There is an undeniable pleasure to the sandbox game. Though games where you could travel where you wanted when you wanted have existed for a long time, the modern sandbox with no load times separating areas, first popularized by Grand Theft Auto 3, turned out to be amazingly fun to go anywhere and destroy anything. I have a personal soft spot for Just Cause 2, which really re-wrote the book on the “destroy anything” aspect by adding extremely elaborate and silly ways to do it.
But recently I’ve seen game after game move to the open world formula. We’ve all experienced what can be gained by this, but I feel that less thought has been given to what is lost. The progression from Metal Gear Solid 4 to Metal Gear Solid 5 is a great example of this. Both are wonderful games, but the fact remains that I played through MGS4 at least three times and I never even reached the end of MGS5. Part of this may have to do with the frequency of high quality, high time demand games that have been coming out in the last few years, but I don’t think that’s all there is to it.
Both games ‘feel’ very similar from a gameplay standpoint. The sneaking mechanics are nearly identical, the gunplay mechanics are the same – the biggest change is the move to an open world. What it ends up doing is creating areas that are not as well curated. Places in the game start to feel generic and pasted in. You see the same few building structures pasted into every village. You lose the excitement of finding that perfect hidden path that takes you around a hard enemy because there are infinite paths around. You lose the thrill of finding that well hidden powerful weapon, because now all drops are procedurally generated.
I think the Dishonored series is an amazing example of what a developer can unlock by leaning into a level based game. With geographically smaller areas, the Dishonored levels can be curated far better than an open world game. Each area requires new discovery, new thought, an open mind, unlike a sandbox game where singular tactics can be pasted into each area just like the buildings are.
I think in a very well developed game, there can be a deeper freedom unlocked. I’ve often said that Dishonored games feel like multiple games stacked on top of each other. By that I mean that since the areas are so well curated, completely different play styles can be used in the same levels and it almost feels like a whole different game. This is the opposite of most sandbox games when the same playstyle is generally rewarded in every area with no need to think or engage. How many times can I take a base in a Farcry game before I finally say: ‘I’ve repeated these steps nearly identically hundreds of times and it is enough.’
I’m sure some of my examples can be disproven, but let’s not argue over the details when there is validity in the core of the argument. There are fantastic sandbox games, but I think we need to revisit the amazing experience that a well curated experience can provide. For me, I’m more excited about a Bloodborne than a Skyrim because when every moment is attended to, every hour you spend with the game is intense. And no matter how big a world is, if my main actions are repetitive, then I will lose interest. I love Far Cry but I don’t think I can play another unless there are major revisions to the format. I’ve simply stormed too many identical outposts.
