Corden made the claim in the latest edition of his podcast, The Xbox Two Podcast, in a broader conversation about the pros of established studios sticking to the development blueprint that made their games so special versus the cons of taking risks and innovating, only for it to instantly crash and burn.
Reflecting on Bethesda’s success with Starfield and its recycling of so many of the things we’ve come to expect from the team’s internal development studios, Corden’s thoughts turned to Mass Effect, which had phenomenal success with its first three games (Mass Effect 3’s controversial ending aside), but struggled to make a similar impact with follow-up Andromeda. And that’s when he made the revelation.
“I’ve heard that Mass Effect is ditching open world,” Corden said, “and going back to its classic format. I don’t know if that’s accurate, 100 per cent, but it’s an industry rumour.”
Good, tbh, I think we’ve had to back off Open World RPGs for years now. Smaller scale RPGs can tell a story with far more focus. I think something like Witcher 2 or Baldurs Gate 3 are good examples of balancing exploration and story telling.
Yeah I’ve loved open world games since I first played oblivion as a teenager but being open world isn’t necessarily a good thing in and of itself and being too big often makes you spoiled for choice. Plus I just don’t have time anymore to explore the whole world. For me as long as the story is interesting and it has good systems and mechanics along with new game plus of some kind I can get into a game and play it over and over
I grew up on Oblivion too, Bethesda games are great for open world. Having many smaller stories is great if you want to have a whole world.