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[BossLackey]

I don't know what it is, but swinging a sword or even shooting a gun in third person feels so damn good. I play a lot of genres, but recently when playing Remnant II I once again felt that "ohhh yeah this is home" with the perspective.

What makes it so good?! Most of my favorite games are third person. Dark Souls, Metal Gear, Resident Evil (sometimes), Monster Hunter, Devil May Cry, etc. There's something so satisfying about controlling a character from this perspective.

First person feels more "immersive", but that's about all I can think of that is superior. Outside of shooters (and hell, SOCOM II and Ghost Recon 2 are some of my all-time favorites, so not even all shooters) I prefer third person.

Side-scrolling is a close second.

I don't really know what the point of this thread is, but what can ya do.

 

[rofif]

I prefer 3rd person because normally you can feel your legs, feel your surrounding, have much greater peripheral vision and overall awareness of environments.
All of these are limited in 1st person view. Even in VR to some degree.
3rd person in player controlled games and even in racing, gives you back some of this missing data. You gain back the awareness of your place in the environment. Even when you drive a car, you know where it is in 3d space, where are it's sides and you feel the g-forces. Again, 3rd person camera cheats and gives you some of that stuff back by just showing you.

edit: +of course I can see animations, my armor, my butt. Good stuff

 

[Danjin44]

I love good animation in games I want to see my character's animation when playing my games. People say First person is more "immersive" but to me its the opposite and it just not fun for me.

 

[Vox Machina]

3rd person lets the player attach to the player-character moreso than First Person, I think. It's less immersive for the game but gives more immersion with the character you're controlling. It's kind've hard to explain, really.

 

[Zuzu]

I love first person but third is also great. It’s good being able to see your character and helps to build a connection with your character. It also offers a wider field of view and (obviously) a different perspective of the action which can be really good.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Third person perspective is my favorite and always has been.

 

[Thirty7ven]

First Person isn’t more immersive for me, unless it’s a multiplayer shooter where you the player are essentially a gun.

 

[TheDrunkenMerchant]

I've never understood people saying first person is more immersive. Over exaggerated hand movements and such. I also don't want to play a game where i feel like I'm there. I want to play as a character in a story that takes place in their own world, and I want to see that character while i explore through it.

 

[zweifuss]

We lost something when we went from 2d to 3d. In 3d, all we see is the character's back. In 2d, they at least drew the characters with a 3/4 turned view so that we could see their faces more. That being said, I do prefer 3rd person to 1st person still, even though I'm mostly looking at the character's back.

 

[bitbydeath]

First person is too unrealistic, nobody sees like that in real life. You could say 3rd is also unrealistic but if you account for senses then you can feel around you without physically seeing.

 

[BossLackey]

First person is too unrealistic, nobody sees like that in real life. You could say 3rd is also unrealistic but if you account for senses then you can feel around you without physically seeing.

That's a good point. You lose a LOT of your sense of place with first person despite it being the most direct translation of our real-life point of view. It's missing a ton of our senses and third person kind of makes up for a lot of that.

 

[Puscifer]

Depends on the game, I couldn't imagine Deus Ex or Metro in third person

 

[jshackles]

I agree - for some reason, a lot of first-person perspective games make me motion sick, and I don't think I've ever experienced that in 3rd person. Which is weird, because modern 3rd person games are just first person cameras with a character model in front of it.

 

[acm2000]

its ok to be wrong

 

[Aenima]

Most 1st person games, you control a floating camera with no body. It annoys me when i look down in FPS and dont see my body. I still find some 1st person games a bit more imersive, like RE7 as im seeing the world from the character eyes and not a following camera. But when it comes down to gameplay 3rd person is what i really like and feels much better, especially if thers melee combat involved. I also like more to see my charcater body and what its wearing than having the imersion broken by having no body or no shadow, etc.

 

[Holammer]

Depends on the game. It's alright and it's the better choice when there's a melee component, like Warframe. But it's also more forgiving at 30fps than first person view.
Which is why all the fancy looking walking simulators used it during the PS3 era.

 

[winjer]

I prefer first person. Not that third person is bad.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

I for the life of me can't understand why anyone says first person is more immersive. To me, it's the opposite.

What is immersive about being a gun/cursor?

 

[Icymanipulator]

3rd person takes people back to childhood when playing with toys. You get to see the figure you are manipulating. It’s a rooted nostalgia.

 

[Strider311]

If given the choice I would always opt for third person.

 

[R6Rider]

First-person in VR is the best by a LONG shot. For example: manually reloading weapons and having adaptive triggers when firing them is mind-boggling good.

Flat screen it depends on the game. The Last of Us wouldn't be as good if it was first person.

 

[Isa]

I used to love first person games but the last few years I've fallen off of them big time. I always and still do love 3rd person though. One of my biggest pet peeves is the super limited peripheral vision in FP games, and especially when some modern scripted event/cutscene plays out and the npc's have to move about the limited field of view like some on rails theme park ride through a house of horror. What's worse is when they take control away which completely takes me out of the experience. I loathe that. If you want to tell a story give me a properly animated cutscene please.

Whereas with 3rd person I'm given much more information I need to properly assess the situation, plus I get to see the work the devs had to put in to animate and model everything.

 

[Ivan]

Stagnant FPS design is ruining the perspective for me. It's way too samey for many years.

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

It really depends on the game, I love both perspectives.

But, I am that guy who prefers first person, that’s all because I feel more immersed in the game. That’s right, I’m that guy.

I play ESO in first person…. Lol

 

[March Climber]

First person is too unrealistic, nobody sees like that in real life. You could say 3rd is also unrealistic but if you account for senses then you can feel around you without physically seeing.

