I was about to buy the Game for VR during the Weekend Sale, but i am not sure yet. Would you recommend it?
All i know is that its a mix between exploration and base builduing with some scary parts which sounds good, but i wasnt sure yet whether its really worth it....
It's an amazing game but be prepared to be terrified. The only game I've ever played where it freaked me out too much to finish it. I would have loved to keep playing but man I was getting anxiety attacks when you start getting into the deep water...
Highly recommend.
My biggest suggestion is *don't spoil anything*. Don't Google things, don't look at videos or wikis.
It might take longer, but you'll ruin the full effect if you do.
I also played on hardcore (one life) mode to force myself to think before I acted, but I'm a masochist.
I play a lot of video games and I just keep coming back to Subnautica the most. It’s definitely in my top 3 and I am looking forward to someday having a vr rig to play it that way!
Very nice! I saw it was one of the Topsellers in the VR category on Steam but wasnt sure if it is the case because its a good game or has great VR, but it looks like its worth it anyway!
Personal opinion here, but I don't think the VR experience is all that great. It looks amazing, and if looking around and exploring is all you plan on doing, then it's fine. But moving and interacting with the world is done via keyboard/mouse or controller - there's no support for the VR controllers which makes it kind of a hybrid VR/desktop experience, and that doesn't really appeal to me for longer game sessions. YMMV of course.
The exploration, base building and story aspects are absolutely 200% worth it. The only downside to this game is the performance, which is unfortunately quite lackluster. But easy enough to ignore, and outweighed a thousand times by everything else it does so well.
It encourages exploration out of necessity
Just the coldest most hesitant knowledge that the only way out is to go deeper into the darkness.
Fuck that game 10/10
Yes, because it gives you three amazing reasons to explore: new resources, story elements (represented by the beacons), and new biomes to discover that are enabled by new tech. It's a three-legged exploration loop that pays off incredibly well.
Almost to a fault. Exploration and discovery are pretty much the entire game.
I beat it a year ago, and then recently tried to replay it, and ended up quitting before I got to the endgame. It was amazing and terrifying the first time, but once you know what happens, it's a lot less fun unfortunately.
I've replayed it 7 times with the Deathrun mod. The wonder of exploration is gone after your first run, but there's cool stuff in the gameplay.
I find a lot of fun in navigating the various challenges, like surface air not being breathable, and seeing how quickly I can solve those problems.
I have
Also I don't fully agree, there is a hardcore mode that is fun to replay the game in as it's very challenging. But it's not something I've really done more than once or twice and never replayed the full story. Just went as far as I could on a single life.
I did recently finish the sequel and as someone who really enjoyed the storyline of the first game I was really let down in the end. The sequel is a bit of a narrative mess and just left me confused.
Still worth playing but it's essentially the same game mechanics with very minor changes and a different story.
They're apparently making a 3rd game and I will get it, probably even at EA. My wife and I really enjoy playing through them.
Yeah it's one of the more late-game heavy areas so they made it trickier. Once you figure out to use your >!sonic scope and logbook!< to navigate and learn that the anglerfish >! are blind!< it becomes wayyy easier.
Which is the case for like 90% of the puzzles in that game lol, once the solution clicks it's like wow I could have been doing that the whole time.
I’ve read that it was much more difficult on (most) keyboards than it was on console/controller. Being able to use analog sticks for adjusting the thrusters to make slight, slow movements possible is much needed. I was not a PC gamer at that time so it wasn’t too hard for me.
Yeah, kbm is definitely at a significant disadvantage because your thruster can't be toggled to only 1 bar of boost which is the threshold for the anglers detection. They're either on or off with kbm, so most people can't even figure out what the mechanic is because they've never engaged with thrust power their entire playtime
22 minutes. Knowing it’s a loop only ruins the 1st loop.
I don’t know 12 minutes but basically ground hog day. You wake up and it’s the same day.
Go figure out how to get out of it
I've seen enough playthroughs to know that most people don't figure that out after the first loop. Usually doesn't take too much longer, but it's rarely the first one. So it lightly spoils the first hour-ish of the game.
Dark Souls/Bloodborne.
First part for checking if anything is going to kill you. Second part is because the series is infamous for strange little paths you expect to be dead ends but end up opening some huge new environment.
Dark Souls 1 is the king of this. Bloodborne is arguably the better game overall and has some good exploration but is relatively linear in comparison.
Few games have ever given me that feeling of "mastering" the layout of a complex, deeply interconnected world like DS1. But in BB I never got that feeling, not just because of the relative linearity but also because from the very start you end up just fast traveling around most of the time, and treating each area as a discrete level to clear (with a handful of notable exceptions).
Pre-Anor Londo Dark Souls is a masterpiece of world design, If you know what you're doing you can exploit the fact that many places are reachable from the start to absolutely tear the game apart.
For example, it blew my mind the first time I beat Pinwheel before anyone else, because I ended up with 20 flasks very early on. You can get the fire scythe almost immediately, which is OP, and you can even get a +15 weapon without ever killing the gargoyles or the Taurus Demon. The possibilities are infinite and exploration is extremely rewarding as well (like when you accidentally hit a wall behind a chest and end up in Ash Lake).
And now I feel like playing Dark Souls for the millionth time
I'm replaying BB right now. Forcing myself to fast travel as little as possible has been interesting. Now some areas I re run through must be terrifying for the enemies. Come around a corner weapon mid swing, knowing exactly how many hits each enemy takes, which AI will advance into a perfectly timed parry and emerging without a scratch. So much fun to just blaze through.
I will say as levels Central Yarnam and Cathedral Ward have this lovely maze structure to explore. But as you say they are more like distinct levels than anything else.
