HamburgerBoy on 24/2/2013 at 06:41

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Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny. The RPG elements were streamlined into something just for the sake of being able to be called an RPG; at it's core, it's a first-person action/adventure game. My youngest brother and myself both frequently tell each other of our "Lands of Lore dreams", which are always about exploring the world and discovering a new lizard tunnel which leads to a never-before-seen pair of gauntlets or back-passage. I imagine that it definitely qualifies as far as exploration and optional/secret goodies are concerned, although admittedly it is a little linear, as though you will open up new areas as a consequence of finding certain items, there are several events which force you along through the game.

Gryzemuis on 24/2/2013 at 15:01

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Like Angel Dust, I immediately had to think of (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140593) Miasmata. I still haven't played it myself yet. But it's on my list.

Another game might be (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123325) Amnesia. It's classified as a horror game. But it might fullfill some of your requirements too. First person. No combat. Some puzzles. You make progress through exploration. Decent story to explore. I recently played Amnesia myself, and really enjoyed it.

I also wish there would be a good, high-tech, new videogame where exploration is be the key focus. I'm kinda done with combat in videogames. Alas.

Renault on 25/2/2013 at 02:51

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Miasmata and Far Cry 3 are both excellent exploration games, they're at the same time very similar and also polar opposites. But in regards to the thread, they both have cool mapping functions and huge, jungle island type areas to explore. FC3 has infinitely more to do, although most of it is killing or destroying something. Both have crafting, and both have lots of cool little hidden areas with stuff to find or notes to read. Miasmata is a lot more sparse and has far less "stuff" in the world to find though. Far Cry has a story that forces you to do certain things to open up other areas of the map, while Miasmata's map is all completely wide open from the start, and the story is somewhat left to interpretation. FC3's enemies are plentiful and everywhere, while Miasmata only has one antagonist, which makes it much more intense at times and stressful (this is partially due to the player's weakened state and abilities).

I'd recommend trying both, I thought it was interesting playing them about a month apart - same landscape and setting but completely different types of gameplay.

Briareos H on 26/2/2013 at 13:52

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Only great posts here, thanks a lot people. Rather than turning this too much into multi-quote-fest, I'll list all the games which were suggested and that I already went through, and what I think of them:


* VTMB, Deus Ex (and to a lesser extent Deus Ex HR) - I like these a lot, but I never really felt the exploration element in them that much. The maps aren't that big and although there are some okay backtracking bits, I don't think there are enough mechanics that encourage snooping around. They are games that emphasize how different the approaches can be, which is something very enjoyable but not really what I'm looking for.
* Gothic games - Good RPGs, especially the second one which I certainly did enjoy almost as much as the Elder Scrolls games.
* STALKER games - I could have mentioned them in the original post. Call of Pripyat especially ticks many of the boxes and even tries to allow different playstyles. Multiple endings depending on previous actions are also a great touch. One of the best games I've played.
* Far Cry 3 - This is a tough one. With all the quest arrows and markers turned off, it almost feels like there could be something to it. However, I couldn't grow beyond my general disinterest for the world and atmosphere, leaving me with a shallow experience. I couldn't be arsed to "roleplay" FC3 and explore it on my own volition; this is something rather subjective, though, because I didn't have that problem with the awesome Just Cause 2.
* Fallout 3 - Let's never talk about Fallout 3 again.
* Dark Souls - I also thought about including it in my list, but it's third person. If you think about it, it's rather structurally similar to a 3D Metroidvania, with a lots of different zones, hidden bits and character progression. I haven't finished it yet because I have a long running tendancy not to persevere enough at difficult games, except in rare and weird, obsessive instances. I'll beat it eventually, it's a bit too tough for the sake of being an exploration game, though. That said, I'm still thinking about Dark Souls and what kind of game it would be if it wasn't that unrelenting. Is it what games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are about? I haven't played any of those, I know they are not first person, but would they fit the bill? They are supposed to be some of the greatest PS2 games in existence.
* Minecraft - Considering I ran one of the TTLG servers for a while, I sure played Minecraft :) I have tried to get back into it lately but as soon as I reached the point where I saw all the new cool additions, I felt like there was nothing else to do.
* Ultima Underworld and the Might and Magic series - I love UUW, but I couldn't get into any of the Might and Magic games. I might try MM6 again some day.
* Amnesia (and by extension, the Penumbra games) - Again, not what I'm looking for but what they lack in open-endedness is made up by lots of atmosphere.



Thanks, I was probably too young to be interested when it came out (I spent hundreds of hours playing or mapping Quake instead), but it now looks right up my alley. Seeing gameplay videos on Youtube, I hope I will be able to stomach the apparent slowness and choppiness of the game. I don't mind clunky controls, but I enjoy a game better when it feels responsive. Any tips on getting it to run smoothly?


I remember being underwhelmed by the videos I saw before it came out. Correct me if I'm wrong but, at some point, there appeared to be some flower collecting in order to brew a potion. How frequently do similar things require to be done? Are they central to the gameplay? I'm going to own up to some of my hypocrisy here, because although such mechanics certainly fit the bill as far as 'puzzle' requirements are concerned, I don't really want to have fetch A and fetch B, combine them in C to create health potions as part of my experience. As a unique gameplay occurrence, I'm fine with it.
Otherwise, it's looking pretty engrossing. I like the feeling of being alone in a hostile environment.


Awesome! I bought this on GOG a while ago as its description seemed really interesting, then completely forgot about it. Survival horror games like the early Resident Evil games could actually tick all of my requirements if there was more hidden content, and a first person game in that vein sounds really great. Time to install it again.


I've just started watching a let's play and it looks like also what I'm looking for. I must say the FMV sprites look a bit weird, though. I'm getting this in GOG as soon as I'm done with Realm of the Haunting and/or Azrael's Tear.

Trespasser and Pathologic were also mentioned. I played a few minutes of both and saw some potential, but I didn't have the guts to keep at it. The great writeup on Pathologic that was published last year on RPS probably spoiled the experience a bit too much for me, but Trespasser is still on my todo list.



I thought the same. I'm sure there's a nice paper to write about this but I don't feel up to the task yet. It's probably not so difficult to write a recipe for single player experiences that allow voluntary roleplay, at their core they require lonely --and often hostile-- environments that feel big, logical and living on their own without player agency, hidden clues which require the player to stray a bit from the defined path to piece together part of the backstory, and rewarding character enhancements (for example, in Half-Life, finding a new weapon almost always happened at the right moment with some sort of "elaborate" setup to earn it). It's a bit outside the scope of formulaic exploration games which I originally posted about, because my requirements were more specific, but it's something really worth discussing. If you think about it, most of the highly praised or cult underdog first person games offer some of these elements, whether they are defined as "immersive sims" or not. It's also worth mentioning how much gamers can be forgiving of bugs, unfinished gameplay elements, mistakes in game-balancing and other oddities when those are part of a bigger, atmospheric whole. The lengths studios go to in order to polish and tune every single bit of experience might even be detrimental to the development of such games.

Renault on 26/2/2013 at 15:00

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The collecting as you described is pretty much the core gameplay - you need to craft an antidote by collecting various plants to cure yourself, that's the end goal of the game. Now that said, you need to discover which ones to use by reading research notes scattered about, and some of the plants are in challenging areas to get to and/or exist in dangerous areas, so that's part of it too. The plants can be used to craft other things as well, like health potions and permanent ability modifications. But besides exploring/mapping the island, that's pretty much the game.

I wouldn't really call Miamata a hostile environment either. It's a fairly peaceful island, with an occasional hostile encounter. :sly: