I believe it is caused by the creation method. By making a map and then filling it leaves a lot to be desired. If it were made first and added to the map, expanding it as you go.
But in big projects there would be teams for different parts of the map. If all the bosses, enemies and other experiences were designed and completed before anything else then those who specialise in terrain building would have nothing to do. This may then lead to those people leaving the company which should be avoided. The creation method is heavily influenced by the amount of time and budget dedicated to a project so that might be the main factor for having these big and repetitive games.
@@tomohawk2177 Those who specialize in terrain building would stich sections together. A director would coordinate placement to appear more natural alongside them. The budget affects everything, so it is like not making a critique at all.
@@tomohawk2177 There's always doing something in between. A super basic height map could be made first, laying out where all the mountains and rivers and stuff are, maybe with some basic zoning for major cities and dungeons, and then letting teams pick individual chunks to flesh out until there's something interesting in all of them.
I'm with you on this. Open world games do get big egos over their shear size, not realizing how it hurts their quality. I think the reason everyone else seems to like them this way is the desire to avoid end-game melancholy. If it takes longer to reach "the end," players don't have to leave their immersion in the fantasy as often. There's few points in a game as immersion-breaking as its ending, as the credits force players to face the artificial nature of the game most directly, and defeating the final threat makes one question whether all the abilities and skills and resources one worked for was merely a fleeting vanity. Players just want an excuse to say "there's still more to do" even if it's the same chores again and again.
This is a crazy high quality video for your channel size! If you keep it up you might just have a nice new source of income that doubles as a hobby. One suggestion I have, though, is to turn the music down just a touch. Its distracting to my dumb little ADHD brain.
I saw this video title thinking you were just huffing some serious copium, like a lot of people are who make videos with this type of title. I was very nicely surprised and intrigued when I started agreeing with most of your points. I love open world games. Elden Ring and Skyrim are among some of my favorites. Skyrim was made in a time where(in my opinion) games were made to be fun and everyone wasn't so greedy and such, and Elden Ring was my first souls game and my second ever platinum trophy. (my first being Spider-Man: Miles Morales). I think these games did something right, I can't quite put my finger on it. But there's also a problem, if every open-world game follows the same formula, they'd get really boring really fast. It's kind of a paradox if you ask me. Love the video though. Made me think a lot and taught me once again to never judge a book by it's cover.
I definitely relate but for me it's more of if the game actually commits to the open world. I love Breath of the Wild because I felt like the entire design of the game was based around traversing the large map. The game was more about the act of exploring then it was about having a ton of discoveries. But Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring were disappointing. Elden Ring especially felt almost unfinished in a way. Like they took the dark souls map and just stretched it out really big, but forgot to actually put meaningful things in a lot of it. The meme of seeing a bunch of messages telling you there's no item ahead as you traverse around the side of a castle or a cliff only to find that there actually was nothing at all rings way too true way too often. Elden Ring was still just a Souls game with the open world being a feature but often not informing the design. It takes so long to traverse the map and get to something actually cool that I just gave up after 20 hours. Tears on the other hand felt like they packed in so much crap that I lost any sense of exploration because I couldn't go twenty feet before there was some copy pasted pile of wood parts with the sign guy, or another tired korok next to zonai parts, or a single room cave. The open world was less a world and more a big map. Which was fun for like 60 hours, but then I wanted to take a break from the game and I never went back to finish it.
This might sound weird considering the game's reputation but Pokémon Violet is the only open world that I've enjoyed playing in recent years and for one simple reason... The Pokémon. The chance to encounter an entirely new Pokémon is the only motivation I needed to explore, and the fact that the region is admittedly a bit empty means there wasn't enough repeating content for me to get burned out like I did in Elden Ring or BOTW.
