To put it bluntly, there nothing is more fun — or more difficult — than an open-world video game. Fire one and you’re quickly faced with enough real estate to spend hours happily exploring or an abyss that leaves you frustrated and bored. The world map can be friend or foe, but it’s often difficult to know at the outset which game world will be welcoming and engaging and which will be a bad time.
Forbidden Horizon in the West is the previous game, a game that tackles the open world concept extremely well. I’ve spent around 75 hours in the game so far, and even though I finished the main story a while ago, I’m still eager to spend time in its deliciously crafted world. Guerrilla Games’ Sequel Horizon Zero Dawn is the kind of game that sits on its rails for the first 5 to 10 hours, pulling you into the story before dropping you off to explore. It creates structure and a sense of goal for the game — the ideal introduction to a game built around large open spaces.
This kind of action is in stark contrast to an open world game like The Witcher 3, while expanding, is also overwhelming. A few days after playing the game, I threw down my controller in frustration when I got to a big city and realized it would take hour to traverse all its streets, talk to all its NPCs, and complete quests. I still like the game to some extent, but it doesn’t attract me Forbidden Horizon in the West did.
It’s easy to assume I’ve been sucked in Forbidden Horizon in the West and not The Witcher 3 because i fell in love Zero Dawn and my only exposure to the Witcher universe before the game was Henry Cavill show on Netflix. I do not think so. Even when we’re comparing Zero Dawn and The Witcher 3we will still have this same discussion because even if the world of Horizon is completely new, its structured style appeals to me in a way Witcher 3Wilder gameplay than of no.
The Witcher 3 is designed to encourage you to explore before doing the main story quests, to the point where you are actually punished if you don’t fully investigate an area before proceeding. (If your current level is higher than the quest level, you will get minimal or no experience points for completing the quest. Let me tell you how frustrating that can be when you are someone who likes to be keep leveling so you don’t die anytime and you won’t find this out until 15 hours of gameplay.) I know some people who thrive in games built like this where there are no real rules or limits and possibilities is endless; I am not one of them.
For me, that was exhausting. Walking into a game where I feel like I have very little structure or guidance and just expect to explore and stumble across things to do without being invested in the world feels overwhelming. With Forbidden Horizon in the West, once I really immersed and loved every second of the game, I started to enjoy exploring every nook and cranny of the map. I really enjoy backtracking and can speed myself however I want. When I started to feel aimless, I could just continue with the main story, but I didn’t feel compelled to focus on anything in particular.
There is no right or wrong way to do open world. Both of these approaches are valid and suitable for many different types of players. But sometimes people are too focused on the magic of an open world, and the freedom to go anywhere. When that starts to feel like an obligation, it’s not freedom at all.
