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Elden Ring is the best open world game so far in terms of exploration

RafterXL

Member
Did some crazy person praise the shrines in BotW? They were straight fucking garbage and even most BotW stans didn't think they were any good. Next we'll be hearing how innovative seed hunting was.

Look, BotW has an amazing world, it's just filled with fucking nothing. Elden Ring took BotWs world and added a reason to explore and it added discovery. You can argue which world you like better, but in terms of what you do in that world it isn't even close...Elden Ring is superior.
 

Billbofet

Member
Elden has inspired me to revisit Dark Souls 2 after I finish it. It has a similarly high boss count and warping to locations is key. Elden is a huge leap in quality and content, but it reminds me a ton of DS2 which I always felt was underrated.
 
What game has a better open world?
Many Elder Scrolls 1-5 are all better same with Fallout 1-4 & New Vegas & RDR2 & many more that i won't name cause im to lazy to lol People are overating Elden Ring open world yes it good but the best ever? make me think they never play another other open world game before lol
 
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fallingdove

Member
Many Elder Scrolls 1-5 are all better same with Fallout 1-4 & New Vegas & RDR2 & many more that i won't name cause im to lazy to lol People are overating Elden Ring open world yes it good but the best ever? make me think they never play another other open world game before lol

I don’t agree. The Elder Scrolls games have pretty weak overworlds. Same with all of the other games you mention. There is very little reason to stray from the path. There is next to no verticality in these games and the janky mounts in Elder Scrolls make vertical traversal trivial.

Bethesda games have solid lore and atmosphere but level design and gameplay are far from strong suits.
 

j0hnnix

Member
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Did the work for me.
 
I don’t agree. The Elder Scrolls games have pretty weak overworlds. Same with all of the other games you mention. There is very little reason to stray from the path. There is next to no verticality in these games and the janky mounts in Elder Scrolls make vertical traversal trivial.

Bethesda games have solid lore and atmosphere but level design and gameplay are far from strong suits.
I see you choose to nitpick ok two can play that game let me nitpick Elden Ring then
you run around for hours & hours doing the same thing in Elden Ring grind for runes get stronger grace & fight big monster rinse and repeat do you see that i to can nitpick everyone can nitpick stop with these nitpicking crap
 

fallingdove

Member
I see you choose to nitpick ok two can play that game let me nitpick Elden Ring then
you run around for hours & hours doing the same thing in Elden Ring grind for runes get stronger grace & fight big monster rinse and repeat do you see that i to can nitpick everyone can nitpick stop with these nitpicking crap

Lol. I’m not nitpicking though.

Bethesda games, at their core have shit exploration and gameplay. They are literally the source of the walking simulator memes.

Also - your Elden Ring summary is funny. Runes, grace, big boss - rinse and repeat is OVERLY reductive. In any of the games you mentioned, can you jump to an obscure, nonessential ledge and be taken into an entirely new area to be given items that drastically alter the gameplay?

Sure there are save points and bosses and experience but the gameplay loops are infinitely more interesting than holding forward on a controller and getting experience for crossing landmarks off of a list.
 
Lol. I’m not nitpicking though.

Bethesda games, at their core have shit exploration and gameplay. They are literally the source of the walking simulator memes.

Also - your Elden Ring summary is funny. Runes, grace, big boss - rinse and repeat is OVERLY reductive. In any of the games you mentioned, can you jump to an obscure, nonessential ledge and be taken into an entirely new area to be given items that drastically alter the gameplay?

Sure there are save points and bosses and experience but the gameplay loops are infinitely more interesting than holding forward on a controller and getting experience for crossing landmarks off of a list.
All games has a flaw no game is truly perfect that include Elden Ring & i was making a point i was doing nitpicking to prove my point that you can nitpick any game that was my whole point cause you seem to think Elden Ring has the perfect and best open world so far which i don't think is that case
i still said it is good but not the best i did not say it was bad or anything so i don't see the point of you defending Elden Ring i was not even attacking Elden Ring lol
 

fallingdove

Member
All games has a flaw no game is truly perfect that include Elden Ring & i was making a point i was doing nitpicking to prove my point that you can nitpick any game that was my whole point cause you seem to think Elden Ring has the perfect and best open world so far which i don't think is that case
i still said it is good but not the best i did not say it was bad or anything so i don't see the point of you defending Elden Ring i was not even attacking Elden Ring lol

Never said Elden Ring was perfect. The thread is discussing the game’s overworld/exploration. You said there were games that were better and went on to name all of the Bethesda WRPGs and RDR2.
 
