-
2016 has been an interesting year, all things
considered, but nothing has caught me by surprise
-
quite like the comeback of the "immersive
sim".
-
Deus Ex is getting a fourth game later this
month, and Harvey Smith is making another
-
Thief-like stealth game at Arkane Studios.
Which is also making a new Prey game which
-
is said to be a spiritual successor to System
Shock 2.
-
Which is getting an actual successor courtesy
of Warren Spector, who is also helping Paul
-
Neurath make an unofficial sequel to Ultima
Underworld. And the first System Shock is
-
getting a remake, too.
-
But if you haven't heard of those games, or
haven't heard of those names, or you're wondering
-
what the hell an immersive sim is and want
to know why should we care that it's getting
-
a huge revival, then... this is Game Maker's
Toolkit, I'm Mark Brown, and in this episode
-
we're looking at the rise, fall and return
of a truly fascinating game design philosophy.
-
You can't talk about immersive sims without
first talking about 1992's Ultima Underworld:
-
The Stygian Abyss. A.k.a the most influential
game you've never played. Its 3D engine prompted
-
John Carmack to write a better one and make
Wolfenstein 3D, and putting an RPG into that
-
3D world inspired Bethesda to do the same
with the first Elder Scrolls game.
-
But Underworld's standout feature was using
clever systems, artificial intelligence, and
-
even rudimentary physics to try and simulate
a believable space that wasn't completely
-
predetermined by the developer.
-
The overarching design goal was to give players
unique stories, and then let them come up with
-
personal solutions to quests, much like in
a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Only, replace
-
the human dungeon master with a complex nest
of intertwining systems.
-
The game's developer, Looking Glass Studios,
would explore this idea of simulated spaces
-
and player agency in all of its major games.
-
System Shock took Ultima into outer space,
and killed off all the humans to avoid those
-
immersion-breaking conversations. Thief used
advanced artificial intelligence and open-plan
-
design to forge one of the first proper stealth
games. And at Ion Storm Austin, ex-Looking
-
Glass staffers mixed System Shock's shooting
with Thief's sneaking for the incredible Deus Ex.
-
Or Dooz Ex, as you called it in the year 2000.
Don't lie. You totally did.
-
So what is an immersive sim? What ties all
these games together, and makes them different
-
from the other first person games being made
around the same time? Well here are my, personal,
-
tenets of what makes these games special.
-
Immersive sims, for one, offer high levels
of agency.
-
Which means you can achieve goals in multiple
ways, and pick your own routes, tactics, and
-
gameplay style. The designers tell you what
to do - like, break into Lord Bafford's Manor
-
and swipe his sceptre in Thief - but doesn't
tell you how to do it.
-
The designers provide a large open space,
perhaps a handful of predetermined routes
-
that support different playstyles, and often
some suggestions for how you can finish your
-
mission. But the rest is up to you.
-
To avoid overwhelming the player with choices,
your options are sometimes limited by decisions
-
you made earlier. In System Shock 2 you can
only carry so many items, and you can only
-
use the powers you've installed and the skills
you've developed, so sometimes it's about
-
finding the path that matches the playstyle
you're developing, rather than randomly picking
-
new ones for every moment.
-
Immersive sims are also highly systemic.
-
Most games are heavily scripted. Crazy stuff
happens when you stand on invisible triggers,
-
characters play one-off animations at specific
bits, and obstacles in the game world just
-
do exactly what they need to do in that moment,
and nothing more.
-
Immersive sims, however, are built from systems.
So elements have globally defined characteristics
-
which means every alarm post works the same
way, every torch can be extinguished, and
-
while different doors might have different
properties, they're all based off the same
-
generic door mould.
-
There are also endless rules that the world
follows. Enemies can find you based on sight
-
and sound, and will then run off and trigger
an alarm. Footsteps sound louder on tiled
-
floors, turrets shoot who you tell them to
shoot, and objects fall when pushed. Remember:
-
physics were still novel back then.
-
For a neat example of scripting versus systems,
note how in Thief: The Dark Project, you can
-
attach rope arrows to any wooden surface.
Whereas In Thief 2014, which dropped a lot of
-
the emergent sim stuff you can only plunge your grapple into beams marked with white rope.
-
The less prescripted stuff means that immersive
sims can be emergent.
-
When two systems talk to each other, interesting
new behaviours can emerge.
-
These interlinking systems
give the player opportunities to come up with
-
smart, intentional strategies that exploit
the game's rules. Put a gas grenade on an
-
alarm and then let yourself be spotted, to
create a nasty trap. Coax this self-detonating enemy
-
near a fragile door, and then kill it, to open a passageway.
-
Emergent gameplay can also lead to a mad chain
reaction that you could not possibly predict,
-
and puzzle solutions that the developer simply
didn't foresee. Like using LAM mines - which
-
the player can safely stand on - as an endless
ladder to clamber up walls.
-
Immersive sims are consistent. They try to
avoid special cases and one-offs, and there
-
are rarely any failure states for anything
other than getting killed. You won't find
-
these games telling you to return to the mission
area, or making you restart the level because
-
an ally was killed in duty. The simulation
just continues.
-
There are limits, though. You can shoot any
character you like in Deus Ex, but you can't
-
just kill plot-relevant characters... until
you're actually allowed to.
-
And at that point, you'll find that immersive
sims are reactive.
