-no health bars, physical state of character is reflected through realistic effects
-no targetting reticule, have to use iron sights and wait to aim, if you fire before you fully take aim the bullet veers off in another direction
-no ammo counter, have to pay attention to your ammo
-no health packs, realistic wound and injury treatment system with bandages, sutures, splints
-no sanity meter, mental state of character is reflected through realistic visual/audio effects
Probably the most immersive game I've ever played and a high water mark of how to use the medium of videogames to take storytelling to new heights. It was revolutionary and should have been far more influential than it turned out to be.
Are there any other games I might enjoy if I love DCoTE?
I have to say, while there's much to admire about the game, it's ultimately a janky pile of shite.
As for similar games, the King Kong game that tied in with Peter Jackson's film is up there. Obviously a completely different setting, but does basically everything Dark Corners tries to much better. No idea how hard it is to get running on the PC though as I've only ever played it on the Xbox. There are also periods where you're a giant monkey monster brawling with dinosaurs, which you might not like.
The obvious one to come to mind is Metro 2033 played in the Ranger mode, which takes away all the HUD stuff and you have to pay attention to your shots, check your watch physically for your gas mask timers, etc. Becomes much more of a survival horror.
If that's too soft for you, you could have a look at Pathologic 2 (it's actually a remake of the first one so don't worry). It's not directly "immersive" in the same way, but I feel it is very much in the spirit of this game.
I always remember Eternal Darkness on the Gamecube being mentioned in the same breath as DCOTE, but I think it's because they were both just around at the same time, and the first games to pioneer the "sanity effects" that became a bit of a meme with games like Amnesia. That said if you haven't played them, the Prenumbra/Amnesia games were fairly obviously quite heavily influenced by this.
