Immersion-Breakers

[Jintor]

Have you guys ever seen something so jarring, so out-of-place and wrong in a game that immediately reminds you that you're playing a game, that just stops your enjoyment dead in your tracks?

For me one such moment was in CoD4, in one of the SAS missions where you have to mvoe through enemy territory in a field with hay bales and choppers chasing you down. There's a point where you have to wait for an ally to blow open a door, but in order to do so you need to clear the field of enemies long enough for him to reach the door. So I killed all the ground enemies, and then the chopper continually circled around, spraying me with gunfire everytime the enemy in the chopper respawned (seriously, clown car choppers).

That wasn't the immersion breaker though. The real immersion breaker when I was like "WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG?!?" and went to find the guy who supposed to explode the door.

He'd gotten clipped on a hay bale, and was running endlessly in place.

I immediately loaded up the menu and quit. All that work put into creating a believable and fun scene, immediately lost, thanks to a simple pathfinding error.

 

[Lucid]

Ouch, CoD4 was a completely enjoyable experience for me. D:
In STALKER: SoC, I was on this mission where I had to find a scientist guy, he was in the area a little ways from the bar.
Well, I found him and he was supposed to follow me somewhere, but he wasn't moving at all no matter what I did.
Had to reload my save before I even got that mission. :|
Nearly killed the game for me.

 

[Krynn72]

Every time I die in a game, immersion is broken.

 

[MJ12]

In Stalker-

Guy at Bar: "Damn, won't somebody help me?"

Me: "Sure, I'll help you find your gun" *takes quest*

*Me Trying to talk to Bar Tender*

*In the background*Guy at Bar: "Damn, won't somebody help me? Damn, Damn, Won't somebody Help me? Damn............ Damn"

 

[kineaesth]

G-Man - " Rise and Sh sh sh sh sh i-kphhhhfff un, Mister Freeman."

F*cking computer.

 

[Jimmeh]

Anything in Oblivion.

The only time I've ever been immersed in that game is when you're running around through the grass fields by yourself, soaking up the view or something. As soon as a character or creature comes into view everything goes to shit. The music suddenly changes and there's some spastic bandit running on the spot, apparently stuck behind a small rock, desperately swinging his axe around like a pleb.

 

[Lobster]

The old vibrating ragdoll stuck in scenery is always a bit jarring, but its not exactly a piece of game design.

Somthing that really pisses me off, is when a game decides to use cutscenes (which in itself isnt a problem) but gives you a cutscene, then gives you control, so you can run forward 20 feet, only to steal control and trigger another cocking cutscene, and its always somthing really trivial like "Have a look at this wonderful model we added, because we cant trust you to notice it on your own".

 

[RyanG]

In Stalker-

Guy at Bar: "Damn, won't somebody help me?"

Me: "Sure, I'll help you find your gun" *takes quest*

*Me Trying to talk to Bar Tender*

*In the background*Guy at Bar: "Damn, won't somebody help me? Damn, Damn, Won't somebody Help me? Damn............ Damn"

Get out of here, Stalker. Get out of here, Stalker. Get out of here, Stalker. Get out of here, Stalker.
Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello?

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

I think every game needs a character that's designated as an "immersion breaker." He just jumps out at the most engrossing moments and starts telling fart jokes and dancing.

 

[Stigmata]

I'd make it so every 20 minutes or so, a random character on-screen has his animation corrupted for one second.

 

[taviow]

I'd make it so every 20 minutes or so, a random character on-screen has his animation corrupted for one second.

Genius. Why did nobody think of that yet?

 

[Vegeta897]

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

**** off!

 

[Adrik_Senturu]

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

**** off!

Achievements dont bother me as much as "YOURFRIENDHAS SIGNED IN HES ONLINE HES OFFLINE HES ONLINE HES OFFLINE NOW HES BACK ONLINE AGAIN"

 

[Leto]

*Running around in random field in Oblivion*

"Wait, where's all the grass?"

*grass loads all at once*

*game crashes*

 

[Bad^Hat]

Clicking "respawn" in an MMO is pretty much top of the list.

 

[RyanG]

*Running around in random field in Oblivion*

"Wait, where's all the grass?"

*grass loads all at once*

*game crashes*

While I will admit that Oblivion was not the most immersive game ever, that is one thing that never happened to me while I was playing it.

