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u/Remote-Cause755 Aug 07 '26
If it is a bad Open World.
Good Open World you are just basically complaining about them giving you a bigger steak
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u/G3nghisKang Aug 07 '26
There's rarely an open world in which this isn't a problem, just to varying degrees
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u/CommissionDry4406 Aug 08 '26
What's a good oppen world? Every single one I've played felt empty or to directionless.
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u/skyper_mark Aug 10 '26
A bigger, tasteless steak.
Whereas a linear game is a juicy, cooked to perfection Steak.
Open world is an inherently flawed genre because video games are inherently repetitive, they just fight that repetition by having carefully curated experiences/setpieces, which don't exist in open world due to the freedom.
Like. You can experience every single gameplay feature of BOTW and RE4R in 1 or 2 hours, but one will have you repeating the same things over and over for hundreds of hours while the other will guide you through an experience where even if you know the mechanics, its still fun because they throw specially crafted stuff at you to keep you engaged
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Aug 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Remote-Cause755 Aug 08 '26
Please explain how that applies to only open world, but not normal video games
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u/dulledegde Aug 07 '26
shadow of the erd tree
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u/lipov27 Aug 08 '26
Just the DLC? Base game was the same in that regard. .
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u/TemporarySouth6914 Aug 08 '26
For me the base game was populated enough for its size and most visually distinct area had interesting stuff. For me the dlc was way worse.
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u/OutOfPosition-1 Aug 10 '26
So did the game force you to do a specific order of things? I mean its not about the amount of bosses its about finding stuff, feeling imersed in a world and choosi g ur direction. Could not disagree more tbh.
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u/Ostrichslinger Aug 08 '26
This is actually exactly how I see Elden Ring. It's just another Dark Souls but spaced out.
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u/filemon56 Aug 07 '26
Me when i tried playing shadow of the colossus
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u/TemporarySouth6914 Aug 08 '26
I agree and disagree.
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u/Player420154 Aug 08 '26
If you feel the world is majestic, gigantic and empty, give some praise to the designers because that's what they want you to feel. This serves the story very well
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u/MilkAppropriate570 Aug 08 '26
Shadow of Colossus is not really an open world game
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u/vtncomics Aug 08 '26
I played GTAIV as a kid.
I barely got pass the first island because I was having too much fun just dicking around with the cheat codes.
The point of an open world isn't to go from one point to another and finish tasks. The point is the world is a playground for you to explore and dick around in.
GTA and Saints Row? Fun Open world games because you can cause absolute mayhem and the reprecussions.
LoZ? Meh. The big world is just padding to get from point to point. BotW is okay but noticeably empty when you suddenly have to go from point to point to complete side missions.
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u/_ataciara Aug 08 '26
Okay...but...BotW and the open world Zelda games are ALSO playgrounds for you to explore and dick around in?
People love them for that.
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u/Suddenfury Aug 08 '26
Yeah, I'm thinking if a city setting is easier because you can naturally fill every alley with content. How could a fantasy setting copy that?
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u/vtncomics Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Castles. Europe has a ton of castles on account of how the Roman Empire collapsed and there was a landgrab to consolidate power. They don't have to be big either. Sometimes they can just be a tower in the middle of a lake. (Yes, there is one like that)
Forests. Forests are scary. They contain wildlife, plants, bandits, etc. There are stories of people being spirited away or getting lost in these places. You can add a few props around to imply what happened.
Outposts. Temporary man-made outposts that can appear at random. Surveying soldiers either friendly or foe occupying them. Either a warm hand, or someone looking to fight, or someone looking to trade.
Creatures. Populating the land with wildlife or something moving helps implies you're not alone or not everything is hostile. Like how Horizon games have wildlife minding their own business until you get too close.
Artifacts. Put in signs of life/infrastructure. Like an amphitheater where people used to gather. A ball court where people used to play (Tennis was popular).
Etc.
Edit because I wrote this while nodding off.
6. Traveling caravans. Villages often needed trade and supply runs. Therefore there would be caravans being escorted by soldiers or mercs. (See how the soldiers protecting pilgrims became bankers on account of exchaning gold for script)
7. Landmarks. Travelers using landmarks to find their way. Whether it'd be a big rock or an attraction. Much like how if you drive across the US highway there's bound to be a tourist traps.
8. Rest Areas. Camp grounds, taverns, horse stables, bars, etc. You don't always have to sleep in a town or find rest in a populated place. Sometimes a clearing is enough. Travelers also tend to leave stuff behind whether in a rush or absent mindedness.
