Freedom is a lot more addicting than I thought.

You have to understand that it isn't my fault that I have largely shunned "open" games. I was after all raised on console and arcade games that made me this way. They gave me each piece in the puzzle and even the directions to assemble it. I didn't need to worry about the fact that what the game was asking me to do was a blatant waste of time. Talk to the town baker, who will give you the golden pancake batter that you will then grill up to a nice golden brown to appease the ogre that is blocking the entrance to the cave that holds some pointless object that you need to impress the king so he will give you a key that you can then use to gain entrance to the vaults where an all powerful sword resides that you can use to free the princess from the clutches of evil. Nevermind the fact that the king is the one who wants you to free his daughter. He still makes you do all that crap. And we did it. And I've doing it ever since, for more than 20 years. And I probably will do it until the day I die. Because for some sick reason, I keep coming back.

But what if all those steps didn't matter? If the simple goal of freeing the princess was all you had to worry about and it was up to you as to how to actually accomplish that task. It's this goal-oriented approach that is so appealing. I *could* do all the typical RPG crap outlined above, or I could just find another weapon to free the princess. I could kill the ogre with my bare hands and maybe the king too. And maybe even the princess too. I would suffer the consequences sure, but that's my decision. This is the beauty of sandbox gaming.

I used to think that linear gameplay was necessary to really enjoy a game. But Crackdown proved me wrong. I'm sure there are better sandbox examples out there, but this is the one that has really opened my eyes to what games are really capable of. It offers the freedom to do as I please but adds in superhero elements such as an upgradeable super jump and the ability to regenerate health almost instantly. But this isn't a review of Crackdown, we already have a great one for it. It's an admission that I haven't had this much fun with a game in a long time. The fact that I have been playing it almost exclusively co-op just adds to the argument that gaming really has evolved. I'd love to see more sandbox elements make their way in to other games. Resident Evil has already evolved quite a bit, but what if I didn't have to get those two pieces to combine and open the door anymore? What if I just blew the door open with a shotgun? Would there be implications for doing that (like maybe the noise would awaken a really nasty enemy)? This is the kind of freedom that can really enhance a game. 

Sure Crackdown isn't great in the story area and it isn't much more than an excuse to mindlessly destroy (though stats are decreased for killing innocents). But think about how much games can evolve if we can just get away from the minutia and focus on the overall goal. I never would have said this a year ago, but I am actually really excited to play Grand Theft Auto IV. Now if only I could learn to play these FPS games that everyone is raving about!

This blog article should be recognized as the sole opinion of the editor and does not necessarily reflect GotNext's official position on the subject.