The Open-World Genre In Gaming Has A Quantity Over Quality Problem

The open-world or free-roam genre in gaming has long been populated through the arrivals of absolute goliaths, such as the GTA franchise, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Minecraft, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and many more. However, this hasn’t always led to deep-dyed titles with a vested interest in detailed world design that does not feel shallow on the inside. 

As it would seemingly be, the industry has tried to mimic the greatness of certain open-world games that made it to the top. As a result, we’ve now arrived at a point where the genre, as we know it, is convoluted with an array of titles that don’t quite cut it.

From uninspired releases to games that simply turn out bland, developers need to focus carefully on what makes the likes of Elden Ring and Red Dead Redemption 2 great. 

Relatively Recent Open-World Games That Suffer This Issue 

Here’s a look at some of the titles in recent memory that have come out, only to deliver a subpar open-world experience, despite excelling in other facets. 

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey — the 11th mainline rendition in the series — is a gorgeous game that employs a fantastic setting and era, so where did it go wrong? The size of the map and the contents fit within are some of the major pain points associated with the game. If you’re a perfectionist who likes to take their time with the exploration, and actually determine how much the devs put effort into the title, you’re going to be disappointed. 

The enormous in-game world will quickly make it clear that outside of a few different fortresses, all of them are pretty much the same, with no distinguishing variety in between. Now if Ubisoft had taken the privilege to cut the size of the map down to its 1/4th part, we would’ve had a much better result in terms of the richness of content. 

That did not turn out to be the case, however. 

Starfield

I mean, it’s a pretty depressing situation when a game starts getting review-bombed for winning a certain award built around “innovation.” Such is the story of Starfield, the game that had seemingly made a dozen different promises prior to its launch, being Bethesda’s 25-years-in-the-making space RPG, but has unfortunately fallen flat afterward.

Fallout 76's beautiful, hand-crafted world is such a breath of fresh air after Starfield
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During my playthrough, I found Starfield essentially “boring,” but when I surfed the internet, looking into the matter, I quickly figured many others shared a similar sentiment. Huge traversal distances on foot, redundant exploration, and a feeling of lifelessness take a lot away from Starfield, even almost a year later. Is there any saving it at this point?  

Need For Speed: Payback

Payback, despite the promise of action-centric gameplay, takes a substantial nosedive in the grand scheme of things, because of how dull it treats its open-world setting as. Heck, there’s one part of the map that feels like an empty desert, with nothing to it that can make a player seem intrigued. 

Rare Gems That Deliver On All Fronts Unequivocally 

On the other hand, however, we’ve now got the following games that are out there, achieving the impossible without breaking a sweat. 

The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

This right here is a rare breed. Although The Legend of Zelda games have never failed to impress, I believe Tears of the Kingdom shifts gears like no other previous entry and goes full throttle on the immersion level. It’s a fantastic open-world title, with the exceptionally unique “Ultrahand” mechanic making things even more interesting. 

Red Dead Redemption 2

Despite being something of a long haul, Red Dead Redemption 2 has an exceptionally alive open-world setting, where you’re constantly met with the notion that even if you were to stop playing, the world inside the game would continue to work. But, of course, this is Rockstar we’re talking about. The best of the best when it comes to making titles of this genre. 

Elden Ring

FromSoftware has outdone itself with Elden Ring, its very first open-world Soulsborne game that, I promise, has not a single dull moment to offer to its players. It’s 2022’s Game of the Year not without good reason, beating God of War Ragnarok and so many others. Every corner of the title’s humongous map will surprise you with either a reward or the usual, which is a whole-sized can of butt-whooping. 

The Rundown 

In another one of my write-ups, I curated a list of low-effort open-world games that excel in other facets, but not the world design. Among those are Hogwarts Legacy, Biomutant, and even Rage 2. If anything, this should be a wake-up call for aspiring developers to tune into the requirements of a player, and go after those “wow moments” more instead of prioritizing quantity over quality. 

It’s going to be good for business as well.