All of them if you just turn off the compass and minimap. You would be suprised how lazy our brains have gotten. When we turn all this BS off we always rise to the challenge and gain a large sense of immersion and self reliance in the process.
This is true. Partly. Because many games are designed with these features in mind. It does work in The Witcher 3 in some quests, but many will simply say "get it" or "get it by the river" and that's it. Good luck finding it without these tools. Sometimes you will stumble over things you need for quests because the world is so packed with points of interest.
Gothic 1 and 2 are prime examples for great environmental direction and clues.
In Gothic 1 you start in a mountain region with a bit left and right to explore but there's only one path leading down from the mountains. So even if you skipped all the dialogue telling where to find the Old Camp, the first village so to say, you see it from afar as you descend the trail. It's the first big landmark you will see coming from the beginning area. No map no compass needed. Everything points to that location and even if you still ignore that, wild animals too strong for you to beat in the surrounding areas plus several NPC will point you the camp and the people you should probably talk to first as a newbie in the world.
Gothic 2 works the same by starting in a valley to explore but ultimately leads to the city gates and walls which you need to pass. Peasents on a farm you passed before will tell you where to start, what's important, what's going on the world and how you could get into the city and all that without suffocating you in exposition and text walls.
Paths are so distinctive they're memorable and NPCs will mention them many times. That's when you truly engaged with the game's world and are immersed. Sometimes people can give you a very detailed description where to find things and sometimes they don't know any better.
Even two decades later games rarely are so well-designed in that regard.
This design philosophy contradicts the reach for instant gratification and other pop ups and tools tailored for that in many modern games though.
I think that what's made ER so big this generation because it wasn't something that still worked when certain helpers are disabled, but because there was so little helpers and markers to begin with but worked because of that, because it took players seriously while challenging them and also granting gratification through careful exploration, tough to beat enemies and tough to conquer areas.
I hope we get more of that direction without the need to have ultra hard difficulties or From's special way of telling stories.
