Back in August, I wrote a blog discussing the issues with the length of some RPGs, along with open world games. At the time, I discussed some of the problems I had with every game pushing to be more open and offered some thoughts on what could be done to alleviate any fatigue that some gamers are getting from the genre.
That was more than half a year ago, and in that time there have been a handful of open world titles released since then. Watchdogs 2, Final Fantasy XV, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Mass Effect: Andromeda, are just some of the open world titles to release during that period. Over the last few months I've grown tired of the same open world structure that most games are offering: give the player a bunch of dull uninventive quests or missions that offer very little in the way of engaging story or gameplay, as well as give them a bunch of things to collect in a world that feels fairly lifeless.
I'm just fed up with the dull side content, along with games forcing themselves to embrace open world design that only ends up hurting the game. The first game that made me feel fatigued by the open world design of games today, was Horizon: Zero Dawn. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Horizon, it's one of my favorite games of the year, and while I liked exploring the open world at first, my opinion changed after I took a break from the game to play Breath of the Wild.
Breath of the Wild approached open worlds in a different way than what I had been accustomed to the last few years. I removed the hud, and just set out to go where I pleased and explore what I found interesting, not having to worry about gaining exp. from doing side content or having to deal with an icon laden map. Breath of the Wild focused on exploration, not on how many things can we shove in this game to expand the play time.
It's unfortunate for Horizon that my time with it was split in half with the fresh experience that Breath of the Wild offered me, as my opinion of its open world possibly wouldn't have changed much. Once I jumped back in to Horizon, I was quickly annoyed by how limited I was with traversing the world, Zelda allowed players complete freedom of where they could climb or traverse over, Horizon prevented me from climbing over a 4-foot tall box.
What clicked with Breath of the Wild for me was, if I saw a mountain, it wasn't a matter of finding a path around it, it was a matter of whether I had the stamina to climb over it. The freedom really meant a difference. Even for a very good open world title like Horizon, feeling like I was limited in where I could go in the games huge open world, bugged me. Overall, I thought, while definitely not the most inventive mission design, that Horizon's side content was interesting enough to keep me engaged a fair amount of the time, unlike the mess that is Mass Effect: Andromeda.
By the time I completed Horizon, I began to realize how tired I was of the whole open world game shindig that I had seen in way too many games over the last few years. Even with that said, I was still looking forward to open-ish games like, Nier: Automata and Mass Effect: Andromeda. I've really enjoyed the oddity that is Nier: Automata and even though the game has an open world, I don't really consider it to be an open world game, but more of a story driven game that opens up every so often.
Once I got my hands on Mass Effect: Andromeda though, I came to the full realization of how tired I was of the open world genre. Andromeda is an okay game that could have used more time to iron out some of its problems, but it is completely obvious to me of how much of an unneeded and stale open world aspect the game has. The very first moment that I finally opened up the world of Eos and began to explore, I knew that I couldn't care less about doing any of the optional content that the game had.
"Oh look" a Kett camp with around eight or so enemies and a treasure chest with nothing of use in it, I've never done that in a game before, awesome they respawn. Scanning the environment for objects to interact with or gain resources from, so original. There is nothing creative or engaging in the open areas in Mass Effect: Andromeda, perhaps you will get lucky and find an interesting plot line for a side mission you found, but by the time you visit the multiple locations in order to really get to the meat of the plotline for the mission, you will have lost all interest.
The areas where Andromeda shine best, are the segments that are almost completely linear. These missions are crafted and designed in a more thoughtful way compared to when you're fighting some enemies in the open world and all of a sudden some guy spawns behind you with no cover in sight.
Before Mass Effect: Andromeda released, I was interested in the idea of exploring a brand new galaxy. I thought that making Mass Effect a little more "open" design wise would be beneficial for the series, Andromeda showed me, at least for right now' that the more linear experiences that the original trilogy offered is what is best for the story driven series that is Mass Effect.
I'm going to finish Mass Effect: Andromeda, but none of that is due to any interest that I have in the side content the game has to offer, besides a handful of missions involving your squadmates. Andromeda is the perfect example of the damage that can be done to a game that has the open world philosophy jammed down its throat so hard, that it pukes everything back up all over itself, leaving an awful smelling mess covered in undesirables that nobody wants to touch.
Am I being too harsh on Andromeda? Possibly, but I think the open world genre needs to rethink how it goes about telling a story, how it provides players with engaging activities, and whether or not having an open world is even beneficial to the game in general. I'm tired of being fed the same regurgitated content over and over.
Breath of the Wild offered me a nice change of pace with the genre, and I'm hoping that others can learn from Zelda, or a game like The Witcher 3, in which story is the driving force behind the side content, and add some spark to the staleness that is accompanying many open world games nowadays. People want to play around in open worlds, but more specifically they want to play in engaging and creative open environments that offer an experience that separates itself from the norm.
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