Ranked Open World Recommendations
With open world games being such an oversaturated market, here are the open world games I've played that I'd recommend giving a go, ranked. I've given all these games a review score of at least 3.5*.
22 Games
Arkham City somehow manages to top Asylum in almost every depart. The combat feels more polished, there are plenty more gadgets to spice up stealth/puzzles and boss battles are far better designed with the Mr Freeze fight arguably being one of the greatest in any game. Arkham City itself manages to pack plenty of variety and engaging side content within its walls. Some of the standouts involve Mad Hatter and Deadshot, though Riddler can shove all 440 of his trophies where the sun doesn’t shine! However, what stands out above all is the story. Mark Hamill’s performance as the Joker is sublime and you never know what to expect next with so many twists and turns, climaxing with a jaw dropping ending. It’s not perfect, but Arkham City is still an absolute masterpiece that needs to be experienced.
1
Though each entry in the series has shaken up the formula a bit, The Legend of Zelda franchise hasn’t strayed too far from its roots. And while that’s not a bad thing, our grounded expectations make this games innovations such a breath of fresh air. It singlehandedly has reinvented both the franchise and open world game design. Gone are the endless markers that typically litter open world maps, making things feel like a tick box exercise. Instead in BOTW you are free to explore the world however you want. After a well-crafted tutorial which introduces you to the gameplay loop and mechanics, you are free to do as you please as you are given every tool you need for the rest of the game right from the get-go. You can follow the recommended quest line to prepare yourself for Ganon, march to Hyrule Castle and fight him straight away or simply just explore to see what the open world has in store for you. This freedom and curiosity that the game encourages makes everything feel that bit more special, as you craft the experiences you have in the game.
However, there would be no impetus to explore the world if it wasn’t as impeccably designed as it is. There are plenty of high points around the map to get a view of your surroundings and identify anything that looks interesting. Almost always when you go to these points of interest there is something useful you will find, promoting curiosity by rewarding you. This exploration loop is incredibly fun and addicting. The world itself is so diverse with every area being distinct from the rest. There are great variations in environmental design between areas and within each area there are plenty of natural and manmade landmarks to soak in. The attention to detail is astounding, making you want to explore every inch of the map, with the simple yet clever marking system ensuring you never get lost. My only minor gripe is that there are some bare spaces in the map which could’ve been removed to improve the pacing of exploration in certain areas.
There is no denying that BOTW is simply gorgeous. The art direction, colour palette and lighting combine perfectly to create some stunning spectacles. The sunrises and sunsets are simply breath-taking, while when necessary the aesthetics can create an eerie vibe as the world is consumed by the blood moon. What's more, the audio design really enhances the tone the visuals set. Additionally, the environmental and character designs are impeccable. The contrast between the futuristic guardians and the wilder enemies and locations is fantastic. The guardians have such a distinct style which feels so fresh while the more traditional elements which have been modernised fit so perfectly. What’s so impressive is that the game looks this good on a console not known for its high performance. Load times are quick and other than some slowdown when lots is on in the screen at once, such as in the Lost Woods, it’s a smooth experience with a solid framerate.
Story is one of this game’s shortcomings. It’s pretty basic and while there are some standout moments and the recoverable memories are a nice touch to fill in the blanks of Link and Zelda’s relationship, I wasn’t really that engaged with what was going. The characters themselves are a bit of a mixed bag, with some being quite charming and interesting, while others are a bit more generic and forgettable. However, the animations and subsequent personality these animations convey is fantastic. All the characters can convey so many emotion and charisma. It really helps with the immersion even if the story falters.
The game has three main gameplay pillars. The first is the previously discussed exploration. Elements such as having fast travel points near all major landmarks, a glider which enables you to quickly get down from high points and horses ensure that traversal is not painfully slow, and that you can quickly get to the desired destination. I just wish my horse had a few more brain cells and wouldn’t constantly run into things and that it’d approach me no matter where I am on the map. Climbing is also a big part of traversal, and the stamina system is a good way to make you consider how to get to the world’s high points with balancing stamina and speed being a constant see-saw. However, I did find not being able to climb effectively in the rain an unnecessary touch, just making it frustrating if you can’t reach the desired destination because of the weather.
The physics which make traversal so good, are also what make the second gameplay pillar of the puzzles in this game so good. The way you can combine abilities with your environment and traversal is so much fun. The abilities you have are each very unique and have been honed to perfection so that you always feel in control and know that you have the tools to solve any puzzle. The puzzles themselves find that great balance between challenge and frustration. And between the shrines, Korok seeds and divine beasts there is great variety to the type of puzzles you face. The only puzzles that sometimes felt unfair were locating some of the hidden shrines with the cryptic clues given to you. A few of these were frustrating to find without looking for help online.
The final gameplay pillar is combat, and god damn the combat is good. There are such a range of weapons to use, each feeling unique and satisfying to wield and the weapon degradation system encourages experimentation with your arsenal. Depending on the situation, you can tailor your weapons and armour to your benefit and take advantage of abilities dependent on your surroundings. What’s more, cooking the resources you find enables you to prepare for fights by rustling up potions and meals that can give you that extra edge. The combat itself is easy to grasp but takes skill to master. Countering enemies feels so rewarding and nailing those critical hit bowshots is similarly satisfying. Enemies have distinct attack patterns and weaknesses to identify, with great AI design meaning you can rarely cheese your way through encounters. What’s more, as you kill more and more enemies, they level up to ensure that encounters, even in previously explored areas, never get easy, and the blood moon respawning all previously defeated enemies ensures there are always combat encounters to be had. The enemies themselves are very well designed, but I just wish there were more types of enemies. After getting only a quarter of the way through my playthrough, I’d seen pretty much every enemy there was in the game, so fighting these enemies over and over again gradually got less interesting.
