My preferred way of getting Deus Ex working on modern hardware is actually the Community Update, and I'm disappointed it isn't more well known, since it includes some essential mods, along with the optional Lay D Denton mod, and is one of the easiest ways to get the game working today.
DXCU Nitpicky Mini is always my go-to, it's a more vanilla oriented version. Only problem some might run into is DX9 renderer doing weird stuff with the mouse or OpenGL not working (the one it uses is XOpenGL, I think, doesn't work on some older systems like mine).
Lay D Denton was a really fun mod and a really good achievement on their part. I was completely smitten by it with how well they work around some of the gendered dialogue in DE in really seamless ways.
Believe it or not, my first immersive sim was E.Y.E. back in an early Steam sale before Dishonored even came out. Cannot say what long lasting impacts it's had on my psyche.
E.Y.E. isn't an immersive sim. It may have a lot of sim, but it has about zero immersion. None of the levels feel like realistic places, they just feel like deathmatch maps.
The 2010s were too good, we had two AAA studios releasing immersive sims with Arkane and Eidos Montreal. It's very cool to play deus ex mankind divided and see little influences from dishonored 1 like a few similar refined animations for first person movement and that dash ability the works as deus ex's version of blink. For a moment we had that thing of watching a back and forth between studios working in the same genre like it has happened in the 2000s with IO, kojima productions and Ubisoft making stealth games.
Prey is way underrated. I hated te first two hours. But oh boy after that it exploded for me. One of the best games I ever played. The exploration alone.
Interesting! I quit after a few hours because I couldn't get into it, you're making me think I need to give it a 2nd chance. The mooncrash dlc looks dope as well
@@dictionaryofwords1108 try it, play until you can change into small objects and explore. I hated the game. Now I think it is a Masterpiece. The stupid slime gun in the beginning... (I later loved it for traversing)
07:57 the game shows this to you more than once I think. You find pre-glood paths and I think you see an NPC demonstrate it while fleeing from an enemy.
You can get Deus Ex games for literally a few dollars during a steam sale, and most modern computers/laptops should be able to run it. the barrer of entry is extremely low
While it's still in Early Access, I'd definitely recommend looking at Shadows of Doubt for anyone who's into mystery. It's pretty much the closest you can get to being an actual detective in games. The game generates tons of crimes, odd jobs, and other mysterious to solve at any time, and every new games spawns a different city with new civilians, buildings, streets, and so-on.
I wouldn't recommend it at current given the way clues are generated. One time I investigated a murder in the middle of the street, so I opted to check the nearby street camera for people that passed that street at the time of the victim's death. Several dead end leads later, I checked near the body and found a card that straight up spelled out the culprit's name and that culprit never showed up on the street camera.
Arx is fantastic, i finished it for the first time today and i was learning new things right till the end of the game, it has one of the best magic systems i've ever seen too
I’ve recently been trying out an indie imsim called Burial Brush. It’s a bit weird but seems promising. A bit Thief ish but you’re a little dude with a grappling hook tail. My current play through is a stealth arson one. Side note : I enjoyed your video!
CharWon: Makes video for imsim _beginners._ Also CharWon: Insists on referring to Prey by a name that it ISN'T CALLED BY ANYONE BUT HIM. Good job, Charizard Wingding!
And here i was Eye being my first and to date only game out of this list, that guide you made for how to overcome the Filter on mars was very VERY handy for getting to experiance the best parts of the game.
E.Y.E. is just a wonderful mess. Unless you've played OG Deus Ex, System Shock 2, and the original X-com: UFO Defense (oh, and Diablo 2 for good measure), you will not really understand its systems-- and even with all that, you will still need to trial and error the hacking system before you learn not to get hacked by a door. But once you understand it, there is no game that makes you feel more powerful.
I think one way to define an Immersive Sim is that of a game that doesn't present problems alongside solutions. But rather a game that presents problems, period. And then gives you enough overlapping and robust systems that you can cobble together your own solution, and have it work. "Box Stacking" is not a solution. It's an expression of a physics engine robust enough that you CAN stack boxes and platform off them. AND have the game not stop you from doing it through tons of invisible walls or unclimbable geometry. If the game gives you a gun that shoots sleeping darts, an Immersive Sim is when you can use that sleeping dart on anyone. Not just an arbitrary, designated set of characters, while others are equally arbitrarily immune. To create an Immersive Sim means both doing the work to make sure the game doesn't break (or doesn't break in a way that prevents victory) when the player does some nonsense, AND restraining the impulse to put guardrails around the "intended" experience. That's the difference between aping the _forms_ of an ImSim, and actually making one. What makes it _Immersive_ is an internally consistent set of rules, that the player can use in an intuitive manner. They aren't thinking, "What's the intended solution the game designers built for this problem?". But rather, "How can I use the tools at my disposal to get what I want". In a manner that makes the player feel like they're a person living in that world.
Bit of rambly comment, but: Now, I know it's NOT an ImSim by the primary definition, but I've been playing my Phantom Liberty Cyberpunk 2077 run with the "Pacifist" box-stacker mindset. Mostly this consists of Speccing into Max Cool and Tech To make a Stealthy Active Camo Edgerunner build, Using the (single) Non-Lethal weapon mod, Non-lethal quickhacks, etc, finding alternate entryways, and trying to talk my way out of (or into) situations when possible. I also have a bit of a Self-imposed challenge, As I use the Biosculpted Exotics mod, to never harm another exotic. This has led to some very interesting stealth sections and conversations with NPCs I would normally zero without a second thought... But yeah, I'd personally recommend intermediate ImSim Fans give CP77 a go, just be aware that you're pushing up against some major limitations of the game systems if you don't play it like a Boomer shooter with Damage numbers. :P (and for the love of god, do NOT stuff people in lockers!)
Great list & video. My only addition personally would be Dark Messiah on the beginner side, and the System Shock Remake on the advanced list. Since both have some dang cool stuff, and they look amazing on even a half-decent computer while still having said im-sim goodness to them.
Dark Messiah ain't no immersive sim. Half-life 2 also has interactible environment and you can kill enemies using it, but you wouldn't call that game ImSim.
It's actually not possible to play dishonored as a normal human. You have to use a power at 2 points, to escape the assassins' makeshift holdinng cell, and to climb the boat lock to get into the palace.. Spent a good while at both points (and several other challenging but doable points) trying to find a way to not leave the bounds of my 100% pure stealth no knockouts/kills/powers/equipment run.
I love this genre so much. I think my first immersive sim I ever played was Bioshock when it first came out and loved it but I was also a kid so I didn’t immediately realize how customizable the game play could be. It wasn’t until Deus Ex HR and Dishonored that the whole ethos of immersive sims became clear to me. Since then it’s been one of if not my favorite genre of game, with the only contender against it being CRPGs. I just love games that are designed to where every play through feels unique and new somehow. Like I just replayed fallout new Vegas for the 8th time this year and I’m STILL finding new tactics and ways to solve quests in that game. It’s great
2:00 for anyone that cares, there's a mod for Deus ex HR that lets you make the hud larger if you have a large display, you can also play the game at like 4k and downsample and fix the hud. The same mod has a few fixes.
You mentioned some old games I've never heard of. Those look more hardcore than I have patience for these days but I'll at least check them out on youtube. Thanks for the curated list of games from my favorite genre!
I hope one day you will try Rain World, it's an Immersive Sim masquerading as a Metroidvania. One of the few games in which I experienced true emergent gameplay, don't let me started about the procedural animation governed by an unscripted AI...
an immersive sim i like is a turn based old school ExCom style voxel rouge lite called 'enemy' it's on steam and it is really hard to look up due to it's name, it has all the facets of an immersive sim including box stacking (if you have a point in a certain stat), and i have been wondering if anyone else has played it or heard of it before
Pretty sure you contested its immersive sim status, but id recommend BioShock, its what i started with and the first one is still one of my favorite games, in terms of gameplay its very fun, but i think its simple enough for new people, the world is just so atmospheric and interesting, and unlike a lot of immersive sims that are 20 years old or made by indie devs, BioShock actually looks really good, and i know graphics aren't everything but they certainly help, especially for newer/more casual players
It's funny because I went from First 0451 game to skipped everything inbetween and binging E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy like a mad man and getting all the gates.
I've played through Dishonored many times and in many ways, but it was with Dead Rising that I really got to grips with the Immsersive Sims philosophy. On Dishonored, I tended to test only 2-3 variations and stay in my comfort zone, repeating what I knew to plot until the end. Like Deathloop, Dead Rising offers us to evolve in a time loop, but with an autonomous clock like in Majora's Mask, with events to apprehend, not only spatially but also temporally. Although we can't "stack boxes", we do have hundreds of environmental interactions at our disposal, which represent an investment in resources, including the most precious of them all: time. At first, our knowledge is too limited and we invariably arrive too late, leaving an NPC to die. But as you progress through the game, experimenting with new mechanics, exploring "another place at another time", learning to use your environment and optimize your routes and time, the game reveals a great diversity of approach and excellent replayability. Its strict 6-hour timer implies a sense of urgency and challenge, which must be tempered at first in order to learn and cope with its abrupt difficulty. The time loop makes it easier to re-experience an event. But it's more instructive to continue the loop and explore the future than to immediately try again. With this in mind, save rooms are few and far between, and restarting a loop takes several hours, depending on how far you've progressed.
Got a really weird situation, while you were talking about the first game on the advanced list, I thought to myself "Cruelty squad is considered a Immersive Sim?" then I went to google, didn't find anything about it on a surface level, came back to the video and you immediately started talking about it.
Loved the video, as I do all your videos (I actually made the pizza bread from your last video for dnd night, very good) Something popped into my head that would not let me sleep. Have you heard of a game called Seven: The Days Long Gone? Idk if it would exactly be considered an immersive sim. It's a bit more open-ended than dishonored at the very least. Anyway, that game is a blast, but I never see anyone talk about it! It's absolutely gorgeous, and the gameplay is a real wild ride. I remember once playing as a parkour wrestler. I had unlocked some special grapple abilities that let me just fling enemies around like crazy, but it required some real precision I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on the game
I really hope Streum On will make a successor to E.Y.E at some point, because there's just so much going on, and for how excellent it plays, the supreme jank does truly make it the final boss of imsims, where if they could just make the onboarding to the experience less painful and grindy while maintaining the level of mechanical complexity that makes high level play so unique, it could take off so much more. That's not even considering how visually awesome some of their designs are... I like 40k, but the E.Y.E setting could be built on so much more, and it would be sad if Streum On only ever makes 40k games in the future.
7:10 Fun fact! I read somewhere that it was originally called *Neuroshock* during development, and even if thats not true, i still think we should call it that, because: 1: Its really freakin cool and much better than either Prey the non affiliated reboot, or Typhon, which is just a bit too vague for my liking 2: Screw bethesda's meddling
Funny thing is. The first game I played on this list is E.Y.E, beat the game like 10 times by now. Then I played Dishonored, after that like 3 or 4 years later i saw Prey on steam and thought Let me try out these Immersive sims. Never thought either E.Y.E or Dishinored were considered one. Still havent finished Prey, but i LOVE IT so far
Speaking of the cycles of guilt. I have something to admit. I... started ImSims with the PS2 version of DX back in the day. I feel shame. I hope to grow past this some day. I also enjoyed xbox Invisible War? I'm a fraud. What else am I admitting.... hmm. I enjoyed E.Y.E. but never finished it because of a progress breaking bug. I should go back to it, but I'm a coward. And then there was the time that.... nevermind. Thank you for your art. You are appreciated.
