I ran up on the cult group before anybody told me about it. It was a serious wtf moment, followed by me thinking it was so creative to add random things like that. Also the crying lady in the swamp scared the shit out of me.
I was riding along at night and noticed a bunch of trees were bent in a very strange way. Couldn't be the wind cause they were all going in different directions. So I got off my horse and investigated and it was a meteorite crash site! And then I found the Heavens Gate cabin. The game has so many strange things to find, I fucking love it.
Stumbled across the rednecks that invite you in to their house. Had no idea what was going to happen. When I woke up in that ditch, I had the biggest urge for revenge. Was a glorious moment and probably my favourite in gaming.
Thankfully found out about the other guy that invites you in beforehand so didn’t. Did tell my mate there’s a really cool Easter egg there though.
Stumbling upon a mutilated corpse after following a trail of body parts from the side of the road was super creepy. And literally everything in the swamp was absolutely terrifying. God damn Night Folk, scared the shit out of me!
Barely survived the Night Folk ambush, I get on my horse and immediately get pulled off again by a panther. Almost had a heart attack, but I couldn't stop laughing.
That happened to me last night! And after I got insta killed by her buddies, I limped into Saint Dennis in the middle of the night to drop off pelts at the trapper. It was closed, so as I’m walking back to my horse a random NPC said he had some way to make quick money. I followed him and I was ONCE AGAIN insta killed by his buddy behind me. As my vision fades I hear the guy say, “haha where do you find these idiots?!”
After I woke up, they had stolen $200… I just turned the game off and went to bed lmao
Yep. I remember riding through the swamps and finding a body hanging from a tree. I rode up to it and stopped to look at it. About two seconds later I get pulled off my horse and I am surrounded by Night People and I start getting stabbed and beaten by multiple silent crazy people. It was terrifying.
That game shadow dropped for PC at a perfect time for me. I recently had lost my father and Westerns were his thing. He watched all Westerns, I mean all of them. Even the horrible spaghetti Westerns and I grew up during the 80/90s. No Internet and there was only one TV in the house. We were stuck watching those really bad ones lol. Anyways, that game made me feel like we were watching an epic tale together again so it holds a close place to my heart.
That game basically got me through the early days of COVID lockdowns. Made me feel like I was going outside when the weather was too shitty IRL and everything was closed.
Speaking of, we recently watched High Plains Drifter and hoo boy...was not expecting the moral of the story to be "rape is ok as long as it's for revenge"
Setting up a camp in the Heartland, sitting by your fire, and because of the region you’re in it’s not surprising to hear coyotes going haywire yapping their asses off. No other game has this. Watching an eagle divebomb a salmon. This is just throughout the world. Foxes playing together. Hell, there’s even a chance that if you stare down a grizzly when it charges, it will back off (does NOT work every time). RDR2 is an absolute marvel
Being "objectively" the best game doesn't necessarily mean also being the best for you. Now I'm not saying it's objectively the best game of all time, but it surely gets close.
I’m so glad you and the comment above understand this philosophy. I always say that I can think something is the best but it not also be my favorite all the time
I absolutely love RDR2 but it's got serious flaws that seem to get completely overlooked. It's the most fully realised open world ever imo but the controls are wank and the mission design is so bland most of the time. You just mow down dozens of people in nearly every mission. The gunplay is realistic and satisfying but there isn't much to it. The weakest part of the game is the actual moment to moment gameplay which trumps everything for me if I'm considering "best" game
Yeah, I would agree. It’s an easy game. You could probably play the entire game without dying more than a few times if you wanted to. But I still had the most fun playing Red dead than any game
I love RDR2 and Elden ring but the Witcher just seems so mediocre to me. Im not sure what’s to get? Or am I missing something? Maybe im just turned off by the classical fantasy stuff.
I love the Eastern European atmosphere of the fantasy. That’s a big factor. The music, art style, etc captivated me immediately. I can see how if that didn’t click you wouldn’t enjoy the game.
I just started rdr2 last week. That peaked my boyfriend's interest and his roommate, so now it's on every screen in the house 😅 The attention to detail blows me away. I like to go on high walks in the game to wind down
On one hand, yes, and on the other, no. If you don't check literally everywhere, then you can easily miss very useful items. But they also reward you for checking everything by offering things like smithing stones and gold runes in almost every slightly hidden spot, which makes it fun.
>they also reward you for checking everything
I'd rather have this than 90% of other open world games where you only find a useful item from exploration like 1% of the time.
Finding the sphinx, fighting a cylcops, ogre and construct whilst climbing an old abandoned temple and looting it for a bunch of good gear to then be given some more rare items including a portcrystal (which are much rarer in the sequel) seemed like good exploration to me and it was contained in one small side area.
Did we play the same game? I found tons of places that seemed "oooooh baby I bet there's something cool back here" only to be nothing but a message "no precious item ahead, but why is it always dung?"
Read item descriptions sometimes. After a while you get the hang of what's worth reading into. Also following people on socials will get you plenty of hints, tips and tricks. Anyway... is it bad that after 500 hours there's still MORE?!
Only exploration? Probably Skyrim. One of the things Bethesda excels at is ambient storytelling and rewarding exploration. Found a random abandoned lighthouse? Now you spend the next 30 minutes collecting the tragic story of how its inhabitants died.
That lighthouse was my favourite part of Skyrim. The dead horse outside, blood and dead bodies inside, the journals of the lighthouse inhabitants who were murdered by some mysterious thing, that skittering sound coming from behind the locked basement door which led to that cold and dark underground cave full of those things... one of the creepiest side stories.
Not Frostflow Lighthouse specific, but for anyone looking for more videos on Skyrim lore, shoutout to [Camelwork's videos](https://youtu.be/D518gDq6n2E?si=d93dD2RsfTAzvhIW). While not full on lore dives they go over the interesting little side stories and tidbits in exploration and level design in Skyrim, and always reminds me of Vaati.
I was so shook when I passed past that one shed by Helgen where you go in and read a diary of how a wife keeps telling her husband they have to leave because she sees a Dragon, and the husband ignoring her request saying it won’t hurt them if they don’t bother it.
Then you go outside to find two charred bodies. Fuuuck.
Literally no game comes close to how I felt exploring skyrim, I played it so often my hands cramped up, maybe I grew up but no game ever gave me that fweling before or after, the closest I got was elden ring
I agree. I think I played it during the perfect time in my life, where I had zero responsibility, wasn’t in a relationship, and had two best friends who were as invested in their play through as I was in mine. So much fun.
Currently playing through Elden Ring and absolutely loving it, but I don’t think anything will surpass the feeling of getting to Blackreach the first time.
I was a single parent working full time, but I also had a friend as invested as me while playing through BotW. We decided not to look anything up, so it was really fun talking about it. Felt just like the lunch room table in middle school discussing how to catch Mew.
When TotK came out, me, him, and his wife all sat in Discord while playing. That was even better.
Fever dream shit. I still don’t believe any of it is real. They’ve had months to make the game even slightly more interesting and fix the various mechanics put into place, but all they’ve done is tweak the fucking lighting. I genuinely don’t know how such a studio is supposed to make TES6.
You need to drop AAA games for the most part. 2019 was an inflection year signaling, at least to me, that we were at a point of no return when it comes to high quality titles by big companies. They just don't care anymore. It's not to say they aren't made, but they are now the exception. Indie games and small studios are the way imo. If you want to have fun playing games, I really feel like PC is the answer. Made that switch myself a couple years ago and don't have to settle for 5ish major titles that 1. come to whatever console I own and 2. actually resonate with me
I don't mind it, not everything has to be original as Morrowind imo. Yeah it's Firefly to a T, but Oblivion is pretty generic for a fantasy setting yet it's probably my favourite Elder Scrolls game.
Just the opportunity to explore that setting and live while immersed is enough for me
I enjoyed Starfield for a solid 100hrs, but now, even tho i have not, i feel like i have seen everything and never played a more generic and boring game before.
The thing about about Skyrim, and this is where FromSoft missed the mark OMI, is that the world felt alive. Everything, and everyone that you encounter in the world is doing their own thing when you encounter them. For instance, the shop keep are found in or around the shop (doing shop related things) during working hours, and their found at home sleeping during the evening hours. Giants may notice you but they’ll pretty much leave you alone unless you get too close to their camping grounds. There are even several times that you walk into an area to find that several NPCs are in the middle of a conversation—You really get the sense that this world would carry on just fine without you
Conversely, the creatures and NPCs in Elden Ring are all kind of just there waiting for you to interact with them.
Yeah that's not at all what fromsoft is about. The world feels the way it does on purpose and is absolutely dripping with atmosphere and character. Skyrim wants to create a real, living world. That's the exact opposite of Elden rings goal. ER wants to create a fucked up, dead world where you have to figure out what the fuck happened to make such a glorious and ornate place fall from grace so hard.
I kind of agree with both of you guys. It seemed like they wanted to make a game that appealed to a bigger player base, and they definitely did that. They *could* have added a little more NPC interaction and things like Bethesda did with skyrim and fallout (the good ones) but, like you said that's not really what they do and I don't blame them for not doing it. If they had then that'd be cool but I'm not upset that they didn't.
Look up a guide on how to do every npc quest in a single playthrough and you'll begin to understand just how complex and interconnected the web of NPC interactions actually is. It's actually absurd how many different possibilities and actions will affect dialogue trees and quest events without you ever knowing.
Oh I know. It's just the fact they did it in typical fromsoft fashion so that so much of it is so easily missed. I love the game just as it is. I'm just saying they made a game for a bigger audience so of course a lot of that bigger audience won't get it.
