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Immersive Sim
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The "immersive sim" is a video game genrenote There's ongoing debate about whether immersive sim constitutes a genre, or if it's closer to a narrative structure or game design philosophy, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll be referring to it as a genre for the rest of this article. that has existed in some form since The '90s, when it was codified by Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm Austin, but has experienced a major comeback in The New '10s. Games in this genre aim to simulate a large believable lived-in 3D space wherein the players' avatar exists as an active physical entity, unlike in many other Simulation Game subgenres, — hence the "immersive" part. To this end, the developers combine clever game systems with advanced Video Game A.I. and afford the players maximum expression, while also refusing to hold their hand. Immersive sims commonly have following traits (although this list is neither normative, nor exhaustive): High levels of player intentionality and agency. Players are thrown into the virtual space and given goals to achieve and tools to use, but no predetermined paths to follow. Instead, they are expected to explore the environment, to assess their tools and resources, to make plans, and to adapt them on the fly in order to reach their objectives, relying on creativity and improvisation rather than on guessing the "correct" solution. To avoid overwhelming new players, the designers may offer some entry points and starting suggestions, but these are never rigid paths to be followed for the rest of the game/level. High systemicity. The game is governed by global rules, properties, and mechanics (such as the Physics Engine and NPC Scheduling) that work consistently throughout, with minimal use of systemic exceptions like Scripted Events, one-off animations, and cutscene setpieces. Immersive sims also tend to recycle previously introduced elements and obstacles in new and different contexts. Emergence. Interactions between various game subsystems facilitate emergent combinations thereof that the developers did not explicitly code into the game. Combined with high player agency, this also enables the Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay characteristic of the genre. Consistency. As noted above, special cases and one-offs are generally few and far-between: e.g. there are no Invisible Walls and no Story-Driven Invulnerability — but even if an important NPC bites the dust, there is no Game Over, either, and the simulation just carries on. In fact, player character's death is often the only explicit failure state. High reactivity. The game world reacts to the player's actions and observably evolves over time. Story Branching often occurs not via explicit (dialogue) choices, but through gameplay actions, including ones that may appear like Script Breaking at first. To enhance reactivity, developers of immersive sims also tend to prioritize sophisticated AI (or at least, AI that appears sophisticated enough to be credible at its role). High physicality. The player character's body is a tangible object that exists in the game's universe, and is governed by said universe's laws. Magic, if it exists, will have a "tactile" feelnote potions to slow your fall, greatly enhanced speed, and offensive powers designed to flex the physics engine. Critical Existence Failure is often averted, and the game may even account for how an injury was sustained and to what body part. The game may feature inventory management, and the player may be vulnerable to attack while accessing the inventory. More modern immersive sims are all but guaranteed to have a physics engine, which may be integrated into gameplay. Presentation-wise, this means that First-Person Ghost is often averted and a Diegetic Interface may be used. Non-linearity. Both in terms of Story Branching and level design. An immersive sim needn't be open world — most aren't — nor need it allow players to freely revisit old levels, but each level will feature many side paths, loads of alternate routes, secret areas (often with hidden Story Breadcrumbs), and small touches that create the impression of a real, lived-in place that does not exist solely for the player. To this end, immersive sims very often break The Law of Conservation of Detail. Because the genre had historically evolved under the expectation that Virtual Reality technology was just around the corner, games in it often feature Unbroken First-Person Perspective and Diegetic Interfaces to improve their Player and Protagonist Integration, although this is not a requirement. Exposition and Worldbuilding tend to be handled through environmental storytelling, with Story Breadcrumbs scattered throughout the game world to encourage exploration thereof, and Back Tracking is a common activity — in this, the genre is similar to Environmental Narrative Gamesnote which, unlike immersive sims, tend to deemphasize traditional gameplay challenges. Many games in it also contain nods to the number 0451note often as the first password the player uses, in reference both to the original System Shocknote whose first password was "451" in a nod to the keycode of the Looking Glass offices during its development and to Fahrenheit 451. Indeed, "451 game" is another common name for the genre and with the genre's traits now common in other game genres, some have considered a 0451 appearance being required to qualify a game as an immersive sim. The term "immersive simulation" was coined in 2000 by Warren