Sandbox elements, and how developers are using them to mask bad gameplay.

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jg4xchamp

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#51 jg4xchamp
Member since 2006 • 64057 Posts

@ConanTheStoner said:

@jg4xchamp:

Yeah, the distinction has to be made there. As an open world, MGSV is sorely lacking, but the sandbox play is great. Even Ground Zeroes, as relatively small as it was and as limited as you were with gear, still made for an excellent stealth sandbox. I would argue that Camp Omega was actually better than any individual location in MGSV.

Not to stray too far from the point, but I think that open world MGS could have worked very well. The potential was there. Though given the execution in MGSV, yeah multiple sandbox hubs would have made for the better game. It would take away from some of the aspects I enjoyed about MGSV, but the overall experience would have been better off for it.

If given the option (in a hypothetical MGS6), I would rather see them fix their errors in open world design than simply scale it back to hubs, but that ship has sailed so no point dwelling on it.

-

All that said though, MGSV just doesn't fit the premise of this topic at all. Dude straight up mentioned poor gameplay mechanics and MGSV in the same paragraph. That shit doesn't fly at all lol.

There is no argument, Camp Omega is better than anything in that game, but to be fair that is just one of the better designed levels in a game this gen period. Not saying it couldn't be done well, but currently standing there is a good argument to be made that MGSV didn't benefit from being open world.

It's the same thing I don't like about Mafia 2 (among other things that game does shitty, not the least of which is the fact that it is a testament to gamers have dog shit taste in stories and low standards), but the hub world in theory is supposed to add to the atmosphere of the game, it's supposed to give the game a sense of time and place. What it ultimately gets used for is a whole bunch of tedious driving from point a to point b to point c to point do, because some prick that making this asshole finish a mission, drop his friends, then go home, take a nap, then pick up a phone, then get to where the next mission starts, and then drive to the next mission. In a game where the mission are exceptionally boring activities built around 2-dimensional characters with no nuance would be compelling gameplay.

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#53 ConanTheStoner
Member since 2011 • 23838 Posts

@SpinoRaptor24 said:
@bobrossperm said:
In MGSV, you can play the same mission in multiple different ways. Use a different location for entry, sneak in undetected, or simply gun the shit out of the place. It's a game with a million different mechanics, and an open world suited it very well.

But that's exactly the problem. When you give players more choice then there's less focus on individual mechanics overall, which is a common problem with sandbox games.

Didn't see this post earlier, but please, do explain. I do get what you're saying in how it applies to many similar games, but how does this actually apply to MGSV?

The game isn't a jack of all trades, master of none type deal. They don't just give you a million mechanics that are all equally shitty, everything it does mechanically, it does very well. The amount of effort that they put into things that you may never even use is simply astounding tbh.

The player movement is some of the best around. The stealth is great. The action is great. The shooting feels good and every weapon and item in your massive arsenal feels just right. Your AI buddies do exactly what they're supposed to do and they don't get in your way. Controlling the horse is better than most games. Issuing orders to your dog is a breeze. The mechanics for D-Walker are so tight that they could build an entire game around just that. Even the damn cardboard box, something I didn't use until long after completing the game, comes with plenty of individual functions to a point of being ridiculous, yet it all works perfectly. The list goes on and on man.

They created a game with top notch core mechanics, then stacked a ton options of equal quality on top of it. As gamers, we should be praising games for doing this, not throwing them under the bus.

If there is one aspect of MGSV that I found underwhelming from a mechanical standpoint, it's the vehicles. And even then, they're not bad at all, but I felt they could be better.

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#54  Edited By Paradocs
Member since 2015 • 264 Posts

@SpinoRaptor24: I haven't looked into any of the games you mentioned. So, I can't comment on those.

However, I feel the same way you do. Judging from the gameplay I saw of Mafia 3, Quantum Break, and Uncharted 4 etc, we should expect tons more of cinematic games with mediocre gameplay heading into 2016. This is the reason I have my hopes up for maybe 5 games this year.

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deactivated-57ad0e5285d73

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#55 deactivated-57ad0e5285d73
Member since 2009 • 21398 Posts

Children are eating up the ps4 and Xbox One consoles. These little boys will continue to play in sandboxes the rest of the generation.

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SpinoRaptor24

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#56 SpinoRaptor24
Member since 2008 • 10316 Posts

Surprised so many people took offence to me listing MGS5, considering how bland and repetitive that game was. The game recycles locations and missions.

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#57 Five_6
Member since 2015 • 37 Posts

Glad someone caught this. TW3 and MGSV are very notorious for this. I actually loved all of the things UC4 Dev's take on this.

People lose their minds when they see a game is open world and the game gets a lot of forgiveness for things it wouldn't otherwise get away with. People don't even know if they truly want open world games because the truth is that open world takes away from Gameplay. TW3 gets praised a lot for its world but it's actually a pretty linear game.

HERE'S UC4'S DEV'S TAKE ON THE MATTER

It was interesting to see in the trailer that Nathan appears to take one of several routes in his Jeep. How open-world is this game?

Druckmann: Yeah, I mean the term we use is wide-linear. It's not open-world, because we wanted to tell a very specific story, with very specific tension. The thing I have a hard time with, in open-world games, is that there's a lack of tension. Say if my ally's life is in jeopardy; I can still go off and do five different side-quests, and I don't believe that jeopardy. So I feel we need some way to control the pacing, and it needs to be ways where you are still active as well.

For us, the story is king. I don't mean writing, and I don't mean script. What I mean is, there's a certain experience we're trying to make, and that's going to trump the gameplay, that's going to trump the graphics. This high-level experience we create should, eventually, win that argument of what this game is going to be.

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#58  Edited By Cloud_imperium
Member since 2013 • 15146 Posts

@jg4xchamp said:
@Cloud_imperium said:

But it's not a linear game. Compare Witcher's gameplay with other fantasy open world games like Skyrim and you'll see the difference. Not to mention, the game's world is full of handcrafted quests (compare it to grind fest that Ubisoft with their thousands of employees is known for).

Even making a small game becomes challenging at one point and you have to work hard to make it work. Here you have a big ass open world with solid game design, great story, great presentation, great quests etc. I don't think it's fair to criticize the game just because its gameplay isn't perfect.

That's a strawman argument, no one is asking for perfection. But it's a game, the interacting with it part should be good, and given how many quests come down to you fighting something, the combat is mediocre at best. It's not actually good at one element of its combat engine. It comes out looking better against even shittier battle systems (Bethesdas), which isn't actually a good argument for it. So homeboy's point stands the rest of that game is working overtime to mask how poor the actual mechanics are.

It isn't as bad as you are trying to make it. Flawed, yes. Poor, no. Bathesda games like Skyrim for example, are all about hitting or casting magic in first person while moving around the environments. Witcher 3's combat is more tactical with dodge, block, counter attack and magic signs (and then add whole alchamy tree on top of it with bombs, traps, lures etc).

Combat is mostly weakest part of real time RPGs. Their controls aren't as refined as games made primarily for mindless hack n slash but what Witcher achieves with flawed but fun combat, inside a vast open world is nothing but impressive. Saying otherwise is ignorant.

The topic of this thread is that open worlds are being used to hide poor gameplay. That's far from truth when it comes to Witcher 3. The game is proud of what it is. It's a great open world game with flawed but rewarding gameplay.

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#59 Jolt_counter119
Member since 2010 • 4226 Posts

I have to agree. I always loved the idea of open world games but 100% of the time I'm left unsatisfied at the end of it because most open world games have pretty bad gameplay, action RPG's being the worst offenders. I'm still pretty early in The Witcher 3 and I kind of like it but there is so much stuff I have to gripe about the actual playing of the game that just annoys me. If these developers are so adamant about using real time combat than take some fucking notes this is just unacceptable.

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#60 MrGeezer
Member since 2002 • 59765 Posts
@JangoWuzHere said:

That's true for most games. MGSV is like 90 hours long, so If you use the same play style over and over, it will get boring.

Most long RPGs drip feed the player with new abilities and skills. MGSV drip feeds the player with new equipment and mechanics. If you don't make use of the new stuff you're getting, then you will tire out before you reach the end.

As someone else here said, "If anything, it's the stellar game mechanics that mask the poor open world."

He/she hit the nail on the head. I'm not saying that MGSV doesn't deserve credit for letting players be ABLE to approach the same material in a different way. What I'm saying is that way too often the player has to repeat basically the same material. That is to say, there's no reason why MGSV HAD to be 90 hours long. It's silly to make a game that's 90 hours long just for the sake of making it 90 hours long, the content should dictate the length. If the player is constantly having to do the same thing over and over again for the entire 90 hours, then maybe the game shouldn't be 90 hours long. Either that, or maybe the developers should have thought of more unique things to fill that 90 hours with, rather than continually repeating the same stuff.

Bottom line: if a player can't find a way to ENJOY MGSV, then that's largely on them since the game DOES allow for experimentation with different tactics. The gameplay is superb, and the sandbox element is great. Still, the OPEN WORLD sucks ass. It's just the same things over and over again, largely with just slight variations. THAT is on the developers. They could have had gameplay that was just as great, and kept the sandbox element intact, while still putting some more damn variety and diversity into the open world in which the game takes place. MGSV is repetitive, and that IS a flaw. The fact that the core gameplay is so superb just hides how much the open world sucks.

