I’ve recently found that big (mostly open world) games tend to overwhelm or even intimidate me. I’m a big fan of the Rockstar games and absolutely adored Breath of the Wild, but my playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom has been a bit rocky from the get-go.
As soon as the game let me explore all of its content and released me from the tutorial island, I was able to roam the lands of Hyrule freely as I once did in Breath of the Wild, but I’ve come to a sort of paralysis. I feel like there’s such an enormous amount of content to see that I’m constantly anxious to unintentionally skip content or to not make the most of my experience. I did not feel like this back in Breath of the Wild, and I’m not really sure why. I did, however, have this same sense of FOMO when I first played Skyrim. That game also made me feel like I was constantly missing stuff which left me kind of unsatisfied.
This is not a big problem and all of the games I listed are great games. I’m posting this because I unconciously took a two week break from ToTK in order to alleviate that feeling but when I came back to the game today and still felt the same, I thought of posting here and maybe hearing your opinions on this thing.
Have you ever felt the same in big open world games? Do you feel like this in more linear games with multiple endings? (I do) Do you think I’m an overthinker and should just rock on? Looking forward to your comments!
Better not play Elden ring
True lol, I’ve purposely been steering clear of that game because even seeing other people play it makes me think about what they could’ve missed. :D
I don’t feel this way about open-world games because they do usually have an end and you can skip a lot of the open-world filler content. I get this anxiety about sandbox games. I hate it because I really enjoy games like Cities Skylines and I’d love to get into Dwarf Fortress, but I can’t play them anymore because I could spend 1,000 hours in one of them and never finish. That open-endedness keeps me from playing.
Oh, that’s interesting that you feel that way about sandbox games. I get that it can be irritating to not have a clear goal or end to the game. They’re more about making up your own challenges and by that your own gameplay experience on the way. Reminds me of Minecraft!
Somehow, sandbox games don’t induce that kind of anxiety for me because I never feel like I’m “missing” something if I tackle a challenge one or the other way because there’s always another playthrough up next to explore the other route.
same for me with the witcher 3 and horizon zero dawn
There are too many random side quests in my opinion. I get annoyed seeing Addison and Koroks. They take too long. Every dialog just feels like it takes ages. I remember in an old Dunkey video he called to them AGLs, artificial game lengtheners. A good example of this is the great fairies. Having them have to pop out every time and always tell you about set bonuses and always having to watch the animation and then the star slowly appear in the armor. It’s just infuriating. J believe they can capture the feel of it without ruining the experience. Like look at chests in BotW versus TotK. Perfect example.
All that to say, I don’t mind the amount of content but when experiencing the content is annoying it makes it worse in massive games because there’s so much of it.
I can summon and dismiss sages from my key items. Why the hell can’t I do that with the towing saddle??
Totally agree on them taking too long and I’ve also found myself being annoyed with Addison quite quickly. The koroks I don’t mind as they offer a different challenge every time and it’s not very relevant to complete them all. But Addison’s tasks are. always. the. same. Boring!
I find that I totally switch off as soon a game starts to feel like a big checklist of “Content” to check off. For open world games, this is usually as soon as there’s a fast travel feature. For me, it’s not that I’m overwhelmed, I just feel that this framework makes for an incredibly samey experience.
I never fast travel in games that allow me the option not to. I find them infinitely more engaging that way. Skyrim got it just right with their well-balanced mounts.
I liked the silt striders in Morrowind. You had to pay them to fast travel to a certain destination. That seems realistic to me and doesn’t break immersion.
Hehe I know exactly that feeling! Honestly I found the same with Skyrim, GTA5 and Witcher 3 - I can’t imagine spending 100+ hours on a game like that, knowing I’ll probably not finish it! I know it’s irrational but I’m the same. :)
I loved Disco Elysium and Life is Strange 1 because I truly did feel that I left no stone unturned in my playthroughs - it felt very “complete” and had such a satisfying ending that didn’t leave me wandering around a progressively more empty hand world.
I guess that’s a type of game preference - I love watching other people play big games like that, but can’t do it to myself as I feel it’s never “done.” :)
And yet… I’ll play a wrestling game for probably hundreds of hours, knowing fully beyond unlocking everything, there’s a game I can’t “finish” - weird really! :)
Funny you should mention Disco Elysium and LiS! I loved Life is Strange because it felt very purpose-driven and really led you into a clear direction story-wise. On the other hand, I feel like I’m one of the three people who didn’t bother to finish Disco Elysium :D I tried and tried to like it for more than 15 hours of playtime, but in the end I had to admit that its dialogue is too lengthy and that it felt a little too slow story-wise, for my taste at least!
i remember this overwhelming feeling when first playing Witcher 3. At some point I just said f it, ignored the thoughts and had a blast
The game would be better with 75% less of the random map markers. I find them hard to ignore even though they’re often not worth getting.
