The Large Open World

[Job McYossie]

The reason I love Oddworld is specifically the world. The reason I love most games, is the world. The perfect world to me has enough solid points in the history that it is believable, but it's also left with countless unanswered questions and possible happenings. Another good example of this, for me, is Half-life. I could write a whole story about a family surviving the combine invasion, and there's not such a small world or exact timeline that someone could say "no way that could have occurred." Oddworld has this too, in good part due to how BIG it is. I don't remember the exact number, but the rupture farms Abe blew up in AO was only one in a many factories. And even then, that's one company in this world of many.

Does anyone else feel similarly about these games that I do? Does anyone have examples of other expansive but rigid worlds like this?

[Varrok]

I don't.

[Holy Sock]

C'mon Job, this is beneath Varrok. How do you expect him to respect your opinions if you go on like this?

I was pretty invested in the world of Assassin's Creed before III killed it for me.

[Job McYossie]

How do you expect him to respect your opinions if you go on like this?

?what?

AC has an interesting and grabbing idea, but it lacks the open field. To my knowledge, anyway. From what I've played, it seems like it's a very small world of specifically what occurs with the main character.

[Vlam]

What about Metal Gear ?

[Holy Sock]

I mean AC is all about the centuries old conflict between Assassins and Templars and how it ties into the creation of human life itself and the Creators.

[Job McYossie]

Metal gear falls under a similar category to me, as the world is VERY interesting, but the room for extra imagination is very limited.

[Nate]

Everyone keeps telling me to be more pro-active on spam. In that spirit, I'm officially warning (i.e. not an infraction, but telling you not to test my limits) Varrok. If you've got nothing to say, say nothing. Also, Holy Sock, don't feed the troll.

[STM]

The original Fallouts were the only games that elicited the same feeling for me in terms of the in game world, as Oddworld has. I always wanted to see more of Oddworld, just as much as the places we've already been to. That's why I get a bit frustrated we've had nothing new yet sometimes...

[Varrok]

I once wished to see more Fallout after Fallout 2.

Life taught me never to wish again.

[Holy Sock]

I think we can all agree that Tekken has the most impressive and immersive world in video games.

[FrustratedAssassin]

I once wished to see more Fallout after Fallout 2.

Life taught me never to wish again.

New Vegas was great though.

[Varrok]

It was better than F3, but didn't even encourage me to actually beat it.

[Job McYossie]

Fallout definitely has both criteria I look for, however the world and setting don't actually pull me in personally. While I dig dystopia hardcore, I don't dig apocalypse that much.

Though I will take a quick note to say that The Elder Scolls is a world I adore and also hits both marks.

[Nate]

I'm gonna move this thread to NOG, as it appears to have become a generalist Large Open World thread.

[Manco]

I feel like the major problem with open world games recently is that there’s very little that makes me want to really explore the world. With the exception of Skyrim and its kin all these games seem to have homogenised into a mass of “big map with a few predefined areas of interest and possibly some meaningless collectables strewn around”.

I really want to see more open world games where straying from the beaten path — actively exploring rather than just following waypoints — nets interesting stuff.

[Varrok]

With the exception of Skyrim?

[FrustratedAssassin]

Bethesda are great at making interesting maps in general. Sure, their dungeons/buildings are boring and samey but the overworld is always full of stuff you won't notice if you play the game as a point A - point B journey.

I also like the map in every GTA. Always huge, always interesting. GTA V's map is especially great for doing stuff like road trips and mountain biking, which coupled with its amazing art direction - it's honestly one of the prettiest games I've ever played - makes for a really, really pleasant experience.

[Varrok]

Bethesda are great at making interesting maps in general. Sure, their dungeons/buildings are boring and samey but the overworld is always full of stuff you won't notice if you play the game as a point A - point B journey.

Though I agree they usually add a lot of hidden stuff, or arrange things in a semi-creative way, but I don't think these details compensate for same boredom of every location.