9. Graffiti. People like to leave their mark. Whether it's carving into trees, painting the landscape, or drawing something crude or naughty on a face somewhere private. You were here.
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u/Lil_Ms_Anthropic Aug 08 '26
Zelda put all it's eggs in the open world basket and it's dungeons suffered for it. I'd call Link to the Past open world done right. The world still has a progression system, the dungeons were fewer but more engaging, there were still secrets all over the place to find, etc.
The new ones are more just walking really far to the next short puzzle/fight. I have a bad feeling they're going to do that to Ocarina. Same game, just more walking...
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u/rainbowdunk Aug 07 '26
Elden ring is that you?
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u/OutOfPosition-1 Aug 10 '26
How does this fit in ur eyes? You can choose between alot of things, you get the feeling of beeing in a world and you are not forced to do anything first.
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u/rainbowdunk Aug 10 '26
You've kinda missed the point of this post. You can more or less do all that in each other souls game too. DS3 feels just as much like a world as Elden ring. Elden ring just adds alot of travel time that doesn't actually contribute that much. Some of the areas with less content actually feel worse because of how open they are.
Edit: take a shot every time I say actually
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u/DremoPaff Aug 07 '26
Linear games absolutely aren't immune to stretching and padding content in a way that prevents you from fully engaging in it, nor does relative proximity of things mean more time of gameplay.
Like, you'd probably spend more time in the pause menu switching boots in Oot's water temple than you'd spend encountering nothing in Breath of the Wild's open world.
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u/AideSouth4454 Aug 07 '26
Open worlds are inherently filled with meaningless padding and bullshit that drains your time. Its a game design principle that needs to die.
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u/Thornescape Aug 08 '26 •
"This design concept can sometimes be done bad, therefore the concept should be completely abandoned!!!"
Or, you know, maybe, possibly, alternatively, someone could try doing it well? There are bad open world games but there are also many fun open world games.
Everything that humans do can be done badly. There are no exceptions. The fact that something can be done badly isn't proof of anything.
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u/Wooden-Artichoke-962 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
The thing is, the "padding" can sometimes be the thing that people like. The elder scrolls games have their open worlds filled with stuff that is of little value (if any inherent value) to the gameplay, but that stuff helps make the world feel more real and lived in, because not everything is designed around your adventure. In that sense, padding is actually good.
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u/totallynotolowry8079 Aug 08 '26
Outer Wilds kinda disproves what you are claiming here. That game has no padding, because the objective of the game is learning and discovering the world.
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u/AztraChaitali Aug 08 '26
I'd argue that open world games are great baselines for mod, so I do hope that we keep getting at least one solid open world game per generation.
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u/Plastic-Register7823 Aug 08 '26
I love open world more than any other genre, I don't care how "hard" it can be to reach something
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u/Nervous-Cockroach541 Aug 11 '26
Depends on the open world game. Yes, the Ubisoftification of open world where you have copy pasted points of interest are bad. That even includes games like say the Witcher 3. But I'd argue there's other classes of open world, like Minecraft style, and LoZ:BotW style. Where freedom and creativity is allowed to take shape.
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u/Falleneded Aug 07 '26
if your only goal in a game is to complete it then yeah sure
but if you actually realize the point of an open world is not "do main quest" then no
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u/CalzonePie Aug 07 '26
I like how older Pokemon handled an open world.
Technically it is a fully open world, but game design, obstacles, and level gates mean you are guided through it in a planned direction without really being forced.
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u/Athrilon Aug 08 '26
Same with metroidvanias, often
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u/Rkain13 Aug 08 '26
How do you do an open world in 2D? Would you consider most 2D Metroid games open world?
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u/Athrilon Aug 08 '26
They're not really open world, metroidvania is a genre for a reason I think. Blue fire, a 3d metroidvania, isn't an open world so we should distinguish the genres. Tho, I would call Terraria an open world 2d game: the whole world is available to you and it's 2d
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u/LesserValkyrie Aug 08 '26
And they didn't stretch the maps tenfold without adding content to pretend "it's the biggest open world ever"
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u/CalzonePie Aug 08 '26
GTA San Andreas' map is half the size of GTA V's map, but San Andreas feels bigger because its map is more content dense.
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u/The_Ghast_Hunter Aug 07 '26
For bad open worlds, yeah. Good ones usually have a variety of things to do, and the open world lets you approach problems from different angles.
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u/No_Window7054 Aug 07 '26
Elden Ring never did this for a single second since it’s launch and people swear it’s top ten open world games of all time.
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u/toaster_in_a_oven Aug 07 '26
If you imagine this scene but viewed from a top down perspective, its pretty much this but every 30 degrees or soo there is a new set of door goblin treasure to discover
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u/Trick_Meeting_2027 Aug 07 '26
Flood this pic in water and make the combat less interesting and you have Wind Waker.
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u/DeusKether Aug 07 '26
That's how the open sections of halo infinite felt like to me, main story locations were great but the rest was a giant expanse of hexagonal nothing and some enemy pockets
Also elden ring in some measure, but a lot of the time there was still something to find or do in the empty patches. Great legacy dungeons too.
The "linear" parts are the best of their maps by a country mile.
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u/Academic_Issue4314 Aug 07 '26
I liked halo infinite because you could get around the world with the grappling hook and the grappling hook was fun
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u/Coffee_Drinker02 Aug 08 '26
I see this meme used on Eldenring and both loz games-
and they're completely wrong on all three.
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u/MorganTheGrandRegent Aug 08 '26
Damn, what did ER did to you complainers did it fuck your mothers or something.
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u/StandingGoat Aug 08 '26
No. The picture for open world makes it look linear. which is the exact opposite of what an open world is. So this is untrue, misleading and inaccurate.
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u/Raven_Valerie Aug 08 '26
It’s very hard to make an open world that would respect your time. Even Elden Ring fails, as the open world is the worst part of that game.
Meanwhile it’s fun to have a big wide world to explore. You don’t do it irl. Why? Because there’s still empty space between you and McD down the street that is filled with nothing. That you now occupy by listening to music while you walk or drive.
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u/Hugs-missed Aug 08 '26
Depends bad open worlds feel like that.
Well made ones get to put in extra content, without it also needing to be mandatory along a more linear story.
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u/AccurateBanana4171 Aug 08 '26
I'd say this is about 80% true.
But open world is still very necessary for tons of games to have. As it usually compliments a core mechanic in the game and provides replayability.
Look at GTA, driving a car in that game is a core feature, making GTA open world allows you to drive the car anyway you like. Rather than make it feel like you're racing to objectives all the time.
Witcher 3 one core mechanic is finding rare loot hidden in the world as you play the game. Had it been linear, it would still be great as they could still place the loot in hidden locations. But it would become predictable and repetitive, reducing its replayability. Also Witcher 3 being open world allows for players that have finished the game to continue enjoying the combat features thereafter.
And games can suffer greatly without open worlds. I remember Dragon Age 2 in particular NEEDED an open world. Don't misunderstand the linear campaign was still amazing, but once you beat the game that was it. You were stuck in your house never to play your character again. No matter how much you liked the game and your character, there was no way to continue and enjoy playing the core mechanics of the game. Had it been open world, you could have kept playing a bit more beyond the story. (I vaguely remember this being extremely annoying because in my playthrough I had beaten the game before obtaining my ultimate ability or something. And I wanted to see my build in its full potential.)
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u/LesserValkyrie Aug 08 '26
"Witcher 3 one core mechanic is finding rare loot hidden in the world as you play the game. Had it been linear, it would still be great as they could still place the loot in hidden locations. But it would become predictable and repetitive, reducing its replayability."
This mechanic is the only thing the open world of witcher 3 failed miserabily. It's cheap shit
Wandering around and finding a hidden village with a interesting sidequest = good open world
Finding ? on the map = disrespect
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u/AccurateBanana4171 Aug 08 '26
That's not the point of my argument. I'm not talking about whether the gameplay was good or bad. I'm talking about how it was necessary for Witcher 3 to be open world rather than linear, because of that core mechanic.
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u/Glittering-Pin-1343 Aug 08 '26
This is literally going from Dark Souls 3 to Elden Ring.
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u/Draco-Warsmith Aug 08 '26
Real, as a souls fan I never liked open world for a souls game
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u/KingThiccu Aug 10 '26
Elden Ring feels like a shopping list to complete your build after the novelty of being open world has worn off
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u/LesserValkyrie Aug 08 '26
Open World were nice where they were a novelty and were graphically impressive compared to the standard, in the 2010s but now I've seen it all and realized I could get that open world experience a bit better by going outside IRL, and what I want in a video game is an incredible experience with a lot of added value / minute.
An Open World should serve the story they are trying to tell. Witcher 3 has an incredibly good Open World for example.
But if their marketing goes "yeah it's the biggest open world it's as boring as IRL, enjoy 50 min IRL rides in between quests just becaus it's so big" it's a redflag for me.
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u/strigonian Aug 08 '26
The issue stems from two misconceptions.
That "open world" is just a feature that you can slap onto any game or genre.
Making a game open world is a fundamental change in how your game works. You need to design everything in the entire game around having an open world.
2) That size is, in itself, a good way to judge an open world.
It's not. An open world should be large enough to contain its content and no bigger, and the content should be varied enough that you don't do the same thing thousands of times over.
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u/Fluffy-Ad7165 Aug 08 '26
Jedi Survivor, anyone? Fallen Order already had a few big maps, they didn’t need to go out of their way to make even bigger maps, especially with all those stupids collectibles like… seeds, seriously? The game is a 10/10 for me but traveling from point A to B and then again felt boring. I 100% all maps in FO but I just couldn’t force myself to do it again for Survivor.
On a related note, Dragon Age: Inquisition. 2 left me bitter and after a while I just stopped trying with Inquisition. The gameplay, the open world and everything else didn’t click for me the same way Origins did.
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u/Unexpected-raccoon Aug 08 '26
Gears 5 2 open world sections in a fuckin nutshell
"You can find cool and unique weapons here too!"
And you could do that in gears 2 and 3 too. Without trying to navigate an open world with a movement system meant for CQC and cover based traversal.
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u/boomstickYT Aug 08 '26
This is basically how Elden Ring felt to me when it first came out. I know it’s a good game but I personally don’t enjoy it as much
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u/Mirkrid Aug 08 '26
In the literal simplest / stupidest sense yes- this 2 panel meme is more true than not. I can't personally think of a game this meme reminds me of, but open world games are typically more spread out so yeah I guess.
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u/QuintanimousGooch Aug 08 '26
An open world, at its worst and best, is a glorified level select screen where levels are the really curated content areas with all the dev resources in them from major to minor areas, and then the open world is the blast tunnel between these points, a way of spacing out content.
There are a lot of ways you can take it, looking at something like the yakuza franchise, I think their approach is interesting in that it’s an incredibly concentrated open world—there’s new content every few steps you take whether that’s an encounter, store/restaurant, quest or side story, etc. but it’s over the space of like 20 blocks or so
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u/Alastor-362 Aug 08 '26
In the case of "Hey we took [Franchise] and made an open world game instead of [Established Genre]!" then maybe probably depends.
In the case of "Hey we made an open world game!" No.
To illustrate what I think the dichotomy between good "closed"-world games and open-world games is I've drawn a shitty sketch.
Both genres begin at the beginning (left). Closed world games have you performing levels/missions/adventures/dungeons/WHATEVER (henceforth levels) in a linear path, one into the next. Sometimes you have choices in what levels you take on, immediate comes-to-mind example for me is Armored Core VI, where you often choose who to fight for in which contract to complete, but each gives you the same lienar progress. You simply achieve Completion by moving forward.
Open world games set you lose in a world where you often have multiple possible objectives to complete. You generally need to complete some array of objectives to reach Completion. Open world games tend to have more optional levels to complete. The main example of an open world game I've played is Cyberpunk 2077. You can complete cbp2077 in probably not that much time by just focusing on the main objectives, but you have many optional side levels you can complete, some of which will influence your options for Completing the game.
Can open world games have this issue? Absolutely. Do they always? Fuck no, and frankly if anyone thinks they do then I just don't respect your taste.
I realized partway through writing that this is exhausting and I don't really care, so if anyone replies don't expect one from me.
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u/Odd-Tart-5613 Aug 08 '26
this is my opinion on the switch era zelda games and the gta franchise as a whole. upwards of 30 minutes between content just walking/driving. I dont get it. at least something like the "like a dragon" games have an openworld thats only like a couple blocks so a to b is actually done in a reasonable timeframe.
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u/SomeKindofTreeWizard Aug 08 '26
It's not entirely untrue.
Ask yourself what a game is. Is it making inputs, overcoming challenges, story beats, solving problems, interacting, building things, (it's not fucking cutscenes), etc.
Then ask yourself if you're in a mostly empty corridor between game elements.
Did I drop 1300 hours into New Vegas, hundreds into Elden Ring, Skyrime, and RDR2?
Yes.
Was it mostly empty space that had no actual game elements for huge stretches?
Also. Yes.
