Losing motivation/interest long before the end of a game.

[partious]

I’m currently playing through Ghost Of Tsushima on PS5 and at about 12 hours in I’m starting to experience the thing that I experience with nearly every open world game, after I notice the gameplay loop and the repetition becomes clear. 

Basically for the first 10 hours the setting etc is new and exciting but then you start to notice you’ve actually just done basically the same thing 10 times (watch cutscene, clear a settlement of enemies, watch cutscene in the case of GOT). You then realize that there are 20 hours left and those 20 hours are going to involve just doing the same thing 20 more times and… the game has morphed from feeling fun and unknown into being a bit of a chore while you think of the game you’ll play after you finish this one. 
 

As you can probably guess I don’t complete many AAA open world games, but I’ve played and enjoyed the first 10-15 hours of a lot of them!

 

Just wondering if this is common. 
Do open world games usually hold your interest/keep you motivated until the end or is there a point where you experience what I’ve mentioned above? Do you find some games are better played in chunks with something else in between? Do you just move on to something new when a game gets repetitive or do you try to see it though to the end.

 

This isn’t an “I don’t like games anymore” thread or a “tell me I should play indie games” thread. I really do enjoy the first 10-15 hours of a lot of AAA open world games but then my interest nosedives.

[Unofficial Who]

I'm finding that DLC versions additions for some open world games can provide much tighter experiences.

 

Minerva's Den for instance is such tight tidy slice of Bioshock, all the thrills of Bioshock 2 with none of the bloat.

 

I'm also finding Spiderman:Miles Morales to be free of a lot of the "filler" material that seemed to be in the mainline title.

 

Both AAA experiences that wouldn't exist without the main game to support it but I think more games could do with tighter abridged versions of their experience.

 

I think the open world game that cured me of trying to 100% everything was Just Cause 2, one of the largest games I've ever played.

 

While we're on it most open world games need a "last time on...." feature.

[bradigor]

Just been chatting about this whilst recording the podcast. P5R was an anomaly for me, as I usually get bored or distracted before the 20 hour mark on games* but that kept me engaged throughout. I think a lot of it is due to my ADHD/ASD and the FOMO effect, that I HAVE to try everything. Which is the main reason I got into writing about games. But I very very rarely complete a game to the credits and NEVER to 100%.

 

*Games like Tetris, etc I will stack up 1000s of hours over the years, but they aren't the sort I consider to have an end point and a time to beat type thing. 

[partious]

12 minutes ago, Unofficial Who said:

I'm finding that DLC versions additions for some open world games can provide much tighter experiences.

 

Minerva's Den for instance is such tight tidy slice of Bioshock, all the thrills of Bioshock 2 with none of the bloat.

 

I'm also finding Spiderman:Miles Morales to be free of a lot of the "filler" material that seemed to be in the mainline title.

 

Both AAA experiences that wouldn't exist without the main game to support it but I think more games could do with tighter abridged versions of their experience.

 

I think the open world game that cured me of trying to 100% everything was Just Cause 2, one of the largest games I've ever played.

 

While we're on it most open world games need a "last time on...." feature.

Actually, Miles Morales was the game I played before I started Ghost of Tsushima and I thought it was the perfect length, so I agree! I liked Miles Morales but I’m not sure I’m interested in playing the main Spider-Man game because of the length compared to MM.

The abridged version idea is something I’ve thought about before and I agree it would be excellent, especially in this era of psplus extra and game pass. Give me a 15 hour version of these 30 hour long games. 

[Qazimod]

Without making this a "play Elden Ring" thread, Elden Ring has all of the discoveries and goals and engagement with much less of the ennui that comes from the filler other games are known for. Most of the discoveries you make will either result in things that benefit your character or new challenges to attempt - it's not really a world of forgettable box-ticking. You do run into a lot of bits and pieces that get thrown into your inventory, but pretty much all of it has a use, whether it's for crafting items or upgrading gear. Although to play devil's advocate, I can imagine it can feel like a slog if you're not enjoying any of the locations or encounters you discover in the world!.

