This is a seriously fantastic video. I loved the way you formatted it, exploring each subgenre historically and making a kind of composite impression of the whole genre. In under 13 minutes. With great, iconic game footage. I really don't know why I hadn't watched your videos up until, I'm totally blown away by what a charismatic, informative, well-paced, efficiently scripted and edited thing this is. You're fucking *Ace* at making gaming videos, almost 500 thousand people are really onto something.
Noah! I loved your Half-Life video, btw. It's fashionable to be cynical these days, so it's always refreshing to see a retrospective from someone with a genuinely positive outlook.
Ahoy You deserve a lot more subscribers.Your videos are really polished and smooth also your voice is really good.I don't really know if you are one guy or a group of people.Hey about the next video about guns i suggest to make it about flamethrowers.(Sorry for my bad english)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
+Ahoy Okay, seriously? What about Adventure for Atari 2600? It was released a year before Ultima? What the heck? You already mentioned Legend Of Zelda, and Zelda is pretty much an extension of Adventure formula.
+Jonathan Taylor Thomas You sure keep having bizarre grudges about people that dared to disagree with you once on the internet. Doesn't exactly make you appear reasonable, I'm afraid.
+umageddon I was never a fan of that shit.. the fact that it's an accepted youtube formula is sad.. it's so annoying to see people introducing themselves like pewdiepie followed by a joke they know is horrible but are too conceded to care and make anyway and follow it with a second of silence and then an overly-obnoxious and generic transition to a new scene
+Keith Scull Exactly and what is more, thanks to those, anyone who speaks with a low calm voice and some fancy words thinks that he is some sophisticated game guru just because he is not doing that shouting thing. This guy is alright tho.
Yeah I suppose wherever there's a crowd that hates A there will be a crowd that fights back by swearing by B. But, in the process, create the same problem on the opposite end of the spectrum. Two wrongs don't make a right
I think there's something to be said about a well-paced linear game with a good narrative and a bit of illusion of free-roaming these days (TloU for instance). Too many recent titles do the open-world thing and don't do it very well, i.e. a giant map with a bunch of repetitive busywork.
Same here. I grew up on cRPGs like Baldur's Gate, Arcanum, Fallout 1/2, etc., where there was a sense of free roaming, but none of the busywork of walking there in real time. And content in maps was dense enough that it always felt like there was something genuinely interesting to do.
Honza Frýda in my current game, I am currently buying loads of nuclear missiles, ive spent all my uranium and gold on them but now i have 18 of them. so basically i can level and civ i want within a few turns :)
Nathan Shiels I always get bored by the industrial era and end up starting a new game :c how do you last that long without either getting conquered or getting bored?
When I'm reading anything and I'm having trouble concentrating, I read it in your voice, your voice has so much power, and a strong accent. The way you present information in your videos is absolutely spectacular, keep up the fantastic work Stuart Brown.
Jacen Solo Uh, it’s called crashing, and if there’s a clear spot and you’re good at off airport landings more often than not you can go just about anywhere.
+Keiya Bachhuber So? It just shows that RPGs share a commonality which in this case is exploration. Technically a Japan-made RPG is still a Japanese RPG, since you are so strict about genres. :P ;D
Except not. It's a western RPG in genre. It's about giving you a world in which to grow and conquer challenges, not a story which you work through involving characters. Extra Credits did a good video on this.
Yes. I agree that sometimes the games shows en to showcase do not juxtapose that well with the narration as in the Dark Souls case here. But I like the videos overall so I do not mind it that much. :) And as for genre. Well yeah genre is a bit iffy in games. Generally when we talk about Western RPG it actually a style rather then where the game was made. So there are a few Japanese games that fit the bill. And there quite a few western developed RPGs that are in a JRPG style to of course. It is a bit like how we do not generally call Portal a First Person Shooter even if it is mechanicly can be described as a First Person Shooter. But the defining game play Aesthetics are quite different game like Doom and Call of Duty. But again, genres are a mess when it comes to computer games. (Sometimes Aesthetics are the focus wile other times is the mechanics that defines it for example.)
superdudeman666 It generates once and then stays forever like that. Also, don't expect to walk the same distances like that IRL bumping into something new every 50 seconds
Ever heard of Operation Flashpoint? A game from 2001 that features a boundless 60 square kilometer Island that takes several minutes to get across, IN A HELICOPTER.
...then it didn't really work and they scaled it back down :) Same story as with Oblivion; AI was dumbed down because it kept breaking the game. Plus STALKER is not nearly as "open world"; especially Clear Sky is very linear; SoC is quite restricted too, CoP is actually pretty open though still split between "areas".
I would have said Ultima underworld. It's open-ish despite being in a sprawling multi-level dungeon; but what it really did right was that it was a being a first person immersive simulation; sort of like the RPG equivalent of a flight sim. Before Underworld, games just didn't do that kind of thing; a monster was a monster was a monster, not a faction that you could be friends or enemies with. You just didn't get games where you navigated a 3D space in first person with swiming and jumping etc; Wolfenstein 3D was out at almost the same time and it was a 2D maze depicted in 3D. It inspired among others, System shock, Thief, Half-life, the elderscrolls, Everquest and Deus ex. I'd also have mentioned some early non-space open world 3D games from the Amiga/ST/DOS. Such as hunter; an open world, third person shooter with vehicles and a quest structure; or midwinter, a weird open world post-apocalyptic ARPG/shooter/survival thingy.