Spector, the grandfather of the genre who had worked at both Looking Glass and Ion Storm. Spector, however, instead attributes it to Doug Church, also of Looking Glass Studios. Church and the Looking Glass co-founder Paul Neurath are usually named as the genre's "fathers", as it was them who laid its basic design foundations. Because the term was obscure for many yearsnote and because, again, "immersive sim" is arguably a philosophy rather than a genre, most games in this genre have traditionally been classified as first-person shooters on the higher end of the Fackler Scale of FPS Realism, stealth games, Survival Horror, or Western RPGs instead. That said, many games in the Wide-Open Sandbox and stealth genres tend to incorporate elements of the immersive sim genre without going all the way into the Emergent Gameplay territory. Examples of these include Bethesda's Radiant AI-based RPGs (The Elder Scrolls from Oblivion onward, Fallout 3 et seq.) and the Hitman - World of Assassination games. The Survival Sandbox shares the immersive sim's focus on emergent gameplay, but tend to be less focused on telling a coherent story. For more details on the genre, see Mark Brown's video and The Other Wiki's article on the topic. |
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The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series (2007-ongoing, GSC Game World) are Wide-Open Sandbox First Person Shooters set in the vast Zone of Exclusion surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which, in this timeline, had spawned a large number of bizarre anomalies and mutants. The player character is a "stalker" (a professional Zone trespasser) and must navigate the simulated environment and ecosystem of the Zone to survive. The series is occasionally cited as immersive sims, or influenced by them, thanks to their systemicity, player agency, and in particular "A-Life", an advanced (for its time) AI system that governed the actions and routines of both mutants and NPC stalkers across the entire game world, similar to Spector's vision for NPCs. | |
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Subnautica (2018, Unknown Worlds Entertainment) is more often considered a Survival Sandbox, but it can just as easily be called an immersive sim. Setpieces are few and far between and never interrupt gameplay, object permanence is a core mechanic, and while the diving system is jam-packed with Acceptable Breaks from Realitynote the player character can survive depths that would kill a real human (and will indeed destroy an un-upgraded submersible's hull), the planet's two immense moons exert no tidal forces, underwater visibility is much greater than it would be in real life, and the bends, bane of real-wold divers, do not exist but these decisions contribute to an immersive gameworld. It also is a rare Survival Sandbox not to have been procedurally generated; rather, the developers created numerous intricately designed underwater biomes, each of which organically encourages the player to adopt different strategies. | |
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2006's Hitman: Blood Money, due to the time's technological limitations, wasn't as expansive as the games are now. However, the levels are quite open, 47 always has multiple ways to complete objectives, and it even tried to create a cause-and-effect relationship between levels with its "Infamy" systemnote Make a mess or leave too many witnesses during a hit, and the guards at the next level will be more suspicious of you. | |
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Dishonored 2 (2016, Arkane) follows in the previous game's footsteps, albeit moving the bulk of the action to a different city, Karnaca. | |
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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017, Nintendo) expands the traditional Zelda exploration with strongly systemic gameplay that facilitates extensive player agency and emergence. However, while taking obvious cues from immersive sims (like a post-disaster setting), BotW still maintains numerous gameful elements that preclude full immersion. | |
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Deus Ex: Invisible War (2003, Ion Storm Austin) improved upon the reactivity of the story and game world, but its levels were much smaller and simpler than those of its predecessor, as a result of designing the game around the technical limitations of consoles. Another point of contention was the streamlining and simplification of many of the RPG elements of the previous game. Both contributed to the game's poor reception. | |
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Space Station 13 (2003, Exadv1) has got nearly every characteristic that defines the genre aside from being a 3D single-player game. You could even say it's more systemic than everything on this list, having systems that simulate metabolisms, atmospherics, chemistry, energy production, and so much more, built up through the game's unusual development history and its disregard for graphical prowess. However, the game is played in a 2D Isometric perspective, and it's a multiplayer sandbox roleplay game without any set objective (beyond the vaguely defined "do your job"), this is actually what makes all the game shine, as the multiple systems all react to the many inputs by the players transforming the station into a beautiful symphony of chaos. | |
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Alien: Isolation (2014, Creative Assembly), while lower in player agency than most immersive simsnote the player cannot even jump, is often listed as one, mostly owing to its extremely sophisticated and systemic AI. | |
