Maybe not the best but it’s kinda insane to me that over a decade later seemingly nothing has been able to match the environmental interactivity red faction: guerilla pulled off with its destruction mechanics. Seeing any structure and knowing you can and will level it was always such a cool feeling
The finals has insane destruction done server-side on a multiplayer game. It works incredibly well and you can flatten multi storey buildings with multiple people fighting inside.
Made by ex DICE devs so it has a Battlefield feel
One of my favorite things to do is to go to the bottom floor of an objective as a heavy with sledge, knock out all the structural pillars a d watch as the ENTIRE building collapses. Fighting through the tight rubble to try and steal the objective is always fun.
I swear in the beta the battles were so much better in the Finals. By the time the game released everyone figured out how to be fast boys and they made some of those cap points indestructible and now it just doesn't hit the same spot anymore. I remember having some epic battles of destruction back then, so much that I even purchased cosmetics that I later found out wouldn't transfer, and that's not something I normally do ever. It just wasn't the same, idk.
The problem with these kinds of games is that they start off being a ton of fun, but they quickly become slogs when everyone figures out what the most OP shit is and they only use that.
As the saying goes. Players will find a way to optimize the fun out of the game.
Pushing SBMM and gaming getting bigger as a whole has been what's driving this, IMO.
I loved the “rush” mode in BFBC2. Some of the objectives were in houses. If you couldn’t manage to push the defenders out, you just launched rockets and artillery until the building collapsed.
I grew up on red faction 1 and 2 and the warlords map I believe it was called in number 1 I still have extremely fond memories of.
My brother and I would literally create tunnels between the two fortresses and it would become a whole new map.
Wtf thank you. I don’t think the industry has grasped the potential of physics or immersive destructibility as more than just a gimmick. I know the indie market is saturated with these things but not so much the well funded studios that could provide a well-rounded product.
TOTK is a great example of physics and device-building driving the game with huge success. But nothing holds a candle to demolishing the enemy fortress piece by piece with your sledgehammer.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The game is absolutely full of fun interactions and mechanics. something as simple as mastering the use of a grindstone to keep your blades in good repair is satisfying and a challenge to master initially. I've logged close to 30 hours in the two weeks since i bought it, would highly reccomend.
Indeed. I just started my second playthrough after picking it up for a few bucks.
I first played it in 2020-ish and thoroughly enjoyed it. I logged around 120 hours into it.
I just started playing this. I knew I was gonna love it when I tried to sneak behind someone and they turned and looked at me and said “what’s the matter? Have to shit?”
How do you get used to the combat? It feels floaty and unreliable and hits never feel like they connect. I want to love this game, the plot kind of opened up and I feel completely helpless lol. Is that the point in the beginning? It’s a steep learning curve!
Edit: I think I’ve caught a glimpse of the magic this game has.
Restarted, glanced at the tutorials, and accepted that Henry will struggle for a bit. That skill bar is still ticking up. It’s not flashy, it’s immersive, and demands you slow down a bit.
If anyone has tips/tricks for stealth/pickpocketing/lockpicking, lmk.
Getting the riposte ability from the swordsman (bernard?) In rattay is crucial to combat. That, and practice! The combat is at its best when it's methodical with parries, ripostes and well timed dodges. It's admittedly not for everyone!
Note: the move you want is called Master Strike. Before you get that one Bernard talks about perfect block and counter striking, but that is very meh and blockable. I thought that was the move everyone was talking about and struggled with combat for a while until going back and learning Master Strike.
Master Strike gives you an unblockable automatic Riposte when you Perfect Block and is the absolute business. Can pretty much 1v1 anything at that point just by timing the blocks.
Don't worry you'll be playing for hours and suddenly you'll realize you're way stronger than you thought and you adapt pretty well as time passes. Get those skills leveled up.
Try using a Mace or Warhammer and unlock the Head cracker perk. The bonks are very satisfying and feel much more weighty, especially on an armored opponent.
before you go hunting with the Prince, make sure to train with Bernard. Do everything you can with him until feel like you have the basics down. Then learn the master strike until you have the hang of it.
This will help make one on one battles pretty simple (but still challenging) then you can go hunting with the prince, which will subsequently start the next mission when you return and you wont be able to train with Bernard until you finish.
*tip - even if you got the quest to hunt with the prince, its not time sensitive so you can meet him any morning.
Next - when you feel like you have enough groschen, do the Rattay tournament - you most likely wont win your first or second try but keep at it, its really satisfying when you land combos.
The combat is grindy. It's very hard at first to get you to learn the mechanics, but when you level up abilities and get better weapons it isn't as much of a chore. The moment you are seriously tired of the combat is usually right where it starts to get better. You also need to understand your opponents armor may be resistant to your weapon, and another one might make them light work.
