Cool open-world mechanic in AC Origins (Gaming)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Wednesday, January 10, 2018, 19:49 (2513 days ago) @ cheapLEY

TheeChaos is right. That’s basically just how open world games work now, for the most part. Since Skyrim, at least. Horizon Zero Dawn did the same thing. I think the “Press Start to track this quest” is somewhat unique. Some games just automatically make the new quest the tracked, current quest, some just add them to the quest log. The Witcher 3 let you click the right thumb stick to track newly received quests.

The thing about games like Horizon though is that the quests all take place in unique areas, so you’d have to go pretty far out of your way to start a new quest while in the middle of another one. But in AC Origins, I’d literally be on my way to kill a target in the middle of a city, then I’d see some guy in a cage being carted through town on the back of a carriage, and I’d free him and start a new quest. I don’t remember Horizon ever giving me the opportunity to change gears like that. Not saying it isn’t possible, but I’d need to treck several miles in the wrong direction to even find the opportunity to interrupt a quest.

I don't think that's true. It doesn't even approach the same number as Origins, but Horizon isn't lacking for side quests, but they're not hard to find, especially in the Nora lands. Think about this sister looking for her outcast brother, or the the injured man looking for his daughter, who was off hunting the machine that had the spear her mother crafted. You could pretty easily run into little quests like that in the course of doing the main quest. Sure, it became a bit more rare as the game progressed and you went to more unique areas, but still not impossible. The area around Meridian is filled with quests you can pick up.

That said, it's also quite possible to mainline that game without really noticing many of the side quests, in a way that's distinctly not possible in Origins. Origins absolutely throws them at you by comparison.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think we’re talking about the exact same thing. I need to double check, but if I remember correctly, those characters who give side quests literally don’t appear if you are mid-mission doing another quest. The quests in Horizon are very segmented. You talk to someone who gives you an objective, you go to an area to activate the objective, then you complete the objective, then the quest ends OR they tell you where to go to activate the next portion of the quest. While traveling to the point where you activate an objective, you can certainly run into NPCs who give out side quests. But once you activate an objective, I’m pretty sure you’re locked in to completing it, or quitting it. You can’t just walk away from it, leaving it suspended where it is, start a new quest, do a bunch of other stuff, then walk back and continue literally right where you left off. Am I wrong about that?