History Main / QuicksandBox

* ''TheVoid'' (aka ''VideoGame/{{Turgor}}'') doesn't hold your hand, rarely tells you where to go, and when it does tell you what to do, it doesn't tell you in what order or how best to do so. It is very much a game of trial and error, and you can expect to die several times even before fighting a Brother through simple resource mismanagement.

* Most Creator/ParadoxInteractive games can be this to some degree. "You're now in control of Saxony, what do you do with it?" ''VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'' is probably the biggest example.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', the first explorable zone, the Hinterlands, is also the largest, with tons of side quests, landmarks, and other stuff to do. This has been known to cause players to lose sight of the next main quest and completely immerse themselves in exploring every nook and cranny of the zone, and then complain that there is too much to do and the plot is moving too slowly (especially if they forget what the next main quest even ''is'', having set a side quest as active by accident). This especially plagues players desiring OneHundredPercentCompletion and used to BioWare's "don't move on until you've completely cleared a zone" formula. "Still in the Hinterlands" has become a meme. What the game actually expects you to do is to clear the low-level areas of a zone first, do a main quest, and then comes back at higher levels.

* The scripted missions in the latest version of ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'' are an attempt to reduce this by giving players defined goals whilst not detracting from the WideOpenSandbox nature of the game.

* Most of the Total War games are like this. Depending on which game you play and which faction you play as, you'll probably occasionally be assigned missions from some authority like the Pope or the Roman Senate, but aside from that you're pretty much cut loose to do whatever you want. Conquer the world, become a trade superpower and then conquer the world, spread your religion across the map and [[RuleOfThree then conquer the world]], or just burn it all to the ground and let the rebels have it. [[RunningGag And then conquer the world.]]

** Not to mention ''Franchise/TheSims'' series. It can be summed up as "You die, you lose. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential Maybe.]] Start playing." [=TS3=] did at least have a rolling tutorial that gave you the option of learning how to do things if you activate them with the tutorial section unread. The Sims 3 characters that are old enough have wishes and lifetime wishes, which give you points and increases their moodlets when completed.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' is possibly the only game to encompass geology, weather patterns, genetics, city building, tactical combat, individual psychology, item crafting and the effects of a punctured lung all in the same game setting. This is made worse by the fact that the author is continually adding new features to the game, making it much more complicated every year. This causes most prospective players to quit in the first week. Once you can make it past the learning stage, [[EarnYourFun the game is immensely fun]]. By now, the only hope for a newcomer to learn the game is to start out with a version from back when it was still 2D.
** It's possible to start on the newer versions, but you will need a GuideDangIt, by way of [[http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Main_Page the wiki]].
*** The wiki has ''become'' the the tutorial, with it even being mentioned in the game itself.
** [[DeathTropes Fun*]]

* For the people who love to complete everything, ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' can be like this.

* ''[[StarControl Star Control II]]''. Once you're finished with your initial business in the Sol system, you have a few broad goals, as opposed to specific objectives. The game focuses heavily on exploration, so it's largely up to the player to figure out good places to mine resources, who's on what side, and so on. It's a little overwhelming.

-->--'''Tycho''', ''Webcomic/PennyArcade''

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** Not to mention ''VideoGame/TheSims'' series. It can be summed up as "You die, you lose. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential Maybe.]] Start playing." [=TS3=] did at least have a rolling tutorial that gave you the option of learning how to do things if you activate them with the tutorial section unread. The Sims 3 characters that are old enough have wishes and lifetime wishes, which give you points and increases their moodlets when completed.
* The ''RollerCoasterTycoon'' series, although almost all of the stages do have objectives to fulfill. After you complete them, then it pretty much wanders off into this territory.

* ''DayZ''. At the start you absolutely need to find a gun, but once you have a gun and some ammo and you know where to hide you are more or less done with the mandatory tasks, leaving you in the middle of a giant map with no objectives and nothing to do. You can gank players, take their cars and powerful guns, then use those to gank more players until you get ganked in turn and have to reroll a new character.

