Open World... Nevermind (Patreon)

"Far Cry is a sandbox game."

…Says Ubisoft.

I just got done playing three hours of the most T-Square linear game-design since Rockstar's shipping container level in GTAV.

I'm replaying the mission from Far Cry 3 where I'm on the back of a moving vehicle with a grenade launcher blowing up vehicles, only this time, it's in Far Cry 6, so there isn't a banger soundtrack playing, there's helicopters annoyingly picking damage off me from across the map, enemies flip flop between pixel precision and aiming at the sun, and the grenade launcher I've got with me is purely by happenstance as some genius making this level decided to make use of the player's arsenal even if that arsenal's primary weapon is a stealth semi-auto M14 rather than a LMG like you'd normally have for a turret sequence…

I'm not bitter.

Point is, the linear missions are plentiful in Far Cry 6, and well… they're not very good.

Certainly nothing as memorable as burning up a field of weed to Skrillex's take on Reggae, nor anything as well-crafted as the attack on Vaas' base.

What would be the worst level in a bad Call of Duty campaign is par for the course here, not only that, there's a lot more than your usual Call of Duty campaign.

While those typically last somewhere between 4-6 hours, this damn thing lasts 20-30, and a good chunk of that isn't spent in the open-world, but doing these boring ass, poorly designed, slapped together linear missions…

…in a sandbox game.

It's actually the same for GTA, and it's the same for a whole host of open-world "sandbox" games, and I'm thinking…

There shouldn't be 10-15 hours of these linear missions.

There should be like…

Four hours of them.

Why not?

Most of us only talk about four hours' worth of the ones they make anyway?

The other fifteen don't really advance the story, give an interesting scenario, or push some type of new technology never seen before in-gaming.

They're just you're usual side-mission content with an unskippable cutscene attached, and a celebrity voice or two over the radio.

It's not actually anything compelling, and most importantly, nothing more compelling than the open-world outpost, treasure hunting, weapon crafting, character grinding journey that's supposed to be the game's meat and potatoes.

I'm not asking for something super obnoxious like that treasure hunt in Anthem where the story literally went on hold until you collected a certain number of items to a location, I just think that if these games are unable to have both their open-world sandbox and a linear story-campaign with the bombastic missions of dedicated linear games like Call of Duty or Uncharted, even with all of the budget, staff, and technology afforded in the modern gaming industry…

…then maybe they should just not bother.

Sure, there'd be some angry commenters from the sort of people who don't play these games but just watch the cutscenes on Youtube, but honestly?

Fuck em.