Paramesh Subramoni and I bet that's the only one you have played ( no pun intended all the people in India seem to have one thing in common, they have played vice city). :D
+Jason Armstrong YES YES YES! I loved that game! I remember the bowling at the end between the 4 spidermans, and when you can just keep fighting that big guy in the cage all over again! I really loved when you fight the green goblin at the end, and he is flying around on his purple hovercraft, and you keep killing! And when you save mary janes purse, jesus i spent so much hours on that game, i miss that generation of games. im gonna cry in nostalgia now.
Great video. A comprehensive story of the Open World concept? Very cool. Surprised you didn't mention Wasteland but as you say, definitions ahoy. I just wish that the concept didn't get out of hand. The most recent example is Dragon Age Inquisition, for me. Okay, big world, lots of stuff to do, but if most of that stuff are fetch quests it's all wasted space.
The unsung godfather of open-world gaming: Hydlide (1984) This was the first true open-world game, in the modern sense of the world. Unlike the early Ultima, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games where you walk around as a giant on a world map/hub (like Mario's world map/hub, but non-linear), Hydlide introduced a continuous open world, where you actually explore the entire game world on foot. This is essentially what we mean by open world today. Modern open-world games have their roots in Hydlide. It was the game that inspired Zelda. In turn, Zelda inspired the Ultima series to abandon the world map/hub of Ultima 1-5 with a Zelda-style continuous open world in Ultima 6 onwards. In turn, The Elder Scrolls series was inspired by the later Ultima games that came after Ultima 6. And Zelda itself went on to inspire the open-world design of the GTA series. All of these games can ultimately trace back their open-world roots to Hydlide. And yet, the irony of history is that Hydlide is now widely reviled in the West, because of how poorly it has aged, compared to later games that vastly improved on it and left it in the dust.
I'm surprised he didn't talk more about text-based RPGs; MUDs were among my first computer game experiences, and being based on pen-and-paper RPGs their worlds were very open indeed.
I dont like the way most open world games do it by just dumping a fkton of unimaginative treadmill missions all over the map, with no thought behind them beside that guy who did the basic mission concept. And then if you follow only the side story, those games mostly fall flat quantity wise. But i guess im in the minority here.
Axonteer Same, I didn't like Skyrim. Then again, it was being made by only 100 people and they said it was like that because of the restrictions of last-gen. So maybe their next game will be complete? And maybe The Division won't have microtransactions. (sarcasm)
Maybe in future we wont get botched always online game releases or even better... games that work out of the box and dont require a day1 patch to even load... (hard sarcasm)
Axonteer Oh, we have...some of those. I know that Dying Light works, apparently. Final review copies were sent and it all works fine. Actually, there are still offline and/or working games, it's just that day one patches are becoming more of a thing.
Red Dead Redemption is my number 1 exploration game, period. That includes Undead Nightmare, there was no other game I could get as lost in as I did in RDR.
A little disappointed that EVE Online didn't at least get a mention for its social dynamic and predominantly player-driven open-world environment, where the programmed open-world itself is little more than a backdrop, but overall a good summary of open-world evolution.
I'll be honest here, i came to this channel because of Totalbiscuit's recommendation, but after watching all the content here the only point that i have to give is that content is just not enough for how good it is. Basically, i wish you could produce more awesome videos like this, and i can't have enough of this channel :( Good job though
***** I guess my message got misunderstood. It was meant as a compliment. The only thing i said there was "This is very good, i just wish more could be produced at this quality". Simply put i WISH he could do it. Obviously he can't, but a man can wish >.>
I have to say, as far as 'Video Game Documentaries' go, this has to be one of the most enjoyable ones I've ever watched. I didn't expect to stay for the full runtime of the video, but wow, it was so well-made, and the narration was so good that I had to watch fully and click 'like' at the end. Thank you for making this video, I enjoyed every second.
@Ben Bristow Welp that's when the Half Life's system comes in The Valve's tutorial to all the game Devs to teach em how to make a great game It didn't force me to walk down a single corridor,it made the environment lOOK and FEEL like that I was *supposed* to walk down *THAT exact* corridor
How about flight sims. FS 1.0 was released aroud 1982 before elite and is also open world setting the scene for probably the most open world ever becouse the map is litteraly the world(earth).
No mention of Mercenary (1985)? That arguably has more in common with the modern 3D sandbox games we know today, even more than Elite and the Ultima series, despite them being earlier.
7:36 A demo version of this game came with a Windows installation CD. I found it and installed it when I was young, but my computer's onboard video (from a PCChips M825G motherboard) was too slow to run this game. Then I didn't even remember the name of the game. I found out now, more than fifteen years later!
2:10 complete non sequitur? Lol that doesnt have anything to do with open world games. It's a 3D metroidvania design, of opening up a big map, not open world at all
Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode is the best open world game at the moment. The graphics are extremely simple - being only ASCII based - but the world that is created is truly magnificent. It's what happens when you forgo visuals for mechanics. I believe that when it is completed it will be the closest to a Tabletop RPG on computer that we will have.
