Immersive Sim

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The "immersive sim" is a video game genre^note 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" feel^note 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 Games^note which, unlike immersive sims, tend to deemphasize traditional gameplay challenges. Many games in it also contain nods to the number 0451^note often as the first password the player uses, in reference both to the original System Shock^note 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 years^note 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 universally-acknowledged "Immersive Sim Canon"

The "Immersive Sim Canon" is a loose agglomeration of genre-defining titles and series created by Looking Glass Studios and its direct descendants: Irrational Games, Ion Storm Austin, Arkane Studios (via Ion Storm), and OtherSide Entertainment. This is not to imply that these games are "better" than additional titles listed further below — just that when developers and critics discuss immersive sims, they tend to use one or some of these as reference points for describing the genre:

• 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.
• BioShock 1 (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 other canon entries it is by and large not considered a full Immersive Sim due to its levels being highly linear, having less ways to interact with the world, and heavily scripting, classifying it primarily as a first-person shooter with RPG elements instead. However it earns its place as the standard for ''Lite Sims". 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. Its considered even less of an immersive sim than its predecessor.
  • BioShock Infinite, on the other hand, is not considered part of the genre by anyone, 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).
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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".
• The Thief series (1998-present) is universally considered one of the genre-codifying titles^note 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 level^note 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.
• 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.
• 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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Other games featured on some Immersive Sim lists but not on others:

• Alien: Isolation (2014, Creative Assembly), while lower in player agency than most immersive sims^note the player cannot even jump, is often listed as one, mostly owing to its extremely sophisticated and systemic AI.
• Amnesia: The Bunker (2023, Frictional Games) is most likely the most fleshed out Survival Horror example. Unlike its purely hide-and-seek based predecessors everything is left in the players control (they even have a method of self defense now) and is driven by physics and consistent rules in an interconnected world where nothing has a single solution. Top that with an unbroken perspective with dynamic AI behaviors from the resident pursuer monster and you get the true Horror-Imm-Sim people have wanted since Alien: Isolation. The prior games feature immersive elements as well but far less mechanics and freedom.
• Bethesda Softworks RPGs are considered adjacent for their very open ended gameplay and reactive worlds to varying degrees. But they still have dice-roll mechanics and arbitrary level barriers that preclude full immersion.
  • The Elder Scrolls (1994-present, Bethesda Softworks) have been occasionally described as an immersive sim since Morrowind, but declined with Skyrim (despite receiving praise for is mobility in the open world). Most of 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. Skyrim in particular receives mockery by Imm-Sim fans for its unkillable "essential" NPCs and highly scripted quest design compared to prior installments.
  • 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. Though the Bethesda entries however (especially 4) do suffer from "essential syndrome" with many characters and quests.
    • The first two games in the series (Fallout 1 (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
• 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 sims^note 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.
• Cruelty Squad (2021, Consumer Softproducts) set in a disgusting Bio Punk world is arguably another deconstructive example with many common traits of the genre, such as open-ended levels, high-intentionality customization of the player character and lots of high consequence decision making around how they want to complete the open-ended objectives. Though it often seems Violence Is the Only Option; with the choice of stealth or mobility not wholly excising the rocket-tag combat for most, but with enough mastery of the fantastical player movement system it can often be bypassed. The infamously violent art direction and liberal application of moon-logic definitely aren't immersive by conventional standards, but in its own chaotic world is undoubtedly consistent.
  • Psycho Patrol R is a Non-Linear Sequel to the above.
• Crysis (2007, Crytek) and its 2009 stand-alone expansion Crysis: Warhead have much more in common with the First-Person Shooter^note 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 Perspective^note 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.
• 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.
• 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 1-esque limbo of being either a very reactive action game with RPG elements, or a mechanically minimalist immersive sim.
• The first The Darkness (2007, Starbreeze) game goes great lengths in making the player fill the shoes of its protagonist and the city they inhabit. A fully rendered body that is reflected in movement, as well a variety of enemy responses to attacks; especially the titular powers, which themselves are highly reactive to light sources in the environment that must be destroyed for effective use. The game also spotlights mundane aspects of criminal life like using subways and payphones to do various tasks inbetween missions. You can even watch a full movie on the TV with your in-game girlfriend. Though it is all clever smoke and mirrors with discreet scripting rather than actual persistency, and the game is far more interested in being an otherwise straightforward shooter. The sequel goes full on hyper-stylised arcade shooter however.
• Dead Rising (2006, Capcom) is known for having a highly interactive environment where almost any object not nailed down can be used as a weapon. Enemies are also highly reactive to a wide array of stimuli. The whole game is also on real time with a full day and night cycle. You can even kill any almost any named character causing the entire game to be unbeatable (though you can restart with your stats and skills intact). Thr game however is 3rd person as well as very arcadey at heart. Later entries (mainly 3 and especially 4) would greatly reduce immersive elements.
• 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. It even shares genre DNA as its development started as a sequel to System Shock 2. This classification is controversial, however — probably the most controversial on this list as combat is the only option 90% of time time, player movement is highly restrictive and levels have relatively simplistic layouts. None of its sequels are considered immersive sims by anyone.
  • However the remake of the original leans a bit further into this with an even more dynamic sandbox (especially with the gore system which has numerous new strategic effects, such as burning the muscle off of enemies to drastically slow their movement), environmental interactions and tweaks to the level design; even though it still is a predominantly linear setpiece driven experience.
• Epic Mickey (2009, Junction Point^note  and directed by Warren Spector/Disney Interactive) and its sequel Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (2012) apply simplistic immersive-sim design principles to a Banjo-Kazooie-esque third-person family platformer. Players can alter the world to accommodate different play styles by using paint and/or thinner from Mickey's magical paintbrush. Consequences for player choice tend to be immediate rather than long-term; certain main quests and side quests have mutually exclusive rewards depending on who the player chooses to help. The ending also changes depending on how certain bosses were fought, with a montage similar to Fallout's ending slides showing the fates of the supporting cast depending on whether (and how) certain side quests were completed.
• Escape from Butcher Bay (2004, Starbreeze) has an incredibly fleshed out and consistent portrayal of its titular prison from its guard behavior to its automated defenses, and sets a goal that the player feels every movement of its protagonist (often being described as a Third-Person Shooter from a first person perspective). Though most objectives are linear they often have more than one method of getting to them (albeit these paths do have deliberate (but camoflauged) design to them). It ultimately ends up being a Subverted Trope as these immersive elements are often used to diagetically hinder the player (such as security levels preventing players from picking up certain weapons).
• 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.
• Far Cry 2 (2008, Ubisoft) embraces immersive sim conventions like Unbroken First-Person Perspective, a Diegetic Interface-style in-game map, and an atmospheric, highly reactive environment^note 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 persistency^note 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 scripting^note 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" system^note Make a mess or leave too many witnesses during a hit, and the guards at the next level will be more suspicious of you.
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024, MachineGames) utilizes many elements of the genre, including sizable and self-contained hub worlds akin to Deus Ex, high interactivity and improvisation with a large amount of objects for combat, a highly atmospheric environment and a high degree of exploration and ability to interact with non-playable characters. However, its cinematic and linear narrative restricts some of the freedom provided to the gameplay, and the game also suffers from inconsistent artificial intelligence that hampers its encounters.
• 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, such as shrines, quests and other puzzles that require specific solutions.
