Best Open Worlds and Overworlds

[The Boston Crab]

This thread is about two different things to sustain a conversation.


Far Cry 3 was my introduction to the open world playground kind of thing which is now so dominant in AAA gaming. I largely skipped the PS2 era and only had a Wii and DS for much of the 360/PS3 era so when I finally played this in the latter stages of the PS3's lifespan, I was knocked out by it. The idea of a background, as was, being an actual place was insane to me. Likewise, the glider was probably one of the best things I'd ever experienced in a game and I would run or drive back up the cliff and glide off again and again. Amazing feeling.


FF7 was my first true 'oh fuck' moment though with the world map. Midgar seemed enormous as it was and while I knew that the game opened up and wasn't all set there, that feeling of leaving and being out in an enormous world was astonishing to me. In practice, it needn't exist really, nothing happens besides random encounters and there's not a great deal to find and it's awkward to navigate but that overworld theme still gets me. It's what it suggests in your imagination which is so powerful even twenty years on.


BotW is the one now held up as making all open worlds feel a generation behind and it is masterfully designed so there's always a surprise or reward, whether through gameplay or some visual thrill. It's not just the size, because it's not that big. It's not the graphics, because it's pretty low res and almost ugly at times (while looking like staggering live action Ghibli for the most part). It's not even the interlocking physics systems and robustness of the elemental variables and so on. It's that every single aspect of the game is enriched by the actual design of the world, in terms of geometry and eyelines and negative space and other such wanky terminology. The world elevates every single moment.


My actual favourite though is Skyrim. It has almost no variety, it's mechanically very shallow, it has no systems or physics to speak of, traversal is laboured and it's now looking very dated even with mods and I would live and die there very very happily. I don't know how, maybe it's the GOAT soundtrack, maybe it's the charm of the voice acting, maybe it's the insane amount of clutter but that world just has soul.


What about you?

[mobias]

The obvious thing to say here is GTA but San Andreas was the most fun open world playground I've ever experienced in a computer game. I'm frightened to think how much of my life i lost to that game back in the day. Its interesting to think now that there was no DLC and no patches back in those days. What you got on the disc was all you got and all you really needed, including the bugs and un-patched game exploits.

I got lost and caught up in the Witcher 3 world in a way I really haven't done before or since. For the most part it was all so beautifully and lovingly created with large doses of something you don't find in many computer games - real charm.

[The Boston Crab]

I'll stop going on about it as soon as I'm bored but Assassin's Creed Odyssey reminds me of The Witcher 3 an enormous amount. It's a bit more understated in terms of the colour palette and stuff but it's very similar in tone, as is the music. The NPC dialogue and the conversations you have are also very very reminiscent, but again, a little more low-key and realistic, for the most part. It's also less world weary. Dare I say it's a better game? Yes. If you enjoyed TW3, then I would really really recommend this.

[mobias]

If you enjoyed TW3, then I would really really recommend this.

Yeah it does look good. Not enough time for it though. RDR2 comes out in a few weeks and then at the end of November Farming Simulator 19 comes out. Also there's Just Cause 4 on the horizon too followed by Anthem. My gaming life is well and truly taken care of for the next year or two at least just by those games. I've taken myself off Plenty of Fish in preparation and bought myself one of these https://www.lovehoney.co.uk/product.cfm?p=30972 (as an aside the user reviews underneath that are hilarious)

In other words I'M READY!

[Avril Lavigne]

Its interesting to think now that there was no DLC and no patches back in those days. What you got on the disc was all you got and all you really needed, including the bugs and un-patched game exploits.

Although we did have a lot of great Mods around for extending the life of various games.  Half Life 1 in particular had a great Modding scene with stuff like Natural Selection, Vampire Slayer, Zombie Panic and Pirates Vikings & Knights adding all kinds of new features, game mechanics, art assets & music completely free.

