Open World Discussion: MEA vs the Rest

Mass effect isn't a true open world game, it uses elements of it, but it's not full on open world.

I'd prefer they keep to it myself. I dislike corridor style play, and mass effect, Andromeda especially is about exploration and letting the player go where ever they want at their own pace. You can skip the tedious work if you want, or you can do them all. I haven't enjoyed one game that mixes exploration in a linear setting, and I've criticized ME2+3 for completely changing directions, I do enjoy it more on the bigger maps like ME1 and Andromeda.

Since people keep referencing TW3, why not post a map from that game and Andromeda, compare the zones and see which tends to have more things to do in between points. I myself already have, and I'll say I see them just the same in terms of variety but I do think TW3 has more "quality" to them, especially in the hubs aka the cities. It's still not my kind of game as I don't enjoy that franchise enough to even go back to play the DLC, completely different styles on various things.

This comes down to preference and what bioware wants to do with this new series. There's nothing that can objectively say the next game would be better with or without large maps and being open world esq. I do think they need to expand on it though if they really want to keep to the open world esq style. Add more to the hubs, expand the hubs, put more points of interest in between points of interest in the open world environments. Ultimately though if people dislike having to use the nomad I feel that's just tough, there's no point in it if you're having to get out every five seconds and get right back in to rinse and repeat.

I really do love the open world and the Nomad. I'm playing ME1 and that open word (which is really not) is so inferior, but that was a decade ago.

What they need to do with this open world though is make each world better than Jungle World, Ice World, Desert World etc. They did the same kind of crap in DAI, but here the crazy of it is that supposedly a WHOLE world is like that. But that is just not possible I think. I mean if it were a planet that were entirely uninhabitable it might be very similar across all of it, but even then would there not be some differences? Like a whole world that is a desert? Or a Jungle? Voeld makes sense. Temperatures of the planet would make it like that. But I think some variations of that word would make more sense at least in future games I hope. But that's just one part of it. Hopefully we will be able to travel not just to a world but to different parts of a world and see how it has different kinds of environments much like good old earth.

Also, I think what they really need to do is vary the maps more. I know they are not as huge as skyrim (maybe elaaden might come close?) but for each map, they are barren. I said the same of DAI and it holds true here. There is nothing on these open empty boring maps except pockets of mobs. And some of them are outright absurd (Kadara) with being almost entirely of mountains with some convenient areas that are flat and convenient paths to travel through them. More diversity would have benefited these maps more. Elaaden is one big desert. Ok, fine, I get it, but was there no way they could have made it vary a bit? Some caves and caverns (more than the few we had) as part of the landscape of those mountains? Maybe some kind of oasis somewhere that may not really be an oasis but show signs it could really become a thriving one over time after the vault corrects things and that it might have once been a thriving one when the vaults were on and working? Squandered potential yet again. And I don't think any of these things would be huge amounts of work. Just vary it up and create some new elements so you feel like you have some kind of discovery rather than one big desert with rocks and a few mountains. The point of an open world map is discovery. It is not travel.

If you have an open world map, you are obligated to create some elements of discovery, far more than they gave us on any of the maps. Especially when it is likely that there was some level of civilization there in the hundreds of years prior when the vaults were working properly. Even if not, there still should be things to discover where you can of your own choice go in and learn about them. Put some quests in if you want to make it really rich. Or things to scan to help you learn more about the world and part of its history. Create a story about the world or the place on that world. They did create stories connected to things you did on the planets and to some degree they were pretty good. But when the biggest thing you do is turn on vaults and solve soduku puzzles as part of that, it's a bit sad. That was a huge chunk of the game, and while fun, at one point I just decided to charge around doing that on the planet to get it out of the way and hoping to see the world be different or at least shut down some of the same warnings.

It actually is. It has great presentation, reflects the setting in even the simplest dialogue, displays impact of on going struggle in lives of "simple/insignificant" people and if you paid attention it actually hints of involvement of a certain character you will meet later on, who's a well known figure in the franchise.

You tried to make yourself seem clever with "This is so dumb and so simple, for me!" but these "trivial", "non-epic" details are what makes for great worldbuilding and it's setting come to life.

Andromeda has a ton of unrealized potential when it comes to displaying cultural clashes, colonization struggles, etc... and instead
wastes too much time on EPIC! "stuff" like the Kett.

I think the prefab start for now is fine and makes sense but for MEA2, or maybe a DLC that is set further into the future but before the next game, we need to see more development. Not just those same prefab buildings but how things have evolved over time. Maybe take those prefab buildings and elaborate on them, making them seem less prefab and more like the foundation to grow a community so that you could see they had that aspect, but they evolved into more. Kadara was a bit like this actually, but less city like than kadara I thing. Something to vary it up and to show it has evolved. 

I don't mind an open world where there isn't a lot of content, packed into every square inch. I remember walking or horseback riding in Red Dead and you could go a good ways without running into people. Of curse there was always things to look at and do. Shooting birds, random animal contact, checking out old campfire and abandon buildings etc. If anything I thought MET felt a little too crowded.

The thing that bothered me the most about MEA was the respawning. Go down the road and find a hostile camp. You clear it out and continue down the road for what feels like a crappy 100 yards only to run into another camp. You clear that one and decide ok I am going to go back the way I came and bammmm the first camp you cleared has already respawned. Put them on a damn timer or a 'general area' tag, that was real annoying.

Instead of 4 really big maps I thought MEA should have had multiple smaller maps on multiple worlds with many of them being optional. In the past I criticized ME1's unc planets for being repetitive copy and paste environments but one thing I liked was even if you went to every anamoly you found on those planets you never spent too much time on any particular planet. Now MEA does a good job of making it's worlds less generic but we spent a ton of time on each planet and that ended up limiting how many planets we could visit. ME2 on the other hand generally had short missions but the good thing about that was ME2 had the most variety when it came to environments and that was one thing that kept ME2 consistently entertaining.

Also really glad to see some very polarizing and passionate responses. I think this is a discussion many people take for granted until a game is out. Discussions like this helps paint a better picture on there needs to be a balance between freedom and quality

That's an exaggeration and what does the Thunder losing have to do with anything?

It doesn't even stack up to Inquisition. Bigger doesn't always mean better. Mass Effect Andromeda's worlds are more empty than Inquisitions were. Despite being larger Inquisition still had better worlds and more variety in terrain which is pretty sad. There were more unique locations as well rather than just vaults and a random cave here and there. After I had 100% the last world I was like is that really it? 2 desert lands, a rocky (mostly empty) area, a snow area and tiny Havari?

My biggest complaint with BWs latest games is that they are just to static, like time has completely stopped. Skyrim, Fallout games, TW series, and Horizon ZD just to name a few all have one thing in common that means a lot to me in an open world environment and that is the passing of time. In MEA there is only one planet that actually has a reason for always being day time. Honestly I really don't care for BWs version of an open world and would welcome a return to a ME2 style of game with a few static areas like the Citadel and the rest be specific mission maps of various size.

How much of the game was designed around the Nomad/Mako? It seems that they made just huge empty areas so you can drive at 100mph and not destroy your video card, but a mix of other worlds would have helped. Havarl was on the right track, but the only one that's like that.

To be honest, less Mako driving and more fun areas, even if smaller would be just fine, really.

You can revisit all of the open maps at a certain point of the game. You couldn't go anywhere and have access to the entire map/s for Witcher 3, Grand Theft auto 4, Red Dead Redemption, Horizon Zero Dawn until a certain point in the game. There are also linear sections in those games that you couldn't access again. Would you not consider those open world even when Witcher 3 have separated 5 maps?

Zelda BOTW is only a certain type of open world