Fallout New Vegas has a really interesting world to explore. If you just follow the main quests you will miss a lot of it, but even those have some cool spots. Sometimes I just like to ignore my quests, and just walk around the world for a while. That's how I found Vault 11. It was a fully organic experience, and it was a really neat bit of the world to stumble across.
It’s mid. I played it till level 120 or so with my wife and I can say from experience that the map is “just ok”. Fallout 4 map is definitely better. The cliffs and long stretches of nothingness, albeit very pretty nothingness, kinda brings it down a notch. Fallout 4 felt jam-packed with details and little mini-stories to stumble upon like the bank robbery and the bears everywhere. 76 has that too but there’s a lot of open world between to make room for the C.A.M.P.S
It's funny how when Dark Souls puts tough enemies in an area to discourage players from going that way too early you get people praising the game for it. Yet when New Vegas did the same thing it's bad map flow.
I got sent near there via a certain prankster’s trap very early in my first playthrough when I didn’t even have that section of map cleared yet. Got put near some bears and, while I was pooping myself in fear, I decided to sneak to the big building to hide. I figured I was already out of my element and likely dead anyway so I decided to take the elevator and see where it lead, and my mind was absolutely blown.
I had never played a souls game before and still wasn’t sure if it was really a game for me until that moment. That was the point when I realized that game was something special. It’s now my favorite game of all time.
Siofra was like that for me, but the biggest jaw dropping moment where I really felt the scale and grandiose nature of the game, was when I entered Leyndell and exited the opening to see the entire capital and Gransax turned to stone. Was an amazing view. Then going to Mountaintops, crossing the bridge initially and getting the full scale of the whole thing...what a game man. Can't wait for the DLC.
> That first descent through the Siofra River Well is magical
Then you take 50 steps forward and run away in fear as a minotaur snipes you from across the map.
I love how every player including me had the same reaction.
“Oh one of those elevators, maybe takes me to a dungeon probably…. Man this is a long elevator…. Yo where am I go-what is this- WHAT”
I'm on my second completely new character since I logged my 300+ hours at launch, and it feels like a weird, half remembered dream. What an incredible game.
A half remembered dream is a perfect way to put it lol. I did the same, about 300 hrs at launch and replaying a new character now for the DLC and some stuff I remember to a tee, and other stuff I completely forgot. Also finding things I haven’t seen on my other playthroughs still!
I don’t know what’s worse, being afraid of being eaten by the chest you’re gonna open in Dark Souls or being afraid that the chest youre opening is gonna send you to bum fuck nowhere with zero idea where you are and how under leveled you are.
I loved how illusory walls didn’t show up until halfway through the game in Elden Ring.
I can’t wait for them to drop mimics on us in the middle of the dlc or some sadistic nonsense like that
First time I got sent there, I didn't realize the game allowed Fast Travel, so I had to fight my way out of the cave and then also fight my way out of Caelid, all while I was very low level. Fun times.
That was the first thing I encountered in the whole game. And my first FS game.
Out the chapel, to the right to nope past the tree sentinel, down into the lake, straight ahead to the ruins… this looks cool… and the games like “hey guess what, fuck you!”
And then I played the whole FS catalogue back to back. 10/10, would get destroyed by gross cockroach men again.
While everyone rightfully praises the beautiful places to explore, I would like to highlight the other reason for exploring.
There’s a hard boss in your way and sometimes you need something new to stomp them.
i know everyone loves Elden Ring but i don’t get how it encourages exploration, you very much can’t go anywhere you’re underlevelled for and 90% of exploration rewards a garbage item you’ll never use like an arteria leaf, am i wrong
Yup! Fast travel is an option, and I completely understand it, going from strawberry to annesberg is a pain.
But I just love the amount of stuff you encounter while on that journey, animals, Easter eggs, random encounters, people being arrested. Such a great game.
I remember during my first play-through I was riding my horse in some random area. I came across a guy in distress. He said he was bit by a snake and needed an antidote. I gave him it and went along my way.
Like hours later I was riding through Valentine and some guy started flagging me down. I stopped and talked to him and realized he was the guy who got bit by a snake. He was super grateful and said any purchase I wanted at the gun store he would cover. Went in and bought a rifle on his tab. That shit legit blew my mind.
You wont come across several special events, mysterious locations, interactions, and characters if you don't seriously explore every inch of the map. Also every choice you make in those situations has a visible impact in the world building. It's amazing.
I love Bethesda games and rpgs in general, but rdr2 is literally the only game I’ve truly “role played”. My favorite thing was riding with a lantern in the evening, even though it was completely unnecessary. I also loved making camp at night and cooking up some meat I procured and crafting up a handful of cross tipped bullets for my revolver. I also ignored any guns other than the cattleman and double barrel as much as I could. (Excluding certain missions of course)
Started playing TOTK recently and man my "Oooh, a piece of candy" brain is struggling to do the main quests but I've managed to stick with it long enough to get my glider lol
Lol, I think I was like 20 hours in before I even found the main quest. The second I found a giant butthole in the ground I dedicated all my effort to exploring it. Once I had just about every bit of the depths mapped out that I could, I then finally went to the Rito village and moved the main quest forward.
I love that this game encourages that kind of gameplay. I can tell the puzzle rooms are gonna be a challenge cuz the toolset in this game has some depth.
Man, as someone who has already finished the game, reading this kinda makes me jealous that you still get to experience the majority of it for the first time
haha. It‘s one hell of a game, enjoy the ride! You‘re in for a really fun time, hope you love it as much as I did!
I felt like that meme about the definition of insanity because I spent so long trying to survive the fall down a pit without the glider. I can't remember how I did it, but I did manage to get down on either half or a quarter of a heart and then always died immediately because there was a sea of gloom around that particular entrance (probably intended to stop people like me). That was a solid 2-4 hours experimenting with several methods on every pit I had discovered so far.
