Most overrated game of the past gen?

[Fight-the-Streets]

SvennoJ said:

shikamaru317 said:

I just prefer a more structured exploration, with lots of side quests and main quests that help you explore the many different parts of an open world map. It's also why I didn't really like Ark, or No Man's Sky, or Sea of Thieves, or Animal Crossing. I need more structure in a game, these sandbox, do-anything-you-want-with-little-to-no-story games just don't do it for me.

Horizon was really good, but definitely had a few issues that held it back imo. Story seemed a bit unbelievable at times, not quite enough side quests, combat had a few kinks to work out for the sequel. Also had a lot going for it though. Great graphics, nice soundtrack, most unique enemy designs of just about any game I ever played, combat was mostly good, good main characters. Definitely looking forward to the sequel. 

Ha, I guess I'm the opposite. All those ? marks on the map stress me out as well as a huge to do list of side quests. I rather explore on my own and discover things by finding them instead of following a marker. In Death Stranding, I ignored all the quests at he start of Chapter 3 and set off exploring the entire map on foot first. It was epic. I did the same with RDR2, spend days trying to find a way to sneak into the locked area by water. Elite Dangerous, roam around the galaxy and now I'm roaming around the world in FS2020.

Hence TW3, not my favorite, feels like chore. Same as Ass Creed ? mark games. Fallout works better for me, more stuff to find in the environment instead of collecting a bunch of todo's from a quest npc or mission board.

Games need to have a fixed map to explore though. NMS was fun for a while yet the procedural generation got old fast. After I had exhausted the story lines I was done with it. I got burned out on Elite Dangerous as well. The Galaxy is very close to the real thing, yet the contents are all procedural generation. It still lasted me about 5 months. Death Stranding and BotW style maps is what works for me. And currently Earth.

The free exploration and not having a to-do-list is what made BotW great for me. I really dislike open worlds with hundreds of side-quests and missions from NPC's (usually generic take-and-bring or go-there-and-kill missions). In my opinion it destroys the very meaning of an open world. An open world is there to explore and discover things, not knowing what comes next. If you just have a to-do-list of main quests and side-quests scattered around a map, to me it feels then like a standard (non-open world) game where you complete one mission after another until you beat the final boss incl. optional missions with the only difference that instead of having a hub-base (where you buy things, upgrade, talk with people, etc. and select the next mission) the different missions are connected on map where you can move around freely. But then again, in this typical to-do-list open world games this free space is mostly filled with uninteresting emptiness. In BotW there's also lots of empty space but the fact that you never know what comes next makes these empty space actually one of the strengths of the game. In other words, the exact same empty space can be fantastically immersive or just boring and uninteresting, just depending on how the direction of the game is set.

I also second that (for me) an open world needs to have a set map. It's not necessary to see the whole map right from the beginning and it can be interesting that there are hidden places that will never appear on the map, you have to find them. But a limitless space like in No Man's Sky or Elite Dangerous is just not what motivates me. For me it feels like there's no end but I want to have an end, even if it takes 200-300hrs but at least you know eventually I will get there. I also don't like procedural generated words/levels. They are a complete turnoff for me. There's just so much more quality in a careful handmade word/level. In general, for me, for open worlds the maxim Less is More very much applies. I rather have only 30hrs of immersion and good story with no fillers (and no side-quests) than 300+hrs of repetitive standard missions, fillers and hours upon hours of nonsense talk with uninteresting NPC's.