We found this list in the ladies restroom

The immersive sim has seen a revival in recent years.

But given everything that has come since, is that still the case?

Only one way to find out: make a big list.

The heroes of Deus Ex, Dishonored, Prey, and Deathloop are arranged on an orange background.

The “immersive sim” is also hard to define.

I’m tempted to call it “any game with flushable toilets” and leave it at that.

But that’s not quite right.

A group of four unsettling figures crowds the player in a garish purple room.

Buuuuuut these are also somewhat woolly terms.

I’d actually be fine with that…) Whatever.

Sometimes it’s best not to overthink these things.

Citizens use their umbrellas in a rainy, neon lit street corner in Shadows Of Doubt

For a lot of the list, I’ve just gone with my gut.

The best immersive sims on PC

Here’s the list in short.

If your scrolling finger isn’t functional, no worries.

Two feral vampires approach the player in a run-down apartment building.

Just click a title below to head straight to that game.

In our review Nic called it “a maximum effort shitpost wearing a puke stained Rainbow Six t-shirt.”

Your view is surrounded by a clammy frame at all times.

Soldiers blockade the road and fire at an enemy near a doorway.

The mismatching textures assault your eyes.

you could, at any time, buy and sell human organs on the stock market.

you could invest in an “ammunition gland” that generates bullets continuously.

A watchman swings an axe with an overhead swing at a humanoid bat creature.

One of the most expensive items in the game’s menu is a house in the countryside.

I do not necessarily recommend that youplayCruelty Squad.

But, before we move on to more conventional imm-sims, I do demand that you acknowledge it.

A humanoid alien advances in the System Shock Remake

Some of these people are murderers.

This is where you come in.

Financial transactions, broken windows, telling emails, secret notes.

The player is attacked by spidery black creatures in a space station corridor.

If an immersive sim is partly defined by the emergent nonsense of its systems, then this surely qualifies.

Right, that’s what I thought.

But we can hope.

Guards squinting in bright sunlight chase down and confront the player, brandishing swords and pistols.

But it did ripple.

“I get you!”

she yelled at the locked gates of the town.

Adam Jensen stands facing away from a large wall filled with glowing TV screens.

“I want to throw more decapitated heads as lures!”

But theSystem Shockremake is a different kind of modernised memorial.

But the enemies in this sprawling space station have the same powers of mimicry and may be hiding anywhere.

Julianna punches Colt in a Deathloop screenshot.

Which turns the huge, explorable space into a sci-fi jumpscare factory.

A glue gun makes virtually any wall climbable with enough patience, for instance.

The fantasy stab ‘em up is downright greedy when it comes to great level design.

The Clockwork Mansion puts the player into a space that is constantly shifting and changing.

I’m weirdly fond of the opening level, with its sunny docks and narrow streets.

you could practically smell the place.

But whatever the environment, you commonly explore it from an almost animal-like perspective.

Karnaca is a city built to creep within.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

What else should I play if I like this?Cyberpunk 2077, no?

There’s a bank in downtown Prague that is begging to be infiltrated inDeus Ex: Mankind Divided.

With enough time (and gathering of various hacking and wall-bashing skills) your wish will be granted.

And this is not even counting the executive safes up top.

A sublimely designed town ripe for cyberpunk subterfuge.

WithDeathloop, they said: “nah, fuck that.”

Here you will finally manage to shake off that bad habit.

No save scumming here, friend.

The game will reset thingsfor you.

It makes things so much better.

Like the Prague of Deus Ex Mankind Divided, so much is done with relatively little sapce.