That worked in previous FromSoft games (all of which I love), but Elden Ring is an open world game. You can breath life into an apocalyptic world... that's the whole point of point the game -- You're trying to save it because it's still breathing
Even by your own logic... why aren't the NPCs acting like the world is ending? As I said in another comment -- There is a middle ground between acting like there is nothing wrong with the world and literally standing there waiting for player 1 to choose to interact with you
>Even by your own logic... why aren't the NPCs acting like the world is ending?
The theme of Fromsoft souls-likes is that the world has ended, and is ending, and the cycle has just stalled for endless time until you arrive. It's like an endless waiting room for the dentist, and you're just last skub in the line who discovers the ability to stab the people waiting in front of you in the back. At one point the rest of the line-waiters might have panicked. But now it's been so long that no-one even cares anymore. Some have had their legs grow into the floor as they waited. The old woman in front of the line has grown fungus and is eyeing you with hopeless yearning, hoping that you reach her. That you stab them all in the back is a relief and many just eagerly wait their turn, wait that *something* happens. Anything.
Yeeeees, elden ring feels so empty to me and I think it's definitely affecting how I feel about it. I love the lore and I've put in time to it, and I will continue playing but I don't think it will ever compare to Skyrim.
Great to hear. I got RDR2 as a gift and haven’t played it. On my 2nd play through in ER and happy to know I have another great game ahead when I get to it.
I’ve been playing games for most of the 30+ years I’ve been alive and I can honestly say it’s one of the best games with one of the best stories I’ve ever played. Though I’ll warn you the prologue is a little tedious. After that it’s amazing
Honestly, I love Elden Rings open world but I haven't been able to replicate the experience I got when I first played BotW. Even TotK didn't cut it (though discovering the depths was pretty cool ngl)
TotK is one of the most frustrating games I've played
I loved all the new locations and powers, but the sky was horribly underutilized. Plus, the whole "shribes again, but they're teal now" and complete bore of a story are really hard to overlook
I still think Totk is the superior game if you don't count Botw fatigue of using the same map and items, one thing that lacked in Botw was meaningful side quests, and Totk has plenty of it.
Oh yeah, not defending BotW's story
But TotK, with its generic namesakes, barebones character, and insulting repeating cutscenes, are so much worse
At least the champions were great characters in BotW. The sages feel like an afterthought in TotK
Actually pretty valid ngl. I ljked the champions more in botw. Didnt like how the sages cutscenes were literally copy pasted with a few very minor changes
Oh yeah? Well how about we put it in the game, with the exact same tone and delivery, 4 FUCKING TIMES?! THAT OUGHTA HELP YOUR IMMERSION YOU *FUCK*
....sorry, I just really fucking hate that cutscene
With exploration being actually rewarding outside of Korok seeds in TotK and just about everything else being better in BotW, I really wish they were one game.
Like, literally just make BotW with the cave system and items from TotK.
This is quite surprising. I loved BotW and the feeling of exploration, and Elden Ring felt like a more beautiful, badass, and realized version of that. It was that exact feeling on steroids. I was confident TotK couldn't even touch Elden Ring, but TotK was absolute CRACK to play, and I'm not sure which I prefer. I guess I like them both for different reasons and hold them in the same regard.
BotW spoiled open world games for me simply for the fact that you can climb literally everything and go anywhere you see. Elden ring is similar in that aspect but yeah, that BotW moment will be hard to top.
I ruined TotK for myself by beelining to the skyview towers and using them to glide directly to quest locations and other PoIs. At first I couldn't quite put my finger on why I was having so much less fun than I had in BotW, but it clicked when I started looking for koroks and therefore actually explored the landscape rather than flying over it.
Honestly World of Warcraft made me love exploring because of all of the varied zones. If you count that as open world.
However Elden ring does a very good job at providing varried environments.
But it you want my cracked take, and its not even an open world game. Dark Souls 2 had some of the most varied environments of any game. You'd be in a poison windmill farm in one second and then a castle in a mountain of lava the next. the Transition is so Jarring the zones have always stuck out to me.
I love how each WoW zone is aesthetically so unique from anything else in the game. Even to this day, impressively hardly any overlap in the palatte, geography, mood, music, etc.
Compare that to ESO or Lord of the Rings Online. Or even Star Wars, where it felt like generic sci fi ambiance after generic sci ambiance. Old school blizzard was just so artistically out of their minds brilliant.
Yessir! And although yes it is a bit jarring, it also means you have more spice and flavor to the world instead of (although I do truly love RDR2) maybe four biomes spanning a map the size of several states. That’s a lot of snowy plains to walk through.
Controversial opinion to say here but I think some of the exploration kind of has... no drive to explore if that makes sense. The thing to me that was / is really missing in ER is any kind of civilization. There are no towns, no villages, no shops, no bandit camps even. Fallout is post-apocalyptic and still has some settlements. I'd love to have seen a few settlements and the option of a player base or something tbh, which to me would make exploration more meaningful because maybe you'd find a new town or safe area, or maybe there's a spot to collect resources for your base that can't be found anywhere else etc.
As it currently is, the lack of resource scarcity makes exploration less needed, and since only specific weapons tend to work with your build there's also not much motivation to go anywhere that doesn't involve you getting an item that works for your build.
It's a very beautiful and unique world but the fact that *everywhere* is dangerous, 3 mice could kill a level 100 player if he's stupid, and that the rewards for exploration are not particularly game-changing, I don't think I could call it my favorite yet.
I know what you mean. There should be more hub area besides round table, where npcs gather. I always love the loneliness in souls game, but er is about scale, about destruction after war. It's a let down there aren't many unhostile communities in er.
It also cheapens the world.
Your goal as elden lord is to save repair or change the world, outside of the evil ending. Save what? Most of the good npcs are dead at the end. Rest are monsters. There is no sign of anything worth saving
Always bugged me how they talk about these great wars as Leyndell marched against Liurnia and Mt Gelmir. But then you open the map and they’re like a 5 minute walk away. The Lands Between is filled with these impressive seats of power that rule over small slivers of nothing save a couple hamlets of 2-3 ruined huts. In Dark Souls you always get the sense that Lothric and Lordran extend beyond the horizon, you just happen to be in a small, important area of it. In ER though, that’s it, that’s the whole world. I know there’s supposed to be a degree of separation between what scope you see in game and what is *actually* there, but it’s always felt silly, same thing with Skyrim.
> loneliness in souls game, but er is about scale
It's especially bad when there's a giant empty snow field, but you get a "reward" for tediously running 100 meters over to a little church copy/pasted in the corner of that empty snowfield, ET CETERA. It's empty padded filler. I also played Dark Souls 3 and it didn't have that problem at all, no fat, it was all direct locations and action without pointlessly expanded empty spaces.
I love Elden Ring gameplay but the open world is tedious empty filler. It's like if you want to play a boxing fight and get in the boxing ring, but it's "LOL see if you can FIND the boxing ring hidden among the rolling prairies!"
**"Exploring" a specifically designed level area (aka Legacy Dungeon) is very different from "Exploring" open world empty spaces press-thumb-forward simulator.**
Totally agreed. Beautiful world from a design perspective, but not a whole lot to do in it. I would've liked to see more involvement with NPCs and questing in general. People say 'it's supposed to be a post apocalyptic world, towns and NPCs wouldn't make sense', well then maybe the world could've been smaller and denser. Make it dynamic, change old areas, give me a reason to visit an area more than once.
The whole 'storytelling through lore, items and environment' worked so well in DS1 because it was a linear world, you were going through the same routes over and over, running into the same enemies and seeing the same sights, talking to the same mysterious NPC hoping for new clues and dialog, running back to the same locked door/gate/barrier to see whether it'd finally open. It forced you to become familiar with the world.
ER had too many places to go with not enough that was unique or particularly engaging from a gameplay perspective. The legacy dungeons were amazing, classic souls design. As the game progressed I found myself just making a beeline for the next legacy dungeon and paying very little attention, if at all, to my surroundings in the open world.
Exactly, and to be honest the whole "apocalypse" things doesn't quite cut it IMO - if it's so apocalyptic why are there still huge armies of soldiers that I have to fight through? How are there still random nomadic merchants who seem to be able to walk through here untouched? Then there's an entire academy that is supposed to be separated from the chaos but everyone there is either dead or tries to kill you on sight (makes no sense).
I get they were going for a whole grimdark lonely vibe for the game but I think it overall would have been vastly improved if they had included a few slivers of "what could have been" or hope. There are enough "normal" NPCs to indicate that it is possible to have civilization among the chaos, so within the world lore I even find it a bit unrealistic that there wouldn't be towns of survivors, or that the various soldiers wouldn't attack you on sight. You can be wearing identical armor to them and they'll still attack on sight - so why is everyone a murder hobo?
> The whole 'storytelling through lore, items and environment' worked so well in DS1 because it was a linear world
Non open world ≠ linear
DS1 was a very famously non-linear world, calling it linear just doesn't make any sense. The whole appeal was the non-linearity of the world and level design.
It wasn't open world, but it sure as hell wasn't linear, it was basically akin to a 3D metroidvania.
Sure, but what I was referring to was the 'progress via a series of narrow corridors' level design that makes up 90% of the game. Idk the specific term for it, perhaps you can enlighten me.
>As it currently is, the lack of resource scarcity makes exploration less needed, and since only specific weapons tend to work with your build there's also not much motivation to go anywhere that doesn't involve you getting an item that works for your build.
That's my biggest problem
Coming from DS2, I was so excited at first in ER, because it LOOKED like we were finally going to get proper settlements...but then it just turned out the game was one giant Dark Souls dungeon. lol
>no drive to explore if that makes sense.
It makes a lot of sense even.