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#61 ConanTheStoner
Member since 2011 • 23838 Posts

@SpinoRaptor24 said:

Surprised so many people took offence to me listing MGS5, considering how bland and repetitive that game was. The game recycles locations and missions.

Likewise, I'm surprised that you're now shifting the goal posts while still landing on an incorrect position, all while brushing off the very valid points that are being made.

A recap here.

First you try listing MGSV as a game with "getting away with poor core gameplay mechanics" when it features some of the best gameplay this gen. Of course people are going to chew you up for that.

Well, when that backfired, you tried saying that the sandbox did nothing to help the gameplay. Obviously very wrong yet again, anybody who has played even just a bit of MGSV, or even just Ground Zeroes, would know that that's a total load. It's one of the biggest strengths of the game. Now maybe this is just you confusing the term sandbox with open world, but that's not really our fault now is it?

Well, another misfire, so now you're just going to say the game recycles locations and missions. Ok, out of 50 main missions, a handful are recycled in the post game, but with new challenges. They're not a requirement for beating the game whatsoever, they're just there for the added challenge and tbh, they're fun as hell to play. They're just extras. The main missions themselves are plenty varied and fill out a large chunk of game on their own. Looks like you're just going to ignore Champs list, but that's ok because it makes your argument look silly, I understand.

Recycled locations? Which ones? I know the Airport in Africa gets two missions. It's a huge area to cover, so why not? This is beside the fact that one of them is a sneaking mission and the other is a boss fight. On the flip side, the game has stuff like the Mountain Relay Base that would be perfect for a main mission, but never even gets used. There is a sub-objective to mission 6 that can take you through there and that's about it.

To be honest, I wish the game would recycle some areas. I'd love to have a good reason to revisit OKB Zero. I'd love for there to be a good sneaking mission through the Afghan ruins. Please give me an actual mission to play at the Relay Base.

The game has far more bases and installations than it has missions, so it's pretty much impossible to say repeated locations is an issue here. Nevermind the fact that many of these missions take you off in the unmarked wilderness, or have multiple potential locations to carry out your objective.

I don't mean this in a shitty way, I'm asking a legitimate question here.. have you actually played this game?

-

Anyways. It's ok to just admit that you slipped up mentioning MGSV in your OP. The point you're making here isn't a bad one. I actually agree. You just chose a really poor example is all.

But to continue shifting goal posts and backpedaling? It's not helping you at all man.

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#62 Complicating_Ev
Member since 2015 • 64 Posts

Wait I'm actually going to get into this because I feel like when anyone even looks at MGSV or TW3 the wrong way, people lose their shit. Are games this gen really that bad that they make those two games look that good???

MGSV is an undriven, repetitive shit show that gets away with being linear by pretending to have free roam, but escapes the responsibilities and obligation of free roam by clearly declaring it's not intending to be open world..SUCH BULLSHIT!!! It does well in covering its assets by not allowing itself to be held to either standard.

TW3 is completely bleak but it's pretty. It's not even an open world game. The elements within the world are only relevant for specific parts of the story. It makes you feel like you have this big, beautiful world to explore, but outside of quests and the main story, the main character doesn't even appear to be relevant to the world at all. He doesn't feel connected. Also, the game is graphically very unimpressive and overrated but it hides behind its pretty art style.

Games like UC4, TLOU, BI, and TR get heat for being linear, but they're more fun and enjoyable because they're focused on giving you an experience instead of being pretentious.

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#63 Complicating_Ev
Member since 2015 • 64 Posts

@ConanTheStoner: if you guys know what he meant then why did you bully him into a corner? Maybe he backpedaled to try to get himself behind your thinking so he can bring you to where he's trying to get you. I have both those games on my PC and I stand by what I said in my last post. ..it's funny cause I didn't even read the OP but those two games were the first to come to mind. I find that interesting. MGS4>>>MGSVP

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deactivated-5acbb9993d0bd

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#64 deactivated-5acbb9993d0bd
Member since 2012 • 12449 Posts

@complicating_ev said:

@ConanTheStoner: if you guys know what he meant then why did you bully him into a corner? Maybe he backpedaled to try to get himself behind your thinking so he can bring you to where he's trying to get you. I have both those games on my PC and I stand by what I said in my last post. ..it's funny cause I didn't even read the OP but those two games were the first to come to mind. I find that interesting. MGS4>>>MGSVP

He had an opinion, just like them.... and just like mine/yours its down to preference..... for example, I thought your post was ridiculously 1 sided, Especially about Witcher 3 ... talk about an unreasonable view point... it seems you like the direct handheld experience and thats fine, but W3 is like any other RPG .... even the elder scrolls games work in this fashion... the world doesn't care for your character outside of the main story, and rightfully so, your character is only relevant to them when they want something, e.g a side quest.

And then going on to say games like Uncharted are far more enjoyable... pfft..... a popping gallery with very little attemp to not be repetitive.... the only thing that ever changes in those games is the back drop and what flashy forced bulls*it they can throw in your corridor next... oh whats that ? a climbing section? oh ... that ledge looks.... oh it broke... again.... im so startled right now... not.

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#65 ConanTheStoner
Member since 2011 • 23838 Posts
@complicating_ev said:

Wait I'm actually going to get into this because I feel like when anyone even looks at MGSV or TW3 the wrong way, people lose their shit.

Are you kidding me? TW3 gets regularly shat on for its gameplay, I know, I'm in the crowd doing the shitting. And MGSV? The whole board shits on that game regularly. Personally, I love the game. And yes, I am defending it from nonsense claims in this topic, but no I'm not opposed to discussing the games many flaws. As a matter of fact I just typed up a monstrous post in the lounge going into all my issues with the game and actually had to cut myself off because the post was getting that damn big.

I'm not opposed to ragging on the multitude of flaws in MGSV, however, I am opposed to bullshit.

@complicating_ev said:

MGSV is an undriven, repetitive shit show that gets away with being linear by pretending to have free roam, but escapes the responsibilities and obligation of free roam by clearly declaring it's not intending to be open world..SUCH BULLSHIT!!! It does well in covering its assets by not allowing itself to be held to either standard.

Like this freshly served bullshit right here.

First of all, being linear is not a bad thing, most of my favorite games happen to be linear. Now what you mean by MGSV being linear, I have no clue. It has mostly linear narrative, yeah, so what? It has a mostly linear mission progression, yeah, that's video games. Basically you have a handful of new missions to choose from at a time, but you still have to clear certain ones to move forward.

So what are you getting at exactly? The world lay out sure as shit isn't linear. Everything is open at all times with the exception of one base and a couple of interiors at other bases. Otherwise you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want, from any angle, at any time. It's quite literally a free roam infiltration sandbox.

When they said that MGSV wasn't going to be a typical open world, they straight up said you "won't spend the day fishing with Snake, or making career changes". It's Metal Gear, this isn't GTA.

That said, nobody in this topic is even defending the poorly executed open world in MGSV. What we are saying is that it's ridiculous to file the game under "poor gameplay mechanics" when it has some of the best damn gameplay around and it's equally ridiculous pan the sandbox element when it's actually amazingly well done.

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#66  Edited By ConanTheStoner
Member since 2011 • 23838 Posts
@MBirdy88 said:

He had an opinion, just like them.

Opinions and preference are all good man, I'm not going to get into it over what somebody likes.

But what the OP said was straight up false. He was just trying to find open world games to fill out his list and strengthen his point, but chose some bad examples. Then instead of just owning up to it, he decided to keep shifting the argument, only to repeatedly come up wrong again saying things that factually wrong.

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#67  Edited By jg4xchamp
Member since 2006 • 64057 Posts

@Cloud_imperium said:
@jg4xchamp said:

That's a strawman argument, no one is asking for perfection. But it's a game, the interacting with it part should be good, and given how many quests come down to you fighting something, the combat is mediocre at best. It's not actually good at one element of its combat engine. It comes out looking better against even shittier battle systems (Bethesdas), which isn't actually a good argument for it. So homeboy's point stands the rest of that game is working overtime to mask how poor the actual mechanics are.

It isn't as bad as you are trying to make it. Flawed, yes. Poor, no. Bathesda games like Skyrim for example, are all about hitting or casting magic in first person while moving around the environments. Witcher 3's combat is more tactical with dodge, block, counter attack and magic signs (and then add whole alchamy tree on top of it with bombs, traps, lures etc).

Combat is mostly weakest part of real time RPGs. Their controls aren't as refined as games made primarily for mindless hack n slash but what Witcher achieves with flawed but fun combat, inside a vast open world is nothing but impressive. Saying otherwise is ignorant.

The topic of this thread is that open worlds are being used to hide poor gameplay. That's far from truth when it comes to Witcher 3. The game is proud of what it is. It's a great open world game with flawed but rewarding gameplay.

I didn't say it was poor, I said it was mediocre, it looks better in the context of how poor rpg combats by the west are. And yeah the defense of "combat is mostly the weakest part of real time RPGS" isn't a defense anymore, make that shit good, if so much of my time is spent doing this one thing, it should be good. Your genre isn't a defense for it, your goals aren't a defense for it. It should be able to hold up under scrutiny. Tactical in what sense?