Fantastic video, well researched and superbly composed. Looking at the exhaustive list of games I wonder if the Amiga game 'Midwinter' deserves an honorable mention as an open world game of its era.
Vette Test Drive 3 Need for Speed SE So good back then !!!! The first $600 cd-rom burner drives showed up during NFS-SE.I know cause i tried to copy it. lol
I look back, even just a few years at Oblivion and I realise how impressive it was at the time and how barren it looks now... What will we be seeing in another 10 years time?
"How open has a world to be before it's open?" This is a interessting question. Would you consider a game like Terraria a 2D open world, or is it "just" a big level?
IN my oppinion, from that list the first open world game would be Ultima, since Akalabeth only have a map with points plotting the locations of cities and dungeons, and only the inside of dungeons have concrete representations.
This video is a mess. You're supposed to be talking about the origins of open world gaming but you're just bouncing between franchises and categories disjointedly. There's no real connection between sections, It's not working back to the open world origin nor starting there and showing how it came to be what it is today. It's a massive waste of time. If you wanted to do something like this, dedicate a whole video to one topic like GTA's development or the evolution of the Farcry franchise instead of giving absolutely no insight into anything.
i definitely appreciate open world games but now that im older and busier i also really appreciate a nice linear game with a reasonable playthru time (10-20hrs) so i have a chance at finishing it. there are still many great open world games now but i feel like sometimes the studios make games open world without a focused purpose to it and pack it with meaningless tasks that dilute the impact of the game and inhibit story telling and narrative. 40 plus hour games are more and more common now and many could have been cut down to like 25 and not lost anything important
And there's No Man's Sky, the game that's gonna make every open world game it's bitch(in regard about size atleast)...P.S. :I've just realized how weird at sounds
See if you're gonna correct at least get it right otherwise you look foolish. He is saying the video is both great and needed which you would know if you read the intent rather than just looking for errors.
Shocked Atari's "Adventure" wasn't mentioned at all. While the world isn't exactly "open" it allowed for free movement and backtracking, something that wasn't really known of at the time
So, I guess it's fair to say that GTA popularized Open World gameplay but it's origins are much older. Depending on how you define it you could go all the way back to Ultima 1, If you are going to define it as needing a seamless transition from one place to the next then you can definitely count Ultima 6. Then you have games like Elite which were open space. Im at 4:50 now, still a bit of the video to go but I wonder if any of these games will be mentioned. Cool. I like how at the end you talk about definitions unraveling. Some people might not consider a "duel scale" like Ultima 1 an open world game. But rather a group of levels connected by an overworld map. Also, There were some games you mentioned that I hadn't heard of in a LONG time. So that was nice also.
Michael Greene it is. Picture a game on a computer. pc console or phone doesn't matter which. It has an empty rectangle, big or small. Now imagine there is a dot in that rectangular space. The dot can move anywhere you please accept it can't leave the edges of the rectangle surrounding said dot. There you have it, an open world game like it or not.
Again, depends on how you define it. I *completely* disagree with your definition because that's basically any game, with any degree of input on where your character moves. By your definition the first Open World game might as well be Adventure (1980) for the Atari. Hell, even Pacman fits that description.The worms inside of the dirt
It is not an ARPG, it is an action game with RPG elements. An ARPG is, in technical terms, much rarer than in Laymens terms. Morrowind is an ARPG for example, as both systems rely heavily on the other, and distinguish it. To put it in simplest terms, one can say an ARPG is a normal RPG that does not have turns in it's basic gameplay in any form. In classic TES, the replacement for turns was the stamina, health, and magicka.
Don't know what you guys are on. I played hundreds of RPGs from all over the world and Dark Souls is an RPG. Why wouldn't it? Just because the player isn't talking? It even has NPCs and you can kill them if you want to. It gives you more freedom than most RPGs these days.
This is a seriously fantastic video. I loved the way you formatted it, exploring each subgenre historically and making a kind of composite impression of the whole genre. In under 13 minutes. With great, iconic game footage.
I really don't know why I hadn't watched your videos up until, I'm totally blown away by what a charismatic, informative, well-paced, efficiently scripted and edited thing this is. You're fucking *Ace* at making gaming videos, almost 500 thousand people are really onto something.
Noah! I loved your Half-Life video, btw. It's fashionable to be cynical these days, so it's always refreshing to see a retrospective from someone with a genuinely positive outlook.
Ahoy You deserve a lot more subscribers.Your videos are really polished and smooth also your voice is really good.I don't really know if you are one guy or a group of people.Hey about the next video about guns i suggest to make it about flamethrowers.(Sorry for my bad english)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Noah Caldwell-Gervais Your videos are great too.
+Ahoy Okay, seriously? What about Adventure for Atari 2600? It was released a year before Ultima? What the heck? You already mentioned Legend Of Zelda, and Zelda is pretty much an extension of Adventure formula.