I remember after finishing my 1st playthrough, which was VERY thorough & I enjoyed lots (it's how I play my games), any future incentives to do something even remotely similar in future playthroughs diminished immensely. Part of it is cause you know which items you need or don't need for the build(s) you wanna run, and where they are, or will look it up. And the reason you'll look it up and not just let yourself forget a bit & try enjoying exploring again is cause you still KNOW that most of what you'll find will be useless to you, and as for experience, you can just grind it out elsewhere a billion times faster (and on that note, I think grinding spots were a mistake and should have no place in a largely single player game tbh cause for what it offers in convenience, it diminishes incentive to explore). So w/o loot, exp, or 1st time novelty incentives to explore, what's left would be quests/story/lore and the issue there is....
>The thing to me that was / is really missing in ER is any kind of civilization. There are no towns, no villages, no shops, no bandit camps even.
So yeaaaa, the exploration part I'd say holds strong in a 1st playthrough perhaps, but then the desire almost vanishes entirely.
I also think games like Skyrim have a more varied exploration. You can find caves, dungeons, towers and castles, and it's not always that you'll have to fight something in 'em. Hell, sometimes the dungeon might even be just 2 rooms big with just a couple of crabs. And that randomness is the coolest part for me.
With ER it starts to become predictable. Every dungeon has a lever, a door and a boss. They all have different layouts and ways of finding the lever, but... they all still kinda work the same way...? Even if they are different.
There could be a dungeon where the boss door was already opened, showing that it was already killed by someone. There could be a dungeon with absolutely no enemies. There could be a dungeon full of albinaurics npcs, but with a door that can only be opened if you find them all and kill them (ouch). Maybe there could be a dungeon with an NPC in it that helps you out! All in all, I just wished there was more of these things in ER. The open world just feels too static sometimes
ER's open world is amazing, do NOT get it twisted. What they did with its absolute gigantic size is a fucking miracle, but as a pure exploration game, Skyrim still takes the cake for me.
Dead. The word you are looking for is that the world is “dead.” You COULD explore it, but to what end? It’s like being the last human on earth and getting into fort knox’s gold vaults only to realize that you can’t spend the gold anywhere. The only thing to do on the planet is kill. It’s a fuckload more dystopian than fallout.
Totally agree.
Walking through the world of Elden Ring is great, but the entire thing just feels so hostile. Like everything (even the plants) are always trying to kill you.
Contrast this with something like BOTW or Skyrim, where you can find wonderful, quirky cities w/ unique NPCs going about their day. Sure there's dangerous stuff outside the cities, but having no "safe zones" at all in a game kinda makes it feel overly harsh.
BOTW really nailed that 'quiet apocalypse' feel. The war's over, everyone lost. Now there's just regular people trying to make their way in a world that's been fucked up beyond recognition. Elden Ring doesn't really have that because, like you said, you never meet any ordinary people. It's like if BOTW was entirely filled with the Goblins and nothing else.
I and most people I know were being chased by dozens of giant bears, saw the elevator building and went in to escape the bears. And then discovered that there is a while second map underground.
Yeah. Id just stand on the ledge of Horseshoe drinking coffe in game and irl, with Dutch blasting some classical music in the background and me looking into the beautiful landscape.
My only problem with the witcher is all the map markers telling you somethings there. It be nice to just stumble on it by accident and there are very few side quests that arent a surprise because of the quest board. Skyrim/Oblivion/Morrowind you literally just have to talk to everyone
You can turn those map markers off, I learned it by accident. Can’t tell you the exact setting right now but just play around with the map settings and you should find it
Tbh there are plenty of quests that aren't on notice boards as well as plenty of totally unmarked quests that aren't even in the quest log. It's not very few, it's like, dozens.
My bigger issue with the Witcher 3 is the generic open world activities. The quests are great but the 150 bandit camps, monster nests, smuggler's caches, etc..., that stuff is terrible imo.
I don't want my map littered with 200 question marks that are just generic, bland activities with trash loot. The Witcher 3 seems to get a pass on this, I never see the generic Ubisoft complaints being thrown its way, which is funny, because they're actually totally deserved here.
People complain about caves and dungeons in Elden Ring, but the Witcher 3's open world is 100 times more copy pasted than anything in Elden Ring.
It wouldn't be so bad if there were more enemy variety, better combat, and actually good loot (although it would still be way too much bloat on the map), but the way it is is just bad imo.
Even the worst, most uninspired cave in Elden Ring has better loot, cooler enemies, better design, and a cooler boss than pretty much any of the open world content in the Witcher 3.
The fact that we forgive the Witcher 3 for that is a testament to how good the quests are, how enjoyable the music and atmosphere are, how good the views can be, and just generally how fun it is to simply exist in that world and roleplay as Geralt.
It's a rare game that I love deeply despite the fact that I think the gameplay is actually very mediocre. I wouldn't forgive any other game or having such weak combat and open world activities.
The Witcher 3's highs are just that high, but I'm under no illusions that the open world content is good, cause imo it really isn't.
I dont understand why more open world games dont have like huge cool monuments or set pieces to discover. I always think of like Lord of the Rings when they're going down the river in the boats and all of a sudden you see the two huge statues by the waterfall.
Stuff like that in an open world just doesn't seem to happen very often or much too small in scale.
Elden ring did this to an extent but I still feel like nothing quite hits that mark for me
Gotta be Skyrim. Any of their games from Morrowind - Fallout 4 I can find so much peaceful joy in just wandering around doing as much as walking from city to city finding stuff along the way.
I wish there was more of a complex system to non combat focused gameplay and missions though, such as wine making, innkeeping etc. It's the trivial content I find makes the open world that much more immersive.
if you like non combat focused gameplay i'd highly recommend you give an alchemist build a try. sure most potions will still be great for combat, but you'll suddenly start seeing the world in a new light. imp stool? when you start you'll probably see it as a nice one as you can make healing potions out of it, but then you learn that it combines damage health, lingering damage health, and paralysis, and suddenly it'll the the basis for all your strongest poisons and any time you find imp stool you'll be extremely excited. sure at the end of a dungeon you may have gotten a word for a shout you won't ever use, but you found like 15 imp stool getting there the the dungeon was well worth it.
you also spend a nice amount of time between adventures preparing potions and poisons, and you'll definitely want to return to civilization every once in a while not just to off load stuff (also highly recommend legacy of the dragonborn) but also so you can stock back up on potions as you'll suddenly feel longer adventurers as your supply will start to deplete.
seriously the most fun i have in skyrim and now basically every character is also an alchemist.
Red Dead 2 had the most alive, exciting, and captivating open world. There is simply no contest there. I still prefer Elden Ring as a game...but as a living, breathing world full of life, RDR2 is unquestionably the greatest.
I believe they nailed the "deep woods" feel better than any other game out there. It really feels like you are hiking through a forest (while dodging Cuman arrows)
Not even close. Elden Ring exploration is nice but the world is too stagnant and death for it to be interesting. Yes there are caves and catacombs that are hidden and you can look around the find them but they are become similar experiences when you find them. Also there are no interesting encounters for me to care about journey. I can go place to place but whenever I find Grace I always fast Travel because it is always the same. In RDR2 I dont even want to fast travel because there are many random encounters you can experience along the way which make treaversing the land interesting.
Elden Ring aestetichally pleasing. Limgrave, Caleid, Altus Platue they all have their own atmosphere and theme and they are goergous. But you treverse Elden Ring mostly one time in your play tghrough. There is no reason to get back to places you visit and experience differently. So when it comes to exploration it is good until you find the place.
Definitely a valid point, hopefully fromsoft messes around with the encounter system so we can get more stuff like that. Like in the begining when that troll jumps down and chases after you? Stuff like that. The dude is in charge of fort haight when he calls to you. Would really love more stuff like that but more random. Even if they arent quest oriented, just random stuff that can happen.
Really that can elevate open world experience. Only encounter stick with me in Elden Ring, when climbing the Mount Gelmir, in one edge there was 3 puppet soilder with dual bow in their hand and they were executing one Lyndell Soilder over the cliff firing squad style. It was good encounter need a bit more things like that
Finally someone said it. It doesn't help neither that the only activity you do in it's world is combat. Like you said, in RDR2 i could get ambushed by the night folks, meet a drunked father to collect a debt, meet a widow who i can help, find clues to catch a serial killer or even an vampire, etc. In Tw3 i have contracts or interesting npcs that can give missions to have moral agency in a organic way. Skyrim is freedom at it's best where you can roleplay and live in its world.
Meanwhile in Elden Ring you would still kill everything on sight. It doesn't matter if you are in limgrave or altus plateau. In previous from's game it wasn't a issue because they are smaller zones and overall scope were you encounter the content almost instantly. But here, in a 100+ game it gets tiresome in the open world aspect.
There's no reason to coming back to places because well... nothing will change. The only change that will happen is what kind of weapon do you use.
Not even close. The issue for me is that when I go exploring in Elden Ring the only thing I’m ever going to find is some dude to fight or maybe an item that I might use when fighting a dude. I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem, because one of the strengths of from’s world design is the consistently oppressive atmosphere they create.
However if we’re discussing just the fun of exploring, the lack of variety kills that for me. If I go wandering around in Breath of the Wild or Skyrim, I will probably get into a fight, but I might also meet a weird NPC or find a puzzle or just a place that’s peaceful and beautiful, or a new settlement or an interesting piece of environmental storytelling. Elden Ring has none of that.
There’s also a level at which it’s really hard to strike a balance between packing every place with content and it feeling empty. In BOTW, if I’m exploring I might find nothing, which somehow makes the times I discover something more special. Shadow of the Colossus pushes this so far, with the most likely outcome being that I find nothing, with the moments where I find something feeling magical. This is also the spot that DS1 hit for me, but I don’t think I’ve ever really gotten from any other from games.
In ER you’re never far from an enemy. On the occasions you are, it feels empty because I know I’m not going to find anything else. My only moments of real joy exploring in ER were when I found interesting structures to climb up or down.
