Do you ever feel like you are the character?

[dsheinem]

Metro 2033 really gets you into the character. Not necessarily during the actual conversation scenes (silent protagonist and all) but when you're progressing alone it really sucks you in. Even little details like the sound of your breathing in the gas mask (and the change as the filter starts to run out).

I agree. The first Bioshock did this for me too, but Metro 2033 does it better than Bioshock 2. Even though FPS games expect you to "feel" like the character, many of them don't pull it off well. When looking at popular franchises - iD games do this better than Valve games on the PC, I think, and the COD games generally do it better than the Halo games on consoles.

The other good example from a recent game I played is Dragon Age. Since you can customize your character's appearance and get to choose many decisions in the game, it adds to a sense of "you are the character" better than most RPGs where you are playing as a specific protagonist or have to move in a fairly linear fashion (I'm looking at you, FF series...).

[Hobie-wan]

Mirror's Edge did for me when I was running around outside, especially on the rooftops. I don't really get vertigo, but there were many times when my heart rate went up and I was literally saying "oh crap oh crap oh crap" as I made some big jumps or looked down.

[J T]

Yeah, hearing your character's breathing and gasps does add to the sense that you are the character. My favorite device for this is actually in Half Life 2, which I mostly find breaks the illusion of me as the character because everyone is talking to Gordon Freeman despite the fact that he never talks back. Half Life 2 has a sound effect when you are caught in an explosion that sounds like the high pitched squeel of your ears ringing. This is a noise that is usually interoceptive, so only you would be able to hear it, not anybody else. This is such a brilliant use of sound in a videogame because it really gives you the sense of "oh shit! I'm getting wrecked and I need to gtfo of here!"

Similarly, Mirror's Edge adds the whitewash effect of walking out into the sunlight and waiting for your eyes to adjust to the brightness of the light. This is another representation of an interoceptive perception, and therefore adds to the believability that you are the character.