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Nostalgic Freedom & Chaos

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I remember when Grand Theft Auto III finally was released and i got my first real bite of the unhealthy, delicious cake called "open world". This was back in 2001, almost 16 years ago, and of course much has changed with the once new concept. I still remember the feeling of booting up GTA to this day. The freedom was mind blowing. Going from playing traditional racing games that just followed one way tracks was all i had experienced before, now i could drive anywhere I want to, with any speed I want and over anybody I wanted to.

I did have a look of the game before getting it myself. I remember my friend calling me excited saying "I have a new game called Grand Theft Auto that you MUST come and check out". I of course ran over as fast as i could, being the little gamer i was, and i remember when i first saw him playing and all of a sudden leaving the car. I almost hit some sort of coma mode where I would just ask, while panicking , you can go out from the car?! What can you do outside of the car then?! My friend then took me on a journey thru one of the most iconic games to date, and i had never been more excited.

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Today GTA 3 might look primitive, but this was the game to play back in the day.

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"All those cars you see - they are yours for the taking if your in the mood for some car jacking".
"All the people you see are just there to be your playthings, if you want to go full psycho and massacre the city, you can!"

My friend then quickly put in the cheat code "gunsgunsguns", which gave him access to all of the weapons in the entire game at once. He then showed me how true mayhem looks, and i was just staring as he killed an entire city with rocket launchers, all while riding around in a stolen police car. My life at that moment felt complete.

I spent hundreds of hours in Liberty City during 2001, and I showed no sign of slowing down. I pretty much know every street corner in the first island just outside of LC. I can't even imagine how many times i stole that Banshee that was parked outside some shady car salesmen to then just wreck chaos in my newly found vehicle. The freedom that I found when playing Grand Theft Auto 3 was as crazy for me as someone walking into my room and just starting too magically conjure the best weed in the world right in front of me (please let there be a weed spell somewhere out there).

But now where in the future, and things are looking a bit different this time around.

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Rockstar are still kings in their own branch, without much competition.

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Rockstars of The Open World

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It's been almost 16 years and still nobody does the open-world concept as well as Rockstar does. Sure there has been studios that have been coming close to the kings, CD Projekt Red certainly is a name that pops up in that category, but when it comes to details and making the gaming world feeling alive, Rockstar still holds their reign strong. Today almost every game in the market is an "open world" game and actually I'm starting to feel a bit tired of it. Everything seems to function the same way, being built the same way and they all seem to have some sort of checklist they all need to follow when developing an digital open world.

This is a feeling i have felt boiling inside of me for quite some time. Ubisoft has certainly played their part in this, with the endless sequels of their Assassin's Creed-series together with Far Cry and Watch Dogs, they all paint the same picture just with a different frame. I'm getting tired of climbing radio-towers and observation points to "reveal the map" or "liberate a enemy camp" and i don't think I'm alone.

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Assassin's Creed: Syndicate was a great game but what I eventually remembered about it the most was how I sat for hours on end to free the different districts by making the same kind of missions over and over again.

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Let The Creativity Flow

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It's not the open world in of itself that is the problem, but rather it's the developers picture of how this genre should look like. Quantity has taken a precedent over quality, where uninspired game design and identical side-missions flourish in abundance. In my view it kills the charm that the concept of freedom originally came with.

But I can not just blame the developers for this. We, the consumers, also hold a responsibility in all of this. Take Mafia 2 for example. Here we have a game with a fantastically exciting and well-told story, with one clear motivation that keeps you entertained all thru the playtrough, and yes, it took place in an open world. I really loved that the game had one clear direction that wasn't disturbed by traditional side missions that often are - and in some regards expected - in these types of games. The total focus on the games story made me feel like i wanted to follow the life of Vito Scaletta, both the good times and the bad, and when the ending credits rolled in i almost felt like i had been on a year long journey. Mafia 2 was a linear experience in a non-linear environment, but got reviewed as a sandbox game.

Because when the game was released, we the consumers stood firm in our opinion - Mafia 2 is one hell of a game but it just has "to little things to do away from the main narrative".
"It's to short" , was the opinion of many even though many other similar games that did not receive the same criticism, some times where even shorter.

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Mafia II was examined on the basis that it was something that it really was not - a sandbox game.

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The Curse of The Open World

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Now that Mafia 3 has been released it's clear that my fears have been realized - namely that the developer team would listen to much on the small criticism 2k Czech got for it's predecessor, and has tried to shape the production around that in Mafia 3. After about 10 hours with Mafia 3 i don't really know if it's been 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years in the games story - I have just been repeating the same 2 or 3 missions over and over again and I'll be damned if this new formula for the "open world" concept won't soon stop developers feeling obligated to follow certain rules, thus repressing their own creativity. It's almost become more important with many icons on the mini-map than producing a well-polished gaming experience with a story that actually makes us feel something.

Mafia 3 is not the only victim to The Curse of The Open World, as i call it. Mirror's Edge Catalyst would probably have been a better game if Dice would have dared to walk the path of Mafia 2 - rather than the path they took - with so much hollow side-crap that you almost felt brain dead after a while, the main missions where great thou, just as a note.

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Mirror's Edge Catalyst had an awesome story and fun main missions, but the side-missions could probably have been completed by a monkey high on weed.

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Avalanches Mad Max is also another perfect example of a game suffering from The Curse of The Open World. You walk from region to region doing the same missions and tasks over and over again... It's the kind of gaming you can do with your brain shut off. And I'm not saying that these types of games does not hold a place in the market - what I am saying is that it's gone so far with the open world concept that it's basically the only experience we expect when buying a game today.

At least you won't find that boring design in Grand Theft Auto V or The Witcher 3: WIld Hunt. Sure WIld Hunt has a lot of side missions, but every one of them is tightly connected to one well done, overhanging narrative and it always feels as an organic part of the gaming world. Quantity does not need to be something negative, it only gets negative when things are being forced at the player to just waste time at without any real effort. I want to see more creative and new-thinking concepts, making games the unique piece of art that i know they can be.

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one game that certainly knows how to make side-missions feel exciting and rewarding.

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I think it's time for the old, repetitive open world-model to retire now. I want more variation, more independent thought through ideas and a bit less bullshit content in the games. It has become peculiar indeed, how the vast open world games are becoming the most repetitive ones and the more linear ones offering more variation.

So what do you guys on steemit think? Does the open world gaming concept need a complete make-over? Share your views in the comments!

Sources

1. http://www.gamersbook.com/News/Article/ID/1055/More-The-Witcher-3-Wild-Hunt-Gameplay-And-Screenshots-Released
2. https://www.shanethegamer.com/mirrors-edge-catalyst-preview/
3. http://www.gamemaza.net/2015/04/mafia-ii-pc-game-free-download.html
4. http://www.ign.com/wikis/assassins-creed-syndicate
5. http://www.avclub.com/article/do-you-suffer-open-world-anxiety-massive-games-220060
6. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rockstar.gta3
7. https://www.rockstargames.com/