* Most early {{Sierra}} adventure games. Particularly the games that used a text parser, which were infamous for dropping you in a room without so much as an introductory message, while the later point-and-click games had at least some sort of introduction giving you some clues. The original ''PoliceQuest'' was particularly infamous: at the start of the game, you're dressed in your police uniform in the main hall of the station. If you don't figure out that you need to attend your morning briefing within the first three minutes of the game, you'd get HaveANiceDeath when you finally walked into the briefing room.

* ''AnimalCrossing'' series. "Plot? What plot?" After you earn and spend a couple million bells on pimping your house, don't count on there being anything to do outside the starting town.

* ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed: Underground 2'', after you're stuck into searching for secret races or [[EventFlag need to complete specially hard DVD/magazine covers]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Burnout}} Paradise'' suffered from this a fair bit. You're tossed into a large open world where events are unlocked at every intersection with traffic lights, and drive-throughs like Junkyards, Billboards, Shortcuts, Auto-Repairs and Paint Shops to find (not to mention the Speed and Crash Road Rules on all 70+ roads on the map). The entire game world is unlocked from the start. It can be a nightmare to navigate the game world when you're unfamiliar with it, as events often finish on the other side of the map from where they started. To cap it all off, after finishing a licence, all events are reset and you can win them ''again''.

* ''{{Minecraft}}''. You are thrown into an enormous world without any defined goals at all - players can build huge structures, mine valuables from the ground, slaughter monsters, explore landscapes, become nomadic, construct railroads, seek out the [[spoiler:Ender Dragon]] or do practically anything else.

* For the people who love to complete everything, ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' can be like this. Especially prevalent in the original ''Gold and Silver'', where you were allowed to go to Mt. Silver, but since no one mentioned the boss at the summit, no one was in a rush to get there.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': all the way. Once the Sandseas (and Giza Plains) are no longer guarded by the Imperials, you can go ''anywhere.'' Should you continue with the plot, however, you will be stuck in one place after the other. ''[=FF12=]'' tends to vary between WideOpenSandbox and Linear gameplay--but even the linear ''gameplay'' isn't all that linear. Obviously, this can become very stressful very easily, what with all the LevelGrinding you have to do just to survive in dungeons and whatnot. In fact, should you grind for too long, it is likely you will completely forget what it is you were supposed to be doing, and 80% of the time, the game isn't helpful in reminding you.
** It should be noted that more than half of the time, bringing up the map sub-menu will have either your next destination marked on the map, or your next objective displayed at the bottom of the map screen. Too bad you wouldn't really remember that unless [[AllThereInTheManual you read the manual]].

* Like its {{Metroidvania}} predecessors, ''AnUntitledStory'' mostly revolves around finding the next GravityBarrier and the new ability to bypass it. It has a plot, but it's never at the forefront.

*** This is not helped by the sheer size of the map. You can wander in the direction of the map and go on for hours never finding an end to it all; in one interview Notch said the potential size of the gameplay world can go up to eight times the surface area of '''Earth itself''' (although there isn't any major difference between different sections of the map). Not to mention the various environments all over the place (it is impossible to see a snow biome right next to a desert in this game, at least before the 1.8 update) giving you a variety of resources to use in building your desired constructions.

* ''Metal Max'' and ''MetalSaga''. You're dumped into an enormous world with no more guidance than "See those monsters on the wanted posters? Kill them", and the occasional mention of places you can go now.

* ''YumeNikki''. The start menu says you're looking for "effects", but there's no explanation where to find them, no word of what they are, and no in-game reason for you to do anything. Plus you can wander for hours without finding anything and just wonder if the game is some LSD-induced MindScrew.

* For the people who love to complete everything, ''{{Pokemon}}'' can be like this. Especially prevalent in the original Gold and Silver, where you were allowed to go to Mt. Silver, but since no one mention the boss at the summit, no one was in a rush to get there.

