The time is upon us once again for you to feast your eyes on yet another awesome blog post from yours truly! Today’s topic is something I’ve wanted to talk about for a while now and I’m excited to open the conversation with you guys! You’ve probably guessed it already from reading the title, but today we’re talking about open world games!
Open world games have been a consistently growing genre of video games for decades now. While the genre really started to take storm during the release of titles like GTA and Fallout, open world games have been around well before 3D started hitting the scenes, since the 70’s in fact!!
The first open world game was Jet Rocket, an old cabinet arcade title where players took control of a jet fighter and were able to maneuver a fully open-world environment. While probably not super exciting in today’s times, it was titles like this that opened up the possibility of what freedom and exploration in a video game could mean. Fast forward 40 years and we have an amazing library of open world games that have defined generations and are long standing favorites for many gamers.
Today I want to dive into the genre and dig into what makes open world games so alluring. What makes a world feel alive and what makes it feel dull and bland? There’s so much that goes into this genre that creates an immersive experience for players that we can talk for hours on the subject. However, for the sake of fitting everything into this blog post, I’ve narrowed it down to 3 key elements. If you're ready, stock up on your inventory, get into your vehicle of choice, and let's explore this thing!
Exploration
This is a huge and important factor when it comes down to an open world game. Typically, when you jump into an open world you want to have the freedom to explore wherever you want to go without any obstacles getting in your way. You literally want the world to be open to go or do whatever you want.
You want to explore some far away landmark that catches your eye? Go for it. You want to hop into a car and run over some old ladies on the road? I might question your sanity, but nothing’s stopping you.
The beauty in this genre is the knowledge that you're not confined to a small area, but rather have this unique expansive world just waiting to be explored.
However, just having a 3D environment where you can freely move around in isn’t necessarily enough to make a great open world game. There has to be a drive, an incentive, a spark of curiosity to prompt the player to divert from the beaten path.
These things can be accomplished through intricate level design, interesting side quests, or incentivized collectibles. If you don’t have any of these things, you just end up with an empty world that’s going to leave the player feeling alone or bored to wonder an endless landscape with nothing to do.
Take a game like No Man’s Sky, for example. When this game was first announced, it boasted on breaking the boundaries of the concept of open world games billions of different generated worlds you can freely explore with unique environments, creatures, and resources to gather.
It was a hugely hyped up game that everybody wanted to get their hands on. However, once the game was released, it was an utter disappointment for many people. Traveling to worlds required tedious resource mining to power up your ship and when you got to these new worlds they felt dull and pointless. For the most part, the planets look very similar and were huge wastelands of rocks that made exploration more of a chore than an adventure.
Now take Breath of the Wild, on the other hand. This game redefined the genre and is personally the best open world game out there, hands down. Not only is Hyrule enticing with it’s beautiful cel-shaded art style, but it seems like every inch of this once thriving kingdom was meant to be explored.
From grandiose cities and villages to even a small rock formation behind a mountain. The developers of this game honed in on capturing the player’s natural curiosity to create an expansive world teeming with life, intrigue, and adventure.
The open world environment was so vast and amazing, that I would spend days just exploring Hyrule and all its wonders, not even paying mind to the many quests that I still had to do.
It took me roughly 4 months to complete the main storyline of the game and even after all that time I barely discovered half of what Hyrule had to offer. When developers are able to keep players engaged in a world on just exploration alone, that’s when you know you have yourself a damn good open world game!
Mechanics
While exploration is fundamental in any open world game, it doesn’t always have to be the main focus in a player’s experience. Sometimes, an open world can serve the purpose of having a free space for player’s to experience the unique mechanics the game has to offer.
A great example of this is Marvel’s Spiderman for the PS4. When a player imagines being Spiderman, they envision being able to swing from building to building with freedom in where they go and how they get there. Whether that’s taking a leisurely swing through Harlem, or chaining some crazy wall running, web zipping acrobatics to quickly get to the one side of New York to the next, player’s want the freedom and flexibility on maneuvering through the city because that’s what Spdierman does on the daily.
That’s exactly what the developers focused on during the creation of this wonderful game. The world of New York in this game was carefully crafted to allow players to have the ultimate experience as Spiderman like they never have before.
From wall-running off buildings, to launching yourself through the narrow opening of a rooftop water tower, you can always find ways to use the environment to keep yourself moving in a fast-paced action that can only be described as a thrilling bliss.
Sure, exploration is still a big part of the game. There’s cool cameo locations to check out and plenty of collectibles to find, but the world of New York was not specifically made for the sole purpose of exploration.
I mean, it’s not the first game to feature New York city in the genre. Think of GTA or the Prototype games. New York is hardly new territory as a setting in any game, open world or not.
So, the developers decided to make the city a playground that marries with the core mechanics of Spiderman to create a unique and exciting web-swinging experience that never grows stale.
Atmosphere
Now, atmosphere in open-world games can overlap with exploration a lot, so let’s break it down real quick. Atmosphere in open-world games, or any game really, involves anything from characters to the environment that engrains the player in the game world. It makes them feel like they’re there and not just simply walking around a 3D space.
So, how do you achieve something as abstract as “atmosphere” in a game? Well it all depends on the kind of experience the game wants you to have.
A common way to establish atmosphere is through the environment itself. You see, hear, and walk through the world you’re placed in for 100% of the time you're playing the game. If you’re not feeling any kind of connection to the world at all, then your experience is going to be lackluster and you won’t find yourself immersed, which is a big no no.
This is especially true for open-world games, since they’re whole foundation is based upon giving you the drive to go out and see what the world has to offer.
Ghost of Tsushima does a phenomenal job in creating an engaging atmosphere in just it’s level design alone. In this game you play as a samurai who explores feudal Japan.
This game boasts beautiful landscapes that take your breath away. With lush grass and flower fields that expand for miles to wind and weather particle effects and even smoke signals seen over the horizon from distant villages and campsites.
The artistry in this game captures the essence and beauty of Japan that entices players and gives them the child-like wonder to continue playing to see what else the world has to offer.
You could say that the atmosphere in a game helps intensify the desire for the player to explore the world. Without it, the game just makes you feel like you’re a character walking around a 3D space with no motivation and immersion whatsoever, which kills the experience.
Fallout is such a game that fails in the atmosphere department. If you’ve been following the blog for a while then you know that I’m not a fan of the Fallout series for many reasons. For the sake of me not going on a tangent, you can click here if you want to read my full review on the game.
Anyway, Fallout has always been difficult for me to enjoy and one of the main reasons is the world itself. Personally, I’ve never found myself immersed in the post-apocalyptic America the Fallout series is set in.
It’s just a big, dull world with nothing to really see. While there are some places that sparked intrigue, for the most part the world is just a monochromatic wasteland of ugly desaturated greens and browns that both fails to ground me in the game world and motivate me to explore the depths that this world has to offer.
Sure, I’ll admit Fallout has some high notes here and there and I can understand why it might be enjoyable for some. However, if an open world can’t hook you the second you step foot into it, it’s going to be incredibly challenging to be invested enough to play it all the way through and Fallout just doesn’t do it for me. And there are plenty of other games like that as well and it makes the difference whether a player enjoys 1 hour of the game or 100 hours.
So that’s my little dive into the open world genre for ya! Open-world games are a genuine wonder and will only continue to get better as the video game industry continues to go forward.
What’s your favorite open-world game? What makes a great open-world experience for you? Comment below and stay tuned in for more awesome posts like this one by signing up for the blog’s email list or follow the Man Behind the Controller page on Facebook. Until next time!
Dean Willms
Gamer. Designer. Friend
Comments