With not much happening in the Art gaming world at this time of year, Art Perspective is taking a look back at some gaming history. Also the writer of this bi-monthly art column has broken his wrist, so the length of this weeks installment will be hindered by one handed typing.
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Open world gaming allows for an experimental approach to gameplay inviting creativity from players. Thanks to current series such as Grand Theft Auto, Fallout and Mafiathe genre has become a substantial part our gaming diet. The general idea of open world gaming has been around since the early 80s, with many 2D nonlinear games on the scene, but these were nonlinear as opposed to fully open worlds. These titles proved popular, several of which have become house hold names; Dragon Quest, Metroid and The Legend of Zelda to name a few. But it was the wiry space simulator Elite that was the first to place the player in a truly open environment. From Cambridge based developers Acornsoft, Elite hit consoles in 1984, allowing players to explore the dark vacuum of space, not the most complicated of environments but it was a start. Skipping forward a little to the 1991, we saw the fall of the Soviet Union, but more importantly it was the year that witnessed the release of the first fully 3D sandbox game; Hunter. This Activition title was a blocky action adventure in which the players could explore various islands on the Amiga and Atari ST. A new generation of consoles in the mid 90s brought new power with them, allowing for more complicated and eye pleasing environments, ready to be explored. It was this generation, mainly with the Nintendo 64, that saw a rise in open world games and more importantly good games that still stand up to modern standards with re-releases on handheld consoles; Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Body Harvest. These games introduced players to large open environments, capturing the imagination of gamers in ways that more linear struggle to create. Some worthy mentions in the evolution of the open world, are the Sony Playstations contribution Driver and the Dreamcast classic Shenmue. Both of which added to the ground work already set in place by the previous sandboxers. And so to the Grand Theft Auto series, the undoubted poster boy of the open world sandbox genre. Starting out as a top down city the player controlled a character who could cause all sorts of chaos, with a plethora of weapons and cars are their disposal. Although the initial GTA instalments were popular it wasn't until the series took the leap into 3D graphics at a third person perspective that the series gained massive popularity and later infamy. The series has now become one of the biggest cultural phenomenon on the planet, all because it allows the player the freedom to what they want within a massive environment. With a new GTA on the horizon it looks as though there will be a new open world for games to get creative within soon.