The history of the best Immersive Sims [PCGAMER TRANSLATION]

NOTE: The material is dated July 7th last year, but I came across it only recently, when I became very interested in games of the genre. There are also spoilers. Happy reading. The original material is HERE.

Immersive sim (literally “Immersion Simulator”) – one of the most privileged genres of PC gaming. Only about twenty games have been developed in its history, but at least a quarter of them are included in the lists of the best ever made.

And it’s not surprising. Immersive sims are inherently complex and ambitious creations. Games like these combine elements from first-person shooters, role-playing games, platformers and stealth action into one seamless experience. Each project places emphasis on different components, but there are certain criteria by which you can recognize an immersive sim. Immersive sims always have a first-person view. They prioritize engaging environment design, and they encourage a DIY approach, providing the player with plenty of tools to achieve expansive goals.

This month, I explored the history of the genre through ten of its brightest and best, through the games that embodied, evolved, and subverted its rules. The list includes some of the most celebrated PC games, as well as some flawed but exciting experiments.

1992: Ultima Underworld

Created by Paul Nuraf, who later co-founded Looking Glass Studios, Ultima Underworld was inspired by the Atari ST first-person role-playing game Dungeon Master. However, instead of developing another RPG, Nyuraf wanted to reproduce the feeling that arises when exploring a treacherous underground labyrinth.

Even by today’s standards, Underworld is an incredibly ambitious game, featuring a full 3D open world where any quest can be completed at any time. The real-time combat system includes both melee and ranged combat, as well as a full-fledged magic system in the form of dozens of spells, access to which can only be obtained by experimenting with rune combinations. You’ll also have to eat and sleep to function, which predates the survival genre by two decades.

Best feature: Your in-game map only fills up when you turn on lights in new locations, adding to the feeling of being in a dark dungeon.

1999: System Shock 2

System Shock was Looking Glass Studios’ first original title, developed from the ideas of Ultima Underworld, transposed into a sci-fi cyberpunk setting. This is a great game. But the sequel, produced by Looking Glass in collaboration with Irrational Games, the studio of Ken Levine, took it to a whole other level.

Two features elevate System Shock 2 above its predecessor. The first one is the atmosphere. The besieged spaceship Von Braun is perhaps the scariest location in gaming in general. Along its corridors, flooded with the blue light of neon lamps, a motley cast of former team members prowl, staggering, heart-rendingly screaming: “I’m so sorry,” trying to break your head in, while electronics, corroding the remains of resolve, play in the background.

The second feature is how the game twists the fundamental concepts of an immersive sim. System Shock 2 takes the core idea of ​​freedom to choose your own playstyle and exploration and turns it upside down. Choosing one of three classes (military, engineer or psionicist) gives the player as much a path to domination over opponents and the environment as a rope, a stool and soap. Whatever branch of development you choose, System Shock 2 will always find a way to punish you. Few games can provide so many options to players while maintaining a sense of vulnerability.

The story complements this feeling of helplessness by forcing you to team up with a much stronger enemy who has absolute contempt for your existence – the all-powerful SHODAN. Levine would return to these ideas again later in Bioshock, but the more subtle approach makes System Shock 2 not only Looking Glass’s best work, but also Irrational Games’ best work.

Best opponent: SHODAN, who else?? Brilliantly written by Ken Levine and superbly acted by Terry Brosius, the megalomaniacal AI remains one of the greatest villains in video game history.

2000: Thief II

The original Thief was a breakthrough concept with glimpses of a stunning vision, but the overemphasis on the living dead and confusing level design let the game down. However, the sequel has become a classic etched in stone. Thief II expands upon the ideas of its predecessor. The game offers a more coherent story, told through a series of beautifully put together missions that may well lay claim to being the most coherent single player campaign ported into code.

Thief is famous for being an immersive sim, twisted around a certain idea, providing the player with the freedom to choose the passage, but at the same time keeping it within certain limits. The stealth focus also encourages players to pay attention to their surroundings, memorize security patrol routes, hide in the shadows, and figure out ways to infiltrate a building.

Best level: "Evening of the Cabal" – the mission that had everyone (perhaps wrongly) eager to see Thief in the open world. The mission where Garrett infiltrates Angel Tower is a masterpiece of 3D level design.

2000: Deus Ex

If System Shock 2 turned the immersive sim concept on its head, and Thief brought it to perfection, then Deus Ex was its culmination. A game that the genre has been slowly nurturing for ten years. It is as crazy and grandiose as those conspiracies that flooded the world of the game in the near and dark future. The only difference is that Deus Ex manages to bring its concept to life.

At the time of its release, Deus Ex gave the player the widest palette of choices to choose from, mixing it with the augmentation system to create a truly amazing lineup of options. Do you want to be a nano-ninja, able to see through walls and become invisible?? No problem. Do you want to be a cyber-Superman, capable of lifting heavy boxes with one left hand and running at the speed of a gazelle?. Yes without "B"! Do you want to learn *******[amazing] swimming?? OK.

