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submitted 11 months ago by PolishAndrew@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

I'm starting to find that HUDs in games clutter the screen and take away from being fully immersed in the game. I like games that force you to pay attention to what's going on in the game and not numbers/markers on the edges of the display. What are some of your favorite games to play with no HUD? Here are a few of mine:

Astroneer - this game has tool tips on screen but that's about it. There isn't even an inventory, all objects are interactive and you can physically place them on your backpack.

Battlefield 1 - super gritty and immersive, but playing without a HUD really puts you at a disadvantage online.

Red Dead Redemption 2 - I liked that you could hide the HUD, but the mini-map was a tap on the d-pad away if you get lost. It was a super immersive experience!

Grand Theft Auto 5 - maybe not designed to be played without the HUD, once you get used to the layout of the city this becomes a lot easier, and you focus more on landmarks to navigate and again this really increased immersion. Sometimes finding things in missions wasn't obvious and required consulting the map but otherwise this was enjoyable.

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[-] danthehutt@lemmy.world 30 points 11 months ago

The Metro series is incredible for this. You have to press a button to check how many bullets are left, or how much oxygen is in your current canister. All kinds of awesome stuff in a bleak, rich world.

[-] Skyrkazm@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

I think deadspace 1 and 2 were really immersive and world building. The UI didn't feel like one. Your HP? It's on your spine. Literally! It made sense too if you work with others, as it let's them know if you feel like poo underneath the suit without needing to do anything risky.

Ammo? Literally on the side of the gun.

[-] cyanarchy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

I second this. Ranger mode is also my gold standard for how FPS gameplay should feel. Anybody is going down after a couple rifle rounds to the chest, plates or no, and that includes you.

[-] FireTower@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I third this. It is an excellent no hud game because of all the diegetic elements, like the physical map or the filter time remaining being shown by your watch. Lots of games will have ui menus you have to go through. Metro doesn't.

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[-] leave_it_blank@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago

Dead Space. Ammunition is displayed on your weapon, health and stasis on your suit.

Prey 2016 also displayed your ammo on your gun, but had traditional health bars (it was an fpp game after all).

But I like a good HUD if it's implemented in the story, like Cyberpunk where it's a part of your augmented eyes, like an advanced Google lens. Doom did the same with the helmet.

Regarding GTA V, I never got to know the city well enough to play without a map. That fucking town was just to big for me. But I remember Vice City, I knew the map in and out, and playing without a map was fun!

[-] PolishAndrew@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Oooo I forgot about dead space, that's a good one! Cyberpunk and prey are on my list!

[-] cosmicrose@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Dead Space, my favorite game of all time. All HUD elements are holographic projections from your suit and weapons, integrated into the game world and moving with the camera. Your health meter is a series of light segments going up your spine, and the meter for one of your abilities is a pie-chart style light on the back of your right shoulder. Even the objective markers are a trail of light projected from your hand when you press down on the control stick.

[-] PolishAndrew@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

I played that aaaages ago and I remember that really stuck out to me at the time!

[-] FunkyMonk@kbin.social 15 points 11 months ago

Elden Ring and other fromsofts have the Hud disappear unless something actively happens with it sometimes. You don't see your health or mana unless you get hit or cast a spell.

[-] Mako_Bunny@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 11 months ago

Dead space? It famously has a hud that's built into the world rather than being random bars and stuff on the screen. Everything UI related is essentially from an object in the game

[-] illi@lemm.ee 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I'm pretty sure Hellblade didn't have HUD and that game was incredible.

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[-] TheQuietCroc@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

I played Tears of the Kingdom HUDless and it was really immersive! I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything either, it honestly felt like how it was meant to be played.

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[-] shyguyblue@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

An oldie but goldie: Grim Fandango

You drive your character like a tank, up moves him forward from his perspective, though there might be a setting to change that, it's been years.

When you walk around the environment, Manny will turn his head to look at interactive objects, then you have "interact", "examine", or "pickup".

The inventory screen is a close up of his jacket, where he reaches in a pulls something out. Hit the "next item" keyboard shortcut and he puts that object back into his jacket, and pulls out the next item.

Example of inventory screen: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/grim-fandango/images/a/a3/MarkedCard.jpg

[-] TheSambassador@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

The remaster of Grim Fandango does make the control scheme more modern (movement direction is camera relative), though you can switch to tank controls if you want.

[-] Donut@leminal.space 8 points 11 months ago

Both Zelda BotW and TotK have the option for a "PRO" HUD mode which only shows certain elements of the HUD at the right time.

It makes exploration so much more fun when you're not (if not subconsciously) navigating with the minimap instead of the environment in front of your eyes.

+1 for Battlefield 1. That game nailed the cinematic experience and without a HUD it's turned up to 11.

Have you played heists in GTA5 in first person without a HUD? It becomes a completely different game!

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[-] LordOfLocksley@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Ghost of Tsushima has a very minimal hud

[-] BmeBenji@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago

Limbo is amazing. You want engrossing atmosphere? No HUD, no music, no color. Just you and the terrifying, soul-crushing, body-crushing environment.

