The Open World Underground: The Underground Landscape, Part I.

The Quest for the Holy Grail

Imagine a fully constructible/destructible open world sandbox game with a rich narrative, a working ecosystem, functional economy, stimulating NPC AI, strong player movement mechanics, Turing Complete automation, and fun physics.  Sounds great, right?  Too bad it doesn't exist. Not yet, anyway. 

However there are many games which capture elements of this Holy Grail of video games.  If we are going to will this beast into existence, we must first understand what it is that we are asking for.  To do so, we shall pay homage to the games that have come before and see what wisdom we can extract.

The Underground Open World

I should be clear in this study we are looking at so-called underground Open World games.  By underground, I do not mean "subterranean".  We probably won't be covering games like Zelda BoTW or Deus Ex because they've already been covered extensively, though we may visit certain parts of them.  Instead, we will be looking at games that have either not received much coverage or games that deserve more coverage for their contribution to the Grail Quest but perhaps not in the way they intended.

The Imaginorium

Contrary to popular belief, Open Worldness has nothing to do with the size of the map or the physical locations you can go or even the order in which you can tackle the narrative.  The Open Worldness is a state of play that exists in your mind.  It is a state of play that maximizes player agency and experimentation. 

As an example of what is NOT an Open World game: You could easily create a game that's just a big flat plane that extends out infinitely in all directions and you are a hamster rolling a ball across this giant wasteland -- but if that's all there is to it, you've "beaten the game" just by reading this sentence.  The most interesting part of the entire game would be that you are a hamster (side note: filling the map up with a bunch of tower climbing and fetch quests is also less interesting than being a hamster).

So remember, when you are going through this list below, you may need to indulge that child-like sense of play. Not all of these games are classified as Open World in the strict sense, but you can play them as an Open World if you let yourself.   

The De/Constructibility Continuum

The first aspect of the Underground Open World genre that I want to discuss is the de/constructibility continuum.  First of all, the easiest way to think of the open world landscape is by considering the juxtaposition of two incredibly important axes in open world games, as illustrated by this chart:

This chart has 4 quadrants that lie along two axes.

The vertical axis is the destructibility continuum.  Below the horizontal axis represents all games where there are no destruction mechanics. This is where most games are. Above the horizontal axis represents increasingly potent forms of destruction, ranging from pre-scripted destruction, to building destruction, to being able to destroy virtually anything in game world.

The horizontal axis is the constructibility continuum. To the left of the vertical axis represents games that have no constructibility mechanics. To the right of the vertical axis represents the increasing levels of constructibility: upgrades, homesteading, building spawning, building from subcomponent assembly -- beyond that, full terraforming.

The orange labelled game titles on the chart show representative games in each quadrant. For instance, the game "Mercenaries" features a variety of deconstructive mechanics but no constructive mechanics.  No Man's Sky has significant destructive mechanics but limited constructive mechanics (but to their credit, No Man's Sky is shifting right on this chart).   

These axes consider how constructible/destructible the world is, and they have an enormous impact on the game itself. While these are not the only aspects to consider, they are easy to disambiguate from other focuses, such as the narrative interface.  However, after visiting the major categories of the constructibility continuum in subsequent articles, we will also dive into some special cases, such as God Games.

Let's review the categories of focus we will dive into in future articles, arranged roughly from most destructible to most constructible. Note that there are great qualities in all categories, including games that have zero constructibility or destructibility!

You will also note that there are games on here not normally considered "open world", such as Wave Race 64.  Remember that we are looking at this from the perspective of game design, and so we are interested in the elements we can extract that can be applied to games we are designing, or that we would like to see applied to games that we play.  For these "non-traditional open world" games, I will do my best to explain why I have included them into the list and which part of the game I am describing.

Limited Destructible Games

These are games where you can't build anything, but you can blow a lot of stuff up.  Some games we will discuss include Red Faction, Mercenaries 1 & 2, and (notoriously) No Man's Sky.

Hubworld Inspiration Games

This is an interesting category of games where you can't create or destroy anything, but you can have some amazing fun with physics and movement.  There are a lot of interesting games to explore here that may at first seem unrelated, but we will tease out the commonalities and see what elements are great to have in game design:

• Waverace 64 -- the tutorial area
• Ecco the Dolphin -- Opening area
• Assassin's Creed 4 -- Abstergo
• Final Fantasy 8 -- Balamb Garden
• Super Mario World -- Yoshi's house
• Baldur's Gate 3 -- the camp
• Pilotwings 64 -- Paradise Island
• Brutal Legend
• San Francisco Rush 64 -- Secret underground playground

Upgrade Management Games

In "upgrade management" games, your only choices are "upgrade" or "don't upgrade".  There are still some great games in this category though.

• Red Dead Redemption 2 -- the camp.
• Assassin's Creed 2 -- Monterrigioni
• Assassin's Creed 3 -- Homestead
• Assassin's Creed 4 -- Nassau
• Metal Gear Solid-V -- the base.
• GTA Vice City

Slot Management Games

In this, you get a base with a certain number of "slots".  You can choose what goes in those slots.

• Fallout Shelter
• XCOM 2
• Kingdom 2 Crowns

Pilot Upgrade Games

You can't change anything in the world in these games, but you can change your vehicle.

• Mechwarrior 3050
• Armored Core Series
• Pacific Drive
• Stratosphere

Homesteading Games

In these games you have a ton of freedom to build and destroy, but only in a limited area of the game.

• The Sims
• Stardew Valley

Building Games

In these games, you can freestyle build buildings in an open world, but you have extremely limited agency to change the world or it's topography.

• Subnautica
• Conan Exiles
• The Forest

Terraforming Games

In these games the majority of the world is completely constructible (and destructible).

• Minecraft
• Dragon Quest Builders
• Astroneer
• 7 days to die
• Terraria
• BitCraft

But what about...

You may notice some glaring omissions from this list, such as Factorio, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, and Space Engineer.  Later, we will be examining certain games that combine open-world with other important categories, such as physics, engineering, and automation next.  

In subsequent articles, we will take a deep dive into each of these de/constructibility categories and then we will build upon this examination to explore composite mechanic Open World games like the ones mentioned in the previous paragraph. 

Stay frosty.