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Neverlooted Dungeon (TBD, Wild Mage Games) is an upcoming Dungeon Crawler Immersive Sim with an emphasis on treacherous deadly traps, with a strong immersive sim design philosophy. The public demo released during the Steam Game Festival Autumn 2020 showed great promises of open-ended problem solving and physics-based interactivity. | |
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Dead Space (2008, Electronic Arts) is sometimes included on lists of immersive sims for its atmospherics, its level design, its memorably involved combat mechanics, and its unusual synthesis of a Diegetic Interface with a third-person perspective. This classification is controversial, however — probably the most controversial on this list — and none of its sequels are considered immersive sims by anyone. | |
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BioShock Infinite, on the other hand, is usually not considered part of the genre, due to its levels being even more linear and an even heavier emphasis on First-Person Shooter combat mechanics than the previous games. Its two-part DLC Burial at Sea, however, was a deliberate return both to Rapture and to the immersive sim mechanics of the previous two games (part two even includes a challenge "1998 Mode" as a throwback to the original Thief). | |
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Thief II: The Metal Age (2000, Looking Glass) scaled down the fantasy elements of the first game, such as non-human monsters and maze-like dungeons, in favor of making the City behave more like a realistic urban environment. It also expanded the protagonist Garret's toolset with new technological tools. | |
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The Splinter Cell series (2002-2013, Ubisoft) as a whole does not belong to the immersive sim family, but its third installment, Chaos Theory (2005), comes very close. It kept the first two games' uncompromising demands that the player use stealth, but gave Sam Fisher far more tools and weaponsnote Plus the option to choose between several loadouts pre-mission. It also introduced nonlinear level designnote the bank heist in Panama City being a particularly good example, and gave players multiple ways to complete objectivesnote The manner in which previous objectives were completed sometimes affects whether or not subsequent ones will be given. It also nearly abandoned artificial fail-states: while in earlier games raising too many alarms often meant an automatic Game Over, the player may now screw up and still finish levelsnote Killed a merchant ship's captain without interrogating him about a target passenger's location? Well, the target is somewhere onboard; you'll just have to hunt him down yourself. Wrought havoc during the bank heist? You can still get out, provided you can handle the Panamanian Army's reinforcements. With these changes came much-improved AI: as the alarm level rises, panicking guards will begin donning armor, fixing lights onto their flak vests, tossing flares, and firing wildly into shadows. Sam's superiors berate him should he get needlessly violent, but only a few, plot-justified times will killing fail you a mission. | |
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Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004, Ion Storm Austin) introduced a hub world consisting of several districts of the City, from which the plot missions' locations are accessed, and which contains some surprisingly involved sidequests of its own. The AI was also ramped up, with alerted guards becoming downright relentless hunting you. It also closed the last immersion-breaking gap of the previous games, transforming their inter-mission shopping screens into an in-universe interactions. Paradoxically, the hub-map was seen in some ways as a step away from immersion: the hardware limitations of the time, plus the game's cross-development for PC and consoles, forced the developers to break up the hub world and all levels with loading zones.note Modders have since then removed the loading zones from the dedicated "level" maps, but the hub itself remains broken up into separate loading areas. | |
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Deathloop (2021, Arkane) is set on the Island Base of 8 super-villains and their Mook armies, going through a simulated cycle of an endlessly repeating 24-hour day. You are then free to use a variety of intel gathering, sneaking, weapons and superpowers to reach and then take out the 8 rulers of the island in any order you can manage, with the various antagonists reacting to your actions in a variety of ways. | |
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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016, Eidos Montreal) improved upon the Human Revolution's immersive mechanics, particularly in its central hub level of the futuristic Prague, as well as added more options to tackle in-game challenges and affect different outcomes. | |
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Consortium (2014, Interdimensional Games) was made as a Spiritual Successor to old-school immersive sims, especially to Deus Ex. It emphasizes player choice immensely, in terms of both gameplay and story-branching. Indeed, one possible ending is for the player to complete the game without having solved the central mystery. Is setting — the Cool Plane that serves as the mobile HQ for the intelligence agency the player character serves — also evokes the closed-off space station of System Shock (sans the Survival Horror elements). This setting inevitably means that Consortium has probably the narrowest scope of any of the "canonical" immersive simsnote although the plane is still quite large and interconnected, but the game's nonlinearity and narrative openness goes some way to counterbalancing this. As of 2020, a Sequel titled Consortium: The Tower is in the alpha stages of early access on Steam. It promises to keep its predecessor's narrative openness, while offering a larger setting and even more freedom. |