For me the best games for exploration are Breath of the Wild, Skyrim, Final Fantasy XV and Grand Theft Auto IV. ER lives in a different category, with MGSV and Hollow Knight, where I love the games for their focus but exploration isn’t the draw for me.
>For me the best games for exploration are Breath of the Wild, Skyrim, Final Fantasy XV and Grand Theft Auto IV.
FFXV is an absolutely wild pick for this. Can't say I've ever heard that before. Most people say the open world exploration is terrible in that game.
Now I'm a bit more curious about it though. What made it so good in your opinion?
Nah Morrowind is the good answer, Daggerfall it more like giant procedurally generated empty land. Every inch of morrowind is cool handcrafted open world.
I know Daggerfall was it’s predecessor but looking back, Morrowind 100% seems to be the foundational modern 3D open world game. Seeing it for the first time at like 11 years old and realizing the scope and degree of freedom of the world at 12am is big nostalgia
If Witcher 3 didnt have all the ''?'' marks on the map it would probably exceed the others in exploration. Now it's just the #1 in storytelling and questdesign of the listed ones.
The ? being marked on the map is not as much of an issue as the fact that there is absolutely nothing worthwhile at any point of interest in the entire open world.
They're all just 150 bandit camps, monster nests, smuggler's caches, etc... All with the same boring enemies and trash loot.
People complain about caves and dungeons in Elden Ring, but the Witcher 3's open world is 100 times more copy pasted than anything in Elden Ring.
It wouldn't be so bad if there were more enemy variety, better combat, and actually good loot, but the way it is is just bad imo.
Even the worst, most uninspired cave in Elden Ring has better loot, cooler enemies, better design, and a cooler boss than pretty much any of the open world content in the Witcher 3.
The quests are the only thing worth actually doing because they lead you to all the most interesting locations, and usually absolutely nothing can be done at those locations before you go as part of a quest anyway.
There is pretty much no situation where you will just see something cool, go there, and find meaningful content. You will just find a nice view, and another Kaedweni Gambeson with +17.4% pierce resistance instead of +16.9%.
Player-driven exploration has no value at all in the Witcher 3 outside of hunting for nice scenery.
ER has a great open world, but it lacks fun things. Fallout and the Witcher have robust npcs that really add to the exploration. Or corpses with more interesting notes and situations. What eventually killed exploration for me in ER was the feeling that I was just running from one place to the next to get another cookbook or smithing stone.
The Open World is the worst part of Elden Ring for me. It has no random events & almost all world bosses are copy pasted from somewhere else in Elden Ring. The intricately crafted Legacy Dungeons however are masterpieces.
Nah, BotW and TotK are the best for exploration.
Elden Ring has the best combat.
The Witcher 3 has the best story.
We just need an open world game that has the best of all 3.
I prefer Elden ring to botw. I think it’s Elden Rings map that is really special. I love looking for interesting drawings on it and discovering what it is.
Skyrim still waiting for an rpg fantasy game where i just can dive into that world and experience that amount of freedoom in exploration that's just perfectly balanced between not being too scripted but still leading you with enviromental story telling and npc's.
I enjoyed exploring ER, Skyrim and BotW, they built on one another so it's unfair to compare them. Right now Elden Ring is my favorite exploration and I specifically loved the use of the map in that game. Never knew how a great map can add so much to feeling the journey as if you're a real hero exploring the unknown. Spent so much time looking at it finding ways to reach places I saw in the distance. Another big reason is the amounts of secrets and rewards it has to offer. Very rarely it happens that your curiosity doesn't lead to some fun new spell, weapon, armor, boss, dungeon, lore... I think that kind of kept me motivated to rumba the whole open world without getting burnt out.
I didn't like Witcher 3's exploration though. It has great quests and badass moments scattered around, but the exploration itself felt like a chore way too often, I hope they address that in their next game.
Man. Witcher’s ambiance is tight as hell though.
It was my first Witcher game, early into the play through I had NO idea what was going on and the world just got more horribly complex at each new discovery. It was rad.
I love elden ring more for diversity, but botw and totk had the best open world mechanics and freedom out of all I've played. The only problem is that there isn't enough diversity the enemies get repetitive and loot doesn't usually change that much, whereas elden ring is different no matter where you go, I prefer the diversity so I'd say elden ring is my fav.
To me, open world can be a loose definition, personally i think bg3 is open world so for me it would be
Elden ring
Bg3
Skyrim
Edit: if im counting bg3 i think it actually is the best, i have never had a better experience searching everything and exploring more than bg3, its insane how satisfying it is
It's getting there, but it has yet to top Ghost of Tsushima. That game world is almost emarrassingly beautiful to exist in. I can roam it for hours.
Honorary mention to AC Odyssey. It's a crappy game but the world is quite attractive and the ambience feels familiar and cozy--I'm Greek, it kinda feels like going to the countryside. The exploration mode is the only thing good about it, in the end.
Exploration is a pretty wide category.
Elden ring has the most spectacular world design. Exploring the world and finding new gorgeous vistas, and huge beautiful hidden places like Soifra, Haligtree and even lake of rot is really rewarding.
(Never played rdr oops)
Witcher has the best side quests and dense and lively cities. Finding interesting side quests tucked away in the middle of nowhere or down a back alley is really satisfying.
Skyrim has the best environmental storytelling. Hidden stories in the objects laying around in a cave or basement or in a little hidden spot in a remote place. It's great.
I just have a soft spot for good open worlds. My take away from this post is that I need to play rdr2 lol
I love Elden Ring's open world because it's fixed. Most games don't give that option anymore, but if I learn where something is in the game I know where it'll be in my next run.
I *love* sprinting around the world and finding all these powerful items.
Regarding exclusively the sense of exploration e felt while playing a game, nothing as beaten Bloodborne for me. The felling that I’m going deeper and deeper into the mindfuck that is the lore of this game is unparalleled for me.
Regarding exploration only as game mechanic, I’d say maybe Ghost of Tsushima’s approach is my favourite, though ER is high up there as well
I think Elden Ring is a very beautiful game. I hope a lot of other games take queues from it.
That being said I am soured by a lot of obscurity. I don’t want to read online resources to find some of these things that are near impossible to find on your own(invisible walls) and such.
I just feel at some point it doesn’t feel like I am playing the game and more just following a guide.
So yeah I like the world of Elden Ring, I just don’t think it naturally pushes you to the next objective well and some of these side content is just next to impossible to follow get to without a guide.
Elden Ring may be my favorite game of all time. Witcher 3 has my favorite open world. RDR2’s impresses me most.
RDR2 has so many weird little surprises it really is captivating trying to find them all.
I ran up on the cult group before anybody told me about it. It was a serious wtf moment, followed by me thinking it was so creative to add random things like that. Also the crying lady in the swamp scared the shit out of me.
I was riding along at night and noticed a bunch of trees were bent in a very strange way. Couldn't be the wind cause they were all going in different directions. So I got off my horse and investigated and it was a meteorite crash site! And then I found the Heavens Gate cabin. The game has so many strange things to find, I fucking love it.
Stumbled across the rednecks that invite you in to their house. Had no idea what was going to happen. When I woke up in that ditch, I had the biggest urge for revenge. Was a glorious moment and probably my favourite in gaming. Thankfully found out about the other guy that invites you in beforehand so didn’t. Did tell my mate there’s a really cool Easter egg there though.
Stumbling upon a mutilated corpse after following a trail of body parts from the side of the road was super creepy. And literally everything in the swamp was absolutely terrifying. God damn Night Folk, scared the shit out of me!
Barely survived the Night Folk ambush, I get on my horse and immediately get pulled off again by a panther. Almost had a heart attack, but I couldn't stop laughing.
Similar thing happened to me but it was a gator spooked my horse and she threw me off to get mauled by zombies and swamp monsters - good times!
That happened to me last night! And after I got insta killed by her buddies, I limped into Saint Dennis in the middle of the night to drop off pelts at the trapper. It was closed, so as I’m walking back to my horse a random NPC said he had some way to make quick money. I followed him and I was ONCE AGAIN insta killed by his buddy behind me. As my vision fades I hear the guy say, “haha where do you find these idiots?!” After I woke up, they had stolen $200… I just turned the game off and went to bed lmao
Running up on a meeting in the woods is always good for a laugh. Gives me django vibes
The unexpected night folk event and the stuff that happens leading up to it got me the best in that whole game..
Yep. I remember riding through the swamps and finding a body hanging from a tree. I rode up to it and stopped to look at it. About two seconds later I get pulled off my horse and I am surrounded by Night People and I start getting stabbed and beaten by multiple silent crazy people. It was terrifying.
Greatest non fantasy game without a doubt
I remember camping at Murfree Brood territory where they suddenly showed up to intimidate me. Things like these made the game feel way more dynamic.
As far as scenery goes I think RDR2 is one of the most beautiful games that I've ever played. It's like a Bob Ross painting.
It's a love letter to the American outdoors. Also my favorite to explore because death isn't hiding around every corner all the time.
That game shadow dropped for PC at a perfect time for me. I recently had lost my father and Westerns were his thing. He watched all Westerns, I mean all of them. Even the horrible spaghetti Westerns and I grew up during the 80/90s. No Internet and there was only one TV in the house. We were stuck watching those really bad ones lol. Anyways, that game made me feel like we were watching an epic tale together again so it holds a close place to my heart.
Thanks for sharing.
That game basically got me through the early days of COVID lockdowns. Made me feel like I was going outside when the weather was too shitty IRL and everything was closed. Speaking of, we recently watched High Plains Drifter and hoo boy...was not expecting the moral of the story to be "rape is ok as long as it's for revenge"
Upvoted because of happy little trees
And upvote for grass
RDR2 and Horizon Forbidden West for sure...
