Warp wrote:
>   Not in the sense that "a sandbox game" is usually used. What is usually
> meant with it is that the whole outworld (which usually should be very big)
> is completely open to be explored, so you can go anywhere you want and do
> whatever you want. There are no levels which are played one after another,
> like in more traditional games.

Fair enough. Certainly Myst and Riven fit that mold.  The later ones had 
more of an interactive story, so you have to (for example) solve some 
puzzles, then someone else comes along and does something, and then you have 
to go solve other puzzles.

>   Thief consists of levels, and the gameplay is pretty linear from level
> to level.

OK. But within each level, you could pretty do anything and everything you 
wanted, even to the point of managing to get places you weren't supposed to 
go by using the environment. Sure, inter-level it's linear.

> In Myst/Riven you are not completely free to go wherever you like,
> but you are limited to predefined narrow paths (mainly due to technical
> limitations).

The paths really go most everywhere. Other than being unable to swim, I 
can't think of too many places you couldn't get to for reasons not obvious 
in the level design. Indeed, a good amount of the fun of Riven was figuring 
out how to get to places you could see and knew you needed to be there, but 
you couldn't figure out where the entrance was.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Eiffel - The language that lets you specify exactly
    that the code does what you think it does, even if
    it doesn't do what you wanted.

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