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[bomblord1]

What are some games that feel like the worlds "exist" that people go about their daily lives regardless of if you are there to interact with them. Where NPC's have routines and feel like they actually are living their lives in this world as you are passing through. Somewhere that choice matters and your actions do not go unnoticed. Where the world feels realized and just exploring it can be enjoyable.

Basically I'm looking for games that live up to the Molyneux Promise™

On one hand there are some vast worlds such as the ones you see in Bethesda games that feel like this. However, there's also something to be said about smaller worlds that do it just as well. For example in Animal Crossing if I plant a tree I CAN come back later and find it fully grown. However these are far from the only games that do this what are some more examples

GAF do your thing

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Red Dead Redemption


Every NPC had a little routine it followed in the day and at night. While your interaction was limited to harassing them or saying hello they did real things that you'd expect them to do, and things you didn't. Like taking a puss behind a barn.

The animals all behaved naturally, grazing or hunting. They'd run from you or attack you. But you could just sit back and watch a wolf pack hunt a deer.

 

[Theanine3D]

Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, the best one that does this too, in my opinion.

 

[stuminus3]

Gothic 2. NPCs had lives, schedules. They went to work, they went to bed. Stuff that people raved over Shenmue at and it was right here in this janky little niche janky European RPG.

 

[herbchamberz]

For me, Red Dead Redemption hit that perfectly.

 

[AntiFacebook]

The Gothic series
The witcher series

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, the best one that does this too, in my opinion.

The best.

 

[RevolverRoden]

MGSV's world is looking like one.

 

[Ingueferroque]

Ultima VII fits the bill for me, to this day.

 

[terrisus]

MUDs


And, yeah, Animal Crossing.

 

[Gold_Loot]

I'm hoping No Man's Sky will deliver on something like this.

 

[Rymuth]

Hmmm....Deadly Premonition.

Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, the best one that does this too, in my opinion.

Good one.

 

[Markitron]

I don't know if they fit the OP's criteria, but the only games to do this for me are GTAV and Witcher 3.

 

[TheDanger]

GTA V

 

[maxcriden]

Just to pick ampere unusual choice, the Pikmin series does this excellently. It really feels like if you weren't crash landed on the planet it would still be teeming with life. The activity of the flora and fauna would go on with or without you.

 

[phanphare]

Jabu-Jabu's Belly from OoT

;p

 

[Nightengale]

Shenmue
Legend of Heroes : Trails franchise

 

[QuixoticNeutral]

In a rather literal sense the world lives and breathes in Xenoblade.

 

[pantsonhead]

Fable

Spoiler

Nah but really though, GTA V

Also Yakuza, 4 specifically.

 

[SmokedMeat]

GTA V
Far Cry 4

 

[Newtype-001]

Xenoblade chronicles
The Witcher 3
and Ni no kuni

are my picks.

Edit: demons souls has that feel aswell.

 

[Nightbird]

In a rather literal sense the world lives and breathes in Xenoblade.

Could you not?

 

[Kriken]

Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, the best one that does this too, in my opinion.

Reading the OP's description, I'm gonna have to go with this as well

 

[bennywhatever]

Beyond Good & Evil does a good job of this with their atmosphere, diverse ecosystem, and the fact that everyone has a job to do. Not to mention how the general public reacts to the government.

 

[Gravy Boat]

Oblivion. Each character literally has their own routine and needs. If you break into someones house and steal all their food, they'll go and get food elsewhere, maybe even stealing it from someone else.

 

[Fahzgoolin]

Splatoon. The hub world is so immersive.

 

[michalmarek77]

Witcher 3

 

[Silvard]

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

To be fair the only games that fit the figurative bill for me are sandbox MMOs. Games where NPCs have a routine don't feel alive and breathing to me, after playing for long enough it becomes predictable and you start to see the cracks in the facade. I guess repetitive routine is life though, but I'd like to believe it's more nuanced than that.

 

[Ladekabel]

I heard Sim City 2013 had something like that

 

[Chabbles]

Deus ex HR's world felt so believable and lived in. The world felt alive imo.

