What do you perfer? More open world games or games with one storyline?

[Ori]

What do you guys prefer? Games with an open world aspect with multiple endings and a massive amount of choices. Or games with no choice and one simple storyline? Or games with decisions, but still a single focused story. (Kind of like Undertale.)

[Silaluk]

I like games that have a storyline, but aren't necessarily linear, or have a very large overworld.


Kind of like LoZ: Twilight Princess or Skyrim. They are games with a lot of content but they have a story.




 

[HellEye]

I prefer open world with extensive story, but preferably with no hard ending. Skyrim is the best example. Do what you want, lots of in depth quests if you like them, even more simple ones.

[anoni]

If I had to choose between amazing story or amazing open world I'd go amazing open world, for me the games story is greatly important, but gameplay is most important and having a great open world rather than a very claustrophobic linear corridor, I'd go openworld any day.

Though why not have both? Witcher 3 is a prime example of a game with an incredible emotionally driven story as well as containing an expansive and fantastic open world.

ALSO:

  One extremely important thing for me in an open world is the idea that I am a person in it who can make a real effect in the world. In Fallout 3, for example, my actions had the power to create new communities, or destroy them, each impacting the entire wasteland in its own way. Skyrim I felt didn't have that same effect. While it had lots of content, even when I "finished" the war, or married someone, it didn't seem like much changed. It all felt disjointed and cause of that it dimmed my experience of it.

[Halei-Helai]

I won't ever grow tired of saying this: Skyrim is a joke. It has a straightforwards, shallow story. Sure, the world is expansive and looks awesome, still I liked Morrowinf much better. It felt more alive and immersive.

Agreed with you on Morrowind being better than Skyrim. I actually thought Skyrim was pretty good, but as a whole Bethesda games seem to be more like elaborate tech demos for their engines, as good as those tech demos might be. I could even levy that complaint against Morrowind, to a degree. I will say though, going to Solstheim in Skyrim gave me the feels and a huge rush of nostalgia. It just shows how great Morrowind was, at least for me.


Back on topic, I absolutely love open world games, but I think they are very difficult to do right. Grand Theft Auto is obviously a good example since there is a lot for you to do in the world beyond the story, and at the same time it is fun to just purposelessly drive around causing mayhem for mayhem's sake. Dwarf Fortress is also really good, though it is still in alpha and probably will be forever. Still, the adventure mode in that game is pretty nuts and no two worlds you generate are the same, so there is always somewhere new to explore, even if there isn't all that much interesting in the world yet beyond the basics.


I feel like open world games are really only starting to come into their own. I love StarMade and I can see it getting truly awesome in the future as they release more updates. To me, the best open world games are ones where you can really leave a mark, whether that means depopulating entire human cities as an adventurer in Dwarf Fortress or annihilating planets in StarMade. The best stories in gaming are the ones we make ourselves, and games are only just starting to get really good at letting us do that.

[Nori]

I enjoy games with a story, though with an open world environment. I don't want a story to end, but I also like how most story-based games give you the chance to change something about the world... but you can also just grow a garden and do that sort of thing.

[VoodooMax]

I love story driven video game and would prefer that over open world games, although open world games are fun too.

[CrazyCat]

Either/Or.
As long as it's backed by some solid gameplay

[Proto Triose]

I love story driven. I mean that's probably a given with me, but the new "story driven" games all seem half assed. Like a bunch of people sitting around. "Hey! What if, throwing this out there. What if there's a bad guy, and ... A good guy finds two other good guys, and they think Hey, we should stop him. We can just throw in random one liners, not really develop the story, then just kind of throw in two scenes where they find and stop the bad guy?" "Good! Cut, print, develop it. Next game!" "I'm gonna go with what he said." "Brilliant!!"

Lately the open world games are just done better. I mean if there's going to be zero effort with the story, then just don't bother and let me do random things.

[Halei-Helai]

I love story driven. I mean that's probably a given with me, but the new "story driven" games all seem half assed. Like a bunch of people sitting around. "Hey! What if, throwing this out there. What if there's a bad guy, and ... A good guy finds two other good guys, and they think Hey, we should stop him. We can just throw in random one liners, not really develop the story, then just kind of throw in two scenes where they find and stop the bad guy?" "Good! Cut, print, develop it. Next game!" "I'm gonna go with what he said." "Brilliant!!"

You forgot the most important question they ask themselves as they sit around. "How many sequels can we sell?"

[Rattatat]

I really want to see an open world RTS game. Now that, that would be amazing.

[Halei-Helai]

That's like, 90% of what people at Ubisoft do all the time.

Along with most other big studios...