Once referred to simply as "GTA Clones", Open world games have become a staple of the AAA gaming industry. According to Comic Book Resources, some of the biggest money making franchises are open world sandbox titles such as "Assassin's Creed," "Elder Scrolls," and even the aforementioned "Grand Theft Auto." The increase in technology has overcome previous hitches such as limited polygon counts, low draw distances, and glacial framerates.
However, some critics such as PCGamesN, claim that open worlds are ruining the industry. While there are games such as "Spider-Man" and "Breath of the Wild" that show that this genre has some life in it, it's still in risk of stagnation. Here's why.
There's a dissonance between narrative and gameplay
There's a term for a disconnect between what's conveyed through gameplay vs the narrative- ludonarrative dissonance. John Marsdon as depicted in the cutscenes of Red Dread Redemption is a former outlaw who wants to atone for his past sins and save his family. However, John Marson as controlled by the player can be a sicko who ties women up and leaves them on train tracks.
Commutes can get boring
There's a very funny bit by comedian Dara O'briain about how, on his day off from work, he decided to try out the then new "Grand Theft Auto IV" and found himself getting stuck in a commute in a video game. Too many open-world games try to make their sandboxes big while forgetting to put things to do in them.
Players always do the same mission types
There are way too many open-world games that task players with catching pigeons, repairing radio towers, collecting trophies, and other tedious filler. Some games can get away with these tropes if the ways to get around are fun. Web swinging in Spider-Man is such a cathartic gameplay mechanic that players are willing to put up with chasing pigeons. Hyrule in Breath of the Wild is such a rich world that players are willing to climb towers.
Many of them are still buggy messes
With a world as big as Tamriel, Los Santos, or any other sandbox, there's going to be some oddities and glitches that go unnoticed in testing. It's almost become a game in itself to spot all the bugs and glitches that plague Bethesda games such as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Some of them can be amusing, but others can undo hours of progress. Despite having been years since the second installment, Shenmue III is still full of immersion breaking bugs and design quirks.
Fun is often sacrificed for the sake of realism
Not every game has to provide an escape from the mundanities of real life. Papers Please is an excellent game whose entire mechanic is based around bureaucracy and red tape. However, when taken to extremes, it becomes the antithesis of the ultimate goal of sandbox games: to provide players the freedom of exploring a large world. Read Dead Redemption's wild west landscape is nothing short of breathtaking, but the chores that Arthur must complete are as dull as dishwater.
