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Elden Ring May Just Reinvent The Open-World Genre

V4skunk

Banned
You missed my point...

I thought I would like the open world formula of Dark Souls but unfortunately I didn't! I think From Software should stick with spoke-hub formula, It's perfect for their own style.
Nah everything was pointing to them going open world and we have not even seen a main "dungeon" area yet with the interconnected routes.
 

Lightjolly

Neo Member
I'm not seeing how it reinvents anything. It might offer a super polished good way to make open world games, like rewarding exploration, no handholding , no bloat etc. But I'm not seeing anything innovative, which is ok.

By the way did BOTW reinvent open world with climbing? Didn't Assassins Creed do that before?
 
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S0ULZB0URNE

Member
I'm not seeing how it reinvents anything. It might offer a super polished good way to make open world games, like rewarding exploration, no handholding , no bloat etc. But I'm not seeing anything innovative, which is ok.

By the way did BOTW reinvent open world with climbing? Didn't Assassins Creed do that before?
Well the coop and invasion aspects is innovative for open world action adventure RPG's.

Yes asscreed had it but it's world was never brimming the way BOTW is.
 

V4skunk

Banned
I'm not seeing how it reinvents anything. It might offer a super polished good way to make open world games, like rewarding exploration, no handholding , no bloat etc. But I'm not seeing anything innovative, which is ok.

By the way did BOTW reinvent open world with climbing? Didn't Assassins Creed do that before?
In Zelda you can climb everything.
 
Just like BOTW.

The game will pick a lot of aspects from other open world titles, and fans will see it like the second coming of Jesus Christ

Game will be good, but hardly the best thing ever that the whole industry and fans will tell you it is
For real. BOTW is one of my favorite games but yeah, it didn't reinvent anything.
 

justiceiro

Marlboro: Other M
That was already a bad enough title for a forum thread, but for a paid article in professional media, it's a really unfunny joke.
 

Tschumi

Member
I've not no doubts that this will be great, but Jesus with the hyperbole, nothing in the footage I've seen has reinvented walking/riding/fighting across an open space.
 

Tschumi

Member
For a open world console game?
I'm still not getting why that's a big deal, it's been done since WoW in MMOs, I believe MMOs exist on consoles... earlier games in the series apparently had PVP in them? (I wouldn't know i never made use of the online features)

You're basically saying it's a not-MMO with open world PVP on a console and that's mindblowing?

I dunno man I don't think that equates to 'reinventing' open world gaming.

I don't really think open world gaming can be further reinvented...
 

Woggleman

Member
The last game to truly reinvent open worlds was GTA3. That was a before and after moment. The rest just added on and in many cases vastly improved but that was the last real groundbreaker.
 

CitizenZ

Banned
Trust me there is nothing being reinvented, even its been shown enemies are copy/paste from previous games. But Im excited to explore the world, thats all. Its going to be a fun game, enjoy.
 

carlosrox

Banned
LMAO.

Honestly the obsession with FROM games is the most bizzare thing ive ever seen in gaming. Someone please tell me what is so special about these games?

People think it gives them some kind of hardcore/gamer cred way more than it should.

They're good games but I also don't understand the fervor.

HOWEVER I will say this game in particular does look incredible.
 

Tschumi

Member
Yes it hasn't been done on consoles.
i dunno why u didn't quote me man u coulda just said 'let's stop talking about it'

I just wanna say for the record that I've got it on pre-order, I'm just saying I'm thinking it'll be a big deal in terms of story and immersion, and so forth, not... genre revolution

I am 100% behind it being an awesome game, mkay? mkay.
 

"Unless the Elden Ring demo condensed everything cool about the game into 1/12 the square mileage to fool us, I’m frankly worried about the developers. The attention to detail that must be going into making this ambitious project a reality is nothing short of herculean."
QZHowlu.jpg


"In any case, my brief time with Elden Ring showed me that From Software is entirely capable of owning the open-world video game genre. I don’t know how I’ll go back to massive plots of land with nothing to see between points of interest apart from environmental details that feel copy-pasted to simply fill space. Even as a diehard Dark Souls fan, I’m blown away by what the developers were able to accomplish with this small slice of the full game and worried about my free time come next February."

I'm sure the game will be great but this is fucking meme-worthy.

Virtually everything they've shown has been done before in other games. So I cannot see how this is supposed to "re-invent" the open-world genre (which hilariously isn't even a fucking genre... it's a type of level design).

Is gonna be another BOTW where the rabid fanboys try to pretend it's some genre-defining moment in the videogames industry, entirely inventing new mechanics that have existed before in previous games but just not all at once?
 

tassletine

Member
No.

Red Dead Redemption 2 had an open-world filled with meaningful events, places to discover, side characters to meet and interesting activities to engage in - and had all of this come out to the player in a natural exploration-based way, instead of doing it the Ubisoft way with +100 different markers on the map.

Hell, even Days Gone did the "have enemies roam the map and show up at different spots depending on the time of day" thing more than two years ago with it's horde system.
Days Gone is very underrated, especially on PS5. The only problem with that game is the first 6 hours or so, which admittedly is a pretty big one.
Once it settles down though I loved it. It's superb and brutal. Kudos to them for making Zombies scary again.

