I have a friend who’s scared of big plates, no, it doesn’t make much sense to me either, but here me out: If she sees a big plate full of food, she’ll lose her appetite, and even feel sick, no matter how hungry she was. To be honest, that’s insane, a big plate of food is meant to be enjoyed, and if I can’t finish it, I won’t, it’s not a big deal. I couldn’t think of a single thing where I struggle getting started because I can’t see the end, but going through my old unfinished games, I found something.
So far, I have put around thirty hours into Just Cause 2, a fun if slightly repetitive sand box game. In that time I have completed two main missions, and a dozen or so side missions, but the rest of the time playing it I’ve spent exploring the absolutely enormous island, filled with over three hundred locations to explore (and destroy). Finding this old gem, I had no idea why I had ever stopped, it was great fun and I was nowhere near finished, so I put it on.
That’s then it hit me, I loaded the game, opened up the map and saw it. Don’t get me wrong, I love open world games, I can’t get enough of exploring new and exotic locations, but when I saw the map, my stomach lurched. A bit less than thirty hours, over one hundred locations discovered and this is all I had done, one measly coast and a romp through the desert!? This game was just too big, I couldn’t ever explore it all, so why should I try again. There’s a whole mountain range I haven’t touched, and what I can only assume is a jungle to the south, then there’s me, one tiny speck in corner looking at all.
It turns out I have exactly the same problem as my friend and plates of food, a game that’s to big feels almost impossible to start. Once I saw my pathetic progress in Just Cause, the wool was lifted from my eyes. Maybe this was why I had never been such a huge fan of JRPGs? Maybe MMOs were just too big for my mind to cope with, rather than because I could never be arsed to get past the opening dull missions? Hell even the PC version of Minecraft has me on edge.
Games like Skyrim and Far Cry 3, are some of my favourites of this gen. I can explore to my hearts content, I can see the map expanding with each step, and eventually I will reach the other side. I completed Far Cry 3 in weeks, savouring every relic I uncovered and every cave I explored. With Skyrim, well, I completed it as much as I wanted: Having spent eighty hours walking from one side of the map to the other and back again I had seen as much as I could see, and was ultimately distracted by other games, though I really should go back and see what the Greybeards wanted to see me about…
But back to the point, is the issue of size something that can be fixed? Well yes, but it isn’t the developers fault, it’s mine. I’m afraid my amazing virtual skills for navigation will be found wanting in such a big world, afraid the satisfaction of discovering all there is to be discovered is just too far away. I play games for the challenge, don’t get me wrong, but there’s not much more soul destroying than completely failing, and by that I don’t mean simply losing, at entertainment. I’ll die a million times over on CoD or Battlefield, but I will not get lost in the desert of Red Dead Redemption. Hopefully I can improve, I overcome this mind block that forms when I see a horizon beyond the horizon. Sandbox games should be huge, they should be endless and brilliantly fun to explore, they should take hours to unlock the secrets too. Smaller worlds tend to feel limited and tedious, although Fable and its sequels were fun at first, the free roaming felt like little more than choosing which predetermined path to follow, with the enticement of the unknown quickly fading. So I’ve got my map, and my grappling hook, and I won’t rest until I find made a dent in the massive expanse before me, then maybe, I’ll start on the rest of my pile of shame.
Contact me on twitter @RoshKelly1
– Tell me what you think, good, bad or an unstoppably powerful meh!
Lava Lamp Goo 