This! I had to turn off most of them to make the game enjoayable.
I spent so much time trying to clean up map markets that I was not high level enough to deal with
That’s probably the best way to go about it!
I reflected on that as well yesterday. I started Botw on Cemu after hearing so much good about the newest instalment and wanted to see what all that fuzz is about. I really really like it, I always thought it would feel empty from the vibe I got from gameplay videos and screenshots but it doesn’t. I played for 40 hours and now I’m on a tipping point.
So after thinking about it yesterday I found a good comparison for me. I thought about ice cream. Bare with me. Imagine buying a really big pot of a new kind chocolate ice cream. It fills all the space of your freezer. You try it and it’s awesome, you don’t want anything else to eat right now. So you eat it every day for every meal. It still is awesome but at some point it’s nothing special anymore and also last time you went shopping you saw that awesome looking strawberry ice cream for which you don’t really have space right now in your freezer. So what is your next move. Jugging down the chocolate ice cream until you reach the bottom but hate it or throw it away and buy something new? So here is what I try: I want to get over my FOMO for the strawberry ice cream and try eating just a bit of the chocolate ice cream every other day. I mean, it couldn’t be healthy to eat ice cream for every meal and every day right? And if it isn’t going to be special anymore I don’t need to eat it until I finish it, I won’t get any more enjoyment out of it if I’d do.
I hope this makes as much sense to you as it does to me
I feel the same way about big games, and just yesterday I was feeling the same anxiety after the tutorial island in TOTK. I usually feel I need to find every secret and every korok sees etc. But this time I’m trying a new strategy - letting the game lead me. Some NPC says “go do this now”, OK I do that and try not to get side tracked. Supposed to visit a certain town next? Then I go there! The game (so far) does seem linear or at least it offers that option*, so when I’m overwhelmed, I follow that line.
I tried Fallout Las Vegas and I was already overwhelmed by the open world choices from the beginning. Do I loot some of the unpermitted stuff from the guy who saved me? Do I loot every house in view?
I prefer a game to tell me what to do or what to be, like reading a book. Fallout tells me of course but I’m still a bit of a hoarder.
Truee, Fallout also made me feel like this! I’ve only ever started FO4 but I had to return it within the first two hours of playing because I felt forced to loot every house and find every little story in that giant world. Too much for me!
Absolutely, it feels like so many big budget games made recently command 50+ hours of your time, or have really complicated mechanics that require note taking and maths to really enjoy. Those things are great, but man, just the thought of starting a behemoth like Tears of the Kingdom makes me anxious.
some blame that on the idea of “1€/1$ per play hour” - and when these games come with a price of 60€+ (modern AAA is 80€), they’ll get content shoved inside…
I think it’s just bad game design that became the norm. I’m pretty sure you can make a game that’s received as worthy its price, without overwhelming players like me with the sheer amount of content.
I felt the same way when I opened the new Hitman reboot, and a bit when I opened TotK. What I like about BotW and TotK is that you basically can’t miss content. Some events are one-time-only but you have to experience them actively first. Quests and adventures will wait for you. I feel a lot more paralyzed and FOMO if the game just doesn’t wait for me to explore what I want in my own time.
Interesting that the Hitman games make you feel like this, I thoroughly enjoyed them because of the ability to replay levels endlessly, which made me feel like I can’t miss anything because I can just start over if I want to try a different approach.
I can certainly understand that! I kind of am the opposite though; I like not knowing the exact extent of the game, or where everything is, because to me it then feels more like a real place that I’m really exploring. I don’t need to see everything, and honestly I hope I never do see everything because then the magic is gone. I like feeling like a small fish in a very big ocean.
I guess I’m an anti-completionist in that way.
Anti-completionist! I like that. That makes a lot of sense, I think it really might be my inner completionist that wants me to see every nook and cranny of a game. But you’re right about that taking away the magic. Similar to when you replay a game you played as a kid and realise that there’s a lot less to the once magical game world than you thought.
As a casual gamer who only plays once or twice a month I completely agree. I want small and relaxing games that do not need hours of training until you can even start to have fun. Or small and extremely hard games. I really enjoyed “Getting over it with Bennett Foddy” for example.
I think TotK dropped a lot of hints about not playing it like BotW, but most probably didn’t pick up on it. I made the mistake of exploring a lot on my own and ended up skipping several of the quest stories as a result. When the world is so large, you really need a GPS for your map to constrain your path. It’s kinda hard to tell the user “this time is different, follow the guides” when it seems so familiar a place.
There was a lot of effort made to ensure there was guide based content posted online immediately upon release, but this assumes the user will go looking for it.
Oh wow yeah I definitely missed that memo. But that goes in line with what another person said about persuing the main quest first and exploring a bit later. Thanks for the tip!