I'm playing the game on death march, and based simply on my build by Novigrad I'm over powering enemies with Igni and if it's a wraith I use my magic trap. The parry system is clunky as the animations aren't fluid, it fails in the game feel department consistently as the sword lack any sort of umph or impact on hits, which is funny because all you do is mindless hack n slash after a certain point. In contrast good beat-em up games (correct term) create battle engines that actually require the player to get good, and calling that mindless is ignorant sunshine. The very scale of the game robs the game of any semblance of balance or player skill, and it's scale isn't a defense. You want to make a game that big? Fine, make the combat actually good. Ignorance is assuming they couldn't put in the effort to make that stuff enjoyable as well, when they absolutely could, they've had 3 games to come up with a combat system that isn't ass cheeks, and the best they got to was mediocre.

Or better yet, don't make so much of the game have so many combat sequences. I think the combat in New Vegas and Planescape are garbage to say the least, beauty of those games? They have the build variety to make the combat a non factor, in Planescape straight up talking your way out of stuff is a viable playthrough, a compelling one no less. The Witcher? The solution is go fight this thing, and fighting the thing is wildly unimpressive, by any scale.

Reality is anyone making those games doesn't think they are hiding poor gameplay, but gamers themselves make every excuse in the book about look at all this other stuff these games does well, you know minus the gameplay: be it their mechanics, their level design, pacing, whatever. It's shallow, it's limp compared to a game in its own genre using similar design principles (The Souls games), and the alchemy/lore centric stuff which used to add stuff this game, is stuff they been pairing back since the first game. As a RPG it's been streamlined to its basics.

The error people make when anyone presents an argument against that combat (especially when it's me) is that I somehow want it to be Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta, no because it doesn't need combos, it's not an arcade game built around execution and player skill. Which is fine, but it could at least do basic shit: tighter controls, more fluid animations, satisfying game feel, encounter design that actively takes advantage of the mechanics as opposed to routinely putting the player in situations that those mechanics aren't built for, difficulty settings that are balanced through out and actually challenge the player consistently.


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#68 jg4xchamp
Member since 2006 • 64057 Posts

@ConanTheStoner said:

@complicating_ev said:

MGSV is an undriven, repetitive shit show that gets away with being linear by pretending to have free roam, but escapes the responsibilities and obligation of free roam by clearly declaring it's not intending to be open world..SUCH BULLSHIT!!! It does well in covering its assets by not allowing itself to be held to either standard.

Like this freshly served bullshit right here.

First of all, being linear is not a bad thing, most of my favorite games happen to be linear. Now what you mean by MGSV being linear, I have no clue. It has mostly linear narrative, yeah, so what? It has a mostly linear mission progression, yeah, that's video games. Basically you have a handful of new missions to choose from at a time, but you still have to clear certain ones to move forward.

So what are you getting at exactly? The world lay out sure as shit isn't linear. Everything is open at all times with the exception of one base and a couple of interiors at other bases. Otherwise you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want, from any angle, at any time. It's quite literally a free roam infiltration sandbox.

When they said that MGSV wasn't going to be a typical open world, they straight up said you "won't spend the day fishing with Snake, or making career changes". It's Metal Gear, this isn't GTA.

That said, nobody in this topic is even defending the poorly executed open world in MGSV. What we are saying is that it's ridiculous to file the game under "poor gameplay mechanics" when it has some of the best damn gameplay around and it's equally ridiculous pan the sandbox element when it's actually amazingly well done.

Translation of linear= I'm a gamer, and I can't articulate a more nuanced thought on why I didn't like thing, so I went with one of the laziest descriptions for what is supposed to be a short coming in video games.

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#69 jg4xchamp
Member since 2006 • 64057 Posts

@SpinoRaptor24 said:

Surprised so many people took offence to me listing MGS5, considering how bland and repetitive that game was. The game recycles locations and missions.

For side ops sure, but those main missions no, and again bland and repetitive does not fly unless you go out of your way to make it that way.

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#70 SpinoRaptor24
Member since 2008 • 10316 Posts

@ConanTheStoner said:
@SpinoRaptor24 said:

Surprised so many people took offence to me listing MGS5, considering how bland and repetitive that game was. The game recycles locations and missions.

Likewise, I'm surprised that you're now shifting the goal posts while still landing on an incorrect position, all while brushing off the very valid points that are being made.

A recap here.

First you try listing MGSV as a game with "getting away with poor core gameplay mechanics" when it features some of the best gameplay this gen. Of course people are going to chew you up for that.

Well, when that backfired, you tried saying that the sandbox did nothing to help the gameplay. Obviously very wrong yet again, anybody who has played even just a bit of MGSV, or even just Ground Zeroes, would know that that's a total load. It's one of the biggest strengths of the game. Now maybe this is just you confusing the term sandbox with open world, but that's not really our fault now is it?

Well, another misfire, so now you're just going to say the game recycles locations and missions. Ok, out of 50 main missions, a handful are recycled in the post game, but with new challenges. They're not a requirement for beating the game whatsoever, they're just there for the added challenge and tbh, they're fun as hell to play. They're just extras. The main missions themselves are plenty varied and fill out a large chunk of game on their own. Looks like you're just going to ignore Champs list, but that's ok because it makes your argument look silly, I understand.

Recycled locations? Which ones? I know the Airport in Africa gets two missions. It's a huge area to cover, so why not? This is beside the fact that one of them is a sneaking mission and the other is a boss fight. On the flip side, the game has stuff like the Mountain Relay Base that would be perfect for a main mission, but never even gets used. There is a sub-objective to mission 6 that can take you through there and that's about it.

To be honest, I wish the game would recycle some areas. I'd love to have a good reason to revisit OKB Zero. I'd love for there to be a good sneaking mission through the Afghan ruins. Please give me an actual mission to play at the Relay Base.

The game has far more bases and installations than it has missions, so it's pretty much impossible to say repeated locations is an issue here. Nevermind the fact that many of these missions take you off in the unmarked wilderness, or have multiple potential locations to carry out your objective.

I don't mean this in a shitty way, I'm asking a legitimate question here.. have you actually played this game?

-

Anyways. It's ok to just admit that you slipped up mentioning MGSV in your OP. The point you're making here isn't a bad one. I actually agree. You just chose a really poor example is all.

But to continue shifting goal posts and backpedaling? It's not helping you at all man.

Slipped up where? I still stand by my point that MGS5 had sandbox elements that were unnecessary, ditto for many other games released in 2015. Again, my intention in creating this topic was to point out a problem in the industry, not to single out a title. Perhaps you would've seen that if you and others had tried add something productive to the discussion and debate at hand instead of trying to one-up anyone and everyone that disagrees with your opinion.

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#71 the_master_race
Member since 2015 • 5226 Posts
@jg4xchamp said:
@SpinoRaptor24 said:

Surprised so many people took offence to me listing MGS5, considering how bland and repetitive that game was. The game recycles locations and missions.

For side ops sure, but those main missions no, and again bland and repetitive does not fly unless you go out of your way to make it that way.

boring and repetitive side-ops wasn’t the only reason I stopped playing MGSV, the game has an awful story, full of plot holes and shitty characters

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#72 jg4xchamp
Member since 2006 • 64057 Posts

@the_master_race said:
@jg4xchamp said:
@SpinoRaptor24 said:

Surprised so many people took offence to me listing MGS5, considering how bland and repetitive that game was. The game recycles locations and missions.

For side ops sure, but those main missions no, and again bland and repetitive does not fly unless you go out of your way to make it that way.

boring and repetitive side-ops wasn’t the only reason I stopped playing MGSV, the game has an awful story, full of plot holes and shitty characters

Fair enough, doesn't have anything to do with my point, or the conversation between spino and I. Personally lolvideogamestories, but sure if the story bothered you, fair game, it's awful.

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#73 SpinoRaptor24
Member since 2008 • 10316 Posts

@jg4xchamp said:
@SpinoRaptor24 said:

Surprised so many people took offence to me listing MGS5, considering how bland and repetitive that game was. The game recycles locations and missions.

For side ops sure, but those main missions no, and again bland and repetitive does not fly unless you go out of your way to make it that way.

The missions were interchangeable with each other and mostly had the same objectives and enemies. Even the boss fights were recycled. Hell they made you fight a carbon copy of The End boss from Snake Eater like twice.

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#74 Cloud_imperium
Member since 2013 • 15146 Posts

@jg4xchamp said:
@Cloud_imperium said:
@jg4xchamp said:

That's a strawman argument, no one is asking for perfection. But it's a game, the interacting with it part should be good, and given how many quests come down to you fighting something, the combat is mediocre at best. It's not actually good at one element of its combat engine. It comes out looking better against even shittier battle systems (Bethesdas), which isn't actually a good argument for it. So homeboy's point stands the rest of that game is working overtime to mask how poor the actual mechanics are.

It isn't as bad as you are trying to make it. Flawed, yes. Poor, no. Bathesda games like Skyrim for example, are all about hitting or casting magic in first person while moving around the environments. Witcher 3's combat is more tactical with dodge, block, counter attack and magic signs (and then add whole alchamy tree on top of it with bombs, traps, lures etc).

Combat is mostly weakest part of real time RPGs. Their controls aren't as refined as games made primarily for mindless hack n slash but what Witcher achieves with flawed but fun combat, inside a vast open world is nothing but impressive. Saying otherwise is ignorant.

The topic of this thread is that open worlds are being used to hide poor gameplay. That's far from truth when it comes to Witcher 3. The game is proud of what it is. It's a great open world game with flawed but rewarding gameplay.