[Lemming]

I'll echo Skyrim. It's such a bizarre game, in that - as you said - it does nothing well, everything's extremely shallow, there's virtually no mechanical depth to anything and yet the whole thing just gels together as a great experience despite every individual aspect of it being shit.

Skyrim has some great world design, though. People talk about Morrowind having genius world design in that it makes Vvardenfell feel much much bigger and more varied than it actually is, but Skyrim does the same thing except slightly better. The splitting of the map into about five or six distinct climates with natural transitions between them really does a lot to help you feel like you're on a huge country-spanning adventure, rather than the reality that you're walking around a fairly small map split up by mountains and rivers. It also does a good job of giving you the illusion that there's much more to do than there actually is.

[biggytitbo]

I still don't think there's been a more beautiful, detailed and 'real' feeling gameworld than Assassin's Creed Unity, the richness, vibrancy and attention to detail is amazing, even if gameplay wise it's not as good as the newer games.


GTA V and Watchdogs 2 are both great aswell, at least in terms of filling the worlds with things to do.

[bgmnts]

Hard to look past GTA V or Red Dead Redemption. I really did enjoy Assassins Creed 2's world when it came out.

[Mister Six]

For me, GTA V feels very hollow. Despite all the intricate details, individually designed streets, and so on, there's so little to do there beyond the minigames and missions that it feels like a mesh to wander around, rather than a place.

Meanwhile, Skyrim, which is mostly just repeated assets across a much smaller map, feels far more involving, because you can go into every house, dick around in every cave, and so on. When you see a building on a hill in GTA V, it might well be an elaborate recreation of the Griffith Observatory but once you get up there, there's nothing to do. Meanwhile, Skyrim might offer you another mould-pressed clifftop tower, but there'll be some monsters to battle and treasure chests to open, and maybe an interesting scroll detailing the former owner's grim fate. In that way, I suppose, Skyrim feels like an open world, whereas GTA V feels like an overworld with a few more things to look at.

FF7 was my first true 'oh fuck' moment though with the world map. Midgar seemed enormous as it was and while I knew that the game opened up and wasn't all set there, that feeling of leaving and being out in an enormous world was astonishing to me.

Same here. It's a nigh peerless bit of game design, that. Think about everything you do in that first part - blow up a couple of reactors, have a heart-to-heart with Tifa, maybe a couple of flashbacks to Zack, get your team blown up and separated, land in lower Midgar, meet Aeris, save her from Shinra, hang out with some steampunky proles, watch as she's kidnapped, drag up, fight a crime boss, get dumped into the sewers, fight your way up the Shinra tower, get Red XIII and Cait Sith on board, rescue Aeris, meet Sephiroth, have an exciting actiony bike chase, escape the city with Shinra and the Turks on your tail...

There's enough content for there for one whole game, and then all of a sudden you're swapping discs and out into the overworld, with the claustrophobic city streets behind you and whole continents ahead!

No wonder FFVIII, in which you're dumped into a rental car and pushed out onto the overworld within the first half hour, felt so underwhelming.

A similarly grand bit of game design is in the most recent Prey.

SPOILERS FOR PREY
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You're constantly being pushed around claustrophobic corridors and labs - even the open spaces feel crowded thanks to the massive art installations in the lobby - and then, a fair ways into the game you're suddenly allowed outside, to float around in space. The station - which I'm going to call an overworld, because it sort of serves that function, and also fuck it - might not be that impressive a feat technically, because I don't know much about the engine, but because the game thus far has been chopped up into tight little segments, the fact that you can both clamber around its exterior looking for hatches to let yourself into secret areas and zoom miles out to get a view of the whole thing (not to mention look for stranded space shuttles and cargo pods) feels breathtaking. That's not a vacuum of space pun.

[Thursday]

For me, GTA V feels very hollow. Despite all the intricate details, individually designed streets, and so on, there's so little to do there beyond the minigames and missions that it feels like a mesh to wander around, rather than a place.

