Summary
Like them or loathe them, RPGs have left their mark on video games. Even games that are all real-time action with nary a mage or Eidolon in sight will have some elements from their wizard-fiddling forebears. Like how open-world games likeGrand Theft Auto 5,Saints Row 4, and most of theYakuza/Like a Dragongames have strength levels that unlock with enough XP.
They’ve become a standard feature in the genre, where even if they don’t call it “leveling up,” they still require XP to get stronger and earn new skills. But this wasn’t always the case. For older open-world games, and some newer ones, players either got stronger in other ways or never had to level up to begin with.
Nothing’s ever straightforward in aMetal Geargame. Its sole open-world entry,Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain(Ground ZeroesandSurvivedon’t count), brought in the same systemMGS: Peace Walkerhad, where Big Boss/Snake doesn’t level up on his own at all. He’s as tough at the start of the game as he is by its end. Instead, it’s his Mother Base that levels up.
The more high-quality staff Snake nabs off the field, the better Mother Base’s departments get, which lets players get their hands on better weapons and gear. In turn, Snake’s actions can earn Heroism to attract better troopers and increase base morale to make his soldiers more effective at their jobs. So, one could sayMGS5does have level-ups. It’s just for everyone and everything else except Snake.
Beforethe mainline games became JRPGs, theYakuzaseries had varying degrees of leveling up Kiryu and co. They all involved earning XP, which would then either earn different amounts of orbs to buy skills (Y3-5), follow a skill tree (Yakuza Kiwami 1,Like a Dragon: Ishin), or would be split between different traits depending on which activities the player did (Y6,Yakuza Kiwami 2).
Yakuza 0did things differently by getting rid of XP altogether. Instead, it had a skill tree where players bought their skills using the billions of yen they’d earn from fights, substories, minigames, etc. It sounds like a lot of cash, but when it’s split between health/offense/defense buffs, new combat skills, weapon parts, Hostess training, Real Estate properties, catfights, etc., it often runs out as fast as it’s earned.
Today, when most people imagine an open-world game, they think of a sandbox experience likeGTAorYakuza. But the earliest games that let players roam wherever they liked were more likeElite, a space sim where they had to trade between different outposts and do other odd jobs to earn more credits and buy upgrades to their ship. That way, they could travel further and fight off any rivals better.
Elite Dangerousupdated the old space sim’s premise by putting players in a larger universe, with more activities to do, and more factions to play politics with, all to earn more space credits, which will help them go from piloting a hunk of junk spaceship to flying the best galactic cruiser the cosmos can offer. That is, if they could get a grip on how the game’s cosmic capitalism works.
Going back to more familiar ground,Destroy All Humans(be it the original or remake) plants the Furon alien Crypto on Earth in 1959 to save his species from genetic annihilation. Which largely involves grabbing some unfortunate humans and harvesting the Furon DNA from their brains. If they must cause a little chaos across the game’s six different maps to get enough of the stuff to save their race, so be it.
Harvesting DNA is also how players can upgrade Crypto’s weapons and abilities. The more DNA they can get, the more skills and upgrades they can buy. If they don’t probe enough humans, they won’t be able to boost their chain lightning, Disintegrator Ray, or Psychokinesis, amongother parts of their arsenal. So, unless they’re deliberately challenging themselves to a low-level run, players will have to get to wrecking ASAP to get ahead in the game.
Before the series cranked the wackiness to 11 and twisted the knob off afterward,Saints Row 2made players work for their upgrades. It wasn’t enough for them to reach one level or another and spend XP on whatever skill they liked,like in its sequels. If they wanted certain skills, they had to complete certain activities and minigames. Want to be invulnerable to fall damage from all heights? Perfect the base-jumping activity.
Want to sprint everywhere without getting tired? Complete Level 6 of Insurance Fraud, the hardest level of the car accident simulator. Want stronger melee attacks? Beat everyone else up in Fight Club, which might require beating one of the other gangs’ story missions up to Mission 6 to get their fighting styles. It’s harder than the standard level up, but it does feel more rewarding once they’re achieved.
Assassin’s Creed 2doesn’t make players sweat as much to get their upgrades. So long as they have enough cash, they can buy the right weapons and armor from the blacksmiths and replenish their knives and smoke bombs. Though getting the best stuff requires story progression and raising plenty of funds. Getting enough florins usually involves completing enough missions, with the odd bit of pickpocketing and looting on the side, and finding a few lucky chests.
Otherwise, they’ll need tospruce up Villa Auditore, Ezio’s HQ. If they invest in the right renovations, buy enough art, and collect enough codex pages, they’ll raise the villa’s value and earn a decent amount of cash on the side. Then they’ll soon have more than enough to get the best gear and refill their perishables whenever they like.
One of the reasons levels caught on in open-world games is that they streamlined how players gain new abilities. It was easier to get a bundle of improved abilities by reaching one level or another, over, say, inGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas, where getting better at driving, shooting, and staying underwater required driving, shooting, and scuba diving a lot, respectively.
It did encourage playersto do more in Los Santos, though that might also be why some players preferredGTA: Vice City, where Tommy Vercetti didn’t need to do all that. All he needed was the right gear and weapons to turn the town into his playground, and that goal just required raising enough cash (or putting in the right cheat codes) to achieve it. No fuss, no muss.
