Why I turned off the minimap and started paying attention to the actual level

Turning off the minimap in games that offer the option felt like it would make me worse at navigating. It did the opposite — I started actually reading level design, using landmarks and sightlines the developers clearly built on purpose, instead of glancing at a corner icon and tuning out the world itself.

A lot of level design goes unnoticed specifically because minimaps let players skip engaging with it. Distinctive architecture, lighting cues, sound design meant to orient you — all of it is easy to ignore when a dot on a corner map is doing the navigation work instead. Turning it off didn't just change how I play. It changed how much of the actual game I was seeing.

Related reading: The Guide to What Actually Makes a Game Feel Good (or Bad) to Play.