Comment on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — 10th Anniversary Trailer
who@feddit.org 7 hours agoIt depends on what aspects of an open world are important to you.
Exploration is at the top of my list, and Skyrim is a good example of doing it well. Its world is full of unique things to find, whether through an NPC’s directions, or a roughly sketched map picked up while adventuring, or by following your curiosity toward an area that looks interesting, or simply by wandering off the beaten path.
Map markers appear after you’ve already been somewhere, so you can find it again, but since most of them remain hidden until then, they don’t spoil the experience of discovery.
And, when you find something, it’s often genuinely interesting. Not yet another copy/paste monster fight or “hold the button to follow your witcher sense to the lost item” quest.
Mind, I have criticisms of Skyrim as well, but it did environments and exploration very well, and I wish more open world designers would learn from it and build upon its strengths.
Hadriscus@lemm.ee 5 hours ago
I feel CP2077 does great with regard to storytelling and exploration (plenty of nooks and crannies in and around Night City), wildlife is nonexistant though. A Witcher game played in first-person would be cool though.
who@feddit.org 4 hours ago
I think my favorite part of Cyberpunk 2077’s open world was that it was full of activity. The encounter variety might be a little disappointing, but I was impressed with how they made the city feel dense and populated. It was much more convincing than the miniature towns full of locked doors and fake windows that are passed off as “cities” in so many other games.
Hadriscus@lemm.ee 2 hours ago
My disbelief was suspended as well