+Jonathan Taylor Thomas
You sure keep having bizarre grudges about people that dared to disagree with you once on the internet. Doesn't exactly make you appear reasonable, I'm afraid.
your videos are a refreshing break from the usual hyperactive, hipster-dufus, jump-cut edited, "Whats up RUclips" crapola out there - subbed
+umageddon I was never a fan of that shit.. the fact that it's an accepted youtube formula is sad.. it's so annoying to see people introducing themselves like pewdiepie followed by a joke they know is horrible but are too conceded to care and make anyway and follow it with a second of silence and then an overly-obnoxious and generic transition to a new scene
+Keith Scull rofl this ^^
+Keith Scull Exactly and what is more, thanks to those, anyone who speaks with a low calm voice and some fancy words thinks that he is some sophisticated game guru just because he is not doing that shouting thing. This guy is alright tho.
Yeah I suppose wherever there's a crowd that hates A there will be a crowd that fights back by swearing by B. But, in the process, create the same problem on the opposite end of the spectrum. Two wrongs don't make a right
+umageddon Yeah, especially the types that say "HEY GUYS IT'S YA' BOY HERE!"
Ugh, that shit gets on my nerves almost too much.
God damn it he has the sexiest voice on youtube hands down
yes
He reminds me of this guy except this guy is Australian
ruclips.net/video/2oN18gMaGhI/видео.html
what 😂
warowl?
@@rokano yeah I can see why
I think there's something to be said about a well-paced linear game with a good narrative and a bit of illusion of free-roaming these days (TloU for instance). Too many recent titles do the open-world thing and don't do it very well, i.e. a giant map with a bunch of repetitive busywork.
***** Also, a lot of open world games tend to run out of things to do after you complete the main story and any side quests
Same here. I grew up on cRPGs like Baldur's Gate, Arcanum, Fallout 1/2, etc., where there was a sense of free roaming, but none of the busywork of walking there in real time. And content in maps was dense enough that it always felt like there was something genuinely interesting to do.
Shadow of Mordor comes to mind.
Indeed, Shadow of Mordor, the more recent Assassins Creed games, and Destiny (a particularly bad offender of this) all come to mind.
Yeah, like all those terribly overrated Grand Theft Auto games. A collection of mini games.
You could narrate How It's Made fantastically
lol right?
I think he already does
or some guy who just sounds exactly like him
I wish I could have him narrate my life
Lewis Sowerby I swear he could narrate about taking a shit and he would make it sound interesting
I always wondered how uhh.. Plumbuses got made.
Big Rigs Over The Road Racing is the real open world game. It's so open, you can drive through all of the objects and even out of the level.
coolpatrickandryan and you can reverse at ludicrous speed ;)
Lol
Ah, those russians
big fuckin' trucks
BIG MOTHERF***IN' RIIIIIIIIIGS!!!
Ahoy: is this the first open world game?
Ahoy: well yeah
Ahoy: *BUT*
I was really bored.
I saw this video
The thumbnail reminded me of Civilization V
so I launched Civ 5
and now i listen to the video while i play Civ 5
lol
Yeah I played Civ today because of the thumbnail
Honza Frýda in my current game, I am currently buying loads of nuclear missiles, ive spent all my uranium and gold on them but now i have 18 of them.
so basically i can level and civ i want within a few turns :)
Nathan Shiels I always get bored by the industrial era and end up starting a new game :c how do you last that long without either getting conquered or getting bored?
Garen Crownguard mods that make the game more interesting
If gaming needed a teacher, Ahoy would be the guy
I want to live on a planet made of your voice
I did too, but I was willing to settle for a fleshlight made from it.
The Golden Gamer You thinking that joke makes me weird tells me it is you who are the weird one. It's a good thing.
Sauce Bung BOOCE that sounds oddly sexual.....
Rovous Salaman I though sound was solid, that’s for clearing that up
Creep.
When I'm reading anything and I'm having trouble concentrating, I read it in your voice, your voice has so much power, and a strong accent. The way you present information in your videos is absolutely spectacular, keep up the fantastic work Stuart Brown.
I read you comment in his voice
You left out flight simulators. Flight Simulator 1.0 came out in 1979.
I don't think flight Sims really count since you can't stop moving and explore. Now space sims, they definately count.
Jacen Solo Uh, it’s called crashing, and if there’s a clear spot and you’re good at off airport landings more often than not you can go just about anywhere.
@@whackyjinak4978 "Crashing"
Well, that's one way of saying it lol
Finally got a cameo in an XBoxAhoy video (9:39)
But seriously great stuff as always Stu.
Hey man
How's 2k19 going?
@@preetimalviya6730Them clones havent poped out yet and they'll still suck
"Japanese RPGs are of a different breed" ... while showing Dark Souls 2, which is really more of a Japan-developed western-style RPG.
+Keiya Bachhuber
So? It just shows that RPGs share a commonality which in this case is exploration. Technically a Japan-made RPG is still a Japanese RPG, since you are so strict about genres. :P ;D
Except not. It's a western RPG in genre. It's about giving you a world in which to grow and conquer challenges, not a story which you work through involving characters. Extra Credits did a good video on this.