Never said Elden Ring was perfect. The thread is discussing the game’s overworld/exploration. You said there were games that were better and went on to name all of the Bethesda WRPGs and RDR2.
Well yes to me they are better
now to you maybe not but that fine cause that my opinion vs your opinion
we all have choice and preference and even bias it fine no need to get heated over it
 
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fallingdove

Member
Well yes to me they are better
now to you maybe not but that fine cause that my opinion vs your opinion
we all have choice and preference and even bias it fine no need to get heated over it
Not heated at all. Just curious as to why you think the overworld/exploration in the games you brought up were anything special.
 
Not heated at all. Just curious as to why you think the overworld/exploration in the games you brought up were anything special.
cause of the dialogue and choices and consequences i prefer a more dialogue and choices world with more characters like Witcher 3 and Skyrim and Fallout style even RDR2 has more of that stuff then Elden Ring again it just my thing some people hate that and that fine
 

DavidGzz

Member
I have a friend who is a Souls noob still in Limgrave after 55 hours. He loves it and keeps talking about how big it is. He's in for it once he he finally beats Margit lol. It's so so much bigger than just Limgrave.

I've started 7 different characters and they are all past Stormveil now. I can't get enough of it.
 
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MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
I still prefer Xenoblade Chronicles X because bias. The world map is slightly bigger then BotW and I still think BotW has the bigger map compared to ER but ER likewise has more dungeons to traverse.

I think they are all great but for me XCX is still top based on the different zones and the fact you can get around on foot or in a mech.

I like BotW and now you have weather affecting you and the fact you can swim or climb nearly anything that's in the game.

ER is too reliant on the horse for exploration.

Edit: I would be interested to know size comparisons between the games. I think BotW spans 140 miles while XCX is like 154 miles? I wonder what Elden Ring is.
 
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Never have i spent so many hours this quickly on a game before (160 hours with a job and family lol), and yet I want to continue on playing it day and night.

The reason is because of the overworld, which isnt the usual barren sthick. I always get surprised by stuff to find. There is a fort, a cave, a schack, castle or even underground exploration around bascially every corner. Most of the time there are unique rewards. This isnt like BotW that only offers stamina or hearts as rewards.

For me Elden Ring is the best open World game so far and it will be hard to dethrone it. The game isnt perfect, but I am amazed how they managed to make this during the pandemic when other devs struggle.
Exactly my feelings brother. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Openworld (how From does it) is the future of the souls genre.
 
I haven’t had this feeling playing a game since Skyrim and 180 hours in I’m still completely addicted. Easily my favorite game ever and PVP is starting to become my go to. Games feels like a steal for only 60. Plus Fromsoft makes some of the best DLC out there.
 

Aldric

Member
Completely disagree. In fact after Limgrave I thought the exploration was immensely disappointing because you realize that despite the different vistas the fundamental structure is copy pasted all across the map. Crypts/mines/ruins with basement/evergaol/dragon/mounted miniboss/asylum demon next to minor erdtree/reskinned merchant, rinse and repeat. It also doesn't help that the only significant interaction in the game is combat so you essentially explore with very limited and braindead traversal to find the next encounter in what feels like a glorified boss rush mode. The only remotely interesting scenarios I found in dozens of hours were the frenzy inducing tower near the Dectus lift which gave me a nice eye of Sauron vibe (even if like other traversal challenges you can just brute force it by chugging Estus and get rewarded with a terrible incantation) and the inverted tower minidungeon in Liurna which was a neat callback to Symphony of the Night and Majora's Mask. As for rewards the immense majority is completely pointless because they don't fit your build.

And since FromSoft fanboys can't help but mention the game everytime like the insecure redditors they are, BotW's exploration completely demolishes Elden Ring's, traversal wise because mobility options are much more engaging, visually because you don't need to check your map to find your way and can just find a vantage point and look around and in terms of gameplay scenarios because there's much more surprises than yet another spastic boss with delayed signposting (minigames, environmental puzzles, wandering NPCs, actual lived in towns and settlements, large scale action setpieces and just weird creatures and events to witness just for the sake of it).
 
