Open-World Games Are A Mess

the fatal weakness of a powerful individual is a story trope as old as time itself vampires and sunlight superman and kryptonite nintendo youtubers and turn-based rpgs but everyone loves open world games right surely there's no antagonist for one of the most successful formats of the past two decades right i wish i could enjoy open world games but there's just a lot of things holding me back problem is the term open world is less of a genre and more of an additional explanation it could apply to an action-adventure title a first-person shooter an rpg or all three of those things combined if we were talking about skyrim minecraft and sea of thieves there'd be a little too much to cover so i'm generally going to be focusing on western single-player open world rpgs no not that western well i mean yes that one but the non-cowboy ones too expansive open worlds and the game design choices that come along with them are often for me what turn-based combat and anime rpgs are for many others incredibly tedious and generally uninteresting and it's not just another mediocre assassin's creed entry that set me off on this general avoidance of an entire section of big budget games i used to be quite a fan of the assassin's creed series along with some other games like infamous growing up but i just can't seem to want to give them a shot anymore whether or not that's my own tastes changing or certain open world tropes aging like milk i can't say for sure hell when i played it for the first time a couple years back i couldn't even find much enjoyment in the universally acclaimed breath of the breath of the wild i think a lot of open world rpgs have the potential to be really unique and engaging but they're bogged down by so many outdated mechanics and hypocritical design choices that staring at green metacritic scores and overwhelmingly positive steam reviews makes me feel like i'm being left out of an amazing inside joke and since i'm breaking this video up into sections might as well start with the obvious why is it so big imagine making two pies one pie is huge biggest pie you've ever seen but it only has enough filling to fit that of a normal pie so you end up with a lot of crust the pie might taste alright but you'll probably get full before you even find your way to the great filling hidden in the center the other pie might be a bit smaller than you'd expect but it's filled to the brim with all sorts of great fruits and flavors to complement the crust they've been baked in that pie's gone before you know it but every bite was a masterpiece the first pie is made by ubisoft the second pie is mario odyssey in one of my favorite genres metroidvanias every inch of the map feels important and locations are memorable enough to trigger a galaxy brain flashback every time you find a new power-up to help you get somewhere you didn't previously have access to you show me the red dead redemption 2 map i go oh wow look at all that barren land that probably has trees and a couple deer better go eat a bowl of cereal while my horse auto rides to the next story mission you show me the hollow knight map and the synapses start firing so right there is the bench where you can sit with quarrel and watch the rain and when you go in the royal waterways that's where you fight the funny poop man and if you climb to the top left of the forgotten crossroads a big caterpillar will throw money at you for finding his kids and if you climb to the top of kingdom's edge into the secret area you can talk to a big man himself hey man what's up on the other hand open world rpg maps are big really big since making the entire world interactive would be a herculean task the developers instead stuff the map with points of interest enemies to fight treasure chests to loot and collectibles to mark on your mini-map and walk to one of the most common praises i see in reviews for open world games is that they have so many things to do players invest hundreds of hours into these supposedly life-changing immersive experiences but as someone who has a crippling work obsession and a bad track record for finishing games the site objectives make me feel like i've gotten food poisoning after the first bite of a buffet optional objectives and mini-games are supposed to be a nice break from the established norm of an extended experience and i think that there are plenty of great standouts gwent in the witcher fishing and poker and red dead 2 or literally everything in the yakuza series what i've found however is that a majority of offerings in open world rpgs are lackluster in comparison to the grand action and scale present in their combat and main story quests follow footprints to find man who burned down a building or retrieve woman's lost frying pan from the house right next to her or look for grandmother's ring while fighting boars just about knocked me out earlier than i went to bed on school nights in kindergarten while many objectives are made optional for a reason playing an open world game without engaging with the open world just doesn't feel right the idea of being able to forge my own path instead of riding on a pre-built set of train tracks is interesting in theory but everything appears so surface level that the experience doesn't feel like an adventure it feels like traveling across nothing to get to a specifically marked corner where something actually exists oftentimes i find myself wanting to be a completionist but attempting the feat in an open world game almost always leads to immediate burnout one open world i found a fair amount of enjoyment in was the pathless a game about sprinting and flying through beautiful landscapes while shooting a bow and arrow at floating targets its general structure often reminded me of the way breath of the wild hides collectibles without marking them on your map forcing you to seek them out if they interest you however my issue with the pathless is that there isn't much variety in the side content pretty much all there is to do other than the main objective is solve puzzles and after their formats become repetitive finding them everywhere dampens the initial excitement factor slap on the fact that solving these puzzles only contributes a tiny amount of experience that eventually gets you another jump with