I can't say I'm a fan of any of the open world stuff I've seen. It just seems to be using the BOTW template of high/low vantage points to keep you interested. I prefer that, but they've clearly sacrificed something to make that work as all those jagged cliffs make it look ugly. Most open worlds, especially RDR2, lead you around far more subtley and use beauty to lure you in.

My real concern with Ring, is that it's stealing too much from the open world genre which dilutes what makes Souls special. Souls was always very progressive, adding new ideas (apart from 3). Open worlds are the opposite of that mentality and seeing all the reused animations etc. makes me think this could be the end of something special. Lets see.
 

Soodanim

Member
I have my Elden Ring pre-order, but the article title alone is empty hyperbole. Reading it would be a waste of my time
 

skit_data

Member
I’m not sure it will reinvent the open world genre, probably not. I’m pretty sure it will set a new bar for the ”Souls”-genre going forward, though.
 
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Haggard

Banned
Before sheer map size became marketing relevant all open world games had a comparable "event density". Elden Ring is not reinventing open world, it is reinventing Dark Souls by adopting 10 year old (good!) open world design.
From knows what works with their formula.
 

Tschumi

Member
LMAO.

Honestly the obsession with FROM games is the most bizzare thing ive ever seen in gaming. Someone please tell me what is so special about these games?
It's a valid question. I think in general we got tired of games that just spread their legs and let you conquer them and we wanted some sass.
 
What annoys me about these sort of articles is the way they reduce everything to a formula, when the reality is that the game's fiction is what drives the composition of these open worlds. If you are doing a fantasy-based game like Elden Ring then of course you can have caravans towed by giants, have dragons flapping in to feed and whatnot. But what's the equivalent if you are trying to do something that conforms to some sort of reality, be it past or present-day?

Obviously there are global features like density of content, interactivity/variability and how the terrain impacts traversal, but ultimately its all about what the world is supposed to be. You can't have magical horses that can fly up sheer cliff faces outside of high fantasy! In Death Stranding the same sort of geography represents a significant challenge to traverse or circumnavigate.

That one is way easier than the other *is* the game.
This is a good point.

I always get annoyed when game's get criticized for there structure or template without the broader more important context of worldbuilding and core gameplay.

E.g. collecting packages is fairly mundane in itself but is really fun to do as Spiderman.

Open world games are often criticized for having basecamps to takeover because it's tired at this point. Well I think the issue may more likely be the stealth and combat mechanics are weak which is the bigger problem for those games. Taking over a basecamp in Elden ring looks pretty fun with it's trademark souls difficulty and new mechanics.
 
Check the video below out to get a good idea of just how barren the map is when you’re not doing a mission.


It’s quite literally a snore fest with barely any life on the map at all.

They try to make it realistic. Take your car and go out of the city in a remote area, get out from the highway and then check how much populated the area was and what activities you could do. And now think that the game takes place 100-200 years ago, I guess not every town had hundreds of people and the most part of the land was baren and uninhabited. The game was boring for sure but they tried to make it more realistic, I played 2-3 hours and could not continue because I want to have engaging fun and not play reality 2.0
 

zeorhymer

Member
"A wooded lane isn’t simply window-dressing between waypoints but a set piece for learning the intricacies of stealth combat.
The entrance to a castle isn’t just an awe-inspiring example of the world’s architecture but the beginning of a breathless chase sequence.
A random gathering of worshippers in a swampy field isn’t merely a chance for you to mow down a group of enemies on horseback but the catalyst for a surprise boss fight against a man-eating dragon."

TLDR: The reason why 'Taku says it's the bestest game evar is that stuff happens while you walk down a road.
 

Alebrije

Member
Hope that is true what From says about being more opened and cohesive about the plot or story becuase otherwise an open world would be overwelming if you do not know what to do or where to go.

About the topic the open world looks small compared to AC Odyseey or Valhalla, even to Skyrim. I do not saw something new is just an open world with Souls gameplay, nothing that you can say is revolutionary.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I heard Far Cry 6 mentioned on a podcast, as a reference because there are groups of enemies at an outpost. You surround the camp or whatever thinking about how to take them out. It was even mentioned how that comparison is part of the way the open world genre has to be made. Games have a become an example of an example. If it’s too big people will complain, if it’s too small people will complain. From Software has proven to do well with expanding their worlds and this is just expanding everything with multiple entry points and a lot more detail along the way. You’ll have to conquer an area or get past a certain obstacle in order to complete your ultimate task.

I don’t want to sit there and say this building is like Skyrim, this ridge over here is Ghost of Tsushima, or this rock formation is totally Assassin’s Creed.
 
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kevm3

Member
Traversing through dull, empty spaces is why I strongly dislike most open world games, so if they've managed to solve that problem, I'll be amazed.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Traversing through dull, empty spaces is why I strongly dislike most open world games, so if they've managed to solve that problem, I'll be amazed.
For what little I saw while playing the beta, traversing is interesting since the world is filled with details, cool places and secrets. Reminded me of BOTW but with more interesting rewards.
 
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