Why Level Design Matters More In Immersive Sims Than In Other Genres

Level design is a crucial aspect of every game, but Immersive Sims live or die by it more than any other genre.

Immersive Sims have a long, interesting history within the gaming industry. It's a style of game with an ardent fanbase that devours every entry that dares to follow the mythic footsteps of titles like System Shock and Deus Ex while being incredibly difficult to define. Immersive Sim, as a term, is typically referred to as a genre, but it would be more accurate to think of it as a game design ideology. For clear examples of what that ideology is, the run of releases from Arkane Studios from Dishonored to Death Loop is the quintessential ideal for ImmSim game design.

Typically, when someone refers to a game having ImmSim elements, they mean that there are independent systems interacting with each other in ways that the developer didn't intend directly. This isn't inaccurate; that is a key feature, but something that matters more than the systemic emergent gameplay is the level design for those systems to play out in.

The Level Should Be Engaging Even In Wireframe

One of the core tenets of the Immersive Sim is its first-person perspective. The player will typically be playing as a set character, but the aim is to immerse the player as much as possible, and the point of view is key in this. Being in first-person also means that pathing needs to be signaled differently, making it so that developers have to be more creative in how they lay out the levels.

Stealth and open combat both have to be viable options, so every space has to be made with multiple routes and mindsets to accommodate the various ways players may want to progress. This is where ImmSims benefit from not being an open world but more of an open building — multiple routes within a limited space. Players are still restricted in how far away from danger they can be or from what angle they can approach obstacles. Developers can use choke points full of enemies or alarms while deviously hiding air ducts or other means of progress within the bounding box of the environment.

The Ur-Example of engaging wireframe design is Deus Ex (2000). Its opening mission of Liberty Island is absolutely full of engaging level design. The player begins on a dock and can immediately go off course and explore underwater to find caches of ammo and supplies before moving onto the level proper. The player can go straight through the enemy forces, and the game will play like a substandard FPS, but exploring off of the beaten path is where Deus Ex shines. The entire island is a designed space that is made with the player in mind. Details like the sunken boat that the player may or may not uncover to the north reveal the intentionality of the team at Ion Storm and their drive to make every space a meaningful one.

A more recent example would be Arkane's Death Loop. At first glance, the game seems somewhat limited in only having four locations to explore, but as the player progresses through the day, each location begins to change and reveal new details. The player must make their way through towns, live fire laser tag, a laboratory sprawled across a glacier, and more. Virtually every inch of Black Reef is explorable, and it's difficult to take the same path twice. The topography only becomes more complicated and engaging as the player's traversal abilities grow, opening more ways around and through obstacles that the game presents.

Both Enemies And Environments Should Present Engaging Obstacles

Another important aspect of level design for Immersive Sims is how and what it chooses as obstacles for the player. More than just enemy or hazard placement, there are times when an ImmSim can feel like a kind of first-person puzzle platformer mixed with a detective game.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided uses a main hub fashioned after a dystopian cyberpunk version of Prague. As Adam Jensen, the player must make their way to various locations within a densely detailed section of the city to start different missions. Even though it's not a combat dungeon, at least until the end of the game, there are plenty of obstacles for Jensen to move through that aren't just gunning down the opponent. There is a security checkpoint where the officer is charging thousands of credits for augmented humans to pass through. If Jensen has the correct augments or the player has been observant enough, he can sneak over top of the checkpoint. Or the player can choose to go on a side quest where not only is the officer exposed and dealt with by his more upstanding comrades, but the entire ring of subterfuge and exploitation can be dealt with.

The original release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution notoriously punished passive/stealth builds by shunting players into boss battles that would be impossible to beat without the proper firepower. What Human Revolution did correctly, though, was having levels that rewarded any build that was possible. It was more than possible for a player to ghost through an entire building without bumping into a single enemy with stealth and hacking at their disposal. It also rewarded the gun-blazing approach with interesting combat arenas that provided ample cover while also giving secret vents and pathways around danger.

Every Approach Is The Right One In An Immersive Sim

Immersive Sims, for all of their ambition and scope, have struggled with delivering on the promise made by Deus Ex's Liberty Island. Most will eventually funnel the player into one path or the other by the end and inadvertently punish certain builds in the same way that Human Revolution had upon release. Both System Shock games rely on the player being able to dish out enough damage to fight their way through the final hours, while Deathloop ditches nonlethal play-throughs entirely and makes the game only about eliminating targets (albeit in a variety of interesting locations and ways). Deus Ex: Mankind Divided goes a long way in righting the ship toward letting every approach be viable without diluting the individuality of every path forward but stumbles in its variability in what the finale is. Every player will experience the same ending, no matter what.

The Immersive Sim that has come the closest to giving every approach the proper amount of engagement, though, is Arkane's Prey (2017). As Morgan Yu, the player will explore the massive space station of Talos I, a station that is nearly recreated 1:1 in its interior and exterior scale. An invasive alien threat has infected the station, and the player is given an arsenal of both weaponry and powers to deal with them how they see fit.

More interestingly, though, are the non-lethal "weapons" and tools that are at the player's disposal. When the foam dart bow caster is first discovered in Prey (2017), it's easy to dismiss as a joke or a very ineffective tool for distracting enemies. But every dart fired is a physics object in the game, meaning that it can be used to tactically set off traps that the player or enemies have laid or can even unlock doors through a window if the player's aim is good enough. Even if players haven't found the off-brand Nerf gun, Prey (2017) also offers the Mimic ability. Security checkpoints and most offices have a small opening that the player — if they can transform into something small enough — can simply roll through or under. These options, plus more, afforded to the player effectively make every door a puzzle with more than one solution or key to solve it.

Immersive Sims Are Looking Forward By Looking Back

Arkane Studios, arguably the best in the business at crafting Immersive Sims, has moved further from the design philosophy with both Deathloop and Redfall. Certain elements remain, such as the intricate environment design, but lack the systems and options that make the complex levels of ImmSims sing. Night Dive Studios, though, has just released a remake of the first System Shock on PC, with a release on consoles scheduled for the (hopefully) near future. This remake of a game that was mostly forgotten over time was met with a surge of popularity and success that bodes well for ImmSims. Perhaps by reintroducing the classics that birthed the idea, the design philosophy of Immersive Sims could see the success that it deserves.