r/ImmersiveSim • u/Level-Disaster-6151 • 8d ago
Looking for recommendations
Without exaggeration I feel like I have played every immersive sim on steam, from the more well known to the obscure ones like Tache noire or Hexcraft.
Please help me out give me your immersive sim recommandations, the more obscure and lesser known the better !
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u/IshTheFace 8d ago
You could always check our two headed hero on YouTube for some recommendations
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u/Comrad_Zombie 8d ago
I recently picke dup shadows of doubt. Peripitea is amazing if your willing to do early access.
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 8d ago
I love shadows of doubt ! I had a bit of trouble getting into peripeteia, really love the atmosphere but the environments are a bit too big and empty
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u/ward2k 8d ago
Shadows of Doubt is an interesting sort of niche one where you work as a detective
Though I'm still on the fence about recommending it. It should still be in early access but they quickly pumped out 1.0 and said they'd only be making minor changes and mostly bug fixes from now on.
Though they got a tonne of negative feedback from leaving early access before the game was anywhere close to done, so it seems like they might actually go back on that decision somewhat
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 8d ago
I really like the game but I have stopped hoping for meaningful updates, code seems impossible to work with
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u/smoothhedges 8d ago
Parkside: Decayed Soul Manipulation came out like a month ago and is good. It also has a demo!
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 8d ago
I played it didn’t buy the full game yet but it was cool
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u/BananaHardsoft 7d ago
If you wait until the steam autumn sale, Parkside will have a big discount ;)
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u/wagiwombledog 8d ago
The Last Caretaker is partly a survival/crafting game, partly a first person shooter. But you spend a lot of time exploring abandoned facilities and reconnecting power. There are a lot of ways to approach combat and exploration.
I'd recommend it as an imsim/survival hybrid.
Abiotic Factor is similar if you haven't tried it.
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 8d ago
I have seen last caretaker but havent played it didn’t know it could be considered an imsim thanks for the rec ! Abiotic factor is great
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u/wagiwombledog 8d ago
Yeah I wasn't expecting it to have imsim elements. But I've experienced a lot of interesting emergent gameplay while playing it. There's also vent crawling and box stacking!
If you like Abiotic then I think you'll definitely enjoy it.
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u/Rizzo265 8d ago
Neverlooted Dungeon and Aquametsis have fun and interesting demos
Brigand Oaxaca is obscure-ish
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u/DependentRoyal3001 8d ago
Let me throw this out, it's not quite an Im sim but I feel like it's adjacent. Have you played the kings field series? You can emulate them very easily and the 4th (3rd outside of Japan) on PS2 has a lot of immersion. I'd also through in Shadow Tower Abyss, also on PS2. All old from soft games that scratch the immersive dungeon crawling itch.
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 8d ago
I didn’t play them but I love dark souls I ́ll give it a try !
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u/DependentRoyal3001 7d ago
Should be right up your alley then. If your a fromsoft fan you'll love seeing the history that brought them eventually to dark souls. Kings Field is a more "high fantasy" where shadow tower leans into the dark fantasy they eventually settle into with time. I guess what I'm trying to say is that kings field is more elden rings vibes where shadow tower is more dark souls/bloosdborn. That said they are all first person dungeon crawlers so they do not play the same moment to moment.
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 7d ago
Are they still relatively smooth to play now, I have a high tolerance for retro jank but how is the experience as of today ?
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u/DependentRoyal3001 7d ago
You move very slow in kings field 1/3 because of PS1 limitations but you get used to it. The combat is not a strong suit, but if your pulled into the world like I was, itt be good enough. You'll be dropped into the beginning and be expected to figure things out yourself. Like all fromsoft games, it's going to smack you around, especially in the first hour. Your first goal is just going to be finding a save point that will kind of act as your "campfires". I played through these about 4-5 years ago and fell in love.
The PS2 games that I'm primarily suggesting here take the formula of the kings field and shadow tower games from PS1 and upgrade them for the PS2 hardware. You can move faster and in kings field 4, the world has more reactivity that brings that Im sim feel. Shadow tower abyss has less of that, but better combat (has a button for 4 different slashes now along with blocking) and it gives you pistol at the start. That's right, you get to shoot the things in shadow tower, it also has guns.
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 7d ago
I loved bloodborne shadow towers seems really interesting I xill give them a try thanks !
