The game is tight enough that it’s really not necessary. There’s a fast travel system in the game, but I never really felt compelled to use it. But the more focused nature of the world means that it, and the over-the-top story, don’t outstay their welcome. It’s still ‘open’ in all the ways that matter you can (after a linear intro) go wherever you please, tackle side-quests and garrison posts in whichever order and whatever style you choose, and generally cause unchecked mayhem. To make a bit of a literary comparison, Blood Dragon has the open world equivalent of a short story or novella. In part this is a consequence of the stand-alone game’s budget nature (it’s $15 USD rather than $50-60,) but it’s a design decision that works rather well. That’s exactly the route taken by Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, which reduces the original game’s island area to a more compact space that Sergeant Rex Power Colt’s cyber-legs can sprint across in a matter of minutes. At that point, maybe it would’ve been better just to make the world smaller?
The quicker the player begins to rely on a fast travel system to zip around the place, the more likely it is that the bits in between just aren’t worth seeing more than once or twice. There’s always a risk with these projects that huge swathes of the landscape actually turn out to be quite dull. If, that is, the developers have the time, creativity and/or processing power to add them in. The more of the world there is to tromp around in (the theory goes,) the greater the chance of finding multiple, interesting things to do and see. Players who gravitate to these titles love exploration, and open world titles cater to that desire. It’s no surprise that CD Projekt has been keen to run the “bigger than Skyrim, 30 times larger than The Witcher 2” line about upcoming, open world sequel The Witcher 3. Open worlds tend to be all about letting the player roam freely through whatever countryside, cityscape or weird planet the developers have put together, and in contemporary gaming that tends to mean vast, expansive spaces.
It might take you back to some classics like Daggerfall or Grand Theft Auto III.Ĭhances are, the phrase will give you a sense of scale and scope. Your brain will probably do that thing brains do and make a connection to a different, recent game with the same descriptor.
He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors.When a game is described as ‘open world,’ certain titles and expectations come to mind. Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. While it doesn’t sound like all of these animated projects are intended to appeal to all audiences, we’re quite excited about that Blood Dragon series and are eager to see what other Ubisoft properties eventually get the animated treatment. Ubisoft has always been ambitious when it comes to their multimedia projects, but we’d be lying if we said that their ambition has translated into things that you’d actually want to see. There aren’t many details regarding those last two plans at this time, though. It also sounds like the company is working on an animated sketch series that will focus on humor related to video game culture and seemingly have plans to develop a kind of animated multiverse. Other projects related to this fresh initiative include an animated Watch Dogs adaptation intended for teens, something called Hungry Shark Squad based on the Hungry Shark mobile games, and a comedy set in the Rayman universe.