This year has seen the release of three great open-world games: Dying Light 2, Horizon Forbidden West, and Elden Ring. What do they all have in common? And what do they all do differently? This week, Kirk shares his new taxonomy for open worlds in video games and the Triple Click crew figures out what they like most in an open world.

One More Thing: 

Kirk: Public Defenders

Maddy: Elden Ring

Jason: Steam Deck

Links:

Steven Lumpkin's Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/Silent0siris/status/1498408412555747333

Maddy’s articles about getting into Elden Ring: https://www.polygon.com/22948213/should-i-play-elden-ring-dark-souls-fromsoft-easy-hard and parkour in Dying Light 2: https://www.polygon.com/22941196/dying-light-2-stay-human-climbing-parkour-techland

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ECOTAG: Kirk’s Open-World Personality Test

Video game open worlds can be broadly thought of according to three metrics: Emergent vs. Controlled, Opaque vs.Transparent, and Aesthetic vs. Gamey. IMPORTANT: These are gradients, not on/off switches, and they’re for categorizing the open worlds, not the games as a whole.

EMERGENT→ CONTROLLED (How dynamic/simulated is the open world?)

OPAQUE → TRANSPARENT (How mysterious is the open world?)

AESTHETIC → GAMEY  (How involved is movement through the open world?)

SOME EXAMPLES

• Dying Light 2 = ETG (Emergent, Transparent, Gamey)
• Horizon Forbidden West = CTA (Controlled, Transparent, Aesthetic)
• Elden Ring = COA (Controlled, Opaque, Aesthetic)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 = EOA (Emergent, Opaque, Aesthetic)
• Outer Wilds = COG (Controlled, Opaque, Gamey (Jason convinced me))
• Gravity Rush: CTG 
• Cyberpunk 2077:CTA (people expected more of an ETA or EOA)
• Subnautica: EOG
• Skyrim: EOA
• Forza Horizon 5: CTG 
• Divinity Original Sin 2: COA
• Sunset Overdrive: CTG 
• Ghost of Tsushima = CTA
• BOTW = EOG
• GTAV = EOA
• Assassin’s Creed = CTG (becoming more CTA lately)
• Ghost recon = CTA
• Minecraft = EOG