The more advanced technology becomes, the more companies want to flex just how much they can cram into a single game world. While an open world may be suitable for a fantasy adventure across Tamriel or a heist in the busy city of Los Santos, not every game translates well into the
open world.
There are times when the signature gameplay of a series relies on the player being confined to a limited space. Other games are memorable due to the attention to detail that each area has. Going open world means cutting back on its own visuals in favor of shoving more space to move around. So what games work best as they are and shouldn’t attempt a transition into an open world?
10Five Nights At Freddy’s
Keep The Jumpscares Indoors
What started off as a low-paying night guard duty with killer animatronics eventually reached a point where you’re not just sitting in a room all night. In fact, you’re exploring an entire pizzaplex after-hours with more freedom to move around on your own.
Five Nights at Freddy’s often feels one game away from introducing a Freddy Fazbear-inspired theme park built on a deserted island. Call it an open world experience where the animatronics roam the venue in real-time. There is a point where a series can lose its original identity.
9Resident Evil
Tight Spaces And Limited Ammo Work Best
Resident Evil works best when it forces you to survive in confined spaces. While entries such as Resident Evil 4 give players more freedom in terms of backtracking, opening locked boxes, and picking up treasures, it maintains its survival horror aspects well.
With limited ammo to go around inthe best Resident Evil titles, it forces players to choose which enemies to fight and which to run past. Make it open world, and Resident Evil risks pulling an Evil Within 2, where simply keeping your distance is all it takes to evade most problems.
8Super Mario
Keeping Mario’s Style Safe
The Super Mario series includes2D side-scrollers, 3D platformers, puzzle games, and even first-person-shooters if you count some of the more obscure titles. If there’s one thing Mario doesn’t need, it is a 4K, realistic, open world.
While 3D Mario games give you plenty of freedom on what stars, sunshines, or moons to collect, each world has its own unique visual style and the right spacing to keep jumping off walls and climbing around for your collectables. They don’t need to be merged together and risk the repetitiveness that open worlds often fall into.
7Bioshock
Preserving A Sense Of Isolation
Bioshock is one of those names that gets thrown around at times. Whether you’re exploring the streets of Colombia or the depths of Rapture, Bioshock feels like a series that could potentially be milked for all the name is worth.
Whether these are prequels, sequels, or parallel worlds, the sense of confinement that the original title possesses cannot be matched. It lets you explore each area as much as you want before moving on, but constantly reminds you that you’re trapped. Once you move on, there is often no way to turn back.
Giving Each Map Its Identity
Dead Rising is a series that often borderlines between being an open world game and one set within the confines of its time limits. The best settings in the series have always confined the player within a specific location, whether it be locked in a mall or a Vegas strip.
The further Dead Rising strayed from its original atmosphere, the less memorable each map became. Willamette is iconic due to its varied locations, such as Colby’s MovieLand, Cletus’s Hunting Shack, and the Space Coaster in Wonderland Plaza. By Dead Rising 3, it becomes difficult to name a location that left a real impact.
5Half-Life
The Future Of The Half-Life Series
Half Life and Half Life 2 have formulas that never really get old. You are given plenty of freedom in how you interact with the world as you figure out how to get over an obstacle or tackle enemies. That freedom is made even better with the gravity gun in Half-Life 2.
Half-Life constantly pressures you to push forwards. With little to no actual cutscenes, you’re always in control of Gordon Freeman as you’re chased by enemies from one scenario to the next, and become part of a naturally flowing narrative.
4Portal
Don’t Fix What Isn’t Broken
Another series from Valve that wouldn’t work as an open world is Portal. While it may be tempting to explore the Aperture Science facility in its entirety, it’s the mystery that makes the setting so enticing, as you never know just how deep underground you actually are.
In addition to keeping the ambiance, the Portal series is known for cramming plenty of content into compact spaces. While some series have a benefit that could be achieved by going open world, Portal simply doesn’t have any reason to do so.
3Uncharted
Non-Stop Action
Uncharted may be a linear series, but this allows you to feel like you’re constantly running into the action. While the adventure genre would normally be the perfect fit for an open world, Uncharted’scinematic presentationprevents it from going all the way.
Sure, many Naughty Dog games feel like they’re walking simulators, but Uncharted has always made it feel like you’re stepping into the shoes of a modern-day Indiana Jones. This is an example of a series that would lose its identity by straying away from its roots.
2Doom
Doom Keeps It Simple
Doom is a series that has been lucky enough to stay out of the open world format. You’re constantly shooting up demons and completing the objectives on each stage in order to get to the next one. This is also meant to be fast-paced and adrenaline pumping.
There is no room for the Doom series to introduce an open world. The heart of the series has never been about exploring massive worlds or having side quests that have you traversing them. It’s a simple game that relies on shooting mechanics, weapon variety, and reaction time to reel players in.
1Metro
The True Heart Of The Metro Is The Journey
The Metro series is rich with storytelling. What makes it unique is how it constantly feels like a journey from one destination to another. What will Artyom discover while going from one tunnel system to the next, or once aboard a train and on the run?
Metro has always been about the journey and how it affects the worldview of its characters. To deprive the player of that carefully woven adventure would be to accidentally turn the world of Metro into Fallout. This just isn’t the identity that fits it best.
