Probably an odd question as it pertains to myself specifically, but I thought maybe others here have had similar experiences and can tell me.
When I was a kid I used to really get immersed into the games I played; I'd feel as though I was actually, feeling the very walls around me in dungeon crawlers, getting tense in fights and such, but nowadays I don't really get that sense any more. I'm in my mid-30's and now I'm thankfully able to afford any game I wish, I thankfully can choose how long I spend gaming, yet I just can't get immersed, I just can't get pulled in anymore.
My buddy told me about the Witcher 3 and told me it's great and immersive like only the oldest games ever were, and yet when I played it....I got kind of bored, and lost interest somewhat fast. One possibility is that maybe with modern proliferation of game knowledge, we can simply google for anything we want rather than let the game help us find what we need, pulling us out for that much of the game, another possibility is that we recognize mechanics and animations for what they are, and we try and memorize enemy combat animations, and our own iframes and such, even if instinctively.
I honestly can't remember the last game I played where I got immersed into the game and just felt the world rather than just see it.
This is true to a certain extent. I never really got into Sekiro, Elden Ring was my first Fromsoft title, but I do find that it requires a fair bit of wiki-searching. The almost non-existent quest system is really obtuse (on purpose), but the sandbox nature of the open world makes it probably the most immersive game I've ever played. It's my favorite game of all time, and one of the very few in recent years that I've really lost myself in. The other two that come to mind are RDR2 and Disco Elysium. I have spent almost 70 hours on it and it feels like I've barely even scratched the surface.
The obtuseness of the quests and the completely passive narrative are what makes Elden Ring so immersive to me. It feels like I'm constantly searching for little environmental cues to understand what the hell is going on, and even so I'm still not sure at all. It's one of the few games where I can't really answer the question "what's the game about?", because I'm just there, feeling the vibes but not really understanding the world around me. It's very much like Morrowind in that regard, making you feel like a stranger in a strange land, as you said.
Elden Ring refuses to explain itself. Instead of getting a lore dump about something like the Eternal Cities, for example, I stumble upon them and find a giant robed skeleton sitting on a throne. That feeling of "what the hell is that thing supposed to be?" never fails to give me this sense of wonder. Yesterday I got to Leyndell for the first time, and I was just floored by the incredible beauty and the craftsmanship involved in developing that world that has this palpable sense of history to every little thing that you find.
Truly a work of art, 11/10 pretty much the best goddamn game I've ever played. It's definitely not for everyone though.
I basically agree with everything you've said here. Elden Ring absolutely is a masterpiece, and the environmental storytelling is top notch. It's my favorite FromSoft game, no question and I really like that the world feels rather less dead than the worlds of the Dark Souls games. But for me, it doesn't quite make it into the same category as something like Pathologic 2 or Outer Wilds. It's harder to get into and easier to get dragged out of. I've started probably twice as many play-throughs as I've finished, which is fine, really, the early parts of the game are super cool, but I think it says something that I have a hard time actually finishing a playthrough. I agree that Leyndell is extremely pretty, and, as long as I'm leveled correctly so I can actually kill the enemies, one of my favorite places to wander around.
That's right, I never played Pathologic, but Outer Wilds does drag you in (much like the black hole in the game, heh). I suppose the fact is that I have a thing for environmental storytelling, I have worldbuilding brain and I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.
Yeah I completely agree, I actually kept a leather journal that I wrote questions and noteworthy things in as I went through it, trying to piece things together. Made it really immersive and made it feel personal