Topic: Open World Games Discussion

@Mountain_Man thank you that was interesting, although a little disheartening to hear that a 7 year old game pushes a modern console to its limit.

Do the other open world games suffer from the same low resolution and reduced framerate on Switch?

That isn’t really a flat question. The Switch has pretty limited hardware, which means developers really need to go the extra mile in the optimisation department to get the games looking and running well. And this usually results regardless, in maybe around 720p or lower resolution, possibly upscaled and a capped 30fps.

For every Breath of the Wild, which for me has ran almost flawlessly and looks great in handheld and docked you have say Sword or Shield’s chubby (LOL! Freudian slip? I dunno why I wrote chubby, haha) I meant CHOPPY wild areas and draw distance of about 3 centimetres in front of you.

You’ll really need to do your research on basically any Switch port you’re interested in, as you’ll never quite know what you’re going to get.

A beautiful Open World game for kids with No violence at all.

Yonder the Cloud Catcher Chronicles

Grow: Song of the Evertree

Both of these games made by same indie developer Prideful Sloth.

@Pizzamorg cheers, I'm not having much luck with this console.
First I found out I have to buy all my classic Nintendo games again and now this. I should have paid more attention before buying it but got excited for Metroid and it was an impulse buy. Its actually a really disappointing bit of hardware considering that it cost more than my Series S and can't even run older games optimally - even worse because Metroid only kept me busy for a day

The Switch really does operate in it’s own sort of pocket in this industry. Relying more on it’s first party exclusives, it’s gimmicks and plugging the gaps others aren’t filling, over perhaps the more modern evolutions and conveniences that drive Sony and Microsoft. I do think a lot of stuff Nintendo do is very anti-consumer and this kinda seems more so now, when you see all the steps Microsoft are taking to preserve older titles and make as many games available at all times to their players.

I do think Nintendo get away with doing a lot of shady stuff that simply wouldn’t fly anywhere, because of nostalgia and a fiercely dedicated fan base but I also think the Switch is trying to do it’s own thing so it isn’t really comparable as directly, as say PlayStation and Xbox.

I do think open world gaming has played a key role in the Switch's success. Having incomprehensibly huge game worlds letting you go wherever you want is just such a broadly appealing concept that it's no surprise those types of games have been popular. So that style of game really should be an essential part of your game lineup. I also feel like the Wii U was sorely lacking large, exploration focused games like this and conversely that might have played a role in its failure (it probably wouldn't have saved it, but if we had more, I could've seen it at least getting to like, Gamecube levels).

Beyond that though, I think they do a really good job of showing off how the hybrid nature of the Switch benefits gaming. Handhelds have never had games anywhere near as vast and advanced as BotW, and being to take a large open world game from your TV screen and continue playing them wherever you want is a complete game changer. It's an easy way to market the concept.

I myself have always been drawn in by large, explorable game worlds. That's what first got me into gaming because back when gaming when 3D on the N64, I saw these sprawling sandboxes that you can wander around in and explore, and open world games like BotW are the modern iteration of that. I was very disappointed that the more sandbox and explorable styles of video games kind of went away on the Wii U, I was waiting throughout its entire generation to see a sandbox Mario (or even something more like Galaxy that at least had some remnants of the sandbox gameplay) or a Metroid Prime 4 or a 3D Zelda (which we DID eventually get, but too late to help the Wii U) and those kinds of games mostly just didn't come so I ended up just skipping the Wii U altogether. In direct contrast was the Switch where these kinds of games came roaring back bigger and better than ever so contrary to the Wii U, I immediately jumped onto the Switch. The Switch and its open world games really recreate that same sense of freedom and wonder that I first experienced on the N64 when I was a kid, except more modernized and far larger and more open than I would've ever thought possible. And surely there must be other children that are also having that same sort of experience for the first time on the Switch.

Not buying a Wii U because of having "no openworld games" is a weak argument. Before the Switch came out, Wii U had most openworld games on a Nintendo console:

Xenoblade Chronicles X
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Lego City Undercover
Mass Effect 3 - Special Edition
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut
Assassin's Creed III
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Batman Arkham City
Batman Arkham Origins
Watch_Dogs
Minecraft - Wii U Edition
and more...

To make some sense just say "Wii U unfortunately hadn't this specific openworld game (insert title here) that I really wanted."

I never said it had "no open world games", I said it had very few. There's a difference.

