We're not still getting hyped on map size alone in open world games are we?
Based off what I saw I'm not convinced they can fit all of that or even most of it with meaningful content. Expecting a lot of repetitive side missions so you can get exp to get those unlocks.
The whole city's reachable rooftops* will be playable, surely?
I wonder how varied they'll be.
Personally Dying Light got tiresome to play until I got the grappling hook. Don't really want a big map if I'm running everywhere
I was really sceptical too but after the beta I stopped being so. It was so wonderful to just be let loose with Faith's abilities, and having to actually think about your route was really fun. By the end of the beta I had started to memorise bridges across the larger gaps and routes that would take me places quickly etc. I genuinely felt like I was learning the map rather than just content tourism like so many open world games where you just see a new area once to climb the tower and then never go back.
Well, there are 3 districts:
The View:
https://media.mirrorsedge.com/content/www-mirrorsedge/en_US/wallpapers/mec-wallpaper-24/_jcr_content/media/renditions/rendition1.img.jpg
Anchor:
https://media.mirrorsedge.com/content/www-mirrorsedge/en_US/wallpapers/mec-wallpaper-27/_jcr_content/media/renditions/rendition1.img.jpg
And Downtown (the one in the Beta):
https://media.mirrorsedge.com/content/www-mirrorsedge/en_US/wallpapers/mec-wallpaper-26/_jcr_content/media/renditions/rendition1.img.jpg
Charter Hill, Concord Plaza, Centurian Yards and Triumvirate Drive are part of Downtown.
Shimmering Heights, Crystal Valley and Eden Village are part of Anchor.
Ocean Pier and Regatta Bay are part of The View.
So all of this makes me believe that the available area in the game is in fact the marked one. I could be totally wrong, of course.
What I'm hoping is that either:
A) The map has a ton of unused/free space. Ie no story content there, just city. This will make a substantial chunk of the map just there for race creation and exploration.
This unused space will also be ripe for DLC they wish to add. This is similar to how, in GTA, if you actually marked out the locations that missions take place in, there aren't many of them. It's a small amount of real estate. However the DLC and player-created multiplayer missions add more and more used locations to the game.
B) That those three 'districts' are pretty far apart in the map. Perhaps like at opposite ends of the map. You can fast travel across it, but if you want to get to another district you can run through a lot of 'general city' to get to it.
It almost seems surreal at this point that companies still use map size as a selling point and people still care. I mean if that's what sells then I guess it's valid, I just personally don't understand it.I hope it isn't lifeless as are so many open world games with a huge map
There is a grappling hook thing in this
Called the MagLev or something
A big map is meaningless, unless there's fun, non-repetitive things to do within.
The grappling hook can only be used on fixed points, but it still seems rad.I literally said "OH GOD" out loud when i read this.
I was keeping my expectations tempered until now. Now it's HYPE LEVEL 8 MILLION.
Last time it was this high was for Twilight Princess in '06. Did not turn out well.
"You see that area over there? You can go there."
And even when you could, it was pointless.I heard that in Skyrim too. Turns out I couldnt.
A big map is meaningless, unless there's fun, non-repetitive things to do within.
This game goes the other way. There's nothing to do when running from one questgiver to another.
The beta wasn't all that lengthy, and yet running through the same places got super old really quickly. I really don't like this game's direction, myself. Trekking through this city felt incredibly repetitive.
Wait wait wait.
So the beta was only 1/10th?
I thought it was like a third... This changes things.
Someone please tell me the accurate numbers. I didn't want to be hyped but goddamnit...
I literally said "OH GOD" out loud when i read this.
I was keeping my expectations tempered until now. Now it's HYPE LEVEL 8 MILLION.
Last time it was this high was for Twilight Princess in '06. Did not turn out well.
First thing I'm doing is picking a direction and running as far as I can. This is awesome and completely unexpected news!
I mean, yeah. The game is more or less a story driven racing game. More city means more possible routes. It isn't like other games where you need a side mission every few feet, the city is there as a sandbox to race in and master. It would be like complaining that there are too many tracks in a racing game because every track doesn't serve some kind of purpose.We're not still getting hyped on map size alone in open world games are we?
