Immersive and non-immersive game engines?

Cacheperl said:

Yes, I agree. More control may sometimes works in the favor of immersion. That's what I liked better about Icewind Dale, in comparison to Baldurs Gate: You had complete control over your group. From start to finish. I think this helps you to identify with all members of the group. They never show any behavior that might not mesh with what you imagine about them. And of course, creating them from the start is a natural way to identify with them, too.

Click to expand...

You have complete control over your group in Baldur's Gate as well. The only difference is that they're not blank slates with no backgrounds.

JDR13 said:

You have complete control over your group in Baldur's Gate as well. The only difference is that they're not blank slates with no backgrounds.

Click to expand...

That's not quite correct. Some stuff is prescribed, like them leaving you after certain decisions. Or other reactions of them during quests.

And who ever said that player-created characters have no background? Only if you do not give them one.

Cacheperl said:

That's not quite correct. Some stuff is prescribed, like them leaving you after certain decisions. Or other reactions of them during quests.

And who ever said that player-created characters have no background? Only if you do not give them one.

Click to expand...

I meant you have complete control over them while they're in your party.

Very rarely does an NPC leave your group though, and it can usually be avoided except for the odd occasion when it's part of the story like when Imoen gets kidnapped.

I usually find party-based games pretty stale when there are no NPC reactions and you have to just imagine everything. I still like the IWD games a lot though as story-light dungeon crawls.

Anyone else kind of miss the fog that "always" was used in the older engines (to hide their poor view distance)… I sometimes think it was kind of cool, e.g in Morrowind.

Did it make the games more immersive tough, in a way i guess. Because only your imagination could set the view distance of the world. Nowadays you can stand on a cliff and look - "ah, so that's where the game world ends, bummer.."
It added mystery and there was also more a sense of danger to always be surrounded by fog and not knowing what to expect.

Ah, I loved that fog. Saw it for the first time in ShadowCaster (which used a post-Wolfenstein3D/pre-Doom engine) and was duly impressed. Even today I think of ShadowCaster when seeing foggy autumn scenarios IRL, especially parks.