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System Shock 2 (1999, Irrational) is set some time after the first game on two docked spaceships, the Von Braun and the Rickenbacker, after both have been overrun by a mutagenic alien hive mind known as "the Many". | |
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The 2014 reboot by Eidos Montreal, however, is generally not considered part of the genre anymore, for much the same reasons as BioShock Infinite: more linear level traversal with fewer opportunities for exploration; reliance on scripted events; reactive, rather than proactive AI; and a smaller, yet more specialized toolset for overcoming challenges. One change that is often cited to illustrate the difference between simulated and scripted worlds is that the rope arrows in the new Thief can only be attached to specific hotspots placed by the level designers, rather than to any wooden surface (including freely moveable wooden crates), like in the older games. | |
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E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy (2011, Streum On Studio) is a FPS/RPG with considerable influence from the genre, such as a wide variety of Deus Ex style cybernetic upgrades, emergent gameplay (Most things in the world can be hacked, and trigger a turn-based RPG minigame, including enemies that you can turn on their teammates.) and multiple ways through most encounters. Unique for featuring a multiplayer component, which some may consider to exclude it from being an Immersive Sim. | |
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BioShock (2007, Irrational) sees the player trapped in an Underwater City of Rapture, once utopian, but now fallen to anarchy and civil war. It features the iconic splicers, Big Daddies. and Little Sisters. However, unlike earlier immersive sims, its explorable areas are highly linear, there are less ways to interact with the world, and the game is heavily scripted, sparking some debate over whether or not it should be classified as a first-person shooter instead. Furthermore, the game's big twist can be seen as a deconstruction of the genre, explicitly denying players any form of agency on what is arguably the most important decision in the game, and revealing that they only had as much as the Big Bad — and, by extension, the developers — allowed them. BioShock 2 (2010, 2K Marin) returns to Rapture, although a decade into the future and even more decrepit. Much like its predecessor, its status as an immersive sim is somewhat questionable. BioShock Infinite, on the other hand, is usually not considered part of the genre, due to its levels being even more linear and an even heavier emphasis on First-Person Shooter combat mechanics than the previous games. Its two-part DLC Burial at Sea, however, was a deliberate return both to Rapture and to the immersive sim mechanics of the previous two games (part two even includes a challenge "1998 Mode" as a throwback to the original Thief). |
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BioShock 2 (2010, 2K Marin) returns to Rapture, although a decade into the future and even more decrepit. Much like its predecessor, its status as an immersive sim is somewhat questionable. | |
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Fallout (2008-present, Bethesda Softworks) series under Bethesda (Fallout 3 (2008), Fallout 4 (2015) and especially Fallout: New Vegas (2010, Obsidian Entertainment)) for the very same reasons of the Elder Scrolls series, as both share similar engines and design conventions. The first two games in the series (Fallout (1997, Interplay Entertainment) and Fallout 2 (1998, Black Isle Studios)) are isometric CRPGs but contain a very systematic, responsive and immersive worlds, which would influence later games in the series. | |
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Far Cry 2 (2008, Ubisoft) has, as of 2020, earned the "Immersive Sim" tag on the Steam Store. It embraces immersive sim conventions like Unbroken First-Person Perspective, a Diegetic Interface-style in-game map, and an atmospheric, highly reactive environmentnote You wanna clear out a machine gun emplacement with a flamethrower? In an African savanna? During dry season? You'd better be ready to run like hell. Even its polarizing experimental mechanics — the malaria system, the total lack of a targeting reticle, the weapon degradation — evoke the immersive sim philosophy. Unfortunately, while its world is reactive, it lacks persistencynote Most egregious is its habit of respawning enemies at locations that your character had "cleared out" minutes prior, and it loses more points for the unscaleable rock formations cluttering its map, that can make the sandbox feel paradoxically linear. | |
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We Happy Few (2018, Compulsion Games) had set out to be an immersive sim in the vein of BioShock, albeit with a greater focus on survival and procedurally generated elements. | |