your funny falcon and the reward doesn't feel worth it either a huge plus about the pathless though is that it has movement that feels good which is the main reason i ended up sticking with the game if my metaphorical pie argument from earlier had a sub-argument it'd be that the speed at which you can cut me another slice is a key factor in determining my overall enjoyment again metroidvanias are pretty great at this as movement abilities are a typical unlock as you explore the world and get comfortable with your existing skill set ori and the will of the wisps is a particular standout because while backtracking does exist you can parkour slingshot yourself across the map with such speed and grace that getting to any given location feels like executing a world record speed run while i'm still not a fan of plenty of missions and side objectives offered in titles like spider-man and infamous surfing on power lines or doing sick tricks while swinging around new york makes getting to my next objective more dynamic and resulted in me actually finishing both titles i find myself fast traveling way less than normal in games where movement is interesting which honestly feels like a big deal when you consider how normalized the mechanic has become some of the cracks in open world design begin to show when the mere existence of fast travel indicates that going from point a to point b isn't always fun that the massive map isn't interesting on its own meanwhile near replicant had the audacity to make vice explain out loud why fast travel would be a bad idea and by the third playthrough i was ready to file that [ __ ] away in the library of alexandria yeah it's apparently a kind of magic that can zap you to faraway places in an instant ah that one well i would stay away from such devilry where i knew land how come because all of the sages who attempted said spell were reduced to mincemeat wow i'll write them walking it is an excellent choice my other problem with these open worlds is how developers choose to display them there's an age-old saying when teaching exposition and visual storytelling show don't tell for open world games which pride themselves on non-linearity i think the best way of presenting just about anything is don't show and don't tell there is nothing that overwhelms my easily distracted baby brain more than being flash banged by a mini map filled with exclamation points for every person i can talk to little leaves i can gather or hundreds of other icons explaining to me that if i want to interact with the world i should do so exclusively through the sterilized overlays and not actually use that cool interesting concept called discovery with these open world pies i'd rather miss out on some bites while being surprised by others rather than a menu existing to constantly remind me that i have 18 slices of mountain berry crumb hidden around the house what the [ __ ] with hundreds of tiny collectibles to discover all marked on my map and tracked with percentages alongside points of interest and seemingly endless side quests i get so distracted performing menial tasks included to pad out game time that i forget the main storyline even exists at that point i'd grab my last collectible feel absolutely exhausted at the time i've wasted turn the console off and never come back to the game maybe i would have enjoyed finishing some of these stories but the way in which they're presented have so much extra nonsense that i'd rather be picked up put in a toddler booster seat and dropped in a linear game so i can focus on interesting combat or interactive storytelling i understand that there are certain options to customize and disable trackers and mini maps but considering how open world games are designed and laid out finding secrets of my own accord isn't always a viable option and when a pop-up tells me i've found 2 out of 50 it removes the excitement the secrecy of it all and subconsciously affects the way i think about the content collectibles aren't fun things to be discovered organically they're bullets on a to-do list to remind you of how close you are to that next achievement can you imagine if there was a switch achievement for finding every korok seed if you found one and it said 764 left to go can you imagine what that would do to people when it comes down to it i just don't care for a big map unless the big map really means something there's been so much competitive advertising from every aaa publisher over the past decade that they've created the biggest open world yet but it only feels like the open world exists to be slapped on the back of the box cyberpunk 2077 was aiming to deliver the next step which was actually making the big world feel alive and reactionary but we already know the story of the boy who cried next gen open world action role playing video game considering the fact that ubisoft continues to extend the length of assassin's creed games to sell additional content and in-game purchases it's clear that some studios don't care about the quality of the time spent in their worlds rather than the sheer amount it's beginning to feel like even single player games are embracing the games as a service model wholeheartedly oh where'd you come from you little devil you know i'd give gentian impact a couple points for scattering menial things to do across the map but since tearing off the scooby doo villain mask reveals a lifeless breath of the wild rip-off with every addictive mobile game design tactic plastered on top it is now disqualified from being recognized as an actual video game oh look at you chapter 2 outdated game design the title of this section sounds like i'm about to bust out the game maker's tool kit but all it really means is that i can't stand [ __ ] like menial crafting mechanics and boring mission design when considering all the dynamic ways in which video games are able to tell stories stealth trailing and escort missions feel like such a boring way to progress a narrative that i'd rather be shown a cutscene or have the event skipped entirely slowly walking around while pressing button prompts or failing to follow someone at a distance for the fifth time feels counter-intuitive to the best parts of an open world like doing dumb [ __ ] with vehicles stabbing people with hidden weapons challenging