Yes. I agree that sometimes the games shows en to showcase do not juxtapose that well with the narration as in the Dark Souls case here. But I like the videos overall so I do not mind it that much. :)
And as for genre. Well yeah genre is a bit iffy in games. Generally when we talk about Western RPG it actually a style rather then where the game was made. So there are a few Japanese games that fit the bill. And there quite a few western developed RPGs that are in a JRPG style to of course. It is a bit like how we do not generally call Portal a First Person Shooter even if it is mechanicly can be described as a First Person Shooter. But the defining game play Aesthetics are quite different game like Doom and Call of Duty. But again, genres are a mess when it comes to computer games. (Sometimes Aesthetics are the focus wile other times is the mechanics that defines it for example.)
GOD! I can't believe you didn't mention [INSERT GAME HERE]!
Unsubbed.
Blah Blahbitty I never played INSERT GAME HERE, how does it play?
@@theemperor-wh40k18 it's basically INSERT GAME HERE, but on steroids.
What about burnout paradise?
Is that a Percee P profile-pic?
Diablo II?
the first open world game i played was Driver 2, i remember i was mind blown that you could leave your car and walk around.. in this ps1 world
Wasn't Driver 3 the first Driver where you could get out?
no it was the 2nd one :P i remember that !
OOOH, YOU ARE BACK! :D * sets quality to 1080p and turns off the lights *
I've watched the video and it was awesome! :D Great job again. :)
GRABS POPCORN
Every Ahoy video is perfect.
Same here :3
***** Text comes out bold like *this* if you have no spaces.
there is another game worth mentioning: quarantine. A mid 90s dos game where you drive a taxi in an open world cyberpunk city!
Don't you dare to say that word... damn it!!
@@zaiux the horrors
Agustin Pérez Burgos
...
I've been playing that game for what seems like forever😐
quarantine, open world cyberpunk city... sounds familiar
You didn't even mention Daggerfall did you? ;_;
Was also expecting it to be mentioned
Yeah, pretty much the largest map in any game.
John The majority of Daggerfall's map is barren, randomly generated crap.
superdudeman666 It generates once and then stays forever like that. Also, don't expect to walk the same distances like that IRL bumping into something new every 50 seconds
superdudeman666 I never said it was good, just large.
Dear mr Ahoy, please make a long episode of the elder scrolls series. that would make my day :)
That would be interesting.
I love these. They're like mini-documentaries. Sounds like the guy from "How it's made" on those discovery channels.
lol, same thought as mine
Ever heard of Operation Flashpoint? A game from 2001 that features a boundless 60 square kilometer Island that takes several minutes to get across, IN A HELICOPTER.
Operation Flashpoint? Sounds like something from swtor...
Again, beautifully made as always Ahoy. I am SO thankful to TotalBiscuit for pointing you out, you definitely deserve the attention!
Doesn't get more open world than flight sims. Which literally have the entire world.
well then there's space games like starbound,Space engineers,no man's sky, etc.
Space engine is extremely open ended
Jake The Mario Fan yeah so i guess flight sims isn't that open world
Also it doesn't have detailed locations, and it's stuck to just flying. Outside of airports you really couldn't do much.
@@dudeguy8553 And how exactly is that different than most driving games that were included on the list?
Probably should have said more about STALKER, as it is one of those games that pushed AI technology to its limits in service of its open world.
...then it didn't really work and they scaled it back down :) Same story as with Oblivion; AI was dumbed down because it kept breaking the game. Plus STALKER is not nearly as "open world"; especially Clear Sky is very linear; SoC is quite restricted too, CoP is actually pretty open though still split between "areas".
Stalker is an overrated bore of a game
I would have said Ultima underworld. It's open-ish despite being in a sprawling multi-level dungeon; but what it really did right was that it was a being a first person immersive simulation; sort of like the RPG equivalent of a flight sim. Before Underworld, games just didn't do that kind of thing; a monster was a monster was a monster, not a faction that you could be friends or enemies with. You just didn't get games where you navigated a 3D space in first person with swiming and jumping etc; Wolfenstein 3D was out at almost the same time and it was a 2D maze depicted in 3D.
It inspired among others, System shock, Thief, Half-life, the elderscrolls, Everquest and Deus ex.
I'd also have mentioned some early non-space open world 3D games from the Amiga/ST/DOS. Such as hunter; an open world, third person shooter with vehicles and a quest structure; or midwinter, a weird open world post-apocalyptic ARPG/shooter/survival thingy.
Dwarov 1 wrong
@@sharpfang I have one solution to present to you. Mods. Addons. Ever heard of STALKER: Last Day or Call of Chernobyl?
The first open world game I played was GTA vice city
that was more than 10 years ago
Ha! Just like me.
same
Paramesh Subramoni
and I bet that's the only one you have played ( no pun intended all the people in India seem to have one thing in common, they have played vice city). :D
Erwin Rommel that's how famous gta is
As for me I have played
1.Skyrim
2.fallout 4
And 3.Witcher 3
Not just gta
thats because its easy to make bootleg versions of gta vice city and san andreas
Your narrating voice should be on Top Gear. Good to have you back, sir.
bytex666 or perhaps the Blue Planet documentaries
the first time I played a truely open world game was with Spider-Man 2 back in 2004
+Jason Armstrong YES YES YES!
