A question for you all - which VIDEO GAME has your favourite in-game interface? That means UI, controls, everything. An interface that not only feels natural and good but immerses you in the game, makes play easy, AND makes you want to keep playing. Can be from any era.

(Please boost)

@vampiress Tetris DX

@vampiress Ico. Everything you need to know is communicated without screen-furniture. It is a beautiful game.

@vampiress OK!!... let me mention a few:

- Rock & Roll Racing (SNES)
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS)
- Montezuma (ATARI)
- Quake II (DOS)

Bonus track:
- Prince of Persia I & II

I'm not into games anymore, but those really captivated me back then.

@vampiress Opus Magnum!

@vampiress I can think of random elements. I've played a reasonable amount of the Oblivion remaster recently and the power selection wheel is a much better UX than the Skyrim system, and I think one of the reasons I prefer Oblivion (also nostalgia). It's so much faster and less immersion breaking than looking through menus (as the Skyrim system feels to me).

Of course in some of your games looking through menus or remembering commands could be immersive for the kind of experience you're trying to build.

@vampiress hmm... I don't know about all-time favorites, but lately I've been playing Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life and I like how the menus work in that game. There are lots of tools and items but it's easy to switch between them and move things around.

@vampiress I'm probably alone in it, but the original move controls on Grim Fandango felt really natural to me, moving through the screen spaces and knowing exactly what Manny was going to go for next.

@vampiress very obvious, but definitely persona 5, and not just because the graphic design and motion design are gorgeous. sleeper pick: etrian odyssey nexus has the most refined UI of the series, makes great use of the 3ds second screen, feels really great for dungeon crawling.

@vampiress Okami. The feeling of upgrading your stats is incredibly satisfying, they did a good job making that joyful on its own. And of course Persona 5 just for making it slick

@vampiress Marathon had some neat UIs within UIs, like there was the regular gameplay, but when you connected to a console there was the UI specific to that (alien ship) terminal. I remember the transition between those modes as pretty smooth. (Also using the console was scary because the aliens etc. were still running around behind you even while you’re wasting time looking at the computer… so you needed to figure out that secondary UI pretty quickly.)

@vampiress PSI-5 Trading Company with those beautiful keyboard shortcuts

@vampiress Dead Space’s diegetic UI.

@vampiress
We can't forget the pip boy in fallout 3 - actively bad to use but somehow still charming and enjoyable b/c of the immersion.

In general I really enjoy when the ui allows keyboard shortcuts for repetitive tasks (pressing a few keys vs clicking and dragging to sell something, for example)

@vampiress I never played it to the end, but Uplink. The UI *was* the game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplink_(video_game)

@vampiress for in the ingame UI Dead Space always comes to mind. The life etc on the back of the character, the inventory etc on projected screens, as well as the cinematics. Really improved the immersion for me.

@criffer Screen-furniture. I love that term. The lack of it si why I love and constantly re-play GTA V and RDR2, though RDR2 is leaps and bounds ahead of GTA V.

@vampiress stage three of The First Alkahistorian has got to have the best UI of any game I’ve ever played. it’s able to compress so much information into such a small space. the whole game is pretty much just one big interface and it is honestly amazing how satisfying it is to use

it does have a bit of learning curve, though, unfortunately. and the pie charts are never explained by the game itself (I had to look up online what they meant) but still. absolutely amazing game with an absolutely amazing interface

@vampiress although I’m ngl, Metroid Prime’s UI is also fantastic

• it makes it very intuitive which directions to press to switch weapons or visors
• it has a caution meter that shows how close you are to something dangerous like fire or acid which is surprisingly helpful
• it has a radar that helps a lot to increase your situational awareness, given your low FOV (I never remember to use it)
• all of the visors are extremely cool and feel really good to use
• it’s diegetic, feels extremely believable in-world, and actually helps to increase immersion

@kasdeya @kasdeya @vampiress yup, was coming to say OG Prime.

Legend of Mana/Secret of Evermore I remember being very slick.

Darkest Dungeon I remember being good

@vampiress persona 5, no doubt!

@kasdeya @kasdeya @vampiress Metroid Prime series on the Wii with expert mode controls is even better. The nunchuck gives you analog movement controls and grapple, and you can simultaneously and independently target and fire with the remote. The only game I’ve encountered that outdoes the mouse-and-WASD approach in every way.