Summary
Once exclusively the realm of hobbyists, simulation games have long since escaped the gravitational pull of the personal computer and have entered the universe of mainstream accessibility, thanks to console ports and cross-play. Simulation games are all about giving players the chance to realistically experience another life, profession, or point of view. They tend to be deep, complex, and dense, requiring hundreds of keybinding inputs, mouse-pointer precision, and customizable window centering to function.
Whileclever UI/UX designershave refined the art of menu micromanagement and immersive button mashing with a game controller, allowing them to jump ship to PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo hardware, some simulations go beyond what thumbsticks and bumper triggers can handle. These simulation games were chosen for their high quality and exclusivity to personal computers (or lack of console port, an increasingly-uncommon move in today’s video game market). To clarify, “PC” is often used to refer to Windows machines; many of these are also available for Mac and Linux systems.
Oxygen Not Included
An Accessible But Deep Colony Sim
As the name might suggest,Oxygen Not Includedis on the quirky end of the colony builder spectrum. The game puts players in the role of an omnipotent overseer who will need to manage, micromanage, and micro-micromanage every facet of their duplicates' lives as they slowly terraformbountiful asteroids of planetoidsfrom within. This includes (but is not limited to) keeping tabs on the dupes' mental health, bathroom break usage, and their insatiable desire for automated massages. Colony builder and management sims can look and feel overwhelming, but besides the more simplified 2D ant farm perspective, everything aboutOxygen Not Includedfeels like it was taken right out of a board game.
The visuals are plucky, fun, and inviting, from the dig selection confirmation sounds to the cute animations that play out while the dupes are squatting on the can. The game’s appealing and cartoony visuals make failure just as engaging and entertaining as success, which smooths down the kind of learning curve associated with intricate recreations of humans trying to incrementally a base from within the leaky bowels of an alien ecosystem.Oxygen Not Included’s visuals may be cutesy, but its simulated systems are surprisingly robust (if not totally realistic), and it is clear that the developers went out of their way to grasp many real-world sciences to make the simulation happen.
Spore
A Light Vertical Slice Of A Simulated Universe
Sporemay not be the deepest simulation ever, but it might be the broadest. From microscopic organisms to the speartip of a space-faring civilization, players design their creatures from the feet up (literally) and guide them through their social and technological developments across time, the planet, and, eventually, the stars.Spore’s five stages play like extended mini-games, and the approach the player takes to complete them determines the nature of the species.
For example, players who choose to unite the world through warfare in theCivilization-like section will have different statistics and abilities than those who use religion or technology to do so.Sporeis one of the least complex andmost beginner-accessible simswith its decidedly user-friendly gameplay and interface. For whatever reason, it never had a console port. Spore is an ideal starting point for those with a creative flare interested in getting into the genre (but not so much the nitty-gritty side of simulation).
While most first-person simulation games tend towards realism and immersion,Viscera Cleanupleans more toward the more self-aware and absurd (but in a surprisingly immersive way). In a game whose level design was probably as much fun to make as the game is to play, players take the role of a space janitor the day after someone else’s particularly spirited confrontation with gore-popping adversaries. Duties include swabbing (in a much messier fashion than another comparable cleaning title,Power Wash Simulator), repairing gun turrets and other machinery, and restocking consumable items.
While on shift, prospective applicants should watch their step, lest they knock over a bucket full of guts and dirty water or tread blood all over a freshly swabbed floor. Anyone (with a PC) who ever wondered what it would be like to clear up the mess made by the Doomslayer or any otherbloodthirstyDoom-like video game protagonistwill enjoy first-hand the experience of sweeping up organs, teeth, and xenomorphic tissue while learning who fills all those unmarked crates with ammunition and health packs (spoilers: it’s a space janitor).
American Truck Simulator
The Goods-Hauling Sim That Never Made The Trip To Console Town
American Truck Simulator, like its trucking predecessors, allows players to zone out, humble, and immerse themselves on the highway and experience the occasional dreamlike quality of being on a long-haul night trip with only darkness and the crackle of the radio as a companion. Like all good games, the player is thrown the occasional interesting choice, such as deciding whether or not to take the shorter route to save on gas (without getting lost or delayed) or bypassing inspection points to save time at the risk of being caught and fined. Similar to many otherwell-received games about work, it also involves business sim gameplay by offering the player the means to progress through the accumulation of experience points or monetary savings.
After the player masters the art of the haul, they can engage with somebusiness sim gameplayby buying their own iconic American truck. Eventually, they can purchase a fleet of trucks and laborers to drive them to or from one of the 150 in-game cities. Although some simulation games rely on mouse and keyboard functionality, theTruck Simulatorseries is best played with a specific piece of equipment: the steering wheel (although other accessories can enhance the experience, such as a shifter, pedals, and a sweat-stained trucker hat). Perhaps for this reason, and because the distance between a sofa and a TV would not accurately replicate a truck dashboard, none of the games in the series have been ported to consoles.
Dwarf Fortress
A Sim As Robust And Deep As The Dwarves Themselves
Although this top-down base builder may not look as high-resolution or as sophisticated as other sims,Dwarf Fortressis by far and away the deepest simulation in video games, and that’s not only because it isa game about dwarves. Everything, from a tavern floor’s cleanliness to the swirling subconscious fears of the drunken dwarf at the bar’s mind, is coded and accounted for. Every creature has a personality, a history, and a biology (for example, even the number of toes on a dwarf’s foot is simulated, which can unfortunately be lowered following an accident or battle).Dwarf Fortressdoesn’t just simulate microcosms but macrocosms as well.
Upon starting a new game, a whole world and its history are generated, the details of which the player can browse and peruse at their leisure. If they manage to tear themselves away from that reading, they can engage with the world from the point of view of a fortress planner or as an individual adventurer. With such overwhelming complexity, menus within menus, and enough trackable information to make a data analyst blush, it is no wonder that only a mouse and keyboard would suffice for navigation. For that reason,Dwarf Fortresshas made its home on the personal computer.