I loved that game! I remember the bowling at the end between the 4 spidermans, and when you can just keep fighting that big guy in the cage all over again!
I really loved when you fight the green goblin at the end, and he is flying around on his purple hovercraft, and you keep killing! And when you save mary janes purse, jesus i spent so much hours on that game, i miss that generation of games. im gonna cry in nostalgia now.
mine is GTA SA in 2008. It's my first ever experience on 3D games and PC games aswell!
Yer i had gta sa on original xbox, along with 3 and vice city
My first open world game has got to be Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past.
That game was perfection haha I sunk so many damn hours into that game.
I walked across the map of Daggerfall. It took me 69 hours.
@Chrono yes
nice
nice.
@Chrono Procedural generation
@Chrono the size of the uk
SHOUT OUT TO FREELANCER THE BEST GAME EVER MADE 100000/100000
Definitely one of my faves, even today.
NEVER FORGET!
so 1?
MrChosenone34 but seriously. nobody noticed.
"Freelancer alpha one dash one, mind if i take a peek in your cargo hold? Didn't think so."
Great video. A comprehensive story of the Open World concept? Very cool. Surprised you didn't mention Wasteland but as you say, definitions ahoy.
I just wish that the concept didn't get out of hand. The most recent example is Dragon Age Inquisition, for me. Okay, big world, lots of stuff to do, but if most of that stuff are fetch quests it's all wasted space.
The unsung godfather of open-world gaming:
Hydlide (1984)
This was the first true open-world game, in the modern sense of the world. Unlike the early Ultima, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games where you walk around as a giant on a world map/hub (like Mario's world map/hub, but non-linear), Hydlide introduced a continuous open world, where you actually explore the entire game world on foot. This is essentially what we mean by open world today.
Modern open-world games have their roots in Hydlide. It was the game that inspired Zelda. In turn, Zelda inspired the Ultima series to abandon the world map/hub of Ultima 1-5 with a Zelda-style continuous open world in Ultima 6 onwards. In turn, The Elder Scrolls series was inspired by the later Ultima games that came after Ultima 6. And Zelda itself went on to inspire the open-world design of the GTA series.
All of these games can ultimately trace back their open-world roots to Hydlide. And yet, the irony of history is that Hydlide is now widely reviled in the West, because of how poorly it has aged, compared to later games that vastly improved on it and left it in the dust.
Razor Edge mercenary came out in 83, and was even in 3d (albeit in wireframe). You were free to roam a planet on foot, car, or aircraft.
Fandango Brandango
Mercenary came out in 1985, not 1983, idiot
Mobygames is your friend
also:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary_%28video_game%29
Fandango Brandango
It was ENCOUNTER that came out in 1983, which was a precursor to the Mercenary series. Mercenary came out in 1985
"Star Citizen, 2016."
lol
I'm surprised he didn't talk more about text-based RPGs; MUDs were among my first computer game experiences, and being based on pen-and-paper RPGs their worlds were very open indeed.
I dont like the way most open world games do it by just dumping a fkton of unimaginative treadmill missions all over the map, with no thought behind them beside that guy who did the basic mission concept. And then if you follow only the side story, those games mostly fall flat quantity wise. But i guess im in the minority here.
Those are the bad ones. Though sometimes those games can also be made fun.
Thinking about how limited morrowind was, i had more fun exploring the world than in that shallow huge ocean skyrim was.
Axonteer Same, I didn't like Skyrim. Then again, it was being made by only 100 people and they said it was like that because of the restrictions of last-gen. So maybe their next game will be complete?
And maybe The Division won't have microtransactions.
(sarcasm)
Maybe in future we wont get botched always online game releases or even better... games that work out of the box and dont require a day1 patch to even load... (hard sarcasm)
Axonteer Oh, we have...some of those. I know that Dying Light works, apparently. Final review copies were sent and it all works fine.
Actually, there are still offline and/or working games, it's just that day one patches are becoming more of a thing.
The first open world game was
L I F E
Yeah pretty bad game tho
It's p2w. I don't recommend it.
Nice video. Would be cool if you also mentioned Operation Flashpoint
4:30 Big Smoke the Joke
You picked the WRONG BIKE FOOL!
That's why Smoke worked for C.R.A.S.H
There's a reason why he let us drive that motorcycle..
i’m clout af OOOOOOOHHHH
@@HungTran-of8zp Omfg
Woohoo! First vid of 2015 and I'm excited. Cheers, Stu. :)
Tom?!
Totally Not A Cylon Hello!
Kinda funny that Star Citizen still isn't out, even though this video is 8 years old :)
Red Dead Redemption is my number 1 exploration game, period. That includes Undead Nightmare, there was no other game I could get as lost in as I did in RDR.
A little disappointed that EVE Online didn't at least get a mention for its social dynamic and predominantly player-driven open-world environment, where the programmed open-world itself is little more than a backdrop, but overall a good summary of open-world evolution.
fuck that creepy game
I'll be honest here, i came to this channel because of Totalbiscuit's recommendation, but after watching all the content here the only point that i have to give is that content is just not enough for how good it is. Basically, i wish you could produce more awesome videos like this, and i can't have enough of this channel :(
Good job though
I really wish that he would add some light music in the background. The videos border on boring because of the large silence between him speaking.
