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Sure, you can look around, but don't go TOO far.
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00:00So what's the one word that most people associate with open-world video games? Bloat? Ubisoft? No,
00:06it's exploration. Because what is the point of open-world video games if they don't grant the
00:11player the opportunity to freely explore their beautiful, expansive world as they see fit?
00:16But you know what? Some of these games will actually punish or straight-up mock those who
00:20get a little overzealous with their wandering. So let's have a chat about them. As I'm Jules,
00:24this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Open World Video Games That Mock You For Exploring.
00:2810. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
00:31Bread and butter of the Grand Theft Auto franchise has been the appeal of giving players a massive
00:36open-world sandbox and just letting them tear it up however they see fit. Except, in San Andreas,
00:42Rockstar had an odd, slightly hilarious punishment for anyone who got a little bit over-ambitious
00:47and attempted to access areas of the game world that hadn't been unlocked yet through the story.
00:51If you're playing the game as Rockstar intends, you need to complete 27 missions in Los Santos
00:56before accessing San Fierro, and 64 before unlocking Las Venturas. But that doesn't mean that you can't
01:02just swim to these places before that. However, doing so will result in you instantly receiving
01:06a four-star wanted level, ensuring the near-full might of the San Andreas Police Department quickly
01:11comes crashing down on you. Granted, cops like Tenpenny and Hernandez tell you not to leave Los
01:16Santos in the early stages of the game for good reason, but when Rockstar dropped players in the
01:20middle of such a rich, gorgeous world, did they really expect them to be patient and wait for it
01:24all to open up organically? 9. Fallout 4
01:27Fallout 4's unforgettable opening sequence sees the protagonist forced to take shelter in Vault 111,
01:33once the bombs start dropping. But what about those adventurous players who wanted to take a peek
01:37around their suburban neighborhood of Sanctuary Hills before it's forever transformed into an irradiated
01:42wasteland? And, more to the point, what about those who want to see what lies beyond the confines of
01:47this town? The game is generous enough not to strictly funnel you towards the Vault,
01:51but for anyone who attempts to leave Sanctuary Hills and go further afield,
01:54they're met with perhaps the most cruelly mocking invisible wall in video game history.
01:59If you thought that a four-star wanted level in San Andreas was bad, in Fallout 4, walking past a
02:03certain invisible boundary will trigger the nuke's detonation, instantly killing the player.
02:08Basically, you're forced to either progress the story forward by heading to the Vault,
02:12or hang out in a small patch of your neighborhood until the end of time. It's tough to decide
02:16which sounds more nightmarish, honestly.
02:188. The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
02:20On the face of it, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is a game that absolutely rewards players
02:25who venture off the beaten track and explore every last square inch of Hyrule's lovingly rendered open
02:30world. Hell, the game even lets you make a beeline straight to the final boss, Ganon,
02:34immediately after the brief opening prologue section. But this is also a game that,
02:37for all its apparent celebration of player freedom, has a rather perverse, even cruel regard for
02:42those who wander off from the very start. You see, players who extensively explore the game's first
02:47area, the Great Plateau, are likely to find themselves soon enough getting summarily spanked
02:51by grossly overpowered enemies. In the early going, you've got just a few hearts of health
02:55to your name, and you're going to die a hell of a lot, which is effectively Nintendo's way of not
03:00so subtly nudging you towards shrines to help build out your character. As inviting as the game's
03:04world might seem, it's surprisingly punishing of players who just want to take a stroll in a random
03:09direction and soak in the sights. That is to say, prepare to die.
03:137. Far Cry 6
03:15Much as the Far Cry games are all about exploring vast locations and ticking off everything on the
03:20Ubisoft open world checklist, Far Cry 6 had a ridiculous surprise for those who attempted to
03:25see how far away from the Caribbean island of Yara they could actually get. In step with the series'
03:29many alternate or joke endings, Far Cry 6 allows players to get in a boat and just, well, they can
03:34just sail away from the area before they've bothered to confront the local dictator. But in order to
03:38hammer home that the game really, really doesn't want you to sail off the map into the endless
03:42expanse of the Caribbean ocean, as beautiful as it looks, you'll receive an on-screen warning that
03:47you are leaving the area and urging you to turn around. If you ignore that message, though, you'll
03:51be treated to an ending cinematic set three months later, where the protagonist is shown relaxing on
03:56a beach in Miami, beer in hand, while a radio news report reveals that the dictator has defeated the
04:01guerrilla uprising and solidified his iron grip over the nation. Basically, this thoroughly tongue-in-cheek
04:07ending gently shames you for taking the easy way out, showing you what will become of the area
04:11without your committed intervention. 6. Prototype
04:14Cult-fave action-adventure game Prototype takes place in the virus-obliterated Manhattan,
04:19where the US military attempts to contain the outbreak by blocking all exits from Manhattan
04:24Island. But nobody could blame you for paying a visit to one of Manhattan's most iconic landmarks,
04:28the Manhattan Bridge. But if you dare to get close enough, you'll find yourself bombarded with a
04:33battery from the assembled marines, who have set up base on the bridge and really, really do not want
