How immersive is NMS? I picked it up on sale but couldn't get too far into it without getting weirded out by the style.
I mean, does it feel immersive later on
Immersive? It sounds like you already have your answer...
I enjoyed exploring and building. I enjoy how they were implemented.
Fixing old beater spaceships I found.
For me, the harsher the planet, the better.
@jammedhamed "immersive" is a fickle word. It totally depends on what you consider immersions. Many in the elite community think immersion = realism, hence their love for this game as it (generally) achieves strong realism. The flight model being the star of the show. That said, beyond Elite, immersion is very much dependent on your sense of it.
For me, I define immersion at the simplest level: immersion is the sense I'm not in
this world (reality) anymore. I forget I'm on the couch, or at my desk, or in the theater, or wherever an entertainment medium is present, taking me to somewhere
other than here. Books being the
best form of immersion.
So, in that sense of immersion, I think NMS does pretty swell. It reminds me a bit of my early days with the likes of Minecraft or WoW or Freelancer, all radically different games with radically different levels of interactivity, story, and 'feature' depth. But they
all immersed me. I had a strong connection with my character and its world, rather than a connection with features and abilities. I cared about my avatar - stupid blue pants (Minecraft Steve) to dumb one-liners (Edison Trent) to wacky flying helicopter
I built (my engineer Paladin).
I've a very intimate connection to my traveler in NMS.
I can't say the same for the my commander in Elite. There is
some connection - those unforgettable moments and silly one-offs - but it lacks a lot of context. I'm just another engineered ship. I don't really have much of a story. I could RP one, sure, but Elite lacks so much depth that I really
do have to concoct
all of my story. That isn't immersive for me. That's work. (Literally, I'm a writer by trade). This wouldn't bother me so much, but Elite doesn't have the sort of open-ended mechanics - or social structure - that something as simple as a DnD campaign has.
Personal Narrative is a big part of immersion (to me) and, as anyone following Elite knows, that particular concept is meme-worthy at best and a truly sad omission at worst. Yet, NMS doesn't have much of a personal narrative, either. It has a main story and campaign (something Elite does not and arguably
should not) but beyond that, personal narrative is driven by choices made. Where did you explore? What did you build? What ships did you prefer and work on? What pet did you select? Which language did you try to master first?
These sorts of choices exist in Elite (which engineers, what ship or brand) but they quickly run out. There really
isn't very much variety in Elite. EDO's adding
four times more biologicals...that's not very much. The multiple of a small number is
still small. Elite lacks variety and
that breaks the immersion (for me). That's the trouble with realism - it has to simulate a
ton of stuff,
or it doesn't feel real. In adding space legs, Elite is adding something real...but ignoring the myriad details of the original, base game that are still lacking.
We took an incomplete picture of a beach, and added the hotel while the ocean and sand are still the same color.
Realism is hard. If immersion is realism to you, you'll be hard pressed to find it beyond detailed simulations still in alpha.
(Like SC)
If all you seek is an escape and the chance to feel good about something
not real...
NMS is great for that.
