Picture Source: Nintendo
A little less than
two weeks ago we got our first glance of the newest Zelda Game for
Wii-U and NX. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild truly feels
like a fresh start for the series. A truly open Hyrule, which you can
explore freely. For the first time since the First Game Myamotos
inspiration, his childhood days exploring the forests and hills
around his home, seems to come to life. Over the last couple of weeks
we have seen a lot of material of the new title and got a glimpse of
how Nintendos approach to an Open-World Game looks like. This got me
to think.
Open-World is the
get to gameplay in today market. Every successful series goes
Open-World. With varying degrees of success. The Legend of Zelda:
Breath of the Wild looks like it manages the transition quite fine
and the gameplay of a Zelda title definitely suits Open-World.
So let's take a
closer look at the Open-World style of games out there. For the next
three days I'll post my thoughts on the two basic approaches of
Open-Worlds before laying out my ideas for the future of these games
on the third day.
Today we start
with the type of Open-World that is most common in todays AAA games.
Come closer and
step right in. Welcome to
The Themepark:
Picture Source: Wikipedia
Now I admit that I
borrowed this term from the world of MMOs, but it describes these
kind of Open-World experiences quite well in my opinion. But first
what is a Themepark game.
It simply means
that the game is build like a Themepark. Lots of attractions and lots
of entertainment, but it comes at a price. Just like in Themepark
there is nothing to do between the attractions. And while you're
riding the attractions you'll follow a strict path. This creates an
on rails experience, even though the game may be Open-World. You can
clearly distinguish between what is actual content and what was just
put in as filler. What you're meant to play and what is only created
in order to fatten up the game. This creates to problem of the
Overworld feeling like a chore. Some games try to avoid this problem
by making the space between the attractions as small as possible,
thus sacrificing even more of the authenticity of their world. Around
every corner you'll find something to do. While this sounds great the
problem still lies withing the Themepark approach. Often the
attractions don't blend in very well with the world. Five enemy bases
in an area smaller than my neighborhood just isn't believable. Also
the problem of the on rails experience persists. And lastly to keep
the world huge and filled to the brim with content the developers
often use copypasted attractions. The Viewpoints in Assassins Creed
or even the enemy bases in Far Cry. Once you've seen one of them,
you've seen them all.
Another Problem of
the Themepark is that it lacks long term motivation. What do you do
after you seen all the attractions? Sure some of them may be fun
enough to justify a second ride (if possible), but in the long term
the world itself doesn't offer an incentive to play the game.
Let us now examine
the Problem of this approach on a practical subject.
Picture Source: Dillian
We'll start with
an older example. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker offered a huge
Open-World. 49 Islands and a huge ocean to explore. During the days
of the GameCube this truly seemed like an endless world. But soon it
exposed the weakness of the Themepark design. While the attractions
(Islands) were a lot of fun to explore the world between them was
not. Even if the World only serves as a way to move the player
between the unique attractions you build for your game, you need to
make the journey fun and engaging. Copy pasted Pirate lookouts are
not enough to achieve that.
Raise your hand if
you used to sail everywhere in Wind Waker. Thank you. Now sit down.
All both of you.
Picture Source: Dillian
The moment I got
the Ballad of Gales this got my go to way of crossing the Great Sea.
Granted the method of quick travel will be used eventually, no matter
how great the Overworld is, but it should at least take a while. A
good Overworld should invite you to explore it and not make you want
to swiftly skip to the next point of interest.
Like many other
games Wind Waker also tries to fill it's overworld with copy pasted
content, but that is the problem. The only part in the game where
Rubys matter is the Triforce Hunt so why should I keep fishing up
Treasure Chests? The Pirate Watchtowers are mostly ignored after you
cleared a couple of them.
The only side
activity on the Great Sea that I find fun and engaging is hunting and
killing the Big Octos.
So are Themeparks
bad then? Of course not. It's easier to create and the attractions
are almost always fun. However it also shows how useless many
Open-Worlds are. If the only reason you have an Open-World is so that
you have a space for traveling between your attractions do you really
need to be an Open-World game?
This is all for
today. So what are your thoughts on Themepark Open-Worlds? Do you
prefer them? Do you hate them? Let me know in the comments.
And as always
thanks for reading
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