Aye. I've seen a few games that manage to synergize exploration with the rest of the gameplay in pretty cool and natural ways.
Sadly there's a lot of other games these days that tend to rely on a lot of (fetch) quests to motivate or steer players into exploration. Which then often lead to achievement-styled checklists and "collectathons". Can't remember any specific scenarios I can describe, but I remember this sort of vibe in Darksiders 2, a lot of the Dead Island/Dying Light games, and some of Elder Scrolls Online.
IE, forcing players to follow along a linear path (usually with a dull and meaningless backstory), which often leads to a backlog of incomplete sidequests, which often don't flow intuitively with normal gameplay, and rarely is the reward even worth the level of hassle involved.
Aye. I've seen a few games that manage to synergize exploration with the rest of the gameplay in pretty cool and natural ways.
Sadly there's a lot of other games these days that tend to rely on a lot of (fetch) quests to motivate or steer players into exploration. Which then often lead to achievement-styled checklists and "collectathons". Can't remember any specific scenarios I can describe, but I remember this sort of vibe in Darksiders 2, a lot of the Dead Island/Dying Light games, and some of Elder Scrolls Online.
IE, forcing players to follow along a linear path (usually with a dull and meaningless backstory), which often leads to a backlog of incomplete sidequests, which often don't flow intuitively with normal gameplay, and rarely is the reward even worth the level of hassle involved.