I finally got to play through prey and mankind divided this year and they were fantastic experiences. I need to just go get dishonored and finish playing all the console available immersive sims
I’ve been wanting to play EYE Divine Cybermancy for years. Just last week I finished my first play through in about 12 hours, without much knowledge of immersive sims. I think because I enjoyed the game so much, I wanted to keep playing, despite how difficult it became. My point is, if you really want to try a game out, even if it’s considered ‘advanced’, just do it. It’s worth it.
Watching videos about Dishonored makes me hopeful for Arkane Lyon's new announcement of Marvel's Blade. Sure, it's a marvel license so that's reason to be cautious but. I mean. Look at it. What they can do. When they're not being forced to make live-service multiplayer slop. Let it be an immersive sim, Arkane. Do it. I am hopeful.
Charltan is honestly one of the best youtubers out there that I watch, I mean I'll always love Civvie 11 and IcarusLives, GmanLives, Ross's Game dungeon, Mandalore, FrankieonPC, DevilDogGamer, GeneralSam....each of them has their own style, but my top 2 are Charltan and Civvie. I love that Charltan does cooking segments and cat clips on top of his topic! This man is phenomenal and really deserves more attention from people!
Didnt think that E.Y.Ǝ was an immersive sim. But it was a quite fun game to play again and again. Its also quite amusing to see it that high on the list.
cruelty squad is whats got me on the kick but dishonored was where it started and i have to agree deathloop is just an amalgamation of everything that has worked plopped into a new bright suit
I'd add that given its status as a proto-imsim, System Shock 1 is a really good starting point. However, even despite the fact that it was mentioned in the video, I am particularly talking about the remake. But Human Revolution is pretty much the best choice for most people if you need a jump start.
If I can add something to immersive sim, try Messiah. Yes, the baby Cherub brain parasite simulator. It's not exactly Immersive sim (or is it?) but worth checking for it's unique "roleplay as cop/hooker/mutant/whoever you can possess" mechanics and emergent gameplay. Hell (pun intended), if You don't intend to play you may just watch hour-long review by Grimbeard.
I've seen that on Ross's Game Dungeon and I got the impression it's not an ImSim at all, just a really frustrating action stealth platformer thing. If you've played it, how well does it pass the Locked Door Test?
It's even worse that Codename 47 in regards to its gameplay and its main selling point. l have played it, and only 2 hours or even less are required to understand. Codename 47 at least had some moments where the disguise and stealth worked. However in Messiah? Atrocious. That game is only playable on Easy if you value your time and sanity. And you have to jump to body to body if you get discovered, to clear any enemies. There is no Stealth, no level design to promote stealth. Just a linear platform that possess some kind of disguise system but mainly, it is an action platformer game. Mostly action. But l love what it tried to do, only thing l hate is the missed opportunity to make a great game. The concept is there but not used well At least in Hitman, they knew what to do and improved over time to reach Blood money greatness. Messiah really feels like an Alpha game, it is clearly rushed and incomplete.
@@maddockemerson4603 I played years ago, but if by "locked door test" you mean if obstacles can be bypassed with several ways, usually there are stealthy and gunfight approaches, as well as occasional "other" ways (like possessing rats or optional puzzles)
@@PeteOfDarkness Yes, the locked door test is the question of how many developer-intended ways are there to get around an obstacle, the locked door being the most common example. For example in Streets of Rogue, you can: 1) Get the key to the door from an NPC in that building, which you can do by --1-A) Neutralizing that NPC, which itself can be done by ----1-A-1) killing ----1-A-2) tranquilizing ----1-A-3) sometimes asking the allied or friendly NPC to leave the floor ----1-A-4) sometimes threatening, which will cause the NPC to drop all items at the elevator upon leaving the floor; this is like asking politely but if your RNG fails the NPC becomes Hostile ----1-A-5) arresting the NPC if you're character class is Cop --1-B) convincing the NPC to give you the key, which can be done through ----1-B-1) bribery ----1-B-2) being allied with that NPC, which can be done by ------1-B-2-A) being the same class as that NPC for some classes ------1-B-2-B) having a trait like Random Reverence or Friend of the Common Folk that makes characters allied to use ------1-B-2-C) brainwashing 2) Pick the lock 3) Break the door down with any damage type if it's wood; I believe metal doors can still be destroyed with a Door Detonator 4) Destroy the walls if they're not reinforced 5) Find a window and --5-A) break it then crawl through at the cost of some health --5-B) use a window cutter to completely remove the window and just walk through 6) Enter an unlocked door which may lead to a more dangerous route to your goal -7) I was going to mention bribing a bouncer to let you in, but bouncers guard restricted areas, not strictly speaking a locked door- 8) Knock. When someone answers, you can --8-A) Attempt to neutralize that character (see 1-A) --8-B) Put your foot in the door, a pathfinding exploit which causes the NPC to be unable to close the door upon walking away so you can sneak in --8-C) just walk in if that NPC is Friendly or Allied (see 1-B-2) --8-D) Just run in. Residents will become Hostile upon you acting on achieving the goal of the mission or possibly upon just trespassing, but you can potentially dodge their attacks. 9) Use a Wall Bypasser. Instant teleport two blocks in front of you. It's like a cheat code but it's an item the game throws at you somewhat often. 10) Some buildings have computers which can be used to open doors among other things; Hackers can do this at a dinstance There might even be more that I've forgotten. For most doors about half of these techniques are viable, and in the worst case scenario, a bank vault, you still have a good handful of options. Now, even a hardcore ImSim doesn't _need_ that many options on every or the most standard obstacle to be an ImSim, but I chose Streets of Rogue because specifically it passes the locked door test so amazingly well. So with all that in mind, how many options does Messiah give you on a standard obstacle?
