Losing motivation/interest long before the end of a game.

[El Spatula]

I've completed Elden Ring (multiple times), the Spidermans (they feel amazing), Horizon Zero Dawn (the combat is amazing), Morrowind, Saints Row 3 and 4 and that's about it. All others have become boring very quickly. Open world games need something to hook me and most don't manage it.

[Qazimod]

Crackdown's approach worked. There are 21 bosses spread around these islands - go and find them. There are collectibles, but they exist to make you better at the thing you did to earn them. It's a self-sustaining economy. Sometimes the game funnels you into a tighter, more organised "level", but most of the game is this mad power rush where you're sprinting around creating a mess and just happen to launch a boss into the sea because of your absurd momentum.

[Fry Crayola]

Crackdown's still so refreshing because it really leans in to the "open" part of open worlds. Here's a map, here's a bunch of objectives, here's a packed lunch, now off you go. 

 

So many open world games are just a series of funnels and wide corridors. I appear to have more tolerance than most because I tend to stick the course, but they're so often bloated with things to do just to fill the map. Fuck that. If traversing your gigantic map isn't fun, then make a smaller map.

[Gabe]

Crackdown is an interesting one, because the world itself is incredibly empty and dull - which is one of the complaints that befalls a lot of other titles - but the enjoyment comes from the traversal and hunting for those delectable green orbs, which is a game in itself. The other mechanics - driving, shooting, punching - are only so-so, too, but as @Fry Crayola says, it truly is a completely open world. I can't remember the first game too well, but I think in the second game if you were good enough you could just immediately hot-toe it to the final boss and beat him straight off the bat I think?

 

The first game is still by far the best, but the third game is decent and really leans into the verticality of the world.

 

They are all pretty short games too, unless you are an achievement hunter I suppose.

[smithstock]

I think my take on this is, I only play games long enough to feel like I've seen everything it has to offer OR it compels me enough to see it through to completion (end or story, 100% etc).

 

Elden Ring was the last game I played where I was utterly compelled, but Horizon FW (and currently God of War R) feel turgid or repetitive in parts - that I don't feel like seeing what else it may have to offer.

 

The Assassin's Creed games from Origins onwards had the same thing, getting too big/repetitive. But Black Flag I was utterly compelled to finish the legendary ships after an early encounter, but there was no way I was gathering every collectable. 

[BadgerFarmer]

I quite liked AC Valhalla, even though I didn't finish it. Because the story was divided into loosely connected chapters, each taking a few hours and culminating in an ending of sorts, it felt more like a series of smaller open worlds that you could hop out of when you'd had your fill. So I experienced all I wanted to over maybe 40 hours, then did just that.