Linear challenges are common in many open-world games, you know already what you have to do and sometimes it hurts the overall gameplay experience. Especially if you are very excited about the title, one best example is Assassins Creed Odyssey, a pretty massive open world games where after a certain point it looks there is nothing fresh food left.
Josef Fares game director of Brothers A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out has a different viewpoint on this, be prefers linear games and according to him, there is nothing negative about it. Josef believes people think linearity is supposed to be bad, but actually it’s opposite. Not everyone is going to finish an open world game and reach the end, and for developers when they are working on such project they end up copy and paste to make it massive.
Josef emphasized more on the overall experience giving a player something similar from start to finish. With the example of Last Of Us, Josef defended the concept of having a static experience from start to end. Below is his full statement shared by WCCFTech.com.
I’m emotionally touched by many movies, and those are entirely linear. People think that linearity is supposed to be bad, but for me, it’s the opposite. Both should exist. Not just open worlds. There shouldn’t be anything negative about saying “linear.” It’s a question of fits which game. People aren’t finishing open world games. Truly, they’re not. And when you’re making these games you end up having to copy and paste to make them that big.
I’m not saying I’m not a fan. I’m just saying it’s sad, because not very many people reach the ending in the first place. Some few people do replay, but there aren’t that many. I’d rather focus on the experience itself. I lean toward something more like The Last of Us, which is a totally linear experience, but it really affected me. I want to experience something like that from start to finish.
I know there’s something really cool about having different experiences as you play, and that’s fine. Those games should be there. But the problem I see is that those games are being hailed as the way to make a game, and that’s what concerns me. People regularly say “linear” like it’s not good. Why? Come on. The Last of Us is one of our best games ever. I need both. I prefer linear games because I want to have an experience from beginning to end and enjoy it. I do like some open world games and RPG games, but you have to recognize that people say “linear” is something negative, and I don’t like it.