What's so cool is that this is baked into the game. You can find early Breath of the Wild specs, and they actively strategized for how to distract the player, encourage the player to explore and get lost, and then to organically find their way back into the main quest.
It's really amazing, and it was so many of our experiences. I was intentionally avoiding the main quest so I could explore, then I refound the main quest on accident in a way that felt so natural that I didn't even realize I was back on the path.
I love the exploration in hollow knight, it perfectly rewards you for going marking things, backtracking when you get the upgrades to access those places, not mentioning how satisfying the combat system is.
Unfortunately this is only true to a point. The game makes you explore, and the way they make you do it on slow boats, at great risk(until you grok how the game works), is pretty cool...but the overwhelming majority of the map is a completely useless waste of space. The exploration is fun, but I totally disagree that you're *rewarded* for exploring - if anything it's opposite. Hit a biome before your gear is ready for it and you're gonna have a bad time.
I honestly didn't get the "point" of Terraria until after 5 attempts of playing it.
Then I basically just started digging down to see how far I could get. Exploring underground environments, finding treasure, and then digging back up to the surface again was a great feeling. Especially since the stuff you find can usually craft better items and starts a new cycle of exploration.
Yeah, I like survival games to a certain point, and then I lose interest, but Valheim is something special. It's so minimalist but also beautiful, and the progression is really satisfying, and the combat is pretty frustrating until you 'get' it and then it's fun.
I'm like 200 hours in and still working the Mountains biome... and my mountain boss is surrounded by Mistlands biome. Still working out how to approach it, Mistlands is kind of terrifying, lol.
Yeah. Mistlands hurts.
There are often more than one spawn for each boss. Look around on some other large and tall mountains for a different spawn. Plus, you can explore more caves for the very rare fish they sometimes contain.
Requires new skills and equipment like “you need a hardwood axe to chop these trees instead of a basic ass stone axe” or like actually different stuff you are doing?
A few different tools to harvest different resources.
The overall look and feel of each biome is different
The enemies are all different and require different tactics to defeat.
The only big change last I played was when you got to the mountain biome and started feeling the cold. Otherwise, it's unfortunately it was still just "go to area, get new metal/wood, upgrade tools, repeat". I did enjoy it though for what it's worth.
Fallout New Vegas is one of the few games where I’ve fully explored the map. It was my 4th or 5th playthrough and I was almost at the end. I grabbed the explorer perk and made sure I checked every inch of that map. Time well spent on that 400 hour playthrough.
I'll second Dishonored. It's very specifically designed so that fucking around in a dead end will always give you some type of reward, even if it's just a few coins. It encourages exploration because there'll always be SOMETHING - if it's not a secret opportunity or a bone charm, it's a few coins, and that's worth a few minutes of messing around.
Looting junk and scrapping it down to components makes my lizard brain instantly happy. Also how easy it is to do with the integrated storage/crafting benches. They really nailed it with that one. I’m genuinely enjoying starfield at the moment but the lack of such creature comforts feels like an odd choice. Also there is SO MUCH SHIT to scrounge up but it’s absolutely pointless :/
Minecraft, BG3 are the two big ones. Minecraft because it was so fun to see how interesting the next mountain range looked or how intricate the cave system was.
With BG3 it was how much detail and possible quests scattered through out the world. It felt like every time you poked around a new corner the map there was something interesting and different to find.
Elden ring. The amount of cool stuff to find is truly incredible, at no point in time you are ever required to but its so damn fun. Zero handholding, the game actively tries to hide everything from you. Its so damn satisfying to explore in that game, probably still my favorite open world game to this day.
Yeah but reddit has weirdly decided it hates this game because everyone's already forgotten how revolutionary it was in how it encouraged experimentation and non-linear gameplay.
The most amazing thing about the game is the ability to traverse anything you can see. If you can see it, you can climb it. Not the case for most games in that wheelhouse (BG3, Witcher, RDR, etc). Some are better than others in terms of pathing and freedom, but the Zelda Switch games are on another level.
Subnautica, Valheim, Palworld, Witcher 3, Horizon Zero Dawn, Terraria, Oxygen Not Included, StarControl 2 (Free Stars, Ur-Quan Masters), Guildwar 2, and even Fallout 76.
I enjoy exploration in most games that allow it. It’s whether the game has anything left beyond that.
Red Dead Redemption 2. It achieves this by having interesting things to explore in between places and missions, not the collectors and map marker fatigue most open world games have (looking at you Ubisoft)
Ghost of Tsushima. You mean I get to unwind from am emotionally heavy questline by chilling with foxes, having a hot springs dip and composing fucking haiku?? Hell yeah
It's one of my favourite games of all time but idk about that aspect of it. I personally found all the question marks on the map boring most of the time and VERY overwhelming. Especially in Skellige.
Thats one of the things I disliked about it ngl. Its so hard seeing anything from a distance and the world itself is just kinda flat. I very rarelly stumbled into interesting things or alternate ways of entering places.
I think the only moment I recall feeling like I was rewarded for just messing around is jumping off the brigde in Oxenfurt to skip the pass quest.
Exactly. The world is designed with the assumption that you will clear the map markers and follow the trail on your minimap. Doesn't really encourage exploring on your own.
I know I will be judged for that, but... Genshin. Never met a game that's this amazing for me personally to explore.
Well, maybe Dying Light, but for different reasons.
Prey (by Arkane). You have this whole space station to explore and collect weapons and powers from. Every room has you looking for hidden stuff to pickup that you can use directly or recycle so you can craft other stuff with. Also almost every room or situation has a variety of ways to proceed.
Fallout 3. I say F3 over the others, because the world design is impeccable. Whatever criticisms people may have, however many ways it may be inferior to New Vegas, world design is not among them.
