Caves of Qud has a pretty substantial learning curve, unfortunately. But if you can get through it, the story and world are deeply engrossing. I think they even won a few writing awards a while back.

Edit: Also, Hyper Light Drifter has immaculate vibes.

Noita.

Just be prepared to die. A lot.

If you don’t mind a somewhat old game, The Void by Icepick Lodge https://www.gog.com/en/game/void_the

Similarly, if you don’t mind an actually old game, Thief 1 + 2 have probably the best ambiance I’ve ever seen: https://www.gog.com/en/game/thief_2_the_metal_age

I’ve been getting into Avowed and having more fun than I expected. The dialogue is a bit bland though so I’m glad you can speed read and skip.

Cyberpunk 2077. It had a lot to build on with the IP being decades old with a lot of worldbuilding done already. Such a huge, intricate, and alive world. My first playthrough took 200 hours just from exploration, and there’s a TON i never got to. Over 1k hours later, there’s still connections i haven’t made, secrets i haven’t found. I honestly haven’t found a more immersive game for me.

Runner up: Red Dead Redemption 2. Again, the world is so alive and detailed that my immersion goes off the charts. Another 200hr first playthrough. NPCs have lives and schedules, the voice acting is fantastic, and the overall world building is immaculate. Tiny details that 0.01% of players would ever notice are carefully constructed (Lemat cartridges, looking at you). Wildlife interacts realistically with other wildlife and other stimuli. Cats in cities will search for, find, and hunt mice. I never fast traveled because just riding across the landscape and looking around was a better time. Could not recommend more highly, but watching or playing the first one first is advised.

Fallout NV

While it may not be everyone’s cup of tea there’s something about playing NV with radio NV running and running around the emptier parts of the map, then I get jumped by a bunch Romaboo larpers.

Arcanum

While it’s immesian is a bit different it’s music and story telling can drag me in easily.

Outer wilds

Death is inevitable, so you may as well enjoy some music with your pals.

Disco Elysium. I’m surprised it wasn’t mentioned yet. There was also legal drama with the original creators, so feel free to pirate. Not that Lemmy needs convincing of it.

I’ve been playing Pal World this past week and been having a lot of fun exploring and discovering the world. The atmosphere is quite cartoony but you can also have a pet monkey with a gun go into battle with you. I’ve spent hours at a time just wandering the lands discovering new areas and also get lost in the base building aspect of the game.

Sekiro

Lies of P

Hollow Knight & Silksong

starfield. such a meditative experience

I realize this may be irresponsible of me to mention, but Skyrim* in VR has had me forget IRL hours by the dozens —often several per session. I’d pop in for a quick game, and finally close out to find it’s been dark for hours. 🫨

*modded to your taste, ofc

• Northern Journey
• Scorn
• Unreal
• Dark Souls 1
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R trilogy
• CINERIS SOMNIA
• Mundaun
• Mulaka
• The Void

Kingdom Come Deliverance.

Amazingly beautiful and realistic world with incredible detail. The forests, pastures, meadows and towns are incredible to just walk around in and lose yourself in the atmosphere.

Also the game(s) are very, very, good.

Medieval realistic role playing. You stay as a peasant who can’t pretty much do anything. Fight, sneak, or even read. You have to learn everything and you decide what you want to learn by doing it untill you get better.

Project Zomboid, easily.

Elden Ring.

I played the original PC98 eroge/hentai game A Girl Who Chants Love At the Bound of This World YU-NO, and despite a very small amount of the content being the sex scenes which are totally skippable, with a few being pretty disgusting to me IMO, the rest of the game was phenomenal. If you can look past the bad parts, the good parts are so good. It took me 80 hours to beat the game without a guide, and I loved nearly every second of it. The remake ruined the art style though.

Now for some games I consider the opposite, just for a fun mention:

Starfield. The game having dialogue options that are basically all variants of “you say yes” on some dialogues or “you say no” on others kept taking me out of the immersion. It felt like I wasnt playing my own character, but one the quest writers wanted me to play. The game had plenty of other reasons that kept me out of the immersion to. I like parts of the game, but its not one I can recommend.

Need For Speed Unbound. I bought this game for $5 USD on sale and tried to refund the game after an hour. The NPCs just do not shut up in that first hour I played. They cannot stop yapping in my ear about how “police and politicians are so oppressive to us street racers.” Listen, I love cars. I love racing games. When I play a racing game, I just want it to be me and the car. I don’t want to be hearing anything about social politics in my racing game. I have to hear enough about it in real life, I don’t wanna be hearing more in my relax time. Not to mention they are illegal street racers that literally cause thousands in damages to property and usually multiple fatalities in the races. I still feel robbed. Underground 2 still holds the crown. No talking in my ear when I am driving except to tell me about where more races are, or if I unlocked something. Just the way racing games should be.

Earthnight. It’s got a killer soundtrack.