Based off what I saw I'm not convinced they can fit all of that or even most of it with meaningful content. Expecting a lot of repetitive side missions so you can get exp to get those unlocks.
Their first tweet (top of the page) says 'First up on the interactive map is the Anchor district'. This suggests that the writing on the map only shows the Anchor district's locations/points of interest.
Judging by how clearly they've said 'the whole map is explorable' I think it's safe to assume that this map only shows icons/text for one region (Anchor), but that the 'whole map is explorable', as they've said.
Remember that 'explorable' doesn't mean 'complete' or 'full of content'. It just means you can expore it. (Which is fine by me.)
Edit: also, the red line on that map doesn't really logically add up. The Beta's map showed a fair amount of city on all 4 sides of the Zephyr Transit Hub. On the red demarced area above, the 'Development Zone' region is cut off by the red line. We know for a fact that the explorable area progresses past that red line (to the left/bottom-left of the image).
I didn't play the beta or watched much of the gameplay for it so the line drawings are a bit pulled out of my ass, but I did draw it based on the names first but also when I looked at the map, the marked areas (plus a little more to the left) are also where the detail fidelity is much higher than in other parts of the city.
On several buildings you see printed names, on roofs you get some individual details like what looks like doors etc., buildings inside the marked area generally have more odd details overall.
Outside of the marked zone however it is just basic geometry and boxes. And if Warriorr is correct, Anchor district is the area of connected buildings to the right of Zephyr Transit Hub with the red marker while the other three districts seem to be around it.
This is of course speculation and gut feelings based on a piece of marketing they have released, but it wouldn't honestly surprise me if the Twitter posts are just marketing hype by twisting the words people say slightly and say "Yes! The whole city* is explorable!"
"*City being the confines of the game world we have designed and you can move around in"
I didn't play the beta or watched much of the gameplay for it so the line drawings are a bit pulled out of my ass, but I did draw it based on the names first but also when I looked at the map, the marked areas (plus a little more to the left) are also where the detail fidelity is much higher than in other parts of the city.
On several buildings you see printed names, on roofs you get some individual details like what looks like doors etc., buildings inside the marked area generally have more odd details overall.
Outside of the marked zone however it is just basic geometry and boxes. And if Warriorr is correct, Anchor district is the area of connected buildings to the right of Zephyr Transit Hub with the red marker while the other three districts seem to be around it.
This is of course speculation and gut feelings based on a piece of marketing they have released, but it wouldn't honestly surprise me if the Twitter posts are just marketing hype by twisting the words people say slightly and say "Yes! The whole city* is explorable!"
"*City being the confines of the game world we have designed and you can move around in"
What alarms me is that they might have spent a lot of money on this massive game. And they will view modest sales as a failure and shelve the series for good. If that happens then I will be thinking.. could this story have been told for half the budget? And if the answer is yes then that might be a disappointing result for all involved.
I'm looking at it this way: There are two possibilities:
1. They post an image saying 'Here is the first district - Anchor - on our 3D map'
Look at the 3D map and you can see it's a far larger area than what you showed us with that red outline. It includes the bigger skyscrapers to the north of default view. Evidently the entire area featured in the beta is called 'Anchor'. That's going by the image they posted.
2. They posted an image referring to an 'interactive 3D map' of the city 'Glass' (with the line 'Explore Glass')
In a subsequent post they said 'the whole city is explorable'
City, referring to Glass, the interactive 3D map being a map of Glass (via 'Explore Glass')
So the whole interactive map is an explorable space
------------------
Christ, the hoops I'm jumping through
The purple area is Anchor as its where they have placed the red marker for the "Anchor" info box. The yellow being the Downtown area. The Green being that place called Development Zone which I think will be mostly focused on the cranes and the Underground area you get to see if you click the little arrow pointing down, so I marked the area sorta where the underground is. I skipped the View cause I couldn't get it all into frame but its the pier area to the right, and The Shard cause its big and obviously the end area or something.
I mean that's cool and all but I'll surely miss the tight level design of the first one.
Wait so this will be open world?
If so:All interest lost
I heard that in Skyrim too. Turns out I couldnt.
Really? What part of the map was this then? There's hundreds of areas to explore and 99% of the map could be explored.And even when you could, it was pointless.