so this is what the botton of the barrel video game essayist looks like. Self pitying humor leading up to shameless plug and calling boswer's fury open world? yeah defenalty the botton
@@camwing Great point though, I can't fathom what ppl will call it in the future when looking back at the game. Yeah, maybe the release date, but then there was the remaster, does that get taken into account to?? Like, wha- okay I totally understand why you're upset about this now lmao
Rdr2 was the only game where I never wanted to fast travel. The beauty of the world was a factor but it really was because of the plethera of random events or abandoned places you could find. Also, you can still fast travel whenever. Just pitch up a tent and then you can tp anywhere on the map. Idk why you didn't mention that.
I kinda did, I mention that it exists, but it's just inconvenient. I mostly wanted to zero in on the game-playing-itself mode, and briefly touching on fast travel was an easy way to segue into it. The reason Red Dead 2's world works so well is that, even on the super long journeys across the map, you'll probably run into something interesting along the way. The way the video is cut together doesn't show it, but on the 6 minute trip from Emerald Station to Valentine, I ran into a prison transport, a man with a snake bite, and a woman trapped underneath her horse (which I obviously didn't see, since I was busy making a sandwich). The act of locomotion itself was the main thing I wanted to focus on, that's why I spent the first minute gushing about how incredible the world was before I got to my main gripe with it. Because with that gripe aside, RDR2 is a towering achievement of a videogame.
RDR2 is one of the games I just enjoy vibing in. I get so immersed every time I play and find real joy in taking it slow and roleplaying as Arthur. On a journey to a destination for example I will hunt some animals, make a camp come nightfall and cook the meat then sleep and carry on. Before I enter a cold or very hot area I will stop by an inn and change clothes. Maybe I come across some predators or bandits in the way or I find some NPC who needs help. In this way the travel also became more about the journey than the destination in spite of the actual traversal being „boring“ in a way.
i agree and i never fast travel either, but what you said about fast traveling isn't true. john can do that, but arthur can't. edit: i was wrong arthur can fast travel after getting an upgrade. but i still think you're missing the point of the game if you fast travel around
Yup. The wow factor lasted incredibly long in comparison with all other video games. 100 hours in, I was still absolutely floored by the views. So you know what? Riding a horse really is the best part of this game and I don't regret a single moment spent doing it.
I feel like traversal can be made fun by making it challenging. In outward you can't see yourself on the map, meaning you have to use landmarks to know where you are and where you will be going. This allows you to get lost, and means you have to concentrate on where you are and where you are going. The same applies for Kingdom Come: Deliverance hardcore mode, and I personally find it makes traversing somewhat entertaining.
I think I had the best experience with BoTW and ToTK when I turned the minimap off. Really forces you to connect with the world. I wish more games could do that without undermining the whole experience, Razbuten did a great video on minimaps if you haven't seen it.
That's one way, but not the only way. Elden Ring traversal is challenging, and that's fun. But there's also a game called "Infamous: Second Son" which is the opposite of challenging. You're a superhero. You can run fast, you can fly (somewhat) and you can climb any building. That game is not fun because there's things to do in open world. It's fun because you can actually live out your Superhero fantasy in that open world. Same goes for Spider Man. It's feels sooo liberating!!!
I really wish more open world games had the balls to make the player actually read a map and navigate by landmarks and use orienteering skills rather than getting a magic GPS
@@fahimfaisal7571 talking about Superhero fantasy, there's Prototype 1 and 2's movement where you not only go from point A to B with style, but you're also a parkouring biological weapon that causes destruction.
This reminded me of insomniac’s game before Spider-Man, Sunset Overdrive, and how that game’s traversal was so well made and fun that I never used the fast travel even if I was going across the map. The grinding and wall running was just such an enjoyable thing to do that to skip it felt like I was neglecting myself the game I wanted to play. It reminded me a quote from someone which was “if you need to use fast travel to move around in your game you have failed at game design.” Now I don’t fully agree with it since many games I enjoy I utilize their fast travel, but the idea of if a game can make me not want to fast travel then it’s definitely won game design
Same for me with cyberpunk 2077. Even though the traversal mechanics themself are not that exciting the world is so brimming with life and energy that zipping around it on my motorcycle was satisfying and enjoyable.
Yeah what also helped Sunset Overdrive was how compact the game world was structured, since it mostly relied on verticality. If they ever get to make a sequell i hope they add more indoor areas with like some sort of parcour.
Insomniac is truly one of the greatest modern developers. They rarely miss and have been killing it for decades. I'm glad Spiderman finally gave them the recognition they deserve
I think that in red dead the travel was good because of the people and side quests you would meet along the way making every journey feel like an actual lived in world rather than an empty field
@@HhhhhhHfh Yeah like I didn't like rdr2 to begin with but saying a game gets boring after playing it multiple times is always an odd criticism. I usually don't care about replay ability at all because any game is only fun to me the first time no matter how much they add to make replaying it fun
@@Dachin55555 Not really as there are so many things and random events that happen around you in rdr2 that it would take a year to list them all off. If you’re talking about events that come to the player like a robbery or something then sure there aren’t many of those but if thats a problem then go engage with the countless things going on around you. Like for example i remember a cop beating up someone so i taunted him until we fought. Another cop pulled a gun on me and i put my hands up while the officer that i was beating up was walking away while holding his jaw. Stuff like that only happens if you go out of your way to make it happen. I could have just rode my horse on and disregarded the cop beating to dude but I didn’t. So if it gets boring then its your fault basically.
What I really like about Death Stranding is that traversal of the world IS the game Going from A to B is full of danger. You need to prepare, evaluate the risks, choose a path and survive without destroying the packages you are carrying
That's exactly the type of game it was. Much like some movies, not all games are meant to be action packed and high intensity, some are meant to be an experience. Was Death Stranding the most fun game to play? No. But it was absolutely captivating
I've got over 300 hours in Death Stranding I had fun with the terrain more because I thought "ooh, a zip line there!", made a mental note, came back to put a zip line, and then saw further down where another zip line would be cool Or finding someone else's structure and adding to it Or going off the rails and building a massive zipline freeway over the whole mountain area because mountain climbing sucks
I'm so glad that someone else thought of death stranding, too. I love that game and travelling is so fun. I feel like the slower pace of the game lets you appreciate the vistas more, and if youve already seen it before, you can build the highways or ziplines.
Death Stranding very quickly became my favorite game, and one reason is the adventuring aspects were something I'd wanted in a game since childhood. In real life, traversing the wilderness is interesting and exciting because you have to plan how you'll navigate an incline or body of water and how you handle animals (I'm not getting out an axe and fighting every coyote I see to then skin them without washing my hands and trying to sell my roadkill to a checkout lady at Kroger). DS made the environment a sort of opponent where you can even just trip on a rock, or be weighed down and unbalanced, etc. The only other game that ever made me feel like I had to plan ahead and properly prepare for a journey was, somehow, the very original Final Fantasy, because I had to make sure I was well equipped enough to just get to the next dungeon and back, and had to be careful what terrain I was in because of the different monsters that spawned in different places. I wish more games made me actively engage with choosing how and where I travel every step of the way. Of course, there will be Death Stranding 2, but I kind of don't think the game should have a sequel, though I thought the same thing about The Last of Us 2 and was wrong about that, so here's hoping.
This was always a problem I noticed. The easy, and genuinely most effective method to make travelling long, mostly empty distances is just to have a fun character controller. Let me platform around, anything more than just holding forward. I think it's disappointing how few games want you travel these big landscapes quickly. Everyone loves a big sense of speed and really the only games I can think that manages that feeling is just cause, or just straight up driving games. I think that idea is what everyone got excited for when sonic frontiers came out, but that quickly tapered off as soon as the game was revealed to be more of a rail grind simulator than anything, which is one of the most automatic and least engaging mechanics in all of gaming... which is all to say that it was incredibly disappointing. I even had a problem with botw and totk because you just move so slowly, at least tears gave you some cool contraptions to throw a rocket onto but I just spent more than half of my time holding forward while gliding out of a sky tower, and good lord is that slow, and somehow faster than a lot of other methods. I just want more games to let me go fast man. That's all I want.
I've started The Witcher 3 at least four times now, telling myself "Okay, I just gotta push past the boring stuff and get to the good part" because of how many people praise that game. But every time I do, about two hours in, I usually end up giving up because controlling Geralt is just... generally unsatisfying. Making your character fun to control should be one of the first things you do in an open world game. I think that's why I was willing to put up with some of the more baffling design decisions in Just Cause 4. They really let you go fast in that game, and it's insanely fun.
@@camwingweird I've 100 percented Witcher 3 and thought his controls were pretty easy and fun but now I see everyone complain about them. Why do you find it not fun to play as him?
I tried playing it for the first time back in 2018, which was immediately after I finished Middle Earth: Shadow of War. That game has such insanely tight and responsive combat, and I think I was expecting a similar level of control in Witcher 3, so it just felt kinda clunky in comparison. My main thing is that the act of locomotion itself is kinda boring. It's not that it's bad, it's that in comparison to the other open world games I love, it just felt super vanilla. And compared to something like Shadow of War or Arkham Knight, none of the hits felt like they carried any impact, and I can't exactly put my finger on why. I've got too many games in the backlog to get through, but maybe I'll add Witcher 3 to that list. It seems like a good game to pick up and play on my Steam Deck from time to time.
@@camwing well I get why you thought it was boring lol. Shadow of war and Arkham Batman kinda set the bar high for combat and travel. Luckily I played those after Witcher 3. You should try it again if you have time. But I recommend not trying to do all the side quests and such since people get burnt out pretty easily. Also only use the horse for main roads and just run with geralt when off roading. And remember to change the camera angle in setting the next gen update added super close up camera angles that some people hate so if they annoy you can change them.
This video is very entertaining, informative and high quality. Also the very first thing I thought of when reading the title was the traversal of Just Cause 3, which is some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a video game, so thank you for shedding some light on it! You’ve earned yourself a subscriber, my good sir.
I agree. Video essays should be more like this. He described how the game needs to be actually fun, especially the movement, and I think a similar philosophy applies to video essays. This one could have been longer, and it would have been fine! SummoningSalts makes great documentaries, and those are usually 1 hr plus! My favorite example is the Entire History of Bloons. It's a great video, and it covers enough content it needs to be 4 hrs long, but the creator made it so interesting and entertaining, I somehow retained a lot of the knowledge. The best video essays are intriguing and engaging, well-structured, and actually enjoyable to watch. I feel like I genuinely learned a lot from this video, same with the TotK one, and that shows that you did something right. For all the video essays I've watched, this one was highly enjoyable.
I was completely unaware of Just Cause, and while I don't think it's a game I would want to play, I very much loved seeing that car spin up into the air. Great video as always!
The just cause games aren't good, But they're certainly fun. I adored my time with just cause 2 and 3 but I couldn't tell you the story even if you put a gun to my head.
@@thegreatgoobert5847So in Just Cause 3, you and your friend Moo-rio (but mostly you) try to blow up enough stuff so you can kill the moustache guy. Also there's a snarky radio man. I think thats the story
This is why dying light has always been so interesting to me, never once while playing did i even remotely think of fast traveling, the interactivity with the parkour makes the transportation so engaging. Having to focus on every little jump and step makes the player stay consistently on the move.
Great Video! Really hammered in on the reasons I ended up liking Death Stranding, despite usually liking more reactive games. The satisfaction from learning how to traverse the world from A to B is amazing, and it itches a scratch that makes movement actually MATTER
Seems every RDR2 reviewer is completely unaware that the game has fast travel, if you set up camp (anywhere) you can then travel to any town you want instantly for free. Only catch is you have to upgrade the camp through the ledger by playing some missions
One thing I find very much worth mentioning about BotW. Some of the glitches and physics engine exploits are *very* fun to use. Wind Bombs especially, are very satisfying and very versatile. A slightly more consistent version of them that doesn't damage Link could honestly have been a been a very believable traversal method in TotK with all of the Zonai Tech in the game.
@@theegg8621 You said something wrong, we don't find it fun we find it nice at least this works for me, i love finding little things and secrets around teh map, also going on the horse is not only holding the forward button is also holding other buttons to do in other directions haha, anyway i could never find the horse thing "fun" but i like it nontheless, games don't have to be fun to be good, and RDR2 still have lots of fun things to do.
