Genshin does have a story somewhere, but exploring the world is the real fun.

Satisfactory lol. Factorio lol. Stardew Valley too ig.

wtf even is a mario

RDR2, GTA, Elder Scrolls, is this a shitpost?

...this is greentext so...yes, obviously

Breath of the Wild.

Arguably Outer Wilds.

BotW is one of the most boring games ever. Zelda games were fun because of the linearity thanks to finding items that let you progress... And FUCK weapon degradation. What a terrible mechanic.

Last night I had a realization that the whole reason fallout 3 was given a radio is to fill the hours and hours of nothing in between locations. And also for the dungeon crawling.

As a completionist open-world games give me progressively more anxiety. Worried I might miss something or mess up a quest line I like.

I am perfectly fine with a clean story or just don't bog me down with a growing list of uninteresting side quests. No I don't want to harvest 500 goblin dicks for a helmet that completes my set.

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler Yes the helmet is a big floppy dick for my Phallus gear set. I get all the pieces, it unlocks a projectile attack that sticks enemies in place. :::

the helmet is a big floppy dick for my Phallus gear set. I get all the pieces, it unlocks a projectile attack that sticks enemies in place.

Well now I want the helmet, but if I complete this other minor side quest it's going to become uncompletable, but it doesn't mention that anywhere I have to read a strategy guide to know that.

You were supposed to run up in time to kill the first hard-dicked goblin you see first, before it dies in its scripted sequence.

Then you can loot the sticky gobnut item, and if you interpret its lore correctly, you'd know that finishing the side quest where you find the lost canoe tribe would quell the hunger of the hard-dicked goblins, changing their world models and drops so you can't craft the helmet recipe after that.

Duh. Git gud.

Cyberpunk 2077.

I like the linear missions, but just exploring the open world and discovering things naturally is fun too. I think they could have done more with that, and it definitely feels like the game was way more linear in early development, but with all the updates CDPR managed to make something pretty cool IMO.

I’m certain nearly 25% of my crimson desert playtime is climbing mountains for fun then flying back down

I dont think Minecraft would do too well being linear.

Minecraft: Story Mode was actually pretty popular. It was basically a story-rich RPG set in a Minecraft world.

Most people who played both probably have an order of magnitude more playtime in Minecraft, though.

Maybe, but it was nowhere near as popular as plain Minecraft. The sales numbers alone can attest to that, plus the fact there hasn't been a sequel should be all the proof you need to say that a linear minecraft wouldn't do too well.

Anon desires the string.

I like a game world that's just fun to be in even when I'm not advancing the story. Taking a break to explore is awesome, and much easier in an open world.

I'm not sure that it's *better*, but it's hilarious when you go off and do all the side quests and end up completely over powered by the time you get round to the main quest and just beat the shit out of the main bad guy without realizing that they're important.

Big bad: "so you have finally come to meet your doo-"

Competitionist: *drops bag of loot on boss, crushing all his bones*

That’s why you scale the enemies to the players armour and level!

Honestly I really don't like that in most open world games, mostly cause enemy levels tend to make it feel like I'm just as powerful at lvl 1 as at lvl 40. Bethesda games post Morrowind are particularly bad about this IMO, not to say you can't have leveled shit just don't do it to all the enemies, do it like NV where some enemies are leveled but most are flat preset levels.

Sorry, was being sarcastic.

It sucks when you get an item and do 10,000 damage, but now your enemies all have 50,000 HP, especially when it's the same old enemies just stronger.

At least in Skyrim you start seeing new enemies later on, but sometimes it's just fun to wreck some bandits as the Dragonborn.

I hate it too, but I don't think it was that bad in Skyrim or Fallout 4. Mostly just Oblivion that dropped the ball on this.

Nah it was also pretty miserable in Fallout 4, though in that particular case it was moreso due to issues of bullet sponges rather than damage dealt. But Fallout 4 is also probably the worst of the 3D games IMO, especially when it comes to enemy health.

Worse than Fallout 76?

Unironically yes, the leveled areas in 76 are quite a bit easier to deal with. Also I really fucken hate the settlement system.

Fair, the settlement system is annoying. I also hate everything about MMOs, though, and IMO it's diametrically opposed to everything that made Bethesda games good. And that's before we get into how much of a mess the release was ...

