What's so good about immersive sims?

Man’s just released a video where he was hyped for Redfall being a good immersive sim, I’m sorry for your losss brother 😂

I wish Immsersive Sims actually sold well enough to justify making more. Easily some of my favorite style of games. Also how is Prey being considered an immersive sim a controversial take? That game is widely cited as one of the best and was clearly built as one.

The original thief series is definitely an immersive sim. Sure you might not talk to npc, but you definitely influnce the environment. You have ropes, moss, hidden levers, dialogue hints. Also id say dishonored is way more open ended level design than you give it credit for. If you really think the dishonored is linear, thats on YOU. If you play dishonored with a different skillset you would approach levels differently. Dishonored is way more open ended with its environmental traversal. You change, not the environment. You dont need boxes to move when you teleport, turn into a rat. If anything the final decisions you make that are yes/no is the linear thing.

Poor guy was excited for redfall :(

You should look into the first 3 immersive sims which Warren Spector worked on before making Deus Ex. The very first Immersive Sim is Ultima Underworld, the 2nd which has influenced many Immersive Sims is System Shock and the 3rd which also was a pioneer in 3D stealth is Thief.

I really appreciate the passion you put into these videos discussing the interesting design philosophy of immersive simulations I would also like to point out that the coining the term Immersive Sim is attributed to Doug Church who was one of the most influential people in shaping the idea of immersive simulations as well as the importance of emergent gameplay. He was the lead designer of the original System Shock, a game that Warren Spector was involved with its development as well. He also was one of the key figures in the original Thief project and it seems that he was directly influential to the design ideas that were later on adopted by Harvey Smith (lead designer on Deus Ex) and Ken Levine (creative lead on Bioshock). Interesting to note for me personally is the fact that all these people were former members at the two branches of Looking Glass studios along with many others and prior to that many of these people including Spector himself worked at Origin Systems (where for instance, Raphaël Colantonio, the founder of Arkane Studios collaborated with as a fan according to wikipedia)

I love immersive sims. I disagree with a lot of your thoughts. Immersive sims don’t have to be first person. Weird West is marketed as an immersive sim, and I would argue that zomboid is at least to an extent one as well. I also disagree with thoughts on dishonored, as in 2 you can overhear convos opening up new options, bribe people, break down doors, etc

0:25 This aged.

The Thief games and Arx fatalis are my favorite games ever for this reason they really do feel different to other games and give so much freedom to the player.

It's my favorite genra because I can replay an immsim over and over in different ways with different choices, and they are short and linear with satisfying gameplay.

Redfall... the game actually has immersive sim elements... Well, maybe 'elements' is a bit too generous, they're more like crumbs. I remember a house in Redfall full of tripwires where you'd have to navigate your way through to a certain room and find a book there. There was an achievement for doing it flawlessly without triggering any mines. Thing is, I unlocked that achievement the first time without even knowing there were tripwires. Because while outside, I had noticed there was an open window on the second floor so i tossed my teleporting device in there. When I realised what had happened I got a big grin on my face while thinking 'This. This right here is why I play immersive sims.' Then I proceeded through the game without finding a similar instance in the anywhere in the rest of the game... I guess talking about improvements to Redfall is quite meaningless at this point, but a good start would've been to delete all the game's characters except one and then letting that single character use all the game's abilities...

Cyberpunk 2077, and Hitman are phenomenal.

I would argue the Dishonored games are actually closer to the original Deus Ex than the Deus Ex sequels. The first DX had huge open ended areas with multiple different buildings, all with their own networks of vents and doors to hack. I feel like in recent DX games, most if not all missions take place in very confined areas like compounds, alleyways, apartments etc. Dishonored brings back that open ended playground. And while you're right that there's not a lot of "box stacking" in Dishonored, it makes up for it with the powers, specially Blink. When you get that perfect angle and perfect pixel to make an unintended teleport in Dishnored, it gives me the same feeling as making a a stair with the gloo gun or stacking boxes in Deus Ex. Well, now that I think about it, you probably don't count Dishonored as an Immersive Sim because you didn't play (or just didn't mention) the other big "founder" of the Immersive Sim design philosophy, Thief. Deus Ex isn't the right comparison because these games kinda follow their own family tree. Like, System Shock 2 -> Prey, Thief -> Dishonored, Deux Ex..... -> Adam Jensen Deus Ex. I would also argue that Immersive Sim isn't exactly a "genre" but a design philosophy. And I think that late in your video you come very close to crossing the border between systemic and mechanic agency and role playing. An Immersive Sim can be an RPG (like in the recent Deus Ex game) but not all RPGs are immersive sims just because you can make choices and kill npcs. But at the same time, I would say the design philosophy isn't "trapped" in the first person perspective, I perosnally definitely consider the recent Hitman trilogy immersive sims.

I wonder if the Gloo gun in Prey is inspired by mine climbing from Deus Ex? Either way the Gloo gun is genius multipurpose design.

Bad news bout redfall.

Fuck do I love sneaking through vents.

Man I love this channel and your voice. Even though I’m not a native English speaker, I can clearly understand every word you’re saying. Have you ever been a radio host before? I really enjoy playing immersive sims too. Your videos are amazing—well-organized and clear. Keep up the great work, and I believe you’ll achieve great success! ❤️❤️

Life is an immersive sim. Great graphics but too much bad writing and boring gameplay tbh.

Apparently nothing since they all died

Dishorned is an immersive sim for sure tho