You nailed it on the head with Just Cause 3, I hadn't played that far into JC4 because I got decision paralysis from all the balloon/rocket settings, but I LOVE just being a human jet in JC3, just flying in it in my spare time without even landing and shooting any bad guys, the fact that JC3 is so beautiful is a big cherry on top. It's also why I love the old Assassin's Creeds so much - the traversal is not just a means from A to B, but a legitimate form of gameplay in itself. You can go online and see people who'd played 1000 hours just doing the most smooth and insane parkour and it is so satisfying when you get to do it yourself.
The way you traverse and transition from subtopic to subtopic to full on subjects with in this genre of video essay is incredibly fluid unlike what what I’ve ever see, makes me feel like I’m watching a biased yet unbiased documentary at the same time because of your personal experience with these games. Really good content.
I really wish I could enjoy Subnautica; I've tried it multiple times but it's never quite clicked for me. Just Cause 3, though? I've never wanted to -destroy- liberate public infrastructure more. Love the editing at 17:20, btw. Great video! Although I do think it could be improved with a tighter thesis. You gave some examples that I'm inclined to agree with, based on my own gameplay experience and other essays I've seen, but failed to tie it together beyond "good traversal 👍". If you gave some more ideas about what makes a traversal system excellent, or how to design the world to be complementary to the gameplay (or vice versa), there would be a bit more to take away at the end.
I completely agree about the thesis statement, but I realized about 75% of the way through the script that I didn't finish nearly enough of the open world games that I've started to determine what it was specifically I didn't like about them. I've started 4 different Assassin's Creed games, and the only one I finished was Unity, which I'm almost positive was because moving throughout the world was so satisfying. So instead of getting to the bottom of what makes a bad open world bad, which I think is an idea that's been done quite a bit (especially recently), I mostly just wanted to highlight some examples of traversal mechanics I really enjoyed. There's been enough of an outcry in the comments for a followup that I'm definitely going to make one, but I can already tell you now that it'll have a much tighter focus.
I too have never been able to enjoy Subnautica. The movement feels godawful to me, and I just don't know what the heck I'm supposed to do until I lose interest.
Subnautica didn't click for me until I realized how utterly unique the later locations are. It's the first game that's ever made me feel like I'm EXPLORING the unknown and it's now one of my favourite games of all time
days gone has my hands down favorite travel system you have to be near or on your bike to fast travel and when you do it takes gas which means if you don't have a big gas tank you can't travel far and most of the time infestation zones block your ability to fast travel so it makes it where you have to actually ride your bike instead of stare at a loading screen for the early game and late/post game when you're trying to get 100% it's easier to go to the place you need just by fast traveling (although i never really do) also if you just fast travel it takes more gas than just taking shortcuts and going places yourself and i love it
My problem when I played it was the fuel. As soon as I started to have fun and appreciate the views, the fuel ran out. It lasted maybe 5 minutes at best. It's the wrong way to do gameplay. Don't give us a bad experience and then promise a good experience with upgrades. Give us a GOOD experience with a promise of a GREAT experience later on.
@@S0n0fG0D I never really had a problem with fuel tbh if anything, there was an over abundance of gasoline wherever you go everywhere has gasoline unless you're just joyriding around for extended periods of time at the very beginning of the game, you wont have to worry about gasoline too much if you fill up whenever you get the chance and by the end of the game, you can ride laps around the entire map without worrying about fuel
I really enjoy these more frequent uploads, even though they take more effort to push out. Hoping TH-cam will push these out to a wider audience like the last one.
This was a fantastic intro to your content. Great video! "Sunset Overdrive" is some of my favorite open world traversal. I rarely used the fast travel in the game.
In the funny pirate game (Sea of Thieves) the part where you do an absolute ton of sailing may seem unappealing or boring, and sometimes it is, but sometimes you'll find yourself ambushed by a skeleton ship, hunted by a massive shark, or fighting the mighty tentacles of a ferocious kraken. Or worst yet, the other pirates also playing the game. When you amass your treasure and are transporting it to a port where you will sell it all, you're not just worrying about the wind direction and the amount of islands and rocks in the way, you're also worrying about every single ship and hostile creature that could be out there. That's what I love about it. No two voyages you play in will be the same. In some you may have a great time, pillaging fort after fort while your emissary flag reaches tier 5 and you get that sweet sweet 150% increase in sales, while in some, you're chasing or being chased by another pirate, seeking one another's booty. There's also multiple ways to play the game. You can explore sunken temples and shrines of a depressing past, you can pilfer the loot right out the hands of some ghosts in a fortress out at sea, you can become a part of the Reaper's Bones and hunt emissary ships, including other Reapers. The game doesn't expect you to become a legendary voyager of the sea, or become a skeleton warlord of death, but it provides the option for those who wish to, or seek the cosmetic options. For those who love naval combat, there are two factions you can join for rewards, or if you really just love battle. The Guardians of Fortune seek to prevent the other from making the sea go into ruin, the Servants of the Flame seek to do exactly that for power and control, for a true pirate's life where there are no rules or a code. Of course, the war is never ending so the game doesn't change drastically, but if you reach rank 100 in either faction, you gain a special reward... curses. Special cosmetics that change your body appearance in drastic ways, such as gilded skin, hellfire possession, or being a ghost. Anyway, if I were to continue any further, I'd just be ranting about how the game works, rather than just it's open world mechanics, but I thought I'd throw this game in the pool.
A thing I learned from watching Masahiro Sakurai's TH-cam channel is that Japanese devs have a strong belief in a central game design tenet: push/pull. Essentially, that for something to be fun, there has to be some kind of tension for the player in doing it; if you push at it, it pushes back, if you pull at it, it pulls back, there's some kind of tug-of-war there. Western game devs don't really seem to have centralized this core concept NEARLY as much as Japanese devs have, from what I've noticed. So when it comes to really basic things in game, like traversing a space, western devs seem to just presume, "well we want to make it as simple to accomplish as possible, and maybe make it easier/more convenient to skip the boring parts," so if the player pushes something in a direction, there's as *little* resistance as possible. Which is great UI design or UX design if you're talking about general software usage. But it's TERRIBLE *game* design. Because what makes something a *game* is that tension, that question of success. The Japanese devs look at traversal and think about how they can add that tension back in, not remove it or make it as simple as possible, but actually adding it back in. That's why there's a way to fail at climbing a mountain in BotW, or that you can get a high score when riding Plessy in Mario just moving between places - because there's tension there (both negative and positive examples) and just getting from point A to point B is fun in and of itself, and it's the lack of understanding this push/pull dynamic which is why in every Bethesda game they just add more fast traveling functionality and wonder why it seems that people like their games less and less. "We made it more and more convenient to get to the tailored content! Why are people mad?" is what the Bethsoft dev says, not understanding that half the fun of their games comes from what happens inbetween their bits of tailored content, and they've erased *that* bit of magic that people used to enjoy in their games (this btw is why Oblivion is the best TES game - the AI routines make the traveling between places extremely random and this adds tension).
That philosophy was taken to its natural extreme in Death Stranding. There's a lot going on in that game, but walking is by far my favorite part. I still can't believe how well they pulled that concept off.
@@camwing Lol exactly. I still remember thinking Death Stranding was what happened when Hideo Kojima heard people talking about "walking simulators" online and decided to make one himself without knowing that people were using the term as a pejorative.
Wether game design is bad or good is really dependent on what you’re trying to accomplish. There’s no objectively bad game design. If you’re trying to ease the traveling sections for the player, creating a fast traveling system would be appropriate. Also, I don’t think fast traveling is a contributing factor to people disliking modern bethesda games because Skyrim had it and that game sold a lot of copies and different editions throughout many years and people still look at that title fondly.
@@heybalanar Incorrect on the point of objectivity. For humans there are values that are universally understood to be positive or negative. So while there may never be any kind of true objectivity that humans can perceive from outside our own experience, from our limited perspective as both individuals and as a species, we can determine whether a value is positive or negative to an incredible hypermajority of reliability (something like 99.9999999% of the time) which is a *functional* objective reality for us. This means that yes, there is objectively bad *everything* not just game design, but also that yes, there is objectively bad game design. You're defending (whether intentionally or not) decisions that are best understood as category errors. Japanese game development has strong strains of coming out of toy development (Nintendo for example, before making games was making household toys and before that, playing cards) while Western game development has always essentially been a branch off of the development of general use software. The culture of making general use software thus bled into ideas of good game development in the west while the culture of making good toys bled into the ideas of good game development in Japan. Since video games are closer to toys than they are to excel spreadsheets or a word program in most instances, it is more correct to assume a toyific approach as opposed to business software approach to development is more correct for making good video games. Objectively.
I'm a huge fan of Subnautica for.. many reasons. I love how it really utilizes the fear of the unknown to scare players but in a way where it feels satisfying to face those fears and continue onward. Especially because the story is so interesting. Helps that I'm autistic and have a huge obsession with biology- particularly Marine and Speculative LOL This is such a fun video! I'm glad I watched the totk video and found your channel!
I think the main issue at play with open world traversal is that we lump all "Open Worlds" into a single category when there are multiple types, and each type appeals to different kinds of gamers. Let's take Skyrim, Breath of the Wild, and Horizon Zero Dawn as examples. In Skyrim, there are no towers to climb to reveal the map and/or markers. You discover the whole world organically by either being directed there through a quest, or just stumbling across it. The core gameplay of Skyrim is rather shallow and repetative, but every single quest in the game is dressed up in lore. For me, personally, this is still my all time favorite open world game of all time, and the main reason is because I enjoy set dressing so much. Give me a story that is even the slightest bit interesting and keep the dialogue above awful, and I'll be hooked. In contrast to that, you have Horizon Zero Dawn that has a much more "traditional" open world exploration model where you climb up towers to reveal the map and activities to do in the area. Luckily, Horizon Zero Dawn doesn't fall into the pitfall of other open world games where the towers unlock literally everything in the area, but the reason that this version of open world exploration doesn't fall flat (for me) is because, again, all the quests you can do are dressed up in interesting story beats. While the majority of activities in Zero Dawn are fairly repetitive, they all have set dressing that fills in the lore of the world. You might have 50 different quests to kill certain enemies in certain areas, but the person asking you to do it will always have a different reason for it. Lastly, let's discuss Breath of the Wild. In Breath of the Wild, you have towers that you climb to fill in your map, but that's all they do. No additional map markers are unlocked through doing this, and really, aside from being able to look at a nicer map, it doesn't really provide you with anything gameplay wise (maybe you can find a few things by looking at your map alone). The quests in Breath of the Wild are also extremely repetative, and there are barely any in the game. Most of the "quests" boil down to the 120 shrines and Divine Beast quests. The main appeal of Breath of the Wild isn't the quests, it's the exploration and traversal. The bulk of your time in Breath of the Wild will be spent just moving through the world doing micro-activities on your way from point A to point B. This method of exploration is so satisfying that it has rightly been praised by every person on the internet. However, for me personally, this is one of the weaker open world games for me, and it boils down to the point of the open world. Breath of the Wild is personal choices over everything else. Every shrine gives the same reward, and you choose how to apply the reward, there are very few quests that have any kind of story to them, and generally these stories are extremely self contained. So, we look at these three games, and we can see that each has a different focus and they are going to appeal to different players, even though they will generally have broad appeal. Skyrim is great because of the lore and story, not the gameplay (not that it's bad, just hardly a highlight), Horizon Zero Dawn has a bit of mix between having solid mechanics and lore excuses to engage in these mechanics, and Breath of the Wild focuses on Gameplay over everything else, even payoff. There's nothing wrong with preferring one type of the other, but I do think that at this point we need to really explore the nuances of open worlds more than just "it's got a big interconnected map" because there's much more to them than that.
the bethesda method is lazy, but i still love it. when you walk, you'll see more random ministories as encounters. gives a sense of adventure. my favorite and first playthrough was spend not knowing I was the dragonborn because I didn't feel like grabbing a stone tablet for some random mage and wanted to join the stormcloaks to cut the guys head of who tried to cut my head off lmao on my quest to do so i got constantly distracted by NPC's so braindead that I felt bad enough to help them, played until I reached around level 50 and walked through the main story as an overpowered superhero
Honestly the difference between how traversal works in these games relies on the underlying methodology behind the minds that make the game, Skyrim and RDR2 want to make these immersive and indepth worlds that actually feel like worlds, filled with atmosphere and spectacle. Super Metroid does a damn good job of this in some areas, the levels feel incredible to explore and it's not because of the gameplay because honestly in terms of gameplay Super Metroid is shit compared to the rest of the series, but its the areas, the forboding feeling that the areas inspire. I was playing ES Oblivion and even though it's an old as hell game made 800 years ago I stopped and just had to take a moment to enjoy the landscape, it was really pretty and done incredibly well, yeah in terms of gameplay I was just moving forward, but I still remember how fun it was traveling in the game, even thought the last time I played it was a year or two ago. I love Bowsers Fury but I don't remember a single thing besides having fun and big bowser, there was no real feeling of exploration, no feeling of awe and wonder, I was just hopping around this silly little jungle gym and thats what most games do when they focus on making travel fun. What each company wants is for the player to play it and to have an enjoyable experience doing so, Nintendo puts priority in fun and exiting gameplay and it does such a damn good job at it. I wouldn't really say that the travel in Skyrim and RDR2 sucks, I honestly like the feel of it, how slow it is compared to other games. Because real travel is slow, and tedius and true travel, like what you'll see in these games is something that you will rarely experience anywhere else, because it's pretty easy to die. BOTW came close to perfecting travel in my opinion, making it slow and steady, presenting danger and in some areas it was incredible, the cold places had to be prepped for, the hot desert and lava areas as well, but above all BOTW was made to be fun, and because of that travel was removed that beautiful monotony and spectacle that it had, that ability to enjoy the landscape and replaced it with fast travel, really cool fucking shield surfing, and horses. What I'm saying really boils down to, Morrowind was fun and I miss that feeling of adventure, of truly exploring the world.