I remember it as a kid when PS3 era arrived and the devs could greatly improve and expand the gaming areas, then they started a race to make the main stream games into as large as possible. And since technology has still improved, the scopes just get larger and larger. Then these are filled with copy-paste basic open world stuff and all we get is reskinned versions of the same game. I tend to just react with internal dread when I see yet another part of a map revealed in a game nowdays. Like I recently played Shadow of Mordor and I though it was a decent game, the game area seemed reasonable in size, so spending some hours to that seemed fun. Then I got into a point in the story where I got another area of similar scope. I noped out immeadiately and uninstalled the game. After that I played Infamous Second son. The story seemed pretty good so I thought that would be an enjoyable game. Then I got into a phase in the beginning where there was the basic "liberate this area to continue" and again, immediately nope and uninstall. I have seen too much of those already and those usually feel like a chore.
you're right imo, and if you want to see an example of a game that truly puts exploration first you need to play outer wilds (not the outer worlds) outer wilds is so exploration focused that i don't really want to say anything about it beyond that because there are so many incredible moments you find no matter where you go
I like open world games due to the exploration and getting lost most of my favorite games of all time are open games like The Witcher 3, Skyrim, AC3,2, Brotherhood, RDR2, GTA V, ghost of tsushima but I can understand why people hate Ubisoft game design.
It doesn't help that most open world games don't feel alive with how huge they are and most of the locations in them are boring and uninspired because of how big they are.
Pretty sure this is a you problem, a you problem you're not alone in. I was massively disappointed in botw, but was fine with ER, the disappointment was only insofar as seeing the same engine and movements. I ignore the dungeons, i only go if i think i need to go in or if it looks interesting. I don't need to do all 169 bosses. I learned my lesson from botw, going for too much side stuff is detrimental. Souls bosses always are the main and optional ones. In the case of ER though i have no way to confirm it, aside from sparse lore, the eventual haha moment of finding a cool weapon at a random point in the future, the dungeons are clearly meant to serve as rune boosters, in case someone needs to become stronger. Completely serving Miyazaki's vision too.
Not going to lie I played Elden ring 3 times, got platinum, it was my 3 souls game. (Sekiro, wo long) and I’m primarily a shooter player. And tbh it was fine to me it felt repetitive sometimes but it’s to be expectated. But there’s so much to offer, the underworld map, the top map, unique bosses to each area, items that are rare,
dam i think im getting bored of video game essays/ videos now, everything is the same thing now. guess retrospectives are where its at now. i mean this is a combo of every elden ring critique ever, and about open world too
I believe it is caused by the creation method. By making a map and then filling it leaves a lot to be desired. If it were made first and added to the map, expanding it as you go.
But in big projects there would be teams for different parts of the map. If all the bosses, enemies and other experiences were designed and completed before anything else then those who specialise in terrain building would have nothing to do. This may then lead to those people leaving the company which should be avoided. The creation method is heavily influenced by the amount of time and budget dedicated to a project so that might be the main factor for having these big and repetitive games.
@@tomohawk2177 Those who specialize in terrain building would stich sections together. A director would coordinate placement to appear more natural alongside them.
The budget affects everything, so it is like not making a critique at all.
@@tomohawk2177 There's always doing something in between. A super basic height map could be made first, laying out where all the mountains and rivers and stuff are, maybe with some basic zoning for major cities and dungeons, and then letting teams pick individual chunks to flesh out until there's something interesting in all of them.
I'm with you on this. Open world games do get big egos over their shear size, not realizing how it hurts their quality. I think the reason everyone else seems to like them this way is the desire to avoid end-game melancholy. If it takes longer to reach "the end," players don't have to leave their immersion in the fantasy as often. There's few points in a game as immersion-breaking as its ending, as the credits force players to face the artificial nature of the game most directly, and defeating the final threat makes one question whether all the abilities and skills and resources one worked for was merely a fleeting vanity. Players just want an excuse to say "there's still more to do" even if it's the same chores again and again.
Exactly how I feel about open world games, you're not alone!
This is a crazy high quality video for your channel size! If you keep it up you might just have a nice new source of income that doubles as a hobby. One suggestion I have, though, is to turn the music down just a touch. Its distracting to my dumb little ADHD brain.
I saw this video title thinking you were just huffing some serious copium, like a lot of people are who make videos with this type of title. I was very nicely surprised and intrigued when I started agreeing with most of your points. I love open world games. Elden Ring and Skyrim are among some of my favorites. Skyrim was made in a time where(in my opinion) games were made to be fun and everyone wasn't so greedy and such, and Elden Ring was my first souls game and my second ever platinum trophy. (my first being Spider-Man: Miles Morales). I think these games did something right, I can't quite put my finger on it. But there's also a problem, if every open-world game follows the same formula, they'd get really boring really fast. It's kind of a paradox if you ask me.
Love the video though. Made me think a lot and taught me once again to never judge a book by it's cover.
