsteps of your prey, or just knowing a stranger may stab you in the back. Lastly was the game atmosphere. From skeletons clittering down hallways, jumping out of that [i]next[/i] tomb, or the sense of fear when you first heard "Fresh meat!".

Anarchy Online
This one is hard to explain. There is nothing obviously different that made this game so much more immersive than most MMORPGs. It was really just the style of the game, the design. From the way the world was laid out, the massive skyscrapers in the cites, enormous military bases and Notum cannons firing at the distant enemy, the massive amount of "out there" content like outposts, parks, and intense swamps that no one really frequented and people just rarely explored and "found", to the shocking weather and thunderstorms of Broken Shores or at the time absolutely beautiful and serene sunsets.

All of this perfectly supported by an amazing soundtrack, easily the best in any MMORPG, is what made Anarchy Online so immersive, compared to games like EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot that technically aren't all that different in core features. Just the general "artistic design" expressed through the graphics, content, and music, is what seperated Anarchy Online.