Amazing idea for a video! No matter how people feel about it: Forspoken had incredibly open world traversal. It had the same energy that Prototype and infamous Second Son had with how fast and smoothly you can get around. Not perfect, but definitely better than most games (especially compared to the awful movement in Final Fantasy 16?
I mostly hunt in rdr2, I have good honor, and like any good, self respecting gentleman of 1899: I hunt animals into extinction for pretty coats, boots, vests, shirts, and the like
what really made rdr2 open world perfect to me was that even when riding ur horse most of the time there would be random things happening rather then just an empty open world. you could b riding your horse and see a woman being kidnapped, the wolf man, the ghosts and a number of other things
Prototype (1 specifically) still has an amazing feeling traveral system, very responsive once you max out your skills and master the system, your agility is unrivaled and you go around parkouring with superpowers, what's not to love?
In my opinion, Dying Light is also an open world game which implemented a creative spin on the "getting from A to B" concept. In it, you get near infinite possibilities to approach a task. Let me make an example. There's a task in the game which says that you need to get something that the bad guys stole (trying not to be overly specific in order to avoid spoilers), so you can: A. Go shooty shooty bang bang on 'em B. Go full on stealth, executing enemies with melee attacks and silenced weapons C. Throw a firecracker in the camp, wait until Virals arrive, and let them do the job for you (this is the one I went with >:) ) And there are plenty more ways to do this mission, but I don't want to go in detail, because it would take me around an hour to list all the ways in which you can finish it. Now I'll admit, Dying Light probably isn't the most "Relaxing" game out there, but if you never played it, I highly recommend you give it a shot. Also, the video was great, I thoroughly enjoyed watching such a masterfully crafted video.
So basically the less realistic an open world is the more fun it is, because realistic world traversal is boring. But zipping around with crazy powers is fun.
All I'm saying is, if I could grappling-hook my way from my bedroom to my toilet every morning, I'd probably injure myself horribly and never do it again. But I'd at least try it once.
I can't belive how well the video was made, i actually was really suprised this channel isn't in the hundreds of thousands of sub range. A really great channel!
This is coming from someone who is generally a fan of slow-paced media and overall immersive and atmospheric craft. So I think I'm the only one who liked traversal nature of Red Dead 2 including the cinematic cameras everyone else hated but I loved it due to the vibe and atmosphere it provided to me. It'd had been a while since a game respected my odd tastes so I was happy. And I was glad it wasn't afraid to not be traditional and slow things down. Type 2 fun I think it's called idk Yes, I am the only one thinks this. And I know that I deserve to be forgotten and called the enemy of gaming- I'm used to it.
but you are never bored in rdr2, there always random encounters on the road to keep you entertained, wether its the o'driscolls or the lemoyne raiders tyring to kill you or a person in need of help being attacked by wolves or a police van transporting a criminal who you can free
I recently had one of my other channels have a similar surgence to yours so i know how it feels to finally find your audience, and being part of that audience feels special. Very quality vid, will be sticking around for more in the future :)
Great video mr wing and I'm not just saying that because I'm being paid in earwigs by the big man himself and if I was they've a nice crunch to them and I wouldnt blame me!
We have seen fun open world travel in the past. A long long time ago, in a little game called _Morrowind_ There were no map markers, each corner you turned held new dangers and experiences, and almost all quests had their own intricacies. The world was made to look large (mainly with fog due to hardware limitations at the time), but when you knew the way, distances were short to travel yet the roads still had many points of interest on offer.
I love morrowind but I think you may have missed the point of the video if you think it has fun open world travel. Until you get the spells and magic items to zoom around, travel is incredibly boring. Like the actual act of traversal blows. I've had several friends bounce off the game for precisely this reason when I recommend it
@@trombonegamer14I partially agree with you, but also remember traversing Morrowind world very captivating, if you only let it be captivating. NPCs gave you directions on where to go, based on what the world actually looked like. Often the journey from activating a quest to its destination involved reading road signs, looking for that one tree to turn right behind, then looking for the lake to the east where the objective was.
Great video. I'd love to see you do a similar breakdown of different ways of approaching crafting, or inventory management, as it seems they are an almost obligatory part of modern open-world games. You can definitely add my sub to the list.
EXACTLY. I wish I could enjoy both Horizon games but I always get bored because of that pointless filler crowding the map! Love this video and love your sense of humor lol
Definitely make a part two because I need to see more games where traversal is the most fun part. I would also love to know what you think of Death Stranding for that very reason lol...
I took a week off of work from my full time desk job as a little birthday gift to myself, and instead of relaxing, I did a full 40 hour week's worth of work on a TH-cam video. My advice would be to probably not do that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When I was playing through Skyrim. Traveling on the roads you’ve traversed 100 times can be boring. But if you get the physical map that comes with the game, and you try to find where all the roads on there take you, it’s 100x more fun. No fast travel, no hyper accurate maps, just an old fashioned map and the road south. You’d look for the border to Hammerfell and find it. It’s always so fun to do that, and something I think should be integrated into more game maps
Ima say it. Unpopular opinion: I liked the Mary Jane sections of Spider Man. It gives Mary Jane something to do other than just be a love interest that gets fridged the minute Peter is off-screen. It gives her character and lets her shine on her own. In the comics, Mary Jane was hated by fans because the comic book writers of the time didn't know how best to write her. They had already made her effectively retired, and it didn't make sense for her to not be present on occasion in the comics. So they would cut to MJ going "God I hope Peter is doing okay. I worry about him so much." And then cutting back to spider man kicking the shit out of some bad guys. The problem there was that they wrote her as some stereotypically girly redhead with no personality other than her love for Peter. In the games, I actually really like when MJ was given some missions, because it let you get into the mind of an otherwise underutilized character. Now, could they have used some spit-and-polish? God yes. Give MJ more gadgets than a distraction device from Peter. Peters devices can be kept all on the suit, they are extremely compact, and MJ has way more clothes and way more pockets. Give her gadgets that Peter made for her now that they are together again, with personal touches specific to her. Give her a taser from the start and work your way up if you feel the need, but keep the sections there.
While not necessarily open-world, Sonic Frontiers is basically the opposite of Horizon: Zero Dawn. Traversing from one place in the story to another is easy, but the bulk of the game is running around the map and collecting items so you can watch a story cutscene, and with the bulk of the game being running around and platforming, Sonic Team made Sonic a ton of fun to control and run around (especially after update 2), and that is typically more fun than the destination (unless you're about the fight a titan).
I haven't gotten around to Sonic Frontiers, but I think it would definitely be interesting to explore in the followup to this video. This video was based on games that I've already played pretty extensively, so writing the script was mostly based on memory, so I think it would be a lot of fun to focus mostly on games I've never played before. I'll make sure Frontiers goes up on my list.
@@camwing Another thing is that, Frontiers' reception and sales had made SEGA continue to support the game by making updates, with the latest, Update 2, adding more adjustable gameplay options with an unlockable OP spindash that encourages New Game+ and replayability.
I think the reason, why at least for me, bethesda games travel works so well, is because you have a lot to see and explore, but you almost never feel obliged to do so. In games like the Far Cry games, Assassins Creed series, Hogwarts Legacy or Ghost Recon: Wildlands the map is full with markers. Going from point A to B you'll come across dozens of these markers and you feel obliged to do them now, because you might miss one and never find that one later. The existance of markers also alliviates them to seemingly important objectives. So there are two options: Either you try to do them and get fatigued because of their sheer quantity and their repetitiveness and quit the game before finishing it, or you stop doing them at some point, at which the open world is reduced merely to a filler between points of interest in the main story. Bethesda games do this very differently. The world is full with interesting points and stories to uncover, but with the exception of major dungeons and actual settlements there is no marker and no quest. It is fun to explore and discover that stuff and depending on your playstyle you can explore more or less thoroughly, but what is important: reguardless of your playstyle you never feel like you miss out on important stuff, because not everything has a map marker or a quest attached to it. So either you don't even know that you missed something or you the game indirectly tells you that it does not matter, that you missed something, because it has no effect on your progress in the game, if you don't do it. There is no completion meter, that tells you to do it, you just do it or don't.
Hey I just found you. Maybe it's a simple compliment on the surface but you're really good at this. Not everyone realizes the importance of good writing in a video essay (which is ironic seeing as how it's called a "video essay" and not a "video rant" for a reason). Very well done!
i mean with death stranding its not an unpopular opinion, its either you enjoy the fuck out of the game , or you hate it as fuck , for me i went there with a high sceptisism , cuz i played it on PC after years of its lunch and ppl was shitting on it mostly , but damn i didn't expect that i would enjoy that game , i don't know why cuz abviously the game play is not the most advance and flashy one , but the game just feels good
Outer wilds is basically the definition of great open wirld experience. The whole game is based of discovering by yourself, without any mission at all.
I think weighing Skyrim against Bowser's Fury to determine the quality of their open world traversal is pointless, as they're in completely different genres and aim for completely different things. While yes, they are both open worlds, the open worlds serve very different purposes. Bowser's Fury is first and foremost a platformer game, where movement is at the core of the gameplay experience, and therefore the open world serves as a fun and seamless way to connect the bulk of the game's content while exemplifying the core gameplay experience - but its just that, a great way to seamlessly connect the main content of the game. With Skyrim and its open world, while the movement itself does boil down to pushing forward, the traversal entails so much more than pointing yourself in the direction of the quest marker and moving towards it, it's about all the things that will sidetrack you away from that quest marker. All the random encounters causing you to stop along your way, small points of interest often including little stories, mysterious caves along the roadside that entice you to delve deeper within, bandit occupied keeps, and sometimes even other quests entirely. Much like Breath of the Wild in that aspect. What I'm trying to say is, both games aim for very different things with their open worlds, and traversing the open world of both games is fun but for very different reasons, and though traversing Skyrim's open world doesn't personally click with you, that doesn't make it objectively bad. If you read through my comment, thank you. Sorry for the big wall of text, I'm just a young man trying to articulate my thoughts pertaining to a game I consider one of the most important I've ever played, and this took over an hour for me to write.
The intention wasn't to make a comparison between the two games (since there's very little to actually compare), it was to show how starkly contrasting the approaches were between the different gameplay styles. My intention with this video is to serve as less of an indictment of mechanics I don't like, and more as a highlight of mechanics I do. Red Dead 2 and Skyrim are both about the things you'll find on the way between destinations, which there is a LOT of in both games. The actual locomotion mechanics aren't the highlight, because they don't have to be. I've got 100+ hours of gameplay in Skyrim over the past 12 years or so, I just think the actual locomotion mechanics could be a little more interesting.
@@camwing What do you want from more interesting though? Get on a Dragon and fly there ignoring everything? That would invalidate filling the world and in turn punish people who like walking. The 9000 optional areas are now completely worthless.
I think that a great way to make good, satisfying and fast traversal is to make it like spiderman, you don't even remember about fast travel because it just feels good to try to get better at swinging A system that is easy to understand but difficult to master is what would make it very satisfying, maybe having traversal powers like hooks, teleporting and a dash that makes the character run faster but only for a limited time like 10 seconds, and also having places to make the character run faster or jump higher It makes you interested in playing and makes it very satisfying, and you'll be where you want without even noticing
This video really brings me back to those old Egoraptor sequilitis videos, love to see video game essays that isn’t just someone blandly reading a script👏👏
really like what you're doing with the channel. you and your brother have great style in regards to the writing, performance, and editing. not sure what your long-term plans with the channel are as it seems like you've got a wide range of interests and talents, but I am excited to see more stuff from ya.
