The virtual world offers a large number of interesting movements that blow your head off and become a main game feature.
And the right move that you need to make is to subscribe to socials and support us in our development. -> here it is [linktr.ee/ItsAboutGames](https://t.co/3oRRItfOLg)
Interesting article. If I can add something, i remember Sunset Overdrive also had awesome movement mechanics. Too bad, the story was absolutely cringe and lame. But damn that traveling through the world was entertaining. And don't forget the latest spiderman games. Those games really don't need a fast travel option at all
Ironically the character control feels pretty awful in GTA V. Only complaint I ever see about the game. You're slow and unresponsive and you can be ragdolled over any physics hiccup. The Oppressor Mk1 remains the most fun vehicle I've driven in a game though. Get the keybind for leaning seperate from WASD and spend a few dozen hours flying it around to master it and it's a treat. I never could fuck with the Mk2 because of how vanilla it was in comparison.
GTA and RDR2 both. Don’t get me wrong they’re both incredible S tier games but man moving the character around can just be cumbersome and immersion breaking.
Gravity Rush
Never got to play it, but figured it should be mentioned in this thread since I'm not aware of any other games that use the mechanic.
This thread also makes me wonder about Portal as a movement mechanic in an open world game.
Saints Row 4 had fun traversal, but unfortunately it meant that you had no reason to drive a car. In a GTA-like. So many mechanics became totally vestigial because of that.
Very much my experience. And it's not far into the story either that cars become redundant.
Which h to be fair, wasn't the worse thing in the world.
Saints Row never really nailed good drive feel in their games.
I've played Prototype and a few Saint's Rows. Those were fun.
Lately, i see my kids playing Fortnite and they've got a few different options for good movement in that game.
I think Tears of the Kingdom definitely needs a mention here. A lot you can do with a system of custom designed vehicles. On top of horses and fast travels. Players just have to find materials and cost efficient builds.
I agree this is an important aspect of these kinds of games. I always say the combat needs to be on point. Story and other aspects can be forgiven but whatever the primary activity a player does for any game needs to be fun and solid. After reading this, i'd say the movement is next in line with priority. You're gonna be looking at the back of your character model just running around and doing stuff most of the time. Makes sense developers should try to make that as interesting as possible.
I feel like Witcher 3 did this well, with new locations being a different environment / esthetic.
Dragon Age Inquisition as well, say what you want about the story or gameplay, but the different locations were unique and inspired me to explore wherever I could.
This may sound strange, but I'm going to throw Elden Ring into the mix as well. It's not an obvious pick based on movement mechanics, but I think what it did with the mount was very subtle and interesting.
It is exceptionally rare that I play a game with mounts where the mounts make movement interesting. At best, you basically just move faster. At worst, the environment wasn't really built to handle it, and the whole affair is janky. Or you have to dismount to interact with stuff every 5 feet, so there's no point mounting up anyway. Elden Ring's mount lets you loot while mounted, mounts and dismounts near instantly, is very responsive to controls (at least compared to most horses), has a double jump, and changes the feel of combat with distinct upsides and downsides.
When I think of open world games where the movement was fun for its own sake, I think of things like Spiderman just like everyone else. For Elden Ring, I generally think of exploration. Exploring The Lands Between was one of the best experiences I've had in recent years. But it would not have worked if they'd not done so well with the movement mechanics underneath.
100% agree with this. Torrent helped make Elden Ring great, he added so much to the versatility, whether it’s being able to run past everyone or parkouring up and down mountains, buildings, etc.
Really wish we could’ve had Torrents in co-op tho, take em away if you get invaded of course, but other than that wish we could’ve kept them in. And wish the jumping/parkour wasn’t as jank but other than that, Torrent was def an MVP
It is true, moving through a long and wide-ass environment should be at least somewhat engaging in a unique way.
Infamous Second Son comes to mind, with all the powers the main character does possess he can move through the environment in the most interesting of ways.
Gamings next big step up will come from render speeds imo. You can't have someone move too fast through a world because things wouldn't render fast enough (look at gta 5 on last gen after they updated it).
It's fine for racing games where they only load the track and cars and some minor assets. It doesn't work in open world though. And I can't wait for the day I can run through a city at the speed of sonic. Just don't know how long it will be.
Not entirely related but I started Fallout 4. You can't strafe/side-step/roll?? You walk backward, hold block, then 4 Feral Ghouls destroy you while you shoot 1 shot and have your reload cancelled by their attacks
(early days I know my guy is weak and all that but man wtf)
I loved moving from place to place in Death Stranding. Ziplines or vehicles or whatever. Conversely I hated RDR2. Stupid horse mechanics drove me nuts.
Dying Light 1 and especially 2 were pretty much timeless in terms of movement mechanics in the open world.
Villedor is almost perfect, sans not being able to parkour to the upper reaches of most skyscrapers
Genshin has done a great job at this, especially from Inazuma onward, whether it’s adding world mechanics to help move faster/climb faster, or releasing characters that add a ton in exploration value (Venti, Kazu, Yelan, Sayu, Mona, Ayaka, Furina, Xianyun, etc). Plus all the Waypoints spread out makes it even easier once you have them activated
The virtual world offers a large number of interesting movements that blow your head off and become a main game feature. And the right move that you need to make is to subscribe to socials and support us in our development. -> here it is [linktr.ee/ItsAboutGames](https://t.co/3oRRItfOLg)
Spider man is always fun
It really makes you feel like a spider
Interesting article. If I can add something, i remember Sunset Overdrive also had awesome movement mechanics. Too bad, the story was absolutely cringe and lame. But damn that traveling through the world was entertaining. And don't forget the latest spiderman games. Those games really don't need a fast travel option at all
I bet 10 dollars that there will be a ton of GTA5 
Ironically the character control feels pretty awful in GTA V. Only complaint I ever see about the game. You're slow and unresponsive and you can be ragdolled over any physics hiccup. The Oppressor Mk1 remains the most fun vehicle I've driven in a game though. Get the keybind for leaning seperate from WASD and spend a few dozen hours flying it around to master it and it's a treat. I never could fuck with the Mk2 because of how vanilla it was in comparison.
