Sound & Immersion

Even more than graphics, I believe sound determines a game's level of immersion.  Immersion is defined by Wikipedia as "the state of consciousness where an immersant's awareness of physical self is diminished or lost by being surrounded in an engrossing total environment; often artificial.  This state is frequently accompanied by spatial excess, intense focus, a distorted sense of time, and effortless action."

Essentially - with regards to games - immersion is a measure of how involved you get whilst playing a game; how much your awareness that "this is a game" decreases, and how much the feeling that "this is real, this is immediate, this is now" increases.  Immersion is about the extent to which a game takes you out of 'real life' and places you into the game world.

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A typical virtual reality HMD (Head Mounted Display).  Image courtesy of Wikimedia; click for Wikipedia article on VR immersion.

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Immersion is definitely affected by graphics.  This becomes very clear when one plays, for example, a fantasy RPG that has a very modern and/or intrusive HUD.  The graphical game elements - whether one is talking about the HUD or the actual in-game graphics (characters, environments, etc.) - must form a harmonious whole, with elements that are distinct but still work together, or people will find that their eyes are constantly jarred by something that seems out-of-place, something that doesn't fit in with the general game aesthetic - something that, ultimately, reminds them that they're sitting in front of a computer and playing a game.  Lost Planet is a great example.  It had quite good in-game graphics, but every weapon lying on the ground was highlighted with huge neon-yellow brackets.  A lot of games highlight weapons, since they can often otherwise be hard to spot - but most games don't use something quite so arcade-y, unless they're... y'know, meant to be an arcade game.

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A weapon in Lost Planet: Extreme Condition.  Image courtesy of IGN; click for larger image.

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But whilst graphics do affect immersion, the quality of the graphics isn't hugely important.  A game like Baldur's Gate has 2D graphics - which, whilst beautifully designed, are still fairly low quality and shown from a fixed isometric point of view (i.e. the camera can't be rotated or zoomed in/out) - yet it doesn't suffer for the way it looks, because it has fantastic sound.

All of the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games and add-ons are fantastically immersive: partly because they all have great storylines (see my other post on storytelling), but also because their soundtracks and environmental sound effects are amazingly evocative.  You can hear every step that invisible thief is taking; you can almost feel the wind making the boat's sails creak above you.  You know when things are about to happen or when combat has begun, because the music picks up in pace and urgency.  Dream cutscenes are eerie and haunting - when you look over the edge of a precipice and see only stars in a pitch-black sky, the music brings to life the vertigo and unreality of the dream.

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A screenshot from Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.  Image taken by myself; click for full size (1680x1050).

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Games that I can, off the top of my head, associate with awesome soundtracks and/or SFX: Dungeon Siege II (Jeremy Soule), Titan Quest (Michael Verette, Scott B. Morton), Guild Wars (Jeremy Soule), most of the Command & Conquer games (Bill Brown), Need For Speed: Most Wanted (various artists), Age of Mythology (Stephen Rippy, Kevin McMullan), and obviously the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale games (Michael Hoenig, Jeremy Soule, Inon Zur).

What's your favourite game soundtrack, or which game do you think has the best (most appropriate and evocative) sound effects?