Games That Just Dump You in the World.

[Zero Kirby]

A lot of old open-world games haven't really aged well, like the first couple of Zeldas and the first Metroid. Even then, there's still a defined order in which you have to do things in both games - you always need to get the Candle before you open the path to Level 5, you need to get the Flute from Level 4 to open Level 6 (it's been ages since I've played Zelda, I've forgotten which Level goes where), you always need to pick up the Morph Ball and High Jump before you can reach Kraid (actually, I think you get the High Jump by beating Kraid... which you need to reach Ridley. Again, haven't played in ages.). So when you ask,

Why not just go around the old bastard?

Surely you know that eventually, you're going to have to (it's that monster with the hunk of meat in the first Zelda game in that one dungeon), and you're going to have to do it the way the game designers want you to unless you purposefully break the game, so you're not really "free," just "allowed to do things slightly out of order." I don't consider breaking the game through glitches to really be an exercise of that "freedom."

Now of course, the game I'm contractually obligated to mention in open-world/Metroidvania games, Metroid Prime, lets you turn off the hint system it uses to tell you where to go, so you can basically turn it into the original Metroid, just in 3D and with much better gameplay. But you still have a defined order in which you do a lot of things, especially since Retro Studios don't seem to care for sequence breaking. But at least your only sense of direction is what doors you haven't opened yet.