What is an immersive sim, to you?

I don't get this genre label either. What games does it even cover? Just anything vaguely similar to Deus Ex?
 
Alleged+snail_22989c_9889134.jpg
 
A staple of immersive sims feel like they have relatively open levels. They are not open world and are not designed to be either, they are not sandbox games.

Another staple of immersive sims is at the very least 'trying' to offer you multiple ways of accomplishing a task. Some are obviously better than others.

Then we have the fact that they aren't really RPG's. They might have RPG mechanics in them but you can have an immersive sim that doesn't have them too. In an immersive sim you are typically a defined character to some degree. You are JCDenton, it is not up to you to come up with a character of your own but it is IS up to you to define WHO he is.

I also feel like immersive sims don't really lean too heavily for the most part on a specific solution. What I mean by that is that in a combat oriented game the game will lean on that core aspect very heavily and ramp up the pace as you go along. But in an immersive sim it's more segmented. There are parts of different genres and sometimes you're forced into them and sometimes you can circumvent them all together but it isn't trying to lean too heavily into being about a very specific thing.
 

Is it your pic?
Dex and Fortune's Run never appeared on my radar, any good?

For me an immersive sim is a design philisophy, not a single genre.

They often mix a few genres, but you can clearly define a core genre for each game (for example Thief is at it's core a stealth game, even if it allows you to murder everybody on the map in an open sword combat).

And what is that design philosophy?

The games consist of very open and non-linear levels, but have very simple objectives like taking an item, eliminating/ rescuing an NPC or destroying objects.

They offer the player a very robust set of tools and a few designed ways to use them, but the tools can also be used in a way that was not foreseen by devs (like stacking an absurd amount of boxes to climb somewhere very high when they clearly expected you to use rope arrow/ magic/ fight through security/ sneak to the elevator).

 
Is it your pic?
Dex and Fortune's Run never appeared on my radar, any good?
Not my pic, just a meme image I got off of funnyjunk.
Fortunes Run is still in Early Access so I'm not going to bother with it until it gets a full release so it's wishlisted but off my radar.
Dex I played and finished and remember quite enjoying but I've been burning through so many games on my backlog that I hardly remember anything about it. My brain's fried...
 
Why is Vampire Bloodlines an immersive sim but Fallout 3/NV/4/76 or Elder Scrolls 3/4/5 isn't?

If Theif is an immersive sim, what about other stealth games like the Styx games for instance?
 
A staple of immersive sims feel like they have relatively open levels. They are not open world and are not designed to be either, they are not sandbox games.

Another staple of immersive sims is at the very least 'trying' to offer you multiple ways of accomplishing a task. Some are obviously better than others.

Then we have the fact that they aren't really RPG's. They might have RPG mechanics in them but you can have an immersive sim that doesn't have them too. In an immersive sim you are typically a defined character to some degree. You are JCDenton, it is not up to you to come up with a character of your own but it is IS up to you to define WHO he is.

I also feel like immersive sims don't really lean too heavily for the most part on a specific solution. What I mean by that is that in a combat oriented game the game will lean on that core aspect very heavily and ramp up the pace as you go along. But in an immersive sim it's more segmented. There are parts of different genres and sometimes you're forced into them and sometimes you can circumvent them all together but it isn't trying to lean too heavily into being about a very specific thing.
I don't have much to add other than I've seen morrowind called an imsim and I've seen every genre under the sun labeled an rpg so gamers are kind of just too retarded to into genre
 
Why is Vampire Bloodlines an immersive sim but Fallout 3/NV/4/76 or Elder Scrolls 3/4/5 isn't?

If Theif is an immersive sim, what about other stealth games like the Styx games for instance?
Good question.
What is the design principle of Vampire Bloodlines vs the design principles of Bethesda slop?
Well, when it comes to Bethesda slop I'd say that the VERY STRONG LEANING of its design (if not its core design) is towards simple dungeon crawling. Like, Saints Row has racing missions, but that don't make it a racing game. The primary design around Bethesda games is the gameplay loop of into dungeon then just kill/stealthkill everything and loot anything that isn't nailed down rinse repeat.

Is that an immersive sim?

New Vegas is the odd one out of the bunch.
I'd label it an FPS crpg.

As to Thief and Styx, I don't know enough about either to really say. From what I recall of what I played of Styx it is leaning towards just being stealth oriented however, offering very little in other approaches towards the game. It isn't really "immersing you into the world" so much as it is a progressive gameplay challenge of stealth.

I don't have much to add other than I've seen morrowind called an imsim and I've seen every genre under the sun labeled an rpg so gamers are kind of just too retarded to into genre
We're all retarded Graves.
 
The games consist of very open and non-linear levels, but have very simple objectives like taking an item, eliminating/ rescuing an NPC or destroying objects.

They offer the player a very robust set of tools and a few designed ways to use them, but the tools can also be used in a way that was not foreseen by devs
This of course describes

Gta 3
Hitman: world of assassination
Deus ex
Prey
Morrowind
Arx fatalis

All of which are very different games
 
This of course describes

Gta 3
Hitman: world of assassination
Deus ex
Prey
Morrowind
Arx fatalis

All of which are very different games
And all of those except for Morrowind and GTA 3 are immersive sims.
Morrowind is an RPG and GTA 3 is a mission based sandbox crime game with racing and shooting elements.
 
An immersive sim to me is a game that truly, for at least an extended period of time, has me escape reality for a bit and sink into the "reality" of what video game is in front of me. New Vegas does seem to do the trick, but really any game that captures my attention.
 
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