***** I guess my message got misunderstood. It was meant as a compliment. The only thing i said there was "This is very good, i just wish more could be produced at this quality".
Simply put i WISH he could do it. Obviously he can't, but a man can wish >.>
I have to say, as far as 'Video Game Documentaries' go, this has to be one of the most enjoyable ones I've ever watched. I didn't expect to stay for the full runtime of the video, but wow, it was so well-made, and the narration was so good that I had to watch fully and click 'like' at the end. Thank you for making this video, I enjoyed every second.
This truly feels like a TV show
What good is a adventure if you're forced down a single path.
You just roasted every call of duty game made
wtf? that's not the point. look at Fallout 4.
@Ben Bristow Welp that's when the Half Life's system comes in
The Valve's tutorial to all the game Devs to teach em how to make a great game
It didn't force me to walk down a single corridor,it made the environment lOOK and FEEL like that I was *supposed* to walk down *THAT exact* corridor
I really like the music at the beginning. Is there a full version I can listen to?
I wish I was a girl
gafeht
what do you mean?
Teh heck
1!1!!!!!gamer gril!11111!!111!11111!!!1
congratulations...
I love open world games but I hate most of the comments under this great video
How about flight sims. FS 1.0 was released aroud 1982 before elite and is also open world setting the scene for probably the most open world ever becouse the map is litteraly the world(earth).
The caliber of your videos is impeccable. Especially the eloquent script and excellent editing. This channel is a gift to gamers everywhere.
HOW DID YOU NOT COVER ADVENTURE FOR ATARI? It came out in 1979 and had the same basic gameplay concepts as Zelda!
No mention of Mercenary (1985)? That arguably has more in common with the modern 3D sandbox games we know today, even more than Elite and the Ultima series, despite them being earlier.
This ↑↑↑
7:36 A demo version of this game came with a Windows installation CD. I found it and installed it when I was young, but my computer's onboard video (from a PCChips M825G motherboard) was too slow to run this game. Then I didn't even remember the name of the game. I found out now, more than fifteen years later!
You have a great talent to make videos like these. I'm so glad to see you work, and can't wait to see the next video. Amazing job!
2:10 complete non sequitur? Lol that doesnt have anything to do with open world games. It's a 3D metroidvania design, of opening up a big map, not open world at all
7:15 Just to give you some context.. this game was released the same year as the chernobyl disaster.
Wouldn't Phantasy Star series have a place here?
3:29 I remember trying and failing this mission SO MANY TIMES!!!
wow, an american pronouncing draugr right, colour me impressed.
could be wrong but his accent sounds more northern english than american
British m8
WHAT?! Where are you from?! hahahah
Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode is the best open world game at the moment. The graphics are extremely simple - being only ASCII based - but the world that is created is truly magnificent. It's what happens when you forgo visuals for mechanics. I believe that when it is completed it will be the closest to a Tabletop RPG on computer that we will have.
RimWorld.
Fantastic video, well researched and superbly composed. Looking at the exhaustive list of games I wonder if the Amiga game 'Midwinter' deserves an honorable mention as an open world game of its era.
I could get lost for hours in these videos.
This is still a cool video but it is weird now watching it knowing how much has happened in the open world genre since it was uploaded.
So Happy that this channel starts to get attention. Ahoy is one of my favorite trivia channel and I love to see it grow!
Thank TB for that :)
Vette
Test Drive 3
Need for Speed SE
So good back then !!!!
The first $600 cd-rom burner drives showed up during NFS-SE.I know cause i tried to copy it. lol
he's like morgan freeman on youtube
benjania David Attenborough more like
I'm glad to see Far Cry and Crackdown in this video, but I didn't see Saints Row IV.
A very interesting topic Stu!
Surprised to see a section on open world space games, but no mention of Eve Online?
I look back, even just a few years at Oblivion and I realise how impressive it was at the time and how barren it looks now...
What will we be seeing in another 10 years time?
So glad you mentioned Hunter on the Amiga.. I LOVED playing that game growing up.
"How open has a world to be before it's open?"
This is a interessting question. Would you consider a game like Terraria a 2D open world, or is it "just" a big level?
The world size is quite small in Terraria its classified as more of a sandbox.
@@infernaldaedra a sandbox can be an open world (see minecraft)
This man could narrate an orgo chem text book and make it entertaining
It's hilarious how old minecraft looks there at the end, compared to the other recent open world games XD
9:42 I've been looking for you. Got something I'm supposed to deliver - your hands only
4:29 HAHAHAH BIG SMOKE FELL OFF HIS BIKE!!!
IN my oppinion, from that list the first open world game would be Ultima, since Akalabeth only have a map with points plotting the locations of cities and dungeons, and only the inside of dungeons have concrete representations.
Surprised you didn't talk about Omikron! It's a classic
4:28 Big Smoke eats shit on the landing
Not even one mention of Outcast...
I mean, the game was even recently updated by the devs for modern machines.
Yeah, Outcast was an awesome awesome game. A bit buggy, but still awesome nonetheless.
Not Open World... If you're gonna be stupid, please, don't be ironic and do it on an educational video...
