In particular, it’s Life of the Party level has become a legendary example of immersive-sim mission design, although other highlights include Framed! Eavesdropping, and First City Bank and Trust. Of the three original Thief games, Thief II offers the most comprehensive burglary experience, with the best collection of levels and the most refined sneaking. Thief’s light and audio propagation systems, as well as its definitive AI work, were hugely influential on both stealth games and other immersive sims, most notably Deus Ex and Dishonored. Nonetheless, they are designed with the systems-driven focus that define immersive sims. Since they’re strictly stealth games, the Thief series doesn’t offer the same breadth of play options compared to most of the other games on this list. I considered leaving them off list, however. Twenty years on, they remain some of the most well-written, atmospheric and terrifying games in existence, while their 3D level blows me away every time I return. But I have added a couple of more debatable examples that are simply too excellent to ignore.Ĭombined, the Thief trilogy is probably my favourite series of games. and even Breath of the Wild.įor this list, I’ve decided to keep the definitions relatively strict, so you’ll see plenty of classics on here. You could probably make the case that Skyrim is an immersive sim, as well as games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Over the last 10 to 15 years, games from all manner of other genres have adopted the ideas spearheaded by Looking Glass and Ion Storm, bringing elements like skill-trees, stealth dynamic AI, choice-based play, and life simulation into first-person shooters and open-world games. Many of my favourite games are immersive sims, but compiling this list was an interesting challenge, as it’s becoming increasingly difficult to define what “counts” as an immersive sim. The concept was largely pioneered by Looking Glass Studios through games like System Shock and Thief, reaching its early zenith with Ion Storm’s Deus Ex. Beginning with 1992’s Ultima Underworld, immersive sims started out as a particular branch of RPG that focus on creative problem solving through taking advantage of dynamic systems rather than, say, character stats. 'Immersive sim' is a terrible name for a collection of some the most critically acclaimed PC games.
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