an army to a standoff or finding a cool secret entirely on my own the combat and exploration mechanics clearly work but other times it feels like whatever i'm playing would prefer to be a 30 hour movie elements like experience systems inventory management and automatic path travel rip you away from the fun part just to make the big world take up more of your time you know what's fun in gravity rush 2 going fast fighting enemies throwing newspapers through the air but then in other side quests you have to trail people that walk slower than a [ __ ] turtle in a game that was not designed for precise movement and then in the main story you have to walk stealthily and slowly on the ground i'm gonna go gravity rush myself off a cliff on a larger scale many open world rpgs just feel like carbon copies of each other like they're repurposing the same skeleton established some 15 years ago while only making minor aesthetic changes story missions are follow this slow npc that gets lost walking in circles for five minutes so you can do one cool fight followed by two cutscenes stealth missions are make sure to follow our clearly marked bushes and windows please play the mission how we intended and side quests are designed by implementing the most menial tasks imaginable into a world of boundless opportunities movement is limited to clearly marked and labeled traversal points or uncharted climbing rocks investigation is just holding down a spidey sense button and being told exactly where footprints and points of interest are and leveling systems exist to help sell micro transactions or prevent you from exploring and doing quests at your own discretion and the map is [ __ ] huge it doesn't gotta be that big you know my horse is gonna get tired i'm not trying to imply that every open world game suffers from all of these issues some games create tons of weapons and tools to keep encounters varied and others manage to genuinely implement player choices into branching storylines problem is many of the design elements that continue to be included seem to contradict the idea of freedom that these games are built around being told exactly how to approach combat and quests for bonus rewards makes it feel like the game doesn't want me to be creative heaven forbid i try to step one inch off the rails during an actual mission and the game pulls the reins on my neck whether through a wasted screen or an ambush of powerful enemies oh you can try to ride a horse through the wild or engage in hectic battles instead of sneaking through our boring stealth path where you press one button to kill all the enemies didn't say it would go well i want to be the poor son of a [ __ ] that thinks following a whistle to a nearby patch of tall grass is a good idea chapter 3 the world this point's a little different than the others and while not directly connected to game design i consider the general atmosphere and theming of a game to be pretty important when trying to get invested i grew up as a nintendo fanboy playing mario sonic pokemon kirby air ride and super monkey ball with my friends when i finally got a ps3 i neglected games like the last of us god of war and uncharted for colorful little baby games like little big planet fat princess and nino cooney looking past the discussion of the gaming industry's competitive and costly obsession with graphics i'm just not interested in the settings and locales these games allow me to step foot in i've never been a medieval fantasy kind of guy so even after buying the game several times i can't understand the skyrim addiction that most people have had at some point in their lives at a surface level nothing interests me in the witcher 3 from a stylistic standpoint so it's difficult to immerse myself in its complicated rpg systems and monotonous side quests i actually tried to get more footage of skyrim for this video but the game wouldn't let me hello barring my new details i can generally say the same for games like cyberpunk fallout watchdogs grand theft auto just cause and far cry many of these games take place as an offshoot of our modern world a fantasized past or a post-apocalyptic future all with an emphasis on looking as real as possible realism is often a huge selling point when it comes to open world games with red dead redemption 2 being the most obvious example but while the emotional character driven storyline and cool set pieces of robbing trains or evading the law compelled me to finish the game i was driven insane by being forced to individually loot every item or watch three short films every time i wanted to cook a meal the good parts of red dead 2 felt boggs down by elements that are only included to adhere to the idea of a realistic world these are video games i just want to [ __ ] shoot a guy first impressions mean a lot and one of the biggest jokes made about jrpgs is that there's very little gameplay for the first few hours that they're often like watching an entire movie before the game even starts persona 5's intro for example is almost entirely dialogue and cut scenes but i much prefer this to the longer more meandering mixture of many open world titles while story lines often feel essential to fully appreciate and experience the implementation of multi-hour introductions filled with escort missions and dull conversations is the equivalent of a recommendation for a tv show with the promise that it gets good somewhere in the third season in the first four hours i spent playing the witcher 3 i'd wager that less than 10 minutes was spent in combat while the story seemed exciting at first slowly following npcs and going on repetitive do this for me and i'll give you info quests quickly drained the small amount of interest i had for the massive fantasy world hidden inside a card game oh don't mind if i do i'll keep this brief ghost of tsushima might be a big pie but compared to everything else i've been talking about i actually think it has some pretty interesting flavors combat is skill tree based without being overly complicated grindy or crafting dependent and the whole game leans into its cinematic style by not showing me everything on the god damn screen while ghost of tsushima still relies on some frustrating mission design and a checklist of side objectives it at least takes some unique strides