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[-] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I completely understand how overcluttered and distracting some HUDs can become. I have found however that fully HUDless experiences tend to be more of a novelty than an increase in immersion.

If I’m playing a shooter and don’t have information on, say how many magazines I have, I find that more distracting than immersive. In real life I could quickly pat my vest to know. A HUD can be a replacement for information that seems intuitive to have because in a real situation we’d have kinesthetic feedback.

Basic information like health while injured is simply too useful. Realistically my health isn’t defined by a single variable bar nor is it restored instantly from a grievous wound by a using a syringe, so I find that seeing the bar is useful for succeeding in the game even if it is equally as unrealistic.

Something like the iHUD mod for modern Fallout games is my ideal HUD. It is modular and I can define what information I see, what information I don’t, and for how long the information I do get stays on the screen. Health can be set to only show at certain thresholds, the compass directions or map markers can be disabled unless I ask to see them briefly. Other elements similarly made optional.

I’ve played fully HUDless in both Metro games and in modded STALKER games, and each time I do I find myself going back to having at least a minimal informative HUD.

I don’t hate HUDs and I think most people who try HUDless don’t actually hate them either. What is hated are obnoxious tool tips, flashy HUD animations, and floating intrusive quest markers. If UX designers do their jobs right, people don’t know they did anything at all.

[-] PolishAndrew@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I think you hit the nail on the head, give me what I need to know when I need it, and make it more environmental when possible. Halo for example had the assault rifle show the ammo count on the gun itself and other games have as well, there are countless other ways to give information organically to the player.

[-] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

There are diegetic elements like that, but also how the non-diegetic HUD delivers information.

When is it giving information? Is it giving me information I don’t actually need at the moment. For example a first person game that always has a compass or minimap. Maybe I want those sometimes, but do I want them always?

What are the visuals of the HUD like? Are they easy to read? Are they distracting? HUDs that have stretched and difficult at a glance fonts are a bad idea to me. Simple fonts that can be read against a variety of background colors are seemingly underdesigned to many UX designers, but it’s all I want sometimes.

Do HUDs have needlessly animated elements? Sometimes just putting a plain and simple number or bar on a screen is enough, but many games add so many artistic flourishes that it gets in the way of the game visuals.

HALO CE had its shield bar with the little health dots underneath. Technically diegetic, but obviously a gameplay element. It wasn’t distracting, it was clean and easy to read, it gave information that was constantly relevant.

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[-] stargazingpenguin@lemmy.zip 7 points 11 months ago

Kingdom Come Deliverance

The standard game mode has map markers, quest icons, and a health bar. However, if you switch to hardcore mode it removes pretty much everything. There's no map markers on the world map, and no compass, so you need to figure out where you are on the map by building up knowledge of the landmarks and roads of the area. The sun and moon can be used as directional markers as well.

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[-] Monkeydduffy@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

There are plenty of amazing games with no HUD whatsoever. First thing that comes to mind is Journey it literally has no HUD element, most games from thatgamecompany are minimal like that.

Also games by Josef Fares have almost no HUD, Brothers and the Hazelight Studios games similarly don't rely on the HUD much.

[-] justJanne@startrek.website 7 points 11 months ago

I really like portal's absolutely minimal HUD. The game absolutely works without any hud whatsoever just as well too.

[-] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Well, you mentioned Battlefield 1 already, but yes.

No HUD, good sound system, only standard issue rifles... Honestly an experience like no other.

I mention good sound because no HUD means you get a lot more focused on what you're hearing, and the sound in this game is fantastic. So many great audio clues to work with.

[-] PolishAndrew@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Battlefield 1 just drips with atmosphere, it's amazing!

[-] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

I loved playing Assassin's Creed games hudless. Especially 3, Odyssey, and Ragnarok.

[-] Crafter72@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

As someone who last time did Altair and Ezio saga hudless, I can agree. While the game may be dated it can bring immersion and less simulation-y

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[-] garretble@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Turning off the HUD makes you look up at the environment to help you plan where to go. You start to remember landscape shapes and areas that way. Plus it’s just nice.

Your hearts and stuff will show up if they need to, but otherwise it’s totally blank. And since pulling up the map is quick it’s really not that jarring to not have it in the corner.

[-] MudMan@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago

Dead Space, which has come up a lot, does have a hud, it's just all diegetic. Whether that fits or not is up for debate.

For true zero hud stuff the first one I think of is Inside, for instance. If you're going for immersion that counts, but of course it's a very light, focused game. Journey and Flower are in that space, too. So is Mirror's Edge, technically, but it feels more intricate due to being first person, for some reason.

There's a bunch of minimal HUD games from that period, too. There's a thing here and there, but not a full HUD. There's the Portal games, which technically show which portals are up on the reticle, but nothing else. There's the Metro series, which will pop up some HUD but mostly relies on other visual cues. There's The Order 1886, which at the time was one of the standard bearers for minimal HUDs but I think now it's just slightly lighter than average, because that game is super underrated in how ahead of its time it was in terms of setting triple-A standards.