I didn't say it was poor, I said it was mediocre, it looks better in the context of how poor rpg combats by the west are. And yeah the defense of "combat is mostly the weakest part of real time RPGS" isn't a defense anymore, make that shit good, if so much of my time is spent doing this one thing, it should be good. Your genre isn't a defense for it, your goals aren't a defense for it. It should be able to hold up under scrutiny. Tactical in what sense?

I'm playing the game on death march, and based simply on my build by Novigrad I'm over powering enemies with Igni and if it's a wraith I use my magic trap. The parry system is clunky as the animations aren't fluid, it fails in the game feel department consistently as the sword lack any sort of umph or impact on hits, which is funny because all you do is mindless hack n slash after a certain point. In contrast good beat-em up games (correct term) create battle engines that actually require the player to get good, and calling that mindless is ignorant sunshine. The very scale of the game robs the game of any semblance of balance or player skill, and it's scale isn't a defense. You want to make a game that big? Fine, make the combat actually good. Ignorance is assuming they couldn't put in the effort to make that stuff enjoyable as well, when they absolutely could, they've had 3 games to come up with a combat system that isn't ass cheeks, and the best they got to was mediocre.

Or better yet, don't make so much of the game have so many combat sequences. I think the combat in New Vegas and Planescape are garbage to say the least, beauty of those games? They have the build variety to make the combat a non factor, in Planescape straight up talking your way out of stuff is a viable playthrough, a compelling one no less. The Witcher? The solution is go fight this thing, and fighting the thing is wildly unimpressive, by any scale.

Reality is anyone making those games doesn't think they are hiding poor gameplay, but gamers themselves make every excuse in the book about look at all this other stuff these games does well, you know minus the gameplay: be it their mechanics, their level design, pacing, whatever. It's shallow, it's limp compared to a game in its own genre using similar design principles (The Souls games), and the alchemy/lore centric stuff which used to add stuff this game, is stuff they been pairing back since the first game. As a RPG it's been streamlined to its basics.

The error people make when anyone presents an argument against that combat (especially when it's me) is that I somehow want it to be Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta, no because it doesn't need combos, it's not an arcade game built around execution and player skill. Which is fine, but it could at least do basic shit: tighter controls, more fluid animations, satisfying game feel, encounter design that actively takes advantage of the mechanics as opposed to routinely putting the player in situations that those mechanics aren't built for, difficulty settings that are balanced through out and actually challenge the player consistently.

That's one long rant. Lol.

No one said that it's OK for RPGs to have bad combat. You compared it with Bathesda games and I told you that, it's more tactical than Bathesda games and other RPGs aren't shining beacons of great combat either.

As I said before, Witcher's combat may be flawed but the game design is solid. I'll take flawed combat with great encounters, handcrafted quests, great presentation, variety of different enemies etc over better combat but with bad game design, full of fetch quests, copy paste environments and mindless grinding.

I don't know why you are mentioning Planescape Torment. Combat in that game is laughable. That game is considered a masterpiece because of its narrative. And it's funny that you are praising good encounters of Planescape Torment despite it having an atrocious combat. Basically, you proved my point. As I said in my previous post, Witcher's combat is flawed but its solid game design makes it a great game, and it's proud of what it is and it's not "hiding poor gameplay" with open world.

There are countless other games with mediocre gameplays that interrupt the gameplay after every few minutes with QTEs and scripted events, to give players the illusion of "variety" but the fact is, without these scripted events, these games show their repetitive nature, mediocre gameplay AND poor game design. Now those are the games that try hard hide their poor design choices, not something like Witcher 3.

The main focus of Hack n Slash games is always their combat. Without combat they have nothing. Other than the combat and enemy encounters, these games have nothing going for them. All of them are heavily scripted and none of them have customization, living breathing worlds, economy, day and night cycles, dynamic weather, crafting, different abilities etc etc etc of RPGs. It's pretty ignorant to say otherwise.

Open world RPGs contain a lot more features than a linear hack n slash game. That's a fact. And in such RPGs, due a lot of work that goes into the game development, not everything turns out to be perfect, and if one thing is prioritized then other takes hit due to budget or limited manpower (or just bad luck). Don't believe me? Try making one for yourself. So saying that they are hiding behind open world is stupid and ignorant.

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#75  Edited By jg4xchamp
Member since 2006 • 64057 Posts

@Cloud_imperium said:
@jg4xchamp said:

I didn't say it was poor, I said it was mediocre, it looks better in the context of how poor rpg combats by the west are. And yeah the defense of "combat is mostly the weakest part of real time RPGS" isn't a defense anymore, make that shit good, if so much of my time is spent doing this one thing, it should be good. Your genre isn't a defense for it, your goals aren't a defense for it. It should be able to hold up under scrutiny. Tactical in what sense?

I'm playing the game on death march, and based simply on my build by Novigrad I'm over powering enemies with Igni and if it's a wraith I use my magic trap. The parry system is clunky as the animations aren't fluid, it fails in the game feel department consistently as the sword lack any sort of umph or impact on hits, which is funny because all you do is mindless hack n slash after a certain point. In contrast good beat-em up games (correct term) create battle engines that actually require the player to get good, and calling that mindless is ignorant sunshine. The very scale of the game robs the game of any semblance of balance or player skill, and it's scale isn't a defense. You want to make a game that big? Fine, make the combat actually good. Ignorance is assuming they couldn't put in the effort to make that stuff enjoyable as well, when they absolutely could, they've had 3 games to come up with a combat system that isn't ass cheeks, and the best they got to was mediocre.

Or better yet, don't make so much of the game have so many combat sequences. I think the combat in New Vegas and Planescape are garbage to say the least, beauty of those games? They have the build variety to make the combat a non factor, in Planescape straight up talking your way out of stuff is a viable playthrough, a compelling one no less. The Witcher? The solution is go fight this thing, and fighting the thing is wildly unimpressive, by any scale.

Reality is anyone making those games doesn't think they are hiding poor gameplay, but gamers themselves make every excuse in the book about look at all this other stuff these games does well, you know minus the gameplay: be it their mechanics, their level design, pacing, whatever. It's shallow, it's limp compared to a game in its own genre using similar design principles (The Souls games), and the alchemy/lore centric stuff which used to add stuff this game, is stuff they been pairing back since the first game. As a RPG it's been streamlined to its basics.

The error people make when anyone presents an argument against that combat (especially when it's me) is that I somehow want it to be Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta, no because it doesn't need combos, it's not an arcade game built around execution and player skill. Which is fine, but it could at least do basic shit: tighter controls, more fluid animations, satisfying game feel, encounter design that actively takes advantage of the mechanics as opposed to routinely putting the player in situations that those mechanics aren't built for, difficulty settings that are balanced through out and actually challenge the player consistently.

That's one long rant. Lol.

No one said that it's OK for RPGs to have bad combat. You compared it with Bathesda games and I told you that, it's more tactical than Bathesda games and other RPGs aren't shining beacons of great combat either.

As I said before, Witcher's combat may be flawed but the game design is solid. I'll take flawed combat with great encounters, handcrafted quests, great presentation, variety of different enemies etc over better combat but with bad game design, full of fetch quests, copy paste environments and mindless grinding.

I don't know why you are mentioning Planescape Torment. Combat in that game is laughable. That game is considered a masterpiece because of its narrative. And it's funny that you are praising good encounters of Planescape Torment despite it having an atrocious combat. Basically, you proved my point. As I said in my previous post, Witcher's combat is flawed but its solid game design makes it a great game, and it's proud of what it is and it's not "hiding poor gameplay" with open world.

There are countless other games with mediocre gameplays that interrupt the gameplay after every few minutes with QTEs and scripted events, to give players the illusion of "variety" but the fact is, without these scripted events, these games show their repetitive nature, mediocre gameplay AND poor game design. Now those are the games that try hard hide their poor design choices, not something like Witcher 3.

The main focus of Hack n Slash games is always their combat. Without combat they have nothing. Other than the combat and enemy encounters, these games have nothing going for them. All of them are heavily scripted and none of them have customization, living breathing worlds, economy, day and night cycles, dynamic weather, crafting, different abilities etc etc etc of RPGs. It's pretty ignorant to say otherwise.

Open world RPGs contain a lot more features than a linear hack n slash game. That's a fact. And in such RPGs, due a lot of work that goes into the game development, not everything turns out to be perfect, and if one thing is prioritized then other takes hit due to budget or limited manpower (or just bad luck). Don't believe me? Try making one for yourself. So saying that they are hiding behind open world is stupid and ignorant.

Except The Witcher's combat encounter design actually pretty inconsistent in quality, and read it again, the Planescape point is that you can make its shitty combat a non factor, by making builds that never take part in its combat. And those dialogue encounters happen to be some of the best designed gameplay sequences in that game. The Witcher's combat simply isn't just flawed, it's not good at any one thing. TC's choice of words were sloppy to begin (he rolled with sandbox instead of open world), his underlying point is a lot of those games are open, but a lot of them don't play well.

And I literally said the words it looks better in the context of being compared to Bethesda combat, which is inherently shittier. Held to a much broader context of not being judged by the low ass bar set by its genre and modern competition, that shit doesn't fly.

And again you keep making this lame duck excuse of oh it's difficult for them, this is this genre, look at this other stuff they do. That's all fantastic, but when the core of the game is this one thing, and this one thing happens to be done so not well, that's not excuseable with "look at how big the game is". I don't bloody care what else you tried, all of that becomes less impressive when the core thing that makes up most of my playtime, you know a medium about play to begin with is with something lackluster. So regardless of all the other cute stuff you do, if you will make me spend a lot of my time hitting something sword. Hitting something with a sword better actually enjoyable on some level, and for said game to be actually great, the core thing it does better great. It's an interactive medium, a medium defined by play, this medium never has an excuse for this stuff.