when it comes to conveying information to the player in the time i spent with the game i much preferred a yellow bird or firefly leading me to something new rather than an exclamation point with a distance marker having absolutely nothing on the screen actually led me to explore the world more often and more freely than if i had been experiencing decision paralysis it forced me to engage with the world and analyze my surroundings instead of statically receive information through a menu and i'd occasionally just choose a random direction and ride until something caught my attention some of the side quests even had interesting twists or helped build the narrative rather than simply making me fetch something using the wind to subtly find the direction of a selected waypoint felt much more natural than the exact distance counter and i genuinely consider it to be one of the best innovations the game has to offer i felt like i could actually admire the beauty of the game's world and take a breath of fresh air without having waypoints texts health bars quest trackers stealth indicators and dialogue shoved down my throat every two seconds save these for the trail time to gather the parts for some fire arrows some kind of power cell i should try overriding other kinds of machines probably can't ride them all but i might find a use for them flames burn stronger than usual the flames they're burning what else are they doing at the end of the day i'm not looking to hyper analyze my problems with any singular franchise rather i'm trying to demonstrate that while open worlds have the potential to be amazing many industry standard design trends seem to contradict the idea of freedom these games strive for games that could tread new ground and redefine conventional systems instead blend together into a homogeneous skill tree inventory crafting level system trailing mission collectible stealth archer soup and it's not just these games specifically over the past year i've been enjoying the camaraderie of final fantasy xiv but i consider traversing its sprawling landscapes to be the most grueling part of an otherwise entertaining multiplayer game where you fight giant dragons and god monsters it's not like you have to collect tons of small floating orbs spread across awkward locations to get around efficiently right go up to anyone anyone that's played a lot of final fantasy 14 say the phrase either currents see what happens to their facial expression and then get back to me there are games that have exploration oriented design that i enjoy but gameplay specifications and map size are why i hesitate to group them with what most people think of when it comes to open world games a short hike pales in comparison to sprawling landscapes and cities and mario odyssey would generally be considered a 3d platformer with an intimate collection of open levels the environments in these games are big but they're all designed for constant player engagement but there's got to be something unique right what kind of game with a non-linear open world structure could i actually adore of course it's outer wilds but if i do not preface the sheer mention of this game with a minor spoiler warning i will be hunted down by every fan simultaneously including myself i peeked out my window and i was one of the people with a pitchfork with very few character models and zero lines of voice acting outer wilds tells a story more compelling than most aaa games could ever dream of and how is it an open world without containing any of the extra fluff that seems to bog down the giants well there's no inventory no collectibles no crafting no skills no missions and no experience every 22 minutes because of something you're back at the start with nothing but the knowledge you've gained there are a potentially infinite number of orders in which you could uncover the game's core secrets and the only thing barring you from beating it in an instant is not knowing how it's a game that doesn't care about how long it is that prioritizes being fun over having a three-digit completion time it can be beaten in 20 minutes or 15 hours and i gotta end this tangent or it will simply devolve into me threatening all of you to play outer wilds right now i could end my opinion here and say that my distaste is an open and shut case but it's obvious that i can't just leave it at that considering the games i do like that have open world elements and how it sounds like every human on earth who's played breath of the wild has had more fun than i've ever had in every video game combined i decided to give it another chance and lo and behold i loved it from cinematic landscapes and scripted events to incredible animations and flashy combat there's no negative argument from me big budget open world rpgs look absolutely stunning but foliage blowing in the wind means little to me after a first glance and i'd prefer the frame rate dropped to negative 12 every time a single blade of grass gets lit on fire if it meant these games delivered even a shred of the excitement i've experienced while exploring hyrule breath of the wild manages to subvert just about every problem i've outlined in this video and i have so much to say that i've decided to perform an absolutely menacing move and leave this video on a cliffhanger pretty clever right regardless i hope you enjoyed it if you'd like to help support my work and get access to various benefits i have a patreon in the description and it's time for you to subscribe for real this time because i'm gonna be making an entire video about why i think breath of the wild might be one of my new favorite games of all time didn't think i'd ever be saying that sentence [Music] you

Channel: yakkocmn

Views: 617,299

Keywords: open world games, open world, breath of the wild, genshin impact, yakkocmn, fast travel, cyberpunk 2077, open-world games, boring, assassin's creed, ghost of tsushima, elder scrolls, skyrim, horizon zero dawn, assassin's creed sucks, the witcher 3, witcher 3, fallout new vegas, fallout 4, far cry, spider man, watch dogs, rockstar games, grand theft auto, gta 5, red dead redemption 2, boring movement, legend of zelda, mario odyssey, super mario odyssey

Id: kSQxx40mpoA

Length: 25min 20sec (1520 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 01 2021