With Cyberpunk 2077 finally soldered into our membranes, we thought it’d be a fantastic opportunity to make an entire episode dedicated to one of our favorite genres: open-world.
Cybernetic fashion icon, SushiBAE, and card-carrying Maxxinista, me, AJ Lodge, aren’t afraid to prey on your nostalgia during this trip down open-world memory lane. We’re talking about great games in the genre that paved the way to today like SuperMario 64, spinning a yarn about our time wasted spinning webs in Spider-Man 2, and trying not to get in trouble with our stories about Grand Theft Auto driving school.
But it’s not just two millennials reminiscing about the good ol’ days of gaming! We’re deep-diving into the sCiEncE of what makes an open-world game so successful in the modern era and all the things that excite us (and scare us) about where the genre is headed. What makes an open-world game iconic? What can developers do to extend the longevity of an open-world game past its story campaign? What even is open-world anyway?! Big questions and entertaining (we hope) answers. If nothing else, it’ll be a nice break from your efforts to become best friends with pixel Keanu.
So take a break from Night City because UPROXX Recon is here to remind you about the fantastic world of open-world and that when it comes to these games map size doesn’t matter.