Great video, I agree with basically every point made. A very prominent series that's suffered from this is Zelda. I grew up with the n64 title, so I obviously have a large degree of bias, but they were just better than the new games. After the n64 games came Wind waker and Twilight princess, both of which were very good but had a lot of open space that just wasted time. The greatest offender of this modern design philosophy is breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom. They've ruined the adventure and puzzle aspects of the series and replaced it with an incredibly boring open world and poorly done survival mechanics. There are, no kidding, 900 collectibles scattered around the mostly empty world, and the incentive to find them is to upgrade your carrying capacity. This problem reminds me of the "waifu simulator" problem in jrpgs. Japan seems incapable of telling a cohesive story anymore, they rely on choosing which girl you like best and fancy graphics. I feel like a jaded old man, but the only games I look forward to anymore are re-releases and strategy games.

Open world games I got bored of (or did not like): Fallout 3, Witcher 3, GTA 4, GTA 5, Breath of the Wild, Far Cry 3, SKYRIM, Far Cry 4, Horizon Zero Dawn & Forbidden West. (And I'm not gonna even bother wasting my time playing Tears of of the Kingdom, becuz it's just BotW 2.0 aka - Tears of Boredom) BEST open world games: Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, Windwaker, Morrowind, Oblivion, San Andreas, Arkham City, Fallout 4, AC BlackFlag, ELDEN RING, Just Cause 2 & 3& 4, Mad Max, Infamous 1& 2, (and AC Origins was aight) And yes, those mentioned Zelda games are still open world games, just at a smaller scale.

Absolutely agree with your points! What you said about Red Dead Redemption 2 reminded me why Red Dead Revolver on PS2 is one of my favourites to replay because it is a tightly paced linear action game that takes you through fun levels filled with explosive arcade style gameplay. Another favourite of mine is Star Fox 64 (Also known as Lylat Wars, where I'm from) just due to how fun it is to play through, which has led me to replay it countless times since I first picked it up as a child. How I wish the gaming industry would give developers making fun-focused games more of the budget and spotlight that they used to have again, but alas...

I don't like how almost every game released today must be a open world third person.It's like you were reading my mind on state of modern games

I understand where you are coming from with that RDR2 part but did you understand what makes RDR2 become "the greatest" for other people?

For me, Witcher 3 is the most overrated game of all time. Don't even know why I bought it. Played it for an hour and was BORED TO DEATH. maybe at some point I will play it again, but I doubt it

I agree with every point, I never even really enjoyed GTA and thought it was more of a novelty. The amount of things to do was cool, but level design and controls/gameplay were subpar. I really despised RDR2 and the open world Zelda games. So much filler and nothing felt fun for more than a short time.. Mission structure/level design feel tedious and combat is the same. Enemy variety is not the best and Side quests didn’t hold me either. However I must admit, I grew up with Japanese RPGS/Consoles and not CRPGS/PC. I did switch over to PC 8th gen with a PS4/PS5 on the side for the major JRPGs, but I have a bias. I prioritize presentation/story over other things and that’s obviously not an objective standard . Some people really like the customization in open world WRPGs, but to me the combat was too subpar to get through games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Elder Scrolls (yes, worse than clicking menus while I do something else in the background). Having said all this I quite enjoyed Witcher 3 and Elden Ring because one emphasized side quest presentation and the other boss fights (the main appeal of dark souls). I can see why CRPG fans wouldn’t enjoy these though. Especially Witcher 3 with its subpar combat. I also enjoyed other games with open world elements that didn’t go all the way like Nier Automata, The Evil within 2, Deus Ex Mankind Divided & Human Revolution, Yakuza, Arkham City, etc. Long story short, for me, if the open world is the main appeal I won’t be interested, there has to be a story or characters, quests, something else as a reward for actually exploring the world, and the combat has to be tolerable, because I’m not sitting through 20 hours of work even for a good story and characters

Words cannot express how much I enjoy this video and I agree 💯% with everything said. The only thing I would disagree with is I think Oblivion is the best Elder Scrolls, I love the quests and guilds. I have been gaming since the first Nintendo and can't stand open world games anymore, very picky about them. I see myself getting Stalker 2 and Dragons Dogma 2, that is all I will ever add. I have gone back to linear games and they are far better and more focused, I keep very few open world games in my collection, with a few big games on the side, like the Mass Effect Legendary Collection, Tales of Verperia and Dragon Age Origins. I also have the Witcher 2, I hated 3, big for the sake of being big while packed with pointless filler. I recently removed Far Cry 3 and 4, way to repetitive going back. The only open world games I have installed now that I will never remove is Yakuza 0, 1 and 2, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion, Red Dead Redemption 1, Watch Dogs 1, Dragons Dogma and the Return to Arkham Collection. I totally agree about your comments on Red Dead 2.