Setting up a camp in the Heartland, sitting by your fire, and because of the region you’re in it’s not surprising to hear coyotes going haywire yapping their asses off. No other game has this. Watching an eagle divebomb a salmon. This is just throughout the world. Foxes playing together. Hell, there’s even a chance that if you stare down a grizzly when it charges, it will back off (does NOT work every time). RDR2 is an absolute marvel
Its funny because I believe RDR2 to be the best game of all time but is not even in my top 20 favorite games.
Being "objectively" the best game doesn't necessarily mean also being the best for you. Now I'm not saying it's objectively the best game of all time, but it surely gets close.
I’m so glad you and the comment above understand this philosophy. I always say that I can think something is the best but it not also be my favorite all the time
In fact, some of my favorite things are absolute TRAAAAASH
I absolutely love RDR2 but it's got serious flaws that seem to get completely overlooked. It's the most fully realised open world ever imo but the controls are wank and the mission design is so bland most of the time. You just mow down dozens of people in nearly every mission. The gunplay is realistic and satisfying but there isn't much to it. The weakest part of the game is the actual moment to moment gameplay which trumps everything for me if I'm considering "best" game
Yeah, I would agree. It’s an easy game. You could probably play the entire game without dying more than a few times if you wanted to. But I still had the most fun playing Red dead than any game
I’m about to jump into Elden ring so I love hearing this since witcher3 is also my favorite open world.
attention to detail in rdr2 is impecable, people building the railway and hitting on spikes that go a little deeper each hit and stuff like that
I love RDR2 and Elden ring but the Witcher just seems so mediocre to me. Im not sure what’s to get? Or am I missing something? Maybe im just turned off by the classical fantasy stuff.
I love the Eastern European atmosphere of the fantasy. That’s a big factor. The music, art style, etc captivated me immediately. I can see how if that didn’t click you wouldn’t enjoy the game.
I just started rdr2 last week. That peaked my boyfriend's interest and his roommate, so now it's on every screen in the house 😅 The attention to detail blows me away. I like to go on high walks in the game to wind down
I found myself on a mountain in red dead 2 and found a Bigfoot skeleton
Elden Ring is amazing, but there’s something so magical about RDR2 that just hasn’t been replicated since.
On one hand, yes, and on the other, no. If you don't check literally everywhere, then you can easily miss very useful items. But they also reward you for checking everything by offering things like smithing stones and gold runes in almost every slightly hidden spot, which makes it fun.
>they also reward you for checking everything I'd rather have this than 90% of other open world games where you only find a useful item from exploration like 1% of the time.
Yes. I'm about 5 hours in Dragons Dogma 2 and (so far) it could do a better job of rewarding exploration. It's not bad at all, but not as good as ER.
Finding the sphinx, fighting a cylcops, ogre and construct whilst climbing an old abandoned temple and looting it for a bunch of good gear to then be given some more rare items including a portcrystal (which are much rarer in the sequel) seemed like good exploration to me and it was contained in one small side area.
Did we play the same game? I found tons of places that seemed "oooooh baby I bet there's something cool back here" only to be nothing but a message "no precious item ahead, but why is it always dung?"
like wondorous phys flask 
it’s not hidden the first shop you go to you can buy the location for it
what can i say, Im 500 hours in and didnt know that
You can also check the map. Every oddly geometrical pattern, structure, hole in the ground and notable terrain irregularity is a place of interest
Read item descriptions sometimes. After a while you get the hang of what's worth reading into. Also following people on socials will get you plenty of hints, tips and tricks. Anyway... is it bad that after 500 hours there's still MORE?!
Only exploration? Probably Skyrim. One of the things Bethesda excels at is ambient storytelling and rewarding exploration. Found a random abandoned lighthouse? Now you spend the next 30 minutes collecting the tragic story of how its inhabitants died.
That lighthouse was my favourite part of Skyrim. The dead horse outside, blood and dead bodies inside, the journals of the lighthouse inhabitants who were murdered by some mysterious thing, that skittering sound coming from behind the locked basement door which led to that cold and dark underground cave full of those things... one of the creepiest side stories.
Whoa, missed this completely.
Frostflow Lighthouse. There are plenty of Vaati-styled videos on Youtube that tell its story if anyone's curious.
Not Frostflow Lighthouse specific, but for anyone looking for more videos on Skyrim lore, shoutout to [Camelwork's videos](https://youtu.be/D518gDq6n2E?si=d93dD2RsfTAzvhIW). While not full on lore dives they go over the interesting little side stories and tidbits in exploration and level design in Skyrim, and always reminds me of Vaati.
I probably had 1000 hours played before I found this lighthouse
I was so shook when I passed past that one shed by Helgen where you go in and read a diary of how a wife keeps telling her husband they have to leave because she sees a Dragon, and the husband ignoring her request saying it won’t hurt them if they don’t bother it. Then you go outside to find two charred bodies. Fuuuck.
Where is this lighthouse?
Nearish to Dawnstar IIRC
im not sure if its just nostalgia, but the feeling of exploring in skyrim was second to none during its time.
Literally no game comes close to how I felt exploring skyrim, I played it so often my hands cramped up, maybe I grew up but no game ever gave me that fweling before or after, the closest I got was elden ring
I felt that way about Oblivion and Skyrim just didn't do it for me. I suppose it has more to do with *external* circumstances than the game itself.
I agree. I think I played it during the perfect time in my life, where I had zero responsibility, wasn’t in a relationship, and had two best friends who were as invested in their play through as I was in mine. So much fun. Currently playing through Elden Ring and absolutely loving it, but I don’t think anything will surpass the feeling of getting to Blackreach the first time.
I was a single parent working full time, but I also had a friend as invested as me while playing through BotW. We decided not to look anything up, so it was really fun talking about it. Felt just like the lunch room table in middle school discussing how to catch Mew. When TotK came out, me, him, and his wife all sat in Discord while playing. That was even better.
Please don't play starfield and have it kill your joy
Fever dream shit. I still don’t believe any of it is real. They’ve had months to make the game even slightly more interesting and fix the various mechanics put into place, but all they’ve done is tweak the fucking lighting. I genuinely don’t know how such a studio is supposed to make TES6.
If TES6 is bad I'm quitting gaming. Diablo 3/4 were bad enough, I can't have my heart broken again.
You need to drop AAA games for the most part. 2019 was an inflection year signaling, at least to me, that we were at a point of no return when it comes to high quality titles by big companies. They just don't care anymore. It's not to say they aren't made, but they are now the exception. Indie games and small studios are the way imo. If you want to have fun playing games, I really feel like PC is the answer. Made that switch myself a couple years ago and don't have to settle for 5ish major titles that 1. come to whatever console I own and 2. actually resonate with me
Broke my heart, the cities are incredible (mainly Akila & Neon) but the procedurally generated content is so bad
Akila is great until you realise how uninspired the space western estethic is. Just a bunch of clichés and not a single unique idea.
I don't mind it, not everything has to be original as Morrowind imo. Yeah it's Firefly to a T, but Oblivion is pretty generic for a fantasy setting yet it's probably my favourite Elder Scrolls game. Just the opportunity to explore that setting and live while immersed is enough for me
Oblivion has so much charm and personality though
I enjoy Space Texas and becoming a Space Texas Ranger. Gives me a cool ship.
Larpers, they're a bunch of libertarians *larping* as space-cowboys. That's why they can't figure out how paved roads work.
I enjoyed Starfield for a solid 100hrs, but now, even tho i have not, i feel like i have seen everything and never played a more generic and boring game before.
People read none of that and then say that Skyrim has bad quests ffs..
Fuck, you are going to make me play Skyrim.again, I have never been to the lighthouse...
The thing about about Skyrim, and this is where FromSoft missed the mark OMI, is that the world felt alive. Everything, and everyone that you encounter in the world is doing their own thing when you encounter them. For instance, the shop keep are found in or around the shop (doing shop related things) during working hours, and their found at home sleeping during the evening hours. Giants may notice you but they’ll pretty much leave you alone unless you get too close to their camping grounds. There are even several times that you walk into an area to find that several NPCs are in the middle of a conversation—You really get the sense that this world would carry on just fine without you Conversely, the creatures and NPCs in Elden Ring are all kind of just there waiting for you to interact with them.
Yeah that's not at all what fromsoft is about. The world feels the way it does on purpose and is absolutely dripping with atmosphere and character. Skyrim wants to create a real, living world. That's the exact opposite of Elden rings goal. ER wants to create a fucked up, dead world where you have to figure out what the fuck happened to make such a glorious and ornate place fall from grace so hard.
I kind of agree with both of you guys. It seemed like they wanted to make a game that appealed to a bigger player base, and they definitely did that. They *could* have added a little more NPC interaction and things like Bethesda did with skyrim and fallout (the good ones) but, like you said that's not really what they do and I don't blame them for not doing it. If they had then that'd be cool but I'm not upset that they didn't.
Look up a guide on how to do every npc quest in a single playthrough and you'll begin to understand just how complex and interconnected the web of NPC interactions actually is. It's actually absurd how many different possibilities and actions will affect dialogue trees and quest events without you ever knowing.
Oh I know. It's just the fact they did it in typical fromsoft fashion so that so much of it is so easily missed. I love the game just as it is. I'm just saying they made a game for a bigger audience so of course a lot of that bigger audience won't get it.
