Jailer of Hope
Member
Sunset Overdrive because it made me not care for fast travel.
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Favorite open world traversal this gen
- Thread starter ChouGoku
- Start date
Elfforkusu
Member
Problem I have with Xenoblade X's supposedly great world traversal is that, on foot or in a mech, fast travel is just way better. In fact, by the time you get a mech, you've unlocked the mech, you (probably) have the entire map tower'd out, making the mech a novelty apart from its combat use...
Gravity Rush 2 is another good pick, although I never got into it enough to actually enjoy the world traversal.
starchild excalibur
Member
Crackdown. I think being able to jump - as opposed to fly - led to the perfect balance of feeling like you were super human, but not so overpowered that you never had to come back down to earth.
KittenMaster
Member
For me the most effective forms of travel (which exist in BotW and Xenoblade Chronicles X) aren't necessarily the best. Nothing has yet to beat driving around with D-Walker in MGS5 in terms of how fun it is to move around and how much havoc you can cause during side ops.
Swimmer9800
Member
Breath of the Wild and Fallout 4. I absolutely love just walking around Boston and climbing and flying around Hyrule.
Xenoblade X's progression from on foot traversal, to on the ground Skell traversal, to flying is some of the best evolution of how the player explores and interacts with the world around them that I've ever seen. Both getting the Skell and getting the flight module struck me with a sense of wonder that I haven't felt at this sort of thing since hatching the bird in Dragon Quest 3. Xenoblade X made the played out "airship" concept cool and majestic and wonderful again.
Plus as a previous poster stated it's just fun to run around in the game. Movement is super fast while still having a weighty feel to it both on foot and in the Skells.
Plus as a previous poster stated it's just fun to run around in the game. Movement is super fast while still having a weighty feel to it both on foot and in the Skells.
In terms of open world playground type games with high mobility? Yeah, almost certainly.
Overall? Nah, it has very serious competition.
Malcolm9
Member
The traversal in BOTW was too boring to make it a contender personally. Having to micro manage your stamina, and then it suddenly raining halfway up another bland mountain just made it unenjoyable to me. Link is slow as hell which also makes it a chore, yes you can find certain equipment to speed up, but that's not saying much.
Just Cause 3, although flawed, has a much better traversal system with it's wing suit, parachute and grapple which makes moving around the map a lot of fun, so much in fact I never bothered using vehicles at all.
Dying Light is excellent as well, it's really easy to parkour you way around locations, which feels fun as well.
Just Cause 3, although flawed, has a much better traversal system with it's wing suit, parachute and grapple which makes moving around the map a lot of fun, so much in fact I never bothered using vehicles at all.
Dying Light is excellent as well, it's really easy to parkour you way around locations, which feels fun as well.
Breath of the Wild is good, but the poor horse mechanics drag the overall score down.
Honestly, Just Cause 3 takes it in a landslide. There has never been more fun traversal than skimming along 5 feet off the ground in a wingsuit, using a grappling hook to keep your momentum up, then unveiling your parachute to vault over a cliff, emerging into a dive, latching onto a helicopter and then zooming over some mountains in it at 240kmph. It's just glorious.
Honestly, Just Cause 3 takes it in a landslide. There has never been more fun traversal than skimming along 5 feet off the ground in a wingsuit, using a grappling hook to keep your momentum up, then unveiling your parachute to vault over a cliff, emerging into a dive, latching onto a helicopter and then zooming over some mountains in it at 240kmph. It's just glorious.
I have a PS4 Pro and the game runs just fine.
Well it was a Wii U game...
Magic Mushroom
Member
Probably BotW. It's really rewarding. Almost everything is interactive and it rewards experimentation, with people building improvised cars and flying machines and coming up with ways to launch themselves onto towers and the like.
Also, gliding is a lot of fun.
Also, gliding is a lot of fun.
Omotesando
Member
i love the things you mention in your post as well in the Witcher 3, but that is not on merit of the traversing, not at all. It is clunky, sometimes poorly animated, driven by the worst camera ever, getting stuck in obstacles, getting in and out of the boat makes me wanna puke, etc etc.
Traversing is easily one of the worst parts of the Witcher 3, and that game has a lot of flawes.
Breath of the Wild. Played Horizon before and after BotW. Before it was man this game is buttery smooth. After it was getting stuck on random knee-high scenery while being one shot by machines the game. Any open world that doesn't let you easily scale and descend from anything you see is immediately ruined for me.
CortexVortex
Banned
BotW easily.