Meanwhile, Skyrim, which is mostly just repeated assets across a much smaller map, feels far more involving, because you can go into every house, dick around in every cave, and so on. When you see a building on a hill in GTA V, it might well be an elaborate recreation of the Griffith Observatory but once you get up there, there's nothing to do. Meanwhile, Skyrim might offer you another mould-pressed clifftop tower, but there'll be some monsters to battle and treasure chests to open, and maybe an interesting scroll detailing the former owner's grim fate. In that way, I suppose, Skyrim feels like an open world, whereas GTA V feels like an overworld with a few more things to look at.

Same here. It's a nigh peerless bit of game design, that. Think about everything you do in that first part - blow up a couple of reactors, have a heart-to-heart with Tifa, maybe a couple of flashbacks to Zack, get your team blown up and separated, land in lower Midgar, meet Aeris, save her from Shinra, hang out with some steampunky proles, watch as she's kidnapped, drag up, fight a crime boss, get dumped into the sewers, fight your way up the Shinra tower, get Red XIII and Cait Sith on board, rescue Aeris, meet Sephiroth, have an exciting actiony bike chase, escape the city with Shinra and the Turks on your tail...

There's enough content for there for one whole game, and then all of a sudden you're swapping discs and out into the overworld, with the claustrophobic city streets behind you and whole continents ahead!

Uhh Cait Sith doesn't join until you get to the gold saucer. And you don't swap discs until much later... you idiot! You cunt! 

[Mister Six]

FUCK YOU IT WAS 21 YEARS AGO.

Wait, Christ, 21 years ago?!

[Bhazor]

The new Tomb Raider games have surprisingly good open worlds. When they're not railroading you into the awful story or terrible faux gameplay segments. Once it lets you off the leash they're really nicely designed sprawling action levels. Far better than Uncharted and their awful stories and terrible faux gameplay segment.

To me Witcher 3 suffers for being open world. With its hundreds of Ubisoft esque tick box filler sidequests that completely cover the map with question marks to the point you can't even read the names of villages.

In terms of traditional open world my favourite is Red Faction Guerilla which has a similar scale to Just Cause but with much more engaging and challenging combat.

(while looking like staggering live action Ghibli for the most part)

Thats not what live action means you fucking spanner. I can see why you think Assassin's Creed Odyssey is better than The Witcher 3. Because you're a fucking spanner.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

In terms of traditional open world my favourite is Red Faction Guerilla which has a similar scale to Just Cause but with much more engaging and challenging combat.

It's one of my favourite games, but I've never found the world all that impressive. It's rather bland and samey- all rocks and flimsy copy/paste buildings. I guess the destruction physics probably threw up some hard limits on how detailed the buildings could be. 'Sandbox' is actually a great description of it, as is feels more like that than it does a living, breathing world.

[AsparagusTrevor]

[Red Faction Guerrilla's] one of my favourite games, but I've never found the world all that impressive. It's rather bland and samey- all rocks and flimsy copy/paste buildings. I guess the destruction physics probably threw up some hard limits on how detailed the buildings could be. 'Sandbox' is actually a great description of it, as is feels more like that than it does a living, breathing world.

I agree, it's a great game but the world has the same feel as a procedurally generated map or something knocked up in an in-game level editor. Still, astounding how they managed to squeeze such great destruction physics out of the last gen consoles. Destruction doesn't seem to get much love in this gen, I can only think of Rainbow Six Siege which impressed me in that respect.

[The Boston Crab]

The new Tomb Raider games have surprisingly good open worlds. When they're not railroading you into the awful story or terrible faux gameplay segments. Once it lets you off the leash they're really nicely designed sprawling action levels. Far better than Uncharted and their awful stories and terrible faux gameplay segment.

To me Witcher 3 suffers for being open world. With its hundreds of Ubisoft esque tick box filler sidequests that completely cover the map with question marks to the point you can't even read the names of villages.

In terms of traditional open world my favourite is Red Faction Guerilla which has a similar scale to Just Cause but with much more engaging and challenging combat.