In my case, I spamming the stab worked on many foes.
I think the combat design is pretty poor. It doesn't matter how good you as a player are, if you try to go on the offensive the opponent WILL master strike you and there's jack and shit you can do about it. They give you these combos but there's no point even trying them because they WILL be interrupted without fail. The only proper way to play the combat is to wait for the opponent to strike and master strike them instead. Hopefully it's fully reworked in the sequel. I liked what they tried to do with it but they missed the mark. It's fortunate that the world is so engrossing.
I just bonked everyone on the head with mace. Not the most elegant, but got the job done.
What really bothers me with the combat system, is how clunky it is against multiple opponents.
A big part of that is when you don't have any XP in combat, Henry himself *sucks* at fighting. So when you are making attacks at low level, they are weak and floaty with no structure and don't hit well. When you get much more experienced, the game handles more like you would "expect."
Not to mention on hardcore mode you literally have to use the sun/markings to navigate, otherwise you can get lost in the forest.
I’ll never forget being saved by those little knocker things in the streams to help me find one to follow and get back to civilization.
I adored this game…but could not deal with the bug that would just make all of my gold disappear out of the blue. I am looking forward to a sequel because it’s something I enjoyed so much. Wasn’t able to progress due to it. (Playing on console)
I gotta say I played it for 8 hours and could not get into it. It was just so slow and boring to me. Everything I did was just monotonous, patrol a town, find your horse, hunt rabbits. I didn't find it engaging, unfortunately.
Mechanically, i think Skyrim. Xp is awarded by using your abilities, not completing objectives, so it doesnt punish you for wandering off and exploring a well crafted map with lots of hidden locations and randomized events.
Unfortunately it did accidentally punish you sometimes. You gain levels by using skills, not all skills are combat and the game has scaling (though not to the degree people seem to think it does, there are a lot of misconceptions around it).
So if you decide to do a lot of smithing/enchanting/alchemy at the start then go explore a tomb, you might run headfirst into a Deathlord.
Thats a very valid point. If you do the stealth/one handed greybeard exploit, or the riften speech, 10000 iron daggers, very true. You can push the game into end level with not great weapons/armor/health items 😂
Oh absolutely need to do it ... but the problem comes when smithing is level 70 and your weapom skills are all at the base level since enemies take total skill level into account (something like that at least, been several years since I booted it up)
Morrowind took this to the extreme.
You need to practice hitting to shit to hit shit, but it rewarded you through stacking, such as brewing alchemical potions that improved your alchemical potions, which you could use to brew even more powerful alchemical potions.
You can do that potion thing in Skyrim kind of. You can brew potions that make your enchanting better and you can enchant gear to make your brewing better
Yep, until you get to the natural conclusion of all Skyrim playthroughs of realizing making your 1 trillion defense diaper allowing you run around mostly naked and kill everything with spoons has once again sucked the fun out of that run
That's why I always impose limits on myself, mostly by means of roleplay. An orc with heavy armor and a 2H axe wouldn't know restoration magic, for instance, or he wouldn't use a recurve bow but maybe a crossbow
This is what makes the game fun, and same for many games like CK3. Sure, every now and then you just want to min max and play god. The funnest play through are the ones where you play within your character and see what happens.
Tbh it wasn't that bad in Morrowind. You only needed to make sure that the weapons/schools of magic that you'll be using are your class' major skills. So if you make daggers your major skill and dump points into their corresponding attributes (for daggers I think it's either agility or speed), then at the very start of the game your dagger skill will be 60/100, which means your hits would actually land most of the time.
It absolutely is that bad in morrowind, You can absolutely cheese the fk out of both leveling and levels to break the game over your knee.
1) Make shitty skills your primary and secondary, make skills you want to use your tertiary (Which dont actually contribute to levels)
2) Get to the very first town and get just enough gold to buy the spell "Drain Skill"
3) Craft a custom spell, drain (skill of choice) 100-100 on self for 2 seconds. It costs like next to nothing to make the spell, and only like a handful to buy it.
4) Go to the trainer in the first town (there is one for almost every skill), cast the drain spell taking you to 0 skill, immediately talk to trainer and train, it costs 1 gold to go from 0-1. Spell wears off returning what it drained, net +1 skill for 1 gold. Wash rinse repeat until lv100 in the skill for not even 100 gold.
5) repeat for all skills you want to level to 100, theres more than enough gold just lying around in the first town to max all your skills
Alternative to #1, make them primary skills and actually get levelups and attributes out of them as well, following certain patterns to get guaranteed 5x attributes on each level up.
If you do the method i described your still level 2 or 3 when leaving town with maxed skills.
take that 100 alchemy and go brew a fortify int potion and fortify alchemy potion. drink both, craft another set, drink them, craft another set, drink more, craft more etc.. until you have 100,000+ in both int and alchemy.