Yeah, we're still trying to figure that out too, but I think we stumbled into a pretty sustainable groove with these last couple videos. Long-ish format gameplay analysis isn't exactly a new concept (obviously) so hopefully we can inject some originality into things. Unlike how I subconsciously plagiarized the thumbnail from your video on traversal mechanics😅 (I changed it as soon as I realized, I promise I'm not trying to rip you off)
I genuinely didn't think anything of it. Lots of people in this space have similar ideas in regards to everything from topics to thumbnails, and sometimes that means people doing the sameish thing. When I saw it, my assumption was that and not that you were trying to rip me off (especially as if there was any thumbnail text of mine I'd think someone would want to rip off, it wouldn't be one about walking being boring lol). Honestly though, if the other version leads to better CTR, feel free to go with it.
Every time you said "The jorney is more important than the destination" I could not see it as a reference to Brandon Sanderson and "Strenght before Weakness, Life before Death, Journey before Destination" ❤
Kingdom Come Deliverance, and Elden Ring deserve some mention. I feel Elden Ring is still somewhat linear, due to the world literally being shaped like a finger, you can’t go from Caelid to Leyndell without warping, or traveling 80% of the map via everywhere else.
I feel like I had a completely different experience than everyone else playing Red Dead 2 because I think the way I played it was pretty fun. My reasons/methodology was this: 1) I played Low Honor for most of the game until Chapter 6. With that I racked up a considerable bounty and while doing anything from traversal, to hunting to going for side missions I was always at risk of being ambushed by bounty hunters. I also robbed people a lot and did as much as I wanted to do. With that a lot of my experience playing Red Dead 2 the traversal was pretty fun, I only ever used fast travel pre-Epilogue when I was at camp since I played on the 1.00 version 2) The Map is actually pretty small and well designed. I was always hunting too which I think added to the amount of engagement I had with the game and combining that with random events the map seemed to always be doing something 3) I think the fast that horses are something you have to maintain is a good way of setting it apart from GTA, I often would take shortcuts or get into shootouts then have to make sure my horse is okay before I could continue which in the case of the latter lead to some interesting moments where I would abandon a horse during a massive gunfight and slowly watch it die on my map from far away lol. I also think the horse riding isnt engaging because it’s a fun activity to do on its own, what makes the horse riding fun is that it is a great extension of the gunplay. Thats the thing that to me sets RDR from GTA, that you have just as much control of weaponry when on a horse as you do on foot and you have to manage a horse which feels alive whilst you shoot people All of that isnt disparaging or essay or anything just wanted to throw my two cents. You should do a hitman essay because i need more of those to watch lmao
In the case of red dead 2, I never thought rockstar wanted to make the travel “fun”, I think they wanted to make it real. Think of it like a road trip, sure you have those fun moments as you travel, and your moments of fresh air with pit stops, but most of a road trip is just the drive. Now when you hear the idea of travel not being fun your mind immediately assumes that it means bad, but like that road-trip, travel in red dead feels long, not fun. I think that was the whole point of why travel is like that in rdr2, it makes the distances feel real, long, and challenging, not like it’s a game and instead like it’s real. For an example, in red dead online I had to do a long distance delivery trip from one side of the map to the other, the trip itself was only 10-15 minutes but it felt like hours, which I think helps my point of that the travel wasn’t game-like, but instead “real-like” in typical rockstar fashion
This is a fantastic video! To add to open world traversal and good open world video games. I think how the game responds might be a factor? Admittedly I’m more familiar with metroidvanias and platformers but the way the game reacts to what you do just feels very important. I adore Outer Wilds and piloting the ship and exploring the planets is really fun to me, and I play on keyboard! I think the map being so small while feeling so big helps (since there’s less space in between everything) but exploring in that game is just great. Partially cause the game’s story and mystery is just fantastic but also cause there’s a lot of things to take into account while playing Outer Wilds, from your speed, to the gravity, to your resources to how the area changes overtime. But also due to one Really Important Kinda Spoiler Game Mechanic your encourages to go and try doing something dangerous. Traversal is almost like a science experiment really. If I do X what will happen? How much fuel can I use? Is it possible to do Y? And it just makes it all the more fun. A Short Hike and Lil Gator Game are also fantastic, they have different ways of movement but the way there maps are made are Really Good for similar reasons. There’s so many Ways to traverse in those games, so many different ways of getting to a place, and since the maps are pretty small, everything’s more interconnected. When you climb a mountain fall because you overestimated the amount of energy you had, there’s a bunch of other ways to get to where you need to be if you just look around, heck falling down the mountain might of made you notice a completely different path, which encourages exploration and problem solving and what not. Honestly I can talk forever about games which have good traversal, it’s always really important to me that it feels interesting. Uh Good video if you ever make a part 2 I’d be really happy to watch it.
Funny you should bring up A Short Hike, my brother/co-editor brought it up shortly after I finished writing the script and had already recorded the audio. I know it's not necessarily an open world game, but it has some really awesome looking traversal mechanics, so it's sitting on my Steam Deck waiting for a couple hours of free time to play. I'm really looking forward to it. And I kinda feel like Metroidvanias belong in their own category. They're definitely open world, but it's almost like, a sub-category that could be nestled underneath the open world genre. That said, I especially love the traversal mechanics of Ori and the Will of the Wisps, moving throughout that world is insanely satisfying
Cyberpunk 2077, Guild Wars 2, and Conan Exiles has some really fun open world traveling IMO. These game have fast travel, but the worlds are fun and engaging enough that I never do it. CP77 I just love driving around, or parkouring all over the place. Guild Wars 2 has great mounts with different abilities to get you around, and the glider. Conan Exiles has great traversal mechanics like being able to climb _everything._ I go out rock climbing just to do it in that game. I don't remember which one it is but one of the Saints Row games was really fun when it came to getting around in the game world.
i love this video so much wow, its a wonder you dont have like 100k because this is so high quality and seems like a video you'd get from a really popular channel
camwing: "please do not put extended sequences of controlling Mary Jane in Spider-Man 2". Insomniac: "Ok, we won't make you play as Mary Jane in Spider-Man 2." also Insomnia [maybe, I'm guessing here]: "We'll included extended sequences of walking around as Harry Osborne."
It's literally just hold W until you get to the point of interest with the only difference being you're in a spaceship instead walking or riding a horse. Outer Wilds is a good game but the fanboys pissing their pants just at the thought of the game (like the guy above talking how it's perfect in every way) are so annoying.
@@sharku8417 It's more than just "hold w" tho. In-space travel isn't the best traveling part. In-planet travel has you using thrusters up, down, to the side, avoiding typhoons, giant anglerfish, falling balls of lava. Add in the variety of different gravity and the ship traversal is really enjoyable. The on-foot traveling is amazing too because you have to carefully decide where to go and when, and gravity puzzles and quantum shenanigans add to that (Also slowly imploding planet). That's all without even talking about the DLC movement with rafts, lights, etc. I can definitely see how @plugshirt1762 sees the game as almost perfect, because as they said, it's so unique and it does all of it's unique things really well. It's not a massive game, so it doesn't have 'normal' gameplay, but that's why I think people like it so much, and why I love the traveling too.
@@sharku8417 if you’re going to trash talk me you could at least bother replying to me or making an actual point ffs. The other guys reply though spells out am everything I would have said so it would be a bit redundant to restate it all
Riding on RDR2 was actually pretty relaxing and gave us time to reflect on whatever we just did in the linear narrative with tit bits of random encounters sprinkled inbetween. I was genuinely surprised at how many people found the detailed mechanics in the game frustrating when my tik tok brain vibed with that rare type of non-cozy video game.
Its ALWAYS the underrated youtubers with like 10k subscribers that make the most enjoyable and meaningful content. Damn I dont even remember how long its been since I watched a youtube video thats about 20 minutes long and isnt related to school or studies. Good sstuff man, very on point
most open world games have the boring ass, "you can walk and run, that's it", but botw has both of those as well as gliding, climbing and of course the glitches that've been discovered over the years, and best of all everything feels great to play and do. sidenote: does anyone else feel like breath of the wild was a demo of tears of the kingdom?
People talk a lot about Spiderman's open world traversal. But for some reason, no one knows about Insomniac's previous open world game: Sunset Overdrive. The game has one of the most fun and unique movement systems I've seen. Its so fun that I think the biggest misstep in the game's development was adding fast travel. Its a shame its probably never going to get a sequel. I would highly recommend trying it. It's on XBox/PC Game Pass so if you have it, the game is worth a shot.
That game is underrated but the movement and the map size felt good enough to never really fast travel. I remember the fast travel exists when the character actually saids they can fast travel which is pretty funny.
What really held back Horizon: Zero Dawn for me was the case of acute Ubisoft collionnitus where you feel obligated to pick everything up because they put shiny, pulsing markers on every damn rock and stick since you'll inevitably need truckloads of them for crafting recipes (played the game on the hardest difficulty and every dino was tanky as hell).
There was a really good quote I remember about game design. I think it was about Spyro pr Super mario 64, but basically it was about how if you could make just running around as the character a fun feeling experience then built the rest of the game around it you had a good game
so this is what the botton of the barrel video game essayist looks like. Self pitying humor leading up to shameless plug and calling boswer's fury open world? yeah defenalty the botton
I definitely prefer to defean my bottons as well
defenalty
I agree. Dude said rdr2 make it inconvenient to fast travel. When you can literally fast travel at anytime with your camp fire
First he says RDR2 has inconvenient fast travel, then he says Bowser's Fury is open world?? Let's kill him
bait used to be believable 😞
19:24 i believe "exaggerated swagger" is the correct term for how this game feels
It really does make you FEEL like Marvel's Exaggerated Swagger-Man PS4
@@camwing Great point though, I can't fathom what ppl will call it in the future when looking back at the game. Yeah, maybe the release date, but then there was the remaster, does that get taken into account to?? Like, wha- okay I totally understand why you're upset about this now lmao
@@SodaPopBot I still think "Spider-Man: Devil's Breath" would've been a great title
@@camwing , it's Marvel's Exaggerated Swagger-Man PC!!!
@@camwing , it's Marvel's Exaggerated Swagger-Man PC!!!
Rdr2 was the only game where I never wanted to fast travel. The beauty of the world was a factor but it really was because of the plethera of random events or abandoned places you could find. Also, you can still fast travel whenever. Just pitch up a tent and then you can tp anywhere on the map. Idk why you didn't mention that.
RDR2 got me so immersed in the world I walk instead of running cause I don't want the NPCs to think I'm weird
I kinda did, I mention that it exists, but it's just inconvenient. I mostly wanted to zero in on the game-playing-itself mode, and briefly touching on fast travel was an easy way to segue into it.
The reason Red Dead 2's world works so well is that, even on the super long journeys across the map, you'll probably run into something interesting along the way. The way the video is cut together doesn't show it, but on the 6 minute trip from Emerald Station to Valentine, I ran into a prison transport, a man with a snake bite, and a woman trapped underneath her horse (which I obviously didn't see, since I was busy making a sandwich).
The act of locomotion itself was the main thing I wanted to focus on, that's why I spent the first minute gushing about how incredible the world was before I got to my main gripe with it. Because with that gripe aside, RDR2 is a towering achievement of a videogame.
RDR2 is one of the games I just enjoy vibing in. I get so immersed every time I play and find real joy in taking it slow and roleplaying as Arthur. On a journey to a destination for example I will hunt some animals, make a camp come nightfall and cook the meat then sleep and carry on. Before I enter a cold or very hot area I will stop by an inn and change clothes. Maybe I come across some predators or bandits in the way or I find some NPC who needs help. In this way the travel also became more about the journey than the destination in spite of the actual traversal being „boring“ in a way.
i agree and i never fast travel either, but what you said about fast traveling isn't true. john can do that, but arthur can't.
edit: i was wrong arthur can fast travel after getting an upgrade. but i still think you're missing the point of the game if you fast travel around
Yup. The wow factor lasted incredibly long in comparison with all other video games. 100 hours in, I was still absolutely floored by the views. So you know what? Riding a horse really is the best part of this game and I don't regret a single moment spent doing it.
i want the hour version now...
I want the three hour version.
I want 5 marathons about this.