However, Deus Ex goes further than www.theviccasino.uk the games that preceded it, it allows the player not only to contact this world, but also to influence it. Deus Ex was the first title in the genre in which dialogue choices had a direct impact on the story, leading to the death of important characters and influencing the fate of certain factions. These decisions were not simple choices between good and evil, they had shades of gray and put pressure on the player, and the consequences of the decision could come back to haunt several hours of play. In fact, Deus Ex had three endings, all of which had huge and not always rosy consequences for the fate of JC Denton and the world he was trying to save.

Best moment: Escape from UNATCO. This is a fantastic segment of the game in which a familiar, friendly environment turns into a dangerous and hostile one, where you have to sort things out with friends and colleagues who reacted differently to your betrayal.

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Morrowind may be a favorite in the Elder Scrolls series, but it wasn’t until Oblivion that Bethesda’s games moved away from stats, dice rolls, and other RPG elements towards immersive sims. The developers got rid of classes, allowing players to customize their characters using various skills. Melee combat has become more realistic, and the advent of the Havoc physics engine has added more tactility when using magic or archery.

Oblivion completely embodies the Elder Scrolls ethos of “go wherever you want, do whatever you want”, trying to squeeze in as much variability as possible, which ultimately led to problems. The world design was less consistent than Morrowind and Skyrim, and the brilliant AI couldn’t handle what the developers wanted it to do. However, Oblivion had significant advantages, including the best quests of the entire existence of The Elder Scrolls.

Best quest: Who Done It (Detective) is a Dark Brotherhood quest in which you have to kill five guests at a party, and is the perfect example of Obliviion’s affinity for the immersive sim genre. You can simply litter the whole house with corpses, just as you can outwit your targets by forcing them to kill each other or forcing them to disperse away from the main crowd of people.

2004: Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Bloodlines could have been the best immersie sim in history if its developers had been given more time and money to finish it. However, it remains an excellent example of the genre, which makes up for its clunkily executed elements with a remarkable variety of playstyles. You can take on the role of a brutal vampire, ala the heroes of the series "True Blood", and use the powers of persuasion or seduction, or you can transform into a grotesque Nosferatu, who is forbidden to appear in public, which is why he has to move through the Los Angeles sewers and become invisible in order to protect the secrets of vampire society.

This is probably the most distinctive game on this list, combining vampire themes with gothic horror, flashes of violence and dark comedy, boasting an excellent script and one of the best dialogue systems in gaming ever.

The combat may be terrible, and the game still has some bugs that need to be fixed by amateur fans, but Bloodlines remains an exciting, if not flawed, gem.

Best class: Malkavian vampires are insane from the very beginning of the story – if you choose one of them, their dialogue choices will be completely different from any other class – another example of the delicious scope of Bloodlines.

2006: Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

Dark Messiah isn’t the smartest game on the list, but it makes up for it by being a ton of fun. While it’s vaguely an RPG, Dark Messiah is a swashbuckler simulator at heart. The levels in it are built as if they were a set for filming a movie with Eroll Flynn (a Hollywood star famous for his roles as noble robbers and pirates), filled with objects that can be used in battle. Enemies can be pushed off ledges, down ladders, and pushed straight into walls with carefully placed pikes. Heavy objects are often suspended from frayed ropes above battle arenas, and fragile bridges can be destroyed when enemies cross them.

With fluid animations and a sense of timing, Dark Messiah proves to be one of the best sword fighting games. Few things are as satisfying as beheading local orcs. The only exception would be throwing a barrel into a crowd of creatures gathered on the stairs and then descending them down the flight of stairs after.

Best ability: The Ice Spell is an inexhaustible source of slapstick comedy, ala Charlie Chaplin films. It freezes not only enemies, but also areas of the ground. Those unfortunate enough to step onto the newly formed surface will fall and count their bones, or fall off the cliff if the spell is used in the right place.

2007: Bioshock

Few games have taken the idea of ​​an immersive sim as literally as Bioshock, which takes place under the ocean. Irrational Games’ goal in developing Bioshock was to believably portray Rapture, a city where the cream of the American intelligentsia went against the grain and lived in a blissful utopia. It’s no surprise that Rapture is what Bioshock is remembered for. The underwater city is a marvelous place with living architecture falling apart under the weight of the sea.

However, Irrational’s most famous work remains true to the ideas of its spiritual predecessor. Plasmids, reminiscent of the psionic abilities from System Shock, are able to influence the environment, install turrets and cameras against splicers, or pit Big Daddy against them before he turns his attention to you in a fit of anger.

Bioshock popularized immersive sims, bringing them closer to first-person shooters, but if you’re willing to ditch the guns, the game still provides impressive moments of immersion. Bioshock 2 was undoubtedly better in terms of tools for experimentation in combat.

