The 10 best immersive sims on PC

We found this list in the ladies restroom

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Bethesda / Eidos

The immersive sim has seen a revival in recent years. Not only from larger studios like Arkane, keeping the faith alive with their time loops and space stations, but also from a bunch of smaller developers bravely exploring a typically ambitious genre. RPS has always had an affinity for these systemically luxuriant simulations, historically lauding the likes of the original Deus Ex as the best game ever made . But given everything that has come since, is that still the case? Only one way to find out: make a big list.

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. Mark Brown did a good video on the subject once upon a time in which he suggested that a true immy-simmy had to emphasise the following traits: agency, systems, emergence, consistency, and reactivity. It’s a pretty decent rundown of the principles that underpin the design philosophy of many games on our list. Buuuuuut these are also somewhat woolly terms. It opens up the genre to things that might not otherwise feel like a classic immersive sim ( Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ticks all those boxes, right? What about the Hitman games? Hmmm. I’d actually be fine with that…) Whatever. Sometimes it’s best not to overthink these things. 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. The links here are in alphabetical order, but the list itself is ranked because everyone loves scrolling to see what’s number 1. If your scrolling finger isn’t functional, no worries. Just click a title below to head straight to that game.

• Cruelty Squad
• Deathloop
• Deus Ex
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Dishonored 2
• Gloomwood
• Prey
• Shadows Of Doubt
• System Shock (2023)
• Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines

10. Cruelty Squad

Image credit:Consumer Softproducts

What else should I play if I like this? Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator

Cruelty Squad is like playing a migraine. In our review Nic called it “a maximum effort shitpost wearing a puke stained Rainbow Six t-shirt.” So much of this game is made contrary to both the commonplace standards of attractiveness and conventional wisdom of game design. Your view is surrounded by a clammy frame at all times. The mismatching textures assault your eyes. The default controls are a grab bag of awkwardness (“R” to interact, “X” to crouch!?) and the soundtrack is like listening to something a sentient cheese grater would come up with in a DAW and label “music.wav”. But for the right kind of reprobate, all of this will only add to the punishing door-kicking charm of this gig economy hell. You can, at any time, buy and sell human organs on the stock market. You can invest in an “ammunition gland” that generates bullets continuously. Or a pair of “nightmare vision goggles” that give off a putrid stench and have “seemingly no effect on anything.” One of the most expensive items in the game’s menu is a house in the countryside. I do not necessarily recommend that you play Cruelty Squad. But, before we move on to more conventional imm-sims, I do demand that you acknowledge it. Done? Okay. Done.

9. Shadows Of Doubt

What else should I play if I like this? Nobody Wants To Die for another cyberpunk gumshoe detective

Procedural detective ’em up Shadows Of Doubt really runs with the “sim” part of immersive sim. An entire noir city and its residents is in full swing, with ordinary folk going about their lives on preset routines. The catch? Some of these people are murderers. That means your average NPC citizen might be randomly selected for death, and find themselves the victim of a fatal drubbing. This is where you come in. As the investigator, you have to figure out each killer’s identity based on various clues they’ll leave lying around. Financial transactions, broken windows, telling emails, secret notes. You can tell this is an ambitious game not solely by the premise, but also thanks to the funny bugs the developer has had to endure thanks to the depth of the simulation. At one point, some assassins who choose to kill using a sniper rifle kept missing their shots again and again, and players would find mounds of spent bullet casings in some apartment buildings. If an immersive sim is partly defined by the emergent nonsense of its systems, then this surely qualifies.

8. Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines

Image credit:Activision

What else should I play if I like this? Vampyr for more story-focused bloodletting

A very 90s role-playing game that arguably fits the immersive sim mould. Right? Right, that’s what I thought. You’ve got a hub world with a lot of freedom to explore, a stats-pumped character that can range from ugly sewer monster to sultry neck biter, and a bunch of characters hanging out in predetermined spots waiting for you to come along and mess everything up. Many an admirer of Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines has stalked the halls of RPS, muttering to themselves and turning into smoke when perceived. The sequel, Bloodlines 2 , has been in something of a development hell since its announcement in 2019, swapping from one developer to another in 2021. It’ll doubtless be hard for the follow-up to charisma-bomb its way into as many hearts as the original, which was as much about sex and sadism as it was about sneaking into a blood donor clinic for snacks. But we can hope.

7. Deus Ex

Image credit:Eidos Interactive

What else should I play if I like this? The old System Shock series

If you play Ion Storm’s conspiratorial sneaking sim today you’ll see the bones and sinew of a genre that, by rights, should have been granted layer upon layer of musculature with a vast number of imitators. Alas, PC gaming of the early 2000s still trembled in the shadow of Half-Life , which set other significant precedents for the first-person shooter. The influence of Deus Ex rippled through time in a slightly quieter way than that of Gordon Freeman’s loud machine-gunning. But it did ripple. The genre-bending ability to pump skill points into your leather-coated gunman wasn’t so common in first-person shooters back then, for example, but today those systems of progression are in nearly every blockbuster game. And the ambition of a plot that deviates in micro-detailed ways was deeply impressive at the time (everyone remembers being told off for visiting the ladies toilets in your office building). By now, of course, we have the vents and vaults of nu-Deus Ex, the shapeshifting of Prey , and the choices-mattersness of the Mass Effect series. The shooter-focused RPG is not so strange a beast now, and we have Deus Ex to thank for that.