I want the 330 billion gazillion tenimillinion gofuckurselfmillion 6 dollars galizium nomanmillion holyshitmillion version of this
@@w花bno such thing as too long attention span
@@evergarden8592physically impossible for someone to argue that straight fact
The timing of "You fall off ... ... ... and die" with the second lightning strike and the immediate cut was perfect
I came to the comments looking for this 😂
The music too.
I couldn't help but think of Kung Pow during that part.
I don't call "Marvel's Spider-Man" by its name. Instead, I call it "Insomniac's Sony's Marvel's Spider-Man".
I feel like traversal can be made fun by making it challenging. In outward you can't see yourself on the map, meaning you have to use landmarks to know where you are and where you will be going. This allows you to get lost, and means you have to concentrate on where you are and where you are going. The same applies for Kingdom Come: Deliverance hardcore mode, and I personally find it makes traversing somewhat entertaining.
I think I had the best experience with BoTW and ToTK when I turned the minimap off. Really forces you to connect with the world. I wish more games could do that without undermining the whole experience, Razbuten did a great video on minimaps if you haven't seen it.
That's one way, but not the only way.
Elden Ring traversal is challenging, and that's fun.
But there's also a game called "Infamous: Second Son" which is the opposite of challenging. You're a superhero. You can run fast, you can fly (somewhat) and you can climb any building.
That game is not fun because there's things to do in open world. It's fun because you can actually live out your Superhero fantasy in that open world. Same goes for Spider Man.
It's feels sooo liberating!!!
I really wish more open world games had the balls to make the player actually read a map and navigate by landmarks and use orienteering skills rather than getting a magic GPS
@@fahimfaisal7571 talking about Superhero fantasy, there's Prototype 1 and 2's movement where you not only go from point A to B with style, but you're also a parkouring biological weapon that causes destruction.
@@sulphuric_glue4468only if people find that fun, which a lot of people wouldn’t.
This reminded me of insomniac’s game before Spider-Man, Sunset Overdrive, and how that game’s traversal was so well made and fun that I never used the fast travel even if I was going across the map. The grinding and wall running was just such an enjoyable thing to do that to skip it felt like I was neglecting myself the game I wanted to play. It reminded me a quote from someone which was “if you need to use fast travel to move around in your game you have failed at game design.” Now I don’t fully agree with it since many games I enjoy I utilize their fast travel, but the idea of if a game can make me not want to fast travel then it’s definitely won game design
Same for me with cyberpunk 2077. Even though the traversal mechanics themself are not that exciting the world is so brimming with life and energy that zipping around it on my motorcycle was satisfying and enjoyable.
Yeah what also helped Sunset Overdrive was how compact the game world was structured, since it mostly relied on verticality. If they ever get to make a sequell i hope they add more indoor areas with like some sort of parcour.
This is how I feel playing Sonic Frontiers
Insomniac is truly one of the greatest modern developers. They rarely miss and have been killing it for decades. I'm glad Spiderman finally gave them the recognition they deserve
I think that in red dead the travel was good because of the people and side quests you would meet along the way making every journey feel like an actual lived in world rather than an empty field
But if you played it a bunch of times it gets boring
@@Dachin55555tell me a game that doesnt get boring after a while
@@HhhhhhHfh Spider-Man
@@HhhhhhHfh Yeah like I didn't like rdr2 to begin with but saying a game gets boring after playing it multiple times is always an odd criticism. I usually don't care about replay ability at all because any game is only fun to me the first time no matter how much they add to make replaying it fun
@@Dachin55555
Not really as there are so many things and random events that happen around you in rdr2 that it would take a year to list them all off. If you’re talking about events that come to the player like a robbery or something then sure there aren’t many of those but if thats a problem then go engage with the countless things going on around you. Like for example i remember a cop beating up someone so i taunted him until we fought. Another cop pulled a gun on me and i put my hands up while the officer that i was beating up was walking away while holding his jaw. Stuff like that only happens if you go out of your way to make it happen. I could have just rode my horse on and disregarded the cop beating to dude but I didn’t. So if it gets boring then its your fault basically.
“ careful shifting, it’s sticks in second” killed me
That wasn't overdubbed by the way, JC3 has an excellent sense of humor
What I really like about Death Stranding is that traversal of the world IS the game
Going from A to B is full of danger. You need to prepare, evaluate the risks, choose a path and survive without destroying the packages you are carrying
I love the thrill of knowing that you've loaded up with way too much shit, but attempting a long run anyway
That's exactly the type of game it was. Much like some movies, not all games are meant to be action packed and high intensity, some are meant to be an experience.
Was Death Stranding the most fun game to play? No. But it was absolutely captivating
I've got over 300 hours in Death Stranding
I had fun with the terrain more because I thought "ooh, a zip line there!", made a mental note, came back to put a zip line, and then saw further down where another zip line would be cool
Or finding someone else's structure and adding to it
Or going off the rails and building a massive zipline freeway over the whole mountain area because mountain climbing sucks
I'm so glad that someone else thought of death stranding, too. I love that game and travelling is so fun. I feel like the slower pace of the game lets you appreciate the vistas more, and if youve already seen it before, you can build the highways or ziplines.
Death Stranding very quickly became my favorite game, and one reason is the adventuring aspects were something I'd wanted in a game since childhood. In real life, traversing the wilderness is interesting and exciting because you have to plan how you'll navigate an incline or body of water and how you handle animals (I'm not getting out an axe and fighting every coyote I see to then skin them without washing my hands and trying to sell my roadkill to a checkout lady at Kroger). DS made the environment a sort of opponent where you can even just trip on a rock, or be weighed down and unbalanced, etc. The only other game that ever made me feel like I had to plan ahead and properly prepare for a journey was, somehow, the very original Final Fantasy, because I had to make sure I was well equipped enough to just get to the next dungeon and back, and had to be careful what terrain I was in because of the different monsters that spawned in different places. I wish more games made me actively engage with choosing how and where I travel every step of the way.
Of course, there will be Death Stranding 2, but I kind of don't think the game should have a sequel, though I thought the same thing about The Last of Us 2 and was wrong about that, so here's hoping.
This was always a problem I noticed. The easy, and genuinely most effective method to make travelling long, mostly empty distances is just to have a fun character controller. Let me platform around, anything more than just holding forward. I think it's disappointing how few games want you travel these big landscapes quickly. Everyone loves a big sense of speed and really the only games I can think that manages that feeling is just cause, or just straight up driving games. I think that idea is what everyone got excited for when sonic frontiers came out, but that quickly tapered off as soon as the game was revealed to be more of a rail grind simulator than anything, which is one of the most automatic and least engaging mechanics in all of gaming... which is all to say that it was incredibly disappointing. I even had a problem with botw and totk because you just move so slowly, at least tears gave you some cool contraptions to throw a rocket onto but I just spent more than half of my time holding forward while gliding out of a sky tower, and good lord is that slow, and somehow faster than a lot of other methods. I just want more games to let me go fast man. That's all I want.
I've started The Witcher 3 at least four times now, telling myself "Okay, I just gotta push past the boring stuff and get to the good part" because of how many people praise that game. But every time I do, about two hours in, I usually end up giving up because controlling Geralt is just... generally unsatisfying.
Making your character fun to control should be one of the first things you do in an open world game. I think that's why I was willing to put up with some of the more baffling design decisions in Just Cause 4. They really let you go fast in that game, and it's insanely fun.
@@camwingweird I've 100 percented Witcher 3 and thought his controls were pretty easy and fun but now I see everyone complain about them. Why do you find it not fun to play as him?
I tried playing it for the first time back in 2018, which was immediately after I finished Middle Earth: Shadow of War. That game has such insanely tight and responsive combat, and I think I was expecting a similar level of control in Witcher 3, so it just felt kinda clunky in comparison.
My main thing is that the act of locomotion itself is kinda boring. It's not that it's bad, it's that in comparison to the other open world games I love, it just felt super vanilla. And compared to something like Shadow of War or Arkham Knight, none of the hits felt like they carried any impact, and I can't exactly put my finger on why.
I've got too many games in the backlog to get through, but maybe I'll add Witcher 3 to that list. It seems like a good game to pick up and play on my Steam Deck from time to time.
@@camwing well I get why you thought it was boring lol. Shadow of war and Arkham Batman kinda set the bar high for combat and travel. Luckily I played those after Witcher 3. You should try it again if you have time. But I recommend not trying to do all the side quests and such since people get burnt out pretty easily. Also only use the horse for main roads and just run with geralt when off roading. And remember to change the camera angle in setting the next gen update added super close up camera angles that some people hate so if they annoy you can change them.
@@camwing also I recommend the toughest difficulty death march.
Lmaoo "exaggerated swagger" nice reference 👍
This video is very entertaining, informative and high quality. Also the very first thing I thought of when reading the title was the traversal of Just Cause 3, which is some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a video game, so thank you for shedding some light on it! You’ve earned yourself a subscriber, my good sir.
I agree. Video essays should be more like this. He described how the game needs to be actually fun, especially the movement, and I think a similar philosophy applies to video essays. This one could have been longer, and it would have been fine! SummoningSalts makes great documentaries, and those are usually 1 hr plus! My favorite example is the Entire History of Bloons. It's a great video, and it covers enough content it needs to be 4 hrs long, but the creator made it so interesting and entertaining, I somehow retained a lot of the knowledge. The best video essays are intriguing and engaging, well-structured, and actually enjoyable to watch. I feel like I genuinely learned a lot from this video, same with the TotK one, and that shows that you did something right. For all the video essays I've watched, this one was highly enjoyable.
Just Cause 3 is the first thing that came to mind for me as well, so I scrolled down to find it.
I was completely unaware of Just Cause, and while I don't think it's a game I would want to play, I very much loved seeing that car spin up into the air. Great video as always!
The just cause games aren't good, But they're certainly fun. I adored my time with just cause 2 and 3 but I couldn't tell you the story even if you put a gun to my head.
@@thegreatgoobert5847 there's a story?
Just cause 3 is the fun chaotic physics engine you didn't know you needed 😂
@@thegreatgoobert5847So in Just Cause 3, you and your friend Moo-rio (but mostly you) try to blow up enough stuff so you can kill the moustache guy. Also there's a snarky radio man.
I think thats the story
@@rim7115 yea and a dude named rico jumps on a missile, punches it mid flight, tells it to fuck off, and leaves. basically the whole story
how do you only have 5k subs
Literally what I just said, subscribed immediately lol
something something THE ALGORITHM
@@camwingdarn you Susan wojickicjicickicuciicjkcicki
The real question is, where can I get the good weed the game awards were smoking when they gave God of War game of the year over Red Dead lol
he has like 9 videos lol. 5k subs is TOO good of a count at this point
This is why dying light has always been so interesting to me, never once while playing did i even remotely think of fast traveling, the interactivity with the parkour makes the transportation so engaging. Having to focus on every little jump and step makes the player stay consistently on the move.
This seems like one of those videos that should have a million views, surprised to see it at only 200
Red Dead 2 takes the idea of Instant gratification and pummels it into oblivion.
Great Video! Really hammered in on the reasons I ended up liking Death Stranding, despite usually liking more reactive games. The satisfaction from learning how to traverse the world from A to B is amazing, and it itches a scratch that makes movement actually MATTER
Seems every RDR2 reviewer is completely unaware that the game has fast travel, if you set up camp (anywhere) you can then travel to any town you want instantly for free. Only catch is you have to upgrade the camp through the ledger by playing some missions
One thing I find very much worth mentioning about BotW. Some of the glitches and physics engine exploits are *very* fun to use. Wind Bombs especially, are very satisfying and very versatile. A slightly more consistent version of them that doesn't damage Link could honestly have been a been a very believable traversal method in TotK with all of the Zonai Tech in the game.
I really like RDR2 traversal it give me nice vibes and its calming.
it shows how much atmosphere can carry relatively basic traversal mechanics.
Seriously, it’s the only game I love riding horses in
@@prod.kidmizu Yeah, the only other game where is cool to actually use the horse is Ghost Of Tsushima.
I don't get how people can just hold forward button for like 50% of the game runtime and find it fun
@@theegg8621 You said something wrong, we don't find it fun we find it nice at least this works for me, i love finding little things and secrets around teh map, also going on the horse is not only holding the forward button is also holding other buttons to do in other directions haha, anyway i could never find the horse thing "fun" but i like it nontheless, games don't have to be fun to be good, and RDR2 still have lots of fun things to do.
The humour you have is priceless. An amazing video essay, thanks for blessing us with this!
