This is exactly why Horizon will always be mid to me as well. There is so much potential in that game wasted because they copied Ubisofts formula damn near to a T, it just has a way prettier coat of paint on its, but people shyt on Ubisoft games and praise that game like it's a masterpiece. Metro Exodus is fantastic at this, as much as I like Cyberpunk it isn't on the same level as Elden Ring or this as far as the actual world design is. For the most part combat and mission are how you are going to level. Exploration rewards you with superficial rewards.
Funny thing is Ubisoft has clearly shown they can make a great non cookie cutter filler filled game. Immortals Fenyx Rising was actually a good game and it had great game design and fulfilling gameplay. They just lazy as all fukking hell.
I liked immortals, but i don’t think it’s level design was that great. What is did good was offer a real sense of progression through gameplay. As your character got stronger you were able to access more parts of the world. But the world itself wasn’t very detailed or intricate.
Cyberpunk offered probably the most intricate “city” design in a game. Comparing cyberpunk city to something like GTA is night and day.
Where hogwarts castle feels like an entire game world within itself. Cyberpunk had multiple mini hogwarts spread out over its map.
The most standout thing for me in these games is they are “open world” and offer plenty of player agency, but if you just jumped in at any random point you’d assume they were a very linear directed experience.
at this point.