Grey Stash Yes it was. It was a revolutionary game for its time.
432neptune Oh shit, massive derp, I thought you said Outlast. I'm just gonna go and headbutt the sharp side of my gpu now
Grey Stash I was thinking that that was what you were thinking.
This video is a mess. You're supposed to be talking about the origins of open world gaming but you're just bouncing between franchises and categories disjointedly. There's no real connection between sections, It's not working back to the open world origin nor starting there and showing how it came to be what it is today.
It's a massive waste of time. If you wanted to do something like this, dedicate a whole video to one topic like GTA's development or the evolution of the Farcry franchise instead of giving absolutely no insight into anything.
So ... ultimately ....... Ultima?
i definitely appreciate open world games but now that im older and busier i also really appreciate a nice linear game with a reasonable playthru time (10-20hrs) so i have a chance at finishing it. there are still many great open world games now but i feel like sometimes the studios make games open world without a focused purpose to it and pack it with meaningless tasks that dilute the impact of the game and inhibit story telling and narrative. 40 plus hour games are more and more common now and many could have been cut down to like 25 and not lost anything important
You forgot about Operation Flashpoint, it was quite remarkable and ground breaking when it was released!
He also forgot EvE Online and World of Warcrack.
And there's No Man's Sky, the game that's gonna make every open world game it's bitch(in regard about size atleast)...P.S. :I've just realized how weird at sounds
A great needed video on a subject I love
*a much needed
See if you're gonna correct at least get it right otherwise you look foolish. He is saying the video is both great and needed which you would know if you read the intent rather than just looking for errors.
elitelavamage You would need to put a comma between there, sorry for not conforming to your rules for comments.
FuckingFaggot At least I do *something* with my life, m9
FuckingFaggot cheers fam
You’ve should’ve mentioned Pokémon since it is *one* of the most popular Open world games
The things I would do for a D&D video done by you
Shocked Atari's "Adventure" wasn't mentioned at all. While the world isn't exactly "open" it allowed for free movement and backtracking, something that wasn't really known of at the time
TES II?
1998
1996, actually.
This.
Elder Scrolls was making open world way before GTA :(((
did you even watch the video? a lot of games were open world before either of those games lol. why comment on a video you didnt watch?
Evan Martin that's not what he is saying he is saying it set the standard but ahoy was talking about shooting in those games
Is no one going to mention daggerfall at all ? That was one of the biggest RPGs ever made
So, I guess it's fair to say that GTA popularized Open World gameplay but it's origins are much older. Depending on how you define it you could go all the way back to Ultima 1, If you are going to define it as needing a seamless transition from one place to the next then you can definitely count Ultima 6. Then you have games like Elite which were open space.
Im at 4:50 now, still a bit of the video to go but I wonder if any of these games will be mentioned.
Cool. I like how at the end you talk about definitions unraveling. Some people might not consider a "duel scale" like Ultima 1 an open world game. But rather a group of levels connected by an overworld map.
Also, There were some games you mentioned that I hadn't heard of in a LONG time. So that was nice also.
Wouldn't animal crossing be considered open world too?
yes
+Odaddio It really depends on how you define it, but I would say that Animal Crossing's towns are way too small to be considered an open world.
Michael Greene it is.
Picture a game on a computer. pc console or phone doesn't matter which. It has an empty rectangle, big or small. Now imagine there is a dot in that rectangular space. The dot can move anywhere you please accept it can't leave the edges of the rectangle surrounding said dot.
There you have it, an open world game like it or not.
Again, depends on how you define it. I *completely* disagree with your definition because that's basically any game, with any degree of input on where your character moves. By your definition the first Open World game might as well be Adventure (1980) for the Atari. Hell, even Pacman fits that description.The worms inside of the dirt
Anyone remember Quarantine? Speaking of early open world driving games.
Isn't World of Warcraft the game with the biggest open world?
Great to see you back btw :)
Nope, Daggerfall's bigger
Not quite, tes daggerfall has possibly the largest open world map
Dragos442 What about minecraft?
Dragos442
You make there a difference ? Ok, dont knew that.
Dragos442 What about Just Cause 2?
That song at 12:07 sounds like the track for Money Sucecss Fame Glamour
"Japanese RPGs". Shows Dark Souls II which is an action game and shows the most linear level of the entire game.
It is an action RPG developed by a japanese company aka japanese RPG.
(facepalm)
(handcarrot)
It is not an ARPG, it is an action game with RPG elements. An ARPG is, in technical terms, much rarer than in Laymens terms. Morrowind is an ARPG for example, as both systems rely heavily on the other, and distinguish it. To put it in simplest terms, one can say an ARPG is a normal RPG that does not have turns in it's basic gameplay in any form. In classic TES, the replacement for turns was the stamina, health, and magicka.
Don't know what you guys are on. I played hundreds of RPGs from all over the world and Dark Souls is an RPG. Why wouldn't it? Just because the player isn't talking?
It even has NPCs and you can kill them if you want to.
It gives you more freedom than most RPGs these days.
Thanks for the shout out for Rogue - which I do believe is one of the first random map generators (i.e. no single level was ever the same)