Some more notable games. (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Sunday, January 02, 2022, 16:24 (1059 days ago) @ EffortlessFury

I do genuinely believe an open world is not only well suited to Halo but absolutely has a place in the series when done well. I get that some folks don't really care about being able to explore the world as if it is an actual place, but I know myself and plenty of folk have always wanted that, explicitly or implicitly.

I think an open world Halo could absolutely be good, great even. I just don't think Infinite's take on that was particularly well executed. Some of the activities are fine, but they're largely very samey. And the environment itself, the Halo, just wasn't interesting to traverse or explore. With very few rare exceptions, it's just not worth exploring. There's nothing to find, both in terms of tangible rewards (I don't really count the power weapons strewn about) or in the Breath of the Wild sense of just encountering a breathtaking view. It all looks and feels exactly the same from start to finish. The saving grace is that the gameplay, the gunplay, feels amazing, the best any Halo has ever felt, so even the mundane FOBs are fun to do just because it's more Halo shooty.

Warframe
It's just fun, y'all. You think your Guardian feels powerful? Your Guardian is a fucking chump. Warframe is Powercreep: The Game, and it's an absolute blast. Building out guns and frames with stupidly powerful mods and laying waste to everything the game throws at you is just joyful.

I played this for a while. It's fun, but perhaps a little too grindy, and I'm always overwhelmed with figuring out what I should be doing next.

That's what I had a lot of trouble with, too. Unfortunately, Warframe is a game you need to play with a friend who knows it already (Thanks, Korny!) or a wiki open next to you. The game doesn't even attempt to explain that you don't know what you don't know. It's a mishmash of disparate systems and activities loosely tied into a game. I kindof appreciate it for that. Almost everything you can do is worthwhile is some regard, and it's easy to jump back and forth between things without getting burned out.

I've cited Genshin when giving feedback to Bungie (in a context where it was appropriate to do so). I'm sure they're well aware, at the very least.

For me, it really is the open world. I really wish Patrols in Destiny were as fun as just wandering around Teyvat. Just encountering a tiny combat challenge or puzzle or something every 30 seconds that pops a chest and gives you a few upgrade materials is wonderfully fun. It beats the hell out of the grind that is finding all the drone cache things on Europa. I wish I was better at articulating the difference between the two, because they're superficially very similar.

I know Bungie knows, because the world design lead of Beyond Light and Witch Queen plays Genshin. I'm not expecting some grand overhaul by any means, but I really want to ask him what's he's absorbed from playing it. He told me he likes seeing how other open world games handle their world design, so I really want to know how he sees Genshin's world in comparison. I really want Destinations and Patrols to feel like worthwhile places to engage with in Destiny.

Other than a few of the Blessings of the Welkin Moon, I haven't spent any money on Genshin. That will certainly change at some point (Give me an Ayaka banner, damnit!), but I don't begrudge it. The game honestly feels pretty generous, just logging in a doing commissions and events has given me plenty of stuff.