I think this is sort of a silly question but I’m going to ask it anyway: do you prefer playing third person games or first person games?
It’s a silly question because I can’t imagine playing, for example, Alien: Isolation in third person. On the flip side I couldn’t imagine playing Gears of War in first person. Which is really to say that specific games are built around these ideas. They can’t easily be switched back and forth, unless that game is Skyrim.
But if I had to choose, I think I’d definitely sacrifice the quote-on-quote ‘ímmersiveness’ of the first person view for the advantages that come with watching a fully realised, well-animated character obey your every command in the third person. I’ve just always felt that the feeling of weight that comes from great animation play out in response to your direction is so valuable to an interactive experience. It really adds something for me.
That being said — most of my favourite games this year have been in the first person perspective. Metroid Prime, one of my favourite games ever was in the first person perspective. So it’s undoubtedly a tricky one.
I’m going to ask it anyway: first person or third person, which do you prefer?
Comments
47 responses to “The Big Question: Third Person Or First Person?”
I like the increased sense of assuming a character in third person, but there’s games like Alien Isolation where immersion is that much better because of first person.
While there are a few FPS games I enjoy, being a targeting reticule that just looks at things isn’t really as thrilling as seeing the consequences of your actions on a fully rendered model. There are also perception advantages when it comes to jumping and hiding you can’t immediately work out in a first person perspective. Plus, I want something interesting to look at for the entire game that isn’t the barrel of a gun and maybe a hand or two.
I’ve thought long & hard about this. Surely first person should feel more natural because real life is first person , right?
Well, not for me. In real life, my other senses give me an idea of what’s going on around my person & I am able to visualise in my minds eye where my body is in real space. So for me, using first person is like removing senses that I am used to.
What does a “second person” game look like?
Well in a novel, a “second person” perspective is when the novel has “You do …” events, like “You open the door”.
So a second person game would probably be a first person but with no player control… Maybe?
Screencheat’s probably the most recent example of one where you have to looked through your opponent’s eyes in order to win
The Sims?
Your actions are viewed through the eyes of another being interacted with or experiencing your actions and relayed to you. Like @cufcan616 said, Screencheat at this point is the best example.
text based RPG’s are probably the only thing that could be true 2nd-person.
In terms of hours played, I’ve probably played longer in first person than I have in third and I’d say they have been some of my most enjoyable games.
In saying that, I love being able to see my character, especially if they are heavily customisable, so I’ll say third.
I like third person if I have a say in the clothes and what not…………I like First person view when they include feet and stuff. Ideally I love it when they have both options and I can switch between them but if I had to choose one over the other I would say third person is better.
For me the interesting thing about comparing the immersiveness of first or third is for me the assumption that looking through the eyes of the character automatically makes it more immersive or more realistic.
I’m sure people will disagree but I’ve always found third person more realistic because seeing the area around your character simulates the spatial awareness that most of us have in real life. (obviously that excludes people who stand in front of train or elevator doors before they open)
Or maybe I’m just not that good at tracking what’s around me in an FPS.
GTAV! If it does the FPS well (and you can freely switch), anyway.
I prefer third person for some things (stealth, platforming, driving, exploring) and first for others (shooting, picking up details in textures/environments). MGS2 putting in a button for first person aiming made that game incredible to me.
I don’t really care, except to say that anyone who played Star Wars Battlefront in 3rd person is an unbeliever who should be stoned.
If I have the choice I will play first person. It just gives the option to look closely at world detail and fully immerse yourself. Elder Scrolls and Fallout I almost exclusively play in first person.
What will be interesting for me is playing GTA V on PS4. Ask this question again when that’s out
Totally agree. I’m a junky for RPGs in first person, so Eldar Scrolls and Fallout are perennial favourites.
Having said that, I totally love the Souls series so I can enjoy 3rd.
I really have no preference since it depends heavily on the game. I play the new Fallout games exclusively in first-person even though I could play in third person, and I think a lot of game experiences benefit from the immersion of being in the first-person view, but for a lot of action games that 3rd person view provides a better situational awareness that feels more analogous to a “real life” experience where a first-person view would feel limiting by blinkering you (except in games like Halo where you’re given a motion tracker to more readily be aware of enemies around you).
I guess all things being equal I prefer to play games in third person. That feels like the “safer” more general option. It’s harder to execute games strictly in the first-person perspective and some games suffer for it.
I think I prefer first person gameplay, but I also really like being able to see my character.
Either way, I prefer the camera zoomed in on the world so I can examine it up close. I find it hard to get immersed in isometric or birds eye view games.
Actually, you know what, Deus Ex Human Revolutions is probably my most prefered game when it comes to view. Brilliant mix of first person and third person in combat. I wish more games would do that.
I don’t think I have much of a preference one way or another. I can find a third person game like RE4 just as immersive as an FPS like Red Steel. And I don’t think I’d switch either of those games to be like the other kind.
I’d probably give the edge to FPS though, just because I think there’s games from that perspective that I love more than most of the third person ones. Even if they might be outnumbered on the other side.
For me, it depends entirely on what type of game it is. I enjoy playing both equally as much, but some games just wouldn’t work well in one mode. Like.. I can’t imagine playing Gothic as a 1st person perspective. Or quake in third person..
I’m starting to think that the whole ‘first-person view is inherently more immersive’ idea is not so accurate as people seem to believe. There are so many more factors which influence immersion than just the viewpoint.
In answer to which I prefer, hrrrrmmm… Generally speaking, I think I have more fun with first-person games but on the whole, I prefer third-person.
Hard to say, I play DAYZ with a mix of both to be honest…
Shooters: First Person
Adventure: Third Person
always prefer 3rd person view, especially in open world games 🙂
First person for shooters.