Does cataclysm dark days ahead count as a IS? Is more of a sandbox roguelike but you also have many ways to deal with the few missions that are in the game and just with enemies in general, you have mutations systems, bionic implants, robot hacking, spell casting, psionic habilities (with some oficial mods mind you, the controls and visuals can be rough for people not used to classic roguelikes but it scratch the immersive sim itch for me
step1: download prey step2: play prey step3: download ctrl alt ego step4: play ctrl alt ego step5: thank me edit: wait a second, i think this channel is where i saw that game in the first place! XD
i have never understood why people keep saying install prey in SSD. i play it in a mechanical disk and got 10 seconds loading times at most in the epic version. that might have been true on lauch but i never have that problem and my isnt exactly new hardware.
The funniest thing that my friends and I thought that E.Y.E is a cool game with a very interesting vertical gameplay, on sursa uh, then I with durgon could not even guess how many hours of hell different builds and incredibly incomprehensible gameplay to survive the first sim was passed almost without guides, as we ourselves realized that the game plans to throw us on the 2nd round and then we passed 3 times and until we realized that already got the truth of the ending was cool!
I played EYE before any of the others. Hell, I played it before even knowing what an immersive sim was and it was the only game I had for a while. I became one with the cycles of guilt
well i know you didnt play or review the IO Hitman games, but those would firmly fit in the first category alongside Dishonored and Deathloop, atleast in my book gameplay wise the give me the same vibe i would reccomend you check em out at some point
understandable, the only reason I said *not* to do it on your first go-round is so that you can appreciate all the work that went into revision. Probably should have made that more clear, lol.
I love Imsims, as you put it, but my one gripe in all of them is every choice comes down to "combat" or "boring". You always get the s**t ending for combat, and the good one for boring. Thanks for mentioning EYE Divine Cybermancy, BTW. I've been playing that game for years and I still have no clue as to what the hell is going on in it.
Here i am watching a beginners guide for immersive sims after having played 20 or so 😂 (it doesnt matter charlatan wonder videos are always a must )
bro same. I always get excited seeing a new charl video even if its a game I know well
Same thing
Name 20 immersive sims.
@@humanharddrive1 Go shave your neck.
@@humanharddrive1 Name 10 books.
My preferred way of getting Deus Ex working on modern hardware is actually the Community Update, and I'm disappointed it isn't more well known, since it includes some essential mods, along with the optional Lay D Denton mod, and is one of the easiest ways to get the game working today.
DXCU Nitpicky Mini is always my go-to, it's a more vanilla oriented version. Only problem some might run into is DX9 renderer doing weird stuff with the mouse or OpenGL not working (the one it uses is XOpenGL, I think, doesn't work on some older systems like mine).
I played Deus Ex Transcended for my first time. It stays true to the original and runs great!
i think kenti deus ex launcher works really good too
Lay D Denton was a really fun mod and a really good achievement on their part. I was completely smitten by it with how well they work around some of the gendered dialogue in DE in really seamless ways.
Why mid games to get them to work? Just play as intended.
Believe it or not, my first immersive sim was E.Y.E. back in an early Steam sale before Dishonored even came out. Cannot say what long lasting impacts it's had on my psyche.
Disregard psyche, acquire brouzouf
I hope your legs are OK
E.Y.E. isn't an immersive sim. It may have a lot of sim, but it has about zero immersion. None of the levels feel like realistic places, they just feel like deathmatch maps.
@@ZylonBane
I guess I was immersed in a world of deathmatch maps then.
Same actually.
Cruelty Squad is genuinely the best game I've ever played and I'd pay any amount of money to experience it for the first time again.
The 2010s were too good, we had two AAA studios releasing immersive sims with Arkane and Eidos Montreal. It's very cool to play deus ex mankind divided and see little influences from dishonored 1 like a few similar refined animations for first person movement and that dash ability the works as deus ex's version of blink.
For a moment we had that thing of watching a back and forth between studios working in the same genre like it has happened in the 2000s with IO, kojima productions and Ubisoft making stealth games.
Prey is way underrated. I hated te first two hours. But oh boy after that it exploded for me. One of the best games I ever played. The exploration alone.
For me the first hour was the best as the opening twist was just insane to me
Interesting! I quit after a few hours because I couldn't get into it, you're making me think I need to give it a 2nd chance. The mooncrash dlc looks dope as well
@@dictionaryofwords1108 try it, play until you can change into small objects and explore. I hated the game. Now I think it is a Masterpiece. The stupid slime gun in the beginning... (I later loved it for traversing)
Thief the Dark Project.
THe game is where I started.
E.Y.E was my first Immersive sim. I love it
07:57 the game shows this to you more than once I think. You find pre-glood paths and I think you see an NPC demonstrate it while fleeing from an enemy.
Yeah, in an auditorium connected to one of the labs you see one of the scientists running from a phantom. He just gloos up a wall and still gets shot
You can get Deus Ex games for literally a few dollars during a steam sale, and most modern computers/laptops should be able to run it. the barrer of entry is extremely low
An ImSim is any game where breaking the game is intended, and the final boss sucks.
