The 10 groundbreaking immersive sims that paved the way for Deathloop – For The Win

The immersive sim might be the most ambitious concept a room of developers has ever drawn out, nodded at, and subsequently convinced a room of publishers to bankroll. Its a maximalist genre of multiple pathways, multiple combat approaches, multiple puzzle solutions, and in accordance with a bizarre tradition, keypads whose codes are almost certainly 0451. If an immersive sim is upholding the genre tenets properly, you play through it without seeing the vast majority of whats on offer.

That makes Deathloop a particularly clever spin. Since youre repeating the titular timeloop, youre exploring the world over and over, learning every neck-breaking nook and creepy cranny. But in order to appreciate just how cute Arkane has been about its latest immersive sims design, we must journey back. Back, through the mists of time. In the paragraph just below this one. Are you ready?

Good, because we just took you back to the dawn of the 1990s. Computers are still big scary grey boxes, 4kb is considered a big file, and absolutely no one in the world has heard of Adam Jensen. However, a producer named Warren Spector is dreaming about a first-person game that plays like the D&D games he used to enjoy, and a designer called Paul Neurath thinks he can make that game.

The birth of immersive sims starts here: a first-person RPG for DOS systems that blew our little undercut-topped minds with its 3D world, nonlinear progression, and simulation gameplay style. You could use a flaming torch on corn to make popcorn, for goodness sake!

Spector, Neurath, and the rest of the team some of whom would go on to staff Looking Glass Studios had arrived at the prototypical immersive sim. It didnt set the store shelves on fire, and that would be typical of the genre for decades to come. But those who did know Underworld knew it was different. And a bit special.

Thief is a deeply engrossing and atmospheric stealth game today. Back in 98, it was downright transportative. With Underworld alumni on its books, Looking Glass dared to imagine a gothic steampunk-medieval world that didnt fit the traditional fantasy mold and was all the more fascinating for its eccentricities street lamps in an otherwise middle ages environment, a fanatical cult-like society called the Hammerites, and those infamous supernatural left-turns.

As the title implies, the big showstopper mechanic was a real-time light detection system that allowed players to hide protagonist Garrett in the shadows or risk being spotted near light sources. Like Underworld, there was a freeform feel to levels and a wide toolkit that guided your hand away from all-out assault. Dousing a torch with a water arrow then slinking by undetected by using a moss arrow to hide your footsteps across a metal floor is way more satisfying, anyway.

Thief writer Ken Levine headed Looking Glasss System Shock sequel and used techniques that had such impact on gamers in 99 that theyre considered a bit old hat now. As you tiptoe around the Von Braun trying to understand why its deserted, youre met not by crewmates but by scrawls of blood on the walls, voice logs, and grim discoveries. Its isolating, unnerving, and keeps you an active participant in the mystery aboard. Spoilers: SHODANs involved.

Moody streets at midnight. Sewer systems hiding the headquarters of secret organizations. An inventory full of multitools, EMP grenades and taser ammo, and a story covering more shady cabals than a Joe Rogan podcast. Warren Spector, now at Ion Storm, was allowed to make his dream project in 2000, and it remains the benchmark for immersive sims today.

Before Deus Ex we had flashes of player freedom set in wonderfully atmospheric, open environments. This was the game to deliver immersive sims promise writ large: wherever there was a challenge to be faced, be that a throng of guards, a locked door, or a group of super-rich jerks making the world awful, there were numerous solutions. And all of them felt feel great.

Arkanes debut game was originally imagined as a direct sequel to Ultima Underworld, and although it ended up releasing without the license its lineage is very clear. Also set in a vast, freeform fortress and also brimming with downright weird touches at every juncture, Arx Fatalis is every bit the Spector-pleasing dungeon crawler. Its innovative magic system stands out its all about runes, swirly patterns, and manipulating the scenery in surprisingly advanced ways for 2002.

Troikas opportunity to release a Source Engine game before Valve proved a poisoned chalice: Bloodlines is remembered as well for its bugginess as it is for Vampire barbeques on Santa Monica beach and strip clubs run by warring twin sisters.

It says a lot that the community continued to patch it for well over a decade after release, and it truly deserved that restoration project. Though more linear than some on this list, the striking depiction of bloodsucker society in modern LA and class-based play carries the torch for Deus Ex as well as any.

Ken Levines third mention in this article, and the shootiest immersive sim of all. Maybe it was the advent of new hardware from Sony and Microsoft that tempted Irrational towards a more streamlined approach. Maybe Levine was just sick of inventory screens. Well never know. Anyway, BioShock was great.

Plasmids added a macabre twist to the usual gunplay, and the fact that the most valuable resource in the game was guarded by the most powerful enemy oh, and also involved killing a child certainly engaged the brain. Its Rapture itself we remember, and the mad Ayn Rand types we met along the way, blithering away to themselves about liberty and progress while the rivets slowly gave way in their ocean floor home.

If Arx Fatalis and Arkanes next game, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, left a bit to be desired when it came to polish and letting the player in on all the depth, Dishonored certainly learned from those mistakes. Corvo the supernatural assassin is lithe and precise about the way he exacts revenge on the corrupt officials of Dunwall, almost overpowered but so accomplished in his wide toolset that you hardly care.

Deathloop players will definitely recognize the rhythms of combat and the painterly vistas, but the Steampunk Victorian London that art director Viktor Antonov envisioned isnt like anywhere else the genre has taken us.

Some would call it sacrilege to let Io Interactives jamboree of rat poisonings and blunt force suitcase traumas onto this list, but in the cold light of day theres no denying that Hitmans an immersive sim. Vast and improbable toolbox of combat options? Consider that box ticked by the beak of an explosive rubber duckie. Freeform levels with multiple pathways? Were still lost in Sapienza even now. Just because it doesnt have 0451 keypads, that doesnt mean its out of the gang.

Hitmans success on its own terms, as an episodic series that sold immersive simming to a big crowd without Warren Spectors seal of approval paved the way for the similarly adventurous Deathloop.

As you might have clocked, weve omitted sequels from this list for fear of the Deus Ex and Thief franchises taking it over. Not to mention all the reboots. None have been so strange as Arkanes Prey, though.

For starters, the original Prey wasnt even an immersive sim. It was basically Doom 3 with a Native American flavor, and nary a Ken Levine voice note or a moss arrow in sight.

But screw it, said Arkane, presumably, at some point. Its as good a franchise name as any to house our weird cheese dream about a spaceship full of rogue DNA that can shapeshift into cups then attack you.

No, but it really is very good. You should play it, if only for the GLOO cannon.

Written by Phil Iwaniuk on behalf of GLHF.

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The 10 groundbreaking immersive sims that paved the way for Deathloop - For The Win