Linear Games Are BETTER. Here’s Why
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
- As a massive fan of the RPG genre, it may comes as a shock to you to learn that these day's I prefer linear games. In the modern age of corporate greed and microtransactions, straight forward single player games that tell a story tend to feel more complete.
For the record, I love open-world games too. I just don't like companies using them as an excuse to replace quality with quantity.
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#gaming #openworld #rpg
Too many people think bigger automatically equals better. Linear doesn’t mean boring in fact it could have a better tighter experience.
Not: could* have
Does* have
@@justdev8965 Absolutely. Recently I decided to revisit some older games, and did the mass effect trilogy, now I'm doing the Arkham series, and while I overall prefer the mass effect, I'm not gonna lie the linear approach of Arkham asylum just makes for a tight, engaging not stop fun. Yes it's far shorter, but you gotta expect that without the looting and mindless exploring of Rpg's. Mass effect is just that damn good, but otherwise I honestly prefer going balls out on a linear game that doesn't make you think in too many directions.
Persona 5 is one of my favorite games ever and that game is super linear. It’s one of the very rare games that feels rewarding to finish after 100 hours.
Skyrim does slap. But you’re totally right! Linear games are much more fun and rewarding to play through than an open world with a million places to explore. Great video!
For real! I love open world games but hate when I have too many objectives and they all feel pointless 😅 thank you!
Only thing I hate about linear games is that once you complete the game you can’t do anything else so its one and done
@@Aboronic but if you have the memory of a goldfish, you can play it infinite times and always be surprised.
The modern Doom and Wolfenstein games were a revelation to me. I never wanted to spend money on a game with a story that wouldn't last 60 or 70 hours, then I tried Wolfenstein the new order and did the new order, old blood, the new collosius and Youngblood in the span of 3 weeks.
I had a blast and these linear experiences are definitely worth it. They are replayable as hell too.
Doom 2016 is an absolute masterpiece and a perfect example when I say I prefer “linear” games
didn't you find youngblood is woke garbage?
I think so many games trying to be massive is really bad for the industry. It inflates game budgets and needlessly overwhelms the player with mountains of filler "content" (not art). It's true that when done well open worlds can be great but also most of the time with open worlds you lose the handcrafted game feel that a more linear game has and the quality that comes with it. I also don't think that "linear games" should be shoving you through hallways, but sprinkling in metroidvania elements that give you some extra exploration in a more condensed and highly detailed environment. Open world games make it so much harder to create unique and memorable scenarios like set-pieces and exciting gameplay moments. Very linear game design can definitely be bad. However, it's the developers responsibility to figure out how to have high quality story, atmosphere, gameplay, and level design in a linear world, while also allowing a good amount of player expression. Most open world games give the player freedom with the cost being a far lower amount of quality in the game than there is filler, all open world games have this issue to varying degrees. That's why 99% of the best and most memorable games over the past 40 years of gaming history are linear or closer to it.
The one thing I always hated about open world games is the time it takes getting from point A to point B IRL I have better things to do than to fight with a horse that doesn't listen or highjack a car to get a vehicle and than have to outrun the police. Especially on fetch quests for some minor reward like a potion or something.
Yep fast travel is a lifesaver for terrible side quests!
Linear games is more easier for me to complete the game but open world games takes me weeks or months to complete the game. I prefer linear games like metro 2033 and god of war.
I’ve never been a fan of open world games. I just want more linear platformers
I completely feel you on this. I feel like there are some companies that are able to really get an open world right, but they are few and far between. There are many games that have a decent open world, but smaller more intimate elements of it are absolutely stunning. (I.e. horizon zero dawn). But mostly, it all just feels like fluff. Like meaningless puzzle pieces that don’t fit but are thrown about the area anyway. I’ve always been in love with the more personal, linear, and intimate journeys. Or games that feel open even though they’re more linear, like Bloodborne and the like.
It is so hard for me to stay focused in open world and enjoy the story and gameplay but I love linear games. Resident evil is my favorite series and bioshock is right behind it
Quality vs quantity.
Imagine even in a more linear game you still have flexibility to do off the beaten path things.
Can’t believe how good these games look, I could just watch others play. I don’t really play video games as I have the dexterity of a cow and the reflexes of a hibernating sloth in an ice age, but you make me kind of want to play some, which is cool.