ChronotriggerJM
Member
Gotta be Second Son to me. Each power felt so unique 
Loved the smoke ability that scaled buildings instantly, turning it into a glide, then right into another vent. Soooo damn good.
Loved the smoke ability that scaled buildings instantly, turning it into a glide, then right into another vent. Soooo damn good.
ResidentDante
Member
Sunset Overdrive and Infamous: Second Son. Both made traversal just fun and exciting. I just didn't mind travelling distances in those games!
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
Why do people keep saying this? The horse mechanics are fantastic. It takes like 5 minutes to adjust to them.
ChronotriggerJM
Member
BOTW sounds like it strikes a good balance between grounded and whimsical in regards to traversal mechanics. Other games that are a little more serious in nature need to find interesting ways to make world exploration fun. The tools nature in Zelda lend itself well to traversal mechanics.
This shouldn't be a surprise, it came out on a console which sold extremely poorly.
I'm gonna go with BOTW for the outstanding climbing, ISS for Neon funtimes and Sunset Overdrive for the joy of leaping and grinding over everything while blowing stuff up with exploding teddybears.
shenmue mugen
Member
Breath of the Wild by a large margin.
Anyone said Mirror's Edge Catalyst yet? It's the only real answer imo.
Other games can make traversal less boring but it's always just going to be traveling from one piece of interesting content to the next. Traversal pretty much is the entire game in ME.
Not once did i fast travel in Catalyst, running between missions was half the fun for me.
Other games can make traversal less boring but it's always just going to be traveling from one piece of interesting content to the next. Traversal pretty much is the entire game in ME.
Not once did i fast travel in Catalyst, running between missions was half the fun for me.
ferrasvansen
Member
BotW and Fallout 4 for me so far, love exploring both worlds.
+1 for Sunset Overdrive. It's got the best moment to moment traversal in an open world game.
Not surprised to see so much BotW because it could win best FPS right now, and I love it, but Link clomps around so slowly on foot. The climbing and gliding is great, but the terrible horse movement and trudging movement on foot disqualify it here for me.
Not surprised to see so much BotW because it could win best FPS right now, and I love it, but Link clomps around so slowly on foot. The climbing and gliding is great, but the terrible horse movement and trudging movement on foot disqualify it here for me.
Damn Silly
Member
Mirror's Edge Catalyst and Sunset Overdrive. Never cared about fast travel in either because I had a lot of fun just making my way from place to place.
I imagine Crackdown 3 will join them when it releases, considering how fun 1+2 were.
I imagine Crackdown 3 will join them when it releases, considering how fun 1+2 were.
I couldn't get past the first 1% in Horizon after Zelda. So very, very backwards in design. A damn shame I bought it.
This x1000. No other game this gen so far came close in terms of movement options and style, which is why I am really excited to see what they'll do for Spider-Man.
I admit I totally forgot you could even fast travel and I beat the game.
Majmun
Member
There's a difference between exploration and traversal...
If BotW had a hookshot, then maybe it would be great at the traversal part. Climbing and running is soooooo slow in the game. Couple that with the stamnia bar...nope. Traversal can become a chore in the game.
Dying Light, Xenoblade X, Gravity Rush, Infamous SS, Just Cause 3, Crackdown, Protoype..all have better traversal methods, and more fun ones too.
To me, the traversal in Saint's Row 4 is the most fun one.
If BotW had a hookshot, then maybe it would be great at the traversal part. Climbing and running is soooooo slow in the game. Couple that with the stamnia bar...nope. Traversal can become a chore in the game.
Dying Light, Xenoblade X, Gravity Rush, Infamous SS, Just Cause 3, Crackdown, Protoype..all have better traversal methods, and more fun ones too.
To me, the traversal in Saint's Row 4 is the most fun one.
actthafool
Member
Infamous SS for me, just zooming around and up buildings with fully levelled neon powers is so much fun
Garrett Hawke
Member
Gravity Rush 2, Breast of the Wild, and Mirror's Edge Catalyst.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
.
The sense of freedom is completely unmatched by anything else I've played. BotW is truly open-world in a way I've never seen before.
EDIT: Except for maybe Gravity Rush, which is also a good pick. I haven't played 2 yet though.
How far are you in BotW? There are abilities and gear later in the game that made traversal fast and even trivial.
As for the topic, BotW changed the paradigm for open world traversal going forward. Any future open world game that does not allow for vertical traversal or the ability to overcome vertical obstacles will get point deduction from me.
Summer Haze
Banned
It's a toss up between Arkham Knight and Dying Light for me. It never gets old launching yourself out of the batmobile and gliding hundreds of meters across the city.
