Given how large maps have become in the open-world genre nowadays, almost every modern game introduces fast-travel mechanics designed to make navigation simpler and more convenient over the long run. After all, chasing side quests across enormous worlds can become much less fun if you don’t have a reliable way to open the map, choose a destination, and arrive there in the blink of an eye to collect your reward. What’s especially interesting is how new games continue to find their own spins on this core system, typically going beyond the straightforward process I just described.
While the primary role of such mechanics is to, well, make travel fast, some games put in limitations to prevent players from mindlessly teleporting across their huge seamless worlds right from the start. Unique traversal mechanics and mounts can make traveling more immersive, while the world itself may be designed in such a way that you don’t even want to use fast travel too often. The open-world games below are exactly this kind, tying fast travel to their progression or world design and making you properly earn it first.
One of the first games that comes to mind is definitely Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar’s open-world Western masterpiece with unparalleled immersion and reactivity. The world is vast and detailed, and despite its authentic “emptiness,” there’s always something happening during a simple horseback ride from point A to B. RDR2 treats fast-travel options as a last resort, encouraging players to lose themselves in exploration and the spirit of adventure.
Fast travel in Red Dead Redemption 2 mostly comes through realistic transportation options such as trains and stagecoaches. These are only available at specific points on the map and charge fares, while stagecoach destinations must also be discovered first. If you are completely broke, you may simply find yourself unable to buy a ticket.
You can also unlock camp fast travel by investing in camp upgrades, allowing Arthur to leave camp instantly for previously visited destinations. As such, RDR2 makes you earn convenience in several different ways, and even then, many players would rather rely on their trusty horse.
Forza Horizon 6 greatly simplified fast travel across Japan, making it available and free right from the start. While definitely convenient, this is a bit of a step down from the previous entry, where fast travel had additional progression layers. Forza Horizon 5 was much stricter in that regard. To unlock fast travel from anywhere to anywhere across Mexico, you need to purchase the rather expensive Buenas Vistas property. Even then, every trip still costs a fixed amount of credits.
Fortunately, there is a way to make fast travel in Forza Horizon 5 completely free. By exploring Mexico and smashing special Fast Travel Boards scattered across the map, you can permanently reduce the fee for each board smashed, eventually removing it altogether. While rich in progression mechanics, FH5’s fast-travel system probably wasn’t intuitive enough to unlock and improve, prompting the developers to scrap all related progression in the latest entry and make it even more approachable and unrestricted.
A common guest among lists of underappreciated open-world titles from the 2010s, Mad Max features a vast and gorgeous post-apocalyptic world, while giving you the freedom to drive the Magnum Opus anywhere, provided you have enough fuel. There’s a fast-travel system as well, but activating each point on the map requires quite a bit of work first. Better yet, the process feels like another piece of wasteland infrastructure you personally restored during your journey.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/open-world-games-make-you-earn-fast-travel/
