Non-RPG General News - Immersive Sims

PC Gamer brought some famous game designers together and they discuss complex PC games - so called immersive sims:

The designers of Dishonored, Bioshock 2 and Deus Ex swap stories about making PC's most complex games

We brought together an all-star cast of designers to chat about the past, present, and future of immersive sims. Read, or listen along!

Deus Ex. System Shock 2. Dishonored. Some of the PC's most celebrated games belong to a genre called the immersive sim, which emphasizes creating a complex world with tons of player freedom. They're some of our favorite games to talk about, and at the 2017 Game Developer's Conference we were lucky enough to do just that. We put together a roundtable of familiar faces, all of whom have had a major hand in exploring or creating immersive sims.

Our guests: Warren Spector (Otherside Entertainment), Harvey Smith and Ricardo Bare (Arkane Studios), Tom Francis (Suspicious Developments) and Steve Gaynor (Fullbright).

You can listen to the hour-long audio version of this discussion here or grab it from our podcast feed. Consider putting it on while you play Deus Ex (currently for sale for $3 on GOG) and pretend it's a brand new audio log. Or, if you want the good old fashioned text version, read on. […]

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I've never looked upon those games as "immersive sims" e.g. System Shock, Deus Ex, Dishonored, Bioshock, the new Prey reboot etc. Almost every game is a simulation of some sort. Is it immersive? Well that depends on many factors. They probably think if it's played from a first-person perspective that makes it more immersive, and I tend to agree but that's not always the case. For example I've found Heroes III can be immersive too. Or Cesar III. Music, atmosphere and the overall tone each contribute towards immersion. And they are all simulations.

Maybe just call them FPS with a story? (and with some modest RPG elements). It's an interesting article in any case.

Yes, "immersive sim" is a really stupid moniker.

Another thing that's stupid imho, is how they're referred to as PC's most complex games in the article. I don't think that's fair or even correct.

Originally Posted by luj1
Another thing that's stupid imho, is how they're referred to as PC's most complex games in the article. I don't think that's fair or even correct.

Yeah, I laughed when I read that. Haven't played Dishonored (not interested), but the idea that someone would call Deus Ex or, even moreso, Bioshock 2, the PC's "most complex games" is hilarious. The Bioshock sequels were practically straight-up console corridor shooters, just with a "slightly more interesting than usual" story, and a unique setting.

Hate me if you like, but the most "immersive sim" I've played recently is the new Zelda.
Very little hand holding, many "oh snap!"-moments, and lots of improvisation.

If you have the chance to try it out, I strongly encourage to do so.

For the record: all of the aforementioned games look like reactive by brute force game design: there are 3-5 possible walkthru paths, each one is carefully pre-designed. All you have to do is to choose one, and play by the chosen rules.
Not really a reactive, complex, sim-like experience, if you ask me.
Complex to design - but not really complex to play.

I do not understand what immersive sim is nor what it's supposed to be.
Nor I care - such thing doesn't exist outside of gaming journalists' heads who think they're poets or new Shakespeares.