Yeah...I agree with RDR2, sadly. Had some interesting moments, but honestly I never spotted the Rockstar tech demos disguised as games before. Good call there, and I actually agree, the start of RDR2 actually took me out of it, funny enough, when it became more linear the game actually became remotely fun, but sadly no where near the start, where you'd actually have fun because the protagonist was actually healthy. This actually suppressed whatever fun that could be had because the main character's croaking out (so it turns from fun and exciting, into droning and needing Deus Ex Machinas to bail the main out, which makes him look weak). Honestly, with RDR2, one would have to wonder if the game would've been better off as a linear game, or a game like Hitman 3, with large sandbox map levels, and just let the player figure out how to beat levels to progress the story. Also, as in regards to Open World, I see it more as a crutch of modern games. Practically everyone's doing it, and it's been resulting in trash games being made that actually hurts the franchise the studios (see: insulated, out of touch, accountant/business suits) shoe horn into practically every other title. Look at the mess that modern Final Fantasy games have become. Large, bloated, open world, messes, when the series was better with large maps, compelling stories, and tight RPG mechanics.

Great takes. Played RDR2 for the second time over the summer and agree, I was bored out of my mind. Combat is so easy, there’s no reason to seek out any type of improvements/side quests.

I hate they have made lego open world..i remember the simple days of lego batman 1 and star wars complete edition 😂

I will say I enjoy rdr2 and gta4 and hell far cry 3 is my baby but I do understand the critsim but the whole graphics are a must thing I hate like yeah it's pretty cool that it looks super good and it's amazing that computers can pull this off but it doesn't need to be a thing in every game I mean one of the games I still play to this day wich is the binding of issac has pixel art and it still keeps me comeing back everytime and that game came out in 2013? I think I could be wrong but it goes too show that a game like issac can be wayyyy better than a game like rdr2 or any other graphicly good looking game as for the whole open part of games theres not alot I can say on them as you said in the video they try to make em too big n stuff if something is just way too big it's gonna be a really big turn off for alot of players. But yeah I do like my open world games but they have to be done right and with the utmost care

This is one of the reasons why I quit video games and never looked back.

you ever play red faction: guerrilla? Had some of the problems you outlined but has awesome eplodey gameplay

Open worlds are only good if they're fun to traverse. Every game has you walking, driving or on some slow ass horse so the dev can show off the world most of which serves no purpose.

Open world games are a double-edged sword at best.

i dont know if you would class this as open world, but the EA/Blackbox Skate. games were my favorite open worlds, but theres the issue of finishing all the challenges then having no goal to work towards

Exactly what I have been saying. I'm back to linear games from the 360 and PS3 era. Subscribed.

I stopped playing it when an npc spawned out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere to accuse me of murdering a guy who was trying to rob me. Then after tieing that guy up another guy spawned. After an hour of trying to get the town to pay my bounty a guy with a horse came up onto the porch I was on, hit me with his horse then started shooting me. Then I was killed by police because I shot the guy who shot me first. F this game. the bounty system is broken, it's buggy, and the systems cheat you. On top of being boring and monotonous.

Nice take I respect it

You should play Sleeping Dogs.

The open world genre this past decade is what 3D was in the 90s. Hopefully it will pass.

I disagree with this video and with saint row 3 because it too cartoony compare to the original I like saint row 2 and GTA 4 because it has a more realistic world compare to other games. first dragon's dogma game isn't everyone since the open world is boring but i don't mind that because i do like traveling across the map and seeing things

I was fine with assasins creed until Desmond was around some I liked some were not interessting, ac2 and rogue were my favorites,I even played Chronicles China witch I personaly liked.But after Unity I had my fill,and didn't care about continuing

Skyrim is a masterpiece? Oh lord...

Bro said RDR2 boring,yea when you traveling,outside of that it's the masterpiece it's said to be🤷🏾‍♂️

notdic have you played fromsoftware games.

skyrim didnt suck at all and thats the only open world game i have played