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[Alphahawk]

So I just bought No Man's Sky and one of the biggest issues so far for me is that there's no quick travel-sometimes you are traveling like 9 mins on foot with very little to do, so this made me think of other games with detrimentilly large enviornments.

The best example is probably Fuel-the devs kinda realized that the open game world was too huge to travel comfortably so they made everything selectible from a menu from the start, which kinda negates the point of even having an open world in the first place.

What are some other examples?

 

[adamsapple]

Dragon Age Inquisition. The fucking Hinterlands.

It's not a matter of not being able to fast travel, it's just that there's way too many small fetch quests that keep people occupied, a lot of people spent HOURS and HOURS there without even leaving to another zone, which ultimately ended up souring the experience for a lot of people.

 

[Zornack]

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Especially that one damn desert map in the lateish game. Was bored of the game, got to that map and quit.

 

[The Cartographer]

L.A. Noire? L.A. Noire.

 

[Y2Kev]

Dragon Age: Inquisition. Just big open expansive nothingness. I am pretty sure Mass Effect is going to be bad based on this! But think of all the focus testing.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

Metal Gear Solid V.

So much wasted time getting to mission areas. The mission areas were great, but there was no need for it to be open world vs just having big mission areas with multiple approaches.

 

[Bessy67]

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Especially that one damn desert map in the lateish game. Was bored of the game, got to that map and quit.

Yeah Hissing Wastes were pretty needlessly huge and sparse which was a shame because it had some of the best loot and most interesting lore of any section of the game.

 

[roxaloxa]

Final Fantasy 13's Gran Pulse. You spend 50 hours begging for an open area instead of a hallway and then it's actually worse somehow when you finally get it.

 

[jediyoshi]

Dragon Age Inquisition. The fucking Hinterlands.

It's not a matter of not being able to fast travel, it's just that there's way too many small fetch quests that keep people occupied, a lot of people spent HOURS and HOURS there without even leaving to another zone, which ultimately ended up souring the experience for a lot of people.

Funny how they over compensated for Dragon Age 2's copy paste design by making more world than anyone cared for.

 

[Hitokiri03]

Tales of Xillia and his sequel.

 

[sn00zer]

I'd be hard pressed to say any game where large environments did it a favor. Across the board, smaller, but denser environments are my preferred game type.

 

[Maintenance]

Mafia II.

 

[Tye The Czar]

No More Heroes. All you did was go from landmark to landmark and collect items.

 

[Elandyll]

Love DAI, but, yeah...

That and the inane Power mechanic were to me the only major drawbacks you have to plan your play sessions around.

 

[RPGam3r]

DA:I had great environments, and ME going that way would be a positive.

 

[Shaanyboi]

No More Heroes. All you did was go from landmark to landmark and collect items.

Sadly true. I really loved No More Heroes but the open world serves no purpose. It's not why you're playing.

 

[jonjonaug]

A few of Banjo-Tooie's levels were way bigger than they had any need to be. Terrydactyland in particular is the worst.

Regarding Dragon Age: Inquisition, other than the Hinterlands and the Storm Coast I think the rest of the areas were well designed. I even liked the Hissing Wastes. It had vast and empty expanses, but I feel like the map made good use of that empty space by using it to have large landmarks visible from a long distance and a few fun events chaining the area together (Blackwall's story about being stranded in the desert and meeting the wandering Chantrywoman come to mind).

 

[Stallion Dan]

Dragon Age Inquisition. The fucking Hinterlands.

It's not a matter of not being able to fast travel, it's just that there's way too many small fetch quests that keep people occupied, a lot of people spent HOURS and HOURS there without even leaving to another zone, which ultimately ended up souring the experience for a lot of people.

There is fast travel.

Anyway, MGSV.

 

[GamerJM]

I'd be hard pressed to say any game where large environments did it a favor. Across the board, smaller, but denser environments are my preferred game type.

This is pretty much my opinion, with the Wind Waker being the only exception to it.

 

[oneofthose]

Burnout Paradise

 

[epmode]

Dragon Age Inquisition. The fucking Hinterlands.

It's not a matter of not being able to fast travel, it's just that there's way too many small fetch quests that keep people occupied, a lot of people spent HOURS and HOURS there without even leaving to another zone, which ultimately ended up souring the experience for a lot of people.

The entire game is a slog, not just the Hinterlands.

 

[Alphahawk]

This is pretty much my opinion, with the Wind Waker being the only exception to it.

Actually, come to mention it, I would also mention Windwaker as a game where the enviornment was too big. Sailing to all those little islands got tiring quicklunch especially since you had to play a song just to change directions.

 

[Maintenance]

ME going anywhere near DA:I is a massive downgrade in absolute every single way. But obviously that's what's gonna happen.

 

[HeeHo]

Final Fantasy 13's Gran Pulse. You spend 50 hours begging for an open area instead of a hallway and then it's actually worse somehow when you finally get it.

Ha, good answer. In hindsight, even though I was excited by Gran Pulse, it seems very, very boring now.

I don't think MGSV is a good answer for this. Nothing is very far away and there are plenty of transportation options. The only annoying thing about the open design was when the helicopter had to take you back to the mission select screen, when in reality, you may have just wanted the chopper to take you to the next available mission.

 

[Yiazmat]

Xenoblade 1. It was amazing for the first 10 hours but after the honeymoon phase ended the environments just became a chore to get through. And it seemed to me that the areas were getting bigger and bigger. (I never actually finished it)

 

[DedValve]

Alien isolation really suffers from having Sevastopol being so big whereas I thought if it was the size of the Spencer mansion and have more backtracking a little been way more entertaining it still A great game though . Also Batman Arkham night and Arkham city was way too big and not nearly as interesting as asylum .