With that all out of the way, what is there to actually do in the game? Well, the main quests involve taking on the four divine beasts to weaken Ganon’s control and then going to Hyrule Castle to try and rid the world of him. The divine beast quests are excellent. After performing tasks to get to know the characters of the tribe you are working with to go toe to toe with a particular beast, taking on the beast themselves is quite a spectacle. How dungeons are literally incorporated into the design of the beasts is very clever, I just wish there were more of these larger dungeons we’ve become used to in the franchise in the game. Making your way through Hyrule Castle to Ganon is another highlight, but I’ll skim over that to avoid spoilers.
Outside of the main quests there are a tonne of side quests, and these were a bit of a mixed bag for me. There are too many basic fetch quests and simple go here and kill this quests. I wish there were more interesting quest lines, with greater character development and more engaging activities to do. For example, my favourite side quest in the game involved you going to an island, losing everything your character has, and having to survive and complete the quest objectives to regain your belongings and get the reward. Quests this good were too few and far between.
Shrines are another big part of the game. They are essentially mini dungeons with puzzles or enemies to complete to get rewards you can use to upgrade your stamina and health. The puzzle shrines, which make up the majority of shrines, are fantastic, with so much variety between them. However, the combat shrines, though fun the first few times, quickly get repetitive as you are just fighting a slight variant of the same enemy over and over again. I could’ve down with less of these or them being redesigned to be more distinct from one another.
The world is littered with Korok seeds, which are mini puzzles which contribute to being able to increase your inventory size as you complete more and more of them. These are a great idea and it never stopped being rewarding when you spotted something that looked odd in the environment, only to find out it’s a Korok puzzle. However, having 900 Korok seeds is just excessive, and I wish inventory slots opened up quicker as I threw away far too many weapons over the course of my playthrough. Moreover, it can be quite difficult to find what you want in your inventory, with there being no filter or quick search function. However, other than this and the lack of accessibility options, the menu and UI design is superb, giving you all of the information that you need in a clear and concise manor. The Hyrule compendium is also a great touch, where you can take pictures of anything you see and log it, giving you more information about the subject in question and even an ability to track certain items if you want to collect more of them.
Breath of the Wild is simply outstanding. It innovates in so many areas and is incredibly polished. It’s set a new high bar in aspects such as open world design, physics-based systems and non-linear quest design. It has its shortcoming, but these are dwarfed by its triumphs. I had so much fun getting lost in this truly special experience and can’t wait to see what the sequel has in store for us.
However, there would be no impetus to explore the world if it wasn’t as impeccably designed as it is. There are plenty of high points around the map to get a view of your surroundings and identify anything that looks interesting. Almost always when you go to these points of interest there is something useful you will find, promoting curiosity by rewarding you. This exploration loop is incredibly fun and addicting. The world itself is so diverse with every area being distinct from the rest. There are great variations in environmental design between areas and within each area there are plenty of natural and manmade landmarks to soak in. The attention to detail is astounding, making you want to explore every inch of the map, with the simple yet clever marking system ensuring you never get lost. My only minor gripe is that there are some bare spaces in the map which could’ve been removed to improve the pacing of exploration in certain areas.
There is no denying that BOTW is simply gorgeous. The art direction, colour palette and lighting combine perfectly to create some stunning spectacles. The sunrises and sunsets are simply breath-taking, while when necessary the aesthetics can create an eerie vibe as the world is consumed by the blood moon. What's more, the audio design really enhances the tone the visuals set. Additionally, the environmental and character designs are impeccable. The contrast between the futuristic guardians and the wilder enemies and locations is fantastic. The guardians have such a distinct style which feels so fresh while the more traditional elements which have been modernised fit so perfectly. What’s so impressive is that the game looks this good on a console not known for its high performance. Load times are quick and other than some slowdown when lots is on in the screen at once, such as in the Lost Woods, it’s a smooth experience with a solid framerate.
Story is one of this game’s shortcomings. It’s pretty basic and while there are some standout moments and the recoverable memories are a nice touch to fill in the blanks of Link and Zelda’s relationship, I wasn’t really that engaged with what was going. The characters themselves are a bit of a mixed bag, with some being quite charming and interesting, while others are a bit more generic and forgettable. However, the animations and subsequent personality these animations convey is fantastic. All the characters can convey so many emotion and charisma. It really helps with the immersion even if the story falters.
The game has three main gameplay pillars. The first is the previously discussed exploration. Elements such as having fast travel points near all major landmarks, a glider which enables you to quickly get down from high points and horses ensure that traversal is not painfully slow, and that you can quickly get to the desired destination. I just wish my horse had a few more brain cells and wouldn’t constantly run into things and that it’d approach me no matter where I am on the map. Climbing is also a big part of traversal, and the stamina system is a good way to make you consider how to get to the world’s high points with balancing stamina and speed being a constant see-saw. However, I did find not being able to climb effectively in the rain an unnecessary touch, just making it frustrating if you can’t reach the desired destination because of the weather.
The physics which make traversal so good, are also what make the second gameplay pillar of the puzzles in this game so good. The way you can combine abilities with your environment and traversal is so much fun. The abilities you have are each very unique and have been honed to perfection so that you always feel in control and know that you have the tools to solve any puzzle. The puzzles themselves find that great balance between challenge and frustration. And between the shrines, Korok seeds and divine beasts there is great variety to the type of puzzles you face. The only puzzles that sometimes felt unfair were locating some of the hidden shrines with the cryptic clues given to you. A few of these were frustrating to find without looking for help online.