It's like: "Go, murder the enemies in a similar dungeon in a similar way, but now the books on the shelf nearby are sorted alphabetically"

[Manco]

Skyrim and other Bethesda games do better than most open world games by having an order of magnitude more detail to everything you can explore.

All those caverns, smuggler’s dens, vampire lairs, dusty tombs, creepy cabins, abandoned forts that you can stumble on at any point while travelling and come across enemies, treasure troves, even the odd quest hook or boss monster. It might grow samey over time through reuse of assets, but it’s a lot of fun for a long time before it gets to that point.

Compare that to, say, Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry where the open world is mostly vacant of any meaningful content outside of the designated mission areas or hubs, with maybe a “collect these 150 trinkets for an achievement” thrown in for good measure.

[Phylum]

Also when were the dungeons ever a strong suit in Bathesda games? Daggerfall had crazy sprawling random tedious hell pits. They were fun because you had to overcome adversity, but coming at it with 2014-2015 eyes I always thought the bulk of them were kind of shit. I haven't played enough of Morrowind to really comment on it, so maybe that's where the dungeon design peaked?

[Job McYossie]

Okay when I said open world I didn't mean open world games. I meant worlds in media that had open ends, such as like Warhammer 40k.

[Manco]

There really hasn’t been a lot of those kinds of games, at least not ones that grab me. It’s usually the individual story that I’m interested in, not necessarily the larger world.

Oddworld is an exception because I think so much of the story of the Quintology is based around that larger world. Abe’s journey is interesting because you get to explore this wider world and see how the different cultures and species interact, and the story would lack impact without that. But then you get Stranger’s Wrath which is a self-contained tale and wouldn’t need to be set on Oddworld to work, but having that as a backdrop adds some extra spice which improves it.

I guess the first Assassin’s Creed gave me that feeling of having this really open-ended plot since they could have taken the premise set out in that game anywhere at that point, but in the end it never really delivered.

Mirror’s Edge made me want to know more about the world but that’s more because you never really get to see it, so you never get a good idea of why you’re doing what you are in the game.

I suppose The Last of Us? I don’t know how well that setting would hold up with different lead characters, but there’s definitely a bigger world out there that you only scratch the surface of. I wouldn’t be opposed to other games set in that world.

[FrustratedAssassin]

A bit off-topic, but whatever. I've always wanted to create a world like this, but with video games from multiple genres taking place in multiple eras building one massive world. One game might be something like a stealth shooter game building up for maybe an RTS that takes place shortly after, while also having games taking place in the far past of the world, with a medieval theme or something.

But even if I knew anything about making a video game or a world I'd still need a huge company with a lot of teams working in parallel on different games so it's pretty much impossible.

[Nate]

Sounds like you want to make Spore. You couldn't do much worse a job than Maxis did.

[Varrok]

Spore wasn't that bad.

Think of DarkSpore

[FrustratedAssassin]

Sounds like you want to make Spore. You couldn't do much worse a job than Maxis did.

The main difference between what I'd like to do and Spore is that I'm thinking of a world with many games in different genres, rather than a single game spanning multiple half-assed genres.

[Nate]

Spore wasn't that bad.

Think of DarkSpore

What am I meant to think about it?

[Job McYossie]

Who allowed this?????????

So in the latest humble bundle is Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth. Now, the game has hoooooorrible rep, I expected it to be a very disappointing game. But. It's a very good game, to surprise. Now, why am I bringing it up here? Because, for whatever reason, the world of Beyond Earth is actually very interesting, and there is good lore. In a Civ game. I've only been playing the game for a day now but my mind is already going insane thinking of the wonders of this world. And again it has just what I got from Half-Life or Oddworld, A rigid world with specific things that definitely exist without argument, and an openness for nearly endless possible happenings.

[Varrok]

What am I meant to think about it?

You know what, forget it. Literally. It's not worth remembering.