  • Its sequel The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom would double down on this with the addition of a very robust crafting system used for all sorts of crazy solutions. Though ironically this deducts a point ot two due to the dialing back of immersive rules in favor of gamey player empowerment.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom would apply similar principals to the classic style of Zelda games. Closer to the latter than the former.
• Mercenaries (2004-2008, Pandemic/LucasArts) was far more systemic than most mainstream wide open sandboxes of the time, especially with its faction system that also affects the ending to an extent. On top of that a wide variety of different ordinance and vehicles for taking on objectives and fully destructible buildings. Though missions are still driven by specific fail states and pissing off the main faction will prevent progress (until you appease them with bribes or killing the main antagonists). The second game has two alternate main factions that can be appeased by attacking the other but the strict mission parameters still apply.
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015, Kojima Productions/Konami) is sometimes labeled as this because of its much higher focus on player freedom (at least in the open world segments) compared to previous entries in its franchise and its highly in-depth micromechanics. Though there are still many points where control is taken away for the story and setpieces that break rules normally upheld in free-roam.
• My Summer Car borders on parody with how absurdly oppressive its "real life" systems are. From the actual car mechanics being as obtuse as they are in real life, to almost any mundane thing being able to kill you from bees, to dropping equipment on your head, to (improbably quick) starvation, it eventually becomes clear the game is more of a troll/grief game than a genuine attempt at immersion.
• Neon Struct: Die Augen der Welt (2015, Minor Key Games) can be described as a minimalist, miniature, synthwave-styled tribute to Deus Ex with a much greater emphasis on stealth, and a shadow-based system reminiscent of Thief's^note The HUD has a Light Gem-like indicator of how visible you are..
• 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.
• The Occupation (2019, White Paper Games) brings the immersive sim to a slightly dystopian 1980s London, putting you in the shoes of an investigative journalist/whistleblower nosing around a governmental office building. Besides the usual dynamic AI, heavy exploration, and organic approaches to obstacles, The Occupation adds an unusual element: a hard, real-world four-hour time limit. If you start a game, get distracted, and forget to pause it, then the story ends with your character having dawdled smoking cigarettes on the balcony.
• The Outer Worlds is sometimes considered one by its fans for the same virtues as other Bethesda-style RPGs and goes a little further with its dedication to player choice. However environmental interaction and AI are highly limited and gameplay consequences for choices are inconsistent.
• 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.
• 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.
• Rain World is highly regarded for its highly dynamic ecosystem, minimalist interface, low hand holding and very open structure with simple tools that have various different functions, and several choices with notable consequences that lead to very emergent gameplay. It is a 2-D side-scroller however and has literal arbitrary XP gates in the form of "Karma".
• 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.
• Resident Evil 4 revolves around highly systemic enemy encounters. From the many different responses to damage, enemy behaviors, countless different weapon tactics, numerous interactive objects in arenas (like using ladders and doors to your advantage), and the many paths that can be taken in them despite their small sizes. The remake doubles down on all of this with actual stealth mechanics, wider moveset, and enhanced gore system and level scope. Though both are ultimately still very gamey and linear set piece driven experiences.
  • The first-person installments that start from 2017 combine 4's dynamic and systemic enemy encounters with the exploration of the older Survival Horror games, secrets and optional areas which require careful surveying of the environment, Alien: Isolation-style stalker A.I.s and (in the case of the first two) Unbroken First-Person Perspective. Village and Requiem double down on these elements, with the former incorporating features from 4 that hadn't been present in 7 such as sand traps, doors, barricades and destructible windows along with the incorporation of even more optional exploration and occasional physics puzzles, while the later features more complex AI systems with over 100 separately modeled zombie personalities that manifest different behaviors in the game, such as allowing them to dismember their own limbs by mistake with chainsaws or be distracted by noises, lights or throwable projectiles. However, similar to 4 they lose points due to their occasional enforcement of linearity and heavy scripting, with 8's DLC Shadow of Rose in particular abandoning many of these elements for a more set-piece driven experience.
• Shadows of Doubt is a procedurally generated detective game where every citizen has a detail social profile and schedule, and you have many ways of getting info from them and following leads.
• Skin Deep is a level-by-level immersive sim about clearing out hijacked space ships. It carries a distinct New Weird aesthetic, and has the notable feature of starting every level without gear due to the protagonist being hidden aboard the ship in cryosleep.
• 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.
• 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 weapons^note Plus the option to choose between several loadouts pre-mission. It also introduced nonlinear level design^note the bank heist in Panama City being a particularly good example, and gave players multiple ways to complete objectives^note 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 levels^note 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.
• 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.
• Streets of Rogue combines elements of immersive sims and action Roguelikes: it's advertised as "Nuclear Throne meets Deus Ex". On each level, the player is given a variety of tasks (including one character-specific Big Quest), which can be completed in any order and through a variety of ways. For example, a mission to neutralize a Mad Scientist could be completed by running in guns blazing, hiring people to go kill them, poisoning their lab's ventilation, hacking into their security system to free the Killer Gorilla they were experimenting on, hypnotizing them and sending them on a suicide mission, or simply convincing them to leave town. Failing a quest forfeits its rewards but doesn't prevent progress. However, it's a 2D game with a top-down perspective, unlike many immersive sims.
• 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 Reality^note 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.
• Ultros applies some of this to a psychedelic 2D Metroidvania with a gardening system that involves planting different crops wherever there is solid ground that have various different world altering effects when they grow leading to non-linearity and reactivity seldom seen in the platformer subgenre.
• 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.
• The Watch_Dogs series (2014-present, Ubisoft) is sometimes described as such due to its hacking systems that affect the world, vehicles, and characters alongside mostly open-ended kitchen sink design. The sequels go further with each one, especially with the third game in which any NPC can be a playable character. Though they are all still subject to Ubisoft's notorious gamey content distribution and fairly lax take on consequences, on top of being third-person.
• We Happy Few (2018, Compulsion Games) had set out to be an immersive sim in the vein of BioShock 1, albeit with a greater focus on survival and procedurally generated elements.
• Weird West (2022) (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.
• We Harvest Shadows is about exploring and managing a farmstead in the isolated countryside and facing one's inner demons along the way.

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