The final gameplay pillar is combat, and god damn the combat is good. There are such a range of weapons to use, each feeling unique and satisfying to wield and the weapon degradation system encourages experimentation with your arsenal. Depending on the situation, you can tailor your weapons and armour to your benefit and take advantage of abilities dependent on your surroundings. What’s more, cooking the resources you find enables you to prepare for fights by rustling up potions and meals that can give you that extra edge. The combat itself is easy to grasp but takes skill to master. Countering enemies feels so rewarding and nailing those critical hit bowshots is similarly satisfying. Enemies have distinct attack patterns and weaknesses to identify, with great AI design meaning you can rarely cheese your way through encounters. What’s more, as you kill more and more enemies, they level up to ensure that encounters, even in previously explored areas, never get easy, and the blood moon respawning all previously defeated enemies ensures there are always combat encounters to be had. The enemies themselves are very well designed, but I just wish there were more types of enemies. After getting only a quarter of the way through my playthrough, I’d seen pretty much every enemy there was in the game, so fighting these enemies over and over again gradually got less interesting.
With that all out of the way, what is there to actually do in the game? Well, the main quests involve taking on the four divine beasts to weaken Ganon’s control and then going to Hyrule Castle to try and rid the world of him. The divine beast quests are excellent. After performing tasks to get to know the characters of the tribe you are working with to go toe to toe with a particular beast, taking on the beast themselves is quite a spectacle. How dungeons are literally incorporated into the design of the beasts is very clever, I just wish there were more of these larger dungeons we’ve become used to in the franchise in the game. Making your way through Hyrule Castle to Ganon is another highlight, but I’ll skim over that to avoid spoilers.
Outside of the main quests there are a tonne of side quests, and these were a bit of a mixed bag for me. There are too many basic fetch quests and simple go here and kill this quests. I wish there were more interesting quest lines, with greater character development and more engaging activities to do. For example, my favourite side quest in the game involved you going to an island, losing everything your character has, and having to survive and complete the quest objectives to regain your belongings and get the reward. Quests this good were too few and far between.
Shrines are another big part of the game. They are essentially mini dungeons with puzzles or enemies to complete to get rewards you can use to upgrade your stamina and health. The puzzle shrines, which make up the majority of shrines, are fantastic, with so much variety between them. However, the combat shrines, though fun the first few times, quickly get repetitive as you are just fighting a slight variant of the same enemy over and over again. I could’ve down with less of these or them being redesigned to be more distinct from one another.
The world is littered with Korok seeds, which are mini puzzles which contribute to being able to increase your inventory size as you complete more and more of them. These are a great idea and it never stopped being rewarding when you spotted something that looked odd in the environment, only to find out it’s a Korok puzzle. However, having 900 Korok seeds is just excessive, and I wish inventory slots opened up quicker as I threw away far too many weapons over the course of my playthrough. Moreover, it can be quite difficult to find what you want in your inventory, with there being no filter or quick search function. However, other than this and the lack of accessibility options, the menu and UI design is superb, giving you all of the information that you need in a clear and concise manor. The Hyrule compendium is also a great touch, where you can take pictures of anything you see and log it, giving you more information about the subject in question and even an ability to track certain items if you want to collect more of them.
Breath of the Wild is simply outstanding. It innovates in so many areas and is incredibly polished. It’s set a new high bar in aspects such as open world design, physics-based systems and non-linear quest design. It has its shortcoming, but these are dwarfed by its triumphs. I had so much fun getting lost in this truly special experience and can’t wait to see what the sequel has in store for us.
2
After 150 hours, 100% achievement/trophy completion and far too much Gwent, I’ve finally rolled credits on this masterpiece. Its by no means perfect, but working my way through this over the course of several months has been a truly special experience as someone who is fully invested in the universe, having played both previous entries and read all the books several times.
The Witcher 3 is beautifully written. There are so many layers to its writing. On the surface it has a whole host of engaging and diverse characters, great comedic moments and some engrossing and truly twisted plotlines. However, intermingled with this there is complex political undertones, frequent reminders of racial oppression present throughout the land and of course the ever-present white frost. On top of this, the game pays an incredible reverence to its source material, with countless links to previous games and book. It does an extremely good job of balancing all of the above without overwhelming the player. Moreover, the extremely detailed character and location breakdowns in the menus as well as the books littered throughout the game allow you to dive deeper into elements that are of particular interest. I really appreciated this attention to detail which helped me feel more informed when making the important dialogue decisions in quests. These choices can have huge consequences which completely change the world and what happens to characters. This is a welcome change from the superficial decision-making present in a lot of games.
The main story itself is well told, with some really strong and memorable arcs. It does have pacing issues, with a bloated middle section and some smaller arcs which feel more like busy work, but the high stakes, intriguing cast and constantly evolving relationships make it very engaging. On top of this, there are some sublime side quests such as one where you decide whether you take part in the assassination plot of a king and another where you work with a mage to uncover the secrets of a haunted island. Each area on the continent feels very distinct with its own culture and political landscape (with Skellige being my personal favourite), and the quests that are done in each of these locations do a great job of capturing this uniqueness. That being said, with a game of this size and scope, inevitably there are some weaker, more generic side quests and some forgettable characters.
The Witcher 3’s gameplay is enjoyable, but with scope for improvement. Its gameplay loop consists of traversal, combat and clue hunting. Unfortunately, this loop can get repetitive due to the lack of depth in some of its systems. For example, clue hunting is just a case of using your Witcher vision to find whatever is highlighted in red on your screen. As this system is used so frequently it would’ve been nice if there was more interaction, taking inspiration from the likes of Uncharted’s temples or Arkham Origin’s crime scene reconstructions.