Exactly, and I almost always pick quality over quantity :) Some of them are crazy these days. Usually more linear games tend to look better as well
Couldnt agreee more, I love JRPG since nes era. Its sad now current JRPG switching more and more to western style, real time combat, massive open world, repetitive mission, pointless sub-mission, etc. I just wanna enjoy my game through story and fun mechanics thats all. Or may be its just because i grow older, less time to spare....
i think even eldenring suffers the open world problem. the interesting part about souls games are the boss enemies and how they unfold but if u burst them down in 2 sec because u had to have to explore every cave before u are just annihilating them out of sheer ourtscaling
I love Elden Ring but agree that pretty much any open world game suffers from that
I struggled with BotW, sure I completed all of the upgrades and moment to moment I enjoyed the game, but big picture I was left feeling empty. There was very rarely any delayed gratification and fewer world spanning quests. As the developers intended, I was almost always equipped to go anywhere and do anything, which made my every action feel isolated and insignificant in the big picture. Beating a lyonel for the first time felt impactful because my weapons could finally outlast its' healthbar, sadly I didn't get too many experiences like it.
Non linear game progression is good, but I greatly prefer non-commutative. You should be allowed to put your shoes on before your socks however the results should not be as good. The order in which you take on challenges should affect how you experience those challenges.
i had similar thoughts about botw. I think open world is just what’s in style these days
@@HolyGrailGamingYou say in the video that decision paralysis can be overwhelming but none of those decisions really matter, these event checklist games are as wide as an ocean and as deep as a puddle. I have come to evaluate the quality (depth) of non linearity in adventure games based on the quality of a hypothetical no glitch randomizer of that game and how it changes the experience for me: SS is probably too linear to randomize meaningfully, OoT has some amazing randomizers which deliver a fresh experience each time, and BotW is probably too open to randomize meaningfully thus would just kind of reorder my grocery shopping list.
I should look into actual SS and BotW randomizers, maybe I am speculating about the wrong game features.
I think your though process is on point since many people actually prefer ocarina of time over the other games, and that game felt the most linear but the most fun since we also had the perfect amount of freedom to choose what we wanted to do.
Ocarina is that perfect balance of linear and open world!
And Twilight Princess, even though it’s a lot linear compared to most other Zelda games.
@@traviscunningham7062 yup!
And Skyward Sword is pretty linear too.
I hated the elden ring open world . People go on hating ubisoft open world and their quest markers but i actually love it . I dont have time to waste like that
I have yet to play an open world game with a story that affected me the way FFX did, or was as thrilling to play as Bloodborne. I don't mind extra content, but when it starts to feel like an obligation thrown on you, or a distraction from the story of a game, or worst of all, if it feels like a replacement for the core game itself, it often does more harm than good.
God I wish I could replay FFX for the first time. I was too critical in my review and honestly appreciate it more now... Especially how it fully opens up near the end so you can grind and level up 😅
Also I have a platinum in bloodborne so I’m a huge fan!
The problem is that most games are linner, even open world games. Yes, you can choose what you do in an open world game, but what you can do is very linear. I will give an example. Cyberpunk, open world game. What's the main quest? Linear. Where is the option to not choose the chip in your head? It doesn't exist. Where is the option to side with the dragons in skyrim? It doesn't exist. Most open world games are still linear. Your ultimate path doesn't diverge much within open world games. Why can a warrior in skyrim become the college master wizard? when he has only casted one spell. Because the game is made simple for a general audience.
My idea for a good nonlinear game is procedurally generated lands that come randomized and go on infinitely but provide a dozen activity to do with diffirent outcomes
Max Payne 3 is like the best linear game ever, along with Metal Gear Rising.
Im also a story gamer
This is why I love pokemon so much, you put it perfectly
I also really loved the level design for games like Metal Gear. Kojima managed to make it all feel so connected, with many ways to end up in the same area, and different routes to explore. A really interactive environment
I’m way too stoked for that MGS remaster bundle. The only one I’ve played was 4 and it was crazy. Its a prime example when I say “linear” is better
and then they messed it up with MGS5, the gameplay and mechanics was an improvement but the open worlds of Africa and Afghanistan added nothing.
Decision Paralysis, obtuse quests, and "meta" hold me back from enjoying a game, like Elden Ring. It's also too damn long to complete for the sake of one character with everything or multiple characters with specific things.
I also avoid games like Dead by Daylight and Fighting games in general due to so much time potentially wasted with little to no gratification, feeling like an unpaid job. I just don't care about the "git gud" mentality if it sucks the fun out of it all, especially the unbalanced PvP that is Elden Ring.
So, linear single-player experiences that have defined paths are for me... which means I won't even play Baldur's Gate 3 or continue Deep Rock Galactic.
