Often huge and filled with attractive scenery and not much else, open worlds are extremely popular in the video game industry right now, forgoing the loading screens and invisible walls of old and offering a "non-linear" experience towards travel towards and fulfilment of objectives...and, some may argue, thereby artificially extending the life of the game as you spend hours wandering through the spacious surroundings, doing things that in no way contribute towards progression - something that, despite the freedom the game offers, is still a necessity in the design, making them little different from more restricted "linear" titles unless they don't have an end goal in a traditional sense. Do you enjoy open world games? Do you find that they offer a less restricted gaming experience that you can immerse yourself in more readily, or do you find the need to explore and spaced-out nature of the meaningful content in the game a tiresome experience? Have you ever played an open world game where you felt that perhaps it may have benefited from being "more linear", or played a game that practically begged for an open world? Are there any series you would like to see embrace a more open world in the future?
Personally, I like open-world games so long as they are done right. I actually haven't played very many, but I still know that those open worlds have to be filled to the brim with stuff or else they just feel empty and pointless.
I enjoy open world games, but it certainly does not dictate how good I think a game is. Personally, I feel that Skyrim has my perfect idea of an open world. While there is plenty of space to explore, you can't go more than a few minutes without finding a new dungeon, a random encounter, or a fight of some sort. The open world experience is one that I have often found to be unreplayable, however. Once you've found the secrets and locations once, it isn't that fun to come back to it, imo.
There is a way to do open-world wrong, even though it's usually something the devs like to brag about. For instance: Dragon's Dogma. The world is absolutely enormous! And filled with a whole lot of nothing. There are two towns, three military bases, a few castles, and just a few small dungeon caves. But these are all so far apart: walking from the first military base to the main city takes at least 10-15 minutes on foot, maybe more if you stop to fight enemies. There's no reason I should be able to watch an entire TED Talk on my way from one settlement to the next with nothing of value in between. It's as Wizard said about Skyrim, it's best when you find interesting things on the way. What's in that cave? Who's in that tower? What is this altar? The most interesting thing about the world of Dragon's Dogma is like there's a few crumbled pillars here, and a burned-out house with absolutely nothing in it there? I want my video games to be less boring than the real world, thank you.
The concept of open world gaming is great. “Explore a game world where you are in full control of where you go and what you do.” The problem for a lot of games is execution. Like mentioned in other posts, a lot of open world games have large empty areas with little to do. Even some of the genre’s highest regarded games like Skyrim, Breath of the Wild, and Horizon Zero Dawn suffer from this issue. I think I like how the Yakuza series approaches its open worlds. Instead of a massive empty world, you get a detailed city district. Every area has something to do, whether that be a story mission or a side activity.
I like open world games, but I like a strong plot too. I like open world games that let me explore the world at my own pace, but still have a strong main quest narrative. I find this to be the best game as you can approach the main quests how ever you like. Take Fallout 3 for example, I distinctly remember following the main quest going into DC and I chose to go around the side of the map. Then all of a sudden, I get ambushed by mercenaries and get wonderful new gear. This is the kind of organic open worlds should be. One that is non-linear, but still having a heavy focus on story quests. One that doesn't control you're route and allows you to see the sights and find new things to aid you on your journey at your own pace. I find exploring for exploring sake to be pretty boring, so I like a good main quest system then stumbling onto new things. (Also, who thinks that PMD would make for a great open world. Just take PMD and give it a little Breath of the Wild and you got a near perfect game.)
I love open world games as long as there's actually something to explore, if is just a big vast area of little to nothing (this includes enemy mobs special or otherwise, if it lacks even that it probably shouldn't have been in the game or they should have added a little something) that's pretty much just there for the sake of being there.
Some of my favorite elements in games are exploration and not being punished for ignoring the main quest for a while to just wander around and do the fun side quests. Open worlds usually seem to fulfill these needs for me, but I haven't played too many of them. Just Bethesda stuff and Breath of the Wild pretty much This would be my new favorite game immediately. My favorites at the moment include PMD Sky and Breath of the Wild so I can only imagine I would immediately fall in love with this
