This is the kind of game where almost everyone on here knows what they think of it, so instead, here are the conditions I'm self-imposing for the second playthrough. This is designed to cut away the QOL fluff and create a more exploratory experience, and I imagine it can be adapted to other mainstream open-world titles too. I present to you: The Mapless Run.

Rules
• No map usage. Any time the tabbed menu is opened, navigate immediately away to another tab, since this brings up the map by default.
• No fast travel. All FT packs are sold for shards.
• At campfires, the compass may be turned on to observe cardinal directions and waypoints. It must be turned off before departure. (See Settings below on how to turn the compass on and off.)
• The objectives tab in the tabbed menu can be observed at any time. This outlines the next objective in a questline, which will otherwise be impossible to ascertain due to the below Settings, as well as its numerical distance from Aloy.
• Any non-Main questlines should be accepted and resolved within the same play session. This is to honour internal context and not leave NPCs waiting around for ages while Aloy does gamer checklist stuff.
• Highlighting trails with the Focus is fine. It’s a brainless mechanic but it’s nigh-impossible to complete dependent objectives otherwise.
• Skill tree advancement and satchel upgrades can be purchased in whatever way suits your experience.

Settings (as accessed via pause menu)
• Difficulty - Hard (or higher). I started Hard to get my bearings and boosted to Very Hard upon leaving the Embrace.
• Quest Pathfinding - Off.
• Waypoint Pathfinding - Off.
• Show HUD on touch - Off (I don't know what the equivalent is for non-DualShock control schemes on PC, but I'm sure it's discernible).
• HUD - Custom.
• Custom HUD sub-menu settings:
> Compass - Always off (you may turn this to Always on when you’re near a campfire).
> All other settings under the Navigation / Quest heading - Always off (Objective markers, Quest tracker, Inactive quest tracker, Tutorial notifications).
> Interaction markers - Focus only (this is further down, under the World Interaction heading).
> All other settings left on defaults, but feel free to turn any of them off if it suits your experience.

This has made for an exhilarating renewal of the game. Campfires are suddenly a godsend, since they mean I can finally take a peek at the compass and get some direction. I'm inspecting and taking in the terrain a lot more, to help with orientation and to hunt for forage materials since the indicator icons are gone unless I stop and turn on the Focus. And the increased effort of doing even the one quest means I am carefully choosing the side quests and errands I take on, not hurriedly accruing them for completion's sake. The best moment so far has been losing my bearings after a quest and racing through the dark wilderness in search of a road or a sign to get me back to civilisation, ducking and weaving around machine herds - which are now more dangerous with the increased difficulty - the whole way.

So as Art Attack's Neil Buchanan would say: "try it yaself!"

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