You know what an FPS is. It’s Half-Life. It’s Doom. And you can readily list the central features of an RPG and point to some easy examples. But what is an immersive sim? Between Deathloop, Dishonored, and the 2017 version of Prey, the genre has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. And yet, it still feels like the immersive sim could be anything. We know these games are meant to have a story affected by player choice. We know they should have RPG or RPG-lite mechanics. But ‘immersive sim’ feels like an aggregate term for games that combine other genres. If we don’t know what it is, how can we push it forward? Speaking to PCGamesN, Warren Spector, Greg LoPiccolo, and David McDonough of Otherside think they have the answer with their new game Thick As Thieves.

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