On Exploration

[ZetaAnime]

The exploration part of a game is sometimes what keeps me into the game knowing i need to find a place and the map does nothing for me. For one it keeps me playing unlike other games where they seem to end do fast and two looking at the art and styles they put into a game is also another reason why exploring a jungle or a town is fun and entertaining. And also a few hidden Easter eggs while exploring is always a plus.
TIMBAP_AJR

 

[Scottieburke]

Well. Shit. Someone actually believes the same as myself. I played SOTC and ADORED every second of it. The only thing that could top that is another next-gen version of the SAME game.

Simply put, The game was genius, and so is Yahtzee.

 

[Chaosthief]

Has anyone mentioned Aquaria yet? I personally loved the exploration aspect of it.

For those who don't know, Aquaria (http://www.bit-blot.com/aquaria/) is an indie title whose genre I guess could be described as 2D action-adventure, with very light RPG elements in the mix (You can use bits dropped from critters you kill to cook and make powerup foods, you can find outfits with helpful effects, and you can find health upgrades. That about covers the RPG aspect.)

Anyway, you play as an amnesiac mermaid (it's not as bad as it sounds!), Naija, searching through the ocean for her origin and for other sentient species. The environment in the beginning level seems pretty restrained. A few side things if you look around a bit, but primarily just temple 1 and temple 2. After those, you can finally advance out of that area.

The true open ocean floored me quite quickly. Even though Naija provides pretty broad hints of where to go next plotwise, the game makes very little effort to prevent you going an entirely different direction. A healthy slice of the entire game world's open for viewing even when you have only the two powers you obtained from the beginning.

But I'll carry on for a long while if I don't close off soon. Aquaria doesn't have quite the silent beauty of SotC, but it definitely has the loneliness. The way I say it makes it sound like a bad thing, but I mean it in the best way possible. Only a few sentient beings do actually reside in the world (semi-spoiler, but you get that impression pretty early in anyway). And I've noticed all the people with distaste for maps, fear not! The minimap only displays the structure of the land, and the main map only labels things after you find them.

I truly feel this game exemplifies exploration like the others you all have mentioned, with its vast and quite stunningly beautiful seascape.

Okay, okay, I'm done now.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I got the article, I just don't agree with the example... I feel exploration is rewarding when the designer give you something to explore. Its the little details that I found interesting and flesh out a setting for me. If the game is set on an huge, empty or generic environment, I don't feel interested in exploring it. It was just me, my horse, the ocassional lizard and endless miles of grass. While finding a new Colossus was always new and interesting, and maked me wonder what was next; riding over a hill was never a surprise, and never got me wonder what I was going to find...
Its the equivalent of Fuel, which advertised as "world record winner for world size"... It turned out, the world was mostly empty and functional generated.
Sorry if the example got into a soft spot for you, but you have to wonder, if the world gave you the feeling of a big, dead and empty world, maybe its because it was big, dead and empty.

Read the rest of my previous post. SotC is a fantastic example of a game world that is empty by design rather than convenience. It's full of small touches that indicate the previous existences of people, places, and things - which are now gone. Those small touches are conscious decisions on the part of the developer. You won't notice them if you're not exploring. Things like the tree, the village, and the garden have no impact on your progression in SotC. If you're only goal is to progress, you'll probably miss them - and to you, it will just be an empty, dead world same as any other.

 

[SpinFusor]

I would much rather play an exploration sandbox game like RDR than SOTC for 1 simple reason. When I am riding on my horse through RDR I never know what will happen next. Will I come across some damsel about to be hung? Or a bunch of bandits about to kill some poor guy? Maybe it will be a cougar who wants my horse for lunch? Or a horsejacker? Or a wagon being stolen? You know interesting things. Not oops you went the wrong way enjoy looking at your horses ass for another 20 minutes while you try another route. That to me is not fun. But apparently artsy games are not supposed to be fun. Or so I was just informed.

Well, I think RDR is a great example of how an amazing story can be strained by gameplay. Putting aside exploration, and how constantly you run into the same scenarios over and over, and over. John wants to leave his killing days behind yet is constantly duped into mass genocide and political intrigue, just for some tidbits of information. He is strung along an absurd number of times, not to advance the story, or to make the plot better, or stronger, but simply to give the player an excuse to kill tons and tons of people.

I'm not trying to criticize RDR, it was probably my favorite game this year. However, it serves to illustrate how even the best games do things that aren't really good for their stories to serve gameplay/content, and rarely if ever go out of their way to make the gameplay/content serve the story.

I think this is appropriate, it's how the vast majority of games are structured (and should be in my opinion). Like many have pointed out, most people plays games to have fun. The more fun, and excitement packed in the better. I certainly wouldn't have wanted RDR to emulate a SotC formula at all.

That being said, I think there's more than enough room in this huge industry for the occasional developer to think outside of the box, and go against the norm. Even if the game they make isn't everyone's cup o' tea. Because, trust me, the people who SotC resonated with had an extraordinary amount of fun.

 

[LazyAza]

So very very true Mr Croshaw. God how I love games with a good exploration element. Half the fun of Arkham Asylum was figuring out how to get all the riddler stuff, some of which was amazingly and cleverly well done.

