Figuring out where to go is one of life’s really big questions. Choosing a career, romantic partner, or even a place to live can be difficult, frustrating, or just plain confusing. You would think that games, where somebody can design everything exactly so, would be easier to navigate, but you’d be wrong. Whether deliberate or not, a lack of direction can harm your enjoyment of a game just as well as bad controls or a boring story can.

But, what is good direction? How does direction make a game enjoyable?

Halo: Combat Evolved is a revolutionary FPS with lackluster direction. Out of the eleven levels, seven could easily lead you to confusion and frustration. Several of the levels are made up of identical corridors, so you can’t figure out which way was forward or backwards if you got turned around.

Aliens really love the color purple. Ever notice that? Why is that? Also, how do they know where they're going in this stupid ship?

Since Halo has no cover system, movement is very important during a firefight, which does play well with the level design. Assault on the Control Room (5th level) has glowing arrows on the ground, but in Two Betrayals (8th level), you have to navigate the whole level backwards so the arrows just confuse you. Also, if your levels are confusing enough to warrant arrows everywhere, you might already have a problem.

The level looks pretty straightforward, but you'll definitely spend a few minutes saying, "Wait, did I come from here?"

The alien design the areas in Halo could be a reason for their confusing nature, but as a game designer, you have to make sure your players can find their way through the game easily. The lack of direction here is a problem because it prevents you from progressing in the story, or fighting new enemies, which are the two principal fun parts of any shooter.

Okay, so I'm a green dot in a grey void. That's helpful for my adventuring.

The Legend of Zelda is another genre-redefining game that suffered from too little direction. Much of this may be due to the technological limits of the time and to their credit, the designers did a good job making the game world memorable enough to navigate, but the “map” in LoZ is useless.

It tells you your general position in the world, but only some of the time. Several areas of the map will not let you past until you have walked through them upwards of three times. Without any sort of landmarks on the map, how are you supposed to distinguish one green (or blue/red if you upgraded your armor) dot on the map from any other position? I think the game designers realized this, because there are several times when you get a hint along the lines of “GO FIND THE OLD MAN IN THE GRAVEYARD.” These hints are an example of the right kind of direction in LoZ; they point you to a distinct place, so it’s easier to figure out where you are and where you’re going. However, the main goal of the game are hidden behind hints like “SPECTACLE ROCK IS AN ENTRANCE TO DEATH.”

Where the hell is Spectacle Rock? Which rocks? There’s like 50,000 rocks in this game world. Are they ones shaped like eyes? Are the rocks a spectacle because they’re impressive? Stop telling me nonsense, Old Man!

LoZ has very impressive scale and exploration for its time, but it also has a mission: defeat Gannon, become the hero of Hyrule. Wandering about aimlessly can be enjoyable for a time, but eventually you want to make progress on your journey and a lack of direction prevents that.

Wolfenstein: The New Order is a game aiming to capture the playstyle of classic shooters while feeling modern. It’s a pretty tall order, but Wolfenstein did very well in terms of scores and sales, so maybe they managed it. On the surface Halo and Wolfenstein: TNO might seem pretty similar. Both are FPS with a sci-fi bent where you travel to a world unlike any you’ve known. Both take inspiration from older FPS and both are regarded highly.

Wolfenstein: The New Order shows you a truly chilling future, but hey, at least it gives you plenty of firepower to deal with it. — *Wolfenstein: The New Order* shows you a truly chilling future, but hey, at least it gives you plenty of firepower to deal with it.

Wolfenstein succeeded where Halo failed, however: direction and level design. Designed by (in-game) Nazis they may be, but the areas in Wolfenstein are very easy to navigate. Part of this is due to the fact that the areas are all very conventional. You spend your time in hospitals, prisons, and cities that are all lain out how you would expect them to be. Want to go up a level in a house? Find the stairwell. Want to find a first aid kit in a museum? Go the bathroom.

Hell, even the literal-actual moonbase is easy to navigate. If that's not good level design, I don't know what is. — Hell, even the literal-actual **moonbase** is easy to navigate. If that's not good level design, I don't know what is.

The areas also change drastically as you progress through them, so remembering where you’ve been is much easier. The designers could have easily made the world very alien, given that 20 years pass under Nazi rule, but their choice to go with familiar environments means that you’re never unsure about where to go. You’re free to concentrate on the story, the gameplay, and finding secrets.

Hyper Light Drifter is a game in the same vein as The Legend of Zelda, focused on exploration and adventure. Much like in LoZ, you’re just dropped into the game with no real understanding of who you are, where you’re from, or why you’re here. Much like LoZ, Hyper Light Drifter focuses on simplistic combat with a few items and a big world map.

It's also a beautiful game if you're into pixel art.

Unlike LoZ, HLD starts you out on a linear path and then opens up to a huge world. This gets you more centered in the world and also makes choosing a direction to go that much less daunting. HLD also has a map that shows you the general world location, but it has landmarks that give you some idea of where you are in relation to everything else. There’s no stated “main quest”, but “objectives” are marked on your map so you have an idea of where to go.

You will be spending a looooot of time here, so get used to this map.

Their exact location is still a mystery, and given the several tiered nature of the world map, exploration is still more than required and encouraged to beat the game. If Skyrim is the preschool teacher holding your hand as you walk around the park and The Legend of Zelda is the person who puts a black bag over your head and throws you out of a moving car, then Hyper Light Drifter is hiking with a map and compass. You might not know exactly where you are, but at least you’ve got an idea.

Direction is important in life and in video games. Nobody wants to spend their whole life doing something they hate and nobody wants to wander around a game world pointlessly. In games like Elite: Dangerous, the exploration might be the point, but for most other games, some semblance of a path is needed. The next time you’re playing a game and don’t know where to go, ask yourself what the designers could have done to make finding your way feel organic, or if the lack of direction was a design choice, what are they trying to achieve?