Hello fellow video game essay enjoyer!
@@c4sualcycl0ps48 hello! How Fateful to see you here today, may your video game enjoyment continue well ::)
You nailed it on the head with Just Cause 3, I hadn't played that far into JC4 because I got decision paralysis from all the balloon/rocket settings, but I LOVE just being a human jet in JC3, just flying in it in my spare time without even landing and shooting any bad guys, the fact that JC3 is so beautiful is a big cherry on top.
It's also why I love the old Assassin's Creeds so much - the traversal is not just a means from A to B, but a legitimate form of gameplay in itself. You can go online and see people who'd played 1000 hours just doing the most smooth and insane parkour and it is so satisfying when you get to do it yourself.
The way you traverse and transition from subtopic to subtopic to full on subjects with in this genre of video essay is incredibly fluid unlike what what I’ve ever see, makes me feel like I’m watching a biased yet unbiased documentary at the same time because of your personal experience with these games.
Really good content.
Also I’m very high so you made my trip that much more meaningful.
Sunset Overdrive has a really fun to explore open world because the movement feels so good
I really wish I could enjoy Subnautica; I've tried it multiple times but it's never quite clicked for me. Just Cause 3, though? I've never wanted to -destroy- liberate public infrastructure more. Love the editing at 17:20, btw.
Great video! Although I do think it could be improved with a tighter thesis. You gave some examples that I'm inclined to agree with, based on my own gameplay experience and other essays I've seen, but failed to tie it together beyond "good traversal 👍". If you gave some more ideas about what makes a traversal system excellent, or how to design the world to be complementary to the gameplay (or vice versa), there would be a bit more to take away at the end.
I completely agree about the thesis statement, but I realized about 75% of the way through the script that I didn't finish nearly enough of the open world games that I've started to determine what it was specifically I didn't like about them. I've started 4 different Assassin's Creed games, and the only one I finished was Unity, which I'm almost positive was because moving throughout the world was so satisfying.
So instead of getting to the bottom of what makes a bad open world bad, which I think is an idea that's been done quite a bit (especially recently), I mostly just wanted to highlight some examples of traversal mechanics I really enjoyed. There's been enough of an outcry in the comments for a followup that I'm definitely going to make one, but I can already tell you now that it'll have a much tighter focus.
I too have never been able to enjoy Subnautica. The movement feels godawful to me, and I just don't know what the heck I'm supposed to do until I lose interest.
@@trombonegamer14There are various guides and such, I personally love the movement but I respect your opinion
Subnautica didn't click for me until I realized how utterly unique the later locations are. It's the first game that's ever made me feel like I'm EXPLORING the unknown and it's now one of my favourite games of all time
days gone has my hands down favorite travel system
you have to be near or on your bike to fast travel and when you do it takes gas which means if you don't have a big gas tank you can't travel far and most of the time infestation zones block your ability to fast travel so it makes it where you have to actually ride your bike instead of stare at a loading screen for the early game and late/post game when you're trying to get 100% it's easier to go to the place you need just by fast traveling (although i never really do) also if you just fast travel it takes more gas than just taking shortcuts and going places yourself and i love it
My problem when I played it was the fuel. As soon as I started to have fun and appreciate the views, the fuel ran out. It lasted maybe 5 minutes at best.
It's the wrong way to do gameplay. Don't give us a bad experience and then promise a good experience with upgrades. Give us a GOOD experience with a promise of a GREAT experience later on.
@@S0n0fG0D I never really had a problem with fuel tbh
if anything, there was an over abundance of gasoline wherever you go
everywhere has gasoline
unless you're just joyriding around for extended periods of time at the very beginning of the game, you wont have to worry about gasoline too much if you fill up whenever you get the chance
and by the end of the game, you can ride laps around the entire map without worrying about fuel
Death Stranding is an open world game where getting from point A to point B is the fun part. Highly mindful traversal
I really enjoy these more frequent uploads, even though they take more effort to push out. Hoping TH-cam will push these out to a wider audience like the last one.
This was a fantastic intro to your content. Great video! "Sunset Overdrive" is some of my favorite open world traversal. I rarely used the fast travel in the game.
It's very funny to explore the sunset overdrive map
In the funny pirate game (Sea of Thieves) the part where you do an absolute ton of sailing may seem unappealing or boring, and sometimes it is, but sometimes you'll find yourself ambushed by a skeleton ship, hunted by a massive shark, or fighting the mighty tentacles of a ferocious kraken. Or worst yet, the other pirates also playing the game. When you amass your treasure and are transporting it to a port where you will sell it all, you're not just worrying about the wind direction and the amount of islands and rocks in the way, you're also worrying about every single ship and hostile creature that could be out there. That's what I love about it. No two voyages you play in will be the same. In some you may have a great time, pillaging fort after fort while your emissary flag reaches tier 5 and you get that sweet sweet 150% increase in sales, while in some, you're chasing or being chased by another pirate, seeking one another's booty. There's also multiple ways to play the game. You can explore sunken temples and shrines of a depressing past, you can pilfer the loot right out the hands of some ghosts in a fortress out at sea, you can become a part of the Reaper's Bones and hunt emissary ships, including other Reapers. The game doesn't expect you to become a legendary voyager of the sea, or become a skeleton warlord of death, but it provides the option for those who wish to, or seek the cosmetic options.
For those who love naval combat, there are two factions you can join for rewards, or if you really just love battle. The Guardians of Fortune seek to prevent the other from making the sea go into ruin, the Servants of the Flame seek to do exactly that for power and control, for a true pirate's life where there are no rules or a code. Of course, the war is never ending so the game doesn't change drastically, but if you reach rank 100 in either faction, you gain a special reward... curses. Special cosmetics that change your body appearance in drastic ways, such as gilded skin, hellfire possession, or being a ghost.
Anyway, if I were to continue any further, I'd just be ranting about how the game works, rather than just it's open world mechanics, but I thought I'd throw this game in the pool.
A thing I learned from watching Masahiro Sakurai's TH-cam channel is that Japanese devs have a strong belief in a central game design tenet: push/pull. Essentially, that for something to be fun, there has to be some kind of tension for the player in doing it; if you push at it, it pushes back, if you pull at it, it pulls back, there's some kind of tug-of-war there. Western game devs don't really seem to have centralized this core concept NEARLY as much as Japanese devs have, from what I've noticed.
So when it comes to really basic things in game, like traversing a space, western devs seem to just presume, "well we want to make it as simple to accomplish as possible, and maybe make it easier/more convenient to skip the boring parts," so if the player pushes something in a direction, there's as *little* resistance as possible. Which is great UI design or UX design if you're talking about general software usage. But it's TERRIBLE *game* design.
Because what makes something a *game* is that tension, that question of success. The Japanese devs look at traversal and think about how they can add that tension back in, not remove it or make it as simple as possible, but actually adding it back in. That's why there's a way to fail at climbing a mountain in BotW, or that you can get a high score when riding Plessy in Mario just moving between places - because there's tension there (both negative and positive examples) and just getting from point A to point B is fun in and of itself, and it's the lack of understanding this push/pull dynamic which is why in every Bethesda game they just add more fast traveling functionality and wonder why it seems that people like their games less and less.
"We made it more and more convenient to get to the tailored content! Why are people mad?" is what the Bethsoft dev says, not understanding that half the fun of their games comes from what happens inbetween their bits of tailored content, and they've erased *that* bit of magic that people used to enjoy in their games (this btw is why Oblivion is the best TES game - the AI routines make the traveling between places extremely random and this adds tension).
That philosophy was taken to its natural extreme in Death Stranding. There's a lot going on in that game, but walking is by far my favorite part. I still can't believe how well they pulled that concept off.
@@camwing Lol exactly. I still remember thinking Death Stranding was what happened when Hideo Kojima heard people talking about "walking simulators" online and decided to make one himself without knowing that people were using the term as a pejorative.
Wether game design is bad or good is really dependent on what you’re trying to accomplish. There’s no objectively bad game design. If you’re trying to ease the traveling sections for the player, creating a fast traveling system would be appropriate.
Also, I don’t think fast traveling is a contributing factor to people disliking modern bethesda games because Skyrim had it and that game sold a lot of copies and different editions throughout many years and people still look at that title fondly.
@@heybalanar Incorrect on the point of objectivity. For humans there are values that are universally understood to be positive or negative. So while there may never be any kind of true objectivity that humans can perceive from outside our own experience, from our limited perspective as both individuals and as a species, we can determine whether a value is positive or negative to an incredible hypermajority of reliability (something like 99.9999999% of the time) which is a *functional* objective reality for us.
This means that yes, there is objectively bad *everything* not just game design, but also that yes, there is objectively bad game design. You're defending (whether intentionally or not) decisions that are best understood as category errors.
Japanese game development has strong strains of coming out of toy development (Nintendo for example, before making games was making household toys and before that, playing cards) while Western game development has always essentially been a branch off of the development of general use software. The culture of making general use software thus bled into ideas of good game development in the west while the culture of making good toys bled into the ideas of good game development in Japan.
Since video games are closer to toys than they are to excel spreadsheets or a word program in most instances, it is more correct to assume a toyific approach as opposed to business software approach to development is more correct for making good video games. Objectively.
I'm a huge fan of Subnautica for.. many reasons. I love how it really utilizes the fear of the unknown to scare players but in a way where it feels satisfying to face those fears and continue onward. Especially because the story is so interesting. Helps that I'm autistic and have a huge obsession with biology- particularly Marine and Speculative LOL This is such a fun video! I'm glad I watched the totk video and found your channel!
I think the main issue at play with open world traversal is that we lump all "Open Worlds" into a single category when there are multiple types, and each type appeals to different kinds of gamers. Let's take Skyrim, Breath of the Wild, and Horizon Zero Dawn as examples.
In Skyrim, there are no towers to climb to reveal the map and/or markers. You discover the whole world organically by either being directed there through a quest, or just stumbling across it. The core gameplay of Skyrim is rather shallow and repetative, but every single quest in the game is dressed up in lore. For me, personally, this is still my all time favorite open world game of all time, and the main reason is because I enjoy set dressing so much. Give me a story that is even the slightest bit interesting and keep the dialogue above awful, and I'll be hooked.
In contrast to that, you have Horizon Zero Dawn that has a much more "traditional" open world exploration model where you climb up towers to reveal the map and activities to do in the area. Luckily, Horizon Zero Dawn doesn't fall into the pitfall of other open world games where the towers unlock literally everything in the area, but the reason that this version of open world exploration doesn't fall flat (for me) is because, again, all the quests you can do are dressed up in interesting story beats. While the majority of activities in Zero Dawn are fairly repetitive, they all have set dressing that fills in the lore of the world. You might have 50 different quests to kill certain enemies in certain areas, but the person asking you to do it will always have a different reason for it.
Lastly, let's discuss Breath of the Wild. In Breath of the Wild, you have towers that you climb to fill in your map, but that's all they do. No additional map markers are unlocked through doing this, and really, aside from being able to look at a nicer map, it doesn't really provide you with anything gameplay wise (maybe you can find a few things by looking at your map alone). The quests in Breath of the Wild are also extremely repetative, and there are barely any in the game. Most of the "quests" boil down to the 120 shrines and Divine Beast quests. The main appeal of Breath of the Wild isn't the quests, it's the exploration and traversal. The bulk of your time in Breath of the Wild will be spent just moving through the world doing micro-activities on your way from point A to point B. This method of exploration is so satisfying that it has rightly been praised by every person on the internet. However, for me personally, this is one of the weaker open world games for me, and it boils down to the point of the open world. Breath of the Wild is personal choices over everything else. Every shrine gives the same reward, and you choose how to apply the reward, there are very few quests that have any kind of story to them, and generally these stories are extremely self contained.
So, we look at these three games, and we can see that each has a different focus and they are going to appeal to different players, even though they will generally have broad appeal. Skyrim is great because of the lore and story, not the gameplay (not that it's bad, just hardly a highlight), Horizon Zero Dawn has a bit of mix between having solid mechanics and lore excuses to engage in these mechanics, and Breath of the Wild focuses on Gameplay over everything else, even payoff. There's nothing wrong with preferring one type of the other, but I do think that at this point we need to really explore the nuances of open worlds more than just "it's got a big interconnected map" because there's much more to them than that.
the bethesda method is lazy, but i still love it. when you walk, you'll see more random ministories as encounters. gives a sense of adventure. my favorite and first playthrough was spend not knowing I was the dragonborn because I didn't feel like grabbing a stone tablet for some random mage and wanted to join the stormcloaks to cut the guys head of who tried to cut my head off lmao
on my quest to do so i got constantly distracted by NPC's so braindead that I felt bad enough to help them, played until I reached around level 50 and walked through the main story as an overpowered superhero
Honestly the difference between how traversal works in these games relies on the underlying methodology behind the minds that make the game, Skyrim and RDR2 want to make these immersive and indepth worlds that actually feel like worlds, filled with atmosphere and spectacle. Super Metroid does a damn good job of this in some areas, the levels feel incredible to explore and it's not because of the gameplay because honestly in terms of gameplay Super Metroid is shit compared to the rest of the series, but its the areas, the forboding feeling that the areas inspire.
