8 TINY Things Video Games Do That Drive Us Crazy
2. "You Are Leaving The Mission Area"
Am I? Am I really? I thought the entire point of your open world was that I could play the game however I wanted to...
Games with gigantic maps often sell themselves on this point. There's so much to see and do, and best of all, to be approached however you like. Sandbox quite literally means that the player has at least the illusion of control. You are supplied tools and told to use them however you like to maximise your enjoyment.
It is kind of funny how many video games take place on islands or in valleys just so players can be kept captive in the world without having a prompt that tells them that they are leaving the map. Let's face it, it's only slightly less immersion-breaking. But, it's when this prompt appears in a mission that really upsets the apple cart.
If there are only a few specific ways to approach an objective then aren't you just playing a linear game? What if you want to sneak around and come at this from a new angle? Maybe you want to go grab a certain vehicle or bit of equipment to create my own kind of mayhem. Instead, you'll fail the mission for walking outside of the specific area denoted by your mini-map.
As a more general point, stop giving us so much potential and then reducing it down to a few carefully curated, specific toys. I invested in this entire sandbox, not just a corner of it at a time.