Topic: Open World Games Discussion

With the release of the GTA trilogy, it got me thinking about how the Switch has been a real turning point for open world gaming on Nintendo hardware.
Granted, the DS had some great releases like GTA Chinatown Wars but we never saw anything as fully fledged as Breath of The Wild, The Witcher 3, and Dying Light etc.
Personally, this new lease of open world life has been a game changer for me. It's not like the era where I found myself turning away from my Wii because I wanted to explore something like Red Dead Redemption or Skyrim.
It feels like open world gaming has been integral to the Switch's appeal in a way. Especially given that two of its initial titles (BOTW and Mario Odyssey) were both open world.
Thoughts?

An open world games discussion? This could go anywhere…

(Sorry…)

The Switch is the first handheld console powerful enough to handle open world gaming. It’s a big deal. Thoroughly enjoyed The Switcher - far more than I would have enjoyed it tethered to my technically superior laptop. I love it - especially with the Switch’s quick resume. I don’t want every game to be open world, but I do appreciate a really good one.

Definitely agree. I just felt that it was one of the few genres severely lacking on Nintendo consoles in the past. It still cracks me up that back when GTA V released, Nintendo Life published an article suggesting Wind Waker HD as an open world alternative for the Wii U. At least now, there's a whole bunch of titles like Saints Row and L. A. Noire to choose from.

One series that I love and it's open world is the Forza Horizon series. I admit open world games like Skyrim and Fallout I get bored of really quickly but Forza Horizon I don't know why that is but for me at least open world racing games are just so relaxing.

Maybe it is a vague autism thing on my end, but I love an open world. Just plopping a point down on a map, heading in that direction and seeing what I find along the way is a joy unlike anything for me. That said, there is for sure an over saturation of open world games and it can become easy to get fatigued.

I love the idea of a world within a little handheld device. Open world games are the closest thing to that, and Breath of the Wild is the very best example. The verticality achieved via the climbing and the gliding is an essential ingredient, and the almost-seamlessness is the icing on the cake. Witcher 3 is an interesting game, but the controls are a wee bit janky, the verticality is weak, and the seamlessness is not bad but could be better.

Mario Odyssey is not open-world in my book.

Interested to see how open-world the new Kirby game will be.

I'd recommend LEGO Worlds to anyone who hasn't tried it but would be interested in a sandbox environment. As a game it's pretty weak, and it's not exactly seamless, but as a sandbox where you can dick around (including in 2-player local) going high and deep, building stuff and smashing stuff up, it's good fun. There's some unfulfilled potential in that game and I hope LEGO produce a sequel some day.

I also love open world games! Skyrim on the Switch is like a dream come true! Same with BotW, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Assassin's Creed 3 and 4.

A shame we did not get Fallout, TES Oblivion

I’m not sure I’m a fan of open world games. BotW is my least favourite 3D Zelda. And even though I enjoyed GTAV I’ve never finished it. Maybe I need linear objectives to keep my interest?

@CactusMan Even in games like GTA I spend way to much time just cruising around lol, but I can see where you are coming from. I do like the Burnout series too especially Burnout Paradise but that's a case where what they did Forza Horizon did better.

Open world is my favorite genre of games that AAA gaming makes me want to hate.

Open world games are pretty cool sometimes, but seeing them become the only way to make a big budget single player game half the time makes me disinterested, especially when they're usually so limited in genre. My favorite example is how Ghost of Tsushima seems simultaneously like the best and most eye rollingly standard game I've ever seen. And with very rare exceptions, being told a world is incredibly large just makes me think its gonna be filled with tons of uninteresting filler content instead of anything interesting.

Feels like one of the (obviously unintentional) benefits of sticking with Nintendo only after the 360 era is that there aren't as many to choose from, and it seems like they usually only port the really beloved ones to Switch if any. So when BOTW2 comes out I won't be exhausted by the 20 other ones coming out next year (not that I'd buy most of those even if I had a PS5).

In hindsight I think my favorite open world game might actually be Arkham City, precisely because its a relatively small open world. I didn't feel like that game was wasting my time or that it felt needlessly padded, despite also having lots of extra collectibles to find in the world.

But despite all that, its cool once in a while to play a needlessly large game. I did play Assassin's Creed every year through 2013, even if I did eventually get sick of it. And even with something like Wind Waker HD, I did have a ton of fun just going from each square of the map and finding all the items in the game like a checklist. That aspect is a huge reason why the HD version made me love Wind Waker again.

I must say that for all the open world games I have loved, I don’t think I’ve played one where I haven’t thought that making the map just a bit smaller wouldn’t be to the game’s benefit.

Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS are technically open world games. They're just very small worlds.

Well if you take into account other people's towns, its actually a massive open world that no one will ever fully explore. : O

1. LEGO CITY UNDERCOVER
2. Yonder the Cloud Catcher Chronicles
3. Go Vacation

I’d love to see a remake of oblivion and morrowind come to switch also mass effect but that won’t be happening😡

I'm a big fan of open world games, especially the Ubisoft ones. The recent Assassin's Creed games have been phenomenal, I've sunk 100s of hours into both Odyssey and Valhalla without any form of burnout as there's so much to discover (plus wiping out entire towns enemies without being spotted is always fun).

I'm really looking forward to the Witcher 3 update as I enjoyed the game but some of the textures and resolutions were pretty rough on Xbox1 and the load times were ridiculous which killed some of the enjoyment. Might pick it up on Switch while I wait as I've heard so much about the wonder port and it should be cheap by now, does it run at a steady 60FPS @720 or is it a little jittery?

No.

@gcunit what do you mean?
If it doesn't have a decent framerate or resolution why is everyone raving about it as a wonder port?
Sorry if it's a stupid question but I'm new to switch, I thought it was a current gen console when I bought it.

Two open world games I would like to see released on the Switch are Fallout 3 (seems like it has been forgotten by Bethesda amidst all the Skyrim love), and Batman Arkham City and Arkham Knight.

@RandomNPC Everything you want to know about The Witcher 3 on the Switch: