Ultima 7 was immersive due to many great factors, such as music, dialouge, NPC schedules, and interactivity of items.
For instance, you could go into a farmer's house, kill him if you so desired, rip open a bag of flour, take a bucket to a well, get water, put water on the flour, knead the dough, and bake bread. If you left the dough on the oven too long, the bread would burn. You could mix honey, and make a sweet pie, or use meat for a meat pie if you so desired.
Fans have clammored for flowing capes, hoods, customizable hilts, etc. These things don't greatly change gameplay, but they add a level of immersion.
I never burned the bread in Ultima 7.
But I did find out that you didn't need to knead the dough in order to bake it. I just put the flower in the oven and voila