This isn't about traditional platformers like Mario or Sonic, nor is it meant to directly compare the games mentioned here to those.This is a thread about platforming in open world games (Crackdown,Infamous).

There is a trend towards verticality in open world games lately, the ability to climb buidings has become more prevalent this generation. Games like Assassin's Creed, Infamous, Prototype and Crackdown all focus a varying chunk of their gameplay on getting to the top of structures and hopping roof to roof,yet all 4 of them approach this differently.

The platfroming is least emphasized in Prototype, where even though you are constantly climbing and jumping, most of the work is done for you by holding down a button or later on flying around.

In Assassin's Creed, you do hold down a button (or two) for speed and skipping across the roofs of buildings, but you have to find ledges and pathways to the top in most situations. The structures are very close together, allowing you to barely need to jump from roof to roof in most cases.

In Infamous, there seems to be more work involved to get to the peaks of the city, but moving from building to building is made easy via electric lines that allow you to quickly slide from one place to another.

In Crackdown, every climb involves a jump and in some cases balance and caution are needed to not fall and possibly die. In many situations you will be jumping from building to building while being shot at and you can time leaps the wrong way and miss ledges. Also there seems to be higher places to reach than in the other gmes, there are two giant skyscrapers in the game that will take you very far off the ground and require some work to conquer.

My experience with Infamous is more limited than the other games so I could have misjudged, but I expressed my impressions from what I have played of that game.

Basically I'm looking for opinions on this trend. Do you prefer a vertical open world or a more 'down to earth' expeience like in GTA IV? Also which of these games' approach to open world platforming do you enjoy the most and why? Do you consider the platforming in these games as an afterthought or do you see it as an essential part of the experience?

Personally, the agility orbs in Crackdown are the most fun I had throughout the game.

i love crackdown, mainly because of the agility orbs and the gravity high jumps.

does banjo kazooie: nuts and bolts classify as as a open-world platform?, cause i loved that game

I prefer Superman to Clark Kent.

vertical...climbing in SOTC was FUN!!!

could you consider Super Mario (3D games) open world platformers? They did let you pretty much anywhere you wanted (with the exeption of Galaxy)

hes talkin bout sandbox games with platforming elements

Yeah this is what I mant, Super Mario 64 had open levels and an open hub area but not everything is in one giant area like gta or crackdown so I don't count that the same as a sandbox game.

Only played the demo of that game so I can't really say.