I think that depends, because while many games will offer the option to turn off informations, if these games were designed with these informations in mind, the games won't be as playable without them, and could become unnecessarily tedious. Like if you turn off informations but the world itself doesn't give you any clues on where to go with clever level design etc, it won't work well.Are there options to turn off/reduce the information on screen?
I don't like a cluttered mess like the pic in the OP, but if the game offers me the choice to reduce what information is displayed, then it doesn't matter what the default it.
have you tried playing horizon with hud elements turned off?Well, to be fair. She is wearing a high-tech earpiece that (somehow) shows her augmented reality on her status and surrounding information.
The good thing about HUDs in modern games are that they have a HUD settings area that you can choose to turn things off. But that wouldn't make a good tweet:
I just finished playing Outriders, and they also have a very good HUD settings panel:
I am one who likes a lot of information on my HUD, but I appreciate that the developers allows you to customize the HUD to your taste.
have you tried playing horizon with hud elements turned off?
giving the option does not make its plausible. if therr was an option to make enemies invisible, you could do it but its wouldnt serve the game well
Well, to be fair. She is wearing a high-tech earpiece that (somehow) shows her augmented reality on her status and surrounding information.
The good thing about HUDs in modern games are that they have a HUD settings area that you can choose to turn things off. But that wouldn't make a good tweet:
I just finished playing Outriders, and they also have a very good HUD settings panel:
I am one who likes a lot of information on my HUD, but I appreciate that the developers allows you to customize the HUD to your taste.
That was just my problem with Horizon coming directly from Breath of the wild.
I found it unplayable without hud. Game world is not designed to be read without icons. Breath of the wild has a ton of landmarks (mountains, specific ruins or rocks, the position of the volcano related to the castle that makes that you always know where the north is...). Horizon without hud is unplayable because you can't know the direction you must follow only seeing the scenario.I'm not sure I follow?
Horizon is 100% playable with no HUD.
That's a fair criticism regarding the game world, but (at least for waypoints) it is possible to turn on the hud briefly on the fly, just to check directions, and then move on.I found it unplayable without hud. Game world is not designed to be read without icons. Breath of the wild has a ton of landmarks (mountains, specific ruins or rocks, the position of the volcano related to the castle that makes that you always know where the north is...). Horizon without hud is unplayable because you can't know the direction you must follow only seeing the scenario.
That's true and I ended playing it in that way. I wish all games has that option to play without hud and then, only pressing a key, the hud appears briefly.That's a fair criticism regarding the game world, but (at least for waypoints) it is possible to turn on the hud briefly on the fly, just to check directions, and then move on.
Not an optimal solution for world design, but an elegant one for interface design.
This is true. And also why Breath of the Wild was so well designed.I think that depends, because while many games will offer the option to turn off informations, if these games were designed with these informations in mind, the games won't be as playable without them, and could become unnecessarily tedious. Like if you turn off informations but the world itself doesn't give you any clues on where to go with clever level design etc, it won't work well.
I also played Breath Of The Wild with the Pro mode to have almost no hud, and it was indeed an amazing experience, I'm usually not really into nintendo games, but this was one of the best open world experiences I ever had. I tried to convice other people to play it with the pro mode but no one would which most likely made the experience a bit less unique for them, because they followed a gps, instead of learning the world.This is true. And also why Breath of the Wild was so well designed.
I turned off the minimap and other HUD elements in that game, and I enjoyed it so much more than if I had that UI telling me where to go and such. The game world led me places, I used the game world and landmarks to make my own waypoints within the world.
I enjoyed that game way more than I would have if I kept the HUD on.
This leads me to believe that all that UI clutter should be the option you need to tick rather than be the default. If these games defaulted to barebones UI with options to add more assistance like minimap, quest markers etc, I feel like they would be even better
Thank you. Indeed. Ghost is an example of how to do a HUD right.Popping in here to state that Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor has the worst User Interface I've had the displeasure of encountering in a videogame.
I say this as someone who is normally not bothered by games with UIs in general, but SoM's was just obnoxious in how it clutters up the screen with so much shit. It actually put me off playing the game for awhile.
Perhaps though, I've been spoiled by the sleek and minimalist UI of Ghost of Tsushima;
... but that's still no excuse for how sloppy Mordor's was. Hopefully more games in the future don't make the same mistake in their design.
Saw this on twitter from an indie dev and must say didn't really think of it as an issue until they showed the blacked out comparison. Probably suits Horizon quite well given the open/flat nature of the map as well.