Yes! It helps if it is clear the bad guy has been doing things as well. (Aren't there a few games where the bad guy moves locations with this, so if one is really fast, they can catch them rather weak.)

I think sequence breaking is fun, and it works better in open world games. IME many modern open world games avoid this by tightly tying loot to levels or stats that you increase by leveling or even advancing the main story, which kinda defeats the point of open world games IMO.

Though honestly, I do enjoy having at least an illusion of choice, very linear games that don't even maintain an illusion of openness feel really restricting to me. Modern open world RPGs just took it way too far while getting some of the important details wrong.

My favorite open world game that ISN'T a fantasy rpg also happens to be the easiest "finish the game early" I've ever experienced.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint.

Basically you start the game in "realism" mode which turns loot levels off,. Then in the intro mission, when you see the bad guy kill a team member, you gain control of your character before he gets in a helicopter and leaves. Run forward with a scoped gun to shoot him in the head, or have something explosive ready to blow up the helicopter.

Congrats, you've killed the main bad guy of the game and the last level no longer has you fight him in some building.

You still have to do everything else in the game, but I managed to do that by accident my first play through. Put probably 150 hours in that game over the years and multiple playthroughs and still have yet to play with loot leveling on. I do sometimes let him live though just for funsies.

That's amazing, and surprising that the boss actually stayed dead!

I think Elden Ring is excellent for being open world. People often criticize the open world aspect because the crafting system is kinda dumb, the caves are samey and don't offer much in terms of benefits or exciting stuff. It's also hard to find quests and easy to miss them (on top of the bullshit story telling of Souls). And experienced people often just basically do a boss rush where they run from boss to boss. But I actually think it's excellent and brilliant game design.

I absolutely loved the feeling of having an entire world to explore. The world did actually feel alive for me, with people and stuff everywhere. Different biomes and decent enemy variety (even though there are plenty of repeats). Looking for quests, exploring caves and doing it all felt like fun. Even though I didn't engage with the crafting much (I did do a bow and consumables challenge run once, but I stuck to just a few kinds of pots and arrows throughout). I felt for me personally it added to the experience.

But in terms of game design it's a huge step forward. With the older games if you got hard stuck on a boss, that was it. You could go grind the previous level if you were really desperate, but that was about it. Especially for new people, this often meant they didn't finish the game. A lot of them didn't even make it past the tutorial boss. With a community telling them to Git Gud, people would assume the games weren't for them and quit. Which is a shame, because the games are good and worth playing imho. With the open world aspect, there's no rush to beat a boss. You can go explore, level up, find better weapons and better armor. And with the way the world is laid out, you can go pretty far without ever beating a single boss. Then come back later and beat the boss, maybe a bit over leveled, but that's fine. If you want the challenge, it's there, but if you are just a casual gamer looking for a fun time, it's there as well.

It's not all upsides tho, as people can also easily get lost and feel like they don't know where to go. Or miss entire areas because they were following the main quest. So not all rainbow and sunshine, but overall a positive aspect.

The open world also makes for an excellent randomizer, I've been absolutely addicted to Elden Ring Rando. So much fun!

on top of the incredible, subtle, deep story telling of Souls

FTFY

My only issue with Elden Rings world is a lot of it is just Hyrule Field from Ocarina of Time. That is to say, bland empty areas with little bits at the edges.

Midnight club 2 was pretty dang cool.

The open world nature made the races very fun and was a big (arguably genre defining) departure from other racing games with invisible walls.

It’s had a rare combination of skill, map utilization, and novelty that made it a fun game to play

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom.

It's all about exploring. It would be impossible with a linear structure.

I still haven't finished botw despite starting it over like 30 times. I just end up exploring and losing track of the story.

The story is secondary. You can just run around and get to know the world, go to what's interesting to you. But if the game didn't click for you, don't force it. There are so many other great games.

Project zomboid? Skyrim/Oblivion/Morrowind?

Game that didn't feel like it was really made for open world: the new mario kart. I don't hate it, it just feels.. forced somehow.

The exploration of xenoblade chronicles x is what seperates it as a gaming experience compared to the numbered xenoblade games. While it is the weakest narratively, it holds the largest sense of exploration

I unironically think that Xenoblade X has the best open world of any game to date.

Game design is important and most open world games to me fail in their design. No point in just spreading things out. If a game does something worth while or value adding I’m all over it. Just played through Gears 5 it’s open world parts added nothing

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