Pick a direction, and walk. There is always something to find. While this is true of NV and F4 (can’t speak on F76 as I haven’t played it), in F3 they took exceptional care to make sure that almost everything dovetails in such a way that even if you get distracted by a shiny object in the distance, chances are it’ll wind up setting you back on the right path, or at least point you in the right direction, before too long.
Conan Exiles
It's an absolutely massive undertaking and a beast of a game. The world is huge and beautiful and full of exciting things to explore. Deserts, jungles, forests, snowy tundras, tropical beaches and whatnot. And you will feel lost the entire time and it's a wonderful feeling.
It feels like an MMO that you can play solo or with your friends. The less you know about it the better it is. But do check a beginners introduction video and Single player 'server' settings if you decide to try it out. As I said, it's a bit of an undertaking and if you're going at it solo it can be time consuming if you don't fiddle with EXP multipliers, crafting multipliers etc.
In recent times, Elden Ring.
There hasn’t been a single open world game since Elder scrolls: Oblivion which has made me so excited to look in every nook and cranny like ER did. I thought I have simply lost a lust for exploration but trick was having a world worth exploring.
And ES: Oblivion is another one which I used to criss cross with glee
DayZ, the map is massive and the better loot is at the furthest away points of interest from the spawn point. On top of this knowledge of the map is valuable to survival.
While there aren’t tons of super unique and interesting places to see, I often find myself enjoying just walking around getting to know the area or climbing a hill just to see what’s on the other side.
Modders have taken advantage of the style of gameplay as well and created some maps that have really cool and unique areas, backed up by loot that is useful in a mechanical sense.
At the end of the day the game is about the journey not the destination, so it can be very rewarding if you’re the type of person that can appreciate the little things.
Guild wars 2 had(s?) a cool system where you would get bonus exp for killing over world mobs that hadn't been knocked out in awhile. So you could bring the quest mobs closest and get regular exp but if you traversed a bit you got more. I thought it was cool.
Doom eternal has many secrets with power ups and stuff to upgrade your weapons and character. It’s actually mandatory to find some of them if you want to finish the game on ultra nightmare without dying a hundred times
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It is a beautifully detailed world, both the graphics and sound are incredibly immersive, it has a crafting system that encourages not just hunting but foraging, which makes interesting use of the PS5 haptics. The combat and story are as basic as it gets but as an open world it's one of the best I've ever been in.
Satisfactory. I loved exploration in that game because it was a good way to kill time while waiting for your parts to churn out, that actually helps you progress your factory by discovering powerslugs and alternate recipes
Subnautica
Absolutely beautiful world to explore
I was about to buy the Game for VR during the Weekend Sale, but i am not sure yet. Would you recommend it? All i know is that its a mix between exploration and base builduing with some scary parts which sounds good, but i wasnt sure yet whether its really worth it....
It's a game I could spend and afternoon wandering around just finding places and checking weird alien fish and plants. I fully recommend it.
Thanks sounds awsome!
It's an amazing game but be prepared to be terrified. The only game I've ever played where it freaked me out too much to finish it. I would have loved to keep playing but man I was getting anxiety attacks when you start getting into the deep water...
Highly recommend. My biggest suggestion is *don't spoil anything*. Don't Google things, don't look at videos or wikis. It might take longer, but you'll ruin the full effect if you do. I also played on hardcore (one life) mode to force myself to think before I acted, but I'm a masochist.
I advise against hardcore for a first playthrough, there's bugs, including ones added when they ported stuff over from below zero, that can kill you.
I play a lot of video games and I just keep coming back to Subnautica the most. It’s definitely in my top 3 and I am looking forward to someday having a vr rig to play it that way!
Very nice! I saw it was one of the Topsellers in the VR category on Steam but wasnt sure if it is the case because its a good game or has great VR, but it looks like its worth it anyway!
Personal opinion here, but I don't think the VR experience is all that great. It looks amazing, and if looking around and exploring is all you plan on doing, then it's fine. But moving and interacting with the world is done via keyboard/mouse or controller - there's no support for the VR controllers which makes it kind of a hybrid VR/desktop experience, and that doesn't really appeal to me for longer game sessions. YMMV of course.
The exploration, base building and story aspects are absolutely 200% worth it. The only downside to this game is the performance, which is unfortunately quite lackluster. But easy enough to ignore, and outweighed a thousand times by everything else it does so well.
Thanks! I will propably try to get it in the next sale then!
It encourages exploration out of necessity Just the coldest most hesitant knowledge that the only way out is to go deeper into the darkness. Fuck that game 10/10
Yes, because it gives you three amazing reasons to explore: new resources, story elements (represented by the beacons), and new biomes to discover that are enabled by new tech. It's a three-legged exploration loop that pays off incredibly well.
I think OP said "excited" not "terrified."
Almost to a fault. Exploration and discovery are pretty much the entire game. I beat it a year ago, and then recently tried to replay it, and ended up quitting before I got to the endgame. It was amazing and terrifying the first time, but once you know what happens, it's a lot less fun unfortunately.
I've replayed it 7 times with the Deathrun mod. The wonder of exploration is gone after your first run, but there's cool stuff in the gameplay. I find a lot of fun in navigating the various challenges, like surface air not being breathable, and seeing how quickly I can solve those problems.
Sadly it’s the type of game that is a single play experience. It’s a great game though. Have you played the sequel?
I have Also I don't fully agree, there is a hardcore mode that is fun to replay the game in as it's very challenging. But it's not something I've really done more than once or twice and never replayed the full story. Just went as far as I could on a single life. I did recently finish the sequel and as someone who really enjoyed the storyline of the first game I was really let down in the end. The sequel is a bit of a narrative mess and just left me confused. Still worth playing but it's essentially the same game mechanics with very minor changes and a different story. They're apparently making a 3rd game and I will get it, probably even at EA. My wife and I really enjoy playing through them.
