The immersive sim is one of the most revered genres in the gaming community, and for good reason. Most of the games in this genre are full to the brim with innovative gameplay mechanics, stellar level design, and some of the best interactivity ever seen in a video game. A great example to illustrate the power and allure of immersive sims is none other than Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Serving as a prequel to the events of Deus Ex, Human Revolution puts players in the shoes of Adam Jensen, a mechanically-augmented agent who accomplishes a number of missions using his state-of-the-art augmentations to tackle any threat that may come in his way. The game is truly a blast to play through, and people who finish this title off would obviously want to try out more games in the genre.
So, to scratch the itch that Deus Ex: Human Revolution may have left behind, here are ten other titles that players should definitely try out.
10 Alien: Isolation
Very few games based on movies have managed to truly be even subpar, let alone excellent. However, Alien: Isolation is an exception to this golden rule, featuring some truly heart-pounding gameplay and some of the best AI programming seen in a video game.
Being stalked by the Alien in the game is always a nerve-wracking experience... especially since said Alien actually learns from what the player does and prevents players from doing the same thing twice.
9 Project: Snowblind
There was a time when Crystal Dynamics was originally going to make a game in the Deus Ex franchise, before those plans were scrapped and the studio decided to develop a brand new title using what they'd learned up to that point.
The result was a title by the name of Project: Snowblind, which turned out to be an excellent game in its own right that any fan of immersive sims should play, especially given the game's close ties with the Deus Ex series.
8 Strife
Most people haven't heard of the game Strife, a title that was released in 1996 and applied numerous innovative mechanics that would become a staple of immersive sims in the future.
The idea of combining role-playing elements with first-person shooter gameplay was extremely innovative for its time, and most people consider Deus Ex to be heavily inspired by this title in all the right ways. So, for connoisseurs of immersive sim games, playing Strife is a must to experience the birth of a now-successful genre.
7 We Happy Few
We Happy Few was anticipated for the longest time, mainly due to the similarities it had to another game that we will talk about soon. However, upon launch, most people were disappointed by this title, mainly due to the slew of technical problems that the game was facing.
However, as of right now, one can actually recommend We Happy Few as a fairly decent title that does justice to the immersive sim moniker. Most of the bugs have been fixed now, and the narratives present in the game are actually impressive and worth playing through.
6 BioShock
Of course, the hype for We Happy Few would've been non-existent had it not been for the parallels that people were drawing to another legendary series that has etched its name in the annals of gaming history — BioShock.
Trying to recommend a single title in this series can be somewhat challenging, which is why players who have never tried this series before should definitely play the entire BioShock series to experience what is easily one of the greatest trilogies in gaming history.
And yes — BioShock 2 is included in this label as well.
5 Dishonored
It would be impossible to talk about immersive sims without mentioning Arkane Studios, one of the biggest pioneers in the gaming industry when it comes to modernizing the immersive sim genre for a new generation of gamers.
While the studio has been active for quite some time now, the game that actually put them on the map was Dishonored, a brilliant stealth-action role-playing game that puts players in the shoes of Corvo as he tries to clear his name and save Emily.
While the original Dishonored was excellent in its own right, Dishonored 2 ended up improving on pretty much everything from its predecessor, serving as the perfect definition of a sequel that truly kicks things up a notch.
4 Prey
Of course, Arkane Studios didn't just stop with Dishonored — they also developed the reboot of Prey which was also excellent in every way as well.
Roaming the isolated halls of Talos-I as Morgan Yu is truly a mesmerizing experience indeed, making the act of defeating each and every Typhon on the ship a task that's equally exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.
3 S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
However, while Prey might be an atmospheric title with its fair share of horrors, one can't exactly call the game challenging. That moniker would be more apt for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, which is considered by many to be one of the most challenging open-world games they've ever played.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are not for anyone looking for a laid-back experience — every step that the player takes in hostile territory is truly nerve-wracking, forcing players to calculate every step they take so that they can either avoid encounters altogether or deal with these enemies without wasting too many precious resources.
2 Thief
Of course, it would be impossible to talk about immersive sims like Deus Ex without mentioning one of the pioneers in the genre. The Thief series might have a bad reputation right now because of the fourth entry, but there's no denying the fact that its predecessors are truly brilliant titles that are worth anyone's time.
The first three Thief games are a must-play for anyone who's even remotely interested in the genre — especially Thief II: The Metal Age, which is considered by many to be one of the greatest games ever made.
1 Deus Ex
It's fairly obvious that any person who loved Deus Ex: Human Revolution would also fall in love with the original Deus Ex, a revolutionary game that somehow is still more complex than Human Revolution — a title that was released more than a decade after the first game in the series!
Playing through Deus Ex for the first time is an experience that one should savor. While the graphics aren't anything spectacular — which can also be mitigated with mods — people who are willing to look past the only problem with Deus Ex will be able to enjoy what is easily one of the greatest video games of all time.