Horizon Zero Dawn… an amazing game, slightly intimidating. Image by Playstation
Do you ever read a blog post and comment to yourself “this post is me.”? The last time I had this feeling was after reading The Dragon’s Tea Party’s post titled Open World Burnout. The post summarizes the author stating how they are “burned out” from these epic open world games to the point where they either restart their game or just put the game down in general. This is exactly how I feel. A couple weeks ago, the boyfriend picked up Horizon Zero Dawn for me. The gamestop employee ranted about how much I was going to absolutely LOVE this game. I played the first 30 minutes of it, and it certainly has potential for me to love it. However, I ended up putting it down due to the sheer intimidation of playing the game.
Last year, I played Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4. Is that game considered open world? I think so. It’s specifically exploring NYC. What I liked about Marvel’s Spider-Man is the organization of NYC. I knew exactly where I could explore and what was there. In a game such as Fallout though, I have no idea where I’m going because I haven’t discovered anything yet. That has always bothered me. I like knowing where I’m going in a video game and what cities exist instead of having to explore it myself.
When I think back about “open-world” games I have beat, I will mention Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4. I also liked the Batman Arkham City & Batman Arkham Knight which allowed me to explore downtown Gotham. I also really enjoy games like Far Cry or even the new Assassin’s Creed games look great, but I never beat them from start to finish. The boyfriend though, loves open world games. Every night after we are both off of work, he will play through more of an open-world game whereas I will blog or read a book.
As a gamer, I do tend to be a completionist. Meaning I prefer to unlock all the trophies or achievements in a game if I’m able to. This makes open-world games much more difficult. It often means helping out in EVERY SIDE QUEST I stumble on. It makes open world games more time consuming because of my gaming personality.
I have decided to give more open world games a shot. I still have full intention of returning to Horizon Zero Dawn after I beat Heavy Rain the remastered version on PS4. I think what will help prevent me from having open world burnout is to play another game along with my open world game. For example, returning to Horizon Zero Dawn while also playing through Uncharted #4. This way I’m still getting a break from the open world format, but also being able to return to it on my own time.
If you have also experienced open world burn out, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below
Bizarre Brunette 
I love open world games! Sure they can seem huge because there’s so much to do and see, sometimes you just have to just wander around until you find things to do. I like objectives so when I started with Skyrim I would do side quests and discover new locations en-route, now I run all over the place and explore because most open-world games have markers on the maps that allow you to pinpoint areas of interest. Like Witcher 3 does this for example.
LikeLike
I won’t let these games intimidate me, but I will say I’m not the type of gamer to completely devote myself to this one game. I want to play an open world game, but also balance that with more story driven games as well. It creates a nice balance for me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I totally get this. Been there for sure. The first open world I tried to play was Elder Scrolls Oblivion back in high school and I just could stick with it because there wasn’t enough direction.
There’s something in psychology called “choice paralysis”, I believe, where people have a hard time making a choice on a huge menu but have no problem when presented with a handful of options. It was like that. The oddly enough I went back and played Elder Scrolls Skyrim in college and was able to 100% trophy that on PS3 with zero issues.
I think it’s often a mental strategy thing. You just gotta decide to follow a specific set of of objectives that interest you by cutting down that giant menu into a few manageable options. Then stick with it! I hope that helps!
On another note I really hope Horizon ZD comes to PC one day. I just love Ashley Burch’s voice acting. 🙂
LikeLike
“choice paralysis” is something I have never heard of, but makes a whole lot of sense. I think this describes me. So maybe it’s setting goals as I play the game to help me keep on track.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah found it! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis
Choice overload. So many options that you end up choosing nothing. Glad I could help!
LikeLike