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I was wondering how people felt about open world gaming has been overdone?
Some games boast 200+ gaming but I find side quests too boring or not rewarding enough. Fetch quests etc or collectables that make no difference to gameplay.
I enjoy these games done well but they have become formulaic ubisoft etc
Just having a good linear story albeit shorts is sometimes something i miss.
Why not have both? I enjoy open world games like The Witcher 3 and linear games like Dreamfall Chapters. No need to restrict myself to one only :p
I think there are great examples of both. However, I would agree that there seem to be more open world games being made than linear ones.
Sometimes the worlds feel far too big, which I found with Just Cause 2. That said, there was so much to do in Just Cause 2 that I really didn't mind.
Other games where the story is a bit more on rails can get irritating, even if in a big open world. I'm looking at you, girlfriend sub plot in GTA IV.
In summary, I've no idea what I'm talking about.
Why do you get that impression though? I'd have said it's by far the other way around - linear games are far cheaper to make, so the vast majority of indie games and small study games, as well as though from big studios, are linear. Open world games can be done by indie/small studio, but they are so few and far between that each one generates a huge amount of buzz.Quote:
Originally Posted by PorcupineTime
Open world games kind of suffer from the same problem a mile wide but an inch deep. JC2 bored me for that reason. Although id did love mad max and GTA V once id done the main mission had no real reply for me personally. Maybe I just have a love hate thing with them.
I just get the feeling buzzwords and fashions come from the gaming industry like 'open world' and 'procedurally generated'
My issue with open world games is that they are often just so implausible. Yes we live under a vicious dictatorship, you're a stranger, you must be able to help while I say things against the regime... It just would not happen. People often seem to act like the stranger is the person that they run to if they have a problem, but this is not how people act.
Often the experience is stunted by a lack of imagination during the creating period which often lends itself to "samey" situations, which if too common just become boring. What we need is innovation, and not the rehashing of pointless fetch quests (e.g. collect 6 hooves - a rare drop from a creature that has four naturally...). I can understand fetch quests if it is for a profession, but why you'd ever need to go and get 6 pristine pelts (which you could inevitably sell for more), then it's a pointless and repetitive waste of time.
All that said, I do love the exploration, the Easter eggs and even the views when you find a rare spot of genius artistic design that leads to a vista of the world in front of you that you're able to explore.
It's another case of personal opinion I guess.
Like the OP, I am not a fan of open world titles, to me they feel like MMOs without the other players. Fallout, Skyrim, GTA etc.....not one of them appealed to me....if I am going to be wandering around a large area, I want it to be with others or my interest wanes really fast.
If I am playing alone, I want to feel like I am playing a movie (Uncharted, TLoU, TR, Batman series, Spec Ops, GoW etc)
I hated Fallout, but loved Skyrim - Same for many others, so I think it's all down to how the game is done.Quote:
Originally Posted by shaithis
I especially like how Elite does it, in that you can swap between Solo, Private and Multiplayer.
I don't think it's the format that's tired it's the implementation.
You sort of shot down your own argument in your first post
Far too many games, esp AAA, are pushed through an almost belt factory like system to get them out as quickly as possible, that they just don't have the time to craft every quest and area within the world.Quote:
I enjoy these games done well but they have become formulaic
I think another major issue is "us" the buying public and games media, with our "bigger is better" attitude, almost every review of an open world game will talk about about how big the world is and people will talk about it in the comments/forums.
In part we're the ones forcing developers to make large open worlds, but it takes longer to make the stuff that goes into the world than making the world, so developers are using more simplified quests and collectibles to be able to fill those worlds in the time they have to develop it, otherwise we'd complain about big empty maps.
EDIT:heck people talk about and compare how long it takes to walk across the map in game
There is a major "MMO quest" flavour to many of the current open world games, not surprising in a way as most MMO's are an excellent example of large open worlds which have to be filled with things to do.
Procedural/Random generation I'd almost put in a different category because of the way it works it's near impossible to generate complex structured quests, however it's the random world that can give it so much replay, personally I find esp in the early game, it's the late game where they start to fall over.
It'll be when someone manages to blend structured built asserts with procedural generated asserts into a single world, so you can have solid story and replay value, that will be a major invigoration to open world games.
The current explosion of open world is also an ongoing backlash to the very hand holding corridor shooters which dominated a few years ago.
EDIT: Personally I'm all in favour of smaller denser open world games, look at some older games like Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, it is in many ways an open world game but the actual "World" is fairly small, however it's also very dense.
The trouble is now, if an open world game comes out with a small "World" it'll get blasted because of it unless they can do a good job of obfuscating the size of the world.
^ good thoughts.
Personally, the main pleasure I get from an open world format is where it's acting as a stage for my own character playing, so emergent storytelling occurs because I can play the role of a character in this other world. Make an open world too dense, or too quest driven etc. and you can end up taking away from that role. Which is a demanding role to be fair, since it requires some imagination on the part of the player.
Definitely agree with some of the points above. Games like The Witcher 3 or GTA V have fantastically detailed and alive worlds filled with detail whereas Just Cause 3 has an absolutely massive map (not that W3 or GTA V's maps aren't huge) but it feels so dull in comparison. Quality over quantity is my take on how to properly create an open world game.