While it's still in Early Access, I'd definitely recommend looking at Shadows of Doubt for anyone who's into mystery. It's pretty much the closest you can get to being an actual detective in games. The game generates tons of crimes, odd jobs, and other mysterious to solve at any time, and every new games spawns a different city with new civilians, buildings, streets, and so-on.
I wouldn't recommend it at current given the way clues are generated. One time I investigated a murder in the middle of the street, so I opted to check the nearby street camera for people that passed that street at the time of the victim's death. Several dead end leads later, I checked near the body and found a card that straight up spelled out the culprit's name and that culprit never showed up on the street camera.
Another one I'd recommend for people interested is Arx Fatalis :)
Arx is fantastic, i finished it for the first time today and i was learning new things right till the end of the game, it has one of the best magic systems i've ever seen too
It's just RPG, a really good one, but still only RPG.
Not an immersive sim
I’ve recently been trying out an indie imsim called Burial Brush. It’s a bit weird but seems promising. A bit Thief ish but you’re a little dude with a grappling hook tail. My current play through is a stealth arson one.
Side note : I enjoyed your video!
bro. "baby's first 0451"
absolutely riotous
CharWon: Makes video for imsim _beginners._
Also CharWon: Insists on referring to Prey by a name that it ISN'T CALLED BY ANYONE BUT HIM. Good job, Charizard Wingding!
And here i was Eye being my first and to date only game out of this list, that guide you made for how to overcome the Filter on mars was very VERY handy for getting to experiance the best parts of the game.
Human Revolution being referred to as "Baby's 0451" got me good. I genuinely like the game a lot and it's a great description.
When there hasn't been a new Deus Ex game in over half a decade:
"What a shame."
What the world needs is a deus ex remaster in mankind divided engine
@@PcCAvioN Wouldn't that be a remake?
What a rotten way to die
E.Y.E. is just a wonderful mess. Unless you've played OG Deus Ex, System Shock 2, and the original X-com: UFO Defense (oh, and Diablo 2 for good measure), you will not really understand its systems-- and even with all that, you will still need to trial and error the hacking system before you learn not to get hacked by a door.
But once you understand it, there is no game that makes you feel more powerful.
I think one way to define an Immersive Sim is that of a game that doesn't present problems alongside solutions. But rather a game that presents problems, period. And then gives you enough overlapping and robust systems that you can cobble together your own solution, and have it work.
"Box Stacking" is not a solution. It's an expression of a physics engine robust enough that you CAN stack boxes and platform off them. AND have the game not stop you from doing it through tons of invisible walls or unclimbable geometry.
If the game gives you a gun that shoots sleeping darts, an Immersive Sim is when you can use that sleeping dart on anyone. Not just an arbitrary, designated set of characters, while others are equally arbitrarily immune.
To create an Immersive Sim means both doing the work to make sure the game doesn't break (or doesn't break in a way that prevents victory) when the player does some nonsense, AND restraining the impulse to put guardrails around the "intended" experience. That's the difference between aping the _forms_ of an ImSim, and actually making one.
What makes it _Immersive_ is an internally consistent set of rules, that the player can use in an intuitive manner. They aren't thinking, "What's the intended solution the game designers built for this problem?". But rather, "How can I use the tools at my disposal to get what I want". In a manner that makes the player feel like they're a person living in that world.
Bit of rambly comment, but:
Now, I know it's NOT an ImSim by the primary definition, but I've been playing my Phantom Liberty Cyberpunk 2077 run with the "Pacifist" box-stacker mindset.
Mostly this consists of Speccing into Max Cool and Tech To make a Stealthy Active Camo Edgerunner build, Using the (single) Non-Lethal weapon mod, Non-lethal quickhacks, etc, finding alternate entryways, and trying to talk my way out of (or into) situations when possible.
I also have a bit of a Self-imposed challenge, As I use the Biosculpted Exotics mod, to never harm another exotic. This has led to some very interesting stealth sections and conversations with NPCs I would normally zero without a second thought...
But yeah, I'd personally recommend intermediate ImSim Fans give CP77 a go, just be aware that you're pushing up against some major limitations of the game systems if you don't play it like a Boomer shooter with Damage numbers. :P
(and for the love of god, do NOT stuff people in lockers!)
Great list & video.
My only addition personally would be Dark Messiah on the beginner side, and the System Shock Remake on the advanced list. Since both have some dang cool stuff, and they look amazing on even a half-decent computer while still having said im-sim goodness to them.
Dark Messiah ain't no immersive sim. Half-life 2 also has interactible environment and you can kill enemies using it, but you wouldn't call that game ImSim.
Oh thank you so much, it's e.y.e, I've been looking for this game for like a year now, so glad I clicked on this
You are doing the JC's work with your focus on ImSims in all these videos! I salute You Sir! o7
It's actually not possible to play dishonored as a normal human. You have to use a power at 2 points, to escape the assassins' makeshift holdinng cell, and to climb the boat lock to get into the palace.. Spent a good while at both points (and several other challenging but doable points) trying to find a way to not leave the bounds of my 100% pure stealth no knockouts/kills/powers/equipment run.
Currently playing Dishonored 2 😍 and looking forward to more immersive games; thanks for video!
