10 Open World Video Games That Mock You For Exploring
Sure, you can look around, but don't go TOO far.
Transcript
00:00So what's the one word that most people associate with open-world video games? Bloat? Ubisoft?
00:06No, it's exploration. Because what is the point of open-world video games if they don't
00:10grant the player the opportunity to freely explore their beautiful, expansive world as
00:15they see fit?
00:16But you know what? Some of these games will actually punish or straight-up mock those
00:20who get a little overzealous with their wandering. So let's have a chat about them as I'm
00:24Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Open World Video Games That Mock You
00:28For Exploring
00:2910. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
00:32Bread and butter of the Grand Theft Auto franchise has been the appeal of giving players a massive
00:36open-world sandbox and just letting them tear it up however they see fit. Except, in San
00:42Andreas, Rockstar had an odd, slightly hilarious punishment for anyone who got a little bit
00:46over-ambitious and attempted to access areas of the game world that hadn't been unlocked
00:50yet through the story. If you're playing the game as Rockstar intends, you need to
00:54complete 27 missions in Los Santos before accessing San Fierro, and 64 before unlocking
00:59Las Venturas. But that doesn't mean you can't just swim to these places before that.
01:04However, doing so will result in you instantly receiving a four-star wanted level, ensuring
01:08the near-full might of the San Andreas Police Department quickly comes crashing down on
01:12you. Granted, cops like Tenpenny and Hernandez tell you not to leave Los Santos in the early
01:17stages of the game for good reason, but when Rockstar dropped players in the middle of
01:20such a rich, gorgeous world, did they really expect them to be patient and wait for it
01:24all to open up organically?
01:269. Fallout 4
01:28Fallout 4's unforgettable opening sequence sees the protagonist forced to take shelter
01:32in Vault 111, once the bombs start dropping. But what about those adventurous players who
01:36wanted to take a peek around their suburban neighbourhood of Sanctuary Hills before it's
01:40forever transformed into an irradiated wasteland? And, more to the point, what about those who
01:45want to see what lies beyond the confines of this town? The game is generous enough
01:49not to strictly funnel you towards the vault, but for anyone who attempts to leave Sanctuary
01:53Hills and go further afield, they're met with perhaps the most cruelly mocking invisible
01:57wall in video game history.
01:59If you thought that a four-star wanted level in San Andreas was bad, in Fallout 4 walking
02:03past a certain invisible boundary will trigger the nuke's detonation, instantly killing
02:07the player. Basically, you're forced to either progress the story forward by heading
02:11to the vault, or hang out in a small patch of your neighbourhood until the end of time.
02:15It's tough to decide, which sounds more nightmarish, honestly.
02:188. The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
02:21On the face of it, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is a game that absolutely rewards
02:25players who venture off the beaten track and explore every last square inch of Hyrule's
02:29lovingly rendered open world. Hell, the game even lets you make a beeline straight to the
02:33final boss, Ganon, immediately after the brief opening prologue section. But this is also
02:37a game that, for all its apparent celebration of player freedom, has a rather perverse,
02:41even cruel regard for those who wander off from the very start. You see, players who
02:45extensively explore the game's first area, the Great Plateau, are likely to find themselves
02:49soon enough getting summarily spanked by grossly overpowered enemies. In the early going, you've
02:54got just a few hearts of health to your name, and you're going to die a hell of a lot,
02:58which is effectively Nintendo's way of not-so-subtly nudging you towards shrines to help build
03:02out your character. As inviting as the game's world might seem, it's surprisingly punishing
03:07of players who just want to take a stroll in a random direction and soak in the sights.
03:11That is to say, prepare to die.
03:137. Far Cry 6
03:15Much as the Far Cry games are all about exploring vast locations and ticking off everything
03:20on the Ubisoft open world checklist, Far Cry 6 had a ridiculous surprise for those who
03:24attempted to see how far away from the Caribbean island of Yara they could actually get. In
03:28step with the series' many alternate or joke endings, Far Cry 6 allows players to
03:32get in a boat and just sail away from the area before they've bothered to confront
03:36the local dictator. But in order to hammer home that the game really, really doesn't
03:41want you to sail off the map into the endless expanse of the Caribbean Ocean, as beautiful
03:44as it looks, you'll receive an on-screen warning that you're leaving the area and
03:48urging you to turn around. If you ignore that message, though, you'll be treated to an
03:52ending cinematic set three months later, where the protagonist is shown relaxing on a beach
03:57in Miami, beer in hand, while a radio news report reveals that the dictator has defeated
04:01the guerrilla uprising and solidified his iron grip over the nation. Basically, this
04:06thoroughly tongue-in-cheek ending gently shames you for taking the easy way out, showing you
04:10what would become of the area without your committed intervention.
04:136. Prototype
04:15Cult fave action-adventure game Prototype takes place in the virus-obliterated Manhattan,
04:19where the US military attempts to contain the outbreak by blocking all exits from Manhattan
04:24Island. But nobody could blame you for paying a visit to one of Manhattan's most iconic
04:28landmarks, the Manhattan Bridge. But if you dare to get close enough, you'll find yourself
04:32bombarded with a battery from the assembled marines, who have set up base on the bridge
04:36and really, really do not want you to cross it. Yet given that protagonist Alex Mercer
04:40is himself a superhuman shapeshifter, the player is absolutely able to vault past the
04:44military blockade and try to cross the bridge in order to reach downtown Brooklyn.
