Summary
- Open-world games range across various genres, leading to saturation in the market.
- Some successful open-world games have thrived by scaling back their maps for better focus.
- Small maps can still offer challenging and detailed gameplay in open-world settings.
Open-world games are everywhere. While the idea of an environment the player can freely explore goes back to the days of King’s Quest, the genre has seen an explosion in recent years. Open-world games encompass a variety of different genres: shooters, survival, survival horror, stealth, hack-and-slash, simulations, RPGs, and puzzle games are all examples of genres that have been combined with the open-world format at some point or another. Some major franchises like Halo and God of War couldn’t resist experimenting with it, to varying degrees of success, and franchises like Far Cry are literally defined by open worlds. Unfortunately, the abundance of open-world games has also led to the genre coming under fire. There are so many coming out at once that it’s saturating the market, and it is a lot harder for any individual game to stand out from a sea of similar titles.
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One of the biggest and most common pitfalls in modern open worlds is developers getting a bit too ambitious with the world itself. It seems like a lot of developers are competing to outdo their competition, or their own previous games, by making bigger and bigger open worlds to explore. The subsequent pressure sometimes leads to the creation of maps bigger than the developers can realistically manage. The thing is, a good open world doesn’t have to be huge; it just has to be open. Sometimes, instead of going bigger, it’s better to scale back. Some really good open worlds are successful in part because they can make the most out of a smaller, much simpler map.
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Assassin’s Creed Mirage
9th-Century Baghdad
A lot of fans felt that Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla got a little too ambitious with its large map of early Medieval England. Having tried to outdo both Origins and Odyssey, it ended up pushing the limits of what an Assassin’s Creed game could manage. As a result, Assassin’s Creed: Mirage made the notable decision to scale back. Mirage brings players into the city of Bagdad, as well as some of the surrounding areas, during the Golden Age of Islam.
While it may be smaller than its predecessors (which covered most of Egypt and Greece, respectively), the smaller scale makes it easier to bring the actual history behind the game into focus. This game introduced many westerners to an entire period of Medieval history that’s historically been overshadowed by Eurocentric thinking. Basim can literally explore places that no longer exist, and the game still manages to go the extra step of slipping in remnants of Mesopotamian history.
6
Atomfall
British Exclusion Zone
Although it has been jokingly referred to as “British Fallout,” one distinction that sets Atomfall apart is its smaller map. Fallout‘s maps cover wide areas, sometimes including multiple American states. Since England is a significantly smaller country than the U.S., any open world set there would have to scale back a bit. Atomfall naturally took advantage of this with its Lake District setting. The game takes place in an exclusion zone set up after the real-life Windscale Disaster of 1957, which traps its protagonist in an area consisting of seven mini-maps. There are four main regions to explore, and another three “hub” locations that connect them. Each region is compact, and the player will get to be familiar with each of their locations over the course of the game.
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What Atomfall may lack in size, it makes up for in detail and challenges. Sure, each map can be traversed pretty quickly, but not always easily. There’s plenty of danger around every turn to keep players on their toes. Other survivors, mutants, and even giant robots can be huge obstacles, especially when resources are so limited. The small maps also allow encounters with memorable characters and hidden secrets about the world’s history.
5
Dredge
Treacherous Open Water
Dredge is a strange game which puts the player in charge of a fishing boat in a mysterious archipelago full of Lovecraftian sea monsters. They get more or less free rein to explore a map that is not only small, but also doesn’t have much in it. Since the primary gameplay mechanic is driving a boat, it makes sense that a large portion of the map would be open water, with a few very small islands spread around. Of course, that’s not to say the map is empty. The ocean can be a very dangerous place, and Dredge takes full advantage of that element to ramp up the isolation factor. Dangers range from real-life hazards such as water spouts and large rocks to eldritch sea creatures emerging from the depths. With most of the game taking place on a boat, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to feel completely safe from any of it.
A big part of Dredge is its day-night cycle, with the nighttime portion being specifically designed to induce paranoia. Even within reach of a port, players still have to contend with reduced visibility caused by fog. Just the risk of crashing into rocks makes driving at night unsettling, made worse by the fact that the protagonist’s fishing job sometimes requires him to go casting after the sun sets for a particularly elusive catch. And of course, more infamously, there’s the risk of encountering sea monsters, some of whom can only be avoided by turning off the light that’s needed to navigate the fog. In a world designed to make the player feel jumpy at every turn, who needs a large map?
4
The Forgotten City
A Lost City Full of Secrets
The Forgotten City might have originated as a mod for the famously huge Skyrim, but even then, it was pretty self-contained and made the most of a small space. The remake discards the rest of Skyrim in favor of standing on its own. Outside the beginning and end, the whole game takes place in the titular city, an Ancient Roman town populated by a small group of people who are not entirely sure how they got there. It’s not even that big, though the confusing layout can make it seem larger than it really is. Exploration is crucial, and is basically the main goal, owing to the central crisis: a curse that turns everyone into golden statues if anyone commits a sin (made more difficult by nobody being 100% sure what is considered a sin).
Aside from being stuck in a time loop, the player can explore the city and interact with its inhabitants at their own pace. And they have to in order to investigate the truth behind the curse. The more the city is explored, the more its secrets will be revealed. A thorough investigation will lead to some interesting things: helpful items, unconventional solutions to problems, unexpected paths to seemingly inaccessible areas, random pieces of trivia about everyday Roman life, a deep dive into ethical philosophy, and, of course, the secrets of the city itself.
3
Immortals Fenyx Rising
A Mythological Island
Ubisoft’s surprisingly faithful parody of Greek Myths began as a side project during the development of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, so it was never going to be quite as big. However, it didn’t need to be. The whole game takes place on a single island (outside of puzzle sections set in Tartaros), broken up into four regions. Each region corresponds to one of the four gods the protagonist has to find (Aphrodite, Athena, Ares, and Hephaestus). The long-term goal is to restore the gods to full strength so they can aid in the fight against Typhon, but the player is given free reign in terms of when and in which order they do so. They can take each region one at a time or jump between them, and they still find room for lots of other content.
The full setting of Immortals Fenyx Rising, known as the Golden Isle, may be small, but it is packed with challenges for Fenyx to explore. There are all sorts of puzzles, side quests, hidden boss fights, and collectibles for her to hunt down. Plus, the island is also conveniently overrun with mythological monsters to test their skill. The game finds lots of room to slip in activities and inside jokes referencing various Greek myths, including some of the more obscure and bizarre ones. It’s a setting where there’s almost literally adventure at every turn.
2
Praey For The Gods
Frozen Island Of Death
This peculiar indie game from No Matter Studios features an unnamed heroine stranded on a frozen island during an eternal winter. Outside the opening, when the heroine confronts the first of eight Shadow of the Colossus-inspired bosses she has to deal with during the game, she’s pretty much free to explore the island as she sees fit. The map may be small, but it’s really detailed and very easy to get lost in. Literally. The layout, combined with the frequent blizzards, makes it very easy to stumble all over the place without even trying. Praey for the Gods is also a survival game. The heroine needs to find food and protect herself from the cold. Exploration is one of the best ways to hunt for food, gather resources, and find shelter.
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The island is a very isolating setting. The heroine is almost completely alone, but she will find lots of ancient ruins and the bodies of previous inhabitants. More observant players might even notice clues hinting at the island’s history and the “gods” the heroine is expected to fight. Sometimes she can find caves or old structures with hidden secrets, and puzzles which offer valuable items that will help her in her journey.
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Subnautica: Below Zero
Alterra’s Secret Sector
Subnautica has become well-known for its detailed portrayal of marine ecosystems on the alien planet 4546B, so much so that it’s easy to forget the map wasn’t even all that big. A lot of open-world sequels try to outdo their predecessor’s map size, but the follow-up game Subnautica: Below Zero did the opposite. The map is significantly smaller than the first game, not that it feels that way while playing. Unknown Worlds still managed to craft an extremely detailed environment full of peculiar sea creatures and distinct biomes, some of which blur the lines between beautiful and terrifying.
Like the first game, the map’s overall small size is made up for by its use of depth. Being an ocean-based diving game, the player is encouraged to find ways to dive deeper into Sector Zero’s waters, discovering more about both the planet and Alterra’s secret operations.
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