I was just talking to my brothers about elder scrolls morrowind, and the evolution of the elder scrolls series. (before morrowind it was even more sandboxy but only on pc)
Anyway back to the point, morrowwind was very hardcore compared to oblivion and even more so than skyrim. While skyrim was beautiful and mods made it even better, it was very “on the rails” compared to morrowind.
Taking a look back, it was easy to go off the rails in morrowind and play however you wanted, even to the point of subverting the entire questline. You could kill main quest giving npcs. If you did so, youd be left to your own devices. No npc to tell you what to do next. The developers must have even wanted this to be a possible play style as they made the game still beatable by just killing vivec and getting what you need to beat the game. (i can’t imagine the anger of players if a game like that was released today) Bethesda evolved continually toward a more populist form of gameplay, leaving the hardcore nature behind for more money. (i cant blame them, but from a gamers perspective it still sucks)
There are plenty of other developers that have done the same. The evolution of bioware from baldurs gate, to the amazing mass effect, to the pile of dog crap that is Andromeda.
I hope that taleworlds keeps its theme for bannerlord, but if history is an indication of the future, they and warhorse will one day abandon the sandbox experience for a more popular style of gameplay