Third person for action/adventure.
If it is a shooter without a doubt first person. Mostly because I relate 3rd person with cover based shooters and boring shooting galleries.
If you are more around a melee character that is when 3rd person works. I can’t imagine the arkham games being any where near as good in 1st person
It’s very much a question of how the game is designed, some are built from the ground up to be 3rd person and would feel weird to go into 1st person which is why I’m kind of iffy about GTA5’s 1st person mode since that feels at it’s core to be so 3rd person a game.
Conversely, can you imagine how dull and samey Mirror’s Edge would have felt as a 3rd person platformer? It was the perspective that made that game special, the sheer level of physical presence that they managed to convey by virtue of the fact that Faith wasn’t just a floating camera made me wish there were more 1st person platformers which was something that I never imagined I’d ever want before.
In terms of immersion, play a game like Arma 3 with TrackIR, be stuck behind a tree, pinned down by LMG fire and desperately looking around for a way out, peek out using your actual head to see where the fire is coming from and formulate an evasion plan, pop a smoke grenade and use the concealment to pull back into defilade so you can move around to flank and kill the enemy all the while looking over your shoulder to make sure no one is following you and then talk to me about immersion in games… More games need TrackIR support damnit!
I hated the first person platformy bits in Far cry 3 when you had to climb the towers…
I seriously have to agree about Mirror’s Edge. I thought it was weird to be first person at first, but then after playing it (oh so many times over) I feel like it’s the first time that viewpoint has really felt oh so immersive. They did a lot of subtle things too to help that, primarily using depth of field and similar effects to give more “oomph” to landing on things or grabbing hold of ledges after a hair raising jump! It certainly made things like rolling a disorienting experience, which is really how it should be after performing a massive jump between buildings while trying to avoid being blasted away 😛
How many people play Skyrim in third person view?
…
I thought so 😉
Me.
I like seeing the changes in armour/weapons. Just wish it was better animated.
While some games are built around and need third person, mostly platformer/brawlers such as assassins creed, I reckon first person is better for pretty much everything else.
Especially shooters. Third person shooting is an abomination that should go away and quietly die imo.
I disagree. Games like Max Payne, Uncharted, etc. would not be improved by a first person view. In my opinion the first person view has its own special feel, but it’s fairly ineffective at expressing character.
Perhaps.
But then I also greatly dislike “Cinematic” games like those described.
Matter of taste in the end.
First person, like do you drive your car from the back seat?
Can you see behind your self now?
Play it like you are there……first person, cockpit view, dashboard view.
All other is cheating!
First person, But I think the best FPS experiences aren’t just simply because it is just FPV.
The more that I feel like a person, moving through the world (So say a game like Metro 2033, where I use my watch and hands to actually bring up and down items, weapons and my Notepad (I LOVE HOLDING A NOTEPAD, AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY))
, and not a floating window like say, CoD. I also like the ability to look down at your own body, And small things like far cry 3, where when you get too close to a wall he brings his gun up so it doesn’t clip. All those little things make the first person view so much more engaging, not just because it is in first person view.
Only think I like with third person views is the extra angle of view.
I don’t get motion sickness with third person shooters, which is the main reason why I’m no longer playing first person games.
Is there a setting I can adjust on PC to curb motion sickness?
Your F.O.V.
Good call. I have a smallish study which means I’m staring at a 42 inch television from a distance of about two metres. This might need adjusting.
Back around 2000 I was constantly yearning for more 3rd person games. I’d hate seeing the arguments that you couldn’t aim in 3rd person and that 1st person was more “immersive” (especially considering that usually meant your view was a camera crammed in the character’s chest cavity and the only part of you that actually existed was arms holding a gun).
Now though? I quite like having the option to play as either in various games. I quite enjoy switching between 1st and 3rd person for doing different things in games too. I still kinda prefer 3rd person just so I can see my character (especially with character customization), but what I’d really love is being able to switch between in lots of games. Either way, I’m happy going either way nowadays, since everything I wanna play aren’t FPSs anymore 😛
I hated 3rd person until I played DayZ. 3rd person is so handy for keeping an eye on your surroundings or looking over walls.
It’s a boost to your situational awareness that actually makes the way you interact with the world a little more realistic. Sight and sound is so subtle that you can’t quite capture it in a first person game. It’s also hard to capture how twitchy and perceptive humans are. I can’t see behind myself but the way I move and respond to sound sort of extends my range of vision in a way that I can look behind myself without turning around.
Looking over walls may not be realistic in a literal sense, but it compensates for realistic movement. I mean I can look over a fence in real life without standing on top of it or jumping. The way we interact with the world via in-game avatars is so clumsy that we almost need cheats like third person in order to smooth over the holes.
It depends on the game, but ultimately I’d say most first person games work perfectly fine in third person but most third person games fall apart in first person. It’s also nice to be able to see yourself. A first person game should in theory be more immersive but I always find there’s a hole in the world where your avatar is. You’ll see your boots and knuckles sometimes but the way it’s just a viewport is almost fourth wall breaking. Sometimes it’s done really well, like Metroid Prime showing Samus on the visor reflections, but even then ‘first person’ tends to mean you have a floating gun and a camera at head height rather than really creating the illusion that you’re looking through someone else’s eyes.
ehhh. wont be voting on this one. It depends entirely on the type of game and what it is built around. I wouldnt want to play Doom in 3rd person. but i wouldnt want to play wow in first person.
Why not both?
Oh man this is such a difficult question. My two favorite games are Skyrim and Mass Effect 1. One first person and one third. Sophie’s choice had an easier decision I tell ya. I guess if the game itself is good the view is irrelevant. The decision might be easier after I play GTA V in first person.