If the open world RPG (and really anyone making an open world anything) cats want to make open world RPG, it's about time they put their money where their mouth is, and actually deliver more consistent gameplay experiences. If the benefit of dialing back some scale and focusing on core fundimentals leads to a better playing game, I'm taking that game. There is a reason Mario has endured for decades. So dismissing a bunch of beat-em ups as 'mindless', when they demand so much more of the player, when the combat in The Witcher 3 is straight up mindless, is a soft argument at best. I never said The Witcher 3 is a bad game, it does quite a few other stuff very well, but it's combat is absolutely worthy of criticism, and it's more than fair. It doesn't get the tactical depth you at least get from a turn based rpg, it's not particularly deep like other games using real-time melee centric combat, it's not inherently gratifying on a basic hit this thing with a sword standpoint as it simply lacks basic inertia to make it all happen, it's not fluid from animation standpoint, it's go to saving grace has been that its contemporaries are even worse at it, except one of the few games it clearly took some cues from, does that shit better than it, considerably in the stuff From Software makes.

Degree of difficulty is not a defense nor is "you go make it", that's busch league. It didn't matter how hard Daikatana was to make, all that mattered was that he didn't deliver. Otherwise you should be practicing what you preach, all those games you want to complain are casual and mediocre gameplay, they weren't easy to make, you'd fail miserably at making them.

You can't criticize something for not being perfect? That's the nature of criticism period lol, what else do you think criticism is?

And before you go down that path," yeah that's opinion", which when judging a games quality or not, is inherently going to be opinion, nothing you nor I stated was necessarily fact, Um, no shit? If you're gonna go down the path of "brah, that's your opinion", why debate an opinion to begin with?

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#76  Edited By jg4xchamp
Member since 2006 • 64057 Posts

@SpinoRaptor24 said:
@jg4xchamp said:

For side ops sure, but those main missions no, and again bland and repetitive does not fly unless you go out of your way to make it that way.

The missions were interchangeable with each other and mostly had the same objectives and enemies. Even the boss fights were recycled. Hell they made you fight a carbon copy of The End boss from Snake Eater like twice.

Quite's fight plays nothing like The End fight, enemies? no duh?

Otherwise while the framework might always be scout, infiltrate, extract, exfiltrate, the actual objectives and mission designs were absolutely varied. That type of argument would imply that Mario Galaxy isn't varied because the objective is always get the star. Only a certified idiot would pretend that game isn't varied. Likewise pretending the main missions don't have variety when they clearly do, is just choosing to not give the game credit where it objectively earned it. Side ops and boss fights being lazy since it only has 2 boss fights, a sniper and a gundam, yeah sure, those suck. I don't think I argued otherwise.

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#77 Whistle_Blower
Member since 2015 • 291 Posts

@the_master_race said:
@jg4xchamp said:
@SpinoRaptor24 said:

Surprised so many people took offence to me listing MGS5, considering how bland and repetitive that game was. The game recycles locations and missions.

For side ops sure, but those main missions no, and again bland and repetitive does not fly unless you go out of your way to make it that way.

boring and repetitive side-ops wasn’t the only reason I stopped playing MGSV, the game has an awful story, full of plot holes and shitty characters

THANY YOU!!! Kojima tried his best to make it seem interesting...it just wasn't happening. I stopped playing cause I'm stuck in the second time around where you have to "elimimate the sniper known as Quiet" again. DOn't even get me started on how bland, sexist, and annoying she is.

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#78 deactivated-66e3137ab3ad5
Member since 2006 • 16761 Posts

Criticism for Witcher 3's combat is valid, but the excessive hate it's getting here is straight up bullshit. No, it's not the deepest, most well thought out or even the best controlled combat system there ever was, but it works well enough. Mechanics such as rolling, dodging, parrying add a lot to the melee combat and so do the signs. Enemy variety is great, and there's no way you can defeat all the enemies you come across using just one strategy throughout the game.

For example, a pack of spiders calls for you to be quick on your feet while using your signs while a band of bandits- a few of whom, say, might be wielding a shield- requires you to dodge and parry and choose your moments for striking carefully. It's not the most thought provoking system there is, but it works well enough, and the criticism that the animations or Geralt's weightiness hindred the combat is nothing short of nitpicking. I've played 120 hours of The Witcher 3 and not once did I feel that way.

Is it worthy of criticism? Sure, yes. It's flawed, but it works well enough and can actually even be fun at times. There are instances when it should shine through but does the exact opposite- the boss fights are a disgrace, for example- but the core combat itself isn't as atrocious as some people often make it out to be.

And there's plenty of stuff the game does extremely well- the quest structure (other than the repetitive contracts) is great, the open world is excellent, there's good writing. A lot of stuff that helps the game stand on its own two legs in spite of the less than stellar (but still perfectly functional) combat. There's no way someone can say TW3's "bad" combat is significantly detrimental to the game because a) it's actually not half as bad as it is often made out to be and b) there's a lot of other stuff to be loved here, a lot of other stuff that is implemented wonderfully well.

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#79 SpinoRaptor24
Member since 2008 • 10316 Posts

@jg4xchamp said:
@SpinoRaptor24 said:
@jg4xchamp said:

For side ops sure, but those main missions no, and again bland and repetitive does not fly unless you go out of your way to make it that way.

The missions were interchangeable with each other and mostly had the same objectives and enemies. Even the boss fights were recycled. Hell they made you fight a carbon copy of The End boss from Snake Eater like twice.

Quite's fight plays nothing like The End fight, enemies? no duh?

Otherwise while the framework might always be scout, infiltrate, extract, exfiltrate, the actual objectives and mission designs were absolutely varied. That type of argument would imply that Mario Galaxy isn't varied because the objective is always get the star. Only a certified idiot would pretend that game isn't varied. Likewise pretending the main missions don't have variety when they clearly do, is just choosing to not give the game credit where it objectively earned it. Side ops and boss fights being lazy since it only has 2 boss fights, a sniper and a gundam, yeah sure, those suck. I don't think I argued otherwise.

I think you're confusing objectives with rewards. The stars in Galaxy were rewards, not objectives. The objectives were whatever you had to do in that level to get them, be it fighting a boss, collecting purple coins, finding secrets etc. In MGS5 the objectives and mission structure were more or less the same. Spend 10 minutes traversing empty terrain to first get to the base------> scout out and tag the enemies-----> infiltrate the base through stealth or guns blazing-----> pickup prisoner or intel------> head back to the helicopter for extraction. I suppose you could argue you can tackle missions in different ways since you had a host of unlockables and an arsenal of weapons in order to get an S rank, which adds some variety. Personally it didn't make a difference to me since I was too bored of the game to play it a second time.

Quiet and The End both play out the same way, the only difference is you can't turn off your console and come back a week later to find Quiet dying of old age. Also the fact that you knew I was talking about Quiet even though I didn't specifically mention her means that you inadvertently acknowledged they're both the same, so GET REKT.

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#80  Edited By jcrame10
Member since 2014 • 6302 Posts

@SpinoRaptor24: games need to go back to ocarina of time. Exploration of a moderately openly world with no "objective A to object B" directional pad of choices to do.

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#81 ConanTheStoner
Member since 2011 • 23838 Posts
@SpinoRaptor24 said:

Slipped up where? I still stand by my point that MGS5 had sandbox elements that were unnecessary, ditto for many other games released in 2015. Again, my intention in creating this topic was to point out a problem in the industry, not to single out a title. Perhaps you would've seen that if you and others had tried add something productive to the discussion and debate at hand instead of trying to one-up anyone and everyone that disagrees with your opinion.

Dude, what are talking about. Is this the Fisher Price school of debate?

Yes, you slipped up. You tried saying that MGSV is masking poor gameplay mechanics with a sandbox. You were trying to make a point about a long standing issue with gaming, one that has reached boiling point in recent years, but rather than only listing good examples you chose to just dump any game with a big world into your list.

I'm assuming you still just don't get what sandbox means. It's not open world as even the first reply to this thread among many others tried explaining to you. For example, Ground Zeroes is a sandbox and it's just a single isolated base. It's a level designed around giving the player open ended means to clear objectives that works in tandem with well layered systems for the player to manipulate as a means to reach their goal and/or strike up emergent scenarios. This is a sandbox. MGSV takes those sandbox elements to a whole other level, adding many more systems of play and options for the player.

Where MGSV does falter is in its open world. Big time. Thing is, MGSV having a poorly executed open world has no correlation with you saying "masking poor gameplay with a sandbox". How do you not see that? This issue is the exact opposite man, it's the great gameplay that is trying to mask the poor open world itself. It's. Not. The. Same. Thing. Man.

I'm not trying to one up anybody here. As a matter of fact, I'm the one trying have a clear discussion while you keep on making passive aggressive and vague comments, ignoring facts, and moving goal posts.

You've ignored nearly every well stated point in this thread, so please, do not go on about productive discussions or debate. You're just spewing out whatever you feel and then covering your ears so that you won't have deal with well argued opinions or straight up facts.

Perhaps you shouldn't be making threads like this if you can't properly handle the discussion.

