Immersion in video gamesis a tall mountain—many attempt to climb it, but only a few truly reach the summit. For players, immersion is often a major factor in their decision to buy in a game, especially single-player titles. This becomes even more the case in open-world games, where a captivating environment can make all the difference.
Broadly, open-world games can be divided into two categories: those set in urban landscapes, whether futuristic or present-day, and those that transport players back to nature, often in medieval or fantasy worlds. In the latter, a return to nature—forests, trees, and a simpler way of life—forms the heart of the immersive experience. Forests, in particular, have a way of transporting players someplace else, grounding them in the game world in a way few other things can.
One of Rockstar’s biggest achievements withRed Dead Redemption 2is the way they managed to make it so incredibly realistic as to nearly pass muster asa live-action moviein certain places. While forests are not nearly as ubiquitous inRDR2as they are in some other titles on this list, that only makes them more immersive when Arthur does come across them in his adventures.
The mountains around Strawberry are filled with natural-looking trees, dirt roads, and the occasional wild animal attack, which makes players feel like they are standing on the edge of where civilization ends and nature retakes control. On the other hand, the swampy forestsnear St. Denis, where crocodiles are lying in ambush in the marshes and crazies live in huts in deep swamps is an entirely different type of forest.
The sequel toHorizon: Zero Dawn,Horizon: Forbidden Westis set in apost-apocalyptic worldwhere humanity has all but regressed to the Iron Age, but the remnants of technology from the old era are still present and usable. This makes for a unique mish-mash of genres that is quite unlike anything else out there. Horizon’s world is almost completely taken over by nature, with forests taking up a majority of the game world. Not all forests are the same, either.
While much of Horizon’s gameplay is frantic sprints from one place to the next, players who can take the time to appreciate the scenery along the way end up enjoying the game much more than those who don’t. It behooves everyone who owns the game to turn off the HUD, enter Explorer Mode, and just… enjoy the visual masterpiece before them at least once.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlandstakes players to a hyper-realisticopen-world tactical shooter gamethat has all of the hallmarks of the Tom Clancy formula but viewed through the lens of a vast open world. Realism is a core tenet of Ghost Recon Wildlands, and it shows.
Much ofGhost Recon Wildlandsis spent patiently waiting just outside the perimeter of an enemy base, assessing threats, finding objectives, and the like. As the name suggests, there is a lot ofrecon and stealthin this game, which naturally results in players having to stop, breathe, and take in the scenery. The map is massive, and there are different biomes like the flat plains and deserts, but it’s the forests that take up most of the real estate. Crawling through the mud, lining up the perfect shot while waiting under the cover of trees goes allows players to immerse themselves in the world they’re in. Even outside combat situations, just going from point A to point B involves a lot of trekking through the woods that aids in this regard.
Ghost of Tsushimais anincredible samurai action RPGset in the fictional island of Tsushima amidst the Mongol Invasion. There are tons of reasons to fall in love with this game: great combat, excellent storytelling, and an authentic setting, but the one that takes the cake is the visuals. Every mountain, river, building, and rock bleeds character, and the forests are no different.
Forests inGhost of Tsushimacome in different flavors. Most of the map is covered in highly realistic, true-to-life trees with green grass and the occasional bamboo, but that’s not all there is. There are forests bathed in gold, bamboo thickets to get lost in, and even blood-red trees in certain locations.GoTisvisual eye-candyin every sense of the word, especially now that it can be experienced on the PC with the Director’s Cut.
While there is much players may find wanting inAvatar: Frontiers of Pandora, one place where it doesn’t fall short is theimpeccable world design. Lush, vibrant, and filled with color, it’s James Cameron’s vision brought to life in a video game setting. In terms of foliage variety and visual excellence, there are very few things that compare.
Where other titles tend to include variety in their open-worlds in the form of different biomes to keep things from getting stale, Avatar’s take on it is to just add more variance in their foliage, change up the types of trees that make up their forests, and repeat. The game world is split into three distinct areas, with each having a different identity. The first area consists almost entirely of forests and rivers, with trunks of gigantic trees serving as walkways and alien-looking plants filling up the landscape. Running on the fallen tree trunks just as the sun is rising, the music is reaching its crescendo, and with nothing for company other than the steadythump-thump-thumpof the protagonist’s footfalls is one of the most immersive experiences there are in gaming.
Kingdom Come: Deliveranceis a single-playerlow-fantasy open-world RPGwith an extremely strict adherence to realism. Set in medieval Bohemia, it puts players in the shoes of a would-be blacksmith apprentice, Henry, and sets him on the path for vengeance. During the course of this journey, Henry will become a soldier in the army, find damsels in distress, uphold the public order, participate in wars, and everything in between.
Immersion-wise, there are very few games that can challengeKingdom Come: Deliverance. As soon as Henry steps out of his hamlet into the world, he’s presented with an absolutely gigantic map completely filled with forests, arudimentary map that’s nearly useless for navigation, and little else. Getting lost in the woods at night is a very real possibility in the game because objectives often don’t have a quest marker, especially treasure hunts. There is even a day/night cycle where the night gets incredibly dark, and seeing anything more than two feet becomes impossible, even with a torch out. Combine this with realistic forests where every tree looks nearly identical, and it’s easy to see whyKCDwears the crown in terms of immersion.
