Open-Ended Gameplay

[Arbitrary Cidin]

Getting to keep playing a game after completing it is almost a standard in RPG's and some Actioin/Adventure games nowadays. My question is what games have you all played that carry this aspect well? I'm talking games that you have fun in even after the quests are all washed away and gone. Do you think it's a good feature period? What's the most important thing to you guys to make open-ended gaming fun?

 

[Mother Yeti]

You mean "open-ended gameplay."

I think the key ingredients to it are a detailed, open world and lots of secondary goals.

 

[Yooz]

Do you mean like "Endless Summer" in Bully?

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I like the ability to go back to old areas or an open world, the ability to redo the story, and some hard optional areas. The Megaman Battle Network series gave you plenty to do after the end, no matter you opinions on the games themselves.

 

[Arbitrary Cidin]

You mean "open-ended gameplay."

fix'd

 

[Tich]

It requires some good gameplay elements. Including an arena of sorts to keep fights somewhat challenging, otherwise there is nothing really to do.

 

[Arbitrary Cidin]

If you ask me, being able to skrew around is the biggest element of importance. Anything GTA-esque works pretty well to be open ended and creative potential lets you keep it fresh. Also a fun gameplay enine is important.

 

[electric_warrior]

i like how open ended oblivion is, although the inability to ultimately complete it leaves me a bit cold

 

[bells]

It depends... most Open-ended games (including RPG's) are big on giving you just 3 options:

1- Be a Dick ( Anything similar to GTA )
2- Go Grind ( Most RPG's )
3- Sightseeing ( Shadow of the Colossus )

I mean, it's fun and all... but a little more variety would actually be good.

 

[Avatar Roku]

I like the ability to go back to old areas or an open world, the ability to redo the story, and some hard optional areas. The Megaman Battle Network series gave you plenty to do after the end, no matter you opinions on the games themselves.

Seriously, they actually gave you too much to do. I mean, who's going to beat Bass in three seconds?

 

[ohgodalex]

I need games to have open-ended gameplay. Generally, when I look at reviews of games, I see how they were rated for gameplay and replayability. That's pretty much all that matters to me.

Some games do this well. I've played Pokemon Diamond for 350 hours, with only 15 or so of those being spent on the actual story.
For a game to work like this, you need
-The ability to replay challenging fights over and over again.
-A certain amount of unlockable content and side-quests.
-Online play, or NPCs that are fun to interact with time and time again.

A thing to be avoided: After defeating the end boss, do not give me the option to either start over with a certain number of my cool things or start from right before the final boss. Ideally, my victory over good/evil would be reflected in the world, and, for the most part, I could roam carelessly with perhaps a few high level dungeons or challenges that I can play over and over again for cool stuff. Rare item drops on extremely tough monsters encourage this sort of thing.

 

[GonzoGamer]

My favorite game for that was gta San Andreas. After the main story I still had missions, after that I still had activities, after that I still had challenges, after that I still had gang wars. That game just kept going for me and it?s big enough so I didn?t get tired of the scenery. Best value ever.

Close behind it is Saints Row 2: It really just gave you tons of stuff to do beyond the missions and even hidden missions after the main story was done.

Oblivion was good like that too. Fallout3 could?ve been as well if they didn?t screw up the ending.