So often, the narrative gets lost in open-world adventures, simply due to the nature of the game structure.
But some, like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt , tend to draw you in more because the story revolves around the main character. Others, like The Elder Scrolls or Fallout , center more on the story of the game's universe, which may not be as immersive.
We know the highly anticipated PlayStation 4 exclusive Horizon: Zero Dawn will be open-world (what big new game on the horizon isn't?) but what kind of story structure will it embrace? Well, according to Guerrilla Games senior producer Mark Norris…both. In speaking to DualShockers , Norris said:
"I think you can expect that this is an incredibly rich story. It’s always interesting, that open world games ordinarily fall in one of two camps. We’ve got these really strong narrative-driven, character-driven open world games like The Witcher 3, or an Assassin’s Creed, or even a Watch_Dogs, where there’s a strong central character, and a bunch of story that revolves around the character.
And then you’ve got these other open world games, on the other side of the spectrum, previous to Fallout 4, I would have said a Fallout 3 or a Skyrim, where the story is really the story of the world, and it’s less the story of this main character.
Our game, actually, it has both. The main story revolves around Aloy. She’s one of the reasons why we’re a single player only game. We want to tell the story of Aloy. But we also want to tell the story of the machines, the story of the world, the story of these tribes, and you’ll get those inside of quests, in open world activities, collectibles and other things."
Furthermore, he talked at some length about balancing the more mature elements with wider accessibility. Norris said the "Producer side of him" says the story has to be accessible because he has to sell a certain number of units. But at the same time, he wants to give the writers a chance to shine, so it's really a matter of balance.
In terms of gameplay, Guerrilla previously said Horizon is between Assassin's Creed and The Elder Scrolls , but they also won't be giving too much away .
I'm perfectly fine with that. I think we hear far too much about most games before they come out, anyway. Horizon: Zero Dawn is slated to release some time later next year.
Related Game(s): Horizon: Zero Dawn