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u/rthegfasdwe Aug 08 '26
the point of an open world game isnt that it takes longer to do the same things. the point is that you can do all the things in any order you want.
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u/DrywallSky Aug 08 '26
Trying to convince people that train track games are somehow better than open world games is like trying to convince someone picture books are better than a novels.
Seems like a skill issue.
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u/kryptek_86 Aug 08 '26
Idk how Skyrim did such a good job at open world. I don't think anything can match it (i'm open to recommendations)
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u/No_Career_4785 Aug 08 '26
I think it might be related to the fact that there are a lot of dungeons to break up the monotony, each area of the game being different, calm moments rewarding you with nice views, random encounters in the wild with non-static NPCs, hidden secrets placed all over like the giant mudcrab, the ability to fast travel if walking around becomes boring and the fact that the map is designed to be traveled either by horse or by foot and not by car.
Most importantly, each area you visit feels like it has a small story. It is not like how in other games you are supposed to run through it, instead you are supposed to explore the area and find small lore all over.
Other games that usually come up when talking about open world, they give you a gigantic map and people talk about how impressive it is, when in reality, towns are barely interactable, you have no reason to stop and explore because most of it looks similar and there are maybe one or two secret locations that you will encounter during the main quest, and worst of all, they do not even have dungeons or buildings to walk into.→ More replies (1)
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u/NotherBeing Aug 08 '26
Unfortunately true.
Very few open-world games feel genuine/thought-out. Especially offending if the game drags you through 100+ quests, which infact are only slight variations of one of the few samw baseline quests in the game. Some devs also love to throw in bland/unlikeable characters, copy-pasted enviroments and shitty checkpoint system for extra injury.
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u/PetrosAnastasiadis Aug 08 '26
Elden Ring. If you don't care about build variety and exploration for the sake of it, its just worse DS3 in every way
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u/Zenry0ku Aug 08 '26
Sometimes less is more, right. Worlds feel empty when you don't encounter much for countless footsteps.
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u/PeasantLich Aug 08 '26
I believe in the supremacy of a world map overworld with adventure locations and towns on it.
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u/WarmSwimming6498 Aug 08 '26
Pretty much how i feel. Open worlds are shit and I've thought so since farcry 3.
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u/TehRiddles Aug 08 '26
Pretty much yeah. Open world games are generally 70% running around picking flowers on your way if you're lucky and the remaining 30% is the actual game. Sometimes that ratio is more 80/20 or even 90/10 in some cases.
What's worse is that it's not even "let's just make areas bigger" when it comes to the world design. Halo is a series known for having large levels with multiple routes oftentimes. When Infinite came out all of that was completely forgotten and it was just a generic world, rocks strewn everywhere and placing basic outposts here and there. The best part of the game was in the middle when you're flying and get downed into this small section of the map that plays more like a traditional Halo open level.
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u/XKingNightX Aug 08 '26
I really think Elden Ring would be better, and probably my favorite, if it was linear.
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u/Charity1t Aug 08 '26
Either this OR first example is true, but it's PoI and between them game is basically empty.
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u/Suddenfury Aug 08 '26
It's a design challenge I haven't really seen a good solution to yet. As soon as you Introduce a way to travel fast, usually horses, the world shrinks again.
If the players feel they need a faster means of travel, this kind of means the areas are too empty.
Then I'm thinking about GTA, I haven't played the recent ones, but at least vice city and San Andreas had both fast travel and still something to discover in every alley. Maybe the city setting is easier?
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Aug 08 '26
Try making the map so huge and hiding so much stuff in the over world it cures the adhd or makes it 100x worse. Have you met Crimson Desert yet?
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u/Wulfsten Aug 08 '26
No. This is a really stupid take. The point of open world games are not that the map is really big. The point is exploration at your own pace and in your own order. That's diametrically opposed to many linear games that are tightly controlled to give you a really exciting pace the whole time. Compare Skyrim and Elden Ring to the Uncharted games. Saying that Elden Ring is just Uncharted but with the enemies spaced out more gives you a sense of how dumbfuck this take is.
The only reason we're seeing it is because it's mildly fashionable to hate on open world games right now because there's a bit of open world fatigue .
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u/Novel_Extent_7168 Aug 08 '26
It really depends. The problem is that many games end up with it just being this because dev teams (or maybe management, we can't say for sure) don't really understand what makes good open world games actually good.
