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Forums - Gaming Discussion - what open world games still haven't got right?

I love open world games. Gta vice city is one of my favorite games of all time. I love the freedom that open world games bring,but most of the side stuff get's repetitive after awhile,and lacks variety. Gta has come the closest to fixing this,but even gta games get boring,once I finish the main story. I dream of an endless supply of side quest and activities,once the main story is done. I also  want the enviroment to feel more alive in open world games,not just a bunch of dead space. My last thing would be a variety of different places to explore and not just the same buildings over and over. I still love open world games,but these are just my own personal minor nitpicks. thoughts?



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Skyrim has a ton of stuff to do, including missions created dynamically so you never run out of stuff to do. But those missions aren't very fun to play, and the world doesn't feel like it's truly alive otherwise. I mean, people do different stuff at different times and all, but they do it in a very scripted manner. That said, I don't think I've yet played a game whose world really feels alive.



I'd like more long range goals and challenges. I just beat Far Cry: Blood Dragon yesterday (again) and there is literally nothing left to do after you finish the main quest. Worse, there are far less enemies than before. Give me dynamic and difficult camps of enemies that never go away. Have random bounties with random elite units scattered around the map.



I think every open world game should have some sort of base or something similar that can be upgraded into oblivion. Or even just stuff about your character. Obviously some games do offer this, but largely you always run out of stuff to do eventually in this type of game. There's nothing left to spend your money on. They need some sort of just...THING that can be upgraded ridiculously so that no matter what, it's always worth playing and making more money because it's all going to something, even if it's not something necessary.

Also in open world RPG's, there should NEVER be a level cap. When I reached my cap in Fallout 3 was when I stopped playing because now there was no reason to fight guys because it would only waste time. I want to feel like I'm making my character at least marginally stronger at all times. It's sort of silly, but that kind of constant, slow progression is what makes this type of game satisfying to me. I feel like I'm getting something done.



Sense of scale, "epic" conflicts are just ridiculous when the enemy is camped behind a bush 100 feet south of the city walls and their entire army consists of 20 men or so (Skyrim being the most obvious offender here).
World that makes sense inhabited by NPC's and citizens who do realistic things; people in GTA just walk around the street all day or drive around, I once followed a car for what amounted to an entire day in GTA V, just to see where she was going. She wasn't going anywhere, she just drove in an erratic pattern with no destination in mind.
Oblivion, Skyrim and even The Witcher 3 have the same problem; people just loaf about and do nothing, repeating the same sentences and conversations over and over, many times for weeks or months on end.
Ridiculous AI moments like in Fallout 3 where the AI range was shorter than that of your sniper rifle, meaning you could shoot someone's skull off while they were engaged in their perpetually repeating conversation, entirely without the person they're talking to reacting at all, I've had NPC's say "Okay, so long!" to a ravaged corpse lying before their feet.
Or how about when I killed a dragon in Riverrun in Skyrim and the bones were left lying in the streets, when I traveled out of town and later returned via quick travel; the dragon skeleton bounced up suddenly and squashed a city guard, his colleague ran up to me right away and said; "Do you know anything about this?!" in an accusatory tone.

There are a bunch of problems with open world games, most of which will likely not be fixed in a long time since they're such complex things, but some are down to laziness or uninspired writing as well.



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Infamous and Far Cry. Not that they're not that good just asking for a bigger change in their game as they make a sequel. Though I think Far Cry Primal is a very nice new sequel of Far Cry cause they're really trying something new and big in it.



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Mummelmann said:
Ridiculous AI moments like in Fallout 3 where the AI range was shorter than that of your sniper rifle, meaning you could shoot someone's skull off while they were engaged in their perpetually repeating conversation, entirely without the person they're talking to reacting at all, I've had NPC's say "Okay, so long!" to a ravaged corpse lying before their feet.
Or how about when I killed a dragon in Riverrun in Skyrim and the bones were left lying in the streets, when I traveled out of town and later returned via quick travel; the dragon skeleton bounced up suddenly and squashed a city guard, his colleague ran up to me right away and said; "Do you know anything about this?!" in an accusatory tone.

Lol, that's just Bethesda games being Bethesda games.



The Witcher 3 got it right, absolutely amazing open world imo.



Mummelmann said:
Sense of scale, "epic" conflicts are just ridiculous when the enemy is camped behind a bush 100 feet south of the city walls and their entire army consists of 20 men or so (Skyrim being the most obvious offender here).
World that makes sense inhabited by NPC's and citizens who do realistic things; people in GTA just walk around the street all day or drive around, I once followed a car for what amounted to an entire day in GTA V, just to see where she was going. She wasn't going anywhere, she just drove in an erratic pattern with no destination in mind.
Oblivion, Skyrim and even The Witcher 3 have the same problem; people just loaf about and do nothing, repeating the same sentences and conversations over and over, many times for weeks or months on end.
Ridiculous AI moments like in Fallout 3 where the AI range was shorter than that of your sniper rifle, meaning you could shoot someone's skull off while they were engaged in their perpetually repeating conversation, entirely without the person they're talking to reacting at all, I've had NPC's say "Okay, so long!" to a ravaged corpse lying before their feet.
Or how about when I killed a dragon in Riverrun in Skyrim and the bones were left lying in the streets, when I traveled out of town and later returned via quick travel; the dragon skeleton bounced up suddenly and squashed a city guard, his colleague ran up to me right away and said; "Do you know anything about this?!" in an accusatory tone.

There are a bunch of problems with open world games, most of which will likely not be fixed in a long time since they're such complex things, but some are down to laziness or uninspired writing as well.


This. I really wanted that feel of being in a massive battle when I was playing Skyrim. Like, hundreds of men, many of them on horses charging against eachother, Lord of The Rings style.