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SantaC

Member
Completely disagree. In fact after Limgrave I thought the exploration was immensely disappointing because you realize that despite the different vistas the fundamental structure is copy pasted all across the map. Crypts/mines/ruins with basement/evergaol/dragon/mounted miniboss/asylum demon next to minor erdtree/reskinned merchant, rinse and repeat. It also doesn't help that the only significant interaction in the game is combat so you essentially explore with very limited and braindead traversal to find the next encounter in what feels like a glorified boss rush mode. The only remotely interesting scenarios I found in dozens of hours were the frenzy inducing tower near the Dectus lift which gave me a nice eye of Sauron vibe (even if like other traversal challenges you can just brute force it by chugging Estus and get rewarded with a terrible incantation) and the inverted tower minidungeon in Liurna which was a neat callback to Symphony of the Night and Majora's Mask. As for rewards the immense majority is completely pointless because they don't fit your build.

And since FromSoft fanboys can't help but mention the game everytime like the insecure redditors they are, BotW's exploration completely demolishes Elden Ring's, traversal wise because mobility options are much more engaging, visually because you don't need to check your map to find your way and can just find a vantage point and look around and in terms of gameplay scenarios because there's much more surprises than yet another spastic boss with delayed signposting (minigames, environmental puzzles, wandering NPCs, actual lived in towns and settlements, large scale action setpieces and just weird creatures and events to witness just for the sake of it).
Funny you complain about the rewards that dont fit your build when BotW has basically zero reward for anything.
 

Aldric

Member
Funny you complain about the rewards that dont fit your build when BotW has basically zero reward for anything.
BotW definitely has rewards and they're all useful because you're never gated out of using them due to your stats allocation: mobility (Revali's Gale, Zora's armor making you swim faster and allowing you to scale waterfalls, climbing set making you climb faster and use less stamina, the bike, the ancient saddle), defense (Daruk's Shield and Mipha's Grace, actual significant damage reduction when wearing heavy armor unlike in Elden Ring where you have to pump up vigor not to get oneshot by endgame rats, elemental immunity with the Goron armor or the Thunder Helm), offense (Urbosa's Fury, ancient arrows, master sword, barbarian set).

Is it ideal? No, but it beats defeating a gank squad of crucible knights to be rewarded with some shithouse ash of war I'll never use because it makes my weapon scale with INT while I have a FTH build or something.
 

Terenty

Member
I'm not even a huge fan of Elden Ring and think the game turns to shit after Lyndell quality wise, but reading people seriously saying Botw has a better open world is absolutely surreal lol.

Botw is an empty shell with broken mechanics, that can be finished by toddlers without breaking a sweat. More of an engine demo than a game
 

Filth

Member
BotW definitely has rewards and they're all useful because you're never gated out of using them due to your stats allocation: mobility (Revali's Gale, Zora's armor making you swim faster and allowing you to scale waterfalls, climbing set making you climb faster and use less stamina, the bike, the ancient saddle), defense (Daruk's Shield and Mipha's Grace, actual significant damage reduction when wearing heavy armor unlike in Elden Ring where you have to pump up vigor not to get oneshot by endgame rats, elemental immunity with the Goron armor or the Thunder Helm), offense (Urbosa's Fury, ancient arrows, master sword, barbarian set).

Is it ideal? No, but it beats defeating a gank squad of crucible knights to be rewarded with some shithouse ash of war I'll never use because it makes my weapon scale with INT while I have a FTH build or something.
Theres an item
That lets you change the weapon scaling to whatever you want :)
 

arvfab

Banned
Did some crazy person praise the shrines in BotW?

Sad part is that the shrines are still the best part of BotW, until you realize that if you are lucky, you get some kind of permanent upgrade (hearts or stamina), but usually you just wasted time.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Just the fact that weapons aren't made out of cardboard and breaks when you look at them is a feature that alone makes it way better than BOTW.

And I havent even played elden ring yet.
 