Also anyone who shits on Shadow of the Collossus needs to be smacked hard across the head for being a moron. Its quite possibly -the- game with the best exploration gameplay of any ever and the boss fights are utterly incredible experiences, to the point you couldn't even call them just boss fights really. I'm still waiting for another game to do at least one boss fight as good as the ones from SotC. God of War 3 couldn't even manage it.

 

[hermes]

Read the rest of my previous post. SotC is a fantastic example of a game world that is empty by design rather than convenience. It's full of small touches that indicate the previous existences of people, places, and things - which are now gone. Those small touches are conscious decisions on the part of the developer. You won't notice them if you're not exploring. Things like the tree, the village, and the garden have no impact on your progression in SotC. If you're only goal is to progress, you'll probably miss them - and to you, it will just be an empty, dead world same as any other.

I get that the world is intentionally empty. I get that feeling of being alone in a huge world devoid of many things is an intentional design choice. I get that, I just don't feel an intentionally empty world gives me more motivation to explore than an world that is empty or generic due to laziness.
That is why SotC is not a good example about sucessful exploration to me...

 

[the wako kid]

exploration tis the shit. i think shadow of the colossus was great,exploration and everything, but my disappointment with the exploration is that theres nothing to find except for another colossus,which is why fallout and metroid are great,because they are a couple games that are rare in that you dont get frustrated if you get lost in them.one thing i hate is when a linear game looks like it has exploration and when you try to explore you find doors that lead to empty rooms so you have spent twqenty minutes looking for secret awesome nuggets covered in rocket sauce,only to find that youre looking in empty rooms.

 

[Hexador]

I think the same can be said about exploration in ES: Oblivion and Fallout 3. Massive worlds with all sorts of things to see makes games that much more fun. Although, fast travel tends to dilute the experience.

 

[dyslexicfaser]

Myself, I like Skies of Arcadia for that reason. It reads like an itemized list of Yahtzee's pet peeves about JRPGs (the messy-haired teenage protagonist with the ridiculous outfit alone would likely spark vitriol; his sleeves are buckled to the rest of his outfit!). It has a prison level, complete with robot guard. But it's a big game world (sky... thing) filled with neat stuff to find, and that makes up for a lot.

Also, airship battles.

 

[Whodat]

Another game that has an emphasis on exploration is Just Cause 2. The game is GIGANTIC in every sense of the word. Its fun to just fly around in a jet or explore for easter eggs in this epic sized map.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I get that the world is intentionally empty. I get that feeling of being alone in a huge world devoid of many things is an intentional design choice. I get that, I just don't feel an intentionally empty world gives me more motivation to explore than an world that is empty or generic due to laziness.
That is why SotC is not a good example about sucessful exploration to me...

Don't ever read The Road.

Games like Oblivion and Fallout 3, which seem to have publicly approved exploration elements, feel incredibly artificial to me precisely because they are so "filled with content". The devs have neatly organized all of the "exploration" such that you reliably find a landmark, dungeon, or bandit camp every 100-150 meters. It's very dense and rewarding and false. It's wilderness as a shopping mall. I can see the imprint of a level designer everywhere I turn, and that takes me out of the game. SotC was a much more organic experience because I didn't find something every 200 feet. There's definitely some beautiful scenery, but I wasn't led by the nose with obvious metagame "breadcrumbs".

Anyways, this specific discussion has turned highly subjective. You seem to be taking specific issue with the tone and aesthetic of the game world rather than the actual structure of it. You can definitely prefer not to explore a game that you find dour, depressing, and dead. For some people, those are selling points.

 

[Miumaru]

I like exploring. Another reason Morrowind is one of my favorite games and better than Oblivion.
Hell, when I realized EVERY Ancestral Tomb with locks have keys for every lock, key hunting was a fun game to play.

 

[Anorgil]

Finally! Someone mentions Metroid Prime in a positive light! That game was awesome. (and series; I only own the third one, sorry) The way Yahtzee kept mentioning Nintendo knocking off games like Metroid I got the feeling he didn't like them.(Sorry people, but Other M looks like a load of bullshit to me. My god does it look horrible!) Anyways, I love exploration, especially when a game manages to mix tension, mood, and a sense of discovery into the mix. Great job Yahtzee.

...I miss you Metroid Prime...

Yahtzee hasn't said that much about the Metroid series in general, but it doesn't surprise me that he has good things to say about Metroid Prime. Back in the "Turok" review, he presented Metroid Prime 1 as an example (or should I say, THE example) of a good console FPS.

 

[Izzyisme]

The indie game scene is full of awesome exploration-centered platformers. I'm glad that Yatzhee brought up Knytt. Other great games in the same vein include Cave Story and Lyle in Cube Sector.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Exploration= time and effort, thus its been cut back to not get in the way of shoveling slop to the witless masses.

 

[Javarino]

Yahtzee hasn't said that much about the Metroid series in general, but it doesn't surprise me that he has good things to say about Metroid Prime. Back in the "Turok" review, he presented Metroid Prime 1 as an example (or should I say, THE example) of a good console FPS.[/quote]

Sweet. I dare you to say otherwise

 

[Kris015]

I think Shadow of the Colossus just might be the best PS2 game out there.

 

[Samus Aaron]

Yahtzee, I think you and I are going to love "Journey" for the PS3. Talk about open world and exploration, that game looks amazing (especially since you already expressed your dislike for realistic graphics when you talked about LOZ: Wind Waker)

 

[Layzor]

He'll be telling us he likes portal next, imagine that.