I loved Elden Ring but we are on the same page about most of what you just said! Games should never feel like unpaid work…
One of the most enjoyable games I've played has been and still is Star Wars The Force Unleashed.
It depends. If you want an experience like a movie you can finish, and drop once it's done then linear games are better. If you are invested in a game long term for some reason an open world is probably better. Elden Ring has pvp which makes the world a playground for battles. That makes a large world with varied environments more appealing to players that enjoy that sort of pvp.
That is to say that it depends on what the player wants. Neither is objectively better. Each has a purpose for different sorts of players. As for games that aren't Elden Ring, those sorts of games with huge worlds might be too big, or maybe not. Elden Ring is a very different beast in that sense. But then puzzle games have no world, so there is room for appealing to many tastes.
Absolutely true, and I love Elden Ring and meant no hate towards it with this video. There are just so few games that pull off the open-world style as well as Elden Ring, and I feel like most games would benefit from reducing the amount of content and just focussing in making it good
I only play RDR 2 as my favorite open world games, i think Ubisoft broken open world games with lifeless world and lot of worthless side quest
I actually have spent an entire night playing Tears of The Kingdom and being sleep deprived. WORTH IT! It's been a long time since I have done that. Ocarina of Time? Majora's Mask is the better game. 3:49 This isn't a problem for episodic series like the Kirby anime. Each episode is basically a self contained story. There are a few two part episodes as well as the finale but it's mostly episodic. The order you watch it is mostly irrelevant.
Your claim is totally understandable.
Absolutely can say that even as someone who was underwhelmed by BOTW, Tears of the Kingdom was so great. I love Majora’s Mask but Ocarina is the goat in my opinion. I love open world games in general I just prefer “semi” open worlds
"For me."
So I think this stuff is on a spectrum, no offense to many of your fanbase, but there's nothing wrong with an open-world that let you take advantage of map and game quirks to play the game a little bit more customizable. Prince and I like Final Fantasy XIII, what is called Final Fantasy 6 here in America because it's linear but you also have freedom to start really exploring a map, compare that to some Final Fantasy games we're literally everything is in a line and you are basically just going through the steps you can't go back you can't search for Stuff...
I respect your opinion! So I actually love open-world games, I just don’t like when games use the open world as an excuse to give you 1000 watered down fetch quests instead of something worthwhile
@HolyGrailGaming even worse they aren't even relevant to end game or progress
Yes when I was studying I prefer open world but open world is just killing out precious time and not interesting. Love linear games.. playing gotg second time
I haven't played it yet, but heard good things!
I've been playing games since the Atari and everything said in this video is true. This generation is simply ungrateful and think if they're spending $70 on a game and it's not 100 hours long with online features on top of that than they are being ripped off.
Nintendo 64 games were $100, many games when I was a kid were still expensive. The seventh gaming generation which was the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation was the perfect balance.
Now since the hardware is more powerful, every developer is compelled to give you a 100-hour open world game and only 5 to 10 hours of that is an actual campaign, the rest of it is fetch quests and collectibles. It doesn't help that everything is now woke politics in your face so you're not even invested in the story and characters anymore.
Haha thanks! I agree with a lot of things said in your comment. I think most people don’t realize how expensive games used to be. When looking at games for the N64, they would probably be over $150 retail today if inflation was factored in.
Thats why gaming sucks nowdays most times i get lost and lose interest.
the only open world game i continue to love is kenshi (no story mind you, just lore)
I’ve never heard of it! I’ll have to check it out sometime
Linear games are for people who have an attention span of an ape. This TikTok generation won't understand how amazing open world games are since these players need a linear way to progress as their brains cannot comprehend a lot of information in the game.
I actually think it’s the complete opposite, hence why every game is trying to be an open world game these days, where as most retro games are pretty linear. I can’t imagine someone from the “tiktok generation” sitting through a 40 hour story based game
I don't think that's how it is. I'm a little older than the "TikTok generation" and I'm getting sick of open world games too. I don't think it's so much that there's too much content as it is that most of the content feels low quality and pointless. I've put countless hours into stuff like Elden Ring, Witcher 3, or Minecraft, open world games done right, but even at their best they can't entirely capture the same magic as linear games.
That's an ignorant statement and obviously you're not very smart. It's the brain dead generation of people that you speak of that actually need all these open worlds games, they can't be bothered unless something has online so they can play with their dude bro friends. This is the biggest reason by games from the 7th generation such Fear, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Killzone and countless others even had better AI. Programmers no longer make AI an initiative because morons like you don't care, you're just going to play online with other morons like yourself.
You obviously don't have children and appreciate the value of time in life