I want to take you on a small journey. You see, early on, I made the decision to test the open world, not knowing what was in store for me, nor how large the game world really was. So, I set a waypoint just out in the middle of nowhere to sort of guide me in the proper direction, and I just went.
It started smoothly enough. Riding across these gorgeous fields on my horse, I marveled at the realistic sky rendering, the atmospheric light scattering. It felt so realistic and impressive.
I appreciated the sheer density, the environment around me, the grass blade swaying in the wind, the trees, the foliage, the interactions with the horse, the way every hoof matches the terrain. Yeah, there's definitely some visible LOD popping along the way, which I don't love, but given the scale and the performance, it's understandable. Eventually, I reached this lengthy wall running across the terrain and decided to ride full speed towards this scaffolding and was surprised at how seamlessly you could leap off your horse and grab onto the structure.
Very cool stuff. Of course, it was seemingly for nothing as my horse was able to just walk right through here on the bottom when I called him. Oh well.
So, I continued and my next idea was to sort of wreak havoc in a nearby field to test the game's physics and performance. That's where I discovered horse drifting, where you can essentially sharply spin the horse around in circles in a way that feels awesome. Impressively, most smaller objects in the environment can be knocked down or destroyed by simply ramming into them, making this a lot of fun.
There is a small delay when destroying physics-based items, but still, it feels really great. I then rode towards a small nearby village and attempted to knock down these things as well, only to mistakenly reveal an enemy that was just hiding in the middle. Then suddenly from offscreen, a giant guard leaped into action and eliminated him immediately.
Whoa. With that though, I decided to continue forward looking for anything interesting. And it's here that I noticed the somewhat noisy rayraced lighting visible along the foliage here.
And that reminded me that we're looking at the original PSSR. We'll be very curious to see how this looks with the upgraded PSSR at launch. But moving forward, I decided it was time to play around with some guards just to sort of test the AI, right?
The results I thought were interesting. So after angering them, I ran away and decided to climb up on the roof of this house just to see what would happen. Turns out these guards can climb as well.
And they quickly tried to overwhelm me. While the shields clipping through the roof looks a bit awkward, the result of fighting them on the roof was really interesting. I was trying to kick them off, knock them down the slope, etc.
, and was doing okay, but eventually they overwhelmed me. So, I tried to run again, and this time they killed me, causing me to respawn nearby. And it's from this respawn point that I randomly stumbled upon this circus.
And honestly, this one really surprised me as well because it felt strangely lively. There was no story reason to be here, at least not yet. But wow, look at this.
The frame rate of course was a little unstable here, but I was surprised to see that there was an actual circus performance happening inside this tent. All lit with real-time ray tracing. Very, very cool, right?
But then I stumbled back outside and figured I'd mess with the AI again. So, I tried to attack NPCs. This revealed that when you first swipe at NPCs, they actually just fall back and avoid your blade.
But if you keep doing this, eventually the circle of pain draws around your character and everything within this circle that is say a guard or an enemy will suddenly come for you. What impressed me though is the way in which the crowds dispersed. Not just randomly in all directions.
Rather, they actually made their way as a group towards the exit in a panic as the guards then entered the scene to take me out. which recalls something cool about fighting because you see similar behavior with enemies as well. If say you're fighting some bandits and you kill most of them, there's a point where some remaining enemies might actually freak out and just attempt to run away from you.
You can, of course, take them out with an arrow if you're a good shot, mind you. It's a neat touch that adds a tinge of realism to the encounters. I really like the AI behavior in this game.
From there though, I kept moving forward and eventually that's where I found Bug Hill as I mentioned earlier. And this was quite a shock when I first found it. You see, up until this point, everything had this sort of grounded medieval flavor.
But suddenly, we had mechanical insects, airships, balloons, orcs, all fighting on the side of the mountain, and it looked super cool. This is when I did some of my performance testing, of course. But eventually, I survived Bug Hill and found this amazing orc city built upon a mountain, which looked wholly unlike anything else I'd seen in the game yet.
The sheer level of detail, the pipes, and the ornate structures really impressed. But it was time to continue. And as nightfell, I noticed a city in the distance.
And that city seemed to be illuminated by electric lights. Sure enough, it was. This sort of farmland was just spread out across the terrain.
At first, we thought it was Nazka lines, but it's actually an electric farm of some sorts. Very strange. Very different mood as well.
The HDR in this scene, by the way, was very impactful. I loved both the lights with the strong highlight as well as the beautiful night sky with its gorgeous voluometric cloud system. So, I continued climbing the mountain in the darkness with just my torch, fumbling around.
Night is really dark in this game, and it makes navigation more treacherous. I ended up exploring the cliffs, engaging a few foes before eventually finding this view, which is just awesome. Rather than diving in, though, I decided to take a left turn of sorts and make my way down to the shore to check out the water and take in the view.
The water was beautiful. Of course, I was ready to capture the scene. It really feels like you're standing at the edge of the world, but of course, you're not.
So, I kept moving. This time, walking down the beach, eventually reaching this sort of rocky terrain. That was where I decided to test the climbing system again, and yeah, it works similarly to Breath of the Wild.
You have a stamina meter and can climb most surfaces. It's actually influenced by heat and cold as well, which makes it harder to climb such surfaces. What I really like about it, though, is the way the animation system successfully matches your character's hands to logical positions as you climb the surface.
It feels very gratifying as a result. Eventually, I made it to the top and waiting for me up here turned out to be a rainforest. And the mood shifted greatly because it's not just a rainforest.
It actually started to rain. Your local torch lights up the droplets around you in a beautiful fashion as the area around your character is battered by the storm. Other lighting effects like this random blue glow from something produces dramatic results as well.
What I loved about this sequence in the jungle is that the fog and rain combined with the thickness of the trees really limits your view. It really feels isolated, as if you were actually exploring a deep jungle. Along the way, I navigated rapids, appreciating that awesome water system, dealt with a few more enemies in their encampments, walked along some cliffsides, including making some leaps of faith before eventually reaching the edge of the forest itself.
And that's when the rain started to let up, which highlighted another cool detail. Rain actually leaves behind puddles that persist for hours of game world time. It's not just a binary thing where it's rainy or not.
It actually comes and goes realistically, leaving its mark. Something that really adds to the realism. By this point though, I managed to climb up the side of this steep cliff and found myself staring out across the crimson desert itself.
from the opening village to the top of this mountain here. It took me roughly four hours of traversal and exploration. So yeah, I think you get it by now.
The amount of variety and display here is outstanding. And what I've shown you is just a small taste, a tiny path through the game world, a simple walk from one part of the map to another that became a memorable adventure. And this is before exploring the characters abilities or allowing the story to get started.
I haven't felt this need to explore since games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or perhaps Breath of the Wild. This is without a doubt one of the most impressive openw world experiences I've ever had. I genuinely found myself asking the question, "How the heck did they do this?
" over and over again. It really is that cool.