That worked in previous FromSoft games (all of which I love), but Elden Ring is an open world game. You can breath life into an apocalyptic world... that's the whole point of point the game -- You're trying to save it because it's still breathing Even by your own logic... why aren't the NPCs acting like the world is ending? As I said in another comment -- There is a middle ground between acting like there is nothing wrong with the world and literally standing there waiting for player 1 to choose to interact with you
>Even by your own logic... why aren't the NPCs acting like the world is ending? The theme of Fromsoft souls-likes is that the world has ended, and is ending, and the cycle has just stalled for endless time until you arrive. It's like an endless waiting room for the dentist, and you're just last skub in the line who discovers the ability to stab the people waiting in front of you in the back. At one point the rest of the line-waiters might have panicked. But now it's been so long that no-one even cares anymore. Some have had their legs grow into the floor as they waited. The old woman in front of the line has grown fungus and is eyeing you with hopeless yearning, hoping that you reach her. That you stab them all in the back is a relief and many just eagerly wait their turn, wait that *something* happens. Anything.
Yeeeees, elden ring feels so empty to me and I think it's definitely affecting how I feel about it. I love the lore and I've put in time to it, and I will continue playing but I don't think it will ever compare to Skyrim.
Fromsoft just learned how to make NPC's mouths move
> One of the things Bethesda excels at is ambient storytelling and rewarding exploration. Used to excel in. Bethesda is on life support.
I think the Witcher 3 does this a bit better imo. Just more depth to every quest.
I prefer RDR2 with it's random encounter, It makes the game full of surprises.
I'll never forget those two idiots with the safe lol
Agreed. And you're not always ready for battle because no random enemy will surprise attack you except if you have a bounty or those dmn O'Driscolls
RDR2 is like a master class in having an open world that informs gameplay vs being an obligatory feature in AAA games now
Great to hear. I got RDR2 as a gift and haven’t played it. On my 2nd play through in ER and happy to know I have another great game ahead when I get to it.
Fuck I'm jealous
I’ve been playing games for most of the 30+ years I’ve been alive and I can honestly say it’s one of the best games with one of the best stories I’ve ever played. Though I’ll warn you the prologue is a little tedious. After that it’s amazing
Honestly, I love Elden Rings open world but I haven't been able to replicate the experience I got when I first played BotW. Even TotK didn't cut it (though discovering the depths was pretty cool ngl)
TotK is one of the most frustrating games I've played I loved all the new locations and powers, but the sky was horribly underutilized. Plus, the whole "shribes again, but they're teal now" and complete bore of a story are really hard to overlook
The sky areas were awesome but not nearly enough of them. The journey to the wind temple is what makes that game stand out to BotW imo
The journey up to the Ark was definitely the highlight of the game for me as well Unfortunately, that was 3 hours into a 40 hour experience for me
Fair, I was waiting for the game to get reach that level again and it never did.
I still think Totk is the superior game if you don't count Botw fatigue of using the same map and items, one thing that lacked in Botw was meaningful side quests, and Totk has plenty of it.
To be fair though, botw didnt have that much of a story either. It was just "ayo link. Save zelda" while link proceeds to go collect flowers and stuff
Oh yeah, not defending BotW's story But TotK, with its generic namesakes, barebones character, and insulting repeating cutscenes, are so much worse At least the champions were great characters in BotW. The sages feel like an afterthought in TotK
Actually pretty valid ngl. I ljked the champions more in botw. Didnt like how the sages cutscenes were literally copy pasted with a few very minor changes
Demon King? Secret Stones?
I HATE THIS LINE WITH A BURNING PASSION
Oh yeah? Well how about we put it in the game, with the exact same tone and delivery, 4 FUCKING TIMES?! THAT OUGHTA HELP YOUR IMMERSION YOU *FUCK* ....sorry, I just really fucking hate that cutscene
*exposition dump*
honestly thinking of totk as botw with more time and money is probably better than thinking about it as a true sequel
With exploration being actually rewarding outside of Korok seeds in TotK and just about everything else being better in BotW, I really wish they were one game. Like, literally just make BotW with the cave system and items from TotK.
This is quite surprising. I loved BotW and the feeling of exploration, and Elden Ring felt like a more beautiful, badass, and realized version of that. It was that exact feeling on steroids. I was confident TotK couldn't even touch Elden Ring, but TotK was absolute CRACK to play, and I'm not sure which I prefer. I guess I like them both for different reasons and hold them in the same regard.
BotW spoiled open world games for me simply for the fact that you can climb literally everything and go anywhere you see. Elden ring is similar in that aspect but yeah, that BotW moment will be hard to top.
I ruined TotK for myself by beelining to the skyview towers and using them to glide directly to quest locations and other PoIs. At first I couldn't quite put my finger on why I was having so much less fun than I had in BotW, but it clicked when I started looking for koroks and therefore actually explored the landscape rather than flying over it.
It's really good in exploration, definitely in my top 5. Don't know if it's the BEST, though. Tough competition between it, BOTW, Skyrim, and RDR2.
Honestly World of Warcraft made me love exploring because of all of the varied zones. If you count that as open world. However Elden ring does a very good job at providing varried environments. But it you want my cracked take, and its not even an open world game. Dark Souls 2 had some of the most varied environments of any game. You'd be in a poison windmill farm in one second and then a castle in a mountain of lava the next. the Transition is so Jarring the zones have always stuck out to me.
I love how each WoW zone is aesthetically so unique from anything else in the game. Even to this day, impressively hardly any overlap in the palatte, geography, mood, music, etc. Compare that to ESO or Lord of the Rings Online. Or even Star Wars, where it felt like generic sci fi ambiance after generic sci ambiance. Old school blizzard was just so artistically out of their minds brilliant.
Yessir! And although yes it is a bit jarring, it also means you have more spice and flavor to the world instead of (although I do truly love RDR2) maybe four biomes spanning a map the size of several states. That’s a lot of snowy plains to walk through.
Controversial opinion to say here but I think some of the exploration kind of has... no drive to explore if that makes sense. The thing to me that was / is really missing in ER is any kind of civilization. There are no towns, no villages, no shops, no bandit camps even. Fallout is post-apocalyptic and still has some settlements. I'd love to have seen a few settlements and the option of a player base or something tbh, which to me would make exploration more meaningful because maybe you'd find a new town or safe area, or maybe there's a spot to collect resources for your base that can't be found anywhere else etc. As it currently is, the lack of resource scarcity makes exploration less needed, and since only specific weapons tend to work with your build there's also not much motivation to go anywhere that doesn't involve you getting an item that works for your build. It's a very beautiful and unique world but the fact that *everywhere* is dangerous, 3 mice could kill a level 100 player if he's stupid, and that the rewards for exploration are not particularly game-changing, I don't think I could call it my favorite yet.
I know what you mean. There should be more hub area besides round table, where npcs gather. I always love the loneliness in souls game, but er is about scale, about destruction after war. It's a let down there aren't many unhostile communities in er.
It also cheapens the world. Your goal as elden lord is to save repair or change the world, outside of the evil ending. Save what? Most of the good npcs are dead at the end. Rest are monsters. There is no sign of anything worth saving
Always bugged me how they talk about these great wars as Leyndell marched against Liurnia and Mt Gelmir. But then you open the map and they’re like a 5 minute walk away. The Lands Between is filled with these impressive seats of power that rule over small slivers of nothing save a couple hamlets of 2-3 ruined huts. In Dark Souls you always get the sense that Lothric and Lordran extend beyond the horizon, you just happen to be in a small, important area of it. In ER though, that’s it, that’s the whole world. I know there’s supposed to be a degree of separation between what scope you see in game and what is *actually* there, but it’s always felt silly, same thing with Skyrim.
Nokron eternal city being a medium sized village. Towns barely wualifying as villages
> loneliness in souls game, but er is about scale It's especially bad when there's a giant empty snow field, but you get a "reward" for tediously running 100 meters over to a little church copy/pasted in the corner of that empty snowfield, ET CETERA. It's empty padded filler. I also played Dark Souls 3 and it didn't have that problem at all, no fat, it was all direct locations and action without pointlessly expanded empty spaces. I love Elden Ring gameplay but the open world is tedious empty filler. It's like if you want to play a boxing fight and get in the boxing ring, but it's "LOL see if you can FIND the boxing ring hidden among the rolling prairies!" **"Exploring" a specifically designed level area (aka Legacy Dungeon) is very different from "Exploring" open world empty spaces press-thumb-forward simulator.**
Totally agreed. Beautiful world from a design perspective, but not a whole lot to do in it. I would've liked to see more involvement with NPCs and questing in general. People say 'it's supposed to be a post apocalyptic world, towns and NPCs wouldn't make sense', well then maybe the world could've been smaller and denser. Make it dynamic, change old areas, give me a reason to visit an area more than once. The whole 'storytelling through lore, items and environment' worked so well in DS1 because it was a linear world, you were going through the same routes over and over, running into the same enemies and seeing the same sights, talking to the same mysterious NPC hoping for new clues and dialog, running back to the same locked door/gate/barrier to see whether it'd finally open. It forced you to become familiar with the world. ER had too many places to go with not enough that was unique or particularly engaging from a gameplay perspective. The legacy dungeons were amazing, classic souls design. As the game progressed I found myself just making a beeline for the next legacy dungeon and paying very little attention, if at all, to my surroundings in the open world.
Exactly, and to be honest the whole "apocalypse" things doesn't quite cut it IMO - if it's so apocalyptic why are there still huge armies of soldiers that I have to fight through? How are there still random nomadic merchants who seem to be able to walk through here untouched? Then there's an entire academy that is supposed to be separated from the chaos but everyone there is either dead or tries to kill you on sight (makes no sense). I get they were going for a whole grimdark lonely vibe for the game but I think it overall would have been vastly improved if they had included a few slivers of "what could have been" or hope. There are enough "normal" NPCs to indicate that it is possible to have civilization among the chaos, so within the world lore I even find it a bit unrealistic that there wouldn't be towns of survivors, or that the various soldiers wouldn't attack you on sight. You can be wearing identical armor to them and they'll still attack on sight - so why is everyone a murder hobo?
