Which game really made you fell in love with it's world and characters?

Dragon Age Origins or Mass Effect 1 - so hard to choose between them

I really don't know of anyone who does characters better than Bioware, maybe naughty dog ... but for sure Biowares worlds are better fleshed out

For me it's gotta be Dark souls 1. That world is so grim and mysterious, it's really fascinating whenever you meet a new character. Everyone seems to be so unaware of the danger and horror around them. I don't know whether it's a translation thing or what, but those worlds are so fascinating to be in. Even DS2 to a certain degree, but less so than the first.

Another one is the Elder Scrolls series. Specifically, for me at least, Morrowind. That world is so incredible, I'll always have very fond memories of it. The sound of silt striders in the distance.... Amazing

Outcast and Final Fantasy 7 come to my mind when thinking about deep characters and a unique world. Too bad that the kickstarter campaign for Outcast HD failed

The 2 Vampire the Masquerade games were not nice places to visit but I quite enjoyed their universes when I was younger.

Wind Waker for the scale and cute graphics and loads of mechanics to rediscover the world, although it dragged on a bit too long to really want any more.

Jade Empire and Beyond Good and Evil were awesome in that respect too

Final Fantasy 9, and 10 to some extent, loved the diversity of places and enemies, and the feeling that there's so many things to do, visit and get. It's better when the world opens up a bit more too, the beginning is usually very linear. Their worlds are also quite fleshed out and coherent.

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Red Dead Redemption was good too, but sort of lacked in incentives for exploring random places, which would have worked better for me.

Morrowind is the first game that comes to mind. That game is a masterpiece, and something that no RPG has even gotten close to. I've spent hours upon hours exploring every inch of that world, and still love it. brb installing

Deus Ex 1 had a great cast of characters with one of the most immersive settings I've seen. It's a shame that the rest of the series hasn't been as good (though Human Revolution came real close!). It has its moments with super cheesy dialogue, but that works to make the game just a bit more memorable.

Gone Home was great at building a world, so much so that it totally gets my vote even though it's not a long game at all. It's a great use of immsim mechanics to tell a believable story. The house is just so concentrated with story without seeming like everything was placed conveniently to throw the story in your face.

Dishonored. Loved that shit. So many interesting details in it's universe and a very mysterious mythology.

Half-Life 2. Depressingly haunting.

TES: Oblivion. Flawed game, but for some reason I was compelled enough to spend a Christmas vacation playing it virtually every day, exploring every nook and cranny. Can't look back at the game now and say that the "spark" is still there though.

And virtually every game I played before the age of 12.

Definitely all the souls games.

Chrono Trigger and FF6 are two of the most memorable for me.

Finally a lot of the old adventure games like kings quest and the lucas arts stuff

FFVII. But I have to admit, I haven't played FFVI which lots of players out there claim that it was better. Years later I played Parasite Eve, which made me rethink my opinion about FFVII and turn based RPGs. The plot revolving around Gaia, poor citizens and evil corporation was well developed to create a cinematic atmosphere. The soundtrack was really well composed. And there is that character's dead scene that everyone should remember when part 1 of the game ends. Unfortunately the FFVII movie was a big disappointment, they just made a weak plot with uinteresting villains and bad facial animation.

Max Payne and F.E.A.R. come to my mind if the talk is about cinematic feeling. They are very far from being photorealistic, but the setting, plot, the levels, all are really well blended to create the cinematic atmosphere. The voice acting was really well made and the sequence of levels very well built.

Dark forces, Jedi Knight II and Star Wars KOTOR come to my mind if we talk about inteligently exploring a movie franchise. It's a pity that after JKII there were no more JK games.

I can't speak of more games because I missed whole generations of games from year 2000 to this year.

Inversely I can say that Dungeon Siege is one game that I played while skipping whole plot and not feeling any emotions at all. Compare it to diablo and diablo has a much better atmosphere and plot.

Mass Effect Series by far! Garrus and Liara are my favourite characters in science fiction period! The world made it feel like it was a better starwars / startrek. Amazing! Especially the exploration and villain Saren which I feel was lacking from ME2 and ME3.

Deus Ex Human Revolution was also a fantastic universe with a great story of the protagonist. Loved the atmosphere and the internal questions of how far is too far etc...

Alan Wake! what a great FRESH adventure. Fantastic setting that felt grounded and brilliant writing for the most part.

Assassins Creed 1, this one was big for me due to my fascination of the crusades. I thought the series would go in a different direction than it did which was a shame. Still great games just not the same feeling as i got from the first one.

I feel like i would add last of us however i have yet to play it and have only watched walkthroughs

FF7, metal gear, secret of mana, secret of evermore and chrono-trigger for some reason

It's not really a computer game but Warhammer 40k captures my imagination. Just the amount of background and lore for it is ridiculous. As for games, pretty much the same as everyone else. Dragon Age. Mass Effect. Half-Life. Diablo 2. Halo. The Witcher. System Shock 2. Thief.

But there's one game that has it's own unique place in my admiration list and that's Discworld Noir. No game has come close to having such a ...for lack of a better description "dark night" atmosphere. It always has me playing with the lights off and a drink.

Final Fantasy 7, Shadow of the Collosus

Nocturnal Illusion.

I got into Silent Hill 2 in a big way. The world and the characters are really well done, and not just James, Mary, Maria, Pyramid Head and Angela, but even the fodder enemies all have a reason for being. I don't know about not wanting to leave, though. And they're hard to love.

Persona 3-4 have really cool worlds and characters because they're purposely so pedestrian. I guess in some ways you could argue Persona is a 90 hour anime series, complete with beach episode, but that's not really fair. You’re just a normal kid doing the same old school routine, but have this hidden second life where you and your friends are investigating some phenomenon... but it's all becoming a bit too much for you to handle because at the end of the day you're just kids and not super heroes. I can get behind that.

Quote from SpronyvanJohnson

both Dawn of War games (including expansion) really captured my imagination as well.

Well, maybe not Soulstorm?

For me its BaldursGate 2, the firstpc Rpg i played more than 200h on my old rusty computer. I remember waking up after my parents went to bed, doge to my computer and playing few hours BG2 !

Deus Ex. The first one.

People already mentioned those games before but I must say that Half-Life 2 (especialy the episode 2) is still my favorite game in terms of world and characters. Dishonored and Alan Wake have also been mentioned as incredible games with huge atmosphere.

There are some Nintendo DS games that were also awesome. Of course, the 2 best games of the console :

Super Mario 64 DS with its great castle and all the levels that, i'm pretty sure of that, most of us remember them almost perfectly. Nostalgia !

Metroid Prime : Hunters for the same reason, the universe and the atmosphere was just perfect, i will never forget those games.

There was also a great game named Hotel Dusk : Room 215 with a nice way to draw the characters, it made them much more believable than in any game i have played before

I fell in love with this hotel and the characters, i loved it

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There is also other amazing PC games like Mafia 2, even if it isn't really an original story i loved it and the characters were really well-made.

Dear Esther was absolutely incredible, it's the most immersive "game" i've ever played

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Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl was also insane in terms of universe, I still get chills!

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And finally, i'm currently playing L.A. Noire, and it's pretty cool The world isn't as good as the Mafia 2 one, but i really love the tech they have made for the facial animations, it's really amusing to discover any new character in the game

I think it had to be Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 shortly after that.
Then later on GTA3, and Half-Life 1. And when Half-Life 2 came out? Boy oh boy.

Edit:
We actually had to do a collage for a thing, see how many you can figure out:
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