-
The plot doesn't have to drastically change
to reflect your choices, but characters will
-
act in different ways and say different things
to reflect on your decisions. Even if you
-
thought no one would notice...
-
MANDERLEY: By the way, Denton, stay out of the ladies
restroom.
-
The games judge your actions during gameplay,
not in clearly designated choice sections.
-
Clint Hocking, who was inspired by immersive
sims with Far Cry 2, has said "by creating a
-
chain of influence that cascaded between the
narrative and the WASD keys, Deus Ex allowed
-
players to experience the repercussions of
their immediate input level actions as they
-
echoed upward into the very plot of the game".
-
So these are the tools that Looking Glass
and Ion Storm used to make games that felt
-
immersive. Not with photorealistic graphics
or by getting rid of the HUD, but by letting
-
go of the player's hand.
-
Deus Ex, for example, was "designed, from
the start, as a game about player expression,
-
not about how clever we were as designers,
programmers, artists, or storytellers" says
-
director Warren Spector. "The game was conceived
with the idea that we'd accept players as
-
our collaborators, that we'd put power back
in their hands, ask them to make choices,
-
and let them deal with the consequences of
those choices".
-
To those of us who played them, immersive
sims felt like the future. They let us do
-
what we wanted, they reacted to our decisions,
and they operated in spaces that acted more
-
like a simulation of a real place than a phoney
video game rollercoaster ride.
-
But there were, after all, only a few of us.
Deus Ex sold like 500,000 copies while Half
-
Life - equally brilliant, but for a very different
reason - shifted millions.
-
Deus Ex was a cult classic, not a landmark
title that would start a revolution.
-
Immersive sims muddled along with the forgettable
Deus Ex sequel Invisible War, the contentious
-
third Thief game Deadly Shadows, and the more
well received spiritual successor to Underworld,
-
Arx Fatalis. But the closure of Looking Glass
in 2000 and Ion Storm Austin in 2005, and
-
the booming blockbuster success of more linear
and scripted games, meant the design ethos
-
kinda went away.
-
It bubbled up here and there, mostly thanks
to new Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, as
-
well as BioShock from System Shock 2 designer
Ken Levine, and Eastern European efforts like
-
Pathologic out of Russia and STALKER out of
Ukraine.
-
But now, the genre seems to be making a triumphant
return as games and names and ideas from Looking
-
Glass and Ion Storm history have returned.
-
The new Deus Ex games are made by all new
people but are pretty faithful to the original
-
game, other than the crappy inconsistent boss
characters (who were mercifully changed in
-
the director's cut edition), and slightly
less scope for emergent gameplay. You'll get
-
plenty of that in Dishonored, though, which
comes from Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith.
-
This stealth games lets you juggle loads of
magic powers, and lots of interweaving systems,
-
to come up with unique ways to assassinate
your targets. It's also highly reactive to
-
your playstyle, with rats becoming more plentiful
if you choose to murder loads of guards.
-
And then there are all the upcoming games
I mentioned in the opener, which should be
-
very interesting. "While I've seen some efforts,
especially from the guys at Arkane, to sort
-
of extend the design philosophy of Looking
Glass - I'd like to go further with that,"
-
says Spector. "It's nice to
-
see more people trying, but I think there's
a ways we could go as well, in terms of empowering
-
players to tell their own stories. Those are
the directions I'm going to try to go in".
-
What I'm most excited by, is the opportunity
to update this old philosophy with the tech
-
and design of today.
-
Immersive sims really take advantage of, well, sims. Simulations. And games are now much better at
-
simulating crowds, artificial intelligence,
fire, weather, and physics.
-
This genre can also learn from other types
of games, and borrow stuff like
-
stories that
dramatically react to your actions like in
-
Shadow of Mordor. And yes, they can also benefit
from the photorealistic stuff to make these
-
worlds even more believable.
-
And going forward, there's VR: perhaps immersive
sims are the perfect match for virtual reality.
-
Indeed, even in the earliest days of Looking
Glass, the studio thought about future technology.
-
Major contributor Marc LeBlanc said "everyone
was hearing about how virtual reality was
-
coming and most people thought that virtual
reality was a hardware thing. We were kinda
-
coming at it from the software thing: if there's
going to be a virtual reality that you're
-
interacting with then it's gonna have to have
rules and a simulation and stuff like that".
-
But, ultimately, this a design ethos that
just needs to be explored further. Immersive
-
sims, with their system-driven worlds and
consistent behaviour - are never going to
-
be as flashy (or as profitable) as crazy,
scripted, rollercoaster rides. But
-
sims like Fallout and Deus Ex, and games with
similar design goals like Metal Gear Solid
-
V and Hitman, do something truly unique.
-
"Simulations allow players to explore not
just a space but a 'possibility space'," says
-
Warren Spector. "They can make their own fun,
tell their own stories, solve problems the
-
way they want, and see the consequences of
their choices. That's the thing that games
-
can do that no other medium in human history
has been able to do".
-
Thank you so much for watching. If you are
wondering where Boss Keys is, the episode
-
on Majora's Mask is up next. As for Game Maker's
Toolkit it is funded entirely by people on
-
Patreon, who are amazing and I want to thank
them all right now. But I'm going to give
-
a special, on screen shoutout to everyone
who donates $5 or more.