I personally found the Open World of Red Dead Redemtpion 2 much better.
Elden Ring Succeeds by Ignoring 20 Years of Open-World Design
71–80 of 172 posts
Re: Elden Ring Succeeds by Ignoring 20 Years of Open-World Design
#72I hate to be that guy, but it's not fair to dismiss one of the best open world games released in the last 20 years, and which I believe inspired many things on Elden Ring - I'm talking about Breath of the Wild. Just like how you're introduced to the world is literally how BoTW introduces you to it's own world (could it be a homage?), or something as simple as picking up consumables with a simple press of a button wit…
I got bored quickly of BoTW, not so Elden Ring. I think because there was so little to do in BoTW.
Re: Elden Ring Succeeds by Ignoring 20 Years of Open-World Design
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not a FromSoft aficionado and have only played Bloodborne for about 10 hours, which I enjoyed but probably would never finish. I've followed all the Souls games and now ER, have watched many hours of gameplay, and I honestly don't get the appeal and cult-like following around them. I can appreciate the detailed environments and characters, the deep lore, RPG aspects, and probably the best combat mechanics and hit…
Tons of people liked World of Warcraft in a cult way too, Some people just like grinding.
Comparing Elden Ring to WoW is doing it a massive disservice.
Re: Elden Ring Succeeds by Ignoring 20 Years of Open-World Design
#74"When it comes to open-world games, I’ve never liked the “fakeness” of the open-world and why games like Skyrim, Horizon, the Assassin’s Creeds, and so on, didn’t interest me." Skyrim and AC are milestones in open-world design around 2010. Sort of mind-blowing if you played them at their initial release. Horizon, though not being top, also has its own merit. I wonder how can an author comment on open world design whe…
> Horizon
Purely personal opinion - I played about ten hours of the first Horizon and I was blown away by then graphics. I liked the story and the characters and the world design.
The actual gameplay and how it was connected to the world, unfortunately, I found boring and ultimately I decided to stop playing. I had the feeling of being here before from every other open world RPG I've played in the last 15 years or so and I didn't feel like anything new was added beyond a few incremental tweaks. I didn't feel driven to explore the world and I felt it was just going to be filled with samey fetch quests and dungeons.
Re: Elden Ring Succeeds by Ignoring 20 Years of Open-World Design
#75I used to love video games in 2010. I loved Skyrim and counterstrike. And in the last 4 years or so I have just stopped liking them. It just seems so boring. Online games are just a contest of who’s willing to sink the most time or money into oblivion. Single player games boil down to the story/writing so why not just read a book or watch a movie? And even then, why bother with a fictional story when I can read some…
Games aren't for everyone, and aren't for every stage of life. Nothing wrong with that.
Some of that just isn't true though. I can't remember the last single player game I really cared about the story, I mostly skip it. Gameplay is solid in _many_ games these days, or a huge variety of types.
For example, Elden Ring, the story is not a lot more than: there's an Elden Ring you should go explore the world and find, have fun. It's pretty far from a book in game form.
This is probably the best time to be a gamer there's ever been, the only real blemish being that GPUs are ridiculously priced right now.
Re: Elden Ring Succeeds by Ignoring 20 Years of Open-World Design
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Horizon Forbidden West feels overly polished. Like they brought in the best people to improve things but the end result is like eating 12 courses of the same perfectly prepared chicken breast. It’s good but feels like it’s missing something the guest had. Its story isn’t bad, you feel urgency and care about the characters. There’s powerful moments. It checks the boxes. But this gives the game a dramatically different…
HZD overwhelmingly felt like belonging to the same "fake open world" trope as described by the author to me though. Apart from the enemy types and combat mechanics it's really hard to distinguish it from your run-of-the-mill AC game - it has the same feel of repititive missions scattered across the world as a distraction from the main storyline. Rather, AC at least tries to make its characters look lively and have in…
They very much improved that aspect for the second game. It's still the same type of open world, but it's the best I've played of that kind.
Re: Elden Ring Succeeds by Ignoring 20 Years of Open-World Design
#77The commentary around organic learning reminds me of The Outer Wilds. Imho it’s an even more extreme case of what the author is getting at here: (very mild spoilers follow) there are no stats or levels in The Outer Wilds; there are no upgrades (mild spoiler because I spent like 75% of the game thinking I’d get some sort of item to help me deal with various obstacles eventually, but nope). The game randomly picks a pl…
I read the article and ctrl+f'd Outer Wilds straight away. It's an extreme case indeed, the game does very little hand-holding, while being tremendously complex and interconnected. The only thing that unlocks parts of the game is what you learn from it, and those details and mechanics are what enable to progress. The downside is that it has very little replay value (you can beat the game within 5min if you already di…
I highly recommend both Tunic and The Witness if you enjoyed Outer Wilds. But yes, the concept of "knowledge" being the power ups you gain throughout the game is truly done fantastically in Outer Wilds, and few other games come close to replicating it.
