Sunday Thoughts: Freedom
Wherever I will roam.
Published: 16:00, 16/01/2011 by Kris [Halbpro].
2So, in keeping with my motif of playing games so long after they came out that it’s vaguely ridiculous, I’ve been playing Burnout Paradise for the first time. It’s not that I didn’t think it was worth playing, it’s just something I didn’t get around to until now. In fact it couples up nicely with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, the last game I played before Paradise.
Of course I’m referring to the free roaming aspect of both games, although the implementation and suitability of the system in each game varies wildly. I love the freedom of Assassin’s Creed, it really fits the style and the possibilities that have been added in Brotherhood really flesh out the gameplay and add a huge amount of variety to the title. In particular, freeing the city feels great and is a good way for you to get to grips with the city without ever feeling overwhelmed.
By way of contrast, I’m not sure I really like the freedom in Burnout Paradise. I’m not sure the ‘go anywhere, do anything’ mechanic is a great fit for that style of game. Sure, having a huge sandbox to play in is a lot of fun and I certainly enjoy finding shortcuts and smashing billboards. The issue is that the world feels too large, too much to try and gain any kind of purchase on at any time.
I’ll happily concede that it may well mirror a real city in that regard, I mean how much of a new city would you really know after less than a day? But that doesn’t necessarily make it a good aspect of the game. As an Arcade title, I want Burnout to be quick and dirty, getting into a race in five seconds flat and just going for it. Of course, I’m not saying that Paradise is bad but perhaps you can be too free in a game.
That certainly applies when you look at titles like EVE or Second Life (although it’s debatable whether or not Second Life is really a game). EVE lets you do so much in the universe that if you’re just coming into the game as a new player it can be hard to get a handle on. When you can do anything, doing any single specific thing can be quite tricky to achieve.
Perhaps the reason I feel the freedom mechanic in EVE or Burnout doesn’t work so well is that it almost completely sacrifices the game’s structure. In a traditional game, you have some kind of narrative pushing you forward. Even at the most basic level, you have new menu items (such as race tracks or golf courses) that unlock as you push forward. If you have a world where you can do anything you feel like, it’s hard to instil any sense that you need to push onwards. You need some kind of driving force to keep you hooked in.
Personally, that sense of moving forwards is one of the things that got me hooked into AC:B so heavily. Sure, there’s an overarching narrative structure but going through and freeing the city was enough of a driving force for me by itself. In fact, I put the main story aside for a solid five or six hours of gameplay just so I could free the city and renovate shops as they became available. On top of that you’ve got the Assassin’s Guild to work on, which has it’s management system set at just the right level between simplicity and enjoyment.
I think what it really is, is the feeling that your actions have an impact. There’s a huge range of options I have presented to me in day to day life, far more than any game will ever really be able to offer to you. Sure, I can’t drive a car at insane speeds or jump from roof top to roof top like a more agile form of the Grim Reaper, but there’s a huge range of things I could potentially go and do on any day.
The thing is, almost any action I take has no impact on society, on the world as a whole or even upon me personally. If I chose to just go to the pub and watch the football I may well enjoy myself but I won’t gain much. For me Burnout Paradise has that same issue. It has, for a game, a pretty wide range of options that you can take at any moment but none of them really feel like they have any impact.
Games aren’t just a mechanism to fulfil fantasies to do something we couldn’t practically do in the real world, they’re crafted to make us the hero of our own story. On some level most people want their life story to be some grand play where they save the world, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s what pushes us forward as a society, it’s one of the reasons we’ve created the things we have. However in a game you actually can save the world. If you want to, you can save a dozen worlds before the week is over. If you’re utterly free don’t you remove that core element to some extent?
Is that something we really want?
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16/01/2011 at 16:13
Member since: Jun 2010
I have to agree with this, I liked AC: Brotherhood. You destroy the towers to free up the city.
AC1 however, almost ruined it for me because every time you were exploring at the start of the game you got blocked by an imaginary wall.
It’s very difficult for developers to get the mix right, if/when Burnout has another game I bet they’d get the mix of open world freedom and progression better than in Paradise.
16/01/2011 at 16:24
Member since: Forever
I loved the ability to meet people (friends, because randoms were dicks) online in the open world of Burnout Paradise, but as a racing game it was god damned awful having to look at the mini map or watchout for a flashing stree sign, not good when you’re trying to chain boosts together.
By contrast the free roaming aspect of Hot Pursuit is fantastic for its photo mode, it shame it can’t be used for meeting people like Burnout. But as a racer with forced routes (except for shortcuts/longcuts & hiding spots) its much better to not be open.
Hot Pursuit’s forced routes was a concious decision based on the feedback from Burnout Paradise.
I think, if there’s ever a Burnout Paradise 2 it will have the open world except it would narrow off for events, which IMO is much better suited for the genre.
