IT’S ALL OVER THE MAP! SURELY THERE’S A BETTER WAY TO FIND YOUR WAY.
Games should plot a different course when it comes to the navigational tools they give you
That faint whistle made by whatever you’ve scooped up in your telekinetic grasp, the peculiarly particular workplace posters, the nightmare fuel that is the Threshold Kids – there are so many great details in Control that when you happen across an element not up to the same level, it sticks out like a spent psychic’s nosebleed. In this stretched metaphor, Control’s nosebleed is its map.
On top of making the game hang whenever you pull it up, elevation is poorly communicated and there’s almost no indication of which areas you’ve fully explored. In a game with Metroidvaniaesque progression, that’s something any budding Parautilitarian will feel the lack of, and it was one reason why OPM’s editor took his leave of The Oldest House.
THERE AND BACK
Of course, Control’s is only the latest in a slew of terrible in-game maps or navigation tools in otherwise great titles, and I’m wondering why getting around a virtual world is often such a headache. Despite the Ghibli-esque charm of Raincatcher Gully or the gpose-friendly scenes throughout The First, my eye stays glued to FFXIV’s bottom corner. Surrounded by the acidic tones of Monarch’s megaflora, I’m staring at the bright green waypoint marker and not bothering to sniff the Outer Worlds’ (potentially carnivorous) roses. I’ve all of Skyrim to explore and only care about barrelling towards the next objective on my checklist! Why is it that so many games’ maps and navigation systems work against fostering player interest in their worlds?
Naturally not every game can follow in FromSoftware’s footsteps and nix maps entirely yet still etch every corner of Yharnam into the inside of your skull thanks to choice enemy placement and a carefully crafted sense of place. Control has a similarly killer setting with plenty of secrets, but its map’s unwieldiness discourages over-reliance, forcing you to get to know the mercurial halls of the Oldest House and me to ponder “Is it a bug or is it a feature?” But I’m also wondering what other roads might acquaint me with some fantastic worlds in the future.