Re: Elden Ring Succeeds by Ignoring 20 Years of Open-World Design
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Horizon Forbidden West feels overly polished. Like they brought in the best people to improve things but the end result is like eating 12 courses of the same perfectly prepared chicken breast. It’s good but feels like it’s missing something the guest had. Its story isn’t bad, you feel urgency and care about the characters. There’s powerful moments. It checks the boxes. But this gives the game a dramatically different…
It was kind of an impossible task for Forbidden West to replicate the experience of Zero Dawn.. to me the magic of the first game was entirely based around the discovery of why the world became the way it did. The mystery of the second game is not about the state of the world, but instead one cliffhanger aspect from the last game (what caused Hades to go rogue?). But I’m in complete agreement about with the OP about…
I platinumed Forbidden West yesterday. It is a beautiful game. But it lacks the magic of the first one where I was walking around slowly around the world wondering what might have happened. Now I know. And it can't be replicated. It's hard to follow-up on such an experience and what the team has achieved is nothing short of amazing. Of course, there are a bunch of things that don't work well.
The weapon- and armor- tiers don't relate well to the progress in the game. They nerfed the legendary because everyone was skipping the purple ones making them entirely irrelevant.
Sometimes the moral justification / social justice police is a bit heavy handed in a game that is set 1000 years after a full-reset apocalypse.
LGBTQ+ representation, Climate change (Lombard street), Handicapped acceptance (Kotallo) etc you name it. I get it, I don't really mind.
Also the game follows the bigger evil fallacy which leads to the main character needing to become a super-hero to "win". I mean Aloy is already at that point, I guess. For example there is a several ton heavy fireclaw that jumps on you at every occasion. I don't see how a person would survive that. Hence it is a bit immersion breaking.
Re: Elden Ring Succeeds by Ignoring 20 Years of Open-World Design
#79I hate to be that guy, but it's not fair to dismiss one of the best open world games released in the last 20 years, and which I believe inspired many things on Elden Ring - I'm talking about Breath of the Wild. Just like how you're introduced to the world is literally how BoTW introduces you to it's own world (could it be a homage?), or something as simple as picking up consumables with a simple press of a button wit…
I didn't like botw.. At all! Maybe I'm too old for "giant world survival crafting exploration" time of games. I don't know.
It felt all wrong and... Hacked together? Like they planned a different game and then put the zelda theme on top of it. Something like that..
Re: Elden Ring Succeeds by Ignoring 20 Years of Open-World Design
#80"When it comes to open-world games, I’ve never liked the “fakeness” of the open-world and why games like Skyrim, Horizon, the Assassin’s Creeds, and so on, didn’t interest me." Skyrim and AC are milestones in open-world design around 2010. Sort of mind-blowing if you played them at their initial release. Horizon, though not being top, also has its own merit. I wonder how can an author comment on open world design whe…
> Skyrim and AC are milestones in open-world design around 2010
Yet it bored me to death. So empty. Such a terrible rhythm.
I understand why people like it, I get the game qualities, but I prefer much more density in my games.
When I played the witcher 3, I enjoyed it. But soon, I got lost in side quests. I could not even remember the main quest anymore. And side quests took me so far away, going back would have been sometimes long rides of boat and riding.
GTA had a different problem: it was very repetitive. I didn't feel like moving from one part of the city to another, I was discovering another part of the world. Just a variation of what was already existing.
That's why BoTW was the first open world I deeply appreciated: there is always something to do, anywhere, something do discover and get excited about. And going off and on the main quest is quick, easy, seamless. You can do it over and over. Also, the game is not just beautiful, it's a piece of art.
I never stopped in order to admire my surrounding in skyrim or the witcher. Not that they cannot be nice looking: max res + mod can make them outstanding. But they don't touch you inside in the way a Nintendo game landscape can, Miyazaki style. They get you attached to character much better though, so there is that.
I believe Elden Ring went for that density, that artistic quality kind, that flexibility, in a sort, that lean aspect of open world exploration. Except you get your ass kicked and then the game spit on your grave.