Boring isn’t a bug—it’s the secret weapon behind the best open-world experiences. Who needs explosions and side quests when leisurely walking or driving feels this good?
Grand Theft Auto VI, the latest installment in the legendary crime series, is poised to deliver staggering sales when it launches next year—much like Grand Theft Auto V before it. A big part of its anticipated success lies in Rockstar Games’ continually evolving open-world design, a formula it first revolutionized 25 years ago with Grand Theft Auto III. Since then, the genre has exploded, spawning sprawling worlds filled with guns, cars, and often both.
But recently, I’ve found myself drawn to a different kind of open-world experience. I’ve been playing some of my favorite interpretations of the genre to date—games that feel refreshingly offbeat compared with their louder, more chaotic peers. And they’ve led me to a surprising realization: The open-world games I love most aren’t the ones packed with nonstop action, but the ones that embrace minimalism, quiet moments, and so-called “boring” design.Baby Steps: Literally Putting One Foot in Front of the Other
“Boring open-world games are good, actually” is a hot take I’ve been brewing for years, but what finally unlocked it for me was playing Baby Steps, an open-world indie comedy. Baby Steps’ three main developers are Maxi Boch, Gabe Cuzzillo, and Bennett Foddy, and if you recognize the last name on that list, suddenly everything inexplicable about the title makes sense. From QWOP to Getting Over It, Foddy’s games burden players with movement mechanics so clumsy and confusing that they lead to hilarious pratfalls. Similar to Octodad, they give you so much control over locomotion that you overthink a task most of us perform automatically in real life.
Baby Steps is no different. You play as a middle-aged man-child who must survive and escape from a harsh wilderness by simply walking. But to walk, you must press buttons and move control sticks to manually move the character’s feet, while dealing with environmental hazards, physics, and momentum. Instead of fluid footwork, stepping forward on a flat path becomes an embarrassing staccato display. Baby Steps is a comedic indictment of how a lack of self-respect can make even basic progress feel impossibly demanding.
Although I haven’t stuck with Foddy’s other games for more than a few minutes, I’ve been playing Baby Steps nonstop. It’s gone from a witty gag to one of my favorite games of the year, and it’s due to the open world. There are destinations to reach and cutscenes to watch, but Baby Steps gives you the freedom to wander wherever you want, provided you have the skill to get there. This flexibility makes me focus less on my constant failures and soothes the overwhelming friction. Any setback becomes an excuse to pick a new direction. All the while, I grow more accustomed to and enamored with the controls, manipulating my guy’s feet with the confidence of playing an instrument. I find myself better understanding the environment, anticipating how I’ll approach a particular steep hill or looking for natural staircases in rock faces. Baby Steps is the best moody walking simulator since Death Stranding.
These worlds may be imperfect, but so is ours, and there’s plenty of fun in their faults.
The vibe would be ruined if Baby Steps were afraid to be boring and opted to clog its world with content and superfluous extra mechanics. The magic comes from the intrinsic pleasure of achieving a self-motivated goal, rather than marking off a checklist. In fact, the game frequently mocks you for even wanting a map. If the unwieldy controls aren’t alienating enough, it’s easy to see many players being turned off by the map with seemingly nothing to do but walk around. However, the purity of walking around, which requires some effort, is the point.