Thats not what live action means you fucking spanner. I can see why you think Assassin's Creed Odyssey is better than The Witcher 3. Because you're a fucking spanner.

Maybe think about your post before you press Post, you editing wally cunt.

If it makes you feel better, I actually agree but I can't think of a way to describe what I mean. If you can help with the phrasing or choice of vocabulary, do please let me know, that would be much appreciated. I actually mean it because I keep wanting to say that same thing when I don't actually mean that.

[Utter Shit]

I always found the structure of FF7 quite odd...Midgar takes up such a huge portion of the game, and is so detailed, that I found it quite odd to suddenly be dumped in a world which is much bigger but has much less going on. I wouldn't change anything about the game because it's brilliant, but I do wonder if a game of similar quality written the other way around - starting off in an open world before finding your way into a huge city in the third act - might have been even better. Maybe have the entire game played out in reverse, which would have the additional benefit of having that absolute cunt of a scorpion as the final boss.

I've often thought about playing FF7 again, are there any decent ways of playing it on a handheld? I know for sure that I wouldn't have the patience or time to play it on a big screen at home, but I have a good ninety minutes or so of travelling every day that would be great for jumping back into FF7.

[The Boston Crab]

It's coming to the Switch but you can probably buy a mobile phone version to be honest. Or get a Vita and emulate it.

[Fry]

I always found the structure of FF7 quite odd...Midgar takes up such a huge portion of the game, and is so detailed, that I found it quite odd to suddenly be dumped in a world which is much bigger but has much less going on. I wouldn't change anything about the game because it's brilliant, but I do wonder if a game of similar quality written the other way around - starting off in an open world before finding your way into a huge city in the third act - might have been even better.

Baldur's Gate 1 kind of does this, I don't think it's as effective. I found the experience of traipsing around the countryside finding settlements and dungeons and never knowing what's around the corner more fun than painstakingly making your way around the single city of the endgame, with its countless alleyways, endless buildings, and maze like sewers.

My vote is the Skate series, probably Skate 2 as it has the best world design, and managed to enhance on the first game's core mechanics without feeling repetitive and stale like the third did. In pretty much every other open world game the act of traversing the world is distinct from the things you actually do in the game. They are two entirely different modes of playing, you're either driving or riding a horse to get to an area, then you're fighting enemies and nicking loot. But in Skate the way you travel around is tied in with the actual point of the game. Skating is fun, and it's fun to do in pretty much every area you're in. Fucking around (as in, not actively trying to complete missions) in Skate involves finding a decent ledge and a nice slope, dragging a dumpster or bench over and creating a line which you can challenge yourself to exploit in a stylish way, or finding a massive drop and thinking of good way to launch yourself off it to land a massive trick. You're basically doing what the game would challenge you to do in any of its preset missions of your own accord, because its the most fun way to play.

[Twed]

I always found the structure of FF7 quite odd...Midgar takes up such a huge portion of the game, and is so detailed, that I found it quite odd to suddenly be dumped in a world which is much bigger but has much less going on. I wouldn't change anything about the game because it's brilliant, but I do wonder if a game of similar quality written the other way around - starting off in an open world before finding your way into a huge city in the third act - might have been even better. Maybe have the entire game played out in reverse, which would have the additional benefit of having that absolute cunt of a scorpion as the final boss.

I've often thought about playing FF7 again, are there any decent ways of playing it on a handheld? I know for sure that I wouldn't have the patience or time to play it on a big screen at home, but I have a good ninety minutes or so of travelling every day that would be great for jumping back into FF7.

I've found that the soundtrack can take you far enough there.

[QDRPHNC]

In terms of depicting an open-world, modern city, The Division does NYC brilliantly. It feels lived in and layered, the lighting can be stunningly beautiful, and the empty, post-apocalyptic streets create a genuine sense of bleakness and the after-effects of mass chaos. Hundreds of missing person posters over walls, luggage left in the streets, piles of garbage everywhere, abandoned vehicles. It's amazingly well done.