Red Dead Redemption -- Why Open World Narratives Fail

An 'almost review' by the ITBrog.com's Isaiah taylor, he talks about how difficult it is to an open world game of this nature. Red Dead Redemption stands as Rockstar Games best blend of a intriguing narrative and an open world adventure. Unfortunately, open world games and meaty plots don't mix well.

[Trroy]

Basically the article's only point is that the repetition of non-plot related gameplay breaks the story, because you invest too much of your own personality into the character?

I guess I kind of see the story as an entertaining way to change the gameplay, not as the ultimate game goal.

If he wants a JRPG, he should play one. Although the sheer amount of killing JRPG characters do is often pretty contrary to their supposedly peaceful/good character natures.

[KingKiff]

Title should read "how gaming journo's fail"

Crap article...

[Bboy_Izilla]

I promise to try better next time. Really...I will.

[KingKiff]

OK it wasn't that bad lol...

I juts dislike opinion pieces.

[rockleex]

Its true, their narratives suck.

Like with Oblivion, the first 30 minutes were awesome.

Then the rest of the game were just pointless sidequests. The main missions only consisted of "shut this gate of Oblivion, then shut that gate of Oblivion".

RDR and GTA are victims of this too.

Its not the open world genre's fault. Its the fault of the developers for thinking they can just throw a bunch of hours of pointless gameplay in with 5 hours of worthy gameplay and think we'll eat it up.

And SO MANY people eat it up without thinking, "wait, this is pointless to the purpose of the game".

[TrailerParkSupervisr]

...is people write opinion pieces then follow their story to other websites to read the responses then start defending themselves....er, you can have an opinion about a game but we cannot have one on your article? Narcissism much?

[Bboy_Izilla]

I'm narcissistic because I wrote an article that I feel passionately about? You're free to comment just as I am correct?

[Bboy_Izilla]

One of many points I make in the article is that no matter how many times we try and perfect this 'open world narrative' game design you run into the same issues the predecessors did. Staleness of story paralyzing sidequests.

[wollie]

I just wanna say that you put my feelings into worlds perfectly! RDR was a great game, but there were just to many times when i was like ok John marston would never do this, why is he helping these people instead of shooting/ignoring them. I feel like this about every open world game. Devs create these awesome worlds for us to explore and then fill it with meaningless stuff for us to do.

[coolbeans]

this idea gets into the heads of those who still would've wanted Alan Wake to be open-world. Fluid story takes a backseat in open-world games UNLESS an innovation comes along to change that.

[KingKiff]

OK I can accept that.

But I personally would prefer some side mission and some freedom in games.

I found the story of Alan Wake good. But the game-play extremely boring and repetitive and this is what the author is saying he wants to avoid in games.

Just my 2 cents.

[coolbeans]

Probably a notable criticism to the devs. Just because linearity drives a more fluid story, doesn't necessarily mean there can't be different ways of getting to certain objectives. The ability to expand Bright Falls is something I'd like to see the sequel (would like to hear some sequel news in the future as well).

[rakunado]

At least the author acknowledges that the game is just not for him or anyone who thinks like him. At least his opinion is listed with valid points that in many ways makes sense, unlike people who just hate on the game.

I on the other hand love Red Dead Redemption. However there is one game that made me think as much as the author did in terms of his points and that was Just Cause 2. Just Cause 2 is fun to muck around with but overall the game lacked depth to me. Compared to Just Cause 2, Red Dead Redemptions story is a godsend!

[Bboy_Izilla]

This guy gets it.

[DarthMoose]

Why bash a game when the game isn't even the type of game our into? Gtfo with your fail opinion.

[GiNJAXL]

This article proves one thing and one thing only. The person who wrote it doesn't know what the F@CK he's talking about.

[Vortex3D]

The thing about open world narrative is you can sidetrack to play the side quests while the main story quest "time" simply freezes waiting for you to continue. I have played games that I'll be at the point of the main story where the bad guys are waiting next door and I can simply walk out from the main story and spend as much time as I want to play the side quests or wondering around while the bad guy from the main story quest simply freezes in time waiting for me.

An example is right at the last moment of the Fallout 3 before the bad guys take over the water purifier after I have killed all their soldiers, and I can simply leave the place and go to play other side quests while the bad guys at the water purifier simply standing around waiting for me to attack. Of course it makes no sense with the flow of the main story by doing this.

What open world games need to do is once the player reaches certain point in the main story quest that cannot wait, the player cannot walk away to play other side quests. Also the main story time cannot wait for the player to wonder off. I can see gamers complaining that it makes the game too linear. Well, if the main story quest is linear, the gameplay must be linear or it wouldn't make any sense. Also it does make proper leveling harder if the character hasn't reached certain skill, proper weapon or armors. This can be solve by forcing the player to go further back into the game chapter before getting to close to the point of no return.

[Bboy_Izilla]

This was actually pretty darn constructive.

Like I said, RDR definitely deserves all the awards it'll more than likely receive around Game of the Year time [which is weird considering I've been accused of bashing the game], but I'm entertaining the idea of what makes that 'happy balance' of a story that draws the player in...as well as a world that has just enough sidequests that doesn't detract from the story.

[wollie]

good ideas vortex. And thats why I prefer linear games. They just feel more realistic and there stories make sense.