 

One habit I can't break in open-worlds is when I end up throwing out the open-world aspect and bee-lining the critical path. I think this is what gets me killed when I play Yakuza and go from one boss to the next without doing any sidequests and then wonder why I'm getting completely rocked. I suppose I'm the player that would need an actual sidequest that has a contrived excuse for sidequesting. Like "get to the 30th floor of this optional endurance run of badasses because then you'll have levelled up enough to stand a chance against the next part of the critical path..." (incidentally this is pretty much how chapter 12 of Yakuza 7 plays out, as you encounter one of the biggest momentum-stoppers and also gain access to a challenge arena.)

[ChewMagma]

1 hour ago, partious said:

I’m currently playing through Ghost Of Tsushima on PS5 and at about 12 hours in I’m starting to experience the thing that I experience with nearly every open world game, after I notice the gameplay loop and the repetition becomes clear. 

Basically for the first 10 hours the setting etc is new and exciting but then you start to notice you’ve actually just done basically the same thing 10 times (watch cutscene, clear a settlement of enemies, watch cutscene in the case of GOT). You then realize that there are 20 hours left and those 20 hours are going to involve just doing the same thing 20 more times and… the game has morphed from feeling fun and unknown into being a bit of a chore while you think of the game you’ll play after you finish this one. 
 

As you can probably guess I don’t complete many AAA open world games, but I’ve played and enjoyed the first 10-15 hours of a lot of them!

 

Just wondering if this is common. 
Do open world games usually hold your interest/keep you motivated until the end or is there a point where you experience what I’ve mentioned above? Do you find some games are better played in chunks with something else in between? Do you just move on to something new when a game gets repetitive or do you try to see it though to the end.

 

This isn’t an “I don’t like games anymore” thread or a “tell me I should play indie games” thread. I really do enjoy the first 10-15 hours of a lot of AAA open world games but then my interest nosedives.

 

Your first mistake was playing Ghost of Tsushima.

[Majora]

I'm exactly the same with most AAA open world games. Barely ever finish them because they're so long and at some point the 'spell' is always broken and you start seeing behind the curtain. At that point tedium starts setting in.

 

I've never finished a Bethesda or Rockstar open world. Didn't finish Ghost of Tsushima for the exact same reasons you mentioned, it just felt so mechanical and rote after about 15 hours. Didn't finish Elden Ring but managed to put in 100 hours and will still vote for it as my GOTY. Just about crawled to the finish line with BOTW. 

 

I'd say for your decent 7/10 open world game I get bored after about 10-15 hours (so Ghosts or any Ubi title). For your 10/10 open worlders I still tend to get bored after about 50 hours. No open world game can truly hide the building blocks and bits and pieces that repeat and underpin everything after more than 50 hours, even the greats or developers with unlimited budgets like Rockstar.

 

With that in mind, I don't bother with the 7/10 open world games anymore. I'd rather play 3 five hour indie games than spend 15 hours or an average open world game I know I'll never finish. I only go for the cream of the open-world crop these days and even then I do so knowing I will probably never complete them.

[Triple A]

For me this is every single open world game except Elden Ring.  I already have a job that feels like work thanks, and I get paid for doing that too!

[Gabe]

I can't think of a single open-world game that has ever kept me interested all the way to the end (and whilst I haven't played Elden Ring, I do not like From's games, so have no interest in it - and from what I've read, there's absolutely nothing in there that would stave-off the boredom anyway).

 

I find the best chance to help delay the waning interest are good skill trees/abilities, especially if you aren't able to get every skill in a game, forcing you to think about upgrades. It at least means you are continuing to get new things up to the end - though I can't think of many games that actually implement that approach (the Witcher games are all I can think of off the top of my head). Most games have you with your full skillset long before the end - I think one of the worst offenders was Kingdoms of Amular, whereby if you did all the quests you came across you would be max level into the second act out of three. 