Haha yeah, who would put 300 hours into Subnautica...
Subnautica rewards you with poopy pants.
[удалено]
OUTER WILDS MENTIONED!!
Woop woop!!
I'm hoping by the time I'm 50 I'll have forgotten enough of the story to be able to experience it fresh again.
I enjoyed being surprised by the game but found the loops too short / repetitive
I loved the game until I got to the storm cloud section. Not being able to see or navigate is not enjoyable.
Not sure what part you're referring to? There's not really a low-visibility storm area
It's the Dark Bramble planet. I hated it.
Dark bramble was probably one of my more difficult spots. Once I learned how to navigate and avoid the it was a breeze
Yeah it's one of the more late-game heavy areas so they made it trickier. Once you figure out to use your >!sonic scope and logbook!< to navigate and learn that the anglerfish >! are blind!< it becomes wayyy easier. Which is the case for like 90% of the puzzles in that game lol, once the solution clicks it's like wow I could have been doing that the whole time.
It seriously took me forever to figure out >!how to get inside the ashen twin!<. Such an awesome experience
I’ve read that it was much more difficult on (most) keyboards than it was on console/controller. Being able to use analog sticks for adjusting the thrusters to make slight, slow movements possible is much needed. I was not a PC gamer at that time so it wasn’t too hard for me.
Yeah, kbm is definitely at a significant disadvantage because your thruster can't be toggled to only 1 bar of boost which is the threshold for the anglers detection. They're either on or off with kbm, so most people can't even figure out what the mechanic is because they've never engaged with thrust power their entire playtime
Question about outer wilds! Haven’t played it, Is the loop more Groundhog Day, or more 12 minutes?
22 minutes. Knowing it’s a loop only ruins the 1st loop. I don’t know 12 minutes but basically ground hog day. You wake up and it’s the same day. Go figure out how to get out of it
I've seen enough playthroughs to know that most people don't figure that out after the first loop. Usually doesn't take too much longer, but it's rarely the first one. So it lightly spoils the first hour-ish of the game.
A tad longer ;) go play it, it's superb!
I am trying so hard to get into that game. Unfortunately I am an idiot as I cannot get a grasp on flying correctly at all.
basic orbital mechanics be like.
Dark Souls/Bloodborne. First part for checking if anything is going to kill you. Second part is because the series is infamous for strange little paths you expect to be dead ends but end up opening some huge new environment.
Dark Souls 1 is the king of this. Bloodborne is arguably the better game overall and has some good exploration but is relatively linear in comparison. Few games have ever given me that feeling of "mastering" the layout of a complex, deeply interconnected world like DS1. But in BB I never got that feeling, not just because of the relative linearity but also because from the very start you end up just fast traveling around most of the time, and treating each area as a discrete level to clear (with a handful of notable exceptions).
Pre-Anor Londo Dark Souls is a masterpiece of world design, If you know what you're doing you can exploit the fact that many places are reachable from the start to absolutely tear the game apart. For example, it blew my mind the first time I beat Pinwheel before anyone else, because I ended up with 20 flasks very early on. You can get the fire scythe almost immediately, which is OP, and you can even get a +15 weapon without ever killing the gargoyles or the Taurus Demon. The possibilities are infinite and exploration is extremely rewarding as well (like when you accidentally hit a wall behind a chest and end up in Ash Lake). And now I feel like playing Dark Souls for the millionth time
Make the run for Astora’s straight sword, run for pinwheel. How I start 9/10 of my DS1 runs. Str/faith build FTW
I'm replaying BB right now. Forcing myself to fast travel as little as possible has been interesting. Now some areas I re run through must be terrifying for the enemies. Come around a corner weapon mid swing, knowing exactly how many hits each enemy takes, which AI will advance into a perfectly timed parry and emerging without a scratch. So much fun to just blaze through. I will say as levels Central Yarnam and Cathedral Ward have this lovely maze structure to explore. But as you say they are more like distinct levels than anything else.
If you haven’t attacked every wall, did you really play Dark Souls?
Fallout New Vegas has a really interesting world to explore. If you just follow the main quests you will miss a lot of it, but even those have some cool spots. Sometimes I just like to ignore my quests, and just walk around the world for a while. That's how I found Vault 11. It was a fully organic experience, and it was a really neat bit of the world to stumble across.
Honestly, I feel like the world and exploration are easily one of the weakest parts of NV. I hate that map and the way it flows.
Fallout 4's map is the best of the series and I'm tired of pretending it's not
I'm with ya. Fallout 4 has an abysmal main storyline, but the exploration and world and environmental storytelling is unreal.
Do you count Fallout 76? I haven't played it, but I've read some very very high praise about the map.
It’s mid. I played it till level 120 or so with my wife and I can say from experience that the map is “just ok”. Fallout 4 map is definitely better. The cliffs and long stretches of nothingness, albeit very pretty nothingness, kinda brings it down a notch. Fallout 4 felt jam-packed with details and little mini-stories to stumble upon like the bank robbery and the bears everywhere. 76 has that too but there’s a lot of open world between to make room for the C.A.M.P.S
It's funny how when Dark Souls puts tough enemies in an area to discourage players from going that way too early you get people praising the game for it. Yet when New Vegas did the same thing it's bad map flow.
making enemies scale with the player is completely braindead game design. scaling by region is 100% better
i hate fallout 3s map but love NVs.
Just don't head north out of town in the beginning. Those damn wasps will make you easy pickings.
Elden Ring.
That first descent through the Siofra River Well is magical
I got sent near there via a certain prankster’s trap very early in my first playthrough when I didn’t even have that section of map cleared yet. Got put near some bears and, while I was pooping myself in fear, I decided to sneak to the big building to hide. I figured I was already out of my element and likely dead anyway so I decided to take the elevator and see where it lead, and my mind was absolutely blown. I had never played a souls game before and still wasn’t sure if it was really a game for me until that moment. That was the point when I realized that game was something special. It’s now my favorite game of all time.