Now craft a int and fortify enchanting potion.
Go learn the enchants you want, find the gear you want, and drink potions, enchant gear with rediculuous level stats like 10,000,000 hp/mana/stam per second regen, +100000 health stamina and mana, fortify everything..
now you have 100 base level skills, shitty attributes but bonkers level enchanted armor, that can take a basic iron dagger and 1 shot anything in the game with a poke.
All for just a few thousand gold, if even that much. 1 shot anything in the game, nothing can touch you because you have a massive health pool and regen any damage taken instantly, you can run at mach speed, jump over the whole continent (and survive the fall damage from said jump) and just do whatever you want.
Morrowind was absolutely busted. Its the whole reason there is hard caps on potions and enchanting, as well as a limit on what enchants can be put on what armor, and how many active potions effects you can have at any one time in Oblivion.
The thing is, most people playing Morrowind nowadays at the very least use patches that fix thousands of bugs, including that one. Although yeah, there's that exploit, and like a dozen others or more you can exploit in the game.
Soul trap on target
Fortify x
Permanent stat boost right there.
But as far as not using exploits like that, Morrowind is one hell of an open world. You can kill everyone and everything, and all the game will do is tell you "shits fucked, reload save lol".
Brewing in Morrowwind was so busted you could make infinite loop stat boosting potions cheap and easy very early on, get all your stats to an insane level, then you are essentially a one punch killing, super speed running, able to leap over mountains god.
Probably unusual take but I would say Death Stranding. I absolutely love this hostile world where at the beginning you focus on survival only. But when you reach endgame you conquer the world and try to min-max every trading route.
Nah you’re on the money. Didn’t beat the game but even from the early chapters the world feels so alive which is an incredible feat considering a lot of the environment is not exactly filled with activities to stimulate the player, yet it still compels you to want to spend time in it and traverse. Only game that ever made me make an intentional decision on which path I was gonna take to get somewhere. Also the asynchronous online elements were cool. Players slowly populating the world with helpful tools is an awesome concept I’ve only ever seen before in the souls games (in the form of messages.) It worked so well for death stranding.
Huh, interesting. I read some reviews when it came out & it made it seem like its basically just a walking simulator & that you are a glorified Fedex man. I got it for free on Epic a while back, maybe I'll give it a shot some time 🤷🏼♂️
It is effectively a walking simulator, except your walks are always interrupted, you'll get chased, hunted down, drawn into cosmic horrors...
I like it, but yea most of it is indeed walking
I'd call it a walking simulator if the walking was easy. It's more of an action puzzle game, and the puzzle is how to get anywhere. Need to get over a mountain? Puzzle. Backpack throwing off your balance? Puzzle. Where and how do I set up my ziplines? (The best part) Puzzle.
And there are action scenes with shooting or stealth in there too. People who dismissed it probably gave up before they got the first few gear upgrades.
I don't know why but no one explains that you also get vehicles. after like 3 or 4hrs gameplay, a whooooole way bigger map opens up, and the progression gets way better. My biggest tip for new players is to just focus on doing the main storyline missions as fast as possible, once you get up over a steep ass hill and cross a body of water, THAT is when the game world really opens up a ton of possibilities.
I would have hated the game if it kept the same mechanics that you start off with, for the entire 40hrs+ of gameplay. It's new and interesting at first, but gets tedious after a few hours, so don't try to do side quests initially, you can come back to do those if you want. Just get over the giant hill and over the body of water for the game to really get incredible. Really glad I gave the game a chance, became a top 20 all time favorite game for me.
I hate how it was described as "walking simulator" it if it is a walking simulator, Wind Waker is a boat simulator. There's so much going on in the game. Like, just stacking your goods on your back is a whole mini game. You're not just walking, you're carving routes so you don't drop everything and have to fight all kinds of humans and monsters.
And when I say "carving routes" I mean literally. You're setting up ladders and ropes and getting from point A to point B is an adventure.
And the world is alive. Like if you put a rope down, it may appear in some random person's game, making life easier for them. If you walk the same path enough times, it starts to carve a foot path. You may stumble across an abandoned car or motorcycle. And you have to maintain the roads between destinations because they degrade.
It's the Gran Turismo of walking simulators. It's a very bizarre game, and I don't just mean the story, but the mechanics of the game itself. Despite all of that I've played through the game twice and absolutely love it. I can't wait for the next game.
Yes! Norman Reedus and the Funky Fetus is one of my favorite games. The story is absolutely insane and crazy, but they pull it off perfectly. And the world is gorgeous and so fun to traverse. You really connect with the world and the people inside it. Hartman is especially loved by me.
I'm currently playing it for the first time and I second this. It's an amazing built world, it makes you appreciate what little interactions you have with other characters
I feel like RDR2 is the correct answer for most categories here. The amount of detail put into every little thing is sometimes staggering. Can only imagine what GTA 6 will bring.
Wish it had a new game plus. Want to play thru it again but with all the extra gear and stuff I unlocked cause I finished those tedious challenges and not ready to do them again lol
If you are on PC, you can download save files from the start of any chapter, with all of the unlocks already done. I found it really convenient when I switched to PC and didn't want to do the grind again.
Absolutely.
140 hours, and I'm still not bored.
Insane attention to detail.
So many random events.
Great AI for animal and NPC.
Tons of mysteries, secrets, and strangers.
The whole world feels so alive for a video game.
GTA 6, I am hyped. Don't let me down, lol
As someone who wants to get into more open world games, can I play Red Dead Redemption 2 and still enjoy it without having played 1? Also is it a good intro to open world games?
Yes, it's a prequel that was designed to be perfectly playable without playing RDR 1
I'd argue that it's not a good intro to open world games because its world is so detailed and beautiful that nothing else comes close 😭
RDR2 is technically a prequel and fully enjoyable without having played the first one. I think the two games are very enjoyable (story-wise) regardless of which order you play them
Liberating a whole town by shooting/blowing up all the chaos objects without ever touching the ground just made me angry there was never a good Iron-Man game. I actually enjoyed the movie tie-in game for the Ds but the one on console was shit. But I mean come on the physics/mechanics/controls are RIGHT THERE and they're already perfect!!! Just slap a gold-titanium alloy skin over the top and give the people what they really want!!
Witcher 3. The side quests actually having an effect on the main story and changing the ending. They also had better storylines than most other games’ main quests.
Edit: Clarified for everyone saying good side quests aren’t a “mechanic” I should’ve been clearer.
100% TW3 side quests are better than 90% of AAA games main stories. So many side quests that took hours and were enjoyable the entire time. I hope they do TW4 like 3 but just bigger and better and more optimized with less clunky controls. The armor was so dope too.
I'd also like TW4 to have a bit more distance between villages/caves/side quest objectives. Having a villager give you a very sad story about their daughter dying by suicide and becoming a moonwraith is great. But when she is literally floating around 100 yards from his door it loses a little oompf.
Agreed 100%. Assassins creed Valhalla is a good example of a map that is just huge and empty. Pretty to look at it but it felt very much like a video game map.
We don't see too many single player games that get close to UO's depth and variety of mechanics, and they pulled it off in an MMORPG before the term MMORPG was even a thing.
Can't believe this opinion isn't more popular. You can interact with pretty much everything in the open world, create almost anything your mind can imagine, literally swim through hard surfaces, climb anything. You can fuse an explosive barrel to a stick and now you have an exploding stick.
In terms of open world mechanics, nothing comes even close.
I feel like I'm in a weird minority that prefers BotW to TotK. BotW is a more simple, pure experience. TotK has way more content but it often just feels like sensory overload.
I'm surprised this was so far down, and I haven't seen BotW yet.
Open World games were feeling stale when BotW came out and practically made the idea feel new again, and TotK expanded on that really well. I still love being able to climb everything. TotK is especially open in that it lets you use your vehicles to skip a ton of content if you want.
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl.
Never have I seen a more desolate world, full of melancholy and danger. Have been hunting that feeling ever since, never able to find it elsewhere. Maybe Metro Exodus is closest to it. Creates such a big expectation in my mind, STALKER 2 has essentially no chance to live up to that.
Other than that, the usual suspects:
Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, RDR2, Fallout 3/NV/4, Skyrim.
The shuttle waits, the need for buffs, wound healing, consumables, an entirely player driven equipment and market. Such a great community driven game reinforced by the mechanics.
I feel like that was once in a lifetime experience.
Sometimes I think about going back and playing TBC or WotLK but then u realize that I can't get back to that time. Friends are gone, time is precious and scarce, servers are rare.
But then I listen to Elwynn Forest and it my body shivers. Maaan, it was a great time to be a teenager.
I think that MGSV did openworld right. I just wish Konami gave Kojima break and let him actually finish it. It would be worth it.
I really don't get the hate for Metal Gear going open world.
MGSV did it right.
From getting the crafting materials, weapons, recruits to the mechanics like having to have guy that actually does speak the specific language on support team, to actually understand what NPCs are saying - MGSV was amazing. Too bad we prolly won't see another game this complex/this good anytime soon.
I’m sorry downvote me if you wish but MGSV’s world was soulless and empty af. There was literally nothing except enemy outposts. No towns or villages, no non-combative NPCs, just completely dead. I couldn’t finish the game because the environment was so boring.
For me the best part