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The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983, Chunsoft) was the first game to have most of the key immersive sim elements seven years before the founding of Looking Glass, making it arguably an Ur-Example. It was a first-person adventure game with an open world, character AI, choices and consequences, non-linear game design, open-ended narrative told through notes and diaries, interactive environments, emergent gameplay, allowed multiple ways to achieve objectives, and lacked fail states. | |
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The Dishonored series by Arkane Studios was one of the games that revived this genre for The New '10s, becoming a Gateway Series for players unfamiliar with it, as well as updating it to accommodate faster-paced playstyles. Unlike Thief, the Player Character may use both stealth, and open violence, or any combination thereof to assassinate (or to otherwise put out of commission) his marks, he can also use magical and technological tools to achieve his goals. Dishonored (2012, Arkane) is set in the plague-stricken city of Dunwall and with each level simulating the behavior of city guards, civilians, zombie-like weepers, and wildlife (e.g. rats). The Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches DLC duology starring the assassin Daud follows the same model, at one point even simulating an all-out Mob War between two Dunwall gangs. Dishonored 2 (2016, Arkane) follows in the previous game's footsteps, albeit moving the bulk of the action to a different city, Karnaca. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (2017, Arkane) is still set in Karnaca, but lets you play as Daud's apprentice Billie Lurk instead. |
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Firewatch (2016, Campo Santo) is an Adventure Game that borrows a lot of elements of the genre to immerse the player in its world, from an Unbroken First-Person Perspective and Diegetic Interface elements like the map and the compass, to real-time conversations and Story Breadcrumbs scattered all over the place and not walled-off by any artificial (non-diegetic) barriers. | |
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Underworld Ascendant (2018, OtherSide) is a Kickstarted Spiritual Successor to Ultima Underworld (would be a sequel if not for trademark issues) developed by many of the same people, led by Paul Neurath himself. It simulates the Stygian Abyss as a massive underground ecosystem and society, and the developers have created what they call the "Improvisation Engine" to make sure players always have several ways to reach their goals. Unfortunately, the game was released in a very unfinished, unpolished and buggy state. | |
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Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992, Looking Glass) is usually named as the Trope Maker of the genre. A Spin-Off of the Ultima series, it put the recurring dungeon of the Stygian Abyss into the focus, simulating its massive and complex multi-level ecosystem in real time. The Avatar found himself thrown into the Abyss with an overarching task to free a kidnapped damsel from a powerful demon, but no obvious path towards it, requiring the players to try out different strategies and to improvise. Warren Spector's inspiration for this emergent approach to in-game problem solving came both from Dungeons & Dragons and from watching a playtester solve an Unintentionally Unwinnable puzzle in Ultima VI by exploiting the fact that his animal companion Sherry the Mouse could squeeze under a locked door and open it from the other side. Lessons learned from UU influenced both Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993, Looking Glass) and the now-legendary Ultima VII to a considerable degree. | |
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The Hitman - World of Assassination games (2016, 2018, 2021 - IO Interactive) transplant the series' core stealth assassination gameplay into a highly systemic setting, governed by global rules and combinable mechanics set in vast, nonlinear maps, very much like in many of the best immersive sims. The maps are also perhaps the closest adaptation of Warren Specter’s early concept of the immersive sim as a highly detailed single block of a city where every person goes about realistic lives off of advanced programming. What changes there are add to immersion: hiding in a crowd now conceals 47 from guards who'd otherwise recognize him. It breaks from genre conventions by being third-person, however, and it relies on scriptingnote although sometimes very intricate, naturalistic-seeming scripting to maintain the series's tradition of "signature" kills 2006's Hitman: Blood Money, due to the time's technological limitations, wasn't as expansive as the games are now. However, the levels are quite open, 47 always has multiple ways to complete objectives, and it even tried to create a cause-and-effect relationship between levels with its "Infamy" systemnote Make a mess or leave too many witnesses during a hit, and the guards at the next level will be more suspicious of you. |
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Cruelty Squad (2021, Consumer Softproducts) features many common traits of the genre, such as open-ended levels and high-intentionality customization of the player character. Set in a disgusting Bio Punk world, the main character can be seen as a deconstruction of typical Immersive Sim protagonists: a depressed corporate assassin who augments himself with horrifying biological implants and kill people just to feel something. Although players have lots of decisionmaking around how they want to complete the open-ended objectives, Violence is the Only Option; to choose stealth, mobility, or a guns-blazing approach does not wholly excise the rocket-tag combat, fighting only becomes easier or less necessary. That fact, combined with an unrealistic player movement system and a violent art direction, it could be argued that this game isn't "immersive", but more of a Retraux First-Person Shooter with open-ended levels and player customization. | |
