Starfield Dev's getting a little petty on social media

[UnknownSouljer]

Yes, in controversial highly debated political issues. Not in what genre a game belongs to. Why is it so hard to admit that Alien Isolation is an immersive sim? As well as a horror survival game. Those are not mutually exclusive.

They aren't mutually exclusive, but Alien Isolation is not an immersive sim. The hallmark of an immersive sim is being given a sandbox of tools and many ways to solve the same problem. (dialog, hacking, lock picking, traversal methods, murder/assassination, theft, pick-pocketing, purchasing, bribery, stealth, implicating someone else, etc). These systems are then cohesively combined with intricately created maps. Which would include placement of objects (quest items, weapons, etc), NPC's, enemies, security features (alarms, cameras, locked doors, pressure plates, invisible lasers, etc), computers (to gain information, gain control of security, etc), traversal methods (elevators, vent shafts, fire escapes, connected buildings, etc), and anything else you can think of. Then the game gives the player agency for how they want to solve the problem, whatever that problem is. (Get this information, kill that person, steal this object, implicate this person, etc). The best immersive sims have solutions that weren't designed for, while using the available systems, but specifically not glitches.

That's System Shock, Deus-Ex, even Cyberpunk. Prey (2017, the Arkane one) as an example actually is an immersive sim as well as horror survival although only to varying degrees on the latter, as is System Shock. There are some games which have immersive sim elements but may not be considered immersive sims like the Hitman and Dishonored series.

Alien Isolation's problems are only solvable with the exact solution the devs intended. There are not multiple solutions, let alone a sandbox set of tools to deal with problems. It is for the most part a linear survival horror game, the maps do not accommodate multiple ways of approaching them. It's not an immersive sim for the same reasons why Resident Evil titles or even Dead Space titles are also not immersive sims.

 

[M76]

Alien Isolation's problems are only solvable with the exact solution the devs intended. There are not multiple solutions, let alone a sandbox set of tools to deal with problems. It is for the most part a linear survival horror game, the maps do not accommodate multiple ways of approaching them. It's not an immersive sim for the same reasons why Resident Evil titles or even Dead Space titles are also not immersive sims.

Alien Isolation only turned linear for the final 10%, it was more open before that. It is certainly not the most in-depth one, with the most options, but if Alien Isolation is not an immersive sim, then neither is System Shock 2.