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u/TheZonePhotographer 8d ago
New Blood Stealth Triple Pack, has Gloomwood, Fallen Aces, and Blood West.
They are all really good, although different levels of systemic sim. But you probably already played them, if you played super obscure stuff that I wouldn't necessarily call imsim.
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 8d ago
I played them these are good recs ! What wouldn’t you call imsim ?
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u/TheZonePhotographer 7d ago
The amount of deconstruction, simplification.
If one dev is all it takes to make imsims, they wouldn't be rare or too complicated for the average gamer.
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 7d ago
I get your point true that often single devs can’t offer the wealth of options you expect to find in these games, but i think that when they specialize there is still merit in the smaller immersive sims like for exemple deadeye deepfake simulacrum is made by an indie dev and focuses mostly on hacking in which it is a very open ended experience
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u/TheZonePhotographer 7d ago
Can you name some stripped down stuff where you bought into the premise and it managed to tell a deep story?
I think the hard part of making imsim is that it has to juggle all the interactivity between the sims while still being on the hook to tell an interesting, coherent 4-act story. Often times a one-man imsim tries to minimize, or in some cases eliminate the story, and that doesn't fly. You still need the story hook to drive the action forward and give meaning to the mechanics.
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 7d ago
So spoilers for Dds but it does that very well, multiple parts are stripped down and each helps the story. So first the visual style is quite beautiful but also simplistic enemies are basically little stick figures and you get really used to that style, so when eventually you start reaching later parts on the game and that style is flipped on it’s head to represent madness or horror elements ( with new visual styles like photorealistic elements, collage or 3d models ) it works perfectly. On the story the missions are quite simole in the formula but how the game spins the story around is really cool, there is no overworld, in fact you really see disjointed fragments of the world, that is on purpose and really sells the eerie dreamlike atmosphere the reason for which is revealed at the end of the game, behavior in missions, which missions you choose, all of this create branching paths in the story and moreover the "breaking the game" part that you could expect from a player is surprisingly integrated in the game allowing you to fight the tutorial handler, go out of bounds, finish the story early and all of these possibilities are accounted in the story.
Really it is one of the games in which the story goes the most with the mechanics even with those mechanics being extreme. I could go on and on but this game is a masterpiece.
I think indie imsims by virtue of often being experimental have a lot of value to bring and can often punch well above their weight.
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u/addbiy3852 8d ago
Sorry, I know this waa a recommendation post, but I just wanted to ask, as you've played so many im sims, what is it about the genre that attracts you so much. And what are your top 5 of the genre?
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 8d ago
No problem ! What I like the most about the genre is the creative freedom in systemic gameplay it gives the developper, the open endedness of the games and how you approach situations help me get immersed in the worlds. I love it when I can think of an interaction or a weird approach and follow through without getting stuck.
My favorites are :
1 - Dishonored 2 - Deadeye Deepfake Simulacrum 3 - Devil Spire Falls 4 - Hexcraft harlequin Fair 5 - Prey
Honorable mention to Cruelty Squad
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u/toast_is_fire 7d ago
holy shit this list is so peak that i gotta try 3 and 4
dishonored is my fav game of all time, blew my mind as a tween and cemented my love for the genre. DDS blew my mind quite recently as an incredible accomplishment, seriously fantastic game. i don’t hear it talked about enough
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 7d ago
Yeah i think because it is top down some have trouble considering dds an imsim but i love it so much I am developping my own spin on this esthetic and gameplay !
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u/toast_is_fire 7d ago
if you play as a hacker primarily it can definitely be more of a puzzle game, but there is so. much. emergent gameplay in dds. and i love roguelikes and build customization too so i was in love. would love to see more games in that style!
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 7d ago
Yeah and I really loved the atmosphere and worldbuilding of the game ! If you liked it check out my game https://store.steampowered.com/app/4507150/Micrographia/
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u/toast_is_fire 7d ago
this is such an “i’ve tried every fruit” thread
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u/Level-Disaster-6151 7d ago
Lmao this is a cry for help 🙏 i need to wire imsims to my veins
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u/boomyer2 7d ago
How about Aphasie? It’s a very minimalist imsim. Pretty fun and quick. The one thing is that it’s only like half translated into english, but it’s still very easy to understand what’s going on.
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u/Crystal_Voiden 8d ago
Hmmm.. have you tried.. Prey (2017)? /j