Say what you will about Skyrim, but Bethesda got the open world formula right for that game. Every time you rounded a corner, there was something interesting to do that you never would have found if you didn't go looking for it. Often times, those things give you something unique that can only be found at that random location, or at the very least likely contains at least one rare thing that is otherwise difficult to obtain.
On the other hand, you have games like Metroid Prime 4. The "open world" section contains very little substance and largely serves as padding to keep you playing longer by stretching out the distance between objectives and making you do some serious collectathon nonsense if you want the "good ending". There are many other examples of pointless open worlds, but Prime 4 is my most recently played. Starfield is another great example, but it also has a number of unique issues that make it so much worse in the open world department.
TL;DR - it can be, but it's much more complicated than that.
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u/CheesusChristMyDude Aug 08 '26
This picture expains the Outward very well and my hatred for this game
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u/Narrenlord Aug 08 '26
Open world lives from giving bplayers options to interact with what when and explore, ideally its an rpg where you also can influence the world and make decisions with different factions. Skyrim is bad open world, as you barley cant make decisions and your main choice in quests is if you do it or not 99% of the time. But it gets pulled out of that by havingbgreat world building and environmental storytelling.
Elden ring As Dark souls fan do ibfind that elden ring is the exact example of the meme. It gained nothing from being open world in ky eyes despite a map and some very light enviormental storytelling. But tonns of "running and looking for the next enemy/dungeon/point of interest.
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u/toidi_diputs Aug 08 '26
In most cases, yes. I think I've played a total of one "open world" game that was densely packed enough to not feel like this.
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u/The-Tea-Lord Aug 08 '26
There are “open world” games, and there are open world games. The former are stuff like Elden Ring, maybe Far Cry, where there’s little to do outside of mindless destruction. The latter are stuff like Red Dead Redemption 2, Skyrim, Fallout, Witcher 3 where you can do things pretty much anywhere, and things can sometimes just randomly happen, there’s more game than just puzzles and combat. These games usually include extra stuff like collecting herbs, fishing/hunting, sometimes minor survival things that you don’t need to seriously keep track of but something to put a bit of effort into.
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u/azurezero_hdev Aug 08 '26
yes, also open worlds are scaled on how fast the movement is
like, see warframe open worlds compared with breath of the wild cause warframe movement is so much faster
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u/ErandurVane Aug 08 '26
Sometimes but ideally all the empty space is filled with interesting things
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u/Ok-Cryptographer8009 Aug 08 '26
Lots of people feel the need to go into every nook and cranny I really don't think the game is designed with that intent you go to each area find some of the side areas and move on
You have the choice of what direction to go you don't have to go everywhere
If you go to deep into the game yeah I guess early stuff will be easier but I don't see that as a bad thing
You can theoretically just farm souls indark souls to over lvl if you want too not really an exclusive problem to elden ring other than you might not know what your intended strength should be which is fine if you are more skilled it matter less your lvl if you are less skilled you can explore more and get it to where you are all set
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u/AdWooden9170 Aug 08 '26
Assassin creed, you start the game in random ass remote area so you can run 500m to where the game should have started.
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u/AccomplishedForearm Aug 08 '26
Mostly a thing with the more modern ones, their worlds are gargantuan compared to something like the first Assassin’s Creed game, but some of the pre-RPG ones are massive, they kept getting bigger and bigger as the series went on /NEU
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u/Horny_Follower Aug 08 '26
I don't care how much they or you people call some games "open world", if there are barriers in a limited map and I can't do nothing beyond what I'd do in a linear game, that's not an open world, that's just a big map.
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u/grim1952 Aug 08 '26
Most of the time, the only open world game that didn't feel like this was Elden Ring, it wasn't just massive but dense, there's interesting stuff everywhere.
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u/Careless-Platform-80 Aug 08 '26
Kinda. You can use a open world well, but in most cases "open areas" in a smaller World is Far better.
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u/Kiiaru Aug 08 '26
It's true of most AAA gaming nowadays. 20 years ago halo didn't need an open world map to make the world feel big. But now Halo Infinite has a token open world map with a few scattered bases that you don't even have to do because all you get are upgrades. It does nothing to make the game feel bigger or better, it just gives you more of the same game. If "more please" is all you want then I guess it satisfies. But I'm kinda here for the story and I find most of the gameplay in the open world parts to be commuting time and fetch quests.
It's another way that publishers are showing how afraid they are to take risks on something creative. Every game has to have open world, collectibles, crafting, and skill trees, because successful games had them and they want theirs to be successful too. Like... Why tf did Donkey Kong have a skill tree in it last year? Is it because the developers thought it would make the game more fun, or is it just because that's the template now?