04:37you to cross it. Yet, given that protagonist Alex Mercer is himself a superhuman shapeshifter,
04:42the player is absolutely able to vault past the military blockade and try to cross the bridge
04:46in order to reach downtown Brooklyn. To stop players from doing this, though, you won't merely be
04:51assailed with an increasingly aggressive barrage of missiles. The camera will also shift to an awkward,
04:56distant-angled perspective, where you take up just a small portion of the screen. Evidently,
05:00this is a rather passive-aggressive move by developers Radical Entertainment to try and
05:04coax you back to Manhattan proper, by simply refusing to let the camera play ball and follow
05:08you to the end of the bloody bridge. 5. The Crew
05:11For all of its many issues, The Crew features an impressively scaled-down open-world rendering
05:16of the United States, naturally prompting many players to ponder what might happen if they attempt
05:21to cross the border. Though the game doesn't feature a Canadian border crossing, there is one for
05:25Mexico. And alas, Ubisoft understandably appreciated that players might try to cross it, and so beyond
05:31merely erecting a border crossing area that is just impossible to penetrate, they had a little
05:35extra fun with it at our expense. You see, if you try to drive through the barrier, FBI agent Zoe
05:40Winters will pipe up and throw some shade at your greediness, asking you, what, the whole USA isn't
05:46big enough for you? Come on, people were just trying to go there, right? Besides, that slightly catty
05:50message from Zoe didn't stop some players from figuring out how to glitch their way past the barrier
05:54and drive around in the out-of-bounds regardless. 4. Ghost of Tsushima
05:58Ghost of Tsushima's eye-wateringly beautiful Tsushima Island just begs to be explored. And though
06:04Sucker Punch certainly permits that to a point, they don't want you to visit certain story-related
06:09camps too early and risk breaking the game. And so, if you reach a camp that's going to be featured
06:13later on in the campaign, you'll receive a message warning you that you are entering an area of
06:18overwhelming enemy forces. Hilariously, this generally amounts to the game festooning you with an
06:23unrelenting flurry of arrows from all directions, seemingly fired by a fleet of invisible officers.
06:28As some players have discovered, though, if you're unlucky enough to jump into an offending camp while
06:32equipped with a certain set of armor and restorative charms, you might get catapulted into the air by the
06:37arrows and juggled there, in perpetuity, unable to die. This is all just the game blatantly telling
06:42you to stay out of this area and come back later, but there surely had to be a less mean,
06:46less immersion-breaking way to do this, right?
06:483. Sunset Overdrive
06:51Sunset Overdrive actually boasts one of the most amusingly creative and self-aware
06:55implementation of invisible walls in video game history, given that company PhysCo erects an
07:00in-universe barrier in Sunset City to try and contain the outbreak of mutant overcharge drinkers
07:05running riot there. Hilariously, if you bother to reach the end of the game's map, you'll be met
07:10with an invisible wall that's literally PhysCo branded, with the message,
07:13invisible wall, security provided by PhysCo emblazoned on the transparent boundary.
07:19The invisible walls also get a memorable mention in the game's main story, where ex-PhysCo security
07:23guard Walter attempts to escape the city via helicopter and, uh, well, crashes straight into
07:27the wall, killing himself in the process. Clearly the message from Insomniac Games here is,
07:31have fun, but remember, there are limitations.
07:342. Anthem
07:35Much has been written about how Bioware's much-anticipated shared-world-action RPG,
07:41Anthem was rushed out of the door by EA long before it was done cooking. The game was sold
07:45on the thrill of getting to don an Iron Man-esque armoured suit with three of your pals and fly
07:49around the game world defending humanity from monstrous forces. And yet, the game's aggressively
07:54restrictive design felt like a slap in the face to anyone actually keen to explore.
07:58Despite offering up a lush open world, Anthem's multiplayer gameplay was massively undone by a
08:03tethering system, where while teaming up with other human players, you're forced to maintain
08:07close proximity to them in fear of a warning message being displayed. Couple this with a
08:11totally pointless overheating mechanic, which limits the amount of time you can spend flying
08:15in one go, and it feels like Bioware were actively trying to stop players from doing the very thing
08:19this game was marketed upon. Oh, you want to fly around this gorgeous world that we've made?
08:23Totally unrestricted? Yeah, nah, that's not going to happen. That Anthem was ultimately a critical
08:27and commercial flop is, well, the least surprising thing ever.
08:301. Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated
08:36Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated is admittedly a game that you're not
08:40in any way supposed to take seriously, and in that stead, players who got a little overzealous
08:45with their exploring and ventured too far off the beaten path will get a literal helping hand from
08:49the game itself. While playing as Spongebob, Patrick, or Sandy, if you reach the boundary of the game
08:54world, the human hand of Sailor Hands, a character who appeared in the first few of the show's
08:58episodes, though is never shown as more than a hand, will slide onto the screen and drag you away,
09:02forcing the game to restart from the nearest checkpoint. It's a pretty clever and distinctly
09:06Spongebob way to implement invisible walls without straight up having the player just collide with
09:10them, acknowledging both the game's limitations and the player's over-enthusiastic inquisitiveness
09:15in one funny fell swoop.
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