Combat, the second gameplay pillar, is quite a standard affair with light and heavy attacks mixed in with counters and dodges. Potions, oils and signs do elevate the experience by encouraging strategising and enemy weakness exploitation. Moreover, you can read your bestiary to try and plan ahead when taking on the larger monsters. These monsters are some of the highlights of the game as besting them makes you feel most like a Witcher. Contracts where you trawl through a cave taking out a queen spider’s babies to remove any chance of reinforcements before you tackle the queen and another where you lure a monster into a barn with alcohol so that you can prevent it retreating during combat is this game at its peak. Its just a shame that combat feels a bit stiff sometimes and the camera can sometimes be a pain when trying to reposition yourself as you are swarmed by foes. What’s more, even playing this game on death march, there is no consistent difficulty curve. I struggled to fend off even the easiest of foes in my first dozen hours with the game, but I soon out-levelled my foes, making it incredibly easy to brute force my way through encounters rather than these being tense, methodical affairs requiring the use of everything at your disposal. Regardless, I would like to give a special shoutout to the gory combat finishers, which left me completely awestruck on several occasions as limbs were severed and body parts flew across the screen.
The final gameplay pillar, traversal, is really enjoyable primarily because of the world you are traversing through. Visually, it is gorgeous thanks to some exceptional lighting (I could soak in those sunrises and sunsets all day), the environmental variety between locations and the game’s art direction. The sublime soundtrack and sound design only add to this immersion. Though, Ido have some minor gripes with Geralt feeling a bit clunky at times, roach’s uncooperativeness and cliffs that cannot be traversed making for tedious diversions. Regardless, the sheer quantity of random encounter, side quests, loot and monsters lurking about make the continent feel lived in whilst also capturing how bleak times are with the war that ravages through the land.
When I said the Witcher has three gameplay pillars…I lied. Gwent, while not integral to the experience, is one of the best things to come out of this game. It is simple to learn, but true mastery takes lots of practice and card collecting. Gwent is a game within a game as there are so many quests and challenges you can take on to proceed in your quest to complete you deck. What’s more it spawned its own spinoff game Thronebreaker, which I highly recommend, and a standalone competitive multiplayer game. Long story short, Gwent rules.
If you hadn’t gathered by now, I adore this game. It does so much right and truly warrants the many hours required to see this experience through to its end. Yes it has some flaws in its gameplay, but the endless list of things it does right dwarfs its handful of flaws. If you are one of the few people who haven’t dipped your feet into this world yet, I could not recommend it enough. Just be prepared to lose many hours of your life…
The Witcher 3 is beautifully written. There are so many layers to its writing. On the surface it has a whole host of engaging and diverse characters, great comedic moments and some engrossing and truly twisted plotlines. However, intermingled with this there is complex political undertones, frequent reminders of racial oppression present throughout the land and of course the ever-present white frost. On top of this, the game pays an incredible reverence to its source material, with countless links to previous games and book. It does an extremely good job of balancing all of the above without overwhelming the player. Moreover, the extremely detailed character and location breakdowns in the menus as well as the books littered throughout the game allow you to dive deeper into elements that are of particular interest. I really appreciated this attention to detail which helped me feel more informed when making the important dialogue decisions in quests. These choices can have huge consequences which completely change the world and what happens to characters. This is a welcome change from the superficial decision-making present in a lot of games.
The main story itself is well told, with some really strong and memorable arcs. It does have pacing issues, with a bloated middle section and some smaller arcs which feel more like busy work, but the high stakes, intriguing cast and constantly evolving relationships make it very engaging. On top of this, there are some sublime side quests such as one where you decide whether you take part in the assassination plot of a king and another where you work with a mage to uncover the secrets of a haunted island. Each area on the continent feels very distinct with its own culture and political landscape (with Skellige being my personal favourite), and the quests that are done in each of these locations do a great job of capturing this uniqueness. That being said, with a game of this size and scope, inevitably there are some weaker, more generic side quests and some forgettable characters.
The Witcher 3’s gameplay is enjoyable, but with scope for improvement. Its gameplay loop consists of traversal, combat and clue hunting. Unfortunately, this loop can get repetitive due to the lack of depth in some of its systems. For example, clue hunting is just a case of using your Witcher vision to find whatever is highlighted in red on your screen. As this system is used so frequently it would’ve been nice if there was more interaction, taking inspiration from the likes of Uncharted’s temples or Arkham Origin’s crime scene reconstructions.
Combat, the second gameplay pillar, is quite a standard affair with light and heavy attacks mixed in with counters and dodges. Potions, oils and signs do elevate the experience by encouraging strategising and enemy weakness exploitation. Moreover, you can read your bestiary to try and plan ahead when taking on the larger monsters. These monsters are some of the highlights of the game as besting them makes you feel most like a Witcher. Contracts where you trawl through a cave taking out a queen spider’s babies to remove any chance of reinforcements before you tackle the queen and another where you lure a monster into a barn with alcohol so that you can prevent it retreating during combat is this game at its peak. Its just a shame that combat feels a bit stiff sometimes and the camera can sometimes be a pain when trying to reposition yourself as you are swarmed by foes. What’s more, even playing this game on death march, there is no consistent difficulty curve. I struggled to fend off even the easiest of foes in my first dozen hours with the game, but I soon out-levelled my foes, making it incredibly easy to brute force my way through encounters rather than these being tense, methodical affairs requiring the use of everything at your disposal. Regardless, I would like to give a special shoutout to the gory combat finishers, which left me completely awestruck on several occasions as limbs were severed and body parts flew across the screen.
