I happily remembered having played F.E.A.R. a couple years ago and it blew my mind, so I decided to give the sequels a shot, in spite of what I've constantly heard about the quality drop. Starting to play F.E.A.R. 2, while a bit simplified in terms of gameplay, it kind of stayed true to its roots, but felt rather dull and the first thing that subtly annoyed me was the HUD. http://www.moddb.com/games/fear-2/addons/fear-2-no-hud Later I found this "mod" that removes 90% of the interface, leaving certain elements unchanged such as the rectangles over dropped weapons, health kits and other collectibles, for visibility purposes of course, and prompts for QTE and other things you can interact with. The moment I applied this mod, the whole atmosphere changed. Alone in the dark, not knowing instantly how many bullets or health you have, having to explore the creepy and scarcely lit surroundings that now cover the entirety of your screen. You only see the weapon in your hand and your shadow on the walls. I think that this particularly enhances the whole experience of the game and adds up to the horror theme, synergizing well with the first-person perspective. Maybe this is only an unpopular opinion of mine and it's just me that finds the game better without the HUD, but have any of you tried something similar with another game of this genre and whatnot ? Can games be more immersive if the player is left without any hints, minimap or any kind of indicators ?
I always wanted to play witcher on hardest difficulty without any HUD, no minimap, no health, no hints. That would be so hard, but also very fun i reckon!
I remember playing FEAR with no Hud or as close as it allowed for no Hud. Very eeire and cool atmosphere. Turning off the Hud is one of my favorite ways to play any game like FEAR, Witcher 3, Crysis 3 and others. Deus Ex Mankind Divided lets you turn off the Hud completely too. It's more immersive to me. Once in a while you can't turn the Hud completely off like in one of the Far Cry series, not the first one. It was the 2nd or 3rd sequel. Then again in Far Cry Primal you can't get rid of your weapon in front of you. And there are no user mods to get rid of the weapon in either game. I still search the net occasionally for a mod for it but imo it's not out there yet for those two games. Splinter Cell is another one where you can't quite remove all of the Hud. Leaving the Hud on has an occasional advantage for atmosphere when exploring. It can add depth to the whole screen image. But most of the time I prefer no Hud. Sorry to rattle on but I prefer first person with no Hud. More immersive than in third person. But the downside to first person view in games that offer both 1st and 3rd person is the graphics can be a bit blurry in 1st person. But that's just in a few games I think.
Witcher 2 may be alright for me, as I could fathom committing to memory the whole map, because if I remember correctly it was divided into rather small segments. But Witcher 3,... oh boy, that's on a whole 'nother level. Even if very detailed, the world depicted is so huge that I would get lost even in White Orchard.
Heh, I remember making that mod for FEAR 2. I think someone made a better version that you can toggle though. Anyway I have Moddb page with a bunch of HUD toggles if you're interested: http://www.moddb.com/members/thejanitor1/downloads Can't guarantee all of them will work for Windows 7 though
It DOES add to the immersion and the game looks better IMO. Nothing like it. I like playing without the HUD. Makes the game look clean and like a piece of art. You can enjoy what is going on with the game..like a moving story. Instead of worrying about how much xp or hit points you have. If I could play D3 without the HUD, I would do it in a heartbeat. Playing Baldurs Gate is fun with the HUD hidden. Though you sacrifice item management to some extent, you can always toggle it back on when you need it, set your gear then toggle it back off.
Hey, thanks for the info, been meaning to replay the FEAR series for ages and the HUD in FEAR 2 was kind of annoying. In general I think a clean screen is more immersive, but I also want to know how much ammo I have left. Kept switching between max screen size and a notch less (to show stats) already in original Doom back in the day.
Haven't you tried Skyrim with no hud at all ? I mean not even a crosshair, amazing experience,much more realistic (enb,hundreds of mods etc)