[kgwxd]

I don't know if I've ever been more immersed in a game than Cataclysm Dark Days ahead, in ASCII mode. I usually die pretty early but, one time, I survived over a year. Built a huge base, a maxed out RV, explored all the lore I could find, and I was basically indestructible in standard combat. I ended up dying while driving really fast down a road I'd driven hundreds of times before, it was supposed to be clear. A big floating, laser-shooting eyeball hit my my RV. That's was over 5 years ago and I can still "remember" that world, the crazy things that happened in it, and all the scary monsters I fought, as they existed in my imagination at the time, prompted only by ASCII characters and short description of what they were supposed to represent. I guess it's like reading a good book, but I'm in control of the story. There's obviously other ascii based games similar to CDDA, but there's so much detail in the mechanics, so much you can do to affect yourself and the world in a meaningful way, and open-ended lore to spark the imagination, that it ends up being way more immersive than similar games. The game has tile sets you can use instead of ASCII, but I find they put my imagination into cartoon mode, which isn't as deep an experience for me.