* ''DarkSouls'' throws you into the land of Lordran with no clear goal beyond "ring the two Bells of Awakening". You don't know what will happen when you do, or even where their locations are. At the very first stages you can find yourself in locations that have enemies you can't possibly damage without fulfilling special conditions that you're not told. Generally the game doesn't give the player any hand holding, expecting them to read through item descriptions to get hints of where to go next.

* ''LaMulana'' can be like this, even though the whole ruins aren't initially open to you. You do, however, have very little in the way of objectives when you first enter the ruins. Being that Lemeza is an archaeologist, exploration is one of the main themes of the game--puzzles and hints are everywhere. It's often not obvious what solving a particular puzzle does for you, and it's difficult at times to figure out just which puzzle will help you to conquer which obstacle. If you miss a certain early item, you might not even know when you've solved a puzzle, which could lead to a lot of frustrated wandering as you try to figure out what, if anything, you just accomplished.

[[quoteright:269:[[Webcomic/PennyArcade http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pennyarcademeffect_8295.png]]]]

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* The second ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' game has a more wide-open world because it is the whole rest of the world, whereas the first only featured one continent. However; there were players who wound up going the wrong way and getting themselves stuck (in Air's Rock, or at [[ThatOneBoss Briggs]]) when they were supposed to have done another event first, and the game doesn't stop you from doing so. With the ship you have to get to the other side of the world but are blocked by an obstacle in a canal and have to go elsewhere first, but there are obstacles ''there'' too, forcing you to have to go find another way to bypass them. It can be refreshing to be allowed to do whatever you want but set the game down for too long and it will take awhile to figure out where you've already been if you pick it back up - the game doesn't keep track of your progress, so you might find pieces of a trident, but have forgotten just ''where'' you got them.
** What's also made a little worse is the fact that you have to collect pieces of a Trident - with little to no indication as to why you need it, or exactly where the parts were. For example, one part is located in a continent on the bottom of the world.

** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'': The world is enormous. You are told to use quick-travel to Daggerfall and the game basically leaves you alone. Given how big the world is - its' ''very'' easy to get lost. If you follow Daggerfall's main quest, you explore maybe a dozen towns and dungeons. The rest of the ''15,000'' locations are optional.
** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'': The island the game plays on is huge, and it takes almost 45 minutes to walk from one end to the other. In the tutorial you learn in five minutes how to use the controls, then the game kicks you out of the door, hands you a couple of coins and basically says: "Here, this is the world. Have fun". You only get some hints of where to go for the next story mission. The game also doesn't do much hand-holding in your quest log, forcing you to remember people and places from quests you might have received weeks ago in real time.

* Contrary to the PennyArcade page image, ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' averts this problem for the most part. You go through a few training missions before getting the [[CoolSpaceship Normandy]] to freely fly around the universe, only to be restricted to one ship/planet/asteroid to explore within each star system. Story progression is rather straightforward, despite you being able to play a trio of core missions in whatever order you wish, and a clear goal in mind. In addition, all active missions are logged in the pause menu -- even separated to required and optional missions -- so you never have to wonder what you're supposed to be doing. ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' is also an aversion in spite of more missions and a wider scope of freedom. It's still linear.

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* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' is this to a rather good degree. The game starts with the requisite tutorial missions, but then to progress in the story, you are required to earn "respect". It does tell you how to earn respect, but the various methods are so numerous it can lead some players to being distracted before even attempting any of the many mini games to earn said respect. The story itself can actually be this as it is very non-linear in its progression, allowing you to start any of the three basic gang story events at any time (with enough respect). And that doesn't even count the "stronghold missions" that have elements of story in them as well.

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* ''[[TheGameOfLife Conway's Game of Life]]'' is not so much a game as it is a visualized automaton of squares. It also happens to create a myriad of patterns and can be 'programmed' to produce simple computers.