The final gameplay pillar, traversal, is really enjoyable primarily because of the world you are traversing through. Visually, it is gorgeous thanks to some exceptional lighting (I could soak in those sunrises and sunsets all day), the environmental variety between locations and the game’s art direction. The sublime soundtrack and sound design only add to this immersion. Though, Ido have some minor gripes with Geralt feeling a bit clunky at times, roach’s uncooperativeness and cliffs that cannot be traversed making for tedious diversions. Regardless, the sheer quantity of random encounter, side quests, loot and monsters lurking about make the continent feel lived in whilst also capturing how bleak times are with the war that ravages through the land.
When I said the Witcher has three gameplay pillars…I lied. Gwent, while not integral to the experience, is one of the best things to come out of this game. It is simple to learn, but true mastery takes lots of practice and card collecting. Gwent is a game within a game as there are so many quests and challenges you can take on to proceed in your quest to complete you deck. What’s more it spawned its own spinoff game Thronebreaker, which I highly recommend, and a standalone competitive multiplayer game. Long story short, Gwent rules.
If you hadn’t gathered by now, I adore this game. It does so much right and truly warrants the many hours required to see this experience through to its end. Yes it has some flaws in its gameplay, but the endless list of things it does right dwarfs its handful of flaws. If you are one of the few people who haven’t dipped your feet into this world yet, I could not recommend it enough. Just be prepared to lose many hours of your life…
3
I adore this games art style. Hopefully it gets ported to the switch because I would love to relive the wonderful dungeons, the sheer bliss of sailing the high seas and surprisingly good narrative.
4
Has a fantastic story, characters and pacing. There is so much to do in the world and environmental design is stunning. I just wish John was a bit less 1 dimensional and the game was less buggy.
5
Who thought combining Borderlands with Dungeon and Dragons would work so well? Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep is set in a fantasy world from the board game that the characters are playing, with Tiny Tina acting as the board master. The storytelling has no right to be this good, with fantastic, witty writing as the characters playing the board game narrate your adventure, with the hilarious Tiny Tina being at the centre of it all. How the narrative breaks the 4th wall is incredibly clever, as Tina dynamically changes the world and questline itself as she makes up the rules of the game on the go. However, there is a more serious undertone as the campaign shows how Tina is in grieving over the loss of one of her friends in Borderlands 2, and 2K does a surprisingly competent job of portraying Tina’s stages of grief without compromising the light-hearted tone of the campaign.
The campaign itself is really well paced, with a whole host of varied fantasy locations that take inspiration from some of the best media in the genre. This leads to some great environmental design and visual variety, with an impressive attention to detail as almost all assets in the game have been overhauled to fit in with the fantasy theme. Moreover, the soundtrack and audio design are fantastic. The campaign itself does a good job of mixing up the endless shooting galleries we’ve come to expect with Borderlands, with puzzles and traversal, but there are still a few areas where it just felt like the game was throwing wave after wave of enemies at you for the sake of padding out the length rather than to provide a challenge. The enemy variety does somewhat make up for this, but I still wish that these encounters were more engaging, with less bullet spongey enemies. Even though there are lots of enemy types, the majority of these are quite basic with simple attack patterns. I wish that 2k took more advantage of the fantasy theme by creating more wacky enemies like the necromancers and mimic monsters. Outside of the main quest there is a tonne of side quests to complete, these vary in quality but do at least provide the player with a reason to return to the world after the main questline is over.
I had a tonne of fun with Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, enjoying it even more than Borderlands 2 itself. Its by no means perfect, but the excellent storytelling, world building and main questline make it well worth your time.
The campaign itself is really well paced, with a whole host of varied fantasy locations that take inspiration from some of the best media in the genre. This leads to some great environmental design and visual variety, with an impressive attention to detail as almost all assets in the game have been overhauled to fit in with the fantasy theme. Moreover, the soundtrack and audio design are fantastic. The campaign itself does a good job of mixing up the endless shooting galleries we’ve come to expect with Borderlands, with puzzles and traversal, but there are still a few areas where it just felt like the game was throwing wave after wave of enemies at you for the sake of padding out the length rather than to provide a challenge. The enemy variety does somewhat make up for this, but I still wish that these encounters were more engaging, with less bullet spongey enemies. Even though there are lots of enemy types, the majority of these are quite basic with simple attack patterns. I wish that 2k took more advantage of the fantasy theme by creating more wacky enemies like the necromancers and mimic monsters. Outside of the main quest there is a tonne of side quests to complete, these vary in quality but do at least provide the player with a reason to return to the world after the main questline is over.
I had a tonne of fun with Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, enjoying it even more than Borderlands 2 itself. Its by no means perfect, but the excellent storytelling, world building and main questline make it well worth your time.
6
If Asylum made you feel like Batman, Knight makes you FEEL like Batman (sorry not sorry), whether it be with the new bone crunching fear takedowns or standing side by side with your allies to incapacitate foes. This emphasis on Batman’s allies throughout the story really raises the stakes as Gotham’s deadliest come after those closest to him. The Arkham Knights himself is a bit of a lacklustre main antagonist, with Mark Hamill’s performance as the Joker once again taking the centre stage, and his identity is far too telegraphed. Gotham City is a wonderful playground to traverse through, but the focus on quantity over quality with much of the side content made getting the 100% completion required for the ‘true’ ending a chore. Driving round Gotham is a blast, but the Batmobile overstays its welcome, being shoehorned into far too much of the game. Overall, Arkham Knight is a fun, but flawed package with the many things it gets right outweighing the few things it gets wrong.
7
A fantastic story and three detailed locations are the highlights of this exceptional experience.