Little Chicken

Gold Member
Completely disagree. In fact after Limgrave I thought the exploration was immensely disappointing because you realize that despite the different vistas the fundamental structure is copy pasted all across the map. Crypts/mines/ruins with basement/evergaol/dragon/mounted miniboss/asylum demon next to minor erdtree/reskinned merchant, rinse and repeat. It also doesn't help that the only significant interaction in the game is combat so you essentially explore with very limited and braindead traversal to find the next encounter in what feels like a glorified boss rush mode. The only remotely interesting scenarios I found in dozens of hours were the frenzy inducing tower near the Dectus lift which gave me a nice eye of Sauron vibe (even if like other traversal challenges you can just brute force it by chugging Estus and get rewarded with a terrible incantation) and the inverted tower minidungeon in Liurna which was a neat callback to Symphony of the Night and Majora's Mask. As for rewards the immense majority is completely pointless because they don't fit your build.

And since FromSoft fanboys can't help but mention the game everytime like the insecure redditors they are, BotW's exploration completely demolishes Elden Ring's, traversal wise because mobility options are much more engaging, visually because you don't need to check your map to find your way and can just find a vantage point and look around and in terms of gameplay scenarios because there's much more surprises than yet another spastic boss with delayed signposting (minigames, environmental puzzles, wandering NPCs, actual lived in towns and settlements, large scale action setpieces and just weird creatures and events to witness just for the sake of it).
"Reskinned merchant" is funny because there's an entire storyline that's completely and easy to miss that explains the merchants.

There are entire villages, areas of interest and NPCs who are obscured by other parts of the map and easy to miss.

The "actual lived in towns an settlements" in BOTW are pretty crap, NPCs around the world conveniently talking about a hero that lived 100 years ago in unison is poor world building.
 
Are you saying that the combat isn’t good?
Input delay and extreme lag.


Bosses do animationless 180 degree spins and hit you, or slide into position taking large leaps forward without moving their legs. Enemies read your inputs and attack when you release block. Shields are nearly useless, even after being buffed in the last patch. Tons of glitches, can't do any follow-up attacks on enemies that get knocked down half the time. I've been hit through walls a dozen times. Boss balancing is busted.

I don't think half you guys know how to assess a combat system at all. You tell me if that's good or not, because I don't know how you guys judge these things. The combat has some elements that are fun, but has a lot of substantial issues.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
The shrines are shit in BotW and widely hated FYI

Horrible “dungeons”/bosses too

Odd that you would pick shrines of all things to praise about BotW. I really liked the game, but the shrines were fucking awful.

How many shrines had the same robot boss in botw? Yeah thats what I thought. I liked the shrines in botw, but there is no sense of reward getting a heart piece or stamina piece.
You both missed my previous post, stating the following:

BOTW rarely did the same thing twice throughout the game, save for the challenge shrines
Of which there were… how many?

And I’m not praising the shrines in BOTW. Just saying, on the whole, ER isn’t much less copypaste there than BOTW. At least BOTW has some variety in what a shrine requires the player to do as they ‘re based around puzzles not commonly found in the overworld. ER’s small dungeons are always the same - find the lever to open boss door, where there’s a small hut there’s dogs, deep pit with no way back up is the way to the boss, big insta-kill chariot means wall alcoves with skeletons lurking, etc etc.

And this is just about the underworld. As per the overworld, to me Zelda wins hands down, no contest.
 

Spaceman292

Banned
I don't like open world games. The levels all connecting to each other like in past games was much better. Much smaller but better designed. Makes replaying the game more fun. Going through 80+ hours again instead of 15 is not something I want to do.
Just ignore the open world and run directly to the dungeons. Pretty much all of the important stuff happens in dungeons, or at least places where you're not allowed to use the horse.
 

REDRZA MWS

Member
Never have i spent so many hours this quickly on a game before (160 hours with a job and family lol), and yet I want to continue on playing it day and night.

The reason is because of the overworld, which isnt the usual barren sthick. I always get surprised by stuff to find. There is a fort, a cave, a schack, castle or even underground exploration around bascially every corner. Most of the time there are unique rewards. This isnt like BotW that only offers stamina or hearts as rewards.

