Please Just Point Me in a Direction: An Opine of the Opening of Open Worlds

You can stop me if you have heard this one before, but did you see the game with the trailer where the protagonist did a bunch of daring feats that ultimately culminated in a final sequence where they approached the apex of a cliffside and then looked out onto an open expanse of a world with unlimited possibility? And if your first thought is, which one, welcome to the next thousand some words. Take a seat, we’re gonna be here a bit. The idea of “open world” game is several decades old at this point, and the original Legend of Zelda for the NES was one of the earliest examples of the genre. And while Grand Theft Auto modernized a lot of different mechanics and understandings of what an open world could be like, it was truly Breath of the Wild, where the series went back to its roots as a true open world game, that caused a cavalcade of many franchises delving not into “open world”, but a very specific type of open world. Ever since 2017, open world games have taken a lead from Breath of the Wild (and to a lesser extent, it’s contemporary Horizon Zero Dawn), where you arer thrust into a fairly large sandbox with minimal direction, plenty of secrets, and vague goals and objectives that ultimately culminate in the final fight against Ganon. The image of Link looking over Hyrule is nothing short of iconic.

This return to the franchise roots marked a subtle but very important shift in gameplay. Rather than the semi-linear progression with Ocarina of Time or the recursive looping…