Best level: Fort Jolly is without a doubt the best episode of Bioshock. Mad director Sander Cohen adds humor to the game’s absurdist horror tones. It features some of the most memorable locations in the game. Fort Jolly was largely designed by Jordan Thomas, the man responsible for Thief 3’s Shalebridge Cradle, in which Garrett made his way through a creepy mental hospital.

2010: Stalker: Call of Pripyat

The Stalker series has always been the ultimate goal of an immersive sim – cohesive and believable environments, artificial intelligence that doesn’t adapt to the player, and complex interactions that result in an unscripted and unpredictable world.
None of the games in the series reached the bar set by Shadow of Chernobyl, but Call of Pripyat came closest. It concentrates locations from previous games into three large zones, where factions of stalkers, bandits, scientists and other armed people hunt local wildlife, look for valuable Artifacts and fight for territory. When the wind is howling and the rain is falling and you’re being hunted by an invisible mutant, few games can be as exciting as Call of Pripyat.

Best feature: Pripyat is under constant threat of eruption. Furious energy tears apart the Zone, creates new artifacts, kills NPCs and spawns zombie stalkers.

2012: Dishonored

In recent years, there has been a tendency to revive high-quality immersive sims. In 2011, Deus Ex: Human Revolution proved that it was possible to make a sequel that could rival Warren Spector’s masterpiece. Then came Dishonored in 2012, a game openly inspired by the work of Ion Storm and Looking Glass. Arkane’s previous games (Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah) showed glimpses of similar talent, and they’ve finally come together in this magical assassin simulator.

Dishonored took the level design of Thief, the open-ended gameplay of Deus Ex, and weaved them together brilliantly. Most of the levels are based on the "Conspirator’s Evening" principle from Thief II – a small section of the city that surrounds the central area where the quest takes place. Particular highlights include the Golden Cat, a wealthy brothel whose spiraling status is offset by an intricate assassination mission, and Lady Boyle’s mansion – a masquerade ball held there that allows the player to hide in plain sight.

Dishonored also offers the most inventive arsenal of its kind, mixing mechanical gadgets and pagan magic. You can possess enemies and freeze time to manipulate your opponents and remain invisible, or arm yourself with a couple of Springrazers and a horde of rats if you prefer a more sociopathic approach. Dishonored even allows you to complete it without killing yourself, although many of your victims will choose to be killed due to more brutal alternatives.

Best ability: While it’s the least exciting ability in Corvo’s arsenal, Blink is a complete game changer. This short-range teleport ability affects movement, platforming, combat, and stealth, allowing you to dash between rooftops, instantly find yourself in cover if spotted by a guard, and dodge a pistol bullet and spear your opponent in return.

INSPIRED INDIE GAMES

Curious attempts to cope with the formidable immersive sim genre from indie developers.

Consortium is a fast-paced detective story set aboard a giant military aircraft. While the game lacks polish, it is a very interesting approach to the format, minimizing combat and instead focusing on dialogue and player decisions. The most impressive thing is that you can skip the central investigation and still complete the game. The sequel, which plans to expand on the original concept, was funded by players.

Neon Struct

A collage of immersive sim ideas, Neon Struck is a pure stealth action game where you fight against a totalitarian police state, break into sensitive objects, sneak past security patrols and are in constant suspense. You can knock out guards, but you can’t kill them. The game simplifies the ideas of its big brothers, but remains intriguing until the very end, not least thanks to the fantastic level design.

The Magic Circle

A satirical look at popular game development. The Magic Circle lets you try on the skin of a game tester who is up in arms about a problematic project. You team up with intelligent AI and start reprogramming the mobs and giving them more powers to take down the game’s main producer. An intriguing system of dynamic artificial intelligence turns The Magic Circle into more than just an industry message.

INSPIRED GAMES

Games that are not immersive sims, but use their features. Here are some examples.

Hitman: Blood Money

The best game in the Hitman series from IO Interactive respects all the hallmarks of the genre, but with a third-person view. The level design encourages exploration and experimentation – you can quietly strangle your targets with string, use clever killing methods to make your elimination look like an accident, or cause a bloodbath with the biggest gun you can find in the level.

Alien: Isolation

Isolation doesn’t exactly follow the rules of true immersive sims, but immersion is a crucial factor in making the game work. It combines a realistic environment, convincing xenomorph AI that builds tension and fear of being in the same closed space as this creature, and an arsenal that allows you to fight back the chitinous nemesis.

The Far Cry series has always remained a shooter at heart, but its emphasis was on an independent approach to completing. Far Cry 2 was the main innovation in the franchise, but the third game masterfully honed the form with the correct placement of checkpoints and dozens of small sandboxes to play with. Far Cry 3 also introduced dangerous predators, a full-fledged food chain and a wide range of toys, from a compound bow to a wingsuit.