Games where navigating the wilderness is very difficult?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I remember playing the first ARMA game. A few levels in, you are dropped into the middle of an immense forest where it is difficult to determine where the sun through the tree canopy and thus where is East/West. IIRC you got a compass and a map and had to constantly look at your map to try to deduce where you were (there were no markers labeling where you were facing or your position), and then try to look for landmarks and try to bushwhack your way through the woods (since in the story, the island you were on had been taken over by Soviets and they were patrolling the roads). Just getting your squad across the map and evading enemy patrols was as engaging as the actual combat encounters. The only other game that I remember sorta feeling like that was wandering around the huge hunting forest in KCD with Hans where the trees obscured your sight of the sun or the mountains forests, but IIRC you got a map that labeled your position so you couldn't get lost.

[Tangerine]

Subnautica's world can be difficult to navigate, since you have a 2D map for a 3D space. You'll have a rough idea of where you are and the direction you're going, but depth is the confounding factor. You'll get a tech that shows waypoints and makes it significantly easier, but there's still the slight challenge of knowing which tunnel will get you to the objective.

[Norfleet]

Navigating anything in vidya games is generally difficult the moment they remove the automap, because in real life, you can FEEL yourself move so you know where you are relative to some previously experienced point. Also, real life isn't made of copypaste textures.

[Tadeusz]

Navigating anything in vidya games is generally difficult the moment they remove the automap

Pretty much this. I remember playing Skyrim: Home of the Nords mod for Morrowind and there were only maps on scrolls that schematically depict major points of interest. Of course, current player position on the global map was also unavailable so it was pretty challenging to navigate.

[DemoGraph]

Minecraft (especially on amplified biomes, where you can't look that far).

Valheim has a world setting that allows you to disable the minimap. There's no compass. Since you can't create eternal fires (all sources of fire need to be refueled), you can't really create beacons. You can make a road grid, but AFAIK there's no (non autistic) way to measure distance.

Subnautica fits as well. But you can make beacons there that can be always shown on your hud. And you always know the distance to them. I used to create a coordinate grid out of them.

[Fox1]

I remember playing the first ARMA game. A few levels in, you are dropped into the middle of an immense forest where it is difficult to determine where the sun through the tree canopy and thus where is East/West. IIRC you got a compass and a map and had to constantly look at your map to try to deduce where you were (there were no markers labeling where you were facing or your position), and then try to look for landmarks and try to bushwhack your way through the woods (since in the story, the island you were on had been taken over by Soviets and they were patrolling the roads). Just getting your squad across the map and evading enemy patrols was as engaging as the actual combat encounters. The only other game that I remember sorta feeling like that was wandering around the huge hunting forest in KCD with Hans where the trees obscured your sight of the sun or the mountains forests, but IIRC you got a map that labeled your position so you couldn't get lost.

Yes! I remember that mission, it was one of the best in the campaign IMO. That game really made you feel like you were part of a real military where you had to learn to understand maps, were just a cog in the machine, vulnerable and it was punishing with single shot deaths. Sadly the later ARMA games while improving the core gameplay, had really lame campaigns in comparison. "Oh no....1 is down..." I think it is also one of the few games where the Soviets are presented as the bloodthirsty enemy they really were.

[Nemesis]

I remember playing the first ARMA game.

Day Z, which started as an ARMA mod, is just as difficult: There are no maps or compasses unless you find them, and the only guaranteed maps are those posted along hiking trails.

[asf]

unreal world

[maidenhaver]

I hate mapmarkers and compasses in vidya, with the exception of automappers in drpgs. I've gotten lost in Black Parade's catacomb mission. I forget if its the third or fourth mission, but the one with the tombs, and the grave robbers who went in blind alerted the undead. I love how Thief will give you faulty knowledge of places, because sources can be wrong. It feels like an authentic adventure. That's how a lot of settings should handle maps. At least in a fantasy, you might have flying wizards who moonlight as cartographers, but most people are going to know the world by landmarks, which can be unreliable, and travelers may have good reasons to conceal how much they know. Games that give you gps and aerial maps you don't need to interpret are lame.

Roads are stupid.

[Norfleet]

I propose a compromise: No aerial wide-angle minimap, but you get a simple text printout of your coordinates on the map in its place. That way you know where you are, as you would in reality, because the Earth's magnetic field exists and you can pretty much always use that to orient yourself unless you're being kept in a shielded metal box, but you don't have psychic awareness of the surrounding terrain.

[maidenhaver]

No, no compromises. The time for talk is over.

[rusty_shackleford]

Navigating the wilderness?
Difficult? Dangerous?

Ahem…


Runescape.