Summary
The open worldgame has become quite popular in recent years, and it’s not hard to see why. The idea of building an engaging world and letting the player freely interact with it can be an excellent selling point. While it doesn’t always work perfectly, and some players have started to feel the genre is a bit overused, it can’t be denied that this format has produced some amazing games. TheAssassin’s Creedseries has long been characterized by the opportunity to explore detailed reconstructions of historical settings. Games likeAvatar: Frontiers of Pandoraallow the player to immerse themselves in the fictional worlds of popular franchises. When done right, an open world can be incredible.
Some popular game franchises did not start as open worlds, but made the transition with varying results.Ghost Recon: Wildlandswas well-received, but the series stumbled withBreakpoint. The attempt to experiment with an open world inHalo: Infinitewas not as well received as many hoped. 2018’sGod of Warproved a huge hit, with fans loving the sequelRagnorakeven more. With open worlds becoming more popular, there are still some popular games that could have some great success experimenting with the format. Some even start to dip their toes in, but have not yet gone all the way.
Arkane’s series of stealth gamesalready has the makings of a pretty good open world, even if it’s never gone all the way. From the very first game, players were introduced to a lore-rich setting, and all four campaigns include no shortage of opportunities for players to explore different parts of the world and further immerse themselves. However, the series has never really been an open-world. While the player isn’t set on a fixed path, the games have consistently been structured around being confined to one location for each level, with a single objective. Even the sidequests often serve to provide a means of accomplishing the main goal.
While this format has produced some excellent games, a fully open-worldDishonoredcould really add a whole new level of depth to its already engaging world. A particularly ambitious game could open up the whole empire, maybe introducing some nautical mechanics, but it wouldn’t evenneedto be that big. Just making an open world out of Dunwall or Karnaca would be pretty amazing, or they could situate the player in a new location.
Gears of Warfollows an ongoing war between humans and an underground race known as the locusts, but beneath what initially looks like a straightforward run-and-gun action game is a complex narrative about how humanity is doomed by its own violent nature. No matter how many times the protagonists seem to win, it only sets the stage for another even more brutal war, and the best anyone can do is come out the other side in one piece. These themes were further reinforced as the lore became a lot more developed, revealing Sera (a fictional analog to Earth)has a long history of wars leading to more wars. This is the kind of setting that an open-world game could explore on a whole new level.
A fully open world would offer room to explore the many levels of Sera’s history, including getting into some major events like the Pendulum Wars (a conflict often discussed but only seen once). It would also be an excellent way to show the devastation caused by Sera’s many wars.
Ironically, for a game inspired byFallout(a well-known series of open-world games), theMetroseries didn’t really start to open up untilExodus. The first two games had some justification, being set largely in narrow subway tunnels. This is unfortunate since thegames feature a very interesting post-apocalyptic world, even more so afterExodusmoved out of the Metro and began to show a variety of different environments and characters shaped by the aftermath of nuclear war. Although not a fully open world,Exodusdid give its player character free reign to explore each region he visits by way of a train. A full open world could go one step further by making the transition seamless.
An open-worldMetrogame could bring together the various settings ofExodus, and still leave room to explore post-apocalyptic Moscow and the metro from its predecessors. This would certainly allow a more varied experience but also an opportunity to better explore the different storylines of each location in more detail, maybe even having some of them cross over.
Nintendo already has a decent amount of experience with open worldsthanks to the last fewLegend of Zeldagames andSuper Mario Odyssey, which have generally been well-received, so it wouldn’t be a huge stretch to try it with their cult classic franchise. TheMetroidseries was already full of detailed lore, and it’s become known for its non-linear recursive maps that encourage exploration (so much so the genre of “Metroidvania” was partially named after it). These are the kinds of mechanics that could lend themselves nicely to an open world full of puzzles, strange encounters, and ruthless pirates that need to be stopped. Many players would love an opportunity to freely explore Chozo ruins.
A Metroid open world could go in a few directions. One approach be to do something similar to theZeldagames where Samus is placed on a single planet which she’s free to explore. However, if Nintendo’s feeling more ambitious, they could go the route ofStar Wars Outlawsand try to include several planets the player can move between, maybe putting the open world across a Solar System. Either way it would make a pretty memorable and innovative experience for one of the most popular video game characters.
The popular series of action/puzzle games has typically followed archaeologist Lara Croft and her adventures as she pursues ancient artifacts and historical mysteries, but most of the games have been pretty linear. Up untilUnderworld, most of them had Lara following a set path directly leading from one puzzle to the next, with each level taking place in a different country.RiseandShadowstarted to border on open-world. They focused on a single setting, gave the player specific areas they could explore at their own pace, sidequests, and optional tombs. While this offered a lot more room to explore the rich history and culture of the setting, a full open world could do so much more.
The logical approach for an open-worldTomb Raiderwould be to pick a location with lots of ancient ruins and give Lara room to move freely, possibly similar to theAssassin’s Creedseries.There are plenty of possible options: Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Mesoamerica. An open world would also work well with a lot of the survival mechanics already included in the games,
