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For those of you who enjoy open-world games, how big of a world is too big? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/games@lemmy.world
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There are already some huge maps out there, Just Cause 2 and 3 both have maps at around 1000km^2^, and those games are beloved by their players. But if the next Cyberpunk game was announced with Night City now being the size of an actual large metropolis, say like New York, would you say that's too big? What determines what "too big" is?

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[–] 7 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Basically, how much of the world is interesting/fun.

For example, Fallout 3 doesn't do a great job of this, as much of the world is baren with no story or gameplay. Half of the world feels like it could be cut out without much loss. The Yakuza games on the other hand, have smaller worlds but they feel massive and fun because there's always something to do moments away.

The work-around is to make travel fun, so the "empty-space" is just more gameplay. The Just Cause games are the perfect example of this. All the movement mechanics are quick and satisfying, from the grapple and parachute, to the driving, to the OP wingsuit.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    For example, Fallout 3 doesn't do a great job of this, as much of the world is baren with no story or gameplay. Half of the world feels like it could be cut out without much loss. The Yakuza games on the other hand, have smaller worlds but they feel massive and fun because there's always something to do moments away.

    On the other hand, the world of Fallout 4 feels very cramped; you can't go 5 meters without encouraging something. Bethesda's games are interesting in this aspect – the worlds of different games are built similarly, but they differ in some small parameters (as in the density of Fallout 4), so they're ripe for comparison.

    Personally, I feel there were two peaks in Bethesda's worlds – Morrowind and Skyrim. Both for different reasons.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    As a Morrowind enjoyer, I find Skyrim to be too shallow. There's 7 weapons in the game, 7 spells, and nothing really to do.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I was mostly only thinking about Skyrim's world. Skyrim as a whole has many flaws.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yeah, looking at it in a strictly dungeon distribution lens it's actually pretty solid, and I find it feels a little crowded when you mod in more locations. I guess world distribution is the one thing they actually got right.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I would argue that Fallout 3's map is ridiculously tiny.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    It has been a little while since I last played it, but I found that scale-wise, it felt small (I'm guessing this is what you mean) with major locations too close together, but content-wise, it felt sparse, empty and ultimately pretty boring, which was the much bigger issue in my enjoyment.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    A wasteland that one can throw a stone across doesn't feel like much of a wasteland to me. I don't want realism, just big enough that I can suspend my disbelief. I want to get immersed but a "town" with six people isn't a godsdamned town.

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