Story vs Sandbox

Gameplay
#1

I’m wondering how many of you fine folks are similar to me in the way you enjoy RPG type games. I generally prefer to deviate from the main storyline and trek off on my own (as much as the game allows.) When it comes to a game like “Deliverance” it’s my dream to just play it like a medieval simulator.

I’d love to just survive, own property, get married, have children, upgrade my stats, fishing, robbing people, farming, and becoming rich through commerce. I think you get the idea, I particularly like those little details that makes RPG’ing fun. It’s like creating your own story, the one nobody else played and one you can brag about.

If it was up to me I’d prefer the team to focus less on the story (as awesome as it is) and give us more sandbox options, to let us create our own unique stories, and really feel how life was at the time. Thanks…

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#2

Yeah, although it’s great to be part of the story, I’m into the game after reading how the world will be alive and breathing.
Watching the people of the kingdom live their lives. It’s my dream to be a stalking pervert :slight_smile:

#3

i want both. story but with plenty of time to enjoy the little things either in between or after…

1 Like
#4

The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but getting both options into the game and having them live up to both groups of players expectations 100% of the time is not something I have ever seen done in a videogame yet. There is always going to be someone who thinks it is too much of one and not enough of the other unfortunately.

I myself would lean towards wanting a slightly more focused/less sandboxy experience along the lines of Mass Effect 2&3, The Witcher 2 or Dues Ex:Human Revolution where a higher emphasis is placed on the overarching narrative and less on the roleplay-your-own-story elements. Obviously this is in direct contrast to what @Peregrinus is wanting from the game, so I guess unfortunately one of us will be slightly disappointed come time for the game’s release.

#5

I like a good sandbox element but I’m not buying this game for that alone. I also want a great story that’s worth continuing without feeling like I’m getting more out of going off to do other things instead.

Sometimes developers get caught up in giving people TOO much to do that distracts them from the actual story.

#6

I’d understand if there wasn’t too much by way of sandbox, but I think the more sandbox the better. Having some predetermined goal to work towards only really means something if it isn’t mandatory… Though, that said, it would be equally strange if the entire world waited for you to make a step, like everyone is watching you with held breath like every sneeze matters to them.

Some balance would be needed I imagine.

#7

Huge open sandbox games are stupid. Because they are empty, boring and repetitive. Luckily I think the signs are there that the game won’t cater to the medieval Sims crowd much, what with the very small and compact map and apparent focus on historical storytelling.

#8

Yes todays sandbox games tend to be as you say stupid. But that does not mean that open sandbox game cannot be fun.

For me great story is crucial bud I’d love to have chance to play the game as “mediaval simulator” after i am done with main story. That why I did not enjoy Skyrim… its main story sucked.

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#9

I disagree that sandbox games are “stupid”, I think there that there is as much a market for them as other types of games and perhaps more-so judging from the success of both Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto V in recent times (I certainly enjoyed both of these games immensely). The fact is that this game WILL feature some elements from sandbox games, and I consider this to be a very good thing as it allows the player certain freedoms that are not always there with a completely linear game experience.

However, I would like to reiterate from my first post that I hope Kingdom Come does have a tight focus on the plot, characters and grand storytelling.

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#10

Hello Community,

I think that a good mixture of RPG-Elements (including a good story) are equal important as some kind of sandbox elements in future games. The past has already shown that the most future games will have sandbox elements in it because without them a game would run out of content and things to do too fast.

Examples therefore: Everquest Next, Archage, Black Desert, Planet Explorers, Project Zomboid and many others.

Developer already realized that sandbox elements are an improvement to most games genres, especially for rpgs but for that very expensive in their development.

Good games know what elements are important for their games and what not.

A game without any artificial kind of borders, the possibility to chop trees, harvest materials and be able to build something with it (not only some kind of armor or clothing) are giving the player some kind of freedom to build a very own home. Also in large scale battles sandbox elements can come quite usefull because you could create wooden spiked walls and some kind of moat.

The really great question about all of this is the community who is interested in a game. Do you have hardcore fans who are going to play your game extensivily like Minecraft and such kind for years on the same world? Then you have to go and give them many sandbox elements because you can’t deliver that much content alone via story. Do you have much casual gamer who are just running through the story without exploring much of the world and without the intetion to build anything? Then you have to enrich more of the story elements to give them enough content so they will be busy for example at least 30 - 50 hours of gameplay.

