Open World is Getting Boring

I touched on this when I was writing about Metal Gear Solid V, but lately it seems every game is open world. Even worse, it seems that they're all boring. Kind of. Even worse, I'm not completely certain as to why, so this ramble will hopefully allow me to figure that out. And for you to hopefully not get too bored.

These types of games usually have some fun mechanics, and I enjoy a lot of my time with them, but for some reason they seem to lose me a bit more easily than something a little more linear. For example, I liked hunting animals in Far Cry 3/4 to upgrade my gear. I liked riding elephants, in particular. I enjoyed fighting dragons in Skyrim (the first few times anyway until I trivialized them by being myself - a fire wizard). Ramming cars off the road in Burnout Paradise was always entertaining, and collecting glowing blue orbs that represent weird objects is always somehow soothing in Xenoblade Chronicles.

After the novelty wears off, though, I always find myself referring to my map every few seconds, trying to clear out a few of those collectible icons, or knock some sidequests over. When I get completely jack of it, I'm constantly referring to the map so I can ignore everything that's not the main storyline. At this point, even Metal Gear Solid V is starting to receive that treatment - even though I love it to death (though that may be more due to oversaturation - I've played it A LOT, and when I'm not playing it I'm working on my Venom Snake cosplay). 

I usually find that I cannot tell anyone much about an open world. I can barely find my way around them while playing without opening my map constantly. This may be part of the problem - by focusing on creating something so HUGE, a developer can easily lose focus on making it memorable.

So much space! And after 30 minutes, you'll be sick of it!

Take The Witcher 3 - universally acclaimed (to my knowledge). I couldn't tell you where anything other than Novigrad is - and that's because it kind of eats a massive portion of the map. I can't find my way around Novigrad. I look at the map and see a mess of icons. I get exhausted, knock a few quests over and close the game.

Meanwhile, look at Bloodborne. Not open world, not completely linear either. There are multiple paths, and they twist and turn on themselves and each other. The different areas are very distinct from each other. Pop me in front of that game, and I can generally find my way around without a map. That's fortunate - there isn't a map. However, I can tell you of the burnt devastation of Old Yharnham, or the horrific imagery of the Nightmare of Mensis, or the snowy surroundings of Cainhurt's Forsaken Castle (though admittedly I couldn't remember that location's name).

Am I the problem here? Do I just get bored too easily with these huge games? Is it because I don't have time for them any more? Or is there something else to it? Replaying Baldur's Gate last year, I didn't face this issue - and that's kind of open world!

Maybe having a more controlled trickle of new locales is the trick? MGSV has a smaller map than the others, but it has two distinct locations, the second of which you don't unlock for a while. Baldur's Gate effectively blocks off a large chunk of the world until you reach a point. Xenoblade Chronicles drip feeds you wide open areas as you progress through them (in a linear fashion, but each area is open world and you can easily return to prior areas).

Also, it's always Reyn Time

Farcry also drip feeds areas to you, but you're given a massive area to play in, and effectively unlock the second half of the map. Maybe if things were locked up a little more and gradually opened, as well as actually putting some effort into the design of the areas themselves, I would find them more memorable, and fun.

What do you think?