Not really saying a whole lot, as open world gameplay wasn't really prevalent until the 2010s (largely fueled by the success of Skyrim and BotW)

Sorry, I should've specified "first party", as I largely ignore most third party games as they tend to not be as creative (I play some, but not a lot, and you know... first party games are what get people to choose one console over another so it's kind of important to have them). So that significantly cuts down on this list, which is mainly made up of third party ports. Also IIRC, many of these ports were gimped/had performance issues, so it wouldn't really be worthwhile buying them on Wii U over other platforms anyway. That just leaves you with Xenoblade, Wind Waker HD (a GC remaster that's only really open world in the sailing and was linear as hell in the land based traditional Zelda gameplay), and BotW (which ended up being a cross gen title that everyone just bought on Switch). Not a very inspiring list.

And if you expand it from strictly "open world" games to 3D adventure games (throwing in genres like sandbox platformers, linear action adventure games, and 3D Metroidvanias), things look even more dire, as the Wii U was sorely lacking in sandbox platformers (the only 3D Mario game was a linear 3D Land sequel and there was no 3D Mario like 64, Sunshine, Odyssey, or even Galaxy which was kind of close to one) and had no 3D Metroidvanias (No Metroid Prime 4 or well... any Metroid game whatsoever) and all that broader scope DOES add is another Zelda port. So yeah, especially in terms of first party the Wii U was just not a good console for those wanting large, explorable game worlds as Nintendo did not release games of that style early and often. Most of its games were more small scale linear platformers and combat focused games, and several of the IPs that Nintendo fans typically expect to see to provide that exploration focused gameplay either went in other directions or skipped the console altogether. And if you look at the Wii U's first party lineup, they are pretty much lacking variety (it's basically linear platformer, linear platformer, linear combat game, linear platformer, multiplayer game, linear platformer, linear combat game).

@Bolt_Strike Oh I see...
You only count 1st party openworld games.
Ok. Then it's Xenoblade X, Wind Waker HD and BotW versus BotW.

Oh, I wasn't aware you restrict yourself to only first party and then count action-adventures and metroidvanias as well.

I was focusing on the people stating that Wii U had no openworld games, without limiting my view to just one publisher or branching out to other genres. I wasn't talking to anyone directly. Just my opinion on how Wii U was the best Nintendo console for openworld games (before the Switch came out and topped it).

No, I don't want to expand it. There's probably a better thread for that topic.

You're really starting to sound like a troll.

@Mountain_Man It started before that comment. The FPS question was obvious enough.

@Bolt_Strike Dismissing all those third party games as being 'better on other systems' is a bit weak. They're all very good games and perfectly playable on Wii U. I played almost the entirety of Watch_Dogs off-TV via the gamepad screen. Totally justified buying and playing that game on Wii U - I really enjoyed it and would not have had as good an experience on any other platform, as off-TV play is a big plus for me, and was a major factor in me buying my Wii U in the first place.

Lots of people have referred to the Wii U version of that Deus Ex being the definitive way to play it too.

@Bolt_Strike
I enjoy a lot LEGO CITY UNDERCOVER Wii U version before i triple dipped Switch and PS4 version.
Also, not every 3rd party games are bad.

@Pizzamorg
Try Yonder the Cloud Catcher Chronicles , an open world game without any violence, 100% peaceful.
I have finished the game two times (Switch version in July 2018, PS4 version in August 2021)

I'm done with this site, it's the most unhelpful forum I've ever been on. You guys are a bunch of elitist *****.

Yes, but I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. No more.

@SKTTR No, it's not just BotW on Switch. It's BotW (with a sequel coming), 2 Xenoblade games, and a Pokemon game. Plus if you expand it into 3D adventure games, you can throw in Odyssey and Pokemon SwSh as well.

@gcunit If you say so, I didn't research them too much hence the "IIRC". Either way, the first party games deserve larger scrutiny here because those are exclusives and the games that Nintendo is using to sell the consolel.

Haha, ok maybe that Pokémon game (but it isn't out yet). In that case, let me help you and add BotW2 too.

And have you played any Xenoblade? Xenoblade X is openworld, Xeno 1 and 2 are not. Sure, Xeno 1 and 2 have quite large areas, but the playing field is not one interconnected massive world like in Xeno X or BotW.

And no, I still don't want to add those 3D action-adventures with big areas. This thread is 'Open World Discussion' so I rather not open a different can of worms.

I really should remove Deus Ex and Mass Effect 3 from my list, as they're not real openworld games, even though they give that feeling of being in a breathing massive interconnected world where your decisions are impactful.

The only thing stopping XC2 from being an open world game is that you can't just jump into the cloud sea and swim to another continent without need for a loading screen. That's something that you're only likely to do in XCX a handful of times, so it doesn't really affect the way the game is played that much, but a line has to be drawn somewhere and the games end up on either side of it.

XC1 has a much more linear map, large chunks of which you only ever get to traverse once and get roped off for the rest of the game, so it's not even close. Some of the individual areas - like Mechonis Field and Eryth Sea - were impressively large for a game that ran on the Wii though.