Board 8 > How would you rank Sony's PS4 open world games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Think I got all of them in the worst game poll there? Feel free to rank others if I missed any.

I haven't played them all, but Horizon's my personal favorite. Feels real polished and the story delivers the whole way through.
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Honestly probably Spider-Man: Miles even though it is still top-notch. I just felt more engaged with the side-content in original Spider-Man PS4.

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Second Son was so small but it had so much potential

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https://docseuss.medium.com/playthis-days-gone-lets-talk-about-open-world-games-49ae3aff5833

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Second Son is easily the worst of those.

Days Gone was surprisingly pretty good, even if it did drag on for too long. The characters are likable, the stuff with the bike is pretty fun, Sam Witwer turns in a good performance as always, and fighting the hordes is very fun and incredibly tense if you do it undergeared.

Also it's a stealth Syphon Filter sequel so that's nifty.

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

https://docseuss.medium.com/playthis-days-gone-lets-talk-about-open-world-games-49ae3aff5833

Yo when it got to the Mad Max part I was like YEAHHH

I don't think it was a very good game overall but the immersion was incredible. It's been a while since I've just wandered around an empty location just to look at the details and imagining how the inhabitants used it.

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Haven't played all of these and so didn't vote but I have a hard time not believing it isn't Second Son. And I loved that game when it came out but it was clearly half-baked at the time mechanically, even compared to Infamous 2, and didn't age particularly well. It always felt like more of a foundation for a future game but then they switched gears to samurai instead.

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I would say Death Stranding, although I probably didn't give it enough time. I put it down before it supposedly gets good and haven't been interested enough to pick it back up again.

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Haven't played second son, ghost or days gone, but my dad liked days gone so

Of the 4 I've played, the worst is probably Miles Morales? Which is surprising because I really enjoyed it.
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God of War > Horizon > Spider-Man > Tsushima > Infamous: Second Son

I enjoyed all of them but the top 3 are some of my all-time favorites

Haven't played Days Gone or Miles Morales but Days Gone looks "meh" and Miles Morales looks great

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I've only played Spider-Man and that was actually quite good. If the sequel is the worst of these games as some have suggested then these have to be some really good games.

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To me Miles Morales was kind of worst by default because it's specifically designed to be "more Spider-man", or like "Spider-man, but less"

I honestly really struggle to pick between the other 3, they're all good for different reasons.
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Really liked Infamous and GoW and would prob like Spiderman if I played it. Started playing Horizon recently and it's pretty damn boring. It's good but doesn't really click.

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Good to know Days Gone is worse than Second Son so that I never have to try it ever.

Also God of War is really not open-world. Semi at best I would say.

Does Gravity Rush 2 count as open world? That was a fantastic game.

foolm0r0n posted...

Really liked Infamous and GoW and would prob like Spiderman if I played it. Started playing Horizon recently and it's pretty damn boring. It's good but doesn't really click.

I never really cared much for Horizon until the DLC then the open world design was suddenly much better. Which gives me hope that I'll like the sequel more

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Infamous was probably my least favorite but it just felt archaic compared to the others more than anything

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ninkendo posted...

I never really cared much for Horizon until the DLC then the open world design was suddenly much better. Which gives me hope that I'll like the sequel more

Is there a way to skip to the DLC? I just got into the full map and I see where the DLC area is, but are there any blockers?

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Yeah, I don't think of God of War as open world either. It's more like you can somewhat choose what order to play levels in and you can explore within them.

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*In order to play The Frozen Wilds DLC in Horizon Zero Dawn, you're going to need to ensure that you've fully completed the main quest A Seeker at the Gates. From this point you'll be able to access Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds, though the quests are tuned around characters that are Level 30 and beyond.*

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Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Good to know Days Gone is worse than Second Son so that I never have to try it ever.

Also God of War is really not open-world. Semi at best I would say.

I'd call it open like Tomb Raider 2013 and so on are open maybe? Or even Control? I'm sure there's an industry term for it. More "non-linear" than truly open. Idk.
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GoW and Tomb Raider are 3D Metroids, same with Dark Souls

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Dark Souls doesn't really follow the "rules" of Metroidvania. It's doesn't use abilities to block anything (or even have abilities to unlock), and in general you can access everything you can see on your first visit.
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The core of Metroid isn't really the abilities but the loop-based level design where your first way through is the long way, but after that you unlock a shortcut to the central spine of the world. That's what makes the super addictive exploration loop. Zelda is the one that's more about the abilities.

A lot of modern Metroidvanias fail to recognize that and end up being linear with some backtracking when you get new abilities, and it just falls flat.

DS1 is by far the strongest of that design, with lots of layered intersecting loops like Super Metroid or Zero Mission. DS2 and and GoW are more like Metroid Fusion where it's more tree-like with an explicit hub and branches. Tomb Raider seems like more DS3 and maybe Metroid Prime where all the areas are separate and in a line, but each is its own open exploration zone. They all have some nice exploration though so it all counts.

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I need to play Horizon one of these days. Maybe once I finish 13 Sentinels.

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