8
Forza Horizon 3 continues to raise the bar for this fantastic franchise. It maintains the excellent driving physics, car roster, attention to detail and sound design that made the previous iteration so much fun. However, the gorgeous, diverse Aussie location and the addictive bucket list challenges help elevate this experience above its predecessors. Yes it still has the issues of repetitive copy and pasted races, microtransactions and it not being clear what objects you can and can’t break through, but this is still a superb open world racer. There’s nothing quite like bombing across the Australian outback with the roar of V12s all around you as you bound over the crest of sandy dunes illuminated by the gorgeous orange glow of a sunset…
9
In Spider-Man, Insomniac have done a fantastic job of taking the formula popularised in Rocksteady’s beloved Arkham games and adding their own fresh take to make this game so much fun to play. First and foremost, web swinging through New York is pure bliss. Movement is so fluid and manages to stay engaging through the depth in this system. The fact that New York is an amazing playground, full of life, memorable landmarks and gorgeous vistas makes the world even more of a joy to traverse. The city is truly breath-taking, and the wonderful audio design only adds to this. It’s just a shame that the side missions and activities that fill this environment are very repetitive (though, you do get fantastic cosmetics for completing these), especially as they are copied and pasted countless times throughout the city. Less of these side missions which had more care paid to making them unique would’ve made for more memorable diversions from the main story.
The main story itself engaged me for the most part. There are genuinely some really emotional moments in the story and the dialogue and radio calls you get throughout really help with the world building. The story does have its flaws and there are some pacing issues but overall I enjoyed it. In terms of what you’ll be doing during the story, it boils down to traversal, stealth and combat encounters, with the occasional puzzle thrown into the mix. The stealth in this game, even on the highest difficulty setting felt a bit too easy to me, lowering the stakes, as you have so many powerful tools to take out enemies and there is no real risk of you dying like in the Arkham games if alerted armed guards engage you in combat. Combat itself is sublime, with the gadgets, verticality and movement all gelling together for visceral and immersive gameplay. There is a lot of variety to the enemy designs too, somewhat helping prevent these encounters get too repetitive.
Insomniac’s Spider-Man often had me grinning from ear to ear thanks to its gameplay systems being so much fun. It’s by no means perfect and struggles with quantity over quality syndrome and some pacing issues, but its still an incredibly well polished package that fully deserves the commercial success it has had.
The main story itself engaged me for the most part. There are genuinely some really emotional moments in the story and the dialogue and radio calls you get throughout really help with the world building. The story does have its flaws and there are some pacing issues but overall I enjoyed it. In terms of what you’ll be doing during the story, it boils down to traversal, stealth and combat encounters, with the occasional puzzle thrown into the mix. The stealth in this game, even on the highest difficulty setting felt a bit too easy to me, lowering the stakes, as you have so many powerful tools to take out enemies and there is no real risk of you dying like in the Arkham games if alerted armed guards engage you in combat. Combat itself is sublime, with the gadgets, verticality and movement all gelling together for visceral and immersive gameplay. There is a lot of variety to the enemy designs too, somewhat helping prevent these encounters get too repetitive.
Insomniac’s Spider-Man often had me grinning from ear to ear thanks to its gameplay systems being so much fun. It’s by no means perfect and struggles with quantity over quality syndrome and some pacing issues, but its still an incredibly well polished package that fully deserves the commercial success it has had.
10
One of the best open world playgrounds in gaming, with so much to do and see. However, in the story there is far too much time spent driving and in shooting galleries. Greater variety could've made this a classic for me.
11
Who knew pirates would make such a good choice for an AC game? The story is fantastic and full of charming characters, the Caribbean setting is breathtaking and naval combat is a tonne of fun. The game takes a much needed return to more open ended assassination missions and although there are some boring tailing and modern day sections, overall the main story is a blast. There are so many activities to do that take advantage of the setting with some of the standouts being deep sea diving and taking out forts. However, there are an unnecessary amount of side missions and collectibles and the hand to hand combat is far too easy. Though what I’ll remember from this game are not its few shortcomings, but that feeling of sailing on the high seas, crew bellowing out shanties, as I prepare for my next adventure.
12
The contrast between this and AC1 is staggering. Ezio is a fantastic antagonist in this compelling story where you truly feel like an assassin by the end of it all. There is far more freedom in stealth section and parkour is seamless in the stunning playgrounds of Florence and Venice. There are far too many copy and paste side missions, but amongst them there are some real standouts with the tombs and Subject 16. It isn’t perfect, but I can see why this game is beloved by so many people.
13
Forza 4 is an iteration rather than an innovation for the franchise. There are lots of quality of life improvements which gives its gameplay the edge over previous entries, but some unnecessary additions and the lack of variety on the map prevent this from being my favourite in the franchise so far. Its still got an incredible car roster, gameplay mechanics and a tonne of content, even if there is a lot of repetitiveness in this content. Moreover, showcases are better than ever, the seasons are a fantastic concept and the seamless online integration with its fantastic events really add to the experience. Its just a shame that there are few memorable map locations (even if, as a Brit, I can see how much attention to detail they’ve put into elements such as the street signs and architecture), player customisation and houses feel pointless and lacklustre mid to late game progression hold back the experience. Its still among the best open world racers out there, but if development focussed more on elevating the open world experience rather than all the cosmetic fluff that comes with it, this could’ve continued the upwards trajectory of this franchise.
