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An immersive sim (simulation) is a video game genre that emphasizes player choice. Its core defining trait is the use of simulated systems that respond to a variety of player actions which combined with a comparatively broad array of player abilities allow the game to support varied and creative solutions to problems as well as emergent gameplay beyond what has been explicitly designed by the developer. This definition is not to be confused with game systems which allow player choice in a confined sense or systems which allow players to easily escape consequences of their choices.
Immersive sims by definition allow for multiple approaches and typically incorporate elements of multiple genres including role-playing games, Stealth games, first-person shooters, , survival horror and . Although they typically have smaller worlds than open world games, they also generally allow for open-ended gameplay, allowing the player to progress in any order and pursue side missions alongside any main story missions. Immersive sims are generally compared to games developed by Looking Glass Studios. The first such game generally considered an immersive sim is , and other early examples include and Thief II, System Shock and System Shock 2, as well as the first Deus Ex.
The term "immersive sim" emerged in the 2000s and began to be used regularly in the second half of the 2010s, often applied retroactively to the earlier entries in the genre. It may also be used to describe the set of game design principles behind the immersive sim genre, which uses interacting, reactive and consistent game systems to create emergent gameplay and a sense of player agency.
Warren Spector, part of Looking Glass Studios, said that immersive sims create the feeling that "you are there, nothing stands between you and belief that you're in an alternate world". Many of the key developers of immersive sims compare them to tabletop Dungeons & Dragons games hosted by a good gamemaster, or to live action role-playing games, in that there are a set of rule systems to keep it a game, but the game will react to the players' actions rather than force the player to conform to a specific action. Spector is credited with the term "immersive sim" in a post-mortem he wrote on the development of Deus Ex in 2000, although Spector himself attributes it to his Looking Glass colleague Doug Church instead.
Mark Brown of the YouTube series Game Maker's Toolkit identified that a key differentiating feature of immersive sims is that they do not readily use scripted or fixed events. Instead, they use a consistent series of rules and systems throughout the game. These consistent systems then can be exploited by the player to complete objectives in unique and unpredictable ways, with the game reacting to the player's decisions. Brown uses the example of being able to fire rope arrows (to climb on) at any wooden surface in the original (1998), while the 2014 Thief game limited what locations these could be used, removing the immersive sim elements. Rick Lane of PC Gamer noted that while earlier games in The Elder Scrolls series were not immersive sims, (2006) transitioned the series to an immersive sim.
(1992) is considered the first game to demonstrate the necessary elements of an immersive sim according to Spector and others. It built upon Ultima VIs gameplay and added in the first-person perspective, predating Wolfenstein 3D, the game that first popularized first-person shooters, by a few months. The first-person view helped to cement the impression that the player was part of the game's world that they had full control of, and completing the impression of immersion. Spector recalled that he had thought to himself "Do you not realize that the entire world just changed?" on seeing the initial demo for Ultima Underworld. Other early examples include System Shock (1994) and its sequel System Shock 2 (1999), Thief: The Dark Project (1998) and its sequel Thief II (2000), Deus Ex (2000), and Arx Fatalis (2002). However, at the same time, more action-oriented games with strong narrative elements that followed from Wolfenstein 3D, like Doom (1993) and Half-Life (1998), drew larger commercial sales, making it difficult to gain publisher interest.
In the late 2000s, several games emerged that revitalized interest in the immersive sim, including (2006), BioShock (2007), (2007) and Fallout 3 (2008). Spurred from these successful titles, there have been new titles in the Deus Ex series ( (2011), (2016)), the Underworld series ( Underworld Ascendant (2018)). The genre's popularity continued with major releases from Arkane Studios ( Dishonored (2012), Prey (2017) and Deathloop (2021)). White Paper Games' The Occupation (2019) and WolfEye Studios' Weird West (2022), were developed acknowledging the design principles of immersive sims. Other titles in this period, such as the Hitman series, and (2017) and its sequel (2023), while not necessarily considered immersive sims, have been said to possess elements of the genre, given their "sufficiently advanced physics engine/systems that interact with both player verbs and mechanics and level design" and emphasis on player freedom and emergent gameplay.
Jody Macgregor of PC Gamer noted that there are other factors contributing towards lower sales – including other competing games and changes in a sequel's marketing and approach. He also states that immersive sims require more commitment from the player to invest and learn the game's complex interacting systems in contrast to other types of games built around simpler mechanics thus making immersive sims harder to sell. Jordan Thomas, a developer on Thief and the BioShock games also said in 2017 that immersive sims are very difficult to be built by groups other than large teams due to the complexity of such games – making contributions from indie games unlikely. Polygon Cass Marshall identified that some indie developers were able to create successive immersive sims by single-person or small teams, including Shadows of Doubt, Corpus Edax and Ctrl Alt Ego.
Arkane's Harvey Smith believed that while the sales trends for immersive sims in the 2010s were disappointing, there will always be a market for them but there will be a need to balance the cost of development to lower sales numbers. Smith attributes the lower sales of more recent games to the general trend of players favoring fast-paced action games with strong multiplayer components – with publishers being wary of games without such elements. Immersive sims by nature tend to be single-player experiences requiring thought-out approaches but Smith believes that the new titles will adapt to these player preferences in the future, particularly from indie developers.
Separately, Raphaël Colantonio had been part of the quality assurance team supporting Origin Systems for Electronic Arts (EA) in publishing games like System Shock in Europe. Colantonio left EA and eventually founded Arkane Studios, desiring to make an immersive sim sequel to the Ultima Underworld series. EA denied them the use of the intellectual property and instead Arkane produced Arx Fatalis. Later, Colantonio brought on Harvey Smith (a quality assurance tester for Origin for System Shock and one of the lead developers under Ion Storm for Deus Ex) and they subsequently designed the Dishonored series as well as building the new Prey atop similar immersive sim fundamentals. More recently, Neurath founded a new studio, OtherSide Entertainment obtaining the rights for an Underworld sequel from EA and for the System Shock property through Night Dive Studios whom also had acquired the rights from EA. Neurath brought on Spector to help create both sequels.
Many immersive sims that feature numeric passwords (such as BioShock, Prey, and Deathloop) use 451 or 0451 as part of the first code that the player encounters. This is in reference to System Shock games, which use it as part of the first door codes seen in the game; it is sometimes believed to be a reference to the Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451, though Spector stated in 2019 that this was not the case and that the code was used simply because it was the security code for the door of Looking Glass' studios in Cambridge. However, former Looking Glass programmer Marc LeBlanc said in 2023 that the code had originally been a Bradbury reference and that the studio's door code was set in reference to the game. Since then, the number's recurrence in immersive sims and various other games (such as , Firewatch, and The Last of Us Part II) has been described former Looking Glass developer Tim Stellmach as "kind of a signature that developers use to align themselves with Looking Glass". The name of Looking Glass is also played upon by developers of immersive sims to reflect on the importance of the seminal studio to the genre; for example, OtherSide Entertainment's name (playing on the title of Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass) and Prey having the Looking Glass computer system that the player encounters frequently.
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