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Dishonored (2012, Arkane) is set in the plague-stricken city of Dunwall and with each level simulating the behavior of city guards, civilians, zombie-like weepers, and wildlife (e.g. rats). The Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches DLC duology starring the assassin Daud follows the same model, at one point even simulating an all-out Mob War between two Dunwall gangs. | |
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The Elder Scrolls (1994-present, Bethesda Softworks) have been occasionally described as an immersive sim since Morrowind, but it was ramped up in Skyrim. The games feature very open-ended gameplay, allowing you to explore freely, complete quests in any order, and even ignore the main storyline. Oblivion also introduces Radiant AI, allowing you to manipulate enemies to your whim with magic or stealth, and even make them fight each other. The game is also heavy on systems, even allowing you to interact with mundane objects like spoons and plates. The early games were heavily inspired by the Ultima Underworld games. However, most dungeons are still fairly linear and there are few examples of Sequence Breaking, as the games are primarily Wide-Open Sandbox Action RPGs. Fallout (2008-present, Bethesda Softworks) series under Bethesda (Fallout 3 (2008), Fallout 4 (2015) and especially Fallout: New Vegas (2010, Obsidian Entertainment)) for the very same reasons of the Elder Scrolls series, as both share similar engines and design conventions. The first two games in the series (Fallout (1997, Interplay Entertainment) and Fallout 2 (1998, Black Isle Studios)) are isometric CRPGs but contain a very systematic, responsive and immersive worlds, which would influence later games in the series. |
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Pathologic 2 (2019) is a Soft Reboot of the first game, and brings back the immersive design philosophies of its predecessor in a more polished package. | |
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Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011, Eidos Montreal) had streamlined the first game's formula, albeit still allowing for emergent gameplay (such as hacking an automatic turret and hauling it to the next boss arena). It also features several Deadly Shadows-like hub levels from which the main story missions can be accessed. | |
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Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (2017, Arkane) is still set in Karnaca, but lets you play as Daud's apprentice Billie Lurk instead. | |
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Crysis (2007, Crytek) and its 2009 stand-alone expansion Crysis: Warhead have much more in common with the First-Person Shooternote and their sequels are considered sophisticated First-Person Shooter games at most than with immersive sims. However, the sprawling levels of Crysis's first half and of almost all of Warhead, the flexible Nanosuit powers, the absence of artificial failstates (besides a late-game Escort Mission), and the first game's nearly Unbroken First-Person Perspectivenote Abandoned for traditional cutscenes in Warhead reflect the immersive sim's ethos. Incidentally, the Nanosuit gives its wearer powers reminiscent of JC Denton's augmentations. | |
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Gloomwood (TBD, New Blood Interactive) is an upcoming Survival Horror Stealth-Based Game that wears its Thief influences on its sleeve, alongside other immersive sim titles. A promising public demo was released in 2020, with an early access launch following in 2022. | |
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Deus Ex (2000, Ion Storm Austin) is considered one of the two great Trope Codifiers of the genre (alongside System Shock), and the game Warren Spector is most proud of. Set in a Cyberpunk, Conspiracy Kitchen Sink future, the game follows the Thief model of distinct missions and simulated level hubs, but allows the player character JC Denton to navigate them in any way and sequence imaginable. It was also one of the earliest games to make action-based and stealth-based walkthroughs equally viable, gameplay-wise. Deus Ex: Invisible War (2003, Ion Storm Austin) improved upon the reactivity of the story and game world, but its levels were much smaller and simpler than those of its predecessor, as a result of designing the game around the technical limitations of consoles. Another point of contention was the streamlining and simplification of many of the RPG elements of the previous game. Both contributed to the game's poor reception. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011, Eidos Montreal) had streamlined the first game's formula, albeit still allowing for emergent gameplay (such as hacking an automatic turret and hauling it to the next boss arena). It also features several Deadly Shadows-like hub levels from which the main story missions can be accessed. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016, Eidos Montreal) improved upon the Human Revolution's immersive mechanics, particularly in its central hub level of the futuristic Prague, as well as added more options to tackle in-game challenges and affect different outcomes. |
