Open-world games have revolutionized the way we play video games, offering expansive environments and boundless opportunities for exploration. From soaring mountain peaks to bustling cities, these games create the illusion of living in a world of our own making. They are often designed to provide players with total freedom to go wherever they want, do whatever they want, and at their own pace. However, despite all of the positive elements these games bring to the table, there’s one feature that is starting to subtly ruin the experience: fast travel.
Fast Travel: The Convenience That Breaks Immersion
In many open-world games, fast travel is introduced as a way to save time. As players, we’ve all been there: after finishing a quest on the far side of the map, we just want to zip back to the nearest town to turn it in and move on. Fast travel gives us that instant gratification. It’s an essential feature when the game world is vast and we’ve already trekked through familiar areas multiple times. The problem, however, lies in the way fast travel undermines the sense of immersion that these games often strive for.
When you can instantly teleport from one place to another, the vast, open world stops feeling like a living, breathing place and becomes a mere backdrop for mission after mission. The excitement of discovering new places, the rush of exploring uncharted territory, and the quiet beauty of the game’s design all fade into the background as we race through the game on a fast-paced shortcut. There’s a disconnection between the player and the environment—what was once a living world to explore becomes a place to quickly pass through.
In reality, the landscapes and cities we visit in games should feel like they belong to the world and add to the depth of our journey. But fast travel essentially skips over that. We see the markers on the map, select the one we want to go to, and in an instant, we’re there. The magic of exploration is lost when we constantly choose to bypass the game’s world at the drop of a hat. While it might seem like a convenient tool, it erodes the core of what makes open-world games so special: the feeling of being part of a living, dynamic world.
The Dangers of Over-Reliance on Fast Travel
It’s not that fast travel is inherently bad—it has its place, especially for players who have already explored an area or just want to get back to a central hub without retracing their steps. But the over-reliance on it can lead to a missed opportunity for developers to build more meaningful experiences. When a player uses fast travel too often, they miss out on elements of the game that were carefully designed to be discovered along the journey.
In some games, the world is filled with random encounters, hidden treasures, and side quests that are only accessible through exploration. Fast traveling skips past these moments, preventing the player from stumbling upon unexpected events and content. The risk is that the game becomes little more than a series of checkpoints, and players stop experiencing the full depth of the world. What developers might intend to be rewarding and enriching experiences become optional distractions when you can simply bypass them.
Additionally, by using fast travel, players may miss out on the chance to see the world evolve. Some games feature dynamic ecosystems and in-game events that change based on player actions or the time of day. Walking or riding through the world allows players to experience these changes firsthand, giving the world a sense of life and progression. But when players choose fast travel, they’re skipping over these moments, and the sense of continuity is lost. The game world becomes static and lifeless, no longer affected by the passage of time or the player’s actions.
A Balanced Approach: Enjoying the World at Your Own Pace
That’s not to say fast travel should be completely removed from open-world games, but rather that it should be used more sparingly, with greater consideration for its impact on immersion. Developers can still create vast, interconnected worlds while giving players the ability to travel quickly between key locations when necessary. The key lies in finding a balance between convenience and immersion, encouraging players to engage with the world while still offering a way to save time when the journey becomes redundant.
One possible solution is to make fast travel something that feels earned. Perhaps fast travel could be limited to specific locations or only unlocked after completing certain tasks, like discovering a particular landmark or completing a series of quests. This would encourage players to explore, without feeling like they are constantly grinding through the same locations over and over again.
Another approach could be to create more meaningful travel systems, such as mount or vehicle-based travel, where the act of moving through the world still offers something to enjoy. Rather than immediately snapping from point A to point B, this system could allow players to witness the world unfolding as they journey, encountering wildlife, weather changes, or random events along the way. This would maintain the feeling of the world being alive while still offering a faster travel option.
By taking a more deliberate approach to fast travel, developers can ensure that the feature doesn’t overshadow the immersive elements that make open-world games so enjoyable. After all, the joy of open-world games isn’t just in the destination; it’s in the journey. And while it’s nice to have a way to skip past unnecessary backtracking, it’s important to remember that the best moments in these games often come from taking the long way around and letting the world reveal itself to you at its own pace.
