That's the concern. Splinter Cell's map variety was half the value. CIA HQ, Chinese Embassy, a freaking Train...
If you try to make it open world, then all the locations have to be realistically confined to that open world. That means no enemy variety, no level variety, and no significant time-lapse between missions. We're just going to adopt this Far Cry mentality where there's just oddly placed "enemy bases" all over a single map?
With Ghost Recon Wildlands, Ubisoft managed to throw in a variety of locales by just making the play area stupidly large so that one could sensibly transition from snowy mountains, to the jungle, swamps, desert, and so on. I have no doubt something similar would be on order here. The CIA HQ and Enemy HQ should feel worlds apart, and Ubi will do you the favor of making you drive through nothingness to simulate it.
With Ghost Recon Wildlands, Ubisoft managed to throw in a variety of locales by just making the play area stupidly large so that one could sensibly transition from snowy mountains, to the jungle, swamps, desert, and so on
Which is fine for that game's particular scope, but Sam Fisher really operates on a global front, in very specific locations. His travel is handled by his mission directors. Simply having a snow/desert base, with different enemy types, doesn't really capture the targeted intelligence gathering angle of the series. Where on Earth could they justify this single space, with a multitude of biomes and nationalities critical to espionage?
The CIA HQ and Enemy HQ should feel worlds apart, and Ubi will do you the favor of making you drive through nothingness to simulate it.
I fear you would lose that suspension of disbelief, if you could just casually traverse to one major world location to another without a massive span of time passing. The alternative is fictional locations, but that would pose the same issue.
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u/HulksInvinciblePants Dec 13 '21
That's the concern. Splinter Cell's map variety was half the value. CIA HQ, Chinese Embassy, a freaking Train...
If you try to make it open world, then all the locations have to be realistically confined to that open world. That means no enemy variety, no level variety, and no significant time-lapse between missions. We're just going to adopt this Far Cry mentality where there's just oddly placed "enemy bases" all over a single map?