I'm Sick of Open-World Games
Why are they everywhere, and what are they doing wrong?
It’s the 13th century in Japan. I’ve just finished fighting some Mongol invaders on Tsushima Island and am making my way to the south, looking for allies to join the fight. The Mongols have captured my uncle, imprisoning him at Castle Kaneda. As my horse gallops across the wind-swept plains, I reflect on my training at *zzz*… *ahem* I reflect on my… *snore* okay I can’t do this…
It’s 2022, and I’m in my apartment in San Francisco. I’m sitting in my living room playing yet another critically acclaimed open-world game, Ghosts of Tsushima, and am wondering, why the hell am I so bored? Why am I just not getting these games? Over the year, I’ve had the opportunity to play a bunch of open-world games that were well reviewed. Individually, there was nothing wrong with any of these games. But moving on to one after another, I started feeling a sense of fatigue, a sense that I was playing the same thing over and over again. With Ghosts of Tsushima, it finally hit a breaking point.
I’ve always considered myself a gamer, which is why I found myself so shocked to reach a state of boredom after playing all of these well-reviewed games. It wasn’t always this way.
Growing up, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was my first open-world adventure, and it was magical. Back in 2002, most games followed a more traditional linear path. In games like Super Mario Sunshine or Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, players were relegated to structured levels with no opportunities for exploration or discovery. But in Grand Theft Auto the whole city was my playground. I could reach any building, steal any car, do anything. While there was a linear structure to the story, I could immerse myself in side activities and choose the order in which I completed missions.
Rockstar Games (Grand Theft Auto’s publisher) set the bar for open-world experiences, and they continued to deliver hits with their following installments as I explored replicas of Los Angeles and New York City. Red Dead Redemption, published by Rockstar and set in the American Old West, delivered exhilarating moments of freedom in an extremely detailed, well-crafted world.
As PlayStation 2’s turned into 3’s and 4’s, open-world games became much more prevalent. Series like Far Cry, Skyrim, Mercenaries, Assasin’s Creed, and more showed that others could build upon the groundwork Rockstar had set. But with each additional open-world game, the magic from those first few experiences dissipated.
Ubisoft (the publisher of Assasin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Watchdogs) probably helped accelerate the downfall of open-world games, saturating the market with similar gameplay experiences. Ubisoft popularized map exploration through the use of “towers”. Players would climb up some structure to reveal more of the map, which would be filled with enemy outposts to be cleared. This was repeated in most of Ubisoft’s Far Cry series and expanded to other games like Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn.
Repeated tropes in open-world game design have been one of my biggest problems, as all these games are starting to feel the same. It now feels like every open-world game has some barren map, a lame crafting mechanic, and a bunch of enemy bases to clear, rinse and repeat. Playing Horizon Zero Dawn and immediately jumping into its sequel, Forbidden West, brought this problem to the forefront. The game has an incredible story, but I felt like I had to slog through the same tasks over and over again. When open-world experiences were rare, this wouldn’t have been a problem, but now they’re a dime-a-dozen.
I think nowadays, the bar for crafting a great open-world game is much higher. I went back to play Grand Theft Auto 3, a truly revolutionary game that started the open-world trend. And I was absolutely bored. The things that were innovative in 2001 are everywhere today. What would it take to get me excited about an open-world game in the 2020s? I think two things are missing in many games: detail and freedom.
The world itself is a character in open-world games, but many mediocre experiences offer worlds that just aren’t very interesting. Fast-Travel (the ability to teleport), has been added to many of these games. I think they are a fantastic quality of life feature, but also show that the world the developers have created isn’t very interesting. I found both Ghosts of Tsushima and Horizon have worlds that, beyond a few cities, were mostly barren. On the other hand, Elden Ring and Red Dead Redemption are densely packed with detail. A player can choose to go in any direction and will find something interesting to do or see.
Freedom is another big component of great games, a bar that has been raised every year since Grand Theft Auto 3 was released. Many open-world games feel like they would actually make more sense as linear experiences, since there doesn’t really seem to be any consequences for poor decision-making as progress is measured by missions completed. Breath of the Wild offers some lessons, as there is only one objective, defeating the final boss Ganon. Players can attempt to do that immediately (but will probably fail). The game subtly nudges players to increase their strength and recruit allies, and can attempt to challenge Ganon at any time. Every player experience will be different based on how they chose to tackle Ganon, offering a very unique experience.
Truly great open-world games are rare these days. It’s been nearly a decade since Grand Theft Auto V came out, and during that time game publishers have been content with playing it safe, leading to an endless stream of similar, mediocre games. Breath of the Wild 2 is in development but has no confirmed release date just yet. I hope I can one day recapture the magic I felt the first time I booted up Vice City on my PS2 twenty years ago. In the meantime, I hope developers can learn from some of the best open-world games out there, instead of saturating the market with the same been-there-done-that experiences.