Discovery, Mystery and Imagination. The Open World.

     Influenced by excitement from many of my peers, I downloaded the Mafia 2 demo two weeks ago. Much to my dissapointment I did not share the same sense of satisfaction when playing it and I found myself wondering why. It then got me wondering what it is about an open-world game that I enjoy, what elements of games such as Bioshock and Red Dead Redemption retain my interest while Saints Row and Mafia do not. 

     The most notable difference is in setting, which is perhaps the most important element of an open world game.The urban and sub-urban environments of most open world crime games is far too familiar, they don't grasp my imagination and merely act as a background to a potentially strong narrative. Red Dead Redemption on the other hand placed you in the American West, a setting very much within the constraints of reality yet unfamiliar enough to still be exciting. A similar case in point was 2008's release or Far Cry 2 which took you to a horrifically war torn location in
Africa. 

      I treat open world games much the same way I would treat a vacation. If I were to choose a local to travel to I wouldn't choose a Sub-urban metropolis along the eastern coast of America, I would choose somewhere more tropical, exotic or full of history and wonder. Yet video-games offer a unique avenue in that they are not necessarily constrained to the confines of reality. Video-Games allow us to interact with imaginary worlds inconceivable in our modern reality, which is why experiences in games such as Bioshock and Shadow of the Colossus are so valuable to me.

      Irrational Games 2007 release Bioshock was not an open world game in the sense of Saints Row or Red Dead Redemption. The world wasn't entirely open, although segments could be explored to your heart's content. Rapture, the game's fictional underwater Utopian setting, was a joy to take in. Even without the combat and collection elements of Bioshock, exploring Rapture could have held up as a game in of itself. The world was lovingly crafted, it was full of mystery and wonder, and it was there for the player to discover.

    One of my favourite games; Shadow of the Colossus could fall into the open-world category. Shadow of the Colossus gave you a world that was substantially empty, yet imaginatively rich. So much of what made Shadow of the Colossus great was traversing the silent eerily abandoned remains of a world forgotten. Shadow of the Colossus captured the players imagination in a way few games can without falling into many of the trappings of modern games (ie: Enemy encounters substituting an engaging experience).

   So this is what I look for in a video-game world; Mystery, Imagination and an every growing sense of discovery. 

SIDE NOTE: Now I've heard from many that Mafia 2 is a strong narrative game and I fully intend to give it a second chance. Perhaps Mafia 2 isn't the greatest example of what I am trying to convey, yet more of a jumping off point for this discussion.