 

[Shaanyboi]

Majora's Mask

So many great incidental character interactions you can stumble upon just by doing (or not doing) something gives the world such personality and flavor

 

[Acquiescence]

Shenmue. Each individual NPC literally has their own daily routine that they go about. One of the best things about that game is how alive Ryo's world feels around him.

 

[Rodin]

Gothic 1-2, Witcher 3, Xenoblade, Shenmue 2.

 

[Klart]

Shenmue & Skyrim.

 

[More_Badass]

Red Dead Redemption


Every NPC had a little routine it followed in the day and at night. While your interaction was limited to harassing them or saying hello they did real things that you'd expect them to do, and things you didn't. Like taking a puss behind a barn.

The animals all behaved naturally, grazing or hunting. They'd run from you or attack you. But you could just sit back and watch a wolf pack hunt a deer.

First post wins

As much as I love GTA V, Red Dead Redemption is Rockstar's greatest achievement IMO. It's not just being able to watch a town wake up, go about their jobs, closing up shop at night, going to the salon, and then to sleep.

It's the ecosystem, as a hawk snatches up a rabbit you were about to shoot.

It's the storm clouds rumbling on the horizon, and seeing the storm coming closer before it's starts pouring.

It's the little details like puddles forming after a storm and slowing drying up or the people playing fetch with their dogs

My favorite open world and the most immersive IMO

 

[Erevador]

Morrowind stands alone...

A warm welcome to you, sera.

Nerevar Rising - Jeremy Soule

 

[Sylverstone14]

Mass Effect is pretty alive in the right places (the Citadel).

 

[His Majesty]

Gothic
Witcher 3

 

[Zukuu]

Gothic thread? Gothic thread.

 

[LiK]

Deadly Premonition. You can actually track all NPCs during the day and they actually do stuff. Try stalking one NPC and prepare to be amazed.

 

[Earthpainting]

Majora's Mask is the only one where it worked the best. The people not only had schedules, but also reacted to the state of their world. Some people disappeared, others refused service because they wished to make the most of their final hours, others nervously put on a brave face, ... This is of course possible because of the 3-day limit. It allowed them to tailor the NPCs and their schedules to the plot and pacing of the game. Other games don't have this luxery, and have to make a lot of concessions.

 

[Bandit1]

First post nails it. Just walking around Armadillo gives you a sense of this. Each shop has its own shopkeeper, (Herbert Moooon!) running the place, the shops are closed at night, if you kill a shopkeeper the shop closes down for a few days. In the back alleys you will find blacksmiths at a grinding wheel, a newspaper man sells papers directly related to what is going on in the world, including references to Marston's own exploits. There's a drinking crowd in the saloon and a backroom poker game going on. If you are famous enough people will greet you by name.

That doesn't even include the wildlife, strangers, or random encounters.

 

[Taruranto]

Gothic 2.

 

[Auctopus]

GTA Vs is so good, I think you become so immersed, you forget.

 

[derFeef]

Alan Wake for me. Best woods ever, so believable. For example the machines that stand there, it just feels right. You can see how much they researched.

 

[Zakalwe]

Edit: not what OP was asking for. See post later in the thread.

 

[N.Grim]

Metro 2033
Metro Last Light

 

[Turin Turambar]

Space Rangers 2

There is a war in the game, and the sides will fight it without you. You may be affected by it, like a coalition taking a stellar system that makes you go around it but then you don't have enough fuel to get to your objective, etc.
Or you can see a gathering of forces preparing a new strike and you can join to them.
Or you can donate money to a research center that will help the R&D department and therefore increase the odds of winning the war against the enemy.

Apart from having normal civilian and traders traffic, pirates, bandits, other bounty hunters like you which you can meet & collaborate, several factions and you have different reputations with each one...

The whole "npcs move around in the day, then go to the bed when night comes" is unsurprising at this point. RPGs with more than 20 years did it.

 

[Akronis]

All three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.

 

[FlashbladeGAF]

Shenmue

The days would pass and the seasons would change; if you really wanted to you could wait until spring (the game is set during winter). All the NPCs had their own lives too; in many other games characters would simply walk in a certain pattern or stand there all day, while in Shenmue people came out of their houses around 9am, went shopping, chatted with their friends, headed to the bar at night and then walked home. If it was raining they had raincoats, and add to this that the characters had more than one stock phrase all voiced in English!