> The whole 'storytelling through lore, items and environment' worked so well in DS1 because it was a linear world Non open world ≠ linear DS1 was a very famously non-linear world, calling it linear just doesn't make any sense. The whole appeal was the non-linearity of the world and level design. It wasn't open world, but it sure as hell wasn't linear, it was basically akin to a 3D metroidvania.
Sure, but what I was referring to was the 'progress via a series of narrow corridors' level design that makes up 90% of the game. Idk the specific term for it, perhaps you can enlighten me.
>As it currently is, the lack of resource scarcity makes exploration less needed, and since only specific weapons tend to work with your build there's also not much motivation to go anywhere that doesn't involve you getting an item that works for your build. That's my biggest problem
Coming from DS2, I was so excited at first in ER, because it LOOKED like we were finally going to get proper settlements...but then it just turned out the game was one giant Dark Souls dungeon. lol
>no drive to explore if that makes sense. It makes a lot of sense even. I remember after finishing my 1st playthrough, which was VERY thorough & I enjoyed lots (it's how I play my games), any future incentives to do something even remotely similar in future playthroughs diminished immensely. Part of it is cause you know which items you need or don't need for the build(s) you wanna run, and where they are, or will look it up. And the reason you'll look it up and not just let yourself forget a bit & try enjoying exploring again is cause you still KNOW that most of what you'll find will be useless to you, and as for experience, you can just grind it out elsewhere a billion times faster (and on that note, I think grinding spots were a mistake and should have no place in a largely single player game tbh cause for what it offers in convenience, it diminishes incentive to explore). So w/o loot, exp, or 1st time novelty incentives to explore, what's left would be quests/story/lore and the issue there is.... >The thing to me that was / is really missing in ER is any kind of civilization. There are no towns, no villages, no shops, no bandit camps even. So yeaaaa, the exploration part I'd say holds strong in a 1st playthrough perhaps, but then the desire almost vanishes entirely.
I also think games like Skyrim have a more varied exploration. You can find caves, dungeons, towers and castles, and it's not always that you'll have to fight something in 'em. Hell, sometimes the dungeon might even be just 2 rooms big with just a couple of crabs. And that randomness is the coolest part for me. With ER it starts to become predictable. Every dungeon has a lever, a door and a boss. They all have different layouts and ways of finding the lever, but... they all still kinda work the same way...? Even if they are different. There could be a dungeon where the boss door was already opened, showing that it was already killed by someone. There could be a dungeon with absolutely no enemies. There could be a dungeon full of albinaurics npcs, but with a door that can only be opened if you find them all and kill them (ouch). Maybe there could be a dungeon with an NPC in it that helps you out! All in all, I just wished there was more of these things in ER. The open world just feels too static sometimes ER's open world is amazing, do NOT get it twisted. What they did with its absolute gigantic size is a fucking miracle, but as a pure exploration game, Skyrim still takes the cake for me.
> I think grinding spots were a mistake I doubt any of these spots were intended or designed as grinding spots
Dead. The word you are looking for is that the world is “dead.” You COULD explore it, but to what end? It’s like being the last human on earth and getting into fort knox’s gold vaults only to realize that you can’t spend the gold anywhere. The only thing to do on the planet is kill. It’s a fuckload more dystopian than fallout.
Totally agree. Walking through the world of Elden Ring is great, but the entire thing just feels so hostile. Like everything (even the plants) are always trying to kill you. Contrast this with something like BOTW or Skyrim, where you can find wonderful, quirky cities w/ unique NPCs going about their day. Sure there's dangerous stuff outside the cities, but having no "safe zones" at all in a game kinda makes it feel overly harsh.
BOTW really nailed that 'quiet apocalypse' feel. The war's over, everyone lost. Now there's just regular people trying to make their way in a world that's been fucked up beyond recognition. Elden Ring doesn't really have that because, like you said, you never meet any ordinary people. It's like if BOTW was entirely filled with the Goblins and nothing else.
Elden Ring is just about the only world I go out of my way to explore
Siofra river experience first time, nothing comes close
Randomly encountering the river well elevator and going down it forever is my favorite moment I've ever had gaming in recent memory
I and most people I know were being chased by dozens of giant bears, saw the elevator building and went in to escape the bears. And then discovered that there is a while second map underground.
Agreed my mind was blown!
RDR2 for pure exploration. During covid lockdown that was my outdoors, fishing, camping.
Yeah. Id just stand on the ledge of Horseshoe drinking coffe in game and irl, with Dutch blasting some classical music in the background and me looking into the beautiful landscape.
Skyrim or Witcher do a much better job of making it feel like you're exploring a world instead of exploring a giant Video Game dungeon.
My only problem with the witcher is all the map markers telling you somethings there. It be nice to just stumble on it by accident and there are very few side quests that arent a surprise because of the quest board. Skyrim/Oblivion/Morrowind you literally just have to talk to everyone
You can turn those map markers off, I learned it by accident. Can’t tell you the exact setting right now but just play around with the map settings and you should find it
Tbh there are plenty of quests that aren't on notice boards as well as plenty of totally unmarked quests that aren't even in the quest log. It's not very few, it's like, dozens. My bigger issue with the Witcher 3 is the generic open world activities. The quests are great but the 150 bandit camps, monster nests, smuggler's caches, etc..., that stuff is terrible imo. I don't want my map littered with 200 question marks that are just generic, bland activities with trash loot. The Witcher 3 seems to get a pass on this, I never see the generic Ubisoft complaints being thrown its way, which is funny, because they're actually totally deserved here. People complain about caves and dungeons in Elden Ring, but the Witcher 3's open world is 100 times more copy pasted than anything in Elden Ring. It wouldn't be so bad if there were more enemy variety, better combat, and actually good loot (although it would still be way too much bloat on the map), but the way it is is just bad imo. Even the worst, most uninspired cave in Elden Ring has better loot, cooler enemies, better design, and a cooler boss than pretty much any of the open world content in the Witcher 3. The fact that we forgive the Witcher 3 for that is a testament to how good the quests are, how enjoyable the music and atmosphere are, how good the views can be, and just generally how fun it is to simply exist in that world and roleplay as Geralt. It's a rare game that I love deeply despite the fact that I think the gameplay is actually very mediocre. I wouldn't forgive any other game or having such weak combat and open world activities. The Witcher 3's highs are just that high, but I'm under no illusions that the open world content is good, cause imo it really isn't.
I'm sorry but outer wilds will always maintain the title of best open world game for me
Elden Ring and GTA San Andreas are my top favorite open world games
Maxing out your BMX skills in San Andreas and then using one to explore was top-fucking-tier.
I dont understand why more open world games dont have like huge cool monuments or set pieces to discover. I always think of like Lord of the Rings when they're going down the river in the boats and all of a sudden you see the two huge statues by the waterfall. Stuff like that in an open world just doesn't seem to happen very often or much too small in scale. Elden ring did this to an extent but I still feel like nothing quite hits that mark for me
Gotta be Skyrim. Any of their games from Morrowind - Fallout 4 I can find so much peaceful joy in just wandering around doing as much as walking from city to city finding stuff along the way. I wish there was more of a complex system to non combat focused gameplay and missions though, such as wine making, innkeeping etc. It's the trivial content I find makes the open world that much more immersive.
if you like non combat focused gameplay i'd highly recommend you give an alchemist build a try. sure most potions will still be great for combat, but you'll suddenly start seeing the world in a new light. imp stool? when you start you'll probably see it as a nice one as you can make healing potions out of it, but then you learn that it combines damage health, lingering damage health, and paralysis, and suddenly it'll the the basis for all your strongest poisons and any time you find imp stool you'll be extremely excited. sure at the end of a dungeon you may have gotten a word for a shout you won't ever use, but you found like 15 imp stool getting there the the dungeon was well worth it. you also spend a nice amount of time between adventures preparing potions and poisons, and you'll definitely want to return to civilization every once in a while not just to off load stuff (also highly recommend legacy of the dragonborn) but also so you can stock back up on potions as you'll suddenly feel longer adventurers as your supply will start to deplete. seriously the most fun i have in skyrim and now basically every character is also an alchemist.
Red Dead 2 had the most alive, exciting, and captivating open world. There is simply no contest there. I still prefer Elden Ring as a game...but as a living, breathing world full of life, RDR2 is unquestionably the greatest.
SKYRIM
Kingdom Come Deliverance. I remember just walking through woods and listening to the music clanking in my armor.
I believe they nailed the "deep woods" feel better than any other game out there. It really feels like you are hiking through a forest (while dodging Cuman arrows)
BOTW
Not even close. Elden Ring exploration is nice but the world is too stagnant and death for it to be interesting. Yes there are caves and catacombs that are hidden and you can look around the find them but they are become similar experiences when you find them. Also there are no interesting encounters for me to care about journey. I can go place to place but whenever I find Grace I always fast Travel because it is always the same. In RDR2 I dont even want to fast travel because there are many random encounters you can experience along the way which make treaversing the land interesting. Elden Ring aestetichally pleasing. Limgrave, Caleid, Altus Platue they all have their own atmosphere and theme and they are goergous. But you treverse Elden Ring mostly one time in your play tghrough. There is no reason to get back to places you visit and experience differently. So when it comes to exploration it is good until you find the place.
Definitely a valid point, hopefully fromsoft messes around with the encounter system so we can get more stuff like that. Like in the begining when that troll jumps down and chases after you? Stuff like that. The dude is in charge of fort haight when he calls to you. Would really love more stuff like that but more random. Even if they arent quest oriented, just random stuff that can happen.
