As a long-time fan of driving and racing games, I’ve never really been satisfied with how pedestrians are represented in open worlds. Of course game like GTA and Saints Row can have them walk around freely as they are able to be interacted with/run over/attacked etc, but what about non-violent games?
When I drive around the cities in Forza Horizon games I can’t help but feel that they’re a bit empty. In those games they just place pedestrians behind walls and bollards so they’re unreachable, but it means that all of the sidewalks and streets are empty and feel dead. From memory, Driver: San Francisco and Midnight Club LA both had pedestrians walking the streets that would jump out of the way of your car if you drove towards them. I quite like this solution but I can see how it’s a bit weird when you drive full speed down a sidewalk and every single person perfectly leaps out of the way. Maybe there is no true way to make an open world feel lived in …
So I’m like 5 hours into Outer Wilds and I’m loving it. It’s the perfect mixture of casual gameplay, interesting exploration, and story for me. I love that you can choose your own way and the game leaves you blind to most things, but keeps notes of important things you discover for you to review. Are there any other games that you enjoyed along the same vein as Outer Wilds? Subnatica is one that I thought could possibly be an option.