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let's take other survival sandboxes

rust's core direction is anarchy, survive on an island where anyone is friend or foe, build bases that are always raidable but do your best to sustain your story on this island (at least before it wipes anew)

subnautica has a thread of story that is aided by both setting and mechanics. the direction is that of exploration, you want to experience the depths of the ocean, you want to find out what happened to you, the game makes it clear that that is the intended direction

how about non sandbox games?

monster hunter's direction is kill monster, upgrade gear, repeat. done. monster hunter has been a high quality series due to this strong direction

dark souls? all y'all fuckin queers know the damn direction of this franchise. tight, punishing gameplay, environmental story telling, and a big world that acts to constantly push you through events and story beats

going back to minecraft...

make nether portal, get eye of ender, go end, bada bing bada boom what next

i've heard this idea that minecraft's direction, at least under notch (like him or hate him), is tight, interconnected systems creating emergent gameplay. recent updates have shown that the new systems they're introducing are not at all interconnected nor are they tight, and there's no direction for what the fuck these updates are even for