So about 2 years ago I had a moment when open-world RPGs just "clicked;" that is, I just suddenly "got" them, and I was curious if anyone else has had the same experience.
My first experience with open-world type games was back in the early 2000s when my cousin in Norway showed me Grand Theft Auto III and kept gushing about how great it was. I tried it and I was not really impressed. Later my sister got me GTA: Vice City for my birthday, and I played it for a few days, but I got so bored I quit and never played it again. So my first impressions of open-world were not great.
A bit later, I kept reading about how great Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was, so I bought a used copy for XBOX for cheap. The same thing happened; I played it for a few days and thought it was OK, but got bored again. At the time my reaction was, why would anyone want to wander around aimlessly doing all these little things? I felt like I needed more direction, instead of everything being so, well, OPEN.
So I skipped Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion because I figured I'd find it boring too. I did buy Fallout 3, again because I heard good things about it. The beginning part in the vault was kinda boring, but I stuck through until I left the vault and reached the first town (Megaton). Now, after you leave the vault you can't see much of the world, just a small abandoned town down below, and I was not impressed. A path to the right leads to Megaton, but there's a ridge straight ahead that I never went over. I did a couple of quests in Megaton, but I started having the same feelings of boredom. I put it aside and didn't play for probably a year. I tried again and the same thing happened.
So about 2 years ago, I was gathering some games together to sell to Gamestop to get rid of clutter and get a little extra cash. I added Fallout 3 to the pile without a thought, but the day before I brought the pile to Gamestop, I decided to give it one last chance. I played through everything I had done twice before... but this time I finally went over that ridge I mentioned earlier.
My mouth dropped open and I probably muttered something like "holy crap."
Sprawled out before me was a HUGE barren landscape, with the ruined Washington Monument in the background, the sun peeking through the haze. It was beautiful.
I couldn't wait to get down there and explore the area. I stopped at the abandoned grocery store straight ahead and ran into my first enemy mutant. Through my first 2 tries, I just had not gotten the hang of the VATS targeting system. I tried it out on this mutant...
BAM! His head went flying, and I said "HOLY SHIT!"
In a span of probably less than 2 minutes, I not only got hooked on Fallout 3 and finally understood the targeting system, but I understood what open-world RPGs are all about. It's all about the exploration, finding new places, taking a short detour to check out a random building or cave. I ended up with over 100 hours into Fallout 3. Then I got Skyrim and was blown away. I have 120 hours into that game. I'm currently playing through Oblivion, which I finally went back and tried. Last night I battled through a dungeon of really tough undead soldiers to reach the Madstone, and it was thrilling. Funny to think it wasn't that long ago I was about to give up on the open-world genre forever.
Anyway, that's my story. Anyone else have something similar to share?