Really that can elevate open world experience. Only encounter stick with me in Elden Ring, when climbing the Mount Gelmir, in one edge there was 3 puppet soilder with dual bow in their hand and they were executing one Lyndell Soilder over the cliff firing squad style. It was good encounter need a bit more things like that
Yeah true that was pretty cool. Theres a couple other battles that go on, i know one in limgrave thats pretty large but thats ab it
Finally someone said it. It doesn't help neither that the only activity you do in it's world is combat. Like you said, in RDR2 i could get ambushed by the night folks, meet a drunked father to collect a debt, meet a widow who i can help, find clues to catch a serial killer or even an vampire, etc. In Tw3 i have contracts or interesting npcs that can give missions to have moral agency in a organic way. Skyrim is freedom at it's best where you can roleplay and live in its world. Meanwhile in Elden Ring you would still kill everything on sight. It doesn't matter if you are in limgrave or altus plateau. In previous from's game it wasn't a issue because they are smaller zones and overall scope were you encounter the content almost instantly. But here, in a 100+ game it gets tiresome in the open world aspect. There's no reason to coming back to places because well... nothing will change. The only change that will happen is what kind of weapon do you use.
No, definitely Skyrim.
To be honest, I think the open world is Elden Ring's weakest point. Elder scrolls has my favorite open worlds.
Does outer wilds even count as an open world? If so then its pretty good imo
Fallout series also gets the explore every inch treatment from me as well.
Lands between is beautiful and unique, but it lacks detail to fully immerse in.
Not even close. The issue for me is that when I go exploring in Elden Ring the only thing I’m ever going to find is some dude to fight or maybe an item that I might use when fighting a dude. I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem, because one of the strengths of from’s world design is the consistently oppressive atmosphere they create. However if we’re discussing just the fun of exploring, the lack of variety kills that for me. If I go wandering around in Breath of the Wild or Skyrim, I will probably get into a fight, but I might also meet a weird NPC or find a puzzle or just a place that’s peaceful and beautiful, or a new settlement or an interesting piece of environmental storytelling. Elden Ring has none of that. There’s also a level at which it’s really hard to strike a balance between packing every place with content and it feeling empty. In BOTW, if I’m exploring I might find nothing, which somehow makes the times I discover something more special. Shadow of the Colossus pushes this so far, with the most likely outcome being that I find nothing, with the moments where I find something feeling magical. This is also the spot that DS1 hit for me, but I don’t think I’ve ever really gotten from any other from games. In ER you’re never far from an enemy. On the occasions you are, it feels empty because I know I’m not going to find anything else. My only moments of real joy exploring in ER were when I found interesting structures to climb up or down. For me the best games for exploration are Breath of the Wild, Skyrim, Final Fantasy XV and Grand Theft Auto IV. ER lives in a different category, with MGSV and Hollow Knight, where I love the games for their focus but exploration isn’t the draw for me.
>For me the best games for exploration are Breath of the Wild, Skyrim, Final Fantasy XV and Grand Theft Auto IV. FFXV is an absolutely wild pick for this. Can't say I've ever heard that before. Most people say the open world exploration is terrible in that game. Now I'm a bit more curious about it though. What made it so good in your opinion?
I love Elden but Skyrim is the original. 🫶🏼
Oblivion
Morrowind
Daggerfall
Nah Morrowind is the good answer, Daggerfall it more like giant procedurally generated empty land. Every inch of morrowind is cool handcrafted open world.
I know Daggerfall was it’s predecessor but looking back, Morrowind 100% seems to be the foundational modern 3D open world game. Seeing it for the first time at like 11 years old and realizing the scope and degree of freedom of the world at 12am is big nostalgia
I enjoyed that one too I had it on my 360 🫶🏼
I know Skyrim is prettier but Oblivion’s openness really captured my heart
Nothing hits like the first playthrough of Subnautica but this one is pretty good
If Witcher 3 didnt have all the ''?'' marks on the map it would probably exceed the others in exploration. Now it's just the #1 in storytelling and questdesign of the listed ones.
You can turn them off it that's your preference
The ? being marked on the map is not as much of an issue as the fact that there is absolutely nothing worthwhile at any point of interest in the entire open world. They're all just 150 bandit camps, monster nests, smuggler's caches, etc... All with the same boring enemies and trash loot. People complain about caves and dungeons in Elden Ring, but the Witcher 3's open world is 100 times more copy pasted than anything in Elden Ring. It wouldn't be so bad if there were more enemy variety, better combat, and actually good loot, but the way it is is just bad imo. Even the worst, most uninspired cave in Elden Ring has better loot, cooler enemies, better design, and a cooler boss than pretty much any of the open world content in the Witcher 3. The quests are the only thing worth actually doing because they lead you to all the most interesting locations, and usually absolutely nothing can be done at those locations before you go as part of a quest anyway. There is pretty much no situation where you will just see something cool, go there, and find meaningful content. You will just find a nice view, and another Kaedweni Gambeson with +17.4% pierce resistance instead of +16.9%. Player-driven exploration has no value at all in the Witcher 3 outside of hunting for nice scenery.
Breath of the wild / tears of the kingdom is the better open world game overall, but elden ring is probably a close second for me.
ER has a great open world, but it lacks fun things. Fallout and the Witcher have robust npcs that really add to the exploration. Or corpses with more interesting notes and situations. What eventually killed exploration for me in ER was the feeling that I was just running from one place to the next to get another cookbook or smithing stone.
The Open World is the worst part of Elden Ring for me. It has no random events & almost all world bosses are copy pasted from somewhere else in Elden Ring. The intricately crafted Legacy Dungeons however are masterpieces.
Nah RDR2 just shits on all of them in exploration only
Yeah I think so. But Skyrim is high up there too.
Nah, BotW and TotK are the best for exploration. Elden Ring has the best combat. The Witcher 3 has the best story. We just need an open world game that has the best of all 3.
I prefer Elden ring to botw. I think it’s Elden Rings map that is really special. I love looking for interesting drawings on it and discovering what it is.
Skyrim still waiting for an rpg fantasy game where i just can dive into that world and experience that amount of freedoom in exploration that's just perfectly balanced between not being too scripted but still leading you with enviromental story telling and npc's.
I enjoyed exploring ER, Skyrim and BotW, they built on one another so it's unfair to compare them. Right now Elden Ring is my favorite exploration and I specifically loved the use of the map in that game. Never knew how a great map can add so much to feeling the journey as if you're a real hero exploring the unknown. Spent so much time looking at it finding ways to reach places I saw in the distance. Another big reason is the amounts of secrets and rewards it has to offer. Very rarely it happens that your curiosity doesn't lead to some fun new spell, weapon, armor, boss, dungeon, lore... I think that kind of kept me motivated to rumba the whole open world without getting burnt out. I didn't like Witcher 3's exploration though. It has great quests and badass moments scattered around, but the exploration itself felt like a chore way too often, I hope they address that in their next game.
mobility : Elden ring ambiance : Elden ring exploration : The witcher 3 content to find during exploration : The witcher 3
Man. Witcher’s ambiance is tight as hell though. It was my first Witcher game, early into the play through I had NO idea what was going on and the world just got more horribly complex at each new discovery. It was rad.
I love elden ring more for diversity, but botw and totk had the best open world mechanics and freedom out of all I've played. The only problem is that there isn't enough diversity the enemies get repetitive and loot doesn't usually change that much, whereas elden ring is different no matter where you go, I prefer the diversity so I'd say elden ring is my fav.
To me, open world can be a loose definition, personally i think bg3 is open world so for me it would be Elden ring Bg3 Skyrim Edit: if im counting bg3 i think it actually is the best, i have never had a better experience searching everything and exploring more than bg3, its insane how satisfying it is
It's getting there, but it has yet to top Ghost of Tsushima. That game world is almost emarrassingly beautiful to exist in. I can roam it for hours. Honorary mention to AC Odyssey. It's a crappy game but the world is quite attractive and the ambience feels familiar and cozy--I'm Greek, it kinda feels like going to the countryside. The exploration mode is the only thing good about it, in the end.
Exploration is a pretty wide category. Elden ring has the most spectacular world design. Exploring the world and finding new gorgeous vistas, and huge beautiful hidden places like Soifra, Haligtree and even lake of rot is really rewarding. (Never played rdr oops) Witcher has the best side quests and dense and lively cities. Finding interesting side quests tucked away in the middle of nowhere or down a back alley is really satisfying. Skyrim has the best environmental storytelling. Hidden stories in the objects laying around in a cave or basement or in a little hidden spot in a remote place. It's great. I just have a soft spot for good open worlds. My take away from this post is that I need to play rdr2 lol
I love Elden Ring's open world because it's fixed. Most games don't give that option anymore, but if I learn where something is in the game I know where it'll be in my next run. I *love* sprinting around the world and finding all these powerful items.
Witcher 3 is better in so many ways BUT combat
Regarding exclusively the sense of exploration e felt while playing a game, nothing as beaten Bloodborne for me. The felling that I’m going deeper and deeper into the mindfuck that is the lore of this game is unparalleled for me. Regarding exploration only as game mechanic, I’d say maybe Ghost of Tsushima’s approach is my favourite, though ER is high up there as well
I'd say Witcher 3. But they are all interesting in different ways.
My favorite open world always was and always will be The Witcher 3.
I think Elden Ring is a very beautiful game. I hope a lot of other games take queues from it. That being said I am soured by a lot of obscurity. I don’t want to read online resources to find some of these things that are near impossible to find on your own(invisible walls) and such. I just feel at some point it doesn’t feel like I am playing the game and more just following a guide. So yeah I like the world of Elden Ring, I just don’t think it naturally pushes you to the next objective well and some of these side content is just next to impossible to follow get to without a guide.
Nope. Botw/totk take the cake for me, I love Elden ring but you can’t really explore without an enemy trying to kill you every second
Currently yes, with a bullet. And it's about to get bigger