Learning lessons from various open worlds

[XianeX]

Lately, I've been heavily evaluating the various open worlds I've played and I've been trying to figure out what makes what world good. What can be cut, what should be added. Recently, I ended up playing Shadow of Mordor. Relatively old by now, and not my preferred genre. Now before I get detailed, I'm NOT saying that CDPR should implement the Nemesis system. What I AM saying is that CDPR should put more effort into the late game world rather than be solely focused on replaying from the beginning. Why?! Because after you've played the game several times and have done everything you want to do narratively, Shadow of Mordor did something that Cyberpunk 2077 did not, and that is make the game playable in the late game without having to start a new playthrough.

Realistically, by today's standard, Shadow of Mordor is a demo compared to what people play nowadays. AND, even though it only has one sequel, that sequel did some things amazingly well. From here on out I'll just refer to Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War as "Mordor", and "War", respectively.

Mordor didn't have a bunch of drops, inventory management, swag, and loadouts. War does, to an extent. My point? by the end of my playthrough, I looked at War and found out that it had JUST ABOUT everything I would have wanted in a sequel. The irony is that the franchise didn't grow like Assassin's Creed, something that it approximates, but technically isn't.

How this relates to CP77? While I wait for another major update and/or Orion, I've been looking at a different game that I love just as much as Cyberpunk 2077, and looking at what can be done as a finisher to the current game, or what can be a big deal for the sequel. My biggest complaint with the game as a full package is that everything in the late game is MOSTLY predictable across playthroughs.

What CP77 does best is for the new players. So much is thrown at a new player in the beginning that it feels like it'll take forever to figure it all out. The initial shock of wonder does a good job for "initiates". However, for the passionate player, once everything becomes familiar, and after a player has tinkered around with several systems and playthroughs, the world just becomes too predictable. What I'm saying in essence is this. Mordor has a MUCH smaller world, but battles happen all across it in unpredictable ways. The attributes of the enemies change, the number of people in the encounters change. While it's true that the encounters in that game are usually relegated to decided locations (something that is also true in CP77) and there are scenario archetypes for conflict, those areas are fully utilized.

For instance, there are several combat locations that completely disappear in CP77 the further you go into the game. I'm not talking about the story related encounters that disappear as you progress, but the predictable "spawn points" of enemies, be that in a single playthrough or multiple playthroughs.

I absolutely LOVE what was done with El Capitan! But I'm usually wondering, why couldn't they do that for more than the occasional random Arasaka, Tiger Claw, and Maelstrom rundown encounters. Even with some of the new additions where certain locations may have a random encounter, they are so rare and few that it seems underutilized.

It boils down to, where are the "Holy Shit!" situations that would seem to be more frequent considering the narrative and lore? It took about 3 years to get them in what's arguably the biggest and best game of the decade. My honest opinion is that world building should be done BEFORE writing the story. And by that, I'm not just referring to the "movie set". I'm talking about encounters and events, put them in first and building a story around it considers the nature of the environment. Simply, it makes it easier to sell the narrative. For instance, if the world was crazy FIRST, when characters in the game say "this world is crazy", it wouldn't be so weird to see the evidence of the characters' perspectives when it's added in 3-4 years after the fact.

Bottom line, I still see so much potential for this game, even before a sequel, the easiest way to convince me that the current game is "finished" is to add variation to the recurrent encounters, make them more frequents, and add like 100 new spawn points into the world (LOL, I'm laughing, but I'm serious).

 

[Metropolice]

A bit of text and nerding out as well on the topic.

To me, it first often boils down to a design approach and comparing more linear games to more open world games. I get this is a bit under complex as there is a lot, a LOT of nuance between those two poles or areas.

Both have their pros and cons. I myself favor open world RPGs or so as the replayability and customization is usually higher. Think of Bethesda games (Starfield IMO being a weaker outlier due to changed design choices but still, concept wise those games appeal to me). However, these games given their nature can often not deliver an experience as cinematic as some more linear based games can. It's comparable to a theme park: Linear games are often like a wild rollercoaster ride, leaving you satisfied more or less at the end but it's not like you can go left and right much, only forward. Open world games in comparison would be you being able to freely walk the theme park. You have a lot of choice where to go and what to do often from the start (unless it's tiered and you unlock new areas conditionally, some form of that is usually the case) but it can tire you out over time and you often have no hard segments of plot events.

There are many games that are of course hybrid versions of this. I'd say Cyberpunk is one. It has a more linear plot with some choices of deviating from only one path, but ultimately your main character is tied to a specific persona: V. The game however is set in an open world environment rather than a map-based system like COD where you just play through the plot in limited maps.

Personally speaking, it may not be CDPR's style as they so far seem to rather prefer defined characters, but I myself usually favor more of an open world approach. Don't get me wrong, the story was cinematic and great and you get to pick various endings in CP77.

I'm however a huge sucker for joinable factions and paths. In open world RPGs I always feel the need or sense of belonging to a group or having a group identity. And being able to join or work very closely with (quasi-joining) factions. In Cyberpunk 2077 you are ultimately more detached formally from any faction. I know there is a particular choice in the DLC but it's more so coming from acute situational need and necessity. It's not the classic "I can decide to join a faction if I fit the requirements, do work for them, maybe rank up a bit as well, obtain perks, trust, their support, access to their areas" that kind of classic approach.

Cyberpunk would've been perfect for me if you could've picked various factions to go with in a sort of main plot. I understand that this might be a design choice that CDPR might not usually be known for like Beth and their games or so and I understand that in the plot with Johnny we got, it would've been harder to implement because you are a merc and are suddenly on the clock in a bid for survival, it's not like you'd have time to sign up with a mega corp, become a media guy or join Trauma Team or whatever.

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However especially if we get a new character (not V) in Orion, it would provide CDPR new impulses or options in maybe considering a more classic open world approach to some of the game factions you will encounter. Either via stronger character backgrounds that tie you in with some factions more strongly or by adding some joinable (whether in formal or de-facto informal way by closely working with them, if not formally signing up with them) factions.

I'm not sure what awaits us in Orion but to compare with CP77, let's take the plot as is but ignore the relative time constraint you have in a race to save yourself for a moment: In the game you get some conditional teases to join / work with some (sub-)factions: MAX-TAC and Trauma Team. The game won't let you though for various considerations, despite MAX-TAC even inviting you.

Imagine for a moment you could. This wouldn't mean you have to finish the game plot under their banners like in some other games. Imagine them as side factions that give you some unique content or a "personal identifier", how to define your char more. This could even surmount to repeatable content which would be logical both for MAX-TAC or TT: You could go on missions with them and earn some buck. At the same time (not minding MT in a specific part of the DLC) it also wouldn't have conflicted too much with the main story other than the time constraint. If you argue that these would be full time jobs however, then we can find a way around that too: You join as some kind of contractor/reservist so you are not required to do this job all day, making it very much not just optional content but optional in-world as well.

Having this system of perhaps factions to join and play a plot differently OR alterantively having more or less a main plot with some routes but then on the side, optional (side) factions you can join up and work with would spice up my personal experience and that of others. Ultimately I think this can also provide some more content to an end game / post MQ-game, should it be open ended and not a hard close

RECAP/TL;DR:
I'm a huge fan of (joinable / side) factions you can interact with more to define more of a group identity for your main char rather than being the loner or being too defined in your background. If this could be minded for Orion without mudding whatever set vision they already have for it, it'd be delighted.

Other than that I feel that some of the world encounters and interactions could also be expanded in variety. This would basically mean more possible world interactions, be they social in nature or otherwise, like various encounters, some combat related. Sit at chairs/benches, actually order food/drink at some vendors and consider a brief animation to go along with consuming items, even from inventory, rather than them being just applied status effects, all those smaller details that can help immersify you. Then some side content you see for example in GTA games: Recreational or other activity offers at certain places to do things in the city if you're not chasing the main plot, side gigs or exploration.