6. Gloomwood

Image credit:New Blood Interactive

What else should I play if I like this? The old Thief games which inspired it, or perhaps Dread Delusion

When Gloomwood first released into early access it offered only a short and tantalising taste of a low-poly immersive sim inspired by the likes of the Thief games. Alice B (RPS in peace) enjoyed her time throwing severed arms as distractions and was frustrated only because most of the game’s creepy city remained off-limits. “I get you!” she yelled at the locked gates of the town. “I want to throw more decapitated heads as lures!” So good news: the game has since seen a bunch of updates, including new areas like a market district complete with a dodgy merchant, a power station full of bad dudes, a wrecked tavern with something freaky lurking inside, and a mirror realm that allows for ad hoc fast travel. It’s still not finished, but if you’re the type to buy in early, perhaps now is a good time to drop from the rafters.

5. System Shock (2023)

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Nightdive Studios/Prime Matter

What else should I play if I like this? For Arkane’s take on the wrecked space station, try Prey

The slew of remakes in recent years has given developers the chance to adapt old favourites in surprising ways. Final Fantasy VII Remake extends Midgar in unrecognisable ways, and Black Mesa redesigns Half-Life’s alien dimension. But the System Shock remake is a different kind of modernised memorial. Instead of rethinking the layout of Citadel station, developers Nightdive doubled down on the original blueprints, content to beautify the surroundings and spruce up everything else. It is an act of faith that rewards those with an ingrained sense of place for the space station gone bad. For our review, Jeremy called it “a maze of uncomfortably cramped corridors, cubbyholes and crawlspaces - a Japanese capsule hotel made massive”. It’s within these confines you can sweat through the ideals of one of the earliest immersive sims, without squinting at ye olde pixels.

4. Prey

Image credit:Bethesda Softworks

What else should I play if I like this? Alien Isolation for more space station scares

You can turn yourself into a coffee mug in Prey . You can roll under the little gap in the perspex window of a security booth as a piece of idiot ceramics, and re-balloon to human form feeling both smart and slightly stupid at the same time. But the enemies in this sprawling space station have the same powers of mimicry and may be hiding anywhere. Which turns the huge, explorable space into a sci-fi jumpscare factory. What’s more, your various powers and weapons unlock routes that would feel plain broken in any other game. A glue gun makes virtually any wall climbable with enough patience, for instance. There’s an escape pod that becomes reachable surprisingly early, and provided you’ve nabbed the key from another room, the game simply lets you abandon ship, ending the story as abruptly as you like. It’s not a satisfying ending, of course, but the very fact that the designers allow for it is a testament to how much freedom you have on board Talos I.

3. Dishonored 2

Image credit:Bethesda Softworks

What else should I play if I like this? Deathloop, or the Plague Tale games if you just like the rats

If you ask fans of Dishonored 2 what their favourite level of the game is, they will instantly disintegrate into a pile of verbs and nouns and be unable to assist you. 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. While A Crack In The Slab gives you the power to hop back and forth through time, between a decayed manor and its glorious past (for a single level! Only Titanfall 2 has had the same confidence when it comes to chewing up gimmicks in one level that could entirely power whole other games). Me? I’m weirdly fond of the opening level, with its sunny docks and narrow streets. You can practically smell the place. But whatever the environment, you commonly explore it from an almost animal-like perspective. Looking down like a crow, squeezing through gaps like a mosquito, crawling through the gutters like a rodent. Karnaca is a city built to creep within.

2. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Image credit:Eidos Interactive

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 in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided . From the moment you set eyes on this rich, opulent building - its shining lobby, its grandiose architecture - your fingertips are burning to send Jensen deep into its vents and backrooms. With enough time (and gathering of various hacking and wall-bashing skills) your wish will be granted. The great thing about Palisade Bank is that, while it features in a story mission, a huge amount of it is entirely optional, filled with subterranean vaults stacked with special weapons, nanoblade blueprints, Praxis kits, and more. And this is not even counting the executive safes up top. This leaky financial institution of the future is just one of the vulnerable edifices of Mankind Divided’s densely packed city, with all its rooftops, balconies, sewer manholes and back doors. A sublimely designed town ripe for cyberpunk subterfuge.

1. Deathloop

What else should I play if I like this? Any other Arkane game, or Outer Wilds for a perfect time loop

There is a certain player behaviour that all good immersive sims unwittingly encourage: the act of save scumming. Who can resist sniping a critical character from across the map to see what might happen, knowing that you can easily quickload and undo all the chaotic ramifications. On top of that, the immersive sim’s traditional dedication to allowing non-lethal runs only adds to the perfectionist quicksaving compulsion. Agency and consequence are the salt and pepper of this genre, and nobody knows this better than Arkane, whose Dishonored games basically require the player to constantly quicksave every few minutes. With Deathloop , 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 things for you . It makes things so much better.

As beefy security man Colt, you’re trapped in a time loop on a messed-up island with no idea how to break free. Eventually, you learn that a perfect run of assassinations (targeting the elites of the island) will get you out of the bind. What follows is a clever back and forth across the same few towns and laboratories, slowly accruing the knowledge you need to perform your perfect string of hits. Like the Prague of Deus Ex Mankind Divided, so much is done with relatively little sapce. Instead of making whole new levels, the designers simply change what’s happening in each area according to the time of day. The result is a refined clockwork kingdom of people waiting to eat dirt in some excellent ways, and a take on the immersive sim so refreshing that I live in perpetual fear nothing will surpass it.

Cruelty Squad

Video Game

Deathloop

PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , PC

Deus Ex

PS2 , PC

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

PS4 , Xbox One , PC

Dishonored 2

PS4 , Xbox One , PC

Gloomwood

Video Game

Prey

Xbox 360 , PC

Shadows of Doubt

PC

System Shock Remake

PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , PC , Nintendo Switch , Nintendo Switch 2

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

PC

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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