Does The Witness count as diegetic HUD or just no HUD? It's borderline. I think the Talos Principle has some light HUD elements, but they may be optional.

And hey, let me call out the times when a super dense HUD is actually immersion-creating, especially when it comes to representing tech or machinery. There's Metroid Prime, making the HUD part of the suit and placing you inside it. There's Armored Core, where the mech stuff is such a part of the fiction. There's the new Robocop, which I don't like but does a lot with its HUD. HUDs can be cool and immersive.

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[-] Crafter72@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

At the moment, I am doing New Vegas hudless run (VNV modlist + JSUE Tweak) on my spare times. Honestly I am adore it due to the fact it feels like 3D Fallout 2 as previously I run my playthroughs using hud. However this also makes you need to be perceptive as on this tweaked game raider tends to ambush you so you kind of develop second nature of how you perceive surrounding on Mojave. Even though people may thinking hudless does not make a sense, it simply each on theit own enjoyment as you cannot please everyone with same tricks every single time.

Although not hudless, but in GTA San Andreas I can notice a landmark or a spot of the map just from a pictures. It feels like ingrained on my mind from my countless hour doing SP as kids and playing SAMP during my teenage years.

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 11 months ago

If you're into Bethesda games and modding them, nearly all of them have "immersive HUD" mods that only show HUD elements when it's relevant.

[-] Yokozuna@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Alien: Isolation is another good example of this. Actually terrifying to be hunted by the AI as well.

[-] RGB3x3@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Alien: Isolation is genuinely the best horror game ever made and I don't hear people talk about it enough.

[-] ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Gotta be honest here.

Immersion has no meaning to me and I don't understand the obsession.

[-] leave_it_blank@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

I never forgot the woman who asked me to look for her husband, I found him, dead, killed by bandits. She was in tears, saying life would never be the same.

Five minutes later I sold her stuff, and she was like "Nice weather today, isn't it?".

That killed every immersion at that moment.

It was Skyrim. It has fantastic moments, but there are lots of moments that kill every immersion it built up on a grand scale.

[-] ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

See stuff like that just makes me laugh though.

Like I kinda get what you mean but stuff like physics glitches and weird moments like your described just make me laugh.

Even in a serious situation like a grand epic battle the sight of a deceased character model slowly vibrating before launching into the cosmos is hilarious to me.

Or in your case a widow who's heartbroken and sobbing then the cutscene ends and she's just "hi how can I help you today?" in a cheerful tone and I just burst out laughing

[-] PolishAndrew@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Immersion is one aspect, but I also find that artists put so much work into creating great visuals, it almost feels like I'm ignoring the great things to look at by chasing dots on a map. I really just want experiences that help me focus more on the world in front of me.

[-] MudMan@kbin.social 4 points 11 months ago

Immersion is a bit overused and misunderstood.

It maybe works better as "suspension of disbelief", like in other fiction. You sustain it and you can go very abstract. You break it and things get weird.

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[-] smeg@feddit.uk 4 points 11 months ago

People get immersed in different ways. Some people get involved in the story, putting themselves in the character's shoes and imagining it's a real world. Some people get lost in the gameplay, enjoying the mechanics and focusing entirely on completing the challenge. For some people it's TV, film, books, or just chatting at the pub and losing track of time. I'm sure you get immersed in something!

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[-] MacedWindow@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I used to play Overwatch with no HUD. The game is definitely not designed around that, but I found I did decently well, and many characters have displays on their guns that relate the same info.

I know Jurassic Park Trespasser infamously used a tatoo on your characters chest instead of a healthbar to avoid using a HUD.

I did the same as you in GTA, very different and fun way to experience the game.

I always thought it'd be cool to make a no UI fighting game, with health being related by the characters appearance (ie more and more beaten up) rather than the usual top of the screen health bars.

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[-] synae@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 11 months ago

I know you can disable all HUD elements in Doom eternal, but you need to be pretty good at it already to be effective. So not a good candidate for a beginner, but it sure does look good if you can pull it off.

[-] milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago

I used to play Skyrim with a mod that turned off the HUD. Can't remember the name. I switched off extra options, and it became quite fun sneak-archering with neither crosshairs nor stealth indicator nor enemy radar dots.

[-] SeducingCamel@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago

Don't think I've seen anyone mention sea of thieves, always loved how pretty it was and the complete like of hud is great

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[-] quams69@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Resident Evil 7 iirc, no hud, health is a wristwatch

[-] Heavybell@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

This is a perspective I just don't understand, personally. I've seen people get super excited about being able to turn off the HUD in Souls games and then die because they didn't realise they were low on health. I'm sure it can be done well and I'm not judging at all, I just don't get it. I'd rather have a well made HUD (i.e. Not over the top) than nothing. I kinda wish I understood the appeal.

All that said, I am 10,000% in favour of giving users options in all software. So if you can turn the HUD on or off, add or remove details etc, all the better.

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this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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