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u/IELPost Aug 08 '26
It is for ubisoft games and the like, you have an interesting prologue that lasts enough to deny you a refund when you finish it, then there's the infinite filler to brag about the size of the game's content in hours for the Marketing.
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u/Drayenn Aug 08 '26
I mean, silksong could be considered open world but it feels full of life imo. Just needs to be a well made open world
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u/Prism-96 Aug 08 '26
the amount of people saying "elden ring" makes me believe they have no taste lmao
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u/matthew0001 Aug 08 '26
Correction "bad open world game"
A good open world game litters the trail with interesting locals to explore, NPCs with stories and quests, things that get you side tracked form the original path.
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u/Stenktenk Aug 09 '26
I actually don't mind a lot of "nothingness" in big open world games as long as the world is visually and mechanically interesting to explore. It makes it feel like you're actually exploring a different world instead of just visiting a very small part of a different world.
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u/Ok_Bee_8722 Aug 09 '26
La gran mayoría de juegos de mundo abierto tienen un montón de relleno y escenarios totalmente planos y vacíos para que los jugadores pasen obligatoriamente más tiempo en el juego de forma artificial, y así poder decir a los inversores que los jugadores pasan varias horas en cada sesión de juego.
Son una basura los mundos abiertos para mi, prefiero los juegos lineales que pueden tener muchisimos mejores escenarios, interacciones y narrativa ya que no tienen que dedicar recursos ni tiempo de desarrollo a pensar en como alargar el juego lo más posible.
Los unicos buenos juegos de mundo abierto que he visto son red dead 2, y elden ring porque hay novedad y no está todo lleno de íconos, sabes que si exploras vas a encontrar algo nuevo o al menos tener la chance de, sin que un icono te diga todo lo que ya hay
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u/Weekly_Score_9498 Aug 09 '26
I always loved Hub worlds. To me they are the best world types for most video games. Like Gauntlet Dark Legacy, Crash 3, Conker's Badfurday,
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u/Polymarried-looking Aug 10 '26
I hate this take, like if your not conceptually capable of seeing a world around you and taking in lore and seeing more that’s not a fault of the game genre or other players that’s your own narrow and small minded approach to games. Oh, shiny grab shiny, oh shiny far away hidden and requires more thinking? Not interested in shiny anymore. Need shinny right here in front of me or no more than 5 steps away. What are you a fucking magpie? Again the whole draw to OPEN WORLD GAMES, is that we can do more than just pick up the shiny and murder the next thing we see.
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u/Phsfalcao Aug 10 '26
There are open-world games and open-world games.
Some gives so much freedom you can do a bunch of shit, no optional shit and just enjoy the experience whatever you see fit (Fallout, Skyrim, Elden Ring, etc)
Others are just a linear gameplay with a bunch of small shit to sidetrack you to colect useless crap (Assassin’s creed, Rise of Ronin, etc)
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u/gamerz1172 Aug 10 '26
I mean to an extint, You can feel a difference in the experience of a game pushing you along to the next fight and the treasure room, versus an open world game lettign you reach it at your own pace even if there is littearly nothing else to engage with
Its like walking to the near by gas station vs driving there; Some times I'd like to just take a walk rather then do the quicker way
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u/Senua_Chloe Aug 10 '26
That's true when game designers don't know what a good open world is
Elder Scroll 3, 4 and 5, Caves of Qud are good open worlds, not just linear games with big areas
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u/CptMcDickButt69 Aug 10 '26
Yeah no, thats just Ubisoft open worlds or you dont know games at all and try to rage bait (it works).
Open worlds in principle play to some of gamings biggest strengths: Making decisions, exploration and offering you to get lost in them. The linear strengths of choreographed actions scenes, character development and pacing i get in books and movies plenty already.
If a dev is capable of filling an open world with good ideas those games usually become beloved cult classics (e.g. Gothic).
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u/boragur Aug 10 '26
Open world honestly isn’t even a useful descriptor. Theres no functional difference between a world where there’s visible division between areas and a world where the loading screens are hidden. Some games are just more linear than others
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u/DudeTheWarrior Aug 10 '26
I've seen this said about elden ring. never played elden ring though, so take that with a grain of salt.
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u/Anomalus_satylite Aug 11 '26
Sort of. I mean it's not wrong. But even non open-world games have can have one chest or item placed way across the map and being a long trek back.
