10 Amazing Video Games With Terrible Open Worlds
3. Gears 5
It doesn't seem like you really need hindsight to see why Gears 5 didn't work as an open world game.
The basic formula of the series is running forward, taking cover, shooting - repeat. The Gears Of War games are some of the best shooters of all time, in some ways because they showcase how great level design can elevate what is basically a corridor shooter.
So what do you do when you take that and stick it in an open world setting without fundamentally changing the game in any way?
You give the player a fun way to drive from one corridor to the next and... yeah, just that, actually.
It was super fun to zip around in the skiff, but didn't provide anything new for the series. You just took it between long, traditional Gears levels for story missions, and much shorter traditional Gears levels for the side-missions. And the side-missions themselves were almost pointless, rewarding the player with an upgrade currency that is already plentiful.
Try to please everyone and you'll please no one. It's fine and bold if you want to reinvent your legacy game franchise, but if you aren't going to go all in, then why even bother?