I was playing ES Oblivion and even though it's an old as hell game made 800 years ago I stopped and just had to take a moment to enjoy the landscape, it was really pretty and done incredibly well, yeah in terms of gameplay I was just moving forward, but I still remember how fun it was traveling in the game, even thought the last time I played it was a year or two ago.
I love Bowsers Fury but I don't remember a single thing besides having fun and big bowser, there was no real feeling of exploration, no feeling of awe and wonder, I was just hopping around this silly little jungle gym and thats what most games do when they focus on making travel fun.
What each company wants is for the player to play it and to have an enjoyable experience doing so, Nintendo puts priority in fun and exiting gameplay and it does such a damn good job at it.
I wouldn't really say that the travel in Skyrim and RDR2 sucks, I honestly like the feel of it, how slow it is compared to other games. Because real travel is slow, and tedius and true travel, like what you'll see in these games is something that you will rarely experience anywhere else, because it's pretty easy to die.
BOTW came close to perfecting travel in my opinion, making it slow and steady, presenting danger and in some areas it was incredible, the cold places had to be prepped for, the hot desert and lava areas as well, but above all BOTW was made to be fun, and because of that travel was removed that beautiful monotony and spectacle that it had, that ability to enjoy the landscape and replaced it with fast travel, really cool fucking shield surfing, and horses.
What I'm saying really boils down to, Morrowind was fun and I miss that feeling of adventure, of truly exploring the world.
Amazing idea for a video! No matter how people feel about it: Forspoken had incredibly open world traversal. It had the same energy that Prototype and infamous Second Son had with how fast and smoothly you can get around. Not perfect, but definitely better than most games (especially compared to the awful movement in Final Fantasy 16?
I mostly hunt in rdr2, I have good honor, and like any good, self respecting gentleman of 1899: I hunt animals into extinction for pretty coats, boots, vests, shirts, and the like
what really made rdr2 open world perfect to me was that even when riding ur horse most of the time there would be random things happening rather then just an empty open world. you could b riding your horse and see a woman being kidnapped, the wolf man, the ghosts and a number of other things
The swinging difference between Miles and Peter is the same difference between free-running and parkour
Prototype (1 specifically) still has an amazing feeling traveral system, very responsive once you max out your skills and master the system, your agility is unrivaled and you go around parkouring with superpowers, what's not to love?
Haha, this guy just hits me right! Wonder if he has played Dragon's Dogma?
And YES!! If you read this, make a part 2 (1 hour would be fine too).
In my opinion, Dying Light is also an open world game which implemented a creative spin on the "getting from A to B" concept.
In it, you get near infinite possibilities to approach a task. Let me make an example. There's a task in the game which says that you need to get something that the bad guys stole (trying not to be overly specific in order to avoid spoilers), so you can:
A. Go shooty shooty bang bang on 'em
B. Go full on stealth, executing enemies with melee attacks and silenced weapons
C. Throw a firecracker in the camp, wait until Virals arrive, and let them do the job for you (this is the one I went with >:) )
And there are plenty more ways to do this mission, but I don't want to go in detail, because it would take me around an hour to list all the ways in which you can finish it.
Now I'll admit, Dying Light probably isn't the most "Relaxing" game out there, but if you never played it, I highly recommend you give it a shot.
Also, the video was great, I thoroughly enjoyed watching such a masterfully crafted video.
So basically the less realistic an open world is the more fun it is, because realistic world traversal is boring. But zipping around with crazy powers is fun.
All I'm saying is, if I could grappling-hook my way from my bedroom to my toilet every morning, I'd probably injure myself horribly and never do it again. But I'd at least try it once.
I can't belive how well the video was made, i actually was really suprised this channel isn't in the hundreds of thousands of sub range.
A really great channel!
This is coming from someone who is generally a fan of slow-paced media and overall immersive and atmospheric craft.
So I think I'm the only one who liked traversal nature of Red Dead 2 including the cinematic cameras everyone else hated but I loved it due to the vibe and atmosphere it provided to me.
It'd had been a while since a game respected my odd tastes so I was happy.
And I was glad it wasn't afraid to not be traditional and slow things down.
Type 2 fun I think it's called idk
Yes, I am the only one thinks this. And I know that I deserve to be forgotten and called the enemy of gaming- I'm used to it.
but you are never bored in rdr2, there always random encounters on the road to keep you entertained, wether its the o'driscolls or the lemoyne raiders tyring to kill you or a person in need of help being attacked by wolves or a police van transporting a criminal who you can free
Brilliant stuff! I think I've found a new favorite channel!
I recently had one of my other channels have a similar surgence to yours so i know how it feels to finally find your audience, and being part of that audience feels special. Very quality vid, will be sticking around for more in the future :)
Great video mr wing and I'm not just saying that because I'm being paid in earwigs by the big man himself and if I was they've a nice crunch to them and I wouldnt blame me!
You’re very right Wizardo you’re very smart and have pockets full of Earwigs
"Florence Henderson and the Nine Very Special Grains of Basmati Rice" got an unreasonably loud laugh out of me.
We have seen fun open world travel in the past. A long long time ago, in a little game called _Morrowind_
There were no map markers, each corner you turned held new dangers and experiences, and almost all quests had their own intricacies.
The world was made to look large (mainly with fog due to hardware limitations at the time), but when you knew the way, distances were short to travel yet the roads still had many points of interest on offer.
I love morrowind but I think you may have missed the point of the video if you think it has fun open world travel. Until you get the spells and magic items to zoom around, travel is incredibly boring. Like the actual act of traversal blows. I've had several friends bounce off the game for precisely this reason when I recommend it
@@trombonegamer14I partially agree with you, but also remember traversing Morrowind world very captivating, if you only let it be captivating.
NPCs gave you directions on where to go, based on what the world actually looked like.
Often the journey from activating a quest to its destination involved reading road signs, looking for that one tree to turn right behind, then looking for the lake to the east where the objective was.
Great video. I'd love to see you do a similar breakdown of different ways of approaching crafting, or inventory management, as it seems they are an almost obligatory part of modern open-world games. You can definitely add my sub to the list.
I love the transition at 2:07
EXACTLY. I wish I could enjoy both Horizon games but I always get bored because of that pointless filler crowding the map! Love this video and love your sense of humor lol
Definitely make a part two because I need to see more games where traversal is the most fun part. I would also love to know what you think of Death Stranding for that very reason lol...
Damn you made this quick. And a 20 minute video too? Shit takes me like a month and a half
I took a week off of work from my full time desk job as a little birthday gift to myself, and instead of relaxing, I did a full 40 hour week's worth of work on a TH-cam video. My advice would be to probably not do that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When I was playing through Skyrim. Traveling on the roads you’ve traversed 100 times can be boring. But if you get the physical map that comes with the game, and you try to find where all the roads on there take you, it’s 100x more fun. No fast travel, no hyper accurate maps, just an old fashioned map and the road south. You’d look for the border to Hammerfell and find it. It’s always so fun to do that, and something I think should be integrated into more game maps
problem is that skyrim is built on objective markers
20:06 this line made me laugh harder than it should've
Exaggerated swagger of a black teen?
20:05 As soon as you started talking about the game, I suspected this would come up lmao. Great vid, looking forward to more from this channel!
camwing will be a household name if he makes a part 2
Ima say it.
Unpopular opinion:
I liked the Mary Jane sections of Spider Man. It gives Mary Jane something to do other than just be a love interest that gets fridged the minute Peter is off-screen. It gives her character and lets her shine on her own.
In the comics, Mary Jane was hated by fans because the comic book writers of the time didn't know how best to write her. They had already made her effectively retired, and it didn't make sense for her to not be present on occasion in the comics. So they would cut to MJ going "God I hope Peter is doing okay. I worry about him so much." And then cutting back to spider man kicking the shit out of some bad guys.
The problem there was that they wrote her as some stereotypically girly redhead with no personality other than her love for Peter.
In the games, I actually really like when MJ was given some missions, because it let you get into the mind of an otherwise underutilized character.
Now, could they have used some spit-and-polish? God yes. Give MJ more gadgets than a distraction device from Peter. Peters devices can be kept all on the suit, they are extremely compact, and MJ has way more clothes and way more pockets. Give her gadgets that Peter made for her now that they are together again, with personal touches specific to her. Give her a taser from the start and work your way up if you feel the need, but keep the sections there.
While not necessarily open-world, Sonic Frontiers is basically the opposite of Horizon: Zero Dawn. Traversing from one place in the story to another is easy, but the bulk of the game is running around the map and collecting items so you can watch a story cutscene, and with the bulk of the game being running around and platforming, Sonic Team made Sonic a ton of fun to control and run around (especially after update 2), and that is typically more fun than the destination (unless you're about the fight a titan).
I haven't gotten around to Sonic Frontiers, but I think it would definitely be interesting to explore in the followup to this video. This video was based on games that I've already played pretty extensively, so writing the script was mostly based on memory, so I think it would be a lot of fun to focus mostly on games I've never played before. I'll make sure Frontiers goes up on my list.
@@camwing Another thing is that, Frontiers' reception and sales had made SEGA continue to support the game by making updates, with the latest, Update 2, adding more adjustable gameplay options with an unlockable OP spindash that encourages New Game+ and replayability.
I think the reason, why at least for me, bethesda games travel works so well, is because you have a lot to see and explore, but you almost never feel obliged to do so. In games like the Far Cry games, Assassins Creed series, Hogwarts Legacy or Ghost Recon: Wildlands the map is full with markers. Going from point A to B you'll come across dozens of these markers and you feel obliged to do them now, because you might miss one and never find that one later. The existance of markers also alliviates them to seemingly important objectives. So there are two options: Either you try to do them and get fatigued because of their sheer quantity and their repetitiveness and quit the game before finishing it, or you stop doing them at some point, at which the open world is reduced merely to a filler between points of interest in the main story.
Bethesda games do this very differently. The world is full with interesting points and stories to uncover, but with the exception of major dungeons and actual settlements there is no marker and no quest. It is fun to explore and discover that stuff and depending on your playstyle you can explore more or less thoroughly, but what is important: reguardless of your playstyle you never feel like you miss out on important stuff, because not everything has a map marker or a quest attached to it. So either you don't even know that you missed something or you the game indirectly tells you that it does not matter, that you missed something, because it has no effect on your progress in the game, if you don't do it. There is no completion meter, that tells you to do it, you just do it or don't.
Great essays on nice humor, looking forward to part 2!
Hey I just found you. Maybe it's a simple compliment on the surface but you're really good at this. Not everyone realizes the importance of good writing in a video essay (which is ironic seeing as how it's called a "video essay" and not a "video rant" for a reason). Very well done!
My unpopular opinion was I loved the open world travel of death stranding mainly because of the atmosphere
i mean with death stranding its not an unpopular opinion, its either you enjoy the fuck out of the game , or you hate it as fuck , for me i went there with a high sceptisism , cuz i played it on PC after years of its lunch and ppl was shitting on it mostly , but damn i didn't expect that i would enjoy that game , i don't know why cuz abviously the game play is not the most advance and flashy one , but the game just feels good
Great Video! Would love to see more!!
Wow, small world! I was like, 10 minutes into your Switch Sports video when you left this comment.
Outer wilds is basically the definition of great open wirld experience. The whole game is based of discovering by yourself, without any mission at all.
This is the first video of yours I’ve come across and it’s so good. Look forward to watching more of your stuff!
Another banger of a video, Camwing!
Open world travel is a double edged sword. Either the map is empty and you die of boredom or you get distracted by something all the time.
I think weighing Skyrim against Bowser's Fury to determine the quality of their open world traversal is pointless, as they're in completely different genres and aim for completely different things. While yes, they are both open worlds, the open worlds serve very different purposes. Bowser's Fury is first and foremost a platformer game, where movement is at the core of the gameplay experience, and therefore the open world serves as a fun and seamless way to connect the bulk of the game's content while exemplifying the core gameplay experience - but its just that, a great way to seamlessly connect the main content of the game.
