Summary
Video games are big these days. Not just big in terms of cultural significance or as a share of GDP, but geographically, the worlds within are massive. Game developers today are putting out games that, size-wise, could match those of small countries or island nations. With all that space to play around in, it stands to reason that players are given effective and engaging ways to move across their gargantuan maps.
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Simply speeding the player up by giving them a mount or flying only shrinks the play space, which defeats the whole point of having a large world. That’s whythe best games give their players tools to get around in compelling, thrilling, stylish ways. The only problem with the following items is that they aren’t available to unlock in the real world. If they were, they would at least make the daily commute to the office an absolute blast.
While there were attempts at depicting the grappling hook in 2D games,The Legend of Zelda’s Ocarina of Timeshowed the world what getting pulled along by a “hookshot” would look like (if it wouldn’t instantly break the neck of the user as it would in real life). The Hookshot can be found by beating the ghost of a graveyard keeper in a race around a mysterious underground labyrinth, and its longer upgrade can be found later in the Water Temple.
This game-changing gadget can snap onto rough surfaces (like rooftops or conveniently placed targets) and even comes witha handy (but unexplained) high-tech laser pointerto help players judge distance and height. While it’s a little basic and isn’t great for overworld traversal, the snappy grab animation made this somewhat basic tool fun to use all the same, and lazy players can occasionally use it to drag themselves over to a tree in Hyrule Field and skip a few seconds of walking.
This entry doesn’t come cheap at $60,000,000 (according to in-game information), but given that the name of the game is “Grand Theft,” it goes without saying thatGTA: San Andreas' jetpack is obtained with a mighty five-finger discount. After “lifting” it from Area 69, CJ is immune from fall damage, can fly around in all directions, and LARP as Superman between each of the game’s cities and through each of the city blocks. That being said, the movement is a little sluggish once the thrill of flying wears off.
Whether the jetpack counts as a vehicle or an item might be up for debate, but since it spawns as a weapon pickup in Area 69 (and then after the “Green Goo” mission, Verdant Meadows airport), it isn’t that much of a stretch to put it in the latter category. In either case, the only thing the jetpack needed for GTA jetpack perfection wasan in-built radio for all those incredible in-flight bops, although maybe the 60 million dollar budget was too stretched thin for such a feature.
Instantaneous travel from two points in space might be the fastest way to travel, but there’s a lot more to this device than basic teleportation. When its user shoots a blue and orange shot at a surface, a portal is opened to the other side, from one to the other. It’s so fast that players can see themselves running through from the back.
But the Portal Gun isn’t just for creating folds in space. It can also be used as a convenient (if not entirely dangerous) human launcher. Dropping into a portal on the floor from a sufficiently high place will launch the user after firing out from the other side at sickening speed, which,for those players smart enough to think in portals, helps in overcoming those annoying situations where a surface seems to have been coated with an anti-portal sheen.
Technically, these two gadgets have to be used in tandem for full effect. It’s hard to describe the feeling of slipping around the night under a black cloak and grapple line in any other way than just “like Batman.” The grapple gun inArkham Cityallows for an effortless, rapid ascent into high places, and Batman’s classic glide cape works interchangeably as a way to float on air currents one moment before zooming back down to the streets.
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The physics conveys the feel of being as heavy and as “rock steady” as flying through a gothic city skyline as a non-super-powered human should (albeit one with incredible training and billion-dollar funding), but somehow simultaneously, going from the ground level to the upper echelons and back downto the lower parts of the open-world to deliver some stealthy takedown justicefeels as sleek as a shadow running across a bat’s back.
TheJak and Daxterseries saw a tremendous amount of innovation during its short lifespan, from basically creating the first seamless open world in the first entry to creating a vast, highly detailed, and characterful city to give Rockstar a run for its money in the sequel. Naughty Dog could have left city traversal to stealing cars (as with GTA), but as usual, they went the extra mile and gave players a whole different way to travel by basically putting an entire skating game inJak 2.
When not in use, the hoverboard is stowed on Jak’s back like a shield, but it can be taken out anywhere and everywhere to give the duo a boost in speed.Pulling tricks and grinds ups the board’s momentum, giving plenty of agency and moment-to-moment precision gameplay for the players while they go from A to B.
TheJust Causeseries is practically defined by its sublime movement mechanics and endlessly free-flowing combat-flight dynamism. While the airborne rebellion began in the first two games with quaint paragliding action, the developers behindJust Cause 3unlocked the real secret sauce of flyby liberation with the Wingsuit. In the “Sky Fortress” DLC, the suit gets upgraded with an arsenal of weapons and even a propulsion jet engine, which allows for standing takeoff.
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Besides gliding down mountains and under jungle trees being a pure joy in itself, this freedom of movement in the airperfectly compliments the dynamic destruction possible in the game, giving players a spectacular view of the fireworks while blowing up statues, buildings, and infrastructure.
Easily one of the mechanics that really sold theMarvel’s Spider-Manseries as one of the greatest games of all time (at the very least in terms of map traversal) is the way Insomniac nailed the feeling of swinging around the concrete jungle by web and wrists. Swings, zip lines, and web pulls are all possible thanks to this seemingly infinitely replenishing supply of webs.
Although they probably need Spider-Man’s own super-spider strength to work at full capacity (or at all, considering that the triggers are tuned to their levels of strength), it’s hard to shake the idea that web shooters would put a spring in any pedestrian’s step so long as there were large enough buildings (or a series of handy cranes) nearby. Getting down from a rooftop would be a little trickier, however.