I definitely relate but for me it's more of if the game actually commits to the open world. I love Breath of the Wild because I felt like the entire design of the game was based around traversing the large map. The game was more about the act of exploring then it was about having a ton of discoveries.
But Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring were disappointing.
Elden Ring especially felt almost unfinished in a way. Like they took the dark souls map and just stretched it out really big, but forgot to actually put meaningful things in a lot of it. The meme of seeing a bunch of messages telling you there's no item ahead as you traverse around the side of a castle or a cliff only to find that there actually was nothing at all rings way too true way too often. Elden Ring was still just a Souls game with the open world being a feature but often not informing the design. It takes so long to traverse the map and get to something actually cool that I just gave up after 20 hours.
Tears on the other hand felt like they packed in so much crap that I lost any sense of exploration because I couldn't go twenty feet before there was some copy pasted pile of wood parts with the sign guy, or another tired korok next to zonai parts, or a single room cave. The open world was less a world and more a big map. Which was fun for like 60 hours, but then I wanted to take a break from the game and I never went back to finish it.
This might sound weird considering the game's reputation but Pokémon Violet is the only open world that I've enjoyed playing in recent years and for one simple reason... The Pokémon. The chance to encounter an entirely new Pokémon is the only motivation I needed to explore, and the fact that the region is admittedly a bit empty means there wasn't enough repeating content for me to get burned out like I did in Elden Ring or BOTW.
I remember it as a kid when PS3 era arrived and the devs could greatly improve and expand the gaming areas, then they started a race to make the main stream games into as large as possible. And since technology has still improved, the scopes just get larger and larger. Then these are filled with copy-paste basic open world stuff and all we get is reskinned versions of the same game.
I tend to just react with internal dread when I see yet another part of a map revealed in a game nowdays. Like I recently played Shadow of Mordor and I though it was a decent game, the game area seemed reasonable in size, so spending some hours to that seemed fun. Then I got into a point in the story where I got another area of similar scope. I noped out immeadiately and uninstalled the game. After that I played Infamous Second son. The story seemed pretty good so I thought that would be an enjoyable game. Then I got into a phase in the beginning where there was the basic "liberate this area to continue" and again, immediately nope and uninstall. I have seen too much of those already and those usually feel like a chore.
Lately I've found it hard to stay interested in one game for too long. Which kinda sucks cause I love getting immersed and finishing a story.
Amazing underrated and genuine channel, thanks
you're right imo, and if you want to see an example of a game that truly puts exploration first you need to play outer wilds (not the outer worlds)
outer wilds is so exploration focused that i don't really want to say anything about it beyond that because there are so many incredible moments you find no matter where you go
I like open world games due to the exploration and getting lost most of my favorite games of all time are open games like The Witcher 3, Skyrim, AC3,2, Brotherhood, RDR2, GTA V, ghost of tsushima but I can understand why people hate Ubisoft game design.
It doesn't help that most open world games don't feel alive with how huge they are and most of the locations in them are boring and uninspired because of how big they are.
Pretty sure this is a you problem, a you problem you're not alone in. I was massively disappointed in botw, but was fine with ER, the disappointment was only insofar as seeing the same engine and movements. I ignore the dungeons, i only go if i think i need to go in or if it looks interesting. I don't need to do all 169 bosses.
I learned my lesson from botw, going for too much side stuff is detrimental.
Souls bosses always are the main and optional ones. In the case of ER though i have no way to confirm it, aside from sparse lore, the eventual haha moment of finding a cool weapon at a random point in the future, the dungeons are clearly meant to serve as rune boosters, in case someone needs to become stronger. Completely serving Miyazaki's vision too.
Not going to lie I played Elden ring 3 times, got platinum, it was my 3 souls game. (Sekiro, wo long) and I’m primarily a shooter player. And tbh it was fine to me it felt repetitive sometimes but it’s to be expectated. But there’s so much to offer, the underworld map, the top map, unique bosses to each area, items that are rare,
dam i think im getting bored of video game essays/ videos now, everything is the same thing now. guess retrospectives are where its at now. i mean this is a combo of every elden ring critique ever, and about open world too
Thanks for showing us 💎
elden ring is my least favorite souls like cuz its too repetitive. Im afraid starting red dead or ff7r now
I ❤ far cry
There are only 6 unique bosses in Elden Ring. It could have used 30 less bosses
Where did you get that 6?
Did u play the game blindfolded?