I want a corridor. It means they actually have to tell a story. Open worlds are too often mostly a large collection of lore for you to slowly read and tease out. But world building and lore doesn’t make a game. For many of us, it’s about the journey and story. I don’t need to make world changing decisions when I’m playing “hero.” I want to know heros story with all its cliches and tropes. Give me puzzles to solve, challenges to overcome, and entertaining gameplay instead “choose your own adventure.” It’s like the industry collectively decided that player agency, open worlds, and having options that changed how the story went somehow is what made a game good.
I don’t need to make world changing decisions when I’m playing “hero.”
This is something so many story tellers in gaming and movies don’t get. The story doesn’t have to be about saving the world, the universe, the multiverse or the entire nature of reality. In fact, I would prefer it if the stakes are low enough that the protagonist has actual choices instead of being pushed heavily into the “of course I am going to save the world” option of each “choice”.
I meant as in, I as a player don’t need to be able to make changes that dramatically alter the game world in which I am playing and alter the story beats that I’ll hit.
I don’t like having to make a decision that may lock off entire areas or missions in the game. I no longer have time to devote a replay of a 60 hour game so that I can experience a different story line.
Otherwise, yes. The stakes the character faces in the story don’t always need to be “save the world.”
Personally, I am playing the game to enjoy the story of the character I am playing as. Not to play as me and make my own personal decisions.
This has been exactly my feeling for the past decade or so. I love open world, when you have a good concept and a solid story. But corridor is the best way to convey that story and keep the player engaged.
For me, Assassin’s Creed is the ultimate brilliance to rags example: corridor gameplay that became an open world as you progressed in the early games. Which evolved into the meandering, mindless stories of the more recent games. I genuinely have no idea what Valhalla was supposed to be about lol. I finished it, but it was 120 hours I’d rather have back. A corridor style for the late 2010/20s games would have made all of them far more interesting, as they were phenomenal concepts imo.
All this to say, I don’t mind some impactful world decisions that affect story arcs, but bring back the dang corridor and stop hiding behind massive content dumps… Damn it!
I’ll take a corridor over an open world with a loose main story and 500 repetitive side quests
I have heard here on Lemmy or Reddit that all the games were meant to be open world games but only limited by the tech of its age.
Screw that thought!
I don’t believe the dream of all/most game devs were making empty endless maps.
That’s such an awful opinion lol
That’s like saying all books should be Choose Your Own Adventure…
I want a corridor. It means they actually have to tell a story. Open worlds are too often mostly a large collection of lore for you to slowly read and tease out. But world building and lore doesn’t make a game. For many of us, it’s about the journey and story. I don’t need to make world changing decisions when I’m playing “hero.” I want to know heros story with all its cliches and tropes. Give me puzzles to solve, challenges to overcome, and entertaining gameplay instead “choose your own adventure.” It’s like the industry collectively decided that player agency, open worlds, and having options that changed how the story went somehow is what made a game good.
This is something so many story tellers in gaming and movies don’t get. The story doesn’t have to be about saving the world, the universe, the multiverse or the entire nature of reality. In fact, I would prefer it if the stakes are low enough that the protagonist has actual choices instead of being pushed heavily into the “of course I am going to save the world” option of each “choice”.
I meant as in, I as a player don’t need to be able to make changes that dramatically alter the game world in which I am playing and alter the story beats that I’ll hit.
I don’t like having to make a decision that may lock off entire areas or missions in the game. I no longer have time to devote a replay of a 60 hour game so that I can experience a different story line.
Otherwise, yes. The stakes the character faces in the story don’t always need to be “save the world.”
Personally, I am playing the game to enjoy the story of the character I am playing as. Not to play as me and make my own personal decisions.
This has been exactly my feeling for the past decade or so. I love open world, when you have a good concept and a solid story. But corridor is the best way to convey that story and keep the player engaged.
For me, Assassin’s Creed is the ultimate brilliance to rags example: corridor gameplay that became an open world as you progressed in the early games. Which evolved into the meandering, mindless stories of the more recent games. I genuinely have no idea what Valhalla was supposed to be about lol. I finished it, but it was 120 hours I’d rather have back. A corridor style for the late 2010/20s games would have made all of them far more interesting, as they were phenomenal concepts imo.
All this to say, I don’t mind some impactful world decisions that affect story arcs, but bring back the dang corridor and stop hiding behind massive content dumps… Damn it!
Ah yes. The old riches to rags strategy.