@SpinoRaptor24 said:

Spend 10 minutes traversing empty terrain to first get to the base

My god man. I don't even want to get into how much is wrong with that last post, I no longer have the time for this shit.

But that right there? That's a clear example of what's wrong with your arguments.

It's absolutely fine to dislike something. It's absolutely fine to criticize flaws. But not liking something doesn't give you a license to fly off the handle and make up a bunch of shit to support your point.

Exampe: I don't like The Witcher 3 at all. The player movement and combat is a major turn off for me. That said, I'm not going tell everyone that the world in that game is terrible, that the graphics are bad, or that the quest lines suck, simply because I don't like the game in general. I'm not going to make up negatives where they don't exist just to feel better about my opinion at large.

Yet here you go again. 10 minutes to get to a base on a mission load out, sure lol. You do know that you can run from one end of the map to another ON FOOT in around that time, or less, depending on what you run into, correct? Then if you factor in the horse, vehicles, ACC, or the fast travel system you're looking at far less time to traverse the ENTIRE MAP. And you're going to tell us that it takes 10 minutes to get from mission start to the area of operations? Really?

So how are we supposed to take anything you say seriously? How can any of your arguments hold merit, when you clearly just state whatever silly things that happen to suit your bias?

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#82 Cloud_imperium
Member since 2013 • 15146 Posts

@jg4xchamp said:
@Cloud_imperium said:
@jg4xchamp said:

I didn't say it was poor, I said it was mediocre, it looks better in the context of how poor rpg combats by the west are. And yeah the defense of "combat is mostly the weakest part of real time RPGS" isn't a defense anymore, make that shit good, if so much of my time is spent doing this one thing, it should be good. Your genre isn't a defense for it, your goals aren't a defense for it. It should be able to hold up under scrutiny. Tactical in what sense?

I'm playing the game on death march, and based simply on my build by Novigrad I'm over powering enemies with Igni and if it's a wraith I use my magic trap. The parry system is clunky as the animations aren't fluid, it fails in the game feel department consistently as the sword lack any sort of umph or impact on hits, which is funny because all you do is mindless hack n slash after a certain point. In contrast good beat-em up games (correct term) create battle engines that actually require the player to get good, and calling that mindless is ignorant sunshine. The very scale of the game robs the game of any semblance of balance or player skill, and it's scale isn't a defense. You want to make a game that big? Fine, make the combat actually good. Ignorance is assuming they couldn't put in the effort to make that stuff enjoyable as well, when they absolutely could, they've had 3 games to come up with a combat system that isn't ass cheeks, and the best they got to was mediocre.

Or better yet, don't make so much of the game have so many combat sequences. I think the combat in New Vegas and Planescape are garbage to say the least, beauty of those games? They have the build variety to make the combat a non factor, in Planescape straight up talking your way out of stuff is a viable playthrough, a compelling one no less. The Witcher? The solution is go fight this thing, and fighting the thing is wildly unimpressive, by any scale.

Reality is anyone making those games doesn't think they are hiding poor gameplay, but gamers themselves make every excuse in the book about look at all this other stuff these games does well, you know minus the gameplay: be it their mechanics, their level design, pacing, whatever. It's shallow, it's limp compared to a game in its own genre using similar design principles (The Souls games), and the alchemy/lore centric stuff which used to add stuff this game, is stuff they been pairing back since the first game. As a RPG it's been streamlined to its basics.

The error people make when anyone presents an argument against that combat (especially when it's me) is that I somehow want it to be Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta, no because it doesn't need combos, it's not an arcade game built around execution and player skill. Which is fine, but it could at least do basic shit: tighter controls, more fluid animations, satisfying game feel, encounter design that actively takes advantage of the mechanics as opposed to routinely putting the player in situations that those mechanics aren't built for, difficulty settings that are balanced through out and actually challenge the player consistently.

That's one long rant. Lol.

No one said that it's OK for RPGs to have bad combat. You compared it with Bathesda games and I told you that, it's more tactical than Bathesda games and other RPGs aren't shining beacons of great combat either.

As I said before, Witcher's combat may be flawed but the game design is solid. I'll take flawed combat with great encounters, handcrafted quests, great presentation, variety of different enemies etc over better combat but with bad game design, full of fetch quests, copy paste environments and mindless grinding.

I don't know why you are mentioning Planescape Torment. Combat in that game is laughable. That game is considered a masterpiece because of its narrative. And it's funny that you are praising good encounters of Planescape Torment despite it having an atrocious combat. Basically, you proved my point. As I said in my previous post, Witcher's combat is flawed but its solid game design makes it a great game, and it's proud of what it is and it's not "hiding poor gameplay" with open world.

There are countless other games with mediocre gameplays that interrupt the gameplay after every few minutes with QTEs and scripted events, to give players the illusion of "variety" but the fact is, without these scripted events, these games show their repetitive nature, mediocre gameplay AND poor game design. Now those are the games that try hard hide their poor design choices, not something like Witcher 3.

The main focus of Hack n Slash games is always their combat. Without combat they have nothing. Other than the combat and enemy encounters, these games have nothing going for them. All of them are heavily scripted and none of them have customization, living breathing worlds, economy, day and night cycles, dynamic weather, crafting, different abilities etc etc etc of RPGs. It's pretty ignorant to say otherwise.

Open world RPGs contain a lot more features than a linear hack n slash game. That's a fact. And in such RPGs, due a lot of work that goes into the game development, not everything turns out to be perfect, and if one thing is prioritized then other takes hit due to budget or limited manpower (or just bad luck). Don't believe me? Try making one for yourself. So saying that they are hiding behind open world is stupid and ignorant.

Except The Witcher's combat encounter design actually pretty inconsistent in quality, and read it again, the Planescape point is that you can make its shitty combat a non factor, by making builds that never take part in its combat. And those dialogue encounters happen to be some of the best designed gameplay sequences in that game. The Witcher's combat simply isn't just flawed, it's not good at any one thing. TC's choice of words were sloppy to begin (he rolled with sandbox instead of open world), his underlying point is a lot of those games are open, but a lot of them don't play well.

And I literally said the words it looks better in the context of being compared to Bethesda combat, which is inherently shittier. Held to a much broader context of not being judged by the low ass bar set by its genre and modern competition, that shit doesn't fly.

And again you keep making this lame duck excuse of oh it's difficult for them, this is this genre, look at this other stuff they do. That's all fantastic, but when the core of the game is this one thing, and this one thing happens to be done so not well, that's not excuseable with "look at how big the game is". I don't bloody care what else you tried, all of that becomes less impressive when the core thing that makes up most of my playtime, you know a medium about play to begin with is with something lackluster. So regardless of all the other cute stuff you do, if you will make me spend a lot of my time hitting something sword. Hitting something with a sword better actually enjoyable on some level, and for said game to be actually great, the core thing it does better great. It's an interactive medium, a medium defined by play, this medium never has an excuse for this stuff.

If the open world RPG (and really anyone making an open world anything) cats want to make open world RPG, it's about time they put their money where their mouth is, and actually deliver more consistent gameplay experiences. If the benefit of dialing back some scale and focusing on core fundimentals leads to a better playing game, I'm taking that game. There is a reason Mario has endured for decades. So dismissing a bunch of beat-em ups as 'mindless', when they demand so much more of the player, when the combat in The Witcher 3 is straight up mindless, is a soft argument at best. I never said The Witcher 3 is a bad game, it does quite a few other stuff very well, but it's combat is absolutely worthy of criticism, and it's more than fair. It doesn't get the tactical depth you at least get from a turn based rpg, it's not particularly deep like other games using real-time melee centric combat, it's not inherently gratifying on a basic hit this thing with a sword standpoint as it simply lacks basic inertia to make it all happen, it's not fluid from animation standpoint, it's go to saving grace has been that its contemporaries are even worse at it, except one of the few games it clearly took some cues from, does that shit better than it, considerably in the stuff From Software makes.

Degree of difficulty is not a defense nor is "you go make it", that's busch league. It didn't matter how hard Daikatana was to make, all that mattered was that he didn't deliver. Otherwise you should be practicing what you preach, all those games you want to complain are casual and mediocre gameplay, they weren't easy to make, you'd fail miserably at making them.

You can't criticize something for not being perfect? That's the nature of criticism period lol, what else do you think criticism is?

And before you go down that path," yeah that's opinion", which when judging a games quality or not, is inherently going to be opinion, nothing you nor I stated was necessarily fact, Um, no shit? If you're gonna go down the path of "brah, that's your opinion", why debate an opinion to begin with?

Wow, you posted a wall of text with nothing worth discussing Congratulations. "If you're gonna go down the path of "brah, that's your opinion", why debate an opinion to begin with?". You are the one who started the discussion remember?

Witcher 3's encounter is pretty good. Don't know what you are talking about. Again, Planescape: Torment is a poor example and if dialogues are gameplay sequences then same goes for the Witcher as well.

Yet again you failed to understand my comment. I never defended bad combat is RPGs. I just said that it's improvement over other open world RPGs out there. It's a lot more tactical than those games and nowhere near as bad as some people say it is. It's helluva lot better than Planescape: Torment (a poor example of combat and encounters).

From Software games have nothing going for them except for combat and semi exploration elements. All of them are linear and none of are pulling stuff that Witcher 3 is doing. No shit they have better combat (never said they don't) because they have to make it good, there is nothing else in those games.

