Ghost of Yotei Open World

If you've been playing Ghost of Yotei over the last few days, then you'll have probably noticed just how open its open world actually feels.

Player freedom was pushed as a major selling point leading up to the PS5 exclusive's launch, and we dare say that the game delivers on its promise; its open world design does a great job of teasing you towards new events and locations in a way that feels natural.

We think Yotei's overall structure is more than worthy of discussion — especially when you consider how uninspired open world titles can be these days — and so hearing about Sucker Punch's approach is pretty interesting.

Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube166k

Speaking to GamesRadar, creative director Jason Connell basically says that letting players tackle Atsu's adventure at their own pace was always key.

"If [players] don't want to do [something in-game], we're just like, 'OK, that's your choice,'" he says.

"As long as you're having fun, we don't care too much."

Now, obviously, with the sheer amount of time and effort that's poured into a first-party release on the scale of Yotei, you'd think that the developers would be a little concerned over players missing out on carefully crafted content — but again, player freedom was always the goal.

"Our philosophical sort of thing about this game was to let you have more freedom than any game we've ever had," Connell states.

We think it'll be worth keeping an eye on how Ghost of Yotei is viewed going forward, with regards to its open world. We're not saying it's revolutionary, but we would argue that it's much better at immersing you in its setting — primarily through gameplay — than most other games in the genre.

(If you do need help with uncovering everything the game has to offer, though, you could always check out our 100% Ghost of Yotei guide.)

What do you make of Yotei's open world design? Have you been left impressed? Take out your spyglass in the comments section below.

What's your take on Ghost of Yotei's open world design? (1,618 votes)

  1. I love it58%
  2. It's pretty good17%
  3. Meh, it's just okay2%
  4. It's disappointing1%
  5. It's rubbish1%
  6. I haven't played it20%

[source gamesradar.com]