Average Openworld Sandbox or Great Linear?

[dukethepcdr]

Games like the Spider-Man ones for the Xbox/PS2 that were "open world" prove that open world games that are just OK are not all that much fun to play once the novelty of whatever new thing the game has (swinging from webs across a city in the case of Spider-Man) wears off. I'd rather have a really great linear story to follow than a open world full of boring quests that are mostly the same thing over and over again. There have been some great open world games, but most aren't much fun after a few hours of play time.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

Great linear any day. I'd rather have an uncustomisable, well-developed character with a personality than a custom made mute; I'd rather have a story than a number of vague cutscenes; I'd rather have a level than a world. And you get the nostalgia factor with linear games.

Therefore, I likes linear games much more than open world games.

 

[KrossZer0]

I prefer linear. To me games with too much open world (i.e. the Grand Theft Auto series) feel more like toys to me than anything else: fun to play around with, but not much of a point.

There's nothing I love more than good storytelling, and generally that goes along with a more linear game, hence my preference.

That's one reason why, as much as I am certainly enjoying Fallout 3, I think I preferred Mass Effect overall. Fallout definitely has a strong enough narrative and supporting cast that it doesn't feel like a toy, but BioWare's storytelling just can't be beat.

To me, good "open-ended" gameplay is less about choosing where you go, and more about deciding how you get there.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Game quality over game genre, for me. I'll take a great game in a different genre than I'm used to (Fallout 3 and Mass Effect, for examples, as before them I wasn't much into RPGs) over a generic game in a favourite genre.

-- Steve

Same for me.

 

[Goldeneye103X2]

What about game like valkyria chronicles? They aren't exactly open world, but it's not very linear either. I dont know what to classify it as.....

 

[Neosage]

Which one would mass effect come under? It is fairly linear but at the same time you have so much freedom!

 

[Senor Smoke21]

Linear as long as the story and gameplay are at least half decent.
I would only choose an open world if it is truly brilliant i.e. Crackdown.
Saying that i still do have some fun on GTA4 which is far from truly brilliant.
=]

 

[Mariena]

You've basically already answered your own question by asking it.

Great vs average.

What would happen if we asked you to pick between an average linear game and a great openworld sandbox game? That's right.

 

[fluffylandmine]

I like open world ,but I have not always had the feeling that the world was living and changing. The fallouts are good examples of a living and unpredictable world, the kind I love.

I like linear games as well, just in different ways.

 

[vede]

Linear.

Sure, open-world is a great idea, but because it's so good, it's easier to fuck it up. The bigger they are the harder they fall. It's like a sort of modified form of the uncanny valley. The more you try to make a world seem vast and alive and dynamic, the more tiny flaws can be found, and the harder it is to make it seem authentic.

Open-world is better than linear, assuming we're talking about games which are of the same quality for their concept. However, good open-world games are much rarer than good linear games, so linear gets the prize.

 

[742]

ide um.. take take the fun one, duh. isnt that kinda obvious? i mean, i would MUCH play bioshock again rather than playing assassins creed again.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

i just love open world games too much. my brain just fixates on weird stuff to do outside of the realm of the game's designed intentions. i truly enjoy that sense of improvisation where as linear games tend to be an act of optimization or refining one's play through.

(this isn't always the case so please don't tell me about an awesome chain combo you did in Ninjai Gaiden)

 

[JohnneyLightning]

Definately linear. I'm willing to sacrafice freedom in return for an amazing story. If you can get me emotionally attached to the characters, then I'm hooked.

 

[Mizaki]

An average sandbox lets me play it over and over but a great linear is a snoozefest after a handful of play..throughs. But this is mostly because I play games solely for entertainment through gameplay. Most linear games, I get to the near-end and just mess around on them. I usually don't pick up on the story until I've beaten the game 2-3 times. Before that, I just like roaming around doing whatever I feel like.