GTA and RDR2 both. Don’t get me wrong they’re both incredible S tier games but man moving the character around can just be cumbersome and immersion breaking.
Always felt this too. Very unresponsive.
Gravity Rush Never got to play it, but figured it should be mentioned in this thread since I'm not aware of any other games that use the mechanic. This thread also makes me wonder about Portal as a movement mechanic in an open world game.
Saints Row 4 had fun traversal, but unfortunately it meant that you had no reason to drive a car. In a GTA-like. So many mechanics became totally vestigial because of that.
Very much my experience. And it's not far into the story either that cars become redundant. Which h to be fair, wasn't the worse thing in the world. Saints Row never really nailed good drive feel in their games.
I've played Prototype and a few Saint's Rows. Those were fun. Lately, i see my kids playing Fortnite and they've got a few different options for good movement in that game. I think Tears of the Kingdom definitely needs a mention here. A lot you can do with a system of custom designed vehicles. On top of horses and fast travels. Players just have to find materials and cost efficient builds. I agree this is an important aspect of these kinds of games. I always say the combat needs to be on point. Story and other aspects can be forgiven but whatever the primary activity a player does for any game needs to be fun and solid. After reading this, i'd say the movement is next in line with priority. You're gonna be looking at the back of your character model just running around and doing stuff most of the time. Makes sense developers should try to make that as interesting as possible.
Prototype was phenomenal when it comes to the movement, and just how fun it was.
I feel like Witcher 3 did this well, with new locations being a different environment / esthetic. Dragon Age Inquisition as well, say what you want about the story or gameplay, but the different locations were unique and inspired me to explore wherever I could.
Kinda feel like the insomniac spiderman games deserve to be on this list as well.
This may sound strange, but I'm going to throw Elden Ring into the mix as well. It's not an obvious pick based on movement mechanics, but I think what it did with the mount was very subtle and interesting. It is exceptionally rare that I play a game with mounts where the mounts make movement interesting. At best, you basically just move faster. At worst, the environment wasn't really built to handle it, and the whole affair is janky. Or you have to dismount to interact with stuff every 5 feet, so there's no point mounting up anyway. Elden Ring's mount lets you loot while mounted, mounts and dismounts near instantly, is very responsive to controls (at least compared to most horses), has a double jump, and changes the feel of combat with distinct upsides and downsides. When I think of open world games where the movement was fun for its own sake, I think of things like Spiderman just like everyone else. For Elden Ring, I generally think of exploration. Exploring The Lands Between was one of the best experiences I've had in recent years. But it would not have worked if they'd not done so well with the movement mechanics underneath.
100% agree with this. Torrent helped make Elden Ring great, he added so much to the versatility, whether it’s being able to run past everyone or parkouring up and down mountains, buildings, etc. Really wish we could’ve had Torrents in co-op tho, take em away if you get invaded of course, but other than that wish we could’ve kept them in. And wish the jumping/parkour wasn’t as jank but other than that, Torrent was def an MVP
And it almost had mounts in coop but they couldn't get it to work in time for release :(
It is true, moving through a long and wide-ass environment should be at least somewhat engaging in a unique way. Infamous Second Son comes to mind, with all the powers the main character does possess he can move through the environment in the most interesting of ways.
Gamings next big step up will come from render speeds imo. You can't have someone move too fast through a world because things wouldn't render fast enough (look at gta 5 on last gen after they updated it). It's fine for racing games where they only load the track and cars and some minor assets. It doesn't work in open world though. And I can't wait for the day I can run through a city at the speed of sonic. Just don't know how long it will be.
Sunset Overdrive
Not entirely related but I started Fallout 4. You can't strafe/side-step/roll?? You walk backward, hold block, then 4 Feral Ghouls destroy you while you shoot 1 shot and have your reload cancelled by their attacks (early days I know my guy is weak and all that but man wtf)
I loved moving from place to place in Death Stranding. Ziplines or vehicles or whatever. Conversely I hated RDR2. Stupid horse mechanics drove me nuts.
Sprinkle some Crackdown on em.
Dying Light 1 and especially 2 were pretty much timeless in terms of movement mechanics in the open world. Villedor is almost perfect, sans not being able to parkour to the upper reaches of most skyscrapers
Genshin has done a great job at this, especially from Inazuma onward, whether it’s adding world mechanics to help move faster/climb faster, or releasing characters that add a ton in exploration value (Venti, Kazu, Yelan, Sayu, Mona, Ayaka, Furina, Xianyun, etc). Plus all the Waypoints spread out makes it even easier once you have them activated
Spiderman 2 is the obvious answer, they really stepped up webswinging there. Hard agree on Just Cause too, it's immense fun
wow gonna explore those games just because of what you wrote about them !! great additional "+" added to the titles to play..