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Pathologic (2005, Ice-Pick Lodge) is set in an unnamed steppe town ravaged by a mysterious epidemic, and the player steers one of three variously eccentric characters in an attempt to find a cure. Notably, the game runs in actual Real Time and always ends after 12 in-universe days, and it is entirely possible to miss the vast majority of the story events unless you know exactly when and where the next one will occur. Pathologic 2 (2019) is a Soft Reboot of the first game, and brings back the immersive design philosophies of its predecessor in a more polished package. |
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Dark Messiah (2006, Arkane Studios) was made as a spiritual successor to Arx Fatalis and has many of Arkane's signature touches: reactive environments which encourage the player to be a Combat Pragmatist, branching skill trees, and gleeful use of the Source physics engine. It was by far Arkane's most action-focused game until 2019's Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which puts it in a BioShock-esque limbo of being either a very reactive action game with RPG elements, or a mechanically minimalist immersive sim. | |
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The Thief series (1998-present) is universally considered one of the genre-codifying titlesnote For the first three installments, at least. This is due to its highly systems-based stealth gameplay, its organic problem-solving elements, and its sprawling, open-ended levels. However, all titles in the series deviate from traditional immersive sim conventions by restricting the player's ability to use violence with automatic Game Overs based on difficulty levelnote In the first two games, the "Hard" difficulty proscribed killing civilians while "Expert" mode forbade the player from killing any human beings at all. Deadly Shadows toned it down by forbidding killing only innocents, in "Expert" mode, during story missions — no restrictions whatsoever applied while traversing the hub world. But the reboot brought the restrictions back, with its hardest mode permitting the killing of guards ... but forbidding the player from even blackjacking civilians, a mainstay of the prior installments.. In traditional immersive sim design, a game should end with the player character's death, or with a Non-Standard Game Over that is very tightly woven into the narrative. While an immersive sim certainly could force nonviolent play, this would traditionally be done by just not giving the player any weapons (or by making combat prohibitively difficult), whereas Garrett always carries a sword/dagger and arrows, whose usage the rules inorganically restrict.note And while Garrett can't reliably beat even one sentry sword-to-sword on any difficulty level, he's no slouch when it comes to archery or ambushes. Thief: The Dark Project (1998, Looking Glass) is remembered primarily as one of the early success stories of the Stealth-Based Game, because of its heavy emphasis on avoiding detection,note which is why some view the series, justifiably or not, as a failed evolutionary branch of the immersive sims, but the sneaking itself was very much based in emergent problem-solving within a largely-unscripted game world (one particular innovation was the intricate simulation of light, shadows, and noise). It was also the first entry in the genre to ditch the "single interconnected world" model in favor of smaller sequential levels, each representing a location within a much larger (nameless) City. Thief II: The Metal Age (2000, Looking Glass) scaled down the fantasy elements of the first game, such as non-human monsters and maze-like dungeons, in favor of making the City behave more like a realistic urban environment. It also expanded the protagonist Garret's toolset with new technological tools. Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004, Ion Storm Austin) introduced a hub world consisting of several districts of the City, from which the plot missions' locations are accessed, and which contains some surprisingly involved sidequests of its own. The AI was also ramped up, with alerted guards becoming downright relentless hunting you. It also closed the last immersion-breaking gap of the previous games, transforming their inter-mission shopping screens into an in-universe interactions. Paradoxically, the hub-map was seen in some ways as a step away from immersion: the hardware limitations of the time, plus the game's cross-development for PC and consoles, forced the developers to break up the hub world and all levels with loading zones.note Modders have since then removed the loading zones from the dedicated "level" maps, but the hub itself remains broken up into separate loading areas. The 2014 reboot by Eidos Montreal, however, is generally not considered part of the genre anymore, for much the same reasons as BioShock Infinite: more linear level traversal with fewer opportunities for exploration; reliance on scripted events; reactive, rather than proactive AI; and a smaller, yet more specialized toolset for overcoming challenges. One change that is often cited to illustrate the difference between simulated and scripted worlds is that the rope arrows in the new Thief can only be attached to specific hotspots placed by the level designers, rather than to any wooden surface (including freely moveable wooden crates), like in the older games. |