 

[| Praxis |]

As much as I love the game, Altis is far too big in Arma 3 for most game modes.

 

[spliced]

For me most of them.

The big boring runway that is Ash Lake in Dark Souls.
Tedious sailing of Wind Waker.
The endless marathon of Morrowind.

I think big environments provide a more impactful spectacle, but for gameplay they're usually a negative.

 

[His Majesty]

Darksiders 2 has a relatively large size and it serves nearly no purpose at all.

 

[hoggert]

Lospass Island in Flower, Sun and Rain.

I understand that was the point of the game: running this way and that along a never ending road just for the sake of it. Hell, the game breaks the fourth wall constantly, and even mocks you for putting up with the huge ass island and the shitty fetch quests. Shame since all the meta-ness just felt like the designers rubbing it in and making you question your life choices by playing earlier p & c (or command based) titles.

 

[Myriadis]

As much as I love Tales Of Zestiria, most maps feel like they are made for the quickest running speed which you have to slowly build up through battles and eavesdropping on conversations. Bad design choice there.

Metal Gear Solid V.

So much wasted time getting to mission areas. The mission areas were great, but there was no need for it to be open world vs just having big mission areas with multiple approaches.

I can see that if we would have way more diversive mission areas then, but otherwise no.
Seeing the open area and always restricting you to a area is a fairly big fun breaker for me. Especially since you can always go to the ACC instantly with the main menu.

 

[James Scott]

MGSV since the open world was kind of empty and the fast travel wasn't good.
Twilight Princess didn't do much with its world either.
I imagine a lot of games aren't made better due to their big world

 

[Calabi]

Witcher 3.

There really was no need for all these huge areas with lots question marks that usually contained junk(especially on Skelliger).

 

[LotusHD]

Imo every game that wants to be open world or w/e needs a really fast method of transportation, and I'm not talking fast travel.

 

[ibyea]

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Which I hate to say because the horse battles were great, but other than that I am hard pressed to think of the benefits, since all it did was make travel time longer.

 

[Stiler]

Dragon's Dogma (Original release).

Large open world where you had to constantly travel back and fourth to towns, there was no mode of faster travel (IE mounts) and the only mode of fast travel was limited and something you got much later in the game.

 

[Knuckle Sandwich]

L.A. Noir. Wow cool you recreated Los Angeles but there's nothing to fucking do. Game would have been great if it chopped the open world.

 

[Wolf Akela]

Devil May Cry 2
Kingdom Hearts: DDD

Huge ass repetitive and boring looking environments. The size and lack of interaction makes them feel even more lifeless.

 

[Oblivion]

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Which I hate to say because the horse battles were great, but other than that I am hard pressed to think of the benefits, since all it did was make travel time longer.

This.

Before the game came out, I was dying to have Hyrule Field be as massive as possible. But upon playing it, there was really no upside to having such huge, sprawling land. It was the game that made me realize that bigger doesn't always mean better.

Wind Waker suffered for similar reasons, but at least the sea appeared way more fun to traverse.

 

[RPGam3r]

Outside of NMS I don't think I'll agree with anyone here. I like open worlds and love the direction for most games. I love the scale, the grandeur, the travel etc.

 

[Dizzy]

GTA IV and a lot of other open world games.

I want to play a mission but have to drive across the boring city again for 10 minutes just to start it. I finished the mission and want to save the game, now I have to drive another 10 minutes just to reach the safehouse. I want to stock up on bodyarmour and ammo before the next mission, another 10 minute drive. Repeat this throughout the game.


They tried to fix this a bit later in the expansions, being able to save anywhere and call for ammo etc

But I don't get why you can't just call someone on the phone to start a mission like in Saint's Row, but then at least have the damn game teleport you to where the mission starts rather than forcing you to drive there. I just want to progress the story, driving from A to B everytime gets old after you've done it in the previous 100 open world games you played.

 

[Masterspeed]

The God damn Divison.

I know you can fast travel, but other than that It's so much walking in a barren city. I know the city is supposed to be barren and stuff, but the lack of things to do other than kill a small group to then move on really, really drained me.

It was just...empty

 

[Diprosalic]

Outside of NMS I don't think I'll agree with anyone here. I like open worlds and love the direction for most games. I love the scale, the grandeur, the travel etc.

You should checkout Desert Bus.
Not really open world but the world is huge!

 

[Raonak]

DMC2 - bigger environments just made the flat geometery more apparent and the extra space was usually empty.

MGSV - the open space served no purpose besides an easy getaway.

 

[UraMallas]

Killzone Shadow Fall

The levels were too wide open. Doom did the objective-based FPS gameplay right.

 

[Jonneh3003]

MGSV had no business being as large as it was. It didn't benefit anything.

 

[Sub_Level]

The bases in MGSV were good but the stuff in between was fairly inconsequential.

 

[Conkerkid11]

Phantom Pain. Ground Zeroes was better.

Destiny and The Division as well. Everything in between objective locations had no purpose.

Wind Waker. Doesn't help that any exploration you do is likely to result in more rupees. Rupees are a terrible reward.

 

[RK9039]

MGSV.

It was more lifeless and dull than the wasteland in Mad Max.

 

[120v]

i know i'm in the minority with this one but... witcher 3

never been overwhelmed by a game world's size before but this took the cake. wouldn't call it a "detriment" per se but once those quest markers added up, hoo boy