Thank you so much
I was searching for a video like this
I love this genre so much. I think my first immersive sim I ever played was Bioshock when it first came out and loved it but I was also a kid so I didn’t immediately realize how customizable the game play could be. It wasn’t until Deus Ex HR and Dishonored that the whole ethos of immersive sims became clear to me. Since then it’s been one of if not my favorite genre of game, with the only contender against it being CRPGs. I just love games that are designed to where every play through feels unique and new somehow. Like I just replayed fallout new Vegas for the 8th time this year and I’m STILL finding new tactics and ways to solve quests in that game. It’s great
X4 Foundations, Kenshi, Warband My top immersive games
The algorithm gods have blessed me. A Charlatan Wonder video. 🙌🏻
2:00 for anyone that cares, there's a mod for Deus ex HR that lets you make the hud larger if you have a large display, you can also play the game at like 4k and downsample and fix the hud. The same mod has a few fixes.
You mentioned some old games I've never heard of. Those look more hardcore than I have patience for these days but I'll at least check them out on youtube. Thanks for the curated list of games from my favorite genre!
I hope one day you will try Rain World, it's an Immersive Sim masquerading as a Metroidvania. One of the few games in which I experienced true emergent gameplay, don't let me started about the procedural animation governed by an unscripted AI...
an immersive sim i like is a turn based old school ExCom style voxel rouge lite called 'enemy' it's on steam and it is really hard to look up due to it's name, it has all the facets of an immersive sim including box stacking (if you have a point in a certain stat), and i have been wondering if anyone else has played it or heard of it before
You mean 'The video games you played as a kid, mashed together and remade into a tactical role-playing game.'? Looks interesting.
Came for more Immersive Sim videos, stayed for the recipes and cat
Pretty sure you contested its immersive sim status, but id recommend BioShock, its what i started with and the first one is still one of my favorite games, in terms of gameplay its very fun, but i think its simple enough for new people, the world is just so atmospheric and interesting, and unlike a lot of immersive sims that are 20 years old or made by indie devs, BioShock actually looks really good, and i know graphics aren't everything but they certainly help, especially for newer/more casual players
I like your works and I love your cat.
It's funny because I went from First 0451 game to skipped everything inbetween and binging E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy like a mad man and getting all the gates.
Both Ultima Underworld games deserved a mention even if they're a bit too archaic, and of course Arx Fatalis mainly the first half of the game
Becareful with EYE, to this day, Mandaloregaming can't escape his cycle of guilt
I've played through Dishonored many times and in many ways, but it was with Dead Rising that I really got to grips with the Immsersive Sims philosophy. On Dishonored, I tended to test only 2-3 variations and stay in my comfort zone, repeating what I knew to plot until the end.
Like Deathloop, Dead Rising offers us to evolve in a time loop, but with an autonomous clock like in Majora's Mask, with events to apprehend, not only spatially but also temporally. Although we can't "stack boxes", we do have hundreds of environmental interactions at our disposal, which represent an investment in resources, including the most precious of them all: time. At first, our knowledge is too limited and we invariably arrive too late, leaving an NPC to die. But as you progress through the game, experimenting with new mechanics, exploring "another place at another time", learning to use your environment and optimize your routes and time, the game reveals a great diversity of approach and excellent replayability. Its strict 6-hour timer implies a sense of urgency and challenge, which must be tempered at first in order to learn and cope with its abrupt difficulty. The time loop makes it easier to re-experience an event. But it's more instructive to continue the loop and explore the future than to immediately try again. With this in mind, save rooms are few and far between, and restarting a loop takes several hours, depending on how far you've progressed.
Got a really weird situation, while you were talking about the first game on the advanced list, I thought to myself "Cruelty squad is considered a Immersive Sim?" then I went to google, didn't find anything about it on a surface level, came back to the video and you immediately started talking about it.
Cruelty squad was my first ImSim, and I'd say its a great introduciton
The comment at the end really got to me. Thank you
Don’t forget the DLC. I loved Prey, but Mooncrash took it and blew my mind on a whole other level.
Proud to say I’ve played… 1 and a half of these 😂. Great video, boss.
Loved the video, as I do all your videos (I actually made the pizza bread from your last video for dnd night, very good)
Something popped into my head that would not let me sleep. Have you heard of a game called Seven: The Days Long Gone?
Idk if it would exactly be considered an immersive sim. It's a bit more open-ended than dishonored at the very least. Anyway, that game is a blast, but I never see anyone talk about it! It's absolutely gorgeous, and the gameplay is a real wild ride. I remember once playing as a parkour wrestler. I had unlocked some special grapple abilities that let me just fling enemies around like crazy, but it required some real precision
I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on the game
I really hope Streum On will make a successor to E.Y.E at some point, because there's just so much going on, and for how excellent it plays, the supreme jank does truly make it the final boss of imsims, where if they could just make the onboarding to the experience less painful and grindy while maintaining the level of mechanical complexity that makes high level play so unique, it could take off so much more. That's not even considering how visually awesome some of their designs are... I like 40k, but the E.Y.E setting could be built on so much more, and it would be sad if Streum On only ever makes 40k games in the future.
Anything that involves the term 'onboarding' is inherently painful.
7:10 Fun fact! I read somewhere that it was originally called *Neuroshock* during development, and even if thats not true, i still think we should call it that, because:
1: Its really freakin cool and much better than either Prey the non affiliated reboot, or Typhon, which is just a bit too vague for my liking
2: Screw bethesda's meddling
I always personally called it "Psychoshock", but I think "Neuroshock" works just as well
Kenshi belongs on this list. It was my first immersive sim.
Funny thing is. The first game I played on this list is E.Y.E, beat the game like 10 times by now. Then I played Dishonored, after that like 3 or 4 years later i saw Prey on steam and thought Let me try out these Immersive sims. Never thought either E.Y.E or Dishinored were considered one. Still havent finished Prey, but i LOVE IT so far
Watching this video taught me that apparently I have weird tastes in games. I've only played Dishonored and Cruelty Squad...woops
Started with HR and went straight to EYE. not much scares me anymore. I am one with my guilt.