 

[Jintor]

I remember a strange glitch in Jedi Knight II where I managed to throw Tavion off a cliff as she was dying. This resulted in invisible cutscene Tavion.

Not that cutscenes don't break immersion, but still.

 

[staticprimer]

In game ads in Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. "Why do all the computers in this bank have CoD 2 screen savers?

 

[i am HOLLYWOOD]

Anything in Oblivion.

The only time I've ever been immersed in that game is when you're running around through the grass fields by yourself, soaking up the view or something. As soon as a character or creature comes into view everything goes to shit. The music suddenly changes and there's some spastic bandit running on the spot, apparently stuck behind a small rock, desperately swinging his axe around like a pleb.

to quote Mr. Yahtzee

"a guy talking to himself about how great the store is that's owned by HIMSELF"


hahahaha

 

[ailevation]

when my mom comes in abruptly yelling dinner's ready!

Big immersion break.

 

[Laivasse]

Achievement notifications do break my immersion. I definitely want a way to turn them off in Episode 3.

I don't WANT to know that I've found 1 out of 5 weapons caches the instant I locate the first one.

 

[MJ12]

In game ads in Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. "Why do all the computers in this bank have CoD 2 screen savers?

Oh, lol.

That's similar to the top secret cloning facilities overrun by demon spirits all having Dell XPS computers in F.E.A.R.

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

People yelling in Voice Chat on Steam while playing STALKER-SHOC.. I cba to turn it off.

 

[Eejit]

I think every game needs a character that's designated as an "immersion breaker." He just jumps out at the most engrossing moments and starts telling fart jokes and dancing.

Noober and Neeber!

 

[Paulaner]

Scripted events. They are always clear and blatant, so my suspension of disbelief is... well... suspended.

 

[Cormeh]

Quick time events. Button matching sequences just **** me off so much. Save for perhaps Mass Effect.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

You drive at 5MPH in Crysis, and clip the charred remains of a heli's rotor blade....

.....Your car explodes!

 

[Deleted member 56031]

Stalker SHOC

Invisible voice: "Get out of here stalker" Scary but weird

 

[Bakurei]

Must have been in deus ex 2. Well it broke the immersion and was damn funny at the same time. Thugs come to me asking for money for something, I decided to be the nice guy and not kill everyone, so I gave them the money. After that the dialogue ends and the thugs start walking away from me, side by side. One of them walks too close to a barrel which had flames, gets set on flames, runs around screaming and burns all his friends with him. In the end all the thugs were lying dead on the floor because I decided to be the nice guy.

 

[highlander]

Weird glitches
Bad path finding
Unexplainable deaths
Bad AI
Horrible voice acting
Crashing




YOUR MOTHER.


ooooooo

 

[<RJMC>]

playing tf2 as demoman and about to blow a sentry that have been giving headaches to the whole thing and when I am about to shoot the least sticky and go boom the game freezes and some red letters appears at the top saying "connection lost auto-disconect in 30"

 

[Naph]

I must say the biggest immersion breakers would have to be your tag-alone companions.

eg

and who could forget generic hot woman that over-confident game developers want 14 year old's to beat off to.

 

[MJ12]

Having Alyx as a companion has always made me feel more immersed in HL actually.

 

[Jintor]

I agree... Alyx has been fairly good so far as Immersian goes (except when she jumps off a cliff or something... but that generally never happens).

Whose the second one?

 

[Naph]

I agree... Alyx has been fairly good so far as Immersian goes (except when she jumps off a cliff or something... but that generally never happens).

Whose the second one?

Liana from Dark Messiah.


Oh my shit.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

and who could forget generic hot woman that over-confident game developers want 14 year old's to beat off to.

I've heard that exact line from somewhere before :|

*strokes imaginary beard*

 

[Naph]

I've heard that exact line from somewhere before :|

*strokes imaginary beard*

Shaq-fu

 

[G(ordon)-man]

In oblivion,when you are really living into the game, and then a goblin flying past you and guards running to kill it.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

Shaq-fu

Ah that was it! :O

It's not on youtube anymore

 

[Naph]

Ah that was it! :O

It's not on youtube anymore

Yup, the guy got in some state and deleted his whole account.