Open world games.
Everybody loves them - even the contrarians, although of course they'd never admit it.
Such games are immensely popular today, with examples of all genres giving the player freedom
to roam their worlds.
This open-ended design helps permit non-linear play, can help paint the illusion of a living,
breathing world - and can otherwise serve as a great outlet for any pent-up stress.
So, what was the first truly open-world game?
What other titles set the standard along the way?
And what makes them so popular today?
'Open world' is a broad description, and quite a few interpretations can fit.
Generally the term implies a departure from conventional level-based structure, and instead
the freedom to explore a game without a particular goal.
Barriers and invisible walls have only a limited presence - and any activities are offered
as an elective palette.
Today, the formula is very common - and permeates multiple categories.
In the wake of the hugely popular Minecraft, a more open-ended style of survival play has
become very popular - often with a social twist.
In such cases the world is more a backdrop to player interaction, and a means to disperse
vital resources within.
Games like DayZ and their potential for emergent events are a perfect fit for YouTube, helping
to ensure their popularity - held aloft by multiplayer antics with viral appeal.
Free roaming worlds are also the perfect avenue for Superhero wish-fulfilment: games like
Crackdown, Prototype and Infamous give the player immense power amidst an urban environment.
It's a formula that can work very well, and will make a comic book world come to life
when leveraged effectively - Arkham Asylum's tight combat and gadget-laden stealth definitely
set a high water mark for Batman games.
With the popularity of first person shooters, the existence of open world FPS should come
as no surprise.
Rather than cramming the player into a linear series of corridors, games like Borderlands
or the STALKER series grant a much larger map to explore, with tasks distributed within.
The Far Cry series is perhaps the pioneer of open world FPS: while the first had a linear
mission structure, the environment was broad and obstacles could be tackled in multiple
ways.
All of these modern open world games are an offshoot of one particularly influential franchise:
a game that single-handedly created a new genre - and still the gold standard for free-roaming
mayhem:
Grand Theft Auto.
It has inspired a thousand clones, and forged an instantly recognisable formula: driving,
shooting, a core story divided into missions - and a plethora of collectibles and mini-games
to serve as diversion between.
It was Grand Theft Auto III that first established many of these conventions: a bold step into
the third dimension, and one that led to a surge of mainstream popularity.
The ability to see Liberty City at street level instead of the earlier top-down view
rendered the world convincing, and its driving, shooting and action seamless.
It wasn't the first attempt at making a 3D city come to life: Games like Driver and Midtown
Madness both had freeform driving action: Shenmue was a trailblazer for on-foot city
exploration, and DMA themselves first tested the 3D waters with Body Harvest for the N64.
Although set in a less realistic world than Grand Theft Auto, it did have similar sandbox
gameplay - and the ability to drive a variety of vehicles.
A game like GTA III was inevitable - but it took the expertise and budget at Rockstar's
disposal to clear the ambitious technical hurdles.
A definitive prototype for the future.
The perfect union of available technology, rockstar developer - and boundless mayhem.
Of course, its open world wasn't the first.
The original Grand Theft Auto and its sequel had less impressive graphics than the later
3D universe - but still, the basic conventions were established here.
With a quest-based structure taken from RPGs, arcade driving, cinematic explosions and classic
shoot-em-up action: despite being forged from disparate elements, the GTA formula is greater
than the sum of its parts.
There aren't too many 3D action sandbox games that came before: one attempt ahead of its
time was Hunter, an open-ended military sim with full polygonal 3D graphics and multiple
drivable vehicles - released in 1991.
Hugely ambitious, innovative and daring in scope - truly a pioneer - but is Hunter the
very first to offer an expansive world and open-ended gameplay?
Far from it.
Driving games are a natural fit for an open world: when you can go anywhere, you'll get
there faster in a car.
The potential scope of a road trip can demand a very large map: from the American caricature
seen in The Crew to the long-haul Euro Truck Sim 2, the potential to drive across an entire
continent is always impressive.
Few can compare to the world scale seen in FUEL - but while the game was vast, its lands
were barren.
The more modest map of Burnout Paradise made for a richer experience - and the perfect
fusion of arcade action with open exploration.
Such games follow in a long line of open-world arcade racers: The Need for Speed series,
Midnight Club, and Driver all emerged at a similar time: the racing elements familiar,
but the exploration all-new.
This spate of freeform racers near the millennium can be pinned on the success of the first
Grand Theft Auto: and the realisation that being given the keys to a city - along with
an exotic car - is awfully good fun.
Earlier driving titles stuck to a simple race-centric structure, but there are some exceptions - Vette!
is an example, granting free movement about a virtual San Francisco - but it isn't the
first.
1986's Turbo Esprit was a particularly ambitious game for the 8-bit home micros, its depiction
of city driving basic - but more realistic than anything before.
Ahead of its time - but was Turbo Esprit the first open world game?
Close, but not quite.
Like the open road, the expansive nature of space makes it a perfect fit for any mercenary
to roam free.
Long a staple of PC gaming, space exploration games are seeing a recent revival with titles
like Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous - a modern update to the games that helped define
the golden era of PC gaming in the 90s.
It was a great time for fans of spacefaring, and the sparse nature of space suited the
limited 3D graphics of the time.
Popular franchises like Wing Commander were early jewels in PC gaming's crown - but the
popularity of space-themed titles can be traced to one particular game.
The key pioneer of intergalactic trading and exploration emerged in glorious wireframe
on the 8-bit machines of the early 80s: the seminal Elite.
Cramming an impossibly massive space into mere kilobytes, it was a triumph of efficient
programming - and a genre-defining hit.
Between space port trading, ship-to-ship combat, hyperspace and close encounters with the mysterious
Thargoids, there's much to do - and ample opportunity for a unique player story to unfurl.
So, is Elite's freedom to traverse galaxies the very first example of an open world game?
Almost.
We draw close, but another genre entirely plays the prime role in the formative days
of free roaming.
Computer RPGs have a long history, with emergent fantasy stories lending themselves particularly
well to interactive entertainment.
Exploration and adventure go together very well indeed.
An open world is an expectation in games like The Elder Scrolls series, and the slice of
Tamriel Skyrim delivers serves up much of the game's charm: from snowy mountainside
to dank draugr cave, the scenery is an essential part of the story.
Japanese RPGs are a different breed - but exploration is one of the things they have
in common with their Western kin.
A free roaming overworld is a regular occurrence, such as in the Final Fantasy franchise: the
perfect place for endless random encounters.
The Legend of Zelda is a particularly influential game that helped to establish this overworld
and dungeon convention.
Progress is made in a relatively linear way, but along your quest you are free to explore:
and while some obstacles may impede your progress, you're not always forced to head towards a
goal.
Player freedom is an important aspect of a believable RPG - their escapist appeal hinges
on an ability to choose where you go next.
What good is an adventure if you're forced down a single path?
The definitive standard for the Western RPG during the eighties and early 90s was the
Ultima series.
Their impressive scope and rich world won over a sizeable fanbase, and the series has
helped to establish many of the conventions that persist in role-playing games seen today.
The first entry arrived in 1981, with Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness - and while the
graphics are simple, the top-down tiles are far more attractive than any text adventure.
Not much else from the era could match it, and so the legend began: A sturdy foundation
for what would go on to become a kingdom.
With its world broad and dungeons deep, is Ultima the very first open-world title?
It very possibly is - but definitions begin to unravel.
How open does a world have to be before its open?
There are plenty of RPGs which predate Ultima: principally centred on dungeon crawling, like
Ultima's own prequel Akalabeth; the procedurally generated Rogue; or very early examples designed
for academic mainframes like dnd.
United by their origin, we see a departure from a virtual space, and a transition to
pen and paper instead.
Stemming from a love of adventure and exploration, developers have long striven to create living,
breathing worlds.
Today, technology permits more impressive and expansive environments than ever before
- and there's no shortage of games made in this mould.
A land without limits.
A place where imagination rules supreme.
An open world is a beautiful thing.
Thank you very much for watching - and until next time, farewell.