Speaking of the cycles of guilt. I have something to admit. I... started ImSims with the PS2 version of DX back in the day. I feel shame. I hope to grow past this some day. I also enjoyed xbox Invisible War? I'm a fraud. What else am I admitting.... hmm. I enjoyed E.Y.E. but never finished it because of a progress breaking bug. I should go back to it, but I'm a coward. And then there was the time that.... nevermind.
Thank you for your art. You are appreciated.
I finally got to play through prey and mankind divided this year and they were fantastic experiences. I need to just go get dishonored and finish playing all the console available immersive sims
I’ve been wanting to play EYE Divine Cybermancy for years. Just last week I finished my first play through in about 12 hours, without much knowledge of immersive sims. I think because I enjoyed the game so much, I wanted to keep playing, despite how difficult it became. My point is, if you really want to try a game out, even if it’s considered ‘advanced’, just do it. It’s worth it.
Its simple. The first immersive sim was BioShock infinite, and the most recent one was starfield
my favorite was pac man and dont you dare sleep on him
guy mixed up immersive sims with immersed in shit, understandable
Watching videos about Dishonored makes me hopeful for Arkane Lyon's new announcement of Marvel's Blade.
Sure, it's a marvel license so that's reason to be cautious but.
I mean. Look at it.
What they can do. When they're not being forced to make live-service multiplayer slop.
Let it be an immersive sim, Arkane. Do it. I am hopeful.
Thanks!
Love ur content and ur messages brother hell yea
Charltan is honestly one of the best youtubers out there that I watch, I mean I'll always love Civvie 11 and IcarusLives, GmanLives, Ross's Game dungeon, Mandalore, FrankieonPC, DevilDogGamer, GeneralSam....each of them has their own style, but my top 2 are Charltan and Civvie.
I love that Charltan does cooking segments and cat clips on top of his topic! This man is phenomenal and really deserves more attention from people!
Didnt think that E.Y.Ǝ was an immersive sim. But it was a quite fun game to play again and again. Its also quite amusing to see it that high on the list.
cruelty squad is whats got me on the kick but dishonored was where it started and i have to agree deathloop is just an amalgamation of everything that has worked plopped into a new bright suit
Immersive Sims are my favorite genre!
I'd add that given its status as a proto-imsim, System Shock 1 is a really good starting point. However, even despite the fact that it was mentioned in the video, I am particularly talking about the remake. But Human Revolution is pretty much the best choice for most people if you need a jump start.
If I can add something to immersive sim, try Messiah. Yes, the baby Cherub brain parasite simulator. It's not exactly Immersive sim (or is it?) but worth checking for it's unique "roleplay as cop/hooker/mutant/whoever you can possess" mechanics and emergent gameplay.
Hell (pun intended), if You don't intend to play you may just watch hour-long review by Grimbeard.
I've seen that on Ross's Game Dungeon and I got the impression it's not an ImSim at all, just a really frustrating action stealth platformer thing. If you've played it, how well does it pass the Locked Door Test?
It's even worse that Codename 47 in regards to its gameplay and its main selling point.
l have played it, and only 2 hours or even less are required to understand.
Codename 47 at least had some moments where the disguise and stealth worked.
However in Messiah? Atrocious. That game is only playable on Easy if you value your time and sanity. And you have to jump to body to body if you get discovered, to clear any enemies. There is no Stealth, no level design to promote stealth. Just a linear platform that possess some kind of disguise system but mainly, it is an action platformer game. Mostly action.
But l love what it tried to do, only thing l hate is the missed opportunity to make a great game. The concept is there but not used well At least in Hitman, they knew what to do and improved over time to reach Blood money greatness.
Messiah really feels like an Alpha game, it is clearly rushed and incomplete.
@@maddockemerson4603 I played years ago, but if by "locked door test" you mean if obstacles can be bypassed with several ways, usually there are stealthy and gunfight approaches, as well as occasional "other" ways (like possessing rats or optional puzzles)
@@PeteOfDarkness Yes, the locked door test is the question of how many developer-intended ways are there to get around an obstacle, the locked door being the most common example. For example in Streets of Rogue, you can:
1) Get the key to the door from an NPC in that building, which you can do by
--1-A) Neutralizing that NPC, which itself can be done by
----1-A-1) killing
----1-A-2) tranquilizing
----1-A-3) sometimes asking the allied or friendly NPC to leave the floor
----1-A-4) sometimes threatening, which will cause the NPC to drop all items at the elevator upon leaving the floor; this is like asking politely but if your RNG fails the NPC becomes Hostile
----1-A-5) arresting the NPC if you're character class is Cop
--1-B) convincing the NPC to give you the key, which can be done through
----1-B-1) bribery
----1-B-2) being allied with that NPC, which can be done by
------1-B-2-A) being the same class as that NPC for some classes
------1-B-2-B) having a trait like Random Reverence or Friend of the Common Folk that makes characters allied to use
------1-B-2-C) brainwashing
2) Pick the lock
3) Break the door down with any damage type if it's wood; I believe metal doors can still be destroyed with a Door Detonator
4) Destroy the walls if they're not reinforced
5) Find a window and
--5-A) break it then crawl through at the cost of some health
--5-B) use a window cutter to completely remove the window and just walk through
6) Enter an unlocked door which may lead to a more dangerous route to your goal
-7) I was going to mention bribing a bouncer to let you in, but bouncers guard restricted areas, not strictly speaking a locked door-
8) Knock. When someone answers, you can
--8-A) Attempt to neutralize that character (see 1-A)
--8-B) Put your foot in the door, a pathfinding exploit which causes the NPC to be unable to close the door upon walking away so you can sneak in
--8-C) just walk in if that NPC is Friendly or Allied (see 1-B-2)
--8-D) Just run in. Residents will become Hostile upon you acting on achieving the goal of the mission or possibly upon just trespassing, but you can potentially dodge their attacks.