14
Miles Morales is an iteration rather than an innovation on Marvel’s Spiderman. It adds slight refinements and upgrades to gameplay elements which made the original such a blast in 2018, with the venom abilities being the real standout addition. The venom abilities look and feel fantastic, not to mention being incredibly useful to turn the tide in combat and stealth encounters. I also love the personality which oozes in the animation design, making Miles feel distinct and full of flair. There are quality of life improvements elsewhere with improved side quests, though some quests types can get repetitious, and the game prioritising quality over quantity more with its collectibles. However, all these minor additions do not stop Miles Morales feeling a bit too familiar. Moreover, the story did not grip me like I was hoping it would because of the weak antagonists and largely unengaging narrative. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed my time with Miles Morales; it just feels like Insomniac has all the pieces there to make a truly special experience but are held back my some poor design decisions which plague many open world games and various narrative shortcomings.
15
Visually this hasn't aged well, but it is still a really enjoyable open world playground with a unique, engaging narrative.
16
Forza Horizon 2 is a huge improvement on the original Horizon. This is most evident in the fantastic open world which enables much more exploration than its predecessor, with there being far fewer walled off areas. Not only is the setting gorgeous, but it caters for a wide range of driving experience, whether it be on cobbled city streets, winding coastal roads or crop filled fields. This is heightened by the dynamic weather cycles, with wet weather really shaking up the gameplay. There are some areas for improvement, with there not being enough visual variety over the map and objects that look like they should be destructible completely stopping you in your tracks and ruining your drive. Regardless, the open world experience is a joy with plenty of activities to do and plenty of cars around you making it feel very much lived in.
The Horizon festival itself narrative wise is pretty cringey with a lot of eye roll worthy dialogue, but the festival championships are a great concept. Essentially, the map is split into six sections, and you go to each of these sections to complete a mini championship dictated by the type of car you are in. It is up to the player what car they are in, with the races being completely different for a sports car compared to a rally car for example. This keeps the races feeling fresh, enabling the player to experiment with different cars. There are a tonne of cars to choose from and these have all been implemented well, feeling pretty authentic to drive and having exceptional audio design.
Overall, Horizon 2 is a fantastic package. There are a few issues I have with it, but the vast majority of the experience is a tonne of fun, matching the quantity of its offerings with high quality gameplay.
The Horizon festival itself narrative wise is pretty cringey with a lot of eye roll worthy dialogue, but the festival championships are a great concept. Essentially, the map is split into six sections, and you go to each of these sections to complete a mini championship dictated by the type of car you are in. It is up to the player what car they are in, with the races being completely different for a sports car compared to a rally car for example. This keeps the races feeling fresh, enabling the player to experiment with different cars. There are a tonne of cars to choose from and these have all been implemented well, feeling pretty authentic to drive and having exceptional audio design.
Overall, Horizon 2 is a fantastic package. There are a few issues I have with it, but the vast majority of the experience is a tonne of fun, matching the quantity of its offerings with high quality gameplay.
17
Halo Infinite is a welcome shake up of the Halo formula, which has become stale in the past couple entries, feeling both fresh and familiar. The open world of Zeta Halo is the game’s biggest innovation. There are still some linear missions, but a good chunk of the campaign consists of open world sections which provide a lot of flexibility with how objectives can be approached. Not to mention Zeta Halo is full of side missions and collectibles. Unfortunately, ‘quality over quantity’ seems to have been the approach taken with these side missions. There are a few standouts with the high value targets which have detailed back stories on their ascents to becoming feared killers and audio logs which provide intriguing lore. However, there is little to no context with most side missions other than kill everything in sight and it can often feel like you’re doing a check box ticking exercise.
Zeta Halo itself is visually impressive, and the game’s fantastic audio design and soundtrack really help immerse the player in the world. A more varied colour pallet and more biomes wouldn’t have gone amiss, but there is enough differentiation to make areas feel distinct from one another. Traversing this open world with the new grapple hook is a joy. Grappling up mountains and across ravines successfully is incredibly satisfying. Moreover, the grapple hook adds a completely new dynamic to combat, creating a more frenetic experience if you choose to grapple onto enemies and get in their faces at the risk of being overwhelmed by his comrades. Other abilities like the boost thrusters and shield barrier are a tonne of fun to use, and I often found myself switching between these to play off their strengths in encounters. What’s more, unlike a lot of games, the upgrades you can unlock for them are meaningful and can add further dimensions to their use.
To match your expanded arsenal, there are a host of new enemies as well as familiar faces which provide plenty of variety and, combined with how the game mixes linear and open world sequences in the main campaign, create a well-paced experience. Not to mention, this is the first Halo game which nails bosses. Most missions have bosses, and these bosses have diverse and engaging designs. They’re nothing groundbreaking, but it feels like Halo has finally caught up with its competition in this regard. It’s just a shame that this game’s story is forgettable, as I didn’t really have any emotional reaction to defeating bosses pivotal to the game’s narrative. What’s more the game relies too heavily on its gunplay. And while this gunplay is sublime, it can grow repetitive. More vehicle focussed missions and environmental puzzle solving would’ve really help mixed things up.
On a more positive note, Infinite’s multiplayer, in its current state, is a treat. There are plenty of game modes on offer, a good balance of community and developer created content and even a wave based objective based mode. There truly is a bit of something for everyone, whether you’re looking for a fast-paced 4v4 experience, a more strategic affair with 12v12 big team battle or wave-based combat against the banished AI.
Halo Infinite is a huge stride in the right direction for the franchise. While there is still plenty of room for improvement, it has a strong single player offering and a top notch multiplayer experience. Here’s hoping 343 can capitalise on the momentum they have created with Infinite in the future with the inevitable sequel(s) fighting the banished and the titular Atriox.