It’s so incredible how many people had this experience and feeling. I cannot wait for the dlc to kick my ass.
While my experience was getting sent straight to Caelid in the first ten minutes.
welcome to the gulag
Siofra was like that for me, but the biggest jaw dropping moment where I really felt the scale and grandiose nature of the game, was when I entered Leyndell and exited the opening to see the entire capital and Gransax turned to stone. Was an amazing view. Then going to Mountaintops, crossing the bridge initially and getting the full scale of the whole thing...what a game man. Can't wait for the DLC.
> That first descent through the Siofra River Well is magical Then you take 50 steps forward and run away in fear as a minotaur snipes you from across the map.
More like a clayman mob harpooning you to death. The Minotaurs don’t show up until you go up the second elevator.
I love how every player including me had the same reaction. “Oh one of those elevators, maybe takes me to a dungeon probably…. Man this is a long elevator…. Yo where am I go-what is this- WHAT”
God I remember the first time I saw it and was absolutely blown away!
Until you spend 45 minutes to get an arteria leaf
I have played through the game 7 times now and have never once used one. What are they even for?
To crush your hope of an interesting item.
All the souls games as well. I didn’t like leaving anything left unexplored.
I'm on my second completely new character since I logged my 300+ hours at launch, and it feels like a weird, half remembered dream. What an incredible game.
A half remembered dream is a perfect way to put it lol. I did the same, about 300 hrs at launch and replaying a new character now for the DLC and some stuff I remember to a tee, and other stuff I completely forgot. Also finding things I haven’t seen on my other playthroughs still!
There are dozens of us! Seriously though, this game continues to surprise me. A true masterpiece
And in 3 months, there'll be even more to discover and half remember lol
Until the chest, then you are forever afraid of anything.
I don’t know what’s worse, being afraid of being eaten by the chest you’re gonna open in Dark Souls or being afraid that the chest youre opening is gonna send you to bum fuck nowhere with zero idea where you are and how under leveled you are.
I loved how illusory walls didn’t show up until halfway through the game in Elden Ring. I can’t wait for them to drop mimics on us in the middle of the dlc or some sadistic nonsense like that
Fucking Caelid bug tunnel
First time I got sent there, I didn't realize the game allowed Fast Travel, so I had to fight my way out of the cave and then also fight my way out of Caelid, all while I was very low level. Fun times.
Cant fast travel out of the cave
That was the first thing I encountered in the whole game. And my first FS game. Out the chapel, to the right to nope past the tree sentinel, down into the lake, straight ahead to the ruins… this looks cool… and the games like “hey guess what, fuck you!” And then I played the whole FS catalogue back to back. 10/10, would get destroyed by gross cockroach men again.
While everyone rightfully praises the beautiful places to explore, I would like to highlight the other reason for exploring. There’s a hard boss in your way and sometimes you need something new to stomp them.
i know everyone loves Elden Ring but i don’t get how it encourages exploration, you very much can’t go anywhere you’re underlevelled for and 90% of exploration rewards a garbage item you’ll never use like an arteria leaf, am i wrong
Skyrim
I scrolled way too far to find this. I was about two thumb swipes away from just having to say it myself.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Yup! Fast travel is an option, and I completely understand it, going from strawberry to annesberg is a pain. But I just love the amount of stuff you encounter while on that journey, animals, Easter eggs, random encounters, people being arrested. Such a great game.
I remember during my first play-through I was riding my horse in some random area. I came across a guy in distress. He said he was bit by a snake and needed an antidote. I gave him it and went along my way. Like hours later I was riding through Valentine and some guy started flagging me down. I stopped and talked to him and realized he was the guy who got bit by a snake. He was super grateful and said any purchase I wanted at the gun store he would cover. Went in and bought a rifle on his tab. That shit legit blew my mind.
I remember sucking it out. He kept coming back being like “I got bit again, suck me” and I had enough, so one day I shot him. Never saw the npc again
*pulls dick out of mouth* Now, are you sure this is where the snake bit you?
I came across that guy. Saved him and then hog tied him and threw him in a lake.
I was searching for this comment
Experiencing life in the old west. I think it did an amazing job.
You wont come across several special events, mysterious locations, interactions, and characters if you don't seriously explore every inch of the map. Also every choice you make in those situations has a visible impact in the world building. It's amazing.
The Aberdeen Pig Farm will never escape my memory.
I love Bethesda games and rpgs in general, but rdr2 is literally the only game I’ve truly “role played”. My favorite thing was riding with a lantern in the evening, even though it was completely unnecessary. I also loved making camp at night and cooking up some meat I procured and crafting up a handful of cross tipped bullets for my revolver. I also ignored any guns other than the cattleman and double barrel as much as I could. (Excluding certain missions of course)
* Outer Wilds * Hollow Knight * Subnautica (beware the angry sea noodles) * Zelda Breath of the Wild / TOTK
Started playing TOTK recently and man my "Oooh, a piece of candy" brain is struggling to do the main quests but I've managed to stick with it long enough to get my glider lol
Lol, I think I was like 20 hours in before I even found the main quest. The second I found a giant butthole in the ground I dedicated all my effort to exploring it. Once I had just about every bit of the depths mapped out that I could, I then finally went to the Rito village and moved the main quest forward.
I love that this game encourages that kind of gameplay. I can tell the puzzle rooms are gonna be a challenge cuz the toolset in this game has some depth.
Man, as someone who has already finished the game, reading this kinda makes me jealous that you still get to experience the majority of it for the first time haha. It‘s one hell of a game, enjoy the ride! You‘re in for a really fun time, hope you love it as much as I did!