In other genres I’ve massively gone off open world games, to me they seem little more than map-marker games and the open world sandbox games seems you visiting one character at a map marker then someone else, all the tasks are remarkably similar even if the games designers have given you the illusion of doing something else, you generally have to kill someone, follow someone, steal something or deliver something.
I much prefer linear gaming and the cohesiveness of the narrative to on screen action.
16/01/2011 at 17:10
Member since: Oct 2010
I totally agree with you on the Burnout Paradise map debacle. It is by far the worst map system I have ever come across ingame and it was totally unnecessary. It was so bad it put me off the game and made it unplayable for me and I traded it in.
16/01/2011 at 17:20
Member since: Jun 2009
Im with you jaffa, one wrong turn on Burnout out and your heading 20 miles in the wrong direction.
16/01/2011 at 20:10
Member since: Jul 2009
Couldn’t agree less. That was the point of Burnout. That was why it was so great. It made you open your map, set your point, and then said “Hey, go for it however you like”.
Whilst in a race, you still had your choices, which was awesome. You had to decide whether you used the default route, or your own route. It added a tactical edge to the game.
The best thing I think about Burnout’s free roam, in-race, was that even if you missed a turn, or span off track, there was always another route you could take. It added tension, and drama to the race that you couldn’t get with other racers.
17/01/2011 at 12:46
Member since: Jun 2009
*agree with stingraz! However I haven’t played the older Burnout titles so it was a fresh game for me!
16/01/2011 at 20:39
Member since: Jul 2010
Hello? Arkham Asylum was a brilliant open world game. It wasn’t so big that you couldn’t find your way round, it looked amazing and there were plenty of discoverables for you to search for.
16/01/2011 at 21:37
Member since: May 2009
But even with that it was still a very linear journey. You couldn’t really wander off and do what you liked right from the off, you were stuck in that building for the first hour or so. If you think about it, it was a bit more like Super Mario 64.
You had a central hub that would get bigger as time went by, and then you had levels attached to that main area that you came back to a few times each, often with new abilities, and stocked with new enemies and different areas you could then get to. But it wasn’t /really/ an open world, just the resemblance of one.
16/01/2011 at 21:45
Member since: May 2009
To clarify that statement. Mario 64 was still a kind of sandbox, as you could tackle all those levels in sort of any order you wanted, as you had to return to each level multiple times, but didn’t have to collect every star.
Whilst Batman:AA took you through each level in a very linear fashion. You still had the semblance of an open world, but it was more allowing you to go back over areas the game wasn’t using anymore, and having you pass back through the hub on your way to your next objective.
16/01/2011 at 22:47
Member since: May 2010
Some people cite B.P to be the best in the series and I personally think they are wrong…burnout 3 was by far the best making it in your face racing action :)
And linear games I prefer to open world ones…Final Fantasy is probably the best linear open world game you can probably get :D
16/01/2011 at 22:53
Member since: Apr 2010
I liked the one where you had to cause as much destruction as possible by driving into a busy junction!
16/01/2011 at 16:30
Member since: Feb 2009
I love freedom in games.
I loved exploring in both ACB and AC2. Just wondering about the cities was so much fun, and being able to improve areas really added more depth.
In Red Dead, I would just ride around on my horse and complete all the hunting and survivalist challenges.
In GTA, I normally just drive around, I just enjoy being able to go wherever I like.
I think we need more sandbox games!
16/01/2011 at 16:51
Member since: Jun 2010
Yeah Rockstar have sandbox games down to a fine art.
16/01/2011 at 16:45
Member since: Aug 2009
OK. The guy basically puts dirt on the good name of Burnout: Paradise and gets away with it? Get the torches!
16/01/2011 at 16:50
Member since: Mar 2009
I’ll bring a pitchfork!
16/01/2011 at 17:21
Member since: Nov 2009
I loved that game!
Sure, it was a bit awkward, but I still managed to complete it.
17/01/2011 at 12:48
Member since: Jun 2009
I enjoyed it too! I could spend hours trying to beat the times on the road names, and then mine name would come up at the bottom :-D love it!
17/01/2011 at 10:43
Member since: Forever
Kris is just bitter because he’s shit at it :-p
16/01/2011 at 16:47
Member since: Nov 2010
Freedom is a very good aspect in games: In Burnout at any junction across the entire map you could start an event. If you didn’t know which way to go in an event the game helped you. There may be no acheivement in doing a barrel roll off a car park roof, it may not get you anywhere, but it isn’t half fun.
Read Ded Redempton is another classic example, although there is less to actually do in the wild. Whether you are doing something or not, you at least need some time to yourself.
I have nothing against linear games but the sandbox environment just feels less claustrophobic.