Zeta Halo itself is visually impressive, and the game’s fantastic audio design and soundtrack really help immerse the player in the world. A more varied colour pallet and more biomes wouldn’t have gone amiss, but there is enough differentiation to make areas feel distinct from one another. Traversing this open world with the new grapple hook is a joy. Grappling up mountains and across ravines successfully is incredibly satisfying. Moreover, the grapple hook adds a completely new dynamic to combat, creating a more frenetic experience if you choose to grapple onto enemies and get in their faces at the risk of being overwhelmed by his comrades. Other abilities like the boost thrusters and shield barrier are a tonne of fun to use, and I often found myself switching between these to play off their strengths in encounters. What’s more, unlike a lot of games, the upgrades you can unlock for them are meaningful and can add further dimensions to their use.
To match your expanded arsenal, there are a host of new enemies as well as familiar faces which provide plenty of variety and, combined with how the game mixes linear and open world sequences in the main campaign, create a well-paced experience. Not to mention, this is the first Halo game which nails bosses. Most missions have bosses, and these bosses have diverse and engaging designs. They’re nothing groundbreaking, but it feels like Halo has finally caught up with its competition in this regard. It’s just a shame that this game’s story is forgettable, as I didn’t really have any emotional reaction to defeating bosses pivotal to the game’s narrative. What’s more the game relies too heavily on its gunplay. And while this gunplay is sublime, it can grow repetitive. More vehicle focussed missions and environmental puzzle solving would’ve really help mixed things up.
On a more positive note, Infinite’s multiplayer, in its current state, is a treat. There are plenty of game modes on offer, a good balance of community and developer created content and even a wave based objective based mode. There truly is a bit of something for everyone, whether you’re looking for a fast-paced 4v4 experience, a more strategic affair with 12v12 big team battle or wave-based combat against the banished AI.
Halo Infinite is a huge stride in the right direction for the franchise. While there is still plenty of room for improvement, it has a strong single player offering and a top notch multiplayer experience. Here’s hoping 343 can capitalise on the momentum they have created with Infinite in the future with the inevitable sequel(s) fighting the banished and the titular Atriox.
18
The aesthetic and presentation of this game is sooo good.
19
Borderlands 2 is packed full of personality and charm. There are many memorable characters dotted around this wasteland and I’m a big fan of the cartoony art style. However, missions end up being quite repetitive and the post-campaign can be a bit of a grind. Regardless, I had a lot of fun with the story even if the game didn’t quite hit the high notes I’d hoped it would.
20
A charming personality, fantastically designed open world and great mission design combine to make this one of my favourite Lego games. The Lego formula can get a bit stale in places, but there was enough variety to keep me engaged throughout.
21
Hardcore parkour! Dashing across rooftops in Dying Light is an absolute blast. Animations and transitions feel fluid and makes exploring the zombie infested Harran a joy. Though it still does have some of the hiccups plaguing other parkour games such as sometimes not going where you intend, The system where you look at where you want to climb not only provides a sense of realism but helps prevent, for the most part, those accidental deaths where your character doesn’t go where you intend. Similarly, combat is incredibly satisfying, with dismembered body parts and exposed internal organs providing tangible feedback as you swing your weapon at the hordes of the undead. Customisable weapon types, and weapon effects let you tailor how you want to induce destruction and throwable items help prevent hordes from overwhelming you. Frequent upgrades help keep this and parkour fresh with game changing unlocks like the drop quick and grappling hook. Though both could do with a bit more polish, they are still exceptional.
Sadly, the story does not reach the highs of the gameplay. Characters are bland and the storytelling is pretty poor with phone calls often revealing story beats. I felt no emotion to characters that were killed off and the driving force that kept me going was the gameplay rather than the context. On the one hand, there are some great chase sequences, boss battles and horde encounters, but on the other gunplay against human AI is pretty poor and indoor sections take away the parkour freedom that defines the game. The side content does a better job with some real funny, standout characters that you meet doing all manor of tasks, whether it be answering a distress plea only to get locked in a film studio with a psychopath or scavenging a meteor sight to help find out whether the illuminati were the source of the outbreak. There are some dud fetch quests, but these quests were a blast.
Where at daytime Harran is your playground, at night the undead threat feels far more real. More powerful zombies can kill you in a matter of seconds meaning you have to be far careful about the moves and noise you make. It leads to some fantastic cat and mouse gameplay as you have to weigh up the risk of getting finished off with the potential to level up quicker and loot greater rewards that are only available at night.
Dying Light is a dream to play but is held back by a lacklustre main story and some filler content. Hopefully the sequel lives up to its promise and layers a more engaging story and improved quest design over the fantastic combat and parkour systems.
Sadly, the story does not reach the highs of the gameplay. Characters are bland and the storytelling is pretty poor with phone calls often revealing story beats. I felt no emotion to characters that were killed off and the driving force that kept me going was the gameplay rather than the context. On the one hand, there are some great chase sequences, boss battles and horde encounters, but on the other gunplay against human AI is pretty poor and indoor sections take away the parkour freedom that defines the game. The side content does a better job with some real funny, standout characters that you meet doing all manor of tasks, whether it be answering a distress plea only to get locked in a film studio with a psychopath or scavenging a meteor sight to help find out whether the illuminati were the source of the outbreak. There are some dud fetch quests, but these quests were a blast.
Where at daytime Harran is your playground, at night the undead threat feels far more real. More powerful zombies can kill you in a matter of seconds meaning you have to be far careful about the moves and noise you make. It leads to some fantastic cat and mouse gameplay as you have to weigh up the risk of getting finished off with the potential to level up quicker and loot greater rewards that are only available at night.
Dying Light is a dream to play but is held back by a lacklustre main story and some filler content. Hopefully the sequel lives up to its promise and layers a more engaging story and improved quest design over the fantastic combat and parkour systems.
22
2 Comments
Aha more like a BOTW essay XD
Clearin
2 years ago