The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

[volebagels]

Hmm, how do you mean? simply go 'off road' and not follow the game directions?

[I like pie]

Not so much that we didn't follow the directions, though that is fun too, but rather that we initially were forced to actually look at our surroundings and navigate in a more manual sense. It accidentally created a more natural feeling of presence and immersion.

Once we realized our mistake, and began to use the map to do the thinking for us, the travel experience felt a lot more like every other game. Look at the map, pick a spot, turn on mental auto-pilot. It's more convenient for sure, but what a waste of a beautiful world when there's no reason to really familiarize yourself beyond landmarks.

Our sense of exploration was compromised because we lost the sense of wonder and discovery. It was still a great game, and maybe I'm just overthinking it, but damn if it didn't feel so much grander when we had to find our own way.