Quite the opposite - I'm not feeling the hate for them, and largely don't get why some people are so automatically against them. I'll take open-world games over super-linear, highly-scripted games any day.
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Anyone else really not feeling the rise of Open World games?
- Thread starter pleaseinsertdisctwo
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PREACH!!!, open world games VERY often lack variety in... everything, samey missions, samey environments, samey everything... i just don't get the open world love at all.
I agree with you on one point, OP. Many developers go down the open world design route after witnessing the success of so many others, and so many have fallen flat at their attempts to craft an open world with meaningful enough content worth exploring.
Nevertheless, I still love the open world games that are made properly. Like for a lot of things, you just have to look for the good stuff among the pile of shit. Great experiences like Fallout New Vegas and The Witcher 3 can be found among them.
Nevertheless, I still love the open world games that are made properly. Like for a lot of things, you just have to look for the good stuff among the pile of shit. Great experiences like Fallout New Vegas and The Witcher 3 can be found among them.
The solution is a world that reacts to you and independent of you. Dwarf Fortress is really the only game that does this.
To me the rise of the open world games was it the ps2 days after GTA 3 was released. You had lots of copycats back then. But I am mostly tired of Open world games + collect a thon Ubisoft's template of game design. To me is just a matter of finding the right balance of primary and secondary/optional content also it would be great if developers try to trim their open worlds back a little. Too much focus on " our map is 20000 km long" and " this game takes 450 hours to complete" as Miles Davis said once "less is more"
I love open world games from kingdoms of amalur to the witcher3 soon to be horizon or nier. Want more worlds to explore. Beautifully crafted ones. GtaV holds the crown for me, wither 3 is great cause of the lore surrounding it. So happy games are going that way, some linear experiences are good once in a while, but would rather have them open.
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I thought he meant the players interactions with the world directly affecting and driving the narrative. That is the problem i meant doesnt have an easy solution
One thing I do miss is that it seems there used to be more games that hit the middle ground -- the sort of wide-linear style of design where a game is made up of individual levels that are each themselves large and open-ended. Usually it resulted in levels that offered lots of player freedom while still feeling uniquely hand-crafted.
A few games like this have come out recently like the last couple Deus Ex games, Dishonored, Hitman, and Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes, but I feel like there was a line of evolution for these types of games that started in the 90's, included GoldenEye and Thief, and ended around 2007 with Crysis 1 and STALKER.
Of the recent games, Deus Ex in particular brought back the hub zone type of open-world where you're encourage to explore but the game doesn't toss you 100 square km worth of junk tasks to do. More AAA RPGs would probably be great at doing that instead of massive open-worlds. The Yakuza games are good at this, the first two Witcher games are good at this.
A few games like this have come out recently like the last couple Deus Ex games, Dishonored, Hitman, and Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes, but I feel like there was a line of evolution for these types of games that started in the 90's, included GoldenEye and Thief, and ended around 2007 with Crysis 1 and STALKER.
Of the recent games, Deus Ex in particular brought back the hub zone type of open-world where you're encourage to explore but the game doesn't toss you 100 square km worth of junk tasks to do. More AAA RPGs would probably be great at doing that instead of massive open-worlds. The Yakuza games are good at this, the first two Witcher games are good at this.
Only open world game I like is GTA
Every other game would be so much more fun as a linear streamlined experienced with some open sandbox sections (MGSV)
Every other game would be so much more fun as a linear streamlined experienced with some open sandbox sections (MGSV)
Yakuza-like open world is fine because they are quite small and they don't kill the story progression . I am quite a fan of the series but i think that some mechanics from those games can be applied to the gaming industry . On the other hand , you get trash like Ghost Recon Wildlands praised everywhere .
Loved Horizon Zero Dawn. My 2017 game of the year and second best this gen behind another open world game The Witcher 3. There were only 4 Tallnecks in the game and I loved having to climb them. Getting on top of them and looking around the world was breathtaking plus I had one of the best moments ever on top of one fighting a Stormbird while the Tallneck was still walking it's route. Shit was awesome.
MGSV was bland, boring and dead. Just meh. Should have stayed in the hospital.
Loved Rise of the Tomb Raider. Enjoyed Deus Ex: Mankind Divided as well. Neither were open world. The areas in Deus Ex were open ended. Majority of the maps in ROTTR were open ended but neither were open world. Played a few hours of Nier: Automata and I thought it was linear or open ended? It's open world?
MGSV was bland, boring and dead. Just meh. Should have stayed in the hospital.
Loved Rise of the Tomb Raider. Enjoyed Deus Ex: Mankind Divided as well. Neither were open world. The areas in Deus Ex were open ended. Majority of the maps in ROTTR were open ended but neither were open world. Played a few hours of Nier: Automata and I thought it was linear or open ended? It's open world?
4 out of 10 ERA's GOTY are open world games. It seems that most of the members here are fine with open world.
And that's only for 2017 games.
And that's only for 2017 games.
Personally, not a fan of huge open worlds. As an example, BoTW was too big. I would prefer intricately crafted, cohesive, more narrowed experiences. But, I can totally see the appeal.
I like open worlds, but only when they're sandboxes. More games need to adopt a sandbox mentality if they're going to make spaces open. GTA, Saints Row, Bethesda games (as much as I hate them), they all are relative sandboxes where you can do anything or encounter anything. GTA and Saints Row have sub-gameplay elements you can tackle, like going on score based rampages, defending turf, or acting as an agent of law enforcement, hunting criminals.
Open world games fail when they don't offer mechanics that allow for a do anything experience. For example, Mass Effect Andromeda had colonies and outposts, but not once were those places randomly attacked by any sort of enemies while you played. Not even in the sense of "you need to leave this planet to head way the fuck over here to stop this place from getting destroyed" kind of sense, but in the emergent gameplay style of you're right here in this little town, so why not have one of the enemy factions land too close and cause some havoc?
Not once did the game have enemy factions spawn on top of enemy factions outside of Kett/Remnant stuff or scripted events. If you could've come across some exiles fighting the Kett, only for the Roekarr to ambush the both of them and then try to steamroll you at the same time like you could come across all kinds of NPCs fighting gangs and cops in GTA or Saints Row, the experience would've been better. Likewise for everything else, even Breath of The Wild based on my 30ish hours with it so far.
Open world games fail when they don't offer mechanics that allow for a do anything experience. For example, Mass Effect Andromeda had colonies and outposts, but not once were those places randomly attacked by any sort of enemies while you played. Not even in the sense of "you need to leave this planet to head way the fuck over here to stop this place from getting destroyed" kind of sense, but in the emergent gameplay style of you're right here in this little town, so why not have one of the enemy factions land too close and cause some havoc?
Not once did the game have enemy factions spawn on top of enemy factions outside of Kett/Remnant stuff or scripted events. If you could've come across some exiles fighting the Kett, only for the Roekarr to ambush the both of them and then try to steamroll you at the same time like you could come across all kinds of NPCs fighting gangs and cops in GTA or Saints Row, the experience would've been better. Likewise for everything else, even Breath of The Wild based on my 30ish hours with it so far.
A game being open world is a red flag for me recently. Like a defect.
Miss linear epic polished games with strong stories and characters.
Miss linear epic polished games with strong stories and characters.
I've kind of been thinking about this the last few months or so. I played Horizon: Zero Dawn late last year, and I started this year with some Assassin's Creed: Origins. Granted, I've played a couple smaller games in-between as a sort of "cleanser". But every time I sit down to want to play something this past week, I've decided not to play Origins, I don't know if I have the time commitment for open world games anymore.
I was under the impression God of War was going to just have some bigger environments to move around, not necessarily an open world.
I think games like XC2 hit the sweetspot of world size for me. Linear in overarching progression but there's a lot to do and find off the beaten path. There's a massive main story trunk that stories of characters who play minor roles in get to branch off into their own sidequests. The pacing is pretty superb as well without being claustrophobic most of the time.
I'm guessing it'll be similar to The Lost Legacy. Where there are linear scripted sections and pseudo open world sections where they can do side activities like hunting, etc. Maybe something like the Tomb Raider reboot.
Also , i think that 300x quest are not the way to go . Less quests but better quality for me
Well not all open world games have quests but most of them do . The Witcher 3 didn't have an enormous amount of missions but they were all great (outside of main story) .
Well not all open world games have quests but most of them do . The Witcher 3 didn't have an enormous amount of missions but they were all great (outside of main story) .
Zelda was the first one that I really, truly enjoyed beyond just wanting to rush from point a to point b to finish the damn game. Even Horizon couldn't hook me for it's side quests, and that was probably my favorite non-Zelda open world game ever. I think the problem I have is that a lot of them just feel so samey. Especially in the graphics department. Give me a big colorful open world with locales that could only be done in video games. Crazy stuff. I want to explore that. Not the same old green shrubbery and waterfalls.
If more open world games take the BotW approach to world building that encourage exploration by it's design, I'll never get tired of them. If more stick with the "ubi-tower" design or using side quests to get me to explore then I'm done with them. BotW was a breath of fresh air pumped into a stale genre IMO. Give me more experiences like that.
You can really feel that Monolith Soft touch in BOTW. They're pretty good at realising their game worlds and have some pretty cool areas to explore, open world or not (although I'm not the biggest fan of XC2's more vertical approach to level design, there's still areas where it shines. Xenoblade X's Noctilum is probably my favourite area they've made so far).
MHW, while still zone based, has some really good areas too and I feel it's pretty close to what I'd expect a Monolith-Soft made map for Monster Hunter to look like, which is amazing considering how much previous Monster Hunter levels pale in comparison (though, to be fair they were stuck on handhelds).
OP
OP
I agree with this. I played about 2 hours of BotW at a friend's house, and I was alone for about an hour. I was bored out of my mind. I just can't enjoy aimless wandering in a giant virtual landmass. That's boring to me.