The Structure of Open-World Games is Weird

While open-world games aim to be ambitious in ways few games are, they often end up following a structure that doesn’t actually support their worlds. In this video I examine why I think games like Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn and Red Dead Redemption 2 fall short, and how they could take ideas from other titles in order to make their worlds matter more.

Special thanks to honorary bagbuten WilliamGlenn8.

#rdr2 #horizonzerodawn #ghostoftsushima

[razbuten]

hope you're having a good day. :)

[gymrat]

I personally like the fact that in rdr2, you're just part of the world and that's it, the world doesn't revolve around you, and it makes it feel much livelier and basically revives the era it portrays and for me that is what actually makes it an open world game

[lordpringle]

I always go into open world games super excited to explore, but I normally quickly realize that 90% of the map is absolutely empty and exploration was never really the devs priority in the first place...

[NYKevin]

My 2¢: The core idea of open world has always been "I want to see what's on the other side of that mountain over there" - but that's not a genre, it's a setting. You can use that setting as the basis of an exploration/"adventure" game (Outer Wilds), an RPG (Skyrim), a platformer (Super Mario Odyssey), or even a puzzle game (The Pathless), but "open world" is not the genre by itself. It may simply be the case that trying to judge all these disparate titles by the same standard is always going to leave us disappointed in one game or another, no matter how you slice it.

At the same time, you make a valid point: Why bother setting something in an open world if the average player is just going to ignore it? The choice of setting is still a fundamental part of the design process, and developers would do well to seriously consider how an open world could interact with their core gameplay loop(s), as well as whether it's really worth the substantial time and effort which it takes to create such a huge playable area.

[robertpreisser]

I actually always try to NOT progress the main storyline in these games, and get frustrated when side quests themselves can’t be completed unless you progress the main story.

[jackschnabel]

The messed up sense of urgency was the worst for me in Dying Light. The other characters are infected and URGENTLY need the antidote. At best they have maybe a day or two left to before people start dying. This stayed the same throughout most of the story, so I always felt like I didn't have any time to engage in side activities. I had to go from story quest to story quest because if I didn't it felt like time would run out and all my allies would die

[ijustsawthat]

Ghost of Tsushima: Save your uncle at the castle
Razbuten: Ok, I am here
Ghost of Tsushima: Ok, but you are facing overwhelming forces
Razbuten: That's the best odds I have in years!

[ronaldbernik]

Honestly the intrigue of open worlds is the world itself, the exploration is key to making it work, if the player has a reason to go over every hill and look under every rock because the world itself is Interesting and fun to explore, you've nailed it. Adversely, if you have a large area with very little to actually experience within the world you may as well be playing a standard linear map game with Interactive loading screens (walking from objective to objective)

[xeno]

Ghost of Tsushima did side quests right, even the smaller ones. Pretty much all side quests revolved around helping people displaced by war, which is the central theme of the game. And some of the core side quests take it a bit further by revealing how the enemy can sometimes be someone close to you.

[Datarror]

I felt the biggest "load off" the sense of urgency in Breath of the Wild was not only the shift in objective, but the shift from an _active_ world to a _passive_ one. Usually, if you don't rescue Zelda immediately, that comes with something additional that you're trying to _prevent_ (be it greater harm to Zelda herself, or some apocalyptic event). In Breath of the Wild, that damage is already done. Narratively, the world won't get any worse if you _don't_ immediately stop Ganon, so you're implicitly encouraged to take your time to do things right this time.

You can even kind of see the difference within the same game with the cases of the Divine Beasts. If you go to Death Mountain, the Gorons face an active crisis with their Beast and worsening eruptions. Their homes and livelihood are under active threat, and once I entered the area, I didn't want to leave until that was resolved. When you leave Death Mountain again, the world is just... as it is, suffering passively, and it's easy to imagine the land getting no better or worse if you left it alone another hundred years.

[devforfun]

as you said "save Zelda" sounds like an immediate objective, that is how i played twilight princess for example, you dont know if saving zelda will take 10 hours or 100 hours, while "defeat Ganon" really sounds like "finish the game" which is obviously not something players will want to do immediately after the start of the game, unless they are speed runners

[luizbertoncini]

As a geologist the best open world I've played is death stranding, despite the rain heavily affecting the soil degradation, its the only game i've seen that the geologic formation actually makes sense and its not only there as a substitute to invisible walls (sorry english is not my first language)

[Kraxel-North]

Honestly, exploring or not, I generally just appreciate the freedom, makes the world feel more immersive to me.

[gisellec]

Personally this has never been a problem because I'm naturally curious about the open world. In rdr2 for example it never bother me that the details don't contribute to the story because it made the world feel alive like it had nothing to do with me and I was just lucky enough to experience it. But yeah i do get the disconnect you would feel if this is not your approach.

[annualleopard]

For games like The Witcher and RDR2 I always create reasons in my head to explore the open world or do side quests. For example, I might think "oh I'll try and go to the top of that mountain to get a good vantage point of the area". Or maybe "I'll do that side quest so that I can make some extra money to feed my horse". Its an easy way to add immersion and give me a reason to explore even when under time pressure by the story.

[postagestamp]

Although not an open-world game, yooka-laylee and the impossible lair does almost exactly what you recommended ghost of tsushima do, you can tackle the final level of yooka-laylee at any point, but it is so difficult that it is almost impossible to beat it without the extra lives you get from completing levels.

[sweetsartcorner]

I liked how Enderal handled this by giving you periods where other characters were taking over the Main Quest and told you to do other things in the meantime. Its a simple thing but it gives the player the feeling of "this urgent matter is being handled, but I can take a break from it". That approach would already help a lot with the classic "the world is ending like, tomorrow" kinda story.

I do think studios kinda force Open Worlds into their games just because it sells better, so many of them dont gain anything but empty hours of repetetive side quests from having an open world.

[ordonlink]

I honestly get overwhelmed at "open world" games due to my completionist mindset. I feel like I have to do everything. If they would change the open world aspect I would have way more motivation to do side quests for story reasons. That would be so much more satisfying rather than feeling like I'm checking off another thing on a laundry list of side quests to do.

[colbyboucher]

Morrowind fixed the urgency thing *so* easily. "Dude, you look like a wet paper bag, go do some freelance work and come back when you're useful."

[travis]

For once, I want the "fight the last boss at the beginning of the game" trope to have weight on the game. If you beat the boss at the beginning, the games story goes on, and maybe the boss survives it, but it changes how the antagonists view you and the entire course of the story as well as how aggressive they are. Could even function as a NG+ mechanic.