9) Use a Wall Bypasser. Instant teleport two blocks in front of you. It's like a cheat code but it's an item the game throws at you somewhat often.
10) Some buildings have computers which can be used to open doors among other things; Hackers can do this at a dinstance
There might even be more that I've forgotten. For most doors about half of these techniques are viable, and in the worst case scenario, a bank vault, you still have a good handful of options. Now, even a hardcore ImSim doesn't _need_ that many options on every or the most standard obstacle to be an ImSim, but I chose Streets of Rogue because specifically it passes the locked door test so amazingly well. So with all that in mind, how many options does Messiah give you on a standard obstacle?
Kingdom Come Deliverance is the second coming, can't wait for the sequal
"If you got through the last 9 games you can try EYE but you will need a guide"
*went into EYE as my first immsim blind*
Should i get sims4 seasons or sims 4 get together
Does cataclysm dark days ahead count as a IS? Is more of a sandbox roguelike but you also have many ways to deal with the few missions that are in the game and just with enemies in general, you have mutations systems, bionic implants, robot hacking, spell casting, psionic habilities (with some oficial mods mind you, the controls and visuals can be rough for people not used to classic roguelikes but it scratch the immersive sim itch for me
breach mode in deus ex reboots is the best hacking minigame ever, ill die on this hill.
Cruelty squad was my first immersive sim, and i regret nothing
Arkane Studios peaked with Prey and it was all downhill from there.
Don’t do mooncrash dirty like that
In terms of immersive sim stuff, they peaked with Arx Fatalis.
step1: download prey
step2: play prey
step3: download ctrl alt ego
step4: play ctrl alt ego
step5: thank me
edit: wait a second, i think this channel is where i saw that game in the first place! XD
i have never understood why people keep saying install prey in SSD. i play it in a mechanical disk and got 10 seconds loading times at most in the epic version. that might have been true on lauch but i never have that problem and my isnt exactly new hardware.
The funniest thing that my friends and I thought that E.Y.E is a cool game with a very interesting vertical gameplay, on sursa uh, then I with durgon could not even guess how many hours of hell different builds and incredibly incomprehensible gameplay to survive the first sim was passed almost without guides, as we ourselves realized that the game plans to throw us on the 2nd round and then we passed 3 times and until we realized that already got the truth of the ending was cool!
Hey cat dude, do you plan to or have you done a video on Colony ship? Seems like a game that would fit this channel.
Came here for a cat trying to open a box and stayed for immersive sims
The only game I’ve played on this list is cruelty squad and I beat trauma loop twice. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I still play it.
I played EYE before any of the others. Hell, I played it before even knowing what an immersive sim was and it was the only game I had for a while.
I became one with the cycles of guilt
How would you rank "Ready or Not"?
Borderline?
Since its FPS its highly immersive and it really feels like a SWAT Sim and not just a shooter.
Lol what if I said eye was the first im-sim I played when I was like 13, and was super confused but just enamored by it
well i know you didnt play or review the IO Hitman games, but those would firmly fit in the first category alongside Dishonored and Deathloop, atleast in my book gameplay wise the give me the same vibe
i would reccomend you check em out at some point
4:00 the sequel even has a "powerless mode" and the epilogue game pretty much is a required version of that mode.
Chonkelus the Great is here and ready to party. Let's goooooo....
No matter what im-sim I play, my style is always the same!
(SAVE SCUM TO SUCCESS, BABYYYYYY!!!)
😎😎😎😎😎😎
I think my first imsim was Deus Ex. I'm old and that game was a GOAT game if you were a PC gamer.
stay out of the house is a top tier horror im sim, don’t sleep on it
My favorite played: Dishonored, Prey, Bioshock, and if it counts Kingdome Come D
The best immersive sims to start with are Cruelty Squad, Brigand: Oaxaca and Ctrl+Alt+Ego
My legs are ok
you gain brozouf.
you gain brozouf.
you gain brozouf.
you gain brozouf.
you gain brozouf.
I would love to play Cruelty Squad but I really need my eyes working properly.
I really agree with this list, though I think deus ex revision is perfectly fine for a first play through.
also always love your sign off
understandable, the only reason I said *not* to do it on your first go-round is so that you can appreciate all the work that went into revision. Probably should have made that more clear, lol.
@@CharlatanWonder also a good reason, just don't want to see someone waste all their points on swimming when it's only good for like 2 missions lol
How did I not know about the Malkavian mod for Deus Ex? This will be fun :D
I got bounced off by E.Y.E really bad, but that was a decade ago, so maybe I'm ready to to try again.
Another name I like to call Prey is Neuro Shock
Still kinda sad that basically all immersive sims can be covered in 1 relatively short video (last video)
Have you ever heard of Shadows of Doubt? If so, do you think it counts as an imsim or is it more of an imsim-adjacent detective game?
lolololololol. It was brought up in the last video and I made a video about it when it launched into EA.
I love Imsims, as you put it, but my one gripe in all of them is every choice comes down to "combat" or "boring". You always get the s**t ending for combat, and the good one for boring. Thanks for mentioning EYE Divine Cybermancy, BTW. I've been playing that game for years and I still have no clue as to what the hell is going on in it.