gta.com.ua_map_vice_city.jpg
Inspired by this Jimquisition episode, let's talk about video game environments/maps and their (un-)graspable size! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr3OcN2qmqo
Vice City is my favourite GTA. I knew every alleyway, all the vehicle locations, all the weapon spawns - everything. And I mostly still do. Then San Andreas came along. It was bigger. I explored every nook and cranny of it, yet most of the time I couldn't find my own safe house neighbourhood without the map. GTA IV doesn't have any memorable locations for me either. I think these games trying to be as big as they can works against them. The bigger it got, the more void it felt. And as a result I didn't remember anything about them.
This is what I remember from TES Oblivion: there were plains and caves. I had my eye more on the compass than anything else. Along comes Dark Souls. No map, no indicators. I know every single area from top to bottom. The world of Lordran was complex, but small enough for me to grasp and memorise. Lot's of repetition to visit certain NPC's helped too. Along comes Dark Souls 2. It was by no means as tight or "smartly" designed and as a result - despite 200 hours into it - I have no clue where's what.
Criticise FFX's linearity all you want, but almost every location and map is memorable, or simple enough to memorise. The smart exception however are the cloysters of trials. For some reason they always mess me up - I can't memorise them. Was that awesome map design on purpose?
TLDR: What videogames do you think have grown too big in their maps for you to grasp? What videogame map do you remember from A-Z? Which ones feel like home?