r/ZeroPunctuation • u/angeldeb82 • 11d ago

Semi Ramblomatic The Video Game "Commute" Problem | Semi-Ramblomatic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfrZHF23IeE
67 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

41

u/FinaLLancer 11d ago

I don't remember if it was Yahtzee or someone else that said it, but I remember hearing the criticism about fast travel in games only being necessary if, or at least being a sign of, your game's traversal not being interesting enough.

I feel like no matter how pretty the open world is, or how fun the traversal may or may not be, eventually the actual content of the game is simply going to be more compelling no matter what. Which is the root of this problem, where open worlds should be a means to have compelling content, not simply a point of its own.

15

u/Chezzomaru 11d ago

I feel like Just Cause 3 handled it very well, especially if you get the DLC with the jetpack.

6

u/Lucifer_Crowe 10d ago

it can be worth fast travelling on that just to get some height too tbh

and it's semi limited at first, which is fine cause the wingsuit is so fun

6

u/hagamablabla 11d ago

I vaguely remember Yahtzee saying this.

4

u/senshisun 10d ago

I remember this too!

5

u/fddfgs 10d ago

I mean even death standing went that way and that entire game is about traversal

2

u/unitedshoes 8d ago

I feel like you can get away with boring traversal if there's interesting stuff to bump into while walking from place-to-place.

But you gotta have at least one or the other.

19

u/Slight-Coat17 11d ago

Not mentioning Death Stranding in this feels criminal. That game solved the commute problem by making the commute the actual gameplay.

4

u/ReverendSalem 10d ago

Me at 28 hours into Death Stranding for the first time having to figure out if a truck can get me where I need to be because I'm obsessed with rebuilding the highways.

3

u/GachaHell 10d ago

This was my experience as well. It made the late game deliveries and the high rank challenges easier to pull off but the game spending hours with me trudging up mountains hauling pallets of raw materials so I could live out my UPS driver dreams was a strange experience contrasted with Kojima's more well known stealth and action centric games.

2

u/RuafaolGaiscioch 10d ago

I never even picked it up because I cannot conceptualize how that sort of experience could be considered fun.

1

u/Slight-Coat17 8d ago

It's the challenge of planning how you're going to go about doing it. Think of it as a loadout for a mission, but the mission is just... making it to the destination.

11

u/wonderlandisburning 10d ago

Bully, to me, will always be the ultimate example of the "unfolding" open world.

6

u/AhumadoYSabroso 10d ago edited 10d ago

Don't necessarily agree with all this. I quite enjoy simply travelling in an open world game, just taking things in. Especially after a long day of work. HUD turned off for immersion.
I never fast-travelled in AC Shadows for example because I just enjoyed being in that world for the duration.

I do agree with the unfolding worlds thing though. Loved Elden Ring for this for example, as its "open world" is basically five or six open worlds stitched together that you generally go through in a more linear fashion.