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Arx Fatalis (2002, Arkane), intended as a Spiritual Successor to Ultima Underworld, is likewise set in a giant underground cavern populated by a simulated Fantasy Kitchen Sink of various creatures. The player character's task is to find a way to prevent the arrival of a God of Evil by manipulating the game systems to obtain a weapon strong enough to banish him. Notably, there is no dialogue system, and the player instead makes Story Branching choices, including different quest resolutions, exclusively through in-game actions. | |
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Thief: The Dark Project (1998, Looking Glass) is remembered primarily as one of the early success stories of the Stealth-Based Game, because of its heavy emphasis on avoiding detection,note which is why some view the series, justifiably or not, as a failed evolutionary branch of the immersive sims, but the sneaking itself was very much based in emergent problem-solving within a largely-unscripted game world (one particular innovation was the intricate simulation of light, shadows, and noise). It was also the first entry in the genre to ditch the "single interconnected world" model in favor of smaller sequential levels, each representing a location within a much larger (nameless) City. | |
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Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018, Rockstar Games) is filled with high levels of environmental detail and interaction, alongside many other hallmarks of this genre including realistic NPC behavior and consistent rules governing the player's many ways to engage with the world (don't bathe, and the characters will comment on it for just one example). However, it loses points in term of being part of this genre due to its extremely linear and strict mission design that forbids the player from looking for alternate routes. | |
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System Shock (1994, Looking Glass) is often listed as one of the two great Trope Codifiers of the genre (alongside Deus Ex), being Looking Glass' first original project. Its setting, the Citadel space station, is a single multi-layer zone controlled by the malevolent AI with a god complex and populated by robots, cyborgs, and mutants it controls. Among other things, System Shock introduced to the genre and popularized the After the End settings (often involving epidemics and/or societal collapse, thus justifying even the most extreme styles of play) with few speaking NPCs, and Apocalyptic Logs as the main storytelling medium. System Shock 2 (1999, Irrational) is set some time after the first game on two docked spaceships, the Von Braun and the Rickenbacker, after both have been overrun by a mutagenic alien hive mind known as "the Many". System Shock (2023, Nightdive Studios) is a remake of the original 1994 game. Remaking the game room-by-room, making it a very faithful recreation of the original game, but at the same time with better graphics and modern video game design principles. System Shock 3 (TBA, Tencent) is currently in development, initially under Warren Spector's OtherSide Entertainment, with him and Doug Church helming production; however, the rights to the game were sold on to Tencent in 2020, who have kept mum about it ever since. For his part, Spector has claimed that his involvement with the game ended with the sale, and that anything else is "up to [Tencent] to say what they want to say". |
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Cyberpunk 2077 (2020, CD Projekt RED) features some elements of an Immersive Sim, such as Unbroken First-Person Perspective, open-ended level design, lots of interactivity with the environment, diverse skills, and the ability to complete missions through non-linear means. It is, however, primarily an Action RPG with explicit setpieces and limited story branching. | |
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Prey (2017, Arkane) strongly resembles System Shock in that it is set on an abandoned Talos I space station overrun by the alien Typhon. The station is one continuous interconnected zone, inhabited by a variety of Typhon creatures and a handful of human survivors, including the player character Morgan Yu. Like Arx Fatalis before it, the player's in-game actions are entirely what determines the plot's branch-points. The Mooncrash DLC further experiments with the boundaries of the immersive sim genre by adding elements of Roguelike into the mix, like randomly generated settings, enemy placement, and objectives. | |
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Weird West (2022, WolfEye Studios), created by former Arkane employees is a top-down action RPG, with systems and a interactive and reactive world. Some don't consider it an Immersive Sim due its Isometric Projection. | |
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Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (2004, Troika Games) is a Western RPG that, despite its numerous explicit ludic abstractions (it was based on a Tabletop RPG system, after all), manages to create a powerful sense of real space with its Gothic, vampire-run Los Angeles, with huge levels and far-reaching choices. One level in particular, the Ocean House, is often cited as a hallmark of immersive space design. It is not universally accepted as a true immersive sim, though, because of the player character's relatively limited ability to interact with the world's physical elements despite having the famous Source Engine at its disposal and its often-clunky handling which can make the gameplay feel like it's governed more by dice rolls than by the player's input. | |
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