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EMPTY ENVIRONMENTS
All too often, people confuse this criticism for “barren worlds”, so let’s clear that up right away. A barren world can still be an excellent sandbox. Open worlds like Breath of the Wild, Fallout 4, and Mad Max are barren by design, but they’re not empty. They’re not lacking in engaging content, in interesting things for players to seek out and activites to tackle. Empty worlds, like the one in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, don’t have that going for them. You have a lot of real estate to traverse, but really, there’s very little that’s motivating you to truly go all-in on that.