04:49To stop players from doing this, though, you won't merely be assailed with an increasingly
04:52aggressive barrage of missiles, the camera will also shift to an awkward distant angle
04:56perspective where you take up just a small portion of the screen. Evidently, this is
05:00a rather passive-aggressive move by developers Radical Entertainment to try and coax you
05:04back to Manhattan proper, by simply refusing to let the camera play ball and follow you
05:08to the end of the bloody bridge.
05:105. The Crew
05:12For all of its many issues, The Crew features an impressively scaled-down open-world rendering
05:17of the United States, naturally prompting many players to ponder what might happen if
05:21they attempt to cross the border. Though the game doesn't feature a Canadian border crossing,
05:25there is one for Mexico. And alas, Ubisoft understandably appreciated that players might
05:29try to cross it, and so beyond merely erecting a border crossing area that is just impossible
05:34to penetrate, they had a little extra fun with it at our expense.
05:37You see, if you try to drive through the barrier, FBI agent Zoe Winters will pipe up and throw
05:42some shade at your greediness, asking you, what, the whole USA isn't big enough for
05:46you? Come on, people were just trying to go there, right? Besides, that slightly catty
05:50message from Zoe didn't stop some players from figuring out how to glitch their way
05:53past the barrier and drive around in the out-of-bounds regardless.
05:574. Ghost of Tsushima
05:59Ghost of Tsushima's eye-wateringly beautiful Tsushima Island just begs to be explored.
06:04And though Sucker Punch certainly permits that to a point, they don't want you to
06:07visit certain story-related camps too early and risk breaking the game. And so if you
06:12reach a camp that's going to be featured later on in the campaign, you'll receive
06:15a message warning you that you are entering an area of overwhelming enemy forces. Hilariously,
06:20this generally amounts to the game festooning you with an unrelenting flurry of arrows from
06:24all directions, seemingly fired by a fleet of invisible officers.
06:28As some players have discovered, if you're unlucky enough to jump into an offending camp
06:32while equipped with a certain set of armour and restorative charms, you might get catapulted
06:36into the air by the arrows and juggled there in perpetuity, unable to die. This is all
06:41just the game blatantly telling you to stay out of this area and come back later, but
06:45there surely had to be a less mean, less immersion-breaking way to do this, right?
06:493. Sunset Overdrive
06:51Sunset Overdrive actually boasts one of the most amusingly creative and self-aware implementation
06:56of invisible walls in video game history, given that company Physco erects an in-universe
07:01barrier in Sunset City to try and contain the outbreak of mutant overcharge drinkers
07:05running riot there. Hilariously, if you bother to reach the end of the game's map, you'll
07:10be met with an invisible wall that's literally Physco-branded, with the message, Invisible
07:14Wall, Security Provided by Physco, emblazoned on the transparent boundary.
07:19The invisible walls also get a memorable mention in the game's main story, where ex-Physco
07:23security guard Walter attempts to escape the city via helicopter and, uh, crashes
07:27straight into the wall, killing himself in the process. Clearly the message from Insomniac
07:31Games here is, have fun, but remember, there are limitations.
07:342. Anthem
07:36Much has been written about how BioWare's much-anticipated shared-world-action RPG Anthem
07:41was rushed out the door by EA long before it was done cooking. The game was sold on
07:45the thrill of getting to don an Iron Man-esque armoured suit with three of your pals and
07:49fly around the game world defending humanity from monstrous forces, and yet the game's
07:54aggressively restrictive design felt like a slap in the face to anyone actually keen
07:57to explore.
07:58Despite offering up a lush open world, Anthem's multiplayer gameplay was massively undone
08:03by a tethering system, where while teaming up with other human players, you're forced
08:07to maintain close proximity to them for fear of a warning message being displayed. Couple
08:10this with a totally pointless overheating mechanic which limits the amount of time you
08:14can spend flying in one go, and it feels like BioWare were actively trying to stop players
08:18from doing the very thing this game was marketed upon.
08:21Oh, you wanna fly around this gorgeous world we've made, totally unrestricted? Yeah,
08:25nah, that's not gonna happen. That Anthem was ultimately a critical and commercial flop
08:28is, well, the least surprising thing ever.
08:311. SpongeBob SquarePants Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated
08:36SpongeBob SquarePants Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated is admittedly a game that you're
08:40not in any way supposed to take seriously, and in that stead, players who got a little
08:44overzealous with their exploring and ventured too far off the beaten path will get a little
08:48helping hand from the game itself. While playing as SpongeBob, Patrick, or Sandy, if you reach
08:53the boundary of the game world, the human hand of Sailor Hands, a character who appeared
08:56in the first few of the show's episodes, though is never shown as more than a hand,
09:00will slide onto the screen and drag you away, forcing the game to restart from the nearest
09:04checkpoint. It's a pretty clever and distinctly SpongeBob way to implement invisible walls
09:08without straight up having the player just collide with them, acknowledging both the
09:12game's limitations and the player's overenthusiastic inquisitiveness in one funny fell swoop.