16/01/2011 at 16:51
Member since: Jan 2009
Farcry 2 has to be one of my favourite free roam games. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the terrain, searching for hidden items and the like. Although more closed games generally tell their story better, I don’t always play a game for it’s story. Sometimes it’s just nice to explore and dick around.
16/01/2011 at 22:59
Member since: Dec 2008
I agree. Farcry 2 is awesome! I enjoyed all that as well and the news there might be a Farcry 3 this year made me quite happy :)
17/01/2011 at 00:28
Member since: May 2010
Far Cry 2 is a great game just the shooting and ai is a tad lame but still (Y)
16/01/2011 at 17:01
Member since: Feb 2009
My favourite free roam games have got to be:
-The Getaway (who wouldn’t like roaming through London, going through hyde park, visiting the London Eye). If anything, I thought it was too restricted and too small, but I guess thats because the PS2 disks couldn’t hold infinite amounts of data.
-Fallout 3. Theres just a weird sense about it. Like your the only normal guy left. Can’t put my finger on it, but the atmosphere and environment created, combined with free-roam works perfectly. Without free roam, this game would almost be nothing in my opinion. Too bad they didn’t give you an auto-mobile or another form of transport to travel to places quicker from one side of the map to the other. Or a perk which allowed you to run faster for example. But I guess thats what sorta makes the game.
Infamous, hmmm, its a good game but I think the limited interactions with the people sort of ruined it. The environment was fun for a couple of hours then it became repetetive. Places looked too similar. Its hard to explain but I dont think it deserves a place up there with the best free-roam games. If it was set in a more realistic city with places that could be recognised such as New York ect, it could’ve been much better. But I guess that would cost a whole mammoth of money, and a millenium to put together.
Burnout Paradise in my opinion was quite fun. For single player I didn’t like it, I prefered the old style burnout where you have a set route where your locked in, smashing eachother to bits. But for online I think free-roam was perfect. The amount of time I spent online on it with my mates was ages. When chasing someone, go into a car-park, pretend to drive to the top floor, when they’re in the middle floor drive out. It never gets old.
Most free-roam games ive played have been a success in my opinion, but looking at games such as prototype with flat buildings ect, sometimes they might not be that good.
P.S. I’m still waiting for “The Getaway 3″ >:|
17/01/2011 at 06:47
Member since: Mar 2010
If i remember right… The Getaway 3 is cancelled by Sony :(
17/01/2011 at 09:17
Member since: Oct 2009
The Getaway 3 was put on hold.
At least, that’s what was reported in October 2009 :)
16/01/2011 at 17:31
Member since: Dec 2008
Burnout Paradise is one of my favourite games this gen and has definately got to be one of my most played. So much so, i bought it twice after trading it in and finding I wanted to play it again.
I love free roam games as you do havethe narrative structure, for example if i wanted to just do story missions in inFamous I could, there would be no need to do anything else. But it also gives you the freedom to just explore, and exploring and finding things in a game is one of the most gratifying experiences for me, far more so than pressing X to blow up scripted house.
16/01/2011 at 17:50
Member since: Aug 2009
Uhh – have to disagree a bit there on inFamous. Sure, you could try n do only the story missions but it’s hell when you don’t control the city and have no powers etc etc – You need to do stuff to keep yourself afloat or it gets insanely hard sometimes.
17/01/2011 at 15:22
Member since: Dec 2009
inFamous…what an awesome game. Gonna have to dust it off and have another blast…
16/01/2011 at 18:09
Member since: Aug 2009
I do enjoy freedom but I like to keep things distinct. I enjoy a fine sandbox (in real life too, hours of fun) and at the same time I love linear games with strong narratives.
In your particular example, I have BP on the PS3 but I struggle to love it, It’s fun, sure, but I feel the game is absolutely not suited to free roam. The PS2 games were some of the finest racers around and I felt it moved backwards considerably with the dawn of Paradise.
On a slightly different level, I feel in a lot of instances, creating a sandbox is purely padding. But here’s where I completely contradict myself and bring up one of my favourite games of last year, Mafia II. It was a strong story in an open world, clashing styles but for me it worked perfectly. Just enough freedon without getting cluttered with nonsensical padding which has nothing to do with the story. For me, a perfect blend.
Rockstar are still the masters of true open world freedom because for me, they make it all feel relative to the story, it all feels like everything you do drives the story on.
In summary, I’d say i prefer linearity but sandbox is now an established genre which when done correctly, can mesh with other game styles and has no equal.
Good reading, Raen.
16/01/2011 at 19:25
Member since: Apr 2010
I couldn’t agree more with how unsuited to having an open world Burnout was. The map was horrible, it was so easy to get lost even on basic races. Not everything needs to be open and nonlinear, you wouldn’t have a football game where you had to walk around trying to find someone to play, sometimes you just want to get on with it!