I have flirted briefly with playing without a HUD. I won't lie to you, it is rather disconcerting! My sense of spatial orientation is all off, I don't know what I'm going to pick up, I can't hit anything with arrows... Sure is a new challenge, I'll give you that.

Anybody do this for a whole 'playthrough', so to speak? I wonder whether one ever becomes accustomed to it.

Been playing HUDless for a bout a month now. I love it.

It adds so much more immersion. I've gotten used to not seeing what I'm picking up or anything really. I don't use the cursor either, and I feel like it's helped me become a lot better at archery. I occasionally turn on the HUD if I'm really lost or if I'm having trouble with a boss, but I can't imagine using the cursor anymore.

I went HUDless for the entirety of Dawnguard, only turned it on about half way through the final fight with Harkon, cause the fight just seemed endless and I wanted to know if I was doing any real damage to him.

It can be scary at times, but I recommend it. Just ease into it, start out with HUD Opacity at around halfway, and gradually move on from there. You'll like it.

It's difficult, and in my opinion, pointless.

It's immersive at first, not having to see the magic compass or the obstructive cursor and magically knowing where any combatants are even in a dark cave. But it kinda kills immersion when you have no idea how your character is feeling. I feel like the MP/HP/SP bars are necessary for this since there aren't any decent indicators of how tired or hurt they are unless they're at their limit (gasping for breath for low stamina and the screen turning blurry and red for health).

You can't actually "feel" their pain or exhaustion and any injury is met with the same grunts and yells no matter how much damage is done. Using Garrett from the Thief series as an example, when he's hit by a trap or sword, he'd give the same reaction as a PC in the Elder Scrolls. When he's hit by a particularly powerful attack, like a fireball or a mallet to the face, he'd scream. Like, SCREAM. The damage was proportional to the loudness or his yells most of the time and I didn't have to look at the HP meter to know how much more he could take. How do characters in Skyrim react to a Fireball spell that takes 75% of their HP? "Ouch!"

Well, it wasn't perfect, but it's the right idea. If fatigue and injuries showed in the way your PC attacked or moved, then it wouldn't be so bad. Magic too, although I admit that I usually don't worry about how much magica I have left when casting. It can be just as dangerous, though.

Might try it one day. But today is not that day.

Thanks for the balanced review. I've read about how this adds so much to other players' immersion but your point about the status bars is well taken. It doesn't make sense for the PC to be unaware of Magicka/Health/Stamina so this puts the exercise squarely in the category of too-annoying-to-be-worth-it for me. For those who are willing to overcome the difficulty, more power to you!

I wanted to do this, mostly to remove the compass, but the lack of the health/stamina/magic bars made it not fun.

I am impressed by the people that can play it that way though!

When playing on PC, I use iHUD. That way I can actually have the HUD pop-up when I need it, like when I have to pick up something, when there is a M/H/S drain etc.

I wouldn't want those off for reasons already mentioned here. I don't think it particularly "realistic" since you have no other indicator of the where they sit. Only one is stamina, but you gasp for air only when it's completely drained.