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#83 jg4xchamp
Member since 2006 • 64057 Posts
@Cloud_imperium said:

Wow, you posted a wall of text with nothing worth discussing Congratulations. "If you're gonna go down the path of "brah, that's your opinion", why debate an opinion to begin with?". You are the one who started the discussion remember?

Witcher 3's encounter is pretty good. Don't know what you are talking about. Again, Planescape: Torment is a poor example and if dialogues are gameplay sequences then same goes for the Witcher as well.

Yet again you failed to understand my comment. I never defended bad combat is RPGs. I just said that it's improvement over other open world RPGs out there. It's a lot more tactical than those games and nowhere near as bad as some people say it is. It's helluva lot better than Planescape: Torment (a poor example of combat and encounters).

From Software games have nothing going for them except for combat and semi exploration elements. All of them are linear and none of are pulling stuff that Witcher 3 is doing. No shit they have better combat (never said they don't) because they have to make it good, there is nothing else in those games.

1: You should learn what a wall of text is, given how every bit of my post is actually broken up into proper paragraphs.

2: You made a comment against the TC's opinion, stating something...you know since you need to be walked through this process: This is what you posted, and what I bolded "I don't think it's fair to criticize the game just because its gameplay isn't perfect.", upon which I proceeded to argue that no, it's not about it simply not being perfect, you know besides the fact that criticism is exactly that. Pointing out anything something does poorly or not as well, ergo not perfect.

To which at this point you've never made any attempt to argue what you even liked about the combat or what it does, but every irrelevant excuse for CDPR. It's their genre, look at their competition, judge them in a vacuum, look at all this other stuff the game does that should excuse it because the game has so much gameplay per square inch. And none of those arguments would hold any water, in any debate, on an objective level. Because it's genre in gaming, is a loose defense, because the nature of modern video games is to borrow elements from so many genres. Their competition? That's a fallacy, it ignores that all of them can be quite poor. Judging them in a vacuum? That one speaks for itself.

3: Planescape, because somehow this needed its own walkthrough here, even if I explained in plain english, but I'll give it another go, with more redundancy. I out right said the words "the combat in Planescape is shit", but the difference is that you can play that game start to finish and never touch the combat. Because it allows other gameplay builds, which is what the point was in bringing up that game and New Vegas. In contrast The Witcher 3, no matter what build you make, and I went full signs, I'm still going to have to deal with the sword based combat, no matter how you want to slice this. Hence my point if these open world rpgs can't make good combat systems, don't make combat such a big part of your game. Put it another way; Metroid Prime is a FPS where the shooting is at best meh, but shooting shit is not a major focus of that game. It primarily uses it only for boss fights and the rare times you deal with a Pirate or a Metroid, thus giving any action sequence stakes and build up. In contrast a lot of The Witcher 3 be it me going to bandit camps, monster nests, handling witcher contracts, doing the bloody baron quest, handling the gangs of novigrad quest, searching for whoreson junior, or even playing as Ciri has me dealing with: you guessed it, the combat.

Planescape? The second that game begins if you hold up your end of the bargain, you don't need to touch its combat, and given how routinely the game is praised for its writing, yes its conversation battles, are some of the best designed gameplay sequences in that game. The Witcher 3 doesn't have ANYTHING like that, pretending otherwise is being willfully ignorant of how Planescape plays.

4: "It does other things" - again the other things add to atmosphere and the game world (admittedly fantastic aspects of the game), but that's not the only way you interact with this game. The biggest way you do is when they send you on quests to go fight things, that makes up a lions share of the gameplay in this game. Otherwise you're picking some simple dialogue options or exploring a world that would be just big n pretty. The crafting? that services the combat. The parry ?services the combat. The spells? services the combat. The leveling? services the combat. Alchemy, whcih depending on your build you might not even use, is about combat. Ergo, no excuse here. If so much of my time is going to be spend doing this thing it better be good. The other elements don't make this less of a short coming or a flaw, nor does it make it impressive that they made it to mediocre battle system by doing other things.

You'd have something resembling a defense with that if you had any other way to handle quests, but you can't make an intellectually high character who gets by on charisma. You can't make stealth builds. Even your mage builds in this game are limited in comparison to other RPGs. So this myth you keep going on That Witcher 3 is somehow excused from having to make a better battle system, because it focused way more on production value and its fictional world, and not enough on its gameplay is exactly what the TC was bringing up in the first place.

So as far as me not giving you much to discuss, eh, actually I gave you plenty to work with.

@SpinoRaptor24 said:

I think you're confusing objectives with rewards. The stars in Galaxy were rewards, not objectives. The objectives were whatever you had to do in that level to get them, be it fighting a boss, collecting purple coins, finding secrets etc. In MGS5 the objectives and mission structure were more or less the same. Spend 10 minutes traversing empty terrain to first get to the base------> scout out and tag the enemies-----> infiltrate the base through stealth or guns blazing-----> pickup prisoner or intel------> head back to the helicopter for extraction. I suppose you could argue you can tackle missions in different ways since you had a host of unlockables and an arsenal of weapons in order to get an S rank, which adds some variety. Personally it didn't make a difference to me since I was too bored of the game to play it a second time.

Quiet and The End both play out the same way, the only difference is you can't turn off your console and come back a week later to find Quiet dying of old age. Also the fact that you knew I was talking about Quiet even though I didn't specifically mention her means that you inadvertently acknowledged they're both the same, so GET REKT.

Yeah that bush league stuff might have worked on olden days SW spino, but we go way back, so I'm not buying that BS. I'm not disagreeing MGSV's framework leaves a lot to be desired, but when I put up a list of those missions and point out what you actually did during those missions, and it's a variety of activities, no, your argument for repetition, doesn't hold weight, just because it has a core gameplay loop. Which any video game will have, that's not what makes it repetitive. This isn't a Destiny scenario where every single mission came down to ghost goes to open a door or read computer logs, and you hold your ground and shoot a wave of enemies. That simply wouldn't fly with MGSV.

And again whether you want to find it fun or not is irrelevant, the mechanical freedom is a valid defense. You want to argue that its irrelevant because x or y strategy was good enough for majority if not all of the game? I'll hear you on that game, the game is made way too easy because of all the mechanics at your disposal. But repetitive? It's only repetitive if you want to go full completionist about it, if you want to stick to the main missions, it's a non issue.

Also I'm going to assume the bold is you trolling, because the obvious is the following: The End is a sniper, and I naturally went to the only sniper battle in the game as your comparison. And they don't play the same. The set up is entirely, the setting doesn't play anything like that, for starters she actually kills you as opposed to putting her to sleep, you follow her red dot more than anything, you have to follow her invisible trail, sneaking up and meleeing her isn't really an option as it was with The End. That logic would imply that the Crying Wolf fight is just the Sniper Wolf fight again, and that's not true in any context.

@khoofia_pika said:

Criticism for Witcher 3's combat is valid, but the excessive hate it's getting here is straight up bullshit. No, it's not the deepest, most well thought out or even the best controlled combat system there ever was, but it works well enough. Mechanics such as rolling, dodging, parrying add a lot to the melee combat and so do the signs. Enemy variety is great, and there's no way you can defeat all the enemies you come across using just one strategy throughout the game.

1: No one called the game bad, nor the combat bad
2: Big one here, on the highest difficulty on the game I've done little more than use igni, and the magic trap zappy thing against things igni doesn't do well against (Wraiths). Hell I cheesed the Royal Wyvern near the wyvern nests by locking him in with the magic trap. There is nothing to it lol. I haven't touched a potion since going into the caves with Keira, and I haven't used a bomb in combat, lets see, carry the one, right, exactly zero times. They are only in my inventory to blow up nests.

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#84 deactivated-66e3137ab3ad5
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@jg4xchamp: Well, as I said before, I agree with the criticisms you're levelling at the combat. I guess what it boils down to is just how much those issues bothered both of us. They didn't hinder my enjoyment too much, and even though I may not agree with you, I can see your point of view.

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#85 jg4xchamp
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@khoofia_pika said:

@jg4xchamp: Well, as I said before, I agree with the criticisms you're levelling at the combat. I guess what it boils down to is just how much those issues bothered both of us. They didn't hinder my enjoyment too much, and even though I may not agree with you, I can see your point of view.

Which is fine, I'm not arguing you aren't allowed to dig it, you think it's great? More fucking power to you.

But it's not fair, look at all this other stuff that excuses it, look at how hard it was to make this game, people want perfection, you just wanted Bayonetta...those are lazy counterpoints, lol, as someone who actively complains that we get too many samey games, and too many uncreative ones, I naturally don't want them to play the same, I just want them to play well. Otherwise the game is quite freakin good, considering how much I belittle video game stories, I play the game, and actually made sure the volume is maxed and subtitles are on so I don't miss story beats lol.

As far as the OP is concerned, The Witcher 3 and MGSV aren't nearly as soulless as say an Ubisoft work, which offends way more from the game design standpoint. But there are certain things about this genre that seems to be a thing that no one really has an answer for. The mechanical short comings? That's been a triple A short coming in too many genres, not just open world games, that just happens to be the new bread winner genre. But they aren't well paced because the nature of these games means the pacing is in the players handles. The level design is sloppier, a linear game has the benefit of creating spaces that naturally flow with the systems, or pocket sandboxes that create scripted sequences, with just enough room for the player to be a bit more creative. In an open world? It seems like the world is designed to be a setting, a place, and then the gameplay encounter has no real harmony with any of it, because the space simply wasn't built for mechanics first. It's the difference between how good the stealth rooms are in the inside of Asylum and City, vs the outdoor stuff that is just less impressive in city.