 

Exploring generally doesn't keep my interest for long, partly because most worlds are devoid of actual interesting things outside of a nice view - and if traversal isn't fun (and in most games it isn't) that further dampens the mood.

 

With that said, I do tend to complete them. I just will get to the point where the world/side-quests etc no longer interest me and will then speed through the main quests. I've never done everything in any open-world game, I don't think, unless Mass Effect 2 & 3 count as stretch definition of open-world?

[thesnwmn]

I complete almost nothing.

 

It is rare a game can capture and hold my attention for more than 10 or so hours, and even that is pushing it. A game has to be mechanically sublime and must continually introduce new concepts to keep me coming back. I'm not interested in doing the same thing over and over again.

 

It doesn't help that I think most game story telling is terrible. I don't mind that most of the stories are either so proforma or convoluted as to be pointless or non-sensical. But games forget that the player will see the story at their own pace. There's no drama to saving a kidnapped damsel when I've spent 2 hours doing fetch quests in the local village or just trying to climb a hill to see if I can.

 

Give me a jam packed 5-10 hours and I'll play the shit out of it, love it and rave about it. Drag it out AT ALL and I'm done.

 

I don't actually mind though. I don't begrudge or feel that I get bad value when I don't see the end of something. I'll just enjoy the experience and learning about a game and move on. No problem.

[Gabe]

18 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

It doesn't help that I think most game story telling is terrible. I don't mind that most of the stories are either so proforma or convoluted as to be pointless or non-sensical. But games forget that the player will see the story at their own pace. There's no drama to saving a kidnapped damsel when I've spent 2 hours doing fetch quests in the local village or just trying to climb a hill to see if I can.

Yeah, it's rare that any game manages to create any sense of urgency and it does mean the story becomes this big serious thing interspersed by the player arsing around for x number of hours with no cares in the world.

[Gringo]

I have experienced this with Middle Earth: Shadow of War recently. I really enjoy the combat and the story is engaging enough but it got very repetitious with taking on the Orc Captains and taking over areas.
 

Like others have noted Elden Ring makes me realise open world games don’t have to bombard you with things to do. I also don’t have the time to grind in games these days.

[Timmo]

I started Horizon Forbidden West, a game with an absolutely stupid amount of content, and I mostly enjoyed what gameplay there was in the first 12 hours, but it just feels like too much. When I’m playing these games I always think of GTA 3 and how perfect the size of that world was. Big enough to feel substantial but small enough that I can even now remember much of it. And I’m sure most people would prefer less area with more dense content over spaced out and spread out, but no game ever seems to do it. 

 

I was also annoyed at the endless talking. Just shut UP. The story is your typical game shite but they feel the need to shove it in your face constantly. It’s so dreary and boring.

[Down by Law]

I much prefer smaller worlds that are densely packed with things to do than 50km of fields you have to trot over with your horse. Even Elden Ring is guilty of this and a big part of why I eventually dropped it as I was just getting bored of plodding about on the mount. Bloodborne on the other hand, tight as fuck and the interconnecting level design still impresses. 

 

Vice City is still my favourite GTA because you can learn the map intimately. Yakuza's towns and more recently the Sonic Frontiers islands are not that big but jam packed with things to see and do. 

 

With Cyberpunk, Ghost and the recent Horizon if I'm still at say 10 percent completion after 10 hours or so you can bet the main story is pretty much the only path I'm taking and the fast travel is going to get abused something chronic. If the games really good and I want more then I'll go back for 100% , but if I've had my fill then by the time the credits roll then usually so does my interest (no way I would 100% Ghost and Horizon. Just not interesting enough, but Cyberpunk had a great map and excellent side content so that was a pleasure)

 

 

[Calashnikov]

4 hours ago, Qazimod said:

One habit I can't break in open-worlds is when I end up throwing out the open-world aspect and bee-lining the critical path. I think this is what gets me killed when I play Yakuza and go from one boss to the next without doing any sidequests and then wonder why I'm getting completely rocked.

