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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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.
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.
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.
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.
That sounds amazing and part of why I loved fallout 4’s survival mode! Does every game in the series have ranger mode?
Even further in this direction is Escape from Tarkov. I don’t care for the multilayer, but there is a single player mod called SPT-AKI which I highly recommend
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!
Oooo I forgot about dead space, that’s a good one! Cyberpunk and prey are on my list!
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.
I played that aaaages ago and I remember that really stuck out to me at the time!
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.
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
I’m pretty sure Hellblade didn’t have HUD and that game was incredible.
OMG! That game is so amazing and I was confused by the HUD missing.
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.
Oooh when I pick it up again I’ll have to try it. Did you go hudless from the start or after playing for a while?
I did it immediately. I played BOTW years ago and just wanted to try it for something different.
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
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.
Limbo is amazing. You want engrossing atmosphere? No HUD, no music, no color. Just you and the terrifying, soul-crushing, body-crushing environment.
I tried that game once, got stuck at one point and put it down. I really need to give it a fair chance!
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.
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.
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.
I much prefer a compass to a mini-map, for me the mini-map is the worst offender in terms of pulling my attention constantly into one corner of the screen. Halo’s motion sensor was good in that sense too, I’d check it but not constantly.
Ghost of Tsushima has a very minimal hud
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.
That sounds glorious! I haven’t played that one yet but it really interests me!
I definitely recommend it, but it seems there are people that bounce off of the combat system. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s very enjoyable when you get it.
Some days I just ignore quests and ride my horse around the countryside. I tend to play a lot of dice at the taverns, and doing some hunting is also fun.
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.
I really like portal’s absolutely minimal HUD. The game absolutely works without any hud whatsoever just as well too.
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!
I did the GTA story heists with no HUD but not online, I found those tricky enough already!
