PC Gamer

ince 2011, PC gaming has been blesse

incredible second wave of high-conce

immersive sims. Starting with Deus E

Revolution, the last few years have se

Ex games, two Dishonored games, a n

Thief game, and Prey, which for all

intents and purposes is a spiritual

successor to System Shock. All of

these games embrace the ideals that

made Deus Ex, Thief and System Shock

so striking in the ’90s – emergent play,

player agency and complex level

design – reforged with new aesthetics

and exploring different ideas and

themes.

It’s been a wonderful ride, but that

second wave is now coming to an end.

Square Enix has shelved Deus Ex for the

foreseeable future, and the less-than-

stellar sales of both Dishonored 2 and

Prey means the future of Bethesda’s

immersive sims is currently uncertain.

We shouldn’t be too sad – it’s remarkable that these

games were made in the first place – but it does leave us

with the question of what the future holds for the

immersive sim.

The short answer is that the future is hugely exciting.

For the longer answer, we need to go right back to where

the immersive sim began.

immersive sims. Alongside Neurath, its employees include

Tim Stellmarch, the lead designer on Thief, and Warren

Spector. The studio is working on two games – System

Shock 3 and Underworld Ascendant, the sequel to what

was arguably the very first immersive sim. Yet despite

appearances, OtherSide is not about rekindling the past.

Rather, it is looking to continue Looking Glass’s

‘unfinished’ work. “We loved making those kinds of

games, but then when Looking Glass ended prematurely,

it cut off our ability to take those forward,” Neurath says.

ath has wanted to dive back into immersive sims,

opportunity never arose. “One of the things that

and I have talked about is, we’re very much into

reative risks,” he says. “It’s always been our MO,

ot scared to do things that haven’t been proven out

arket yet. But one of the things we’ve learned is

have to be selective about that. If you take risks

he board you’ll probably stumble and fall.”

quiring the rights to Underworld and System

as enabled OtherSide to continue the work it

d at Looking Glass. “By taking System Shock and

derworld forward, we’re starting with a known

rld, and characters and fiction which people like,

d then it frees us to get more creative and push

rd harder on the gameplay elements because we

we’ve got the anchor of the two franchises.”

hAscendant, the idea is to take the ideas featured

ma Underworld and its sequel, and explore them

in a new level of depth afforded by

technological advances and the team’s

experience in working on these kinds of

games. “When Ultima Underworld came

out in 1992, the PC technology was so

primitive. A smartphone could run

circles around a PC from 1992,” Neurath

says. “We drew [the graphics] in the

centre of the screen and put the UI all

around it to hide the fact that we

couldn’t do fullscreen. And even then,

you know, on a good day, we would

maybe run in the high-teen framerate.”

IMPROVING IMPROVISATION

OtherSide wants to take the power of modern PCs and

apply it to Ascendant at a systemic level. The result of this

is what the team dubs the “Improvisation Engine”, a

system whereby every object in the game is simulated

according to a series of universal rules, handing the player

the potential to solve in-game puzzles and problems in

IMMERSIVE ORIGINS

“I’ve been in the industry long

enough that you see these trends

come and go, certain genres become

hot for a few years and then they

tend to fade and something else pops

up,” explains Paul Neurath, founder

of OtherSide Entertainment and

creative director of Underworld

Ascendant. “I think any of these

genres has potential to be quite

popular and quite successful.

Certainly, fantasy RPGs have been

around since the start of gaming

and I think will be around for quite

a lot longer.”

OtherSide was forged out of the

shards of Looking Glass Studios – the

company that pioneered the very first

unique ways.

Some of these potential solutions

will be obvious and familiar to the

player. Underworld Ascendant

features the traditional fantasy trio of

swordfighting, magic and stealth, and

calls back to some the team’s earlier

work, such as its highly Thief-like

bow that shoots elemental arrows.

But players can equally forego these

systems and come up with solutions

not intended by the developers.

Neurath cites one example of a player

who tried out the game at PAX East:

“They went through the entire

training mission and solved every

single challenge and fought every

single monster only by throwing

apples,” he says.

Having what is essentially a

IMMERSIVE SIM INFLUENCE

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The Future of Immersive Sims

FEATURE