In my opinion many developer have to ask themselves this question far to often… What kind of customers are we trying to get as our fanbase or just buying our game and then leaving them behind maybe without seeing them buying act 2 or act 3 because they haven’t got much out of the game in the first act.

I think the first good way the developers have done has been to implement the possibility to add the modding tools to the game so the community will be able to add their own content like in the “The Elder Scrolls” and Project Zomboid.

#11

I don’t mind either way, this game looks absolutely stunning already, can’t wait to play it! I do agree with creating your own little storyline though, this is what makes a game more fun, telling your friends what you did etc.

#12

Sandbox is much more important to me personally.

I want to explore and interact with another believable world at my own pace; being able to do that is much more interesting to me than the main story, though I’m sure some others would find it dull. I expect that the game will likely be less sandbox than I’d ideally like, but hopefully it’ll be enough. Somewhere between Mafia 2 and Skyrim/Fallout would be OK, the more toward the latter titles the better though. I loved just walking the streets in Mafia 2 (yes, walking) and taking in the wonderfully crafted world, but was ultimately frustrated by the constrained story path (though I totally understand that was the focus of that game).

I find I’m not really interested in linear story-based games these days and only tend to play the more sandbox/emergent titles (Mafia 2 and Max Payne 3 being the exceptions here). In such games I never use fast travel and I play for hundreds and hundreds of hours - I don’t play a lot of games, but those I choose to play I play an awful lot!

I want to ‘write’ my own story wherever possible and role-play as myself in another world as opposed to ‘live’ as someone else - Again I prefer the Skyrim/Fallout approach over the path taken by the Witcher.

2 Likes
#13

Thanks FallenAngel, I think you really put the idea of what I’m trying to get across better than I did. Also, thanks to everyone for you ideas and answers.

I think that everyone would like to have both a great story and an awesome sandbox, but I find this as highly doubtful in a game like this because of the size of the team and the budget. There’s no question that Warhorse is going to have to pick and choose which features to put into the sandbox and how much to flesh out the story.

Minecraft really is the poster child of what a sandbox game can be, and I guess that appeals to me most. Naturally there has to be some goals to work towards and some general parameters of how to make to make it believable. I would love to be able to be a Lumber Jack, Hunter, Miner, Tanner, Black Smith, Cook, Farmer, Business Owner, Etc. all while improving your stats in those areas. Search for and combine various elements to build exceptional items. Expand the kingdom (or my kingdom). Or how about the idea of death (old age) of a character and living vicariously/directly through his children…

I think that the ability to mod the game will really potentially impact its longevity. Hopefully this game, as I suspect, will have an amazing group of modders who’ll add a wealth of new features as the one’s I dream about. Still, if enough people wanted more sandbox, I hoped that would influence the developers to shift more towards that.

#14

Hey I want plenty of sandbox like everyone else but I also really enjoy story and maybe just dismissing people who prefer story as ‘casual’ isn’t really fair.

#15

I agree. It’s clear we will have both, it’s just a matter of how much of which one. Regardless, I don’t think it will matter in the long run for me. If it’s a great story with continuing Acts, great! If it’s a decent story with opportunities to play in the sandbox a little longer, that’s fine too. I think it’s the discussing, sharing and anticipating that adds to the fun of it. I’m sure that no two of us are looking for exactly the same experience.

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#16

I see KCD more as Witcher 2/3, not GTA 5 :slight_smile:

#17

Well believe it or not most of older rpgs were kind of sandboxes, waaaay before oblivion. It will have a linear story, but as the devs said. It is a sandbox rpg. If you want to explore that road that leads you behind the mountain, go for it.

#18

While I realize this game will be more story oriented rather than sandbox style I’m still hoping there will be enough freedom. I’ve always enjoyed games that allow free sandbox playing in addition to the main story line.

Typical storyline can last tens of hours but on top of that I usually spend hundreds of hours with a game if there is enough freedom. For example I’ve spent countless hours with Rainbow Six games just trying different kind of plans and scenarios, same thing with Mount & Blade series (Steam gives about 500 hours of playtime for thise) etc. I’m hoping this game will be one of those rare games that keep entertaining after the first 10 and even 100 hours.

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