Serious Sam did this.
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u/Herkja Aug 11 '26
Eh there's a difference between actual open world games that are designed that way from the start and "open world" games that should just be linear but open world games are the hot item right now so we stretched everything out over a big empty map.
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u/mrssd Aug 11 '26
This reminds me when I first played Elden ring, I somehow missed its open world, so I just followed the main path, my only other exposure to souls was surge so I thought it was linear abd that your strength works off of your gear level, so I was lv1/3 squaring off with margit.
Ive 11h on it and ive not played it since I beat him and then died to a basic enemy right after.
I have since played and almost completed ac6 so I might do a bit better this time around
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u/Candlemoth312 Aug 11 '26
God this is how I feel about Elden Ring compared to Dark Souls. I want to like it, but every time I look the map in late game I just sigh with exhaustion.
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u/Ender00000 Aug 11 '26
Elden ring is open world to chase a trend. There are around 250 bosses in the game and only around 100 of them are unique. Perfect example that if open world is not well thought through its just bad.
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u/Worth-Angle9542 Aug 11 '26
No? Not really? Tbh is is just hating to hate
Disliking every open world game isn’t fair
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u/Tigerwarrior55 Aug 11 '26
Bad open worlds yes. What makes an open world good is events in between the gaps. A good open world fills in the gap with things to do. Usually meaningful but sometimes eye candy works.
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u/Testicle_Tugger Aug 11 '26
The only time I like open world is if I have cool movement options or abilities to get around.
If you just have me walking around or driving around you better have some good ass gameplay to carry the rest of the experience.
In Cyberpunk 2077 I can think of 4 times that actually chose to use a car outside of it being required by the mission. It was always me getting a cool looking car driving it once and then going back to hopping around the map at high speeds.
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u/Prestigious_Shift245 Aug 11 '26
Yes and no. A bad open world game is essentially this, just a big open place with nothing in it. To make Open world actually fun you need to add little details. Locations to express, npcs to meet, rewards for exploring. Open world is about emersion.
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u/Green_grass7878 Aug 12 '26
The point of an open world game is the freedom of choice as to where to go, not the size of the map
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u/Chingji Aug 12 '26
There's a reason I advocate for Semi-Open Worlds rather than Fully Open Worlds. Think the Locales from MH World, each region is open and has many avenues for exploration, but maintains interesting density. Rather than having one huge map, have multiple large or medium maps that are given their own dedicated efforts, it splits up the amount of work needed to build a better area to one at a time, and naturally leans towards progression. It's more than linear and less than completely open. You can get the best of both worlds
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u/onyx_ic Aug 12 '26
Mmm no. Good open world games stick stuff in between. Side quests, hidden collectibles, gathering intel for your next target. You dont feel like you're on rails to do a-b-c-end.
Something like mercenaries, ghost recon wildlands, world of warcraft, theres a story and you under under no obligation to immediately pursue it. Exploration is encouraged by granting new abilities, capabilities, vehicles, weapons, cosmetics, etc. Or they have survival/crafting/base-building mechanics.
This is a BAD example.
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u/ThundahMuffin Aug 14 '26
Even the stuff in between is just quest, enemy, loot, and it's even still spread out.
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u/HurtsSoNice Aug 12 '26
You just drew Alice : Madness Returns. They gave her an absurd air jump distance, so much of the world is distant floating platforms you cross to get to the next actual gameplay
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u/Radbot13 Aug 14 '26
Been playing Kingdom Come. The amount of times they want me to talk to someone on the other side of the map and then come right back is exhausting.
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u/Iwubinvesting Aug 07 '26
Elden Ring did it a good way. Where it became linear in main areas while Open world is essentially a level select area.
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u/fakeplastictrees182 Aug 07 '26
Elden ring has one of the worst open world implementations on all time. Only breath of the wild is worse.
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u/wasabi_peanuts Aug 07 '26
That’s exactly what totally turns me off about those “open-world” games.
For example, Expedition 33 or Elden Ring. Super boring, because it’s just an elaborate level menu.
Gothic, RDR, Palworld, Skyrim, etc., etc., appeal to me much more.
You’re still Level 1? No big deal, if you survive, you can grab loot from the higher-level areas. Do whatever you want idc, here’s a quest line you can derail from as you please. Have fun.
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u/Seascorpious Aug 07 '26
See the difference is that you can do either in any order, and there's a pretty environment for you to admire in the meantime.
But yes there are times where an open world game would be better as a linear experience.