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Action

Immersive sim

You move through a world made of consistent systems (physics, stealth, AI, abilities) that react to each other, and solve each situation your own way: fighting, sneaking or finding a way out nobody scripted.

Also known as: immersive simulation

This is a basic entry: it has the definition and the classification. Full entries add history, games and a demo.

History

  1. 1992
    Origin

    Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992) is considered the first game with all the genre's elements, according to Warren Spector and others.

    Immersive sim (Wikipedia)
  2. 1998

    Thief: The Dark Project defines the first-person stealth approach that inspires many later games.

    Action-adventure game (Wikipedia)
  3. 2000

    Warren Spector is credited with the term «immersive sim» in his post-mortem of Deus Ex.

    Immersive sim (Wikipedia)

Reference games

1998

Thief: The Dark Project

Looking Glass Studios. Windows

You are a thief robbing a dark city, seeing the world in first person. An indicator shows how much light falls on you and guards hear your footsteps depending on the floor you walk on, so light and sound are your main tools.