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[Recommend ON] Games with exploration
Dr Snofeld
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Short version: Recommend me games like Metroid Prime.
Long, rambling, poorly phrased version: One of my favourite things to do in a game is explore. You know, wandering around, seeing something and deciding "I'm gonna go there right now!", that sort of thing. Or being dropped in a world and given no real briefing, but having to find your way around.
The former I find in games like STALKER or Oblivion. Morrowind especially, though I'm loathe to start it up again because I always end up playing the same swords-and-light-armour character. Any fun character builds would be appreciated. Also in the Zelda games to a lesser extent.
The latter is exemplified by the Metroid series, which I very much like. The Metroid Prime series especially, since they're usually a bit more sedate. I just finished MP3, I have a copy of MP1 being delivered soon (I had it before but traded it in) and I never got far in MP2 because BOOST GUARDIAN!!! But I love getting a new powerup and thinking "oh, I can go to that area I saw a while ago!" or entering a new area and seeing new sights.
So I'm interested in games in which exploration is a major factor. I have a PC, Wii, PS2, N64 and DS, all PAL systems (except the DS and PC of course). What can you guys recommend?
Long, rambling, poorly phrased version: One of my favourite things to do in a game is explore. You know, wandering around, seeing something and deciding "I'm gonna go there right now!", that sort of thing. Or being dropped in a world and given no real briefing, but having to find your way around.
The former I find in games like STALKER or Oblivion. Morrowind especially, though I'm loathe to start it up again because I always end up playing the same swords-and-light-armour character. Any fun character builds would be appreciated. Also in the Zelda games to a lesser extent.
The latter is exemplified by the Metroid series, which I very much like. The Metroid Prime series especially, since they're usually a bit more sedate. I just finished MP3, I have a copy of MP1 being delivered soon (I had it before but traded it in) and I never got far in MP2 because BOOST GUARDIAN!!! But I love getting a new powerup and thinking "oh, I can go to that area I saw a while ago!" or entering a new area and seeing new sights.
So I'm interested in games in which exploration is a major factor. I have a PC, Wii, PS2, N64 and DS, all PAL systems (except the DS and PC of course). What can you guys recommend?
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DS games are region free so it's not technically a PAL system, is what I think he meant.
As for exploration games, the whole Myst series is basically exploration of fantastical but uninhabited islands with some puzzle-solving.
Sneaky..
i wouldn't bother with circle of the moon, the rest are great though, plus there's the new one out soon.
i hear cave story is similar too or something, never bothered with it though that on pc and there's aquaria too
Create your own animations at Fuzzwich!
seriously
The future is looking good for these kind of games. Let's jump in my time machine so we can go play Spore and Fallout 3 and Borderlands and perhaps even Sacred 2.
Seriously, for a game that that dumbed down everything that made Privateer great, there were a fuckton of systems and very pretty places to go.
Otherwise, I'd recommend Seiklus It's pretty much all about exploration. It's impossible to die in the game (that I found anyway, and I even tried on a few occasions just to see). I actually found it very relaxing and laid back to play. All you're doing is going around this weird little world collecting different coloured baubles so you can get back home. Again, indie / freeware.
It's a real shame too. I was waiting for so long for an expansion pack that would expand on the core gameplay mechanics. The rest of the game was there, and I thought the singeplayer was pretty fun and well done as well. It just needed more mission types and more stuff to do.
Although I have to admit, going online with it gave the game a much more open and free-form feel. It was almost like a mini MMO, with around 100 players per server, just carrying out their careers or joining up with others to do stuff.
It was always fun finding an abandoned wreck somewhere in a disused shipping lane that you followed.
This also goes for Cave Story, although the style of the game is very reminiscent of Metroid. The emphasis is heavier on the platforming and combat, less on figuring out where to go or what you need to do.
All of that is just my opinion, of course.
I saw Steambot Chronicles in Gamestation a few weeks ago, decided to look it up when I got home to see if it was any good, and promptly forgot all about it. It did look more like Dark Chronicle to me though. Which isn't a bad thing, since I love that game with a passion.
Arx Fatalis I played a demo of ages ago, quite enjoyed it, since I was able to look past the aged visuals and interface. (I think my bar for graphics quality is naturally set lower than a lot of people. When I got my new PC and ran Bioshock with all the graphics options up my head a splode.) Though the demo ends after the tutorial area, so I don't know how open or linear the main game is.
Shadow of the Colossus is another game I've been interested in. The demo really impressed me ages ago. Would it be worth getting Ico too?
See that roach? That's you. Your job, (for lack of anything better to do since you got turned into a roach) is to scour a seedy bar/motel for clues as to how to return to your normal form. The whole place is like a creepy Kafka-esque reflection of the characters that pop up in the game.
Such a great game. And even though it came out in like 1996, the Bad Mojo Redux version came out in 2004, so it shouldn't be too hard to find.
Ka-Chung!
Ka-Chung!
It's an indy game for PC as well, has metroid style upgrades with lots of wall climbing, huge worlds and beautiful music. There's tons of levels for the game at the official website, but the main ones are pretty much the best.
It's like a big piece of art in world form.
This is why I recommended R&C.
And that is why I've played them :P.
Cept Gladiator and the PS3 one.
Assuming you mean Deadlocked (the last PS2 one) it is much less platform-y and exploration-y and much more shooter-y. The PS3 one goes back to its roots though.
Freelancer with the Discovery mod maybe? There's a thread around here somewhere.
I've never heard of Everblue 2 or Etrian Odyssey. What're they like?
And yeah, Ratchet: Gladiator is the PAL name for Deadlocked. They all have different names here. For example, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is just Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction.
Mass Effect's on my to-buy list too.
You could always go off the beaten path and get something like skate. You can explore the city on your skateboard. I really dig exploration in games myself and as long as you're not looking up where the best places to skate are then you're really finding your own way and seeing your own lines in the architecture.
I post a topic about how I like games where you find items and use them to explore more.
And then I get stuck in Metroid Fusion.
Bomb the floor.
It's threads like these that make me wish Assassin's Creed had a 'no-story, just everything unlocked!' mode. I would love to go clambering about on shit at the end of the game with no repurcussions.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
I'd go on as to why, but I may as well link the Eurogamer review which says most of the reasons.
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=2734
You really can't go wrong with Shadow of the Colossus either, though. Both games blow their peers right out of the water. In their sleep.
Make sure you mod it, though; the ones you really need are Better Bodies, which makes everyone look like an actual real person instead of a horrible sausage monster, Changing Faces Replacer, a huge mod that replaces every head in the game with new ones that look fantastic and actually use less polygons than the original Morrowind models, and Cliffracer Extinction. Ask any fan of the game why the last one is necessary, they'll tell you. Fuck Cliffracers.
I admit I have never played Morrowind
Dragon Quest VIII has a pretty expansive world to explore, and when its entirety opens up you get a real genuine sense of striking out on a journey.
During any normal playthrough you'll fight about 17 gajillion cliffracers. They suck. Cliffracer Extinction makes them stop spawning after you've killed 100 of them as I recall.
But once you go past that point, they begin to spawn in two ways.
1. Randomly.
2. Every time you level up, in groups of 10 to 20.
Another thing is they can somehow detect you from 6 miles away, so unless you stay completely on Vvardenfell's coastline for the entire game, you will be fucking HOUNDED by them whenever you dare to step outside a city, cave, or generic dwelling. Since you spend a good deal of Morrowind tromping about outside, and away from the coast, this is a big fucking problem.
The solutions to this are either getting rid of them through mods, which nobody begrudges you for, or simply never leveling up past 5. You can only get your skills so high this way, though, since your attributes only level when you do and you can't train a skill past it's governing attribute.
I feel bad for the people who had to play this on the Xbox; doubly so because of the terrible character models. You can glitch yourself to be godpowerful at the very beginning of the game, there, though, so mabye it's not too awful.
Also, I didn't see Morrowind in the original post. But play it again. Or get Daggerfall, it's arguably better if you can get it running on a newer computer. As for interesting characters, try playing a pure mage and then turning yourself into a Vampire. Mage part optional, because good fucking luck using nothing but magic the whole game.
You have to have an extremely high personality to be able to do anything with Vampirism, and if you've cured yourself of Corpus you'd probably have to give it to yourself with the console, so watch out for that.
There are also a lot of mods out there for your general interests of chaos and destruction, including one that lets you burn structures down. Oh, the Telvanni towers I set fire to.
God, I'm gonna go play it again right now.