VR was supposed to fix this problem with first person games and racing games. It's still having a hard time catching on.

 

[Frayed Ends of Sanity]

Certain first person games give me motion sickness so I definitely prefer third person if there's an option. So happy when they added it to RE Village

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

For a game that involves moving your body in any significant way (rather than just aiming a gun, where 1st person makes sense), it's more natural to use a third person view. Even in dreams, people often report being sort of inside and outside their body, seeing their actions in some way. Our awareness of body and space makes the first-person camera view actually feel very unreal and different from our natural mode of experience.

even though I'm mostly looking at the character's back.

There's one great design solution that can work around this limitation, documented thoroughly in this strictly academic thread: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/nsfw-best-butts-in-gaming.1509664/#post-255847300

 

[TGO]

I find 3rd person more immersive and connects me to the character more, and in some respects care more for the character.
yes I'm not playing from their perspective but an observer that's in control viewing that characters journey just like you would with other mediums.
With first person it's meant to be you and that breaks the immersion straight away.
Because you know it not you, you ain't in any danger and it actually limits you to FPS type moments.
On top of that
The whole no hands and things moving on their own kinda ruins it too
And the amount of times I've got damage or killed because I had to run away from something only to get stuck by a small abject on the floor which you cannot see once you get so close to it and your just jogging on the spot while some enemy is attacking you

 

[yet_another_alt]

GAF, I have a confession to make. Every time I drive, I wish I could do it from third person. They should release a car that has a drone with a camera following it all the time.

 

[zeroluck]

First person camera/animations are very hard to get right compared to third person. In third person you just stick an over the shoulder camera and call it a day you can't really fuck it up, in first person you have to move a camera in such way to convey the momentum of the animations. Recently went back to play Mirror's Edge Catalyst, one of the very few games that managed to nail the first person perspective, playing at 175fps on the PC is something special.

 

[Roberts]

It really depends on the intended design of the game. I loved playing Skyrim in first perspective but 3rd sucked ass. The opposite with RDR2.

 

[BossLackey]

It really depends on the intended design of the game. I loved playing Skyrim in first perspective but 3rd sucked ass. The opposite with RDR2.

Well yeah, I’m not saying it’s superior in all cases. Just that it happens to be that a good 3rd person game, for me, has higher highs than other perspectives.

 

[Thief1987]

Third person and side-scrolling for me too. First person perspective is garbage in general. Shooters are somewhat acceptable, but I practically don't play pewpew games, so whatever. However melee combat in FPV is a pure perversion.

 

[Damigos]

My most played game by far is World of Warcraft, so i dig the 3rd person view

 

[Guilty_AI]

Its all a matter of execution. 1st person works better in some games, 3rd in others.

I can never see Half Life being 3rd person, neither Nier Automata in 1st person.

 

[nashman]

Sword yes. Gun no, that is better in first person.

 

[lh032]

ehhhh depends on the game

 

[MidGenRefresh]

First person with full body awareness is my favourite. Not many games offer that, sadly.

 

[Meicyn]

I still actively play The Division 2, the third person perspective with light RPG build mechanics make it my favorite multiplayer looter shooter.

 

[Robb]

I prefer 3rd person as well. Especially when the game is well animated. In games where you create your character I also want to actually see the character I’ve made.

1st person have always felt a bit awkward to me in games outside of FPS. Probably the least immersive perspective to me.

 

[German Hops]

I prefer 2nd person, tbh.

 

[Rhazkul]

My theory is that playing 3rd person games triggers the child in us and reminds us of those childhood times playing with action figures. Anyone remember ACTION MAN?! I would pretend he could fly and run around the garden with an ACTION MAN in my hand.
In this sense 3rd person games are like this, but turned up to eleven with insane graphics, sound effects and gameplay. It's the realization of childhood memories.

 

[elmos-acc]

I think FPS and TPS need to pull different tricks to be immersive, but you are mostly right. Only FPS games I have found particularly immersive are the Battlefield games. The perspective really seems to capture the boots-on-the-ground sense of scale, and TPS Battlefield would probably feel a bit jarring.

But then again, modern Rockstar games are pretty bad in first person as mentioned.

Maybe the ideal comparison would be Far Cry 6 and Ghost Recon: Wildlands, since they have similar environments and Ubisoft game design. I have not played the GR series, but when playing Far Cry the sense of immersion seems to be strong only for a few seconds when watching views from a high place etc. But in gameplay the immersion does not last long.

 

[mrmustard]

3rd person sucks. I only prefer it in games with melee combat, otherwise 1st person all the way.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

OP, you and my brother would make good friends lmao since he's all about 3rd person games. He doesn't like fps at all.

 

[kubricks]

It depends on the game, as demonstrated by your own example.
Since Melee combat has a lot of body movement, 3rd person perspective would be ideal to highlight the action. Also it's hard to gauge distance with 1st person view, close melee combat are rarely satisfying that way.
For shooter the character just hold a gun and shoot, 3rd person view will just block your aim, might as well go 1st person to highlight the gun itself.

 

[Beer Baelly]

Pussy, tits and ass feel good.

 

[Team Andromeda]

I've never understood people saying first person is more immersive. Over exaggerated hand movements and such. I also don't want to play a game where i feel like I'm there. I want to play as a character in a story that takes place in their own world, and I want to see that character while i explore through it.

Seeing the back of the character makes all the difference .

There are games that play better in 1st person and those that play better in 3rd.

 

[Jormatar]

It's the best.

 

[Senua]

Sony agree