I like video games when they’re simple. Maybeit’s the old age(I’m 27), or maybe it’s working in this industry, but I often lean towards games that aren’t going to require a strenuous amount of effort. Ones that will just allow me to shut off and not overthink,letting me slip away from anything serious for a while.
And then sometimes, I like to inflict that strenuous effort on myself for no other reason than stubborn pride.
Avoiding Fast Travel Is A Whole Different Way Of Playing Games
Telling myself I’m not going to fast travel is something I do quite often in games, especially if it’s a game I want to play for a long time to experience the world in full. Games likeKingdom Come: Deliverance 2integrate fast travel as a dynamic part of the gameplay, but others use fast travel as an all-too-easy way to skip a lot of new experiences, even on a road you’ve travelled many times.
I’ve followed this rule inSkyrim,The Witcher 3,Assassin’s Creed: Origins(and Odyssey, but man, that world is big), and each time, it adds a different way of playing that you might not even realise.
When I pick up a quest in a town, it’s not just a case of heading to whatever location is closest to the objective, doing the thing, and then popping back to town real quick to grab the reward - it’s usually a journey I’ll have to consider in a bit more depth, there and back again.
A Hobbit’s tale by blah blah blah.
This can lead to planning a journey where I tackle multiple quests along the way, checking out some bits of wilderness I might not have explored before, or even just taking in some of the scenery at a different time of day, encountering whatever may be there.
Of course, it can become tedious at times, and it depends on the game just how quickly it can become repetitive, but that’s the wonderful thing about this rule: it’s self-imposed, so I don’t need to stick to it quite so strictly if a certain journey is going to seem more bothersome than enjoyable.
That is, unless you’re playingsomething like KCD2’s Hardcore Modethat restricts fast travel. Then, well, you asked for it.
In Oblivion Remastered, The World Feels So Much Bigger
Cyrodiil is still a significant open-world map by today’s standards, but it’s certainly not the largest map in the genre by a long shot. It doesn’t need to be, but if you really want to make the most of it, then no fast travel is the (long) way to go.
Right out of the sewer gates,Oblivionwill let you fast travel to any city - which I don’t love - every other location will have to be discovered or heard about through conversation or context. Narratively, it makes more sense not to fast travel and to head out for your earlier adventures on foot, exploring different locations for the first time while heading towards a new place.
Even then, you can skip the roads entirely and cut straight through the forests, and you’ll still find dungeons, ruins, or maybe 14 angry Spriggans.
It can still be tedious at times. Once I’d made the long journey from Bruma to Anvil, I wanted to return to the Imperial City, which would mean going back down the same road I’d just taken to get here. Sure, I could have just said ‘nah, forget that’ and fast-traveled - I almost did - but instead, I stuck by my rule. I set off on my horse once more, and because I had done most of my location discoveries on the way here, the journey back was peaceful. I put on some music and trotted back through the forests, admiring the views.
Sure, there were still angry Spriggans, but when is there not? The point is, it makes the journeys - and by extension, the world - feel so much more significant. It’s not just a quick loading screen before getting on with things. It’s an adventure.