The big one? Sheer bloat. These games have so much filler, between all the side stuff that really isn't all that interesting or compelling, there is no semblance of balance as there has to be a mechanical reward for everything, so there is a mid point where you complete butcher any idea of difficulty, and if it's made by Ubisoft? It's an open game, with no actual freedom to its mechanic. In contrast Shadow of Chernobyl or Crysis aren't as big as any of these games, but outside of MGSV, none of them can lay claim to having the mechanical freedom and options of those games, not even close. Even a half baked glorified demo like Crackdown is clowning these games in that department. Crackdown. That was The Halo 3 Beta: The Video Game.

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#86 deactivated-66e3137ab3ad5
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@jg4xchamp: Yeah, the arguments for it being better than its direct competitors and the like might work in a debate which was, well, comparing it to other games, but they don't have much standing outside of those. However, I will say one thing in the game's defense- There's no way The Witcher 3 can be excused for having flawed combat by being great in other departments. I'm just saying the combat has no significant impact on the game's quality- at least not in my experience. Not once throughout the many hours I spent playing TW3 did I ever feel the combat was detrimental to the game's sheer quality, but that might just be because I was focusing on what I was liking rather than what wasn't too impressive. It's flawed, sure, but not nearly flawed enough to bring the game down in any significant manner.

As for the OP, the question TC mainly asked was one about games using sandbox elements to mask poor gameplay. I actually agree that that is in fact a very common practice among developers, especially nowadays when open worlds have become the latest fad, but the examples that he used were off-base. The Witcher 3 has its weak spots when it comes to gameplay mechanics, but it never tries to use its open world to mask them. Its open world, first and foremost, isn't even a sandbox like TC said, in that it doesn't just fill up the map with pointless quests and markers and useless shit to do that has no point other than to establish the fact that the game offers a shitload of activities and to bloat the gameplay hours. The open world in TW3 works in perfect harmony with what its trying to accomplish and actually adds to the experience, rather than working against it.

As for MGS5, I'm not that game's biggest fan, there was aspects of it that just rubbed me the wrong way, but the one thing I never even thought of criticising was its gameplay. For one, mechanically, that game is a wonderful experience, as good as stealth games get, simply in lieu of the amount of choice it offers in tackling its missions if nothing else. Then there's the fact that its open world isn't even littered enough- for the lack of a better word- to be able to mask any poor gameplay mechanics (if those existed to begin with).

The pacing issue? Seems like there's no getting around it. That's a professional hazard of being a game set in an open world. It really does depend on the player. For example, while doing my first playthroughs of the likes Arkham Knight and GTA 5, I barely did any side missions and stuck to the main story, and in both those instances I thought the pacing was decent enough. Of course, if I'd gotten down to actually jumping into the freedom on offer in both those games (as I did in later playthroughs), pacing and lack of urgency would have been very real issues. Although, again, I feel like a broken record here, but The Witcher 3 and MGS5 tackled those issues well enough- other than the second half of MGS5, where the game practically forced us away from the main story in order to progress. The open world nature of those two games, at least, did not do much damage to their pacing.

But yes, keeping aside the issue of the examples used by the TC, games using sandbox structures to mask their shortcomings in actual gameplay mechanics is undeniably an issue. GTA 4 was guilty of it, more than most games I can think of, and its open world wasn't even very good. Most of the Assassin's Creed games since Brotherhood have also been guilty of it. If a game like Unity or Syndicate were to stand on its legs without the support of its sandbox or the meaningless activities it puts up on offer, it would buckle violently, thanks to broken and/or boring mechanics.

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#87 jg4xchamp
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@khoofia_pika said:

@jg4xchamp: Yeah, the arguments for it being better than its direct competitors and the like might work in a debate which was, well, comparing it to other games, but they don't have much standing outside of those. However, I will say one thing in the game's defense- There's no way The Witcher 3 can be excused for having flawed combat by being great in other departments. I'm just saying the combat has no significant impact on the game's quality- at least not in my experience. Not once throughout the many hours I spent playing TW3 did I ever feel the combat was detrimental to the game's sheer quality, but that might just be because I was focusing on what I was liking rather than what wasn't too impressive. It's flawed, sure, but not nearly flawed enough to bring the game down in any significant manner.

As for the OP, the question TC mainly asked was one about games using sandbox elements to mask poor gameplay. I actually agree that that is in fact a very common practice among developers, especially nowadays when open worlds have become the latest fad, but the examples that he used were off-base. The Witcher 3 has its weak spots when it comes to gameplay mechanics, but it never tries to use its open world to mask them. Its open world, first and foremost, isn't even a sandbox like TC said, in that it doesn't just fill up the map with pointless quests and markers and useless shit to do that has no point other than to establish the fact that the game offers a shitload of activities and to bloat the gameplay hours. The open world in TW3 works in perfect harmony with what its trying to accomplish and actually adds to the experience, rather than working against it.

As for MGS5, I'm not that game's biggest fan, there was aspects of it that just rubbed me the wrong way, but the one thing I never even thought of criticising was its gameplay. For one, mechanically, that game is a wonderful experience, as good as stealth games get, simply in lieu of the amount of choice it offers in tackling its missions if nothing else. Then there's the fact that its open world isn't even littered enough- for the lack of a better word- to be able to mask any poor gameplay mechanics (if those existed to begin with).

The pacing issue? Seems like there's no getting around it. That's a professional hazard of being a game set in an open world. It really does depend on the player. For example, while doing my first playthroughs of the likes Arkham Knight and GTA 5, I barely did any side missions and stuck to the main story, and in both those instances I thought the pacing was decent enough. Of course, if I'd gotten down to actually jumping into the freedom on offer in both those games (as I did in later playthroughs), pacing and lack of urgency would have been very real issues. Although, again, I feel like a broken record here, but The Witcher 3 and MGS5 tackled those issues well enough- other than the second half of MGS5, where the game practically forced us away from the main story in order to progress. The open world nature of those two games, at least, did not do much damage to their pacing.

But yes, keeping aside the issue of the examples used by the TC, games using sandbox structures to mask their shortcomings in actual gameplay mechanics is undeniably an issue. GTA 4 was guilty of it, more than most games I can think of, and its open world wasn't even very good. Most of the Assassin's Creed games since Brotherhood have also been guilty of it. If a game like Unity or Syndicate were to stand on its legs without the support of its sandbox or the meaningless activities it puts up on offer, it would buckle violently, thanks to broken and/or boring mechanics.

And fine, I can accept that on some level. We play games for very different reasons.

I mean whatever Spino's wording I'm not fond of, if we take it literally only one of these games is really a sandbox game, and none of them are "Masking" the gameplay necessarily, as much as that's the nature of triple A products. The pacing is easier to get around when the content is well thought out. Doing side quests in Witcher 3 is solid, because there is a lot of TLC put into giving you narrative incentive and payoffs for each quest. Where MGSV plays beautifully all the time, but the side ops became dick around missions. They feel irrelevant. If you're not going to make it more compelling on the story front, the gameplay rewards needs to be better. Some of the crazy shit, should have been things you get in side ops (Saints Row does this), certain specialists you need to get are in the side ops, but its rare that you do a side op for that. And there is simply too many, no one likes hearing a game should have less, but MGSV should have less. It doesn't gain anything from being as long as it is, it benefits from scaling back a bit.

Ubisoft's games are poorly paced, because they would be mechanically poor in corridors, so they just as bad in an open world, they don't have any semblance mechanical depth, it astounds me how people swear Far Cry 3 is fun, shit is a bore to play. And since AC2, they haven't been imaginative when it comes to their mission designs, sand burning a weed crop. GTA V is no different in terms of bloat, and Arkham Knight makes you wonder why it was even an open world city. The city had to be cleaned out to make it run (because all those people on screen would kill the framerate), the combat does better in more structured level design, and isn't built for sandbox play, and then the side missions are lame. Why is Two-Face robbing banks? why the **** is the batmotank even here? Why am I doing time trials?

The Witcher 3 at least benefits from its world being that big. MGSV both benefits and is hindered by it, it's that fucking odd of an experience lol, but a lot of this other stuff is either vanilla ice cream (take your pick), or misguided and sloppy for it (Arkham Knight)

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#88 SpinoRaptor24
Member since 2008 • 10316 Posts

@jg4xchamp: Fair enough. I'm not one to get into heated debates over games, so maybe we can agree to disagree. Besides I feel like this topic gone off rails.

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#89  Edited By jg4xchamp
Member since 2006 • 64057 Posts

@SpinoRaptor24 said:

@jg4xchamp: Fair enough. I'm not one to get into heated debates over games, so maybe we can agree to disagree. Besides I feel like this topic gone off rails.

I like the general gist of the thread. We replaced those "awful" linear cinematic games, with boring, banal, bitch work driven open world games, disguised as gameplay, but really it's lowest common denominator shit meant to take advantage of the fact that gamers by nature will be compulsive.

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Maroxad

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#90 Maroxad
Member since 2007 • 25351 Posts

I dont think any of those games you listed even would be considered worthy of having sandbox elements. Most of them offer open world, but no meaningful ways to interact with the world in ways the developer did not expect, which is what determines a sandbox (not freeroaming).

But yes, freeroam often seems to be used as an excuse for bad gameplay and bad storyline. Just like Action RPG was last gen.