LOOKING AHEAD
Upcoming immersive sims
importance to us, then it is setting as theme,” Thomas
says). But your objectives are randomly generated, and
aspects of the neighbourhood will move about each time
you play, such as where vehicles are parked.
At the same time, however, there are elements that are
clearly inspired by the Looking Glass heritage, such as an
emphasis on stealth, and using tools to distract,
manipulate or overcome your enemies. The teens can
prank call inhabitants under the spell of the malevolent
force that controls them, forcing them to stop in place, or
trick them into opening a door or taking out another
enemy. But unlike traditional immersive sims, where the
player is a single, all powerful entity, players will have to
work together to stay alive.
“In a lot of immersive sims in the
past, people have their weapon hand
and their magic hand, and by combining
the properties of each of those, they
were able to create novel effects or
expressions. In this case, a lot of those
sort of instruments in the orchestra are
individual people,” says Thomas. In
other words, one player is the weapon
hand, while another is the magic hand.
Rather than treat the immersive sim
as a holistic design philosophy, a
formula to make a perfect game,
Question is taking the principles that are relevant to its
idea and infusing them within that new structure. “We
feel that the immersive sim was really a little snobby
about the primacy of narrative for a long time,” Thomas
points out. “We believe you can have a convincing setting
that has much to say, but that it’s not bolting you into the
Clockwork Orange chair and force-feeding you the story
content.”NARRATIVE FIRST
But there are other games also borrowing from immersive
sim ideals but emerging from the opposite direction,
where story content is prized above all.The Occupationis
being developed by White Paper Games, creator of the
narrative puzzlerEther One. It’s set in an alternate ’80s
Britain that’s sliding towards authoritarianism, and sees
you play a journalist investigating a bombing at a
corporation that deals with immigration.
LikeEther One,The Occupationis a narrative-focussedHow you change that ending is through investigation,
by sneaking into offices and other areas of the complex,
collecting documents and reading their contents. As you
do this, you’ll build up questions that you can ask other
characters, and the more you dig around, the juicier those
questions will be. But you can only do so much in those
four hours, so you’ll have to prioritise where you go, who
you speak to, and which questions you ask.
For example, in the middle of the game there’s a
meeting you’re scheduled to attend. You could simply go
to that meeting at the allotted time and ask your standard
questions, or you could dig around for evidence that you
can use to catch your interviewees out. But there’s also a
third way, which is that you don’t go to
the meeting at all. All of those options
will push the narrative in different
directions. Whereas most narrative
adventures revolve around set objects
and scripted events, The Occupation is
intended to be a constantly moving
thing.
Another key aspect of The
Occupation’s evolution is the presence
of onscreen characters – a rare sight in
such narrative games due to how
difficult they are to create with small
teams. This, in turn, means that new
systems, like sneaking, become a viable prospect. Indeed,
stealth and getting caught in The Occupation is fascinating.
Rather than being attacked as you would in Thief, the
ecurity guards of The Occupation will simply take you
nto a room, give you a telling off, and then increase the
ecurity in that area. But all of this will cost you time.
You can miss out on a timed event that was gonna
appen. So say 15 minutes has passed, that thing that was
oing to happen in five minutes has already happened and
ou’ve missed it, so you have to find an alternative route.
Which I think lends itself to the immersive sim genre,”
ottomley explains.
But does White Paper Games think of The Occupation
as an immersive sim? “We don’t know, yet,” says
Bottomley. “We have systems-driven gameplay and a
focus on the worldbuilding ... and using systems and
the world to get to your objectives. But again, we don’t
ecessarily have RPG upgrade elements. So does that
make it an immersive sim? Is that okay?”
adventure, but it has a much more
simulated core than its predecessor.
“Our biggest challenge was to get our
narrative drive through a systems-
driven world,” says Pete Bottomley,
creative director onThe Occupation.
“We try to build a believable fiction, a
believable location, and peoples’ lives
are all part of this contained
environment, and then we set up the
interacting systems within that to
help try and tell the story.”
One of the most interesting
aspects ofThe Occupationis that its
world runs autonomously of the
player. The game takes place over a
four-hour period, and after that the
game ends. Even if the player sits and
does nothing, things will still be
happening within the game itself, and
there will be an ending. “There is a
way it’s going to go. But can you
change it?” Bottomley asks.It’s an exciting answer, and one
that summarises where immersive
sims are right now. We’re seeing
developers pushing towards the same
ideas from different angles. From
veterans with unfinished business, to
creators making their dream game, to
developers like White Paper Games,
who almost accidentally slid into the
space from something entirely
removed from the heritage of
Looking Glass and Ion Storm.
“The term immersive sim as a
kitchen sink, all inclusive genre of
design is no longer particularly
meaningful, because a lot of other
designers and developers have found
a way to incorporate simulation,”
Jordan Thomas concludes. “So unless
you’re a die-hard first-person
fetishist, or a kind of committed snob,
it may be that those walls are worth
tearing down now.”SYSTEM
SHOCK 3
We haven’t said
much aboutSystem
Shock 3,mostlyasit
won’t launch until
afterUnderworld
Ascendant,butthe
return of SHODAN in
aShocksequel from
Warren Spector
should be enough to
getanyfanexcited.WILDFIRE
Can an immersive
sim be 2D? Some
would argue not, but
it can at least apply
the principles of the
genre’s design.
Wildfirecasts you as
athief/magetype
who explores a
nonlinear world that
is highly responsive
to your magic.PROJECT C
This is the upcoming
game headed by
Randy Smith, the
creative director of
Thief: Deadly
Shadows.Itisn’t
strictly an immersive
sim, however it will
be heavily influenced
by many of the
ideas embodied by
the genre.WE’RE SEEING DEVS
PUSHING TOWARDS THE
SAME IDEAS FROM
DIFFERENT ANGLES
The Future of Immersive Sims
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