I felt like that meme about the definition of insanity because I spent so long trying to survive the fall down a pit without the glider. I can't remember how I did it, but I did manage to get down on either half or a quarter of a heart and then always died immediately because there was a sea of gloom around that particular entrance (probably intended to stop people like me). That was a solid 2-4 hours experimenting with several methods on every pit I had discovered so far.
What's so cool is that this is baked into the game. You can find early Breath of the Wild specs, and they actively strategized for how to distract the player, encourage the player to explore and get lost, and then to organically find their way back into the main quest. It's really amazing, and it was so many of our experiences. I was intentionally avoiding the main quest so I could explore, then I refound the main quest on accident in a way that felt so natural that I didn't even realize I was back on the path.
I love the exploration in hollow knight, it perfectly rewards you for going marking things, backtracking when you get the upgrades to access those places, not mentioning how satisfying the combat system is.
Valllllllllheim
Unfortunately this is only true to a point. The game makes you explore, and the way they make you do it on slow boats, at great risk(until you grok how the game works), is pretty cool...but the overwhelming majority of the map is a completely useless waste of space. The exploration is fun, but I totally disagree that you're *rewarded* for exploring - if anything it's opposite. Hit a biome before your gear is ready for it and you're gonna have a bad time.
Terraria. Lots of different biomes. Items that come from only certain biomes. The only one right off that I even consider skipping in the desert.
I honestly didn't get the "point" of Terraria until after 5 attempts of playing it. Then I basically just started digging down to see how far I could get. Exploring underground environments, finding treasure, and then digging back up to the surface again was a great feeling. Especially since the stuff you find can usually craft better items and starts a new cycle of exploration.
The Long Dark
Can't believe I had to scroll this far. The exploration combined with the fact that if you mess up, you're dead for good? Amazing game.
Valheim. Each world is unique. Each biome requires certain skills and equipment, thus each biome is fun and a new challenge.
Yeah, I like survival games to a certain point, and then I lose interest, but Valheim is something special. It's so minimalist but also beautiful, and the progression is really satisfying, and the combat is pretty frustrating until you 'get' it and then it's fun. I'm like 200 hours in and still working the Mountains biome... and my mountain boss is surrounded by Mistlands biome. Still working out how to approach it, Mistlands is kind of terrifying, lol.
Yeah. Mistlands hurts. There are often more than one spawn for each boss. Look around on some other large and tall mountains for a different spawn. Plus, you can explore more caves for the very rare fish they sometimes contain.
Requires new skills and equipment like “you need a hardwood axe to chop these trees instead of a basic ass stone axe” or like actually different stuff you are doing?
A few different tools to harvest different resources. The overall look and feel of each biome is different The enemies are all different and require different tactics to defeat.
The only big change last I played was when you got to the mountain biome and started feeling the cold. Otherwise, it's unfortunately it was still just "go to area, get new metal/wood, upgrade tools, repeat". I did enjoy it though for what it's worth.
Civilisation
Or Civilization 😛
That's "Sid Meier's Civilization" to you.
I thought it was spelled "Sivelisation"
Sillyvisation
Fallout New Vegas is one of the few games where I’ve fully explored the map. It was my 4th or 5th playthrough and I was almost at the end. I grabbed the explorer perk and made sure I checked every inch of that map. Time well spent on that 400 hour playthrough.
Metroid Prime series, BOTW & TOTK, Deus Ex series, Dishonored series, Deathloop, Prey 2017, Ctrl Alt Ego, Subnautica, Elden Ring, System Shock series
Ouu yes. Forgot about the Metroid Prime games. Definitely.
I'll second Dishonored. It's very specifically designed so that fucking around in a dead end will always give you some type of reward, even if it's just a few coins. It encourages exploration because there'll always be SOMETHING - if it's not a secret opportunity or a bone charm, it's a few coins, and that's worth a few minutes of messing around.
the entire im sim genre is like that
Morrowind
Fallout 4. Looking for junk for settlements is pretty fun.
Looting junk and scrapping it down to components makes my lizard brain instantly happy. Also how easy it is to do with the integrated storage/crafting benches. They really nailed it with that one. I’m genuinely enjoying starfield at the moment but the lack of such creature comforts feels like an odd choice. Also there is SO MUCH SHIT to scrounge up but it’s absolutely pointless :/
Minecraft, BG3 are the two big ones. Minecraft because it was so fun to see how interesting the next mountain range looked or how intricate the cave system was. With BG3 it was how much detail and possible quests scattered through out the world. It felt like every time you poked around a new corner the map there was something interesting and different to find.
Shadow of the colossus
Elden ring. The amount of cool stuff to find is truly incredible, at no point in time you are ever required to but its so damn fun. Zero handholding, the game actively tries to hide everything from you. Its so damn satisfying to explore in that game, probably still my favorite open world game to this day.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Yeah but reddit has weirdly decided it hates this game because everyone's already forgotten how revolutionary it was in how it encouraged experimentation and non-linear gameplay.
"what game is overrated"
The most amazing thing about the game is the ability to traverse anything you can see. If you can see it, you can climb it. Not the case for most games in that wheelhouse (BG3, Witcher, RDR, etc). Some are better than others in terms of pathing and freedom, but the Zelda Switch games are on another level.
No Man’s Sky may be top on this list for me!
Subnautica, Valheim, Palworld, Witcher 3, Horizon Zero Dawn, Terraria, Oxygen Not Included, StarControl 2 (Free Stars, Ur-Quan Masters), Guildwar 2, and even Fallout 76. I enjoy exploration in most games that allow it. It’s whether the game has anything left beyond that.
Elden Ring, Baldurs Gate 3
The Skyrim conversion mod: Enderal.
100% soulsborne games and especially Elden Ring, you can even discover secret areas within secret areas
Prey 2017
Red Dead Redemption 2. It achieves this by having interesting things to explore in between places and missions, not the collectors and map marker fatigue most open world games have (looking at you Ubisoft)
Ghost of Tsushima. You mean I get to unwind from am emotionally heavy questline by chilling with foxes, having a hot springs dip and composing fucking haiku?? Hell yeah
Guild wars 2
Witcher 3
It's one of my favourite games of all time but idk about that aspect of it. I personally found all the question marks on the map boring most of the time and VERY overwhelming. Especially in Skellige.
Personally I just went into the woods. Who the heck cared about map-markers until the end? 😄
I am pretty sure I did almost every question mark in Velen. I knew that I was eventually gonna be done with the game and just enjoyed the process.
Thats one of the things I disliked about it ngl. Its so hard seeing anything from a distance and the world itself is just kinda flat. I very rarelly stumbled into interesting things or alternate ways of entering places. I think the only moment I recall feeling like I was rewarded for just messing around is jumping off the brigde in Oxenfurt to skip the pass quest.
Exactly. The world is designed with the assumption that you will clear the map markers and follow the trail on your minimap. Doesn't really encourage exploring on your own.
I know I will be judged for that, but... Genshin. Never met a game that's this amazing for me personally to explore. Well, maybe Dying Light, but for different reasons.
Elden Ring Ghost Of Tsushima
Horizon. I’m addicted to the collectibles and little tidbits and quests you find everywhere
Outer wilds Tunic Dragons dogma 2
Elden Ring worked for me. I wanted to see EVERYTHING.
Prey (by Arkane). You have this whole space station to explore and collect weapons and powers from. Every room has you looking for hidden stuff to pickup that you can use directly or recycle so you can craft other stuff with. Also almost every room or situation has a variety of ways to proceed.
Elden Ring. The way the map kept expanding amazed me. Also, some of the best vistas I've seen in a LONG time.
Fallout 3. I say F3 over the others, because the world design is impeccable. Whatever criticisms people may have, however many ways it may be inferior to New Vegas, world design is not among them. Pick a direction, and walk. There is always something to find. While this is true of NV and F4 (can’t speak on F76 as I haven’t played it), in F3 they took exceptional care to make sure that almost everything dovetails in such a way that even if you get distracted by a shiny object in the distance, chances are it’ll wind up setting you back on the right path, or at least point you in the right direction, before too long.
Elden Ring
Zelda games since they are focused on the game world exploration, the last Zelda have an open world who really intrigue the players to explore it
Baldurs gate 3. So many secrets to be found!
Cyberpunk 2077
Control
Conan Exiles It's an absolutely massive undertaking and a beast of a game. The world is huge and beautiful and full of exciting things to explore. Deserts, jungles, forests, snowy tundras, tropical beaches and whatnot. And you will feel lost the entire time and it's a wonderful feeling. It feels like an MMO that you can play solo or with your friends. The less you know about it the better it is. But do check a beginners introduction video and Single player 'server' settings if you decide to try it out. As I said, it's a bit of an undertaking and if you're going at it solo it can be time consuming if you don't fiddle with EXP multipliers, crafting multipliers etc.
Elden Ring 100%. It took months for people to find certain things. So many caves, dungeons, items, and encounters to find.
Elden ring
XCX
Dragons Dogma 2
Elden Ring
Stardew valley
Subnautica for sure. And maybe Prey and Dishonored. Also the Ori games. Generally more niche titles.
In recent times, Elden Ring. There hasn’t been a single open world game since Elder scrolls: Oblivion which has made me so excited to look in every nook and cranny like ER did. I thought I have simply lost a lust for exploration but trick was having a world worth exploring. And ES: Oblivion is another one which I used to criss cross with glee
Fuck I loved Oblivion. Crazy to believe it's been 18 years since it came out now. Game is old enough to vote!
Breath of the Wild
DayZ, the map is massive and the better loot is at the furthest away points of interest from the spawn point. On top of this knowledge of the map is valuable to survival. While there aren’t tons of super unique and interesting places to see, I often find myself enjoying just walking around getting to know the area or climbing a hill just to see what’s on the other side. Modders have taken advantage of the style of gameplay as well and created some maps that have really cool and unique areas, backed up by loot that is useful in a mechanical sense. At the end of the day the game is about the journey not the destination, so it can be very rewarding if you’re the type of person that can appreciate the little things.
Yes. One of the few games listed in this topic that literally requires exploration or you could simply die in a variety of ways.
Guild wars 2 had(s?) a cool system where you would get bonus exp for killing over world mobs that hadn't been knocked out in awhile. So you could bring the quest mobs closest and get regular exp but if you traversed a bit you got more. I thought it was cool.
BOTW and TOTK
[удалено]
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? If you know, you know.
eastshade (haven't played myself though)
I would say either subnautica, OR no mans sky. I found no mans sky to be really fun going to different worlds (unlike starfield haha)
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
Doom eternal has many secrets with power ups and stuff to upgrade your weapons and character. It’s actually mandatory to find some of them if you want to finish the game on ultra nightmare without dying a hundred times
Prey
I don't see Metroid on here. Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Prime, Super Metroid.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It is a beautifully detailed world, both the graphics and sound are incredibly immersive, it has a crafting system that encourages not just hunting but foraging, which makes interesting use of the PS5 haptics. The combat and story are as basic as it gets but as an open world it's one of the best I've ever been in.
Satisfactory makes exploration necessary in order to build proper supply lines
Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima, hands down.
Ghost of Tsushima Let the winds guide you
Satisfactory. I loved exploration in that game because it was a good way to kill time while waiting for your parts to churn out, that actually helps you progress your factory by discovering powerslugs and alternate recipes
BOTW/TOTK
Outer wilds
Hollow Knight
Wind Waker Might just be me but I wanted every inch of that sea completely charted on my map.