With Skyrim and its open world, while the movement itself does boil down to pushing forward, the traversal entails so much more than pointing yourself in the direction of the quest marker and moving towards it, it's about all the things that will sidetrack you away from that quest marker. All the random encounters causing you to stop along your way, small points of interest often including little stories, mysterious caves along the roadside that entice you to delve deeper within, bandit occupied keeps, and sometimes even other quests entirely. Much like Breath of the Wild in that aspect.
What I'm trying to say is, both games aim for very different things with their open worlds, and traversing the open world of both games is fun but for very different reasons, and though traversing Skyrim's open world doesn't personally click with you, that doesn't make it objectively bad.
If you read through my comment, thank you. Sorry for the big wall of text, I'm just a young man trying to articulate my thoughts pertaining to a game I consider one of the most important I've ever played, and this took over an hour for me to write.
The intention wasn't to make a comparison between the two games (since there's very little to actually compare), it was to show how starkly contrasting the approaches were between the different gameplay styles.
My intention with this video is to serve as less of an indictment of mechanics I don't like, and more as a highlight of mechanics I do.
Red Dead 2 and Skyrim are both about the things you'll find on the way between destinations, which there is a LOT of in both games. The actual locomotion mechanics aren't the highlight, because they don't have to be.
I've got 100+ hours of gameplay in Skyrim over the past 12 years or so, I just think the actual locomotion mechanics could be a little more interesting.
@@camwing What do you want from more interesting though?
Get on a Dragon and fly there ignoring everything? That would invalidate filling the world and in turn punish people who like walking. The 9000 optional areas are now completely worthless.
I think that a great way to make good, satisfying and fast traversal is to make it like spiderman, you don't even remember about fast travel because it just feels good to try to get better at swinging
A system that is easy to understand but difficult to master is what would make it very satisfying, maybe having traversal powers like hooks, teleporting and a dash that makes the character run faster but only for a limited time like 10 seconds, and also having places to make the character run faster or jump higher
It makes you interested in playing and makes it very satisfying, and you'll be where you want without even noticing
Definitely my favorite GameCube game.
This video really brings me back to those old Egoraptor sequilitis videos, love to see video game essays that isn’t just someone blandly reading a script👏👏
based and true
Yo, big fan of your work. Thanks for stopping by, it means a lot 👀
really like what you're doing with the channel. you and your brother have great style in regards to the writing, performance, and editing. not sure what your long-term plans with the channel are as it seems like you've got a wide range of interests and talents, but I am excited to see more stuff from ya.
Yeah, we're still trying to figure that out too, but I think we stumbled into a pretty sustainable groove with these last couple videos. Long-ish format gameplay analysis isn't exactly a new concept (obviously) so hopefully we can inject some originality into things.
Unlike how I subconsciously plagiarized the thumbnail from your video on traversal mechanics😅 (I changed it as soon as I realized, I promise I'm not trying to rip you off)
I genuinely didn't think anything of it. Lots of people in this space have similar ideas in regards to everything from topics to thumbnails, and sometimes that means people doing the sameish thing. When I saw it, my assumption was that and not that you were trying to rip me off (especially as if there was any thumbnail text of mine I'd think someone would want to rip off, it wouldn't be one about walking being boring lol). Honestly though, if the other version leads to better CTR, feel free to go with it.
Every time you said "The jorney is more important than the destination" I could not see it as a reference to Brandon Sanderson and "Strenght before Weakness, Life before Death, Journey before Destination" ❤
Kingdom Come Deliverance, and Elden Ring deserve some mention. I feel Elden Ring is still somewhat linear, due to the world literally being shaped like a finger, you can’t go from Caelid to Leyndell without warping, or traveling 80% of the map via everywhere else.
I feel like I had a completely different experience than everyone else playing Red Dead 2 because I think the way I played it was pretty fun. My reasons/methodology was this:
1) I played Low Honor for most of the game until Chapter 6. With that I racked up a considerable bounty and while doing anything from traversal, to hunting to going for side missions I was always at risk of being ambushed by bounty hunters. I also robbed people a lot and did as much as I wanted to do. With that a lot of my experience playing Red Dead 2 the traversal was pretty fun, I only ever used fast travel pre-Epilogue when I was at camp since I played on the 1.00 version
2) The Map is actually pretty small and well designed. I was always hunting too which I think added to the amount of engagement I had with the game and combining that with random events the map seemed to always be doing something
3) I think the fast that horses are something you have to maintain is a good way of setting it apart from GTA, I often would take shortcuts or get into shootouts then have to make sure my horse is okay before I could continue which in the case of the latter lead to some interesting moments where I would abandon a horse during a massive gunfight and slowly watch it die on my map from far away lol. I also think the horse riding isnt engaging because it’s a fun activity to do on its own, what makes the horse riding fun is that it is a great extension of the gunplay. Thats the thing that to me sets RDR from GTA, that you have just as much control of weaponry when on a horse as you do on foot and you have to manage a horse which feels alive whilst you shoot people
All of that isnt disparaging or essay or anything just wanted to throw my two cents. You should do a hitman essay because i need more of those to watch lmao
In the case of red dead 2, I never thought rockstar wanted to make the travel “fun”, I think they wanted to make it real. Think of it like a road trip, sure you have those fun moments as you travel, and your moments of fresh air with pit stops, but most of a road trip is just the drive. Now when you hear the idea of travel not being fun your mind immediately assumes that it means bad, but like that road-trip, travel in red dead feels long, not fun. I think that was the whole point of why travel is like that in rdr2, it makes the distances feel real, long, and challenging, not like it’s a game and instead like it’s real. For an example, in red dead online I had to do a long distance delivery trip from one side of the map to the other, the trip itself was only 10-15 minutes but it felt like hours, which I think helps my point of that the travel wasn’t game-like, but instead “real-like” in typical rockstar fashion
This is a fantastic video! To add to open world traversal and good open world video games.
I think how the game responds might be a factor? Admittedly I’m more familiar with metroidvanias and platformers but the way the game reacts to what you do just feels very important.
I adore Outer Wilds and piloting the ship and exploring the planets is really fun to me, and I play on keyboard! I think the map being so small while feeling so big helps (since there’s less space in between everything) but exploring in that game is just great. Partially cause the game’s story and mystery is just fantastic but also cause there’s a lot of things to take into account while playing Outer Wilds, from your speed, to the gravity, to your resources to how the area changes overtime. But also due to one Really Important Kinda Spoiler Game Mechanic your encourages to go and try doing something dangerous. Traversal is almost like a science experiment really. If I do X what will happen? How much fuel can I use? Is it possible to do Y? And it just makes it all the more fun.
A Short Hike and Lil Gator Game are also fantastic, they have different ways of movement but the way there maps are made are Really Good for similar reasons. There’s so many Ways to traverse in those games, so many different ways of getting to a place, and since the maps are pretty small, everything’s more interconnected. When you climb a mountain fall because you overestimated the amount of energy you had, there’s a bunch of other ways to get to where you need to be if you just look around, heck falling down the mountain might of made you notice a completely different path, which encourages exploration and problem solving and what not.
Honestly I can talk forever about games which have good traversal, it’s always really important to me that it feels interesting. Uh Good video if you ever make a part 2 I’d be really happy to watch it.
Funny you should bring up A Short Hike, my brother/co-editor brought it up shortly after I finished writing the script and had already recorded the audio. I know it's not necessarily an open world game, but it has some really awesome looking traversal mechanics, so it's sitting on my Steam Deck waiting for a couple hours of free time to play. I'm really looking forward to it.
And I kinda feel like Metroidvanias belong in their own category. They're definitely open world, but it's almost like, a sub-category that could be nestled underneath the open world genre. That said, I especially love the traversal mechanics of Ori and the Will of the Wisps, moving throughout that world is insanely satisfying
Yeah man the bash move is so cool
Cyberpunk 2077, Guild Wars 2, and Conan Exiles has some really fun open world traveling IMO. These game have fast travel, but the worlds are fun and engaging enough that I never do it. CP77 I just love driving around, or parkouring all over the place. Guild Wars 2 has great mounts with different abilities to get you around, and the glider. Conan Exiles has great traversal mechanics like being able to climb _everything._ I go out rock climbing just to do it in that game.
I don't remember which one it is but one of the Saints Row games was really fun when it came to getting around in the game world.
your content is awesome keep it up mate.
Would love to see you talk about Sunset Overdrive and the way the movement is tied to the combat
Talking about traversal in open world videogames without even mentioning death stranding is a crime
i love this video so much wow, its a wonder you dont have like 100k because this is so high quality and seems like a video you'd get from a really popular channel
In 2017, Botw ruined every other game for me. Horizon Zero Dawn's open world sucked ass compared to Hyrule
camwing: "please do not put extended sequences of controlling Mary Jane in Spider-Man 2".
Insomniac: "Ok, we won't make you play as Mary Jane in Spider-Man 2."
also Insomnia [maybe, I'm guessing here]: "We'll included extended sequences of walking around as Harry Osborne."
I think Outer Wilds is another great example of traversal done right. It's basically the main part of the game.
Well outer wilds does nearly everything perfectly lol I can't imagine how another game could even take inspiration from it because of how unique it is
It's literally just hold W until you get to the point of interest with the only difference being you're in a spaceship instead walking or riding a horse.
Outer Wilds is a good game but the fanboys pissing their pants just at the thought of the game (like the guy above talking how it's perfect in every way) are so annoying.
@@sharku8417 It's more than just "hold w" tho. In-space travel isn't the best traveling part. In-planet travel has you using thrusters up, down, to the side, avoiding typhoons, giant anglerfish, falling balls of lava. Add in the variety of different gravity and the ship traversal is really enjoyable. The on-foot traveling is amazing too because you have to carefully decide where to go and when, and gravity puzzles and quantum shenanigans add to that (Also slowly imploding planet). That's all without even talking about the DLC movement with rafts, lights, etc.
I can definitely see how @plugshirt1762 sees the game as almost perfect, because as they said, it's so unique and it does all of it's unique things really well. It's not a massive game, so it doesn't have 'normal' gameplay, but that's why I think people like it so much, and why I love the traveling too.
@@sharku8417 if you’re going to trash talk me you could at least bother replying to me or making an actual point ffs. The other guys reply though spells out am everything I would have said so it would be a bit redundant to restate it all
The fact you so thoroughly enjoyed Just Cause really explains why Horizon didn’t clicked for you!
Riding on RDR2 was actually pretty relaxing and gave us time to reflect on whatever we just did in the linear narrative with tit bits of random encounters sprinkled inbetween.
I was genuinely surprised at how many people found the detailed mechanics in the game frustrating when my tik tok brain vibed with that rare type of non-cozy video game.
Its ALWAYS the underrated youtubers with like 10k subscribers that make the most enjoyable and meaningful content. Damn I dont even remember how long its been since I watched a youtube video thats about 20 minutes long and isnt related to school or studies. Good sstuff man, very on point
most open world games have the boring ass, "you can walk and run, that's it", but botw has both of those as well as gliding, climbing and of course the glitches that've been discovered over the years, and best of all everything feels great to play and do.
sidenote: does anyone else feel like breath of the wild was a demo of tears of the kingdom?
Excellent video. So glad I subscribed after your last one
Im so glad that someone has touched on the Just Cause series, because I absolutely love those kinds of games. JC3 is the best
People talk a lot about Spiderman's open world traversal. But for some reason, no one knows about Insomniac's previous open world game: Sunset Overdrive. The game has one of the most fun and unique movement systems I've seen. Its so fun that I think the biggest misstep in the game's development was adding fast travel. Its a shame its probably never going to get a sequel. I would highly recommend trying it. It's on XBox/PC Game Pass so if you have it, the game is worth a shot.
It's nice to have the option, at least you aren't forced to use it.
That game is underrated but the movement and the map size felt good enough to never really fast travel. I remember the fast travel exists when the character actually saids they can fast travel which is pretty funny.
What really held back Horizon: Zero Dawn for me was the case of acute Ubisoft collionnitus where you feel obligated to pick everything up because they put shiny, pulsing markers on every damn rock and stick since you'll inevitably need truckloads of them for crafting recipes (played the game on the hardest difficulty and every dino was tanky as hell).
There was a really good quote I remember about game design. I think it was about Spyro pr Super mario 64, but basically it was about how if you could make just running around as the character a fun feeling experience then built the rest of the game around it you had a good game