While flying around in a spaceship is immersive in its own way, some games do an excellent job of captivating players by dropping them into lovingly crafted settings filled with intriguing environmental storytelling. Traveling to a black hole and witnessing firsthand how the gravity bends light or discovering a strange planet that no exploring player has ever seen before are powerful experiences unique to Elite Dangerous' massive sandbox. The game is unparalleled in its ability to immerse players in its world, which has a constantly shifting political landscape influenced by players and is complete with its own in-game GalNet news service. Every aspect of the game boasts surprising depth, from the one-to-one simulation of the Milky Way Galaxy to the handling and operation of the game's many ship types. Space flight games enjoy a long history as one of the oldest video game genres dating all the way back to 1962's Spacewar! which featured surprisingly advanced mechanics such as Newtonian physics and gravity-assisted slingshot maneuvers using the gravity well of a star.Įlite Dangerous is a particularly ambitious and immersive massively-multiplayer space sim with roots dating back to 1984's Elite. Few games are more immersive in this regard than space sims which strive to make the experience of piloting a spaceship as realistic as possible.
For many sci-fi fans, a sense of immersion and escapism is key to their enjoyment.