Youre fuckin up how to play Yakuza. For me those games are aaaaaaall about the side quests. That’s where the true magic of the series can be found.

[Paulando]

I’m the same, but I’ve learned to play games until I stop enjoying them and then just let go. You don’t need to see the end credits to have finished with a game (and that’s rarely an indicator that you’re at the end anyway).

 

Most AAA games are padded with tons of shite these days to justify their price tag, and I bet it doesn’t cost much more to make a 50 hour open world title with lots of filler than it does a tight 10 hour experience.

 

just let go, don’t feel bad, and don’t feel like you ever need to return.

[Timmo]

11 minutes ago, Paulando said:

I bet it doesn’t cost much more to make a 50 hour open world title with lots of filler than it does a tight 10 hour experience.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, here. 
 

I only wish we saw games that spread those 50 hours vertically instead of horizontally. Have truly branching paths over a 10 hour experience, and incentivise replaying it for those who loved it. Could be incredible. 

[iknowgungfu]

I stay away from most open world “big” games.   Played cyberpunk for a little while and it looked amazing but I didn’t give a shit about anything I saw in it. 
 

Last open world game to really capture me was BotW.  I used to love Skyrim and the like but the game loses something when you are on a mission to save the world but you’ve also got to find the time to pick some fucking herbs for some villager or something as a side quest.  Sometimes the games take themselves too seriously which hampers things. Possibly why I stuck with Zelda. 
 

I can see why some love those sorts of games (growing up with JRPGS and “PC” RPGs I understand). But, I prefer either a tight storyline or simple replayable or twitch game mechanics. 
 

 

[footle]

Elden Ring.

Assassins Creed Odyssey (kassandra being a great character, though I think I broke it into two major periods of playing it months apart, and didn’t finish the dlc).

 

other than that, no - the gameplay loops in the “big” games become too obvious and I stop.

 

GoTush was particularly bad though, because it failed on the “explore” aspect - it felt like assassins creed Japan but with an unsympathetic and uninteresting main character who was stuck in an endless forest with the occasional two cottage village and lake dotted about.

[MattyP]

Always have problems with open world type games. Rarely finish them due to as the the OP mentioned the seemingly repetitive game loops to progress the story. 

 

Funny enough though Ghosts Of Tsushima was an exception. Not saying it didn't drag it did around the 15 hour mark for me but actually loved traversing the world and the era the game was set. But yeah that game loop was getting tedious.  If it had been any longer than 20 hours it would have been left though.

 

Generally prefer story type games to be around 10-15 hours. Sweet spot for me.

 

Favourite games are things that don't end and are fun to play... So end up playing arcade racers or things like SHUMPS, Tetris, Puzzle Bobble etc. Recently been enjoying the Atari 50 Anniversary Celebration. Great quick shots of game without huge time investments.

[Thor]

6 hours ago, Down by Law said:

Even Elden Ring is guilty of this and a big part of why I eventually dropped it as I was just getting bored of plodding about on the mount. Bloodborne on the other hand, tight as fuck and the interconnecting level design still impresses. 

This. I tired of Elden Ring, but Bloodborne is a masterpiece. 

 

The exception for me is Skyrim, because it in that game the open worl itself is the star of the show, and that's what so many open world games get wrong. 

[Giddas]

Interested if those who have issues with open world games have difficulty sticking with longer games in general or it’s particularly the open world aspect?

[joemul]

Elden Ring

BotW

Fallout3

Far Cry 2

Days Gone

 

The 5 open world games that have kept my interest levels through to the end. 

[Unofficial Who]

54 minutes ago, Giddas said:

Interested if those who have issues with open world games have difficulty sticking with longer games in general or it’s particularly the open world aspect?

 

I think there's something to be said about the density of open worlds. In some games like Elden Ring (from what I'm told) there's something to be found around every corner. It's an experience that I had with Fallout 3 and New Vegas, where what looks like a wasteland is actually packed to the gills with all sorts of interesting things.

 

But too many open worlds are just about spreading the action across a much wider geographic area.

 

I remember reading this issue in the mid 90's where someone wrote a column in Commodore User about level design density comparing Impossible Mission

 

 

to Impossible Mission 2025

 

 

2025 had much larger levels but according to the writer all this did was dilute the action. The same elements of the game were there, it's just that you had to walk further to reach them.

[partious]

For me the most obvious and unwelcome example of that is open world racing games where you have to drive across a map to get to the next race/event instead of just selecting it from a menu screen.

[Kromeo]

24 minutes ago, joemul said:

Elden Ring

BotW

Fallout3

Far Cry 2

Days Gone

 

The 5 open world games that have kept my interest levels through to the end. 

 

For me it's just:

MGS V The Phantom Pain
Breath of the Wild
Elden Ring

Only open world games that managed to hold on to my attention to the bitter end, and I wouldn't even mind revisiting those titles. 

Every other game in the genre can get bent. Sheer meaningless filler and repetition; scale for the sake of it.

[Vorgot]

1 hour ago, Giddas said:

Interested if those who have issues with open world games have difficulty sticking with longer games in general or it’s particularly the open world aspect?

 

For me it's the open world part of it and the lack of focus that kills interest. I can happily play a JRPG for 100 hours if the story and progression are there but give me a true open world game I get bored very quickly. Am looking fowrward to starting Elden Ring as I heard it does the open world well. Breath of the Wild did it well too, and Skyrim is brilliant

 

20 minutes ago, partious said:

For me the most obvious and unwelcome example of that is open world racing games where you have to drive across a map to get to the next race/event instead of just selecting it from a menu screen.

 

100% this. The idea of open world racing games is horrendous. Having to find cars to unlock them, or drive across a map for a race is just a waste of time. Hot Pursuit is the perfect example of how do a racing game right. And RR7 I still go back to all the time.

[Unofficial Who]

What I don't understand is why companies don't take the assets made for larger games and release smaller experiences like Minerva's Den and Spiderman:Miles Morales.

 

Sometimes mod makers pick up the slack here (The Forgotten City and Stanley's Parable both started as mods). But there's so much more potential out there. The amount of things EA could have done with Mass Effect feels like a lost opportunity (The Idle Thumbs podcast used to talk about such things like a police procedural set on The Citadel.)

[BadgerFarmer]

It comes down to whether the stuff you find when exploring is actually interesting to play with.

 

Ghost of Tsushima fails on that point, I think - you've seen one fox, hot spring, bamboo thing, you've seen them all. The bandit camps and duels are effectively the same each time as well.

 

In Elden Ring, though, each discovery is a piece of interesting level design, or a worthwhile encounter, or at least some weird shit you weren't expecting. Although it arguably still overstretches itself in the end, with stuff like minor Erdtree bosses becoming a chore.

 

I had plenty of fun with the open world in Horizon Zero Dawn too, in that case because the combat systems and enemies were varied enough to play around with, and there was reward in simply experiencing the scenic views. Just going out into the world and dealing with its challenges in different ways was often sufficient for me to forget about achieving specific goals, which is always a good indicator with these things.

 

Now I'm playing Ghostwire Tokyo, and it definitely suffers from open-world repetition, and the dreaded map full of icons. But apparently the main path only takes around 10 hours, which seems like a good compromise. The core loop is entertaining enough to sustain it for that long at least. Perhaps more open-world games should try that approach.

[DeciderVT]

I have the opposite problem. Open worlds fascinate and entertain me as I love to explore, while some games that are smaller in scope quickly become repetitive.

 

When I was playing BioShock recently I struggled to maintain interest as the window dressing became obvious to me very quickly, especially when you'd see (and hear) the same splicers over and over again. For a huge chunk of the game I was acutely aware that I was shooting the same assets throughout and it completely broke my immersion. I also had the same problem with games like Halo 3, where the backtracking in some levels made me feel like I could see the hand of a designer trying their utmost to pad the playtime.