For me Elden Ring is the best open World game so far and it will be hard to dethrone it. The game isnt perfect, but I am amazed how they managed to make this during the pandemic when other devs struggle.
I agree whole heartedly with everything you said. On top of a stellar open world to explore that Kees you wanting to go further and explore more, the way they have gotten rid of side quests and fetch quests as chores and a slogfest of mindless things gs to fill the world ER needs none of it.. It’s the first open world game I actually love. It’s as if THIS is what “open world” games were always supposed to be.
 

GymWolf

Member
At least BotW's protag doesn't look like Nikocado Avocado.

EqOwSMS.png
I guess that when you don't have a good enough reply, insulting the look of the protagonist of a totally unrelated game in a topic about exploration is what i had to expect from botw fanboys...not even the first time it happen, you people are so predictable.
 
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Aldric

Member
I guess that when you don't have a good enough reply, insulting the look of the protagonist of a totally unrelated game in a topic about exploration is what i had to expect from botw fanboys...not even the first time it happen, you people are so predictable.
Yeah yeah, stick to trying to convince people your who gives a shit game is as hard as Elden Ring when you play it blindfolded and only use a USB steering wheel as a control method.
 
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saintjules

Member
For one to say a game has the best open world in terms of exploration, one would had to have played every open world game in every generation of gaming lol. And I'm talking about across all genres supporting the style, including JRPGs.

In other words, it's impossible to come to such a conclusion. It might be good, but I doubt it's the best ever.
 
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Samrf89

Member
Not a huge "Souls" fan here, and Elden Ring is arguably the best game of the 21st century. It is completely uncompromising in a way that "feels" revolutionary in the modern gaming industry. It is an open world game that finally doesn't disrespect its audience. The sense of wonder is world-class. Through skill trees and cluttered UI's, handholding, and checklists on a map, developers today who make open world games have created a disconnect between the game and the gamer. Elden Ring doesn't do that. In some ways, it is the anti-open world game. It is an antithesis to modern open world design.

The game is alienating, but in an appealing way. The beautiful thing about Elden Ring, and what I believe many of the posters here who say that the world is barren, are missing, is that it is indeed not doing much of anything really. And that's the point: it exists independently from the modern open world stratosphere where worlds are cluttered with checkpoints and markers on a map. There's no waypoint to follow, no quest log to lead you, only you and your sense of adventure. It is in some ways, stuck out of time and place, holding up a mirror to today, where remakes and greed and artistic compromise bog down any hope of a game giving off a sense of glorious role playing wonder. It is barren in the absolute best way possible. All we have is the game, and that's all we need.
 

GymWolf

Member
Yeah yeah, stick to trying to convince people your who gives a shit game is as hard as Elden Ring when you play it blindfolded and only use a USB steering wheel as a control method.
I'm sorry what?

P.s. i think aloy looks more like wayne rooney tbh :lollipop_grinning_sweat:
 
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S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Input delay and extreme lag.


Bosses do animationless 180 degree spins and hit you, or slide into position taking large leaps forward without moving their legs. Enemies read your inputs and attack when you release block. Shields are nearly useless, even after being buffed in the last patch. Tons of glitches, can't do any follow-up attacks on enemies that get knocked down half the time. I've been hit through walls a dozen times. Boss balancing is busted.

I don't think half you guys know how to assess a combat system at all. You tell me if that's good or not, because I don't know how you guys judge these things. The combat has some elements that are fun, but has a lot of substantial issues.
It's done like this on purpose.
All of Froms games are like this.
My only issue with it, and it is a issue(to me) is when I'm getting out of dodge(by rolling)and changing my gear for it to not work.

The Gears games also suffer from this. It's l Iike I'm to fast for the game but again they do it intentionally.

Anyway this complaint is off topic.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
I think there are good and bad points on both sides of this argument - certainly, neither Breath of the Wild nor Elden Ring - despite being excellent games in their own rights - quite hit the mark that a 97 on metacritic might imply (and neither had bloody decent performance at launch). I do think Elden Ring adapted the insane verticality thing of Breath of the Wild quite well (even though BotW borrowed it from Skyrim) - just a shame they didn't tie it to world traversal in quite the same way and had to dot the map with ladders and 'wind lifts' to make it less of a chore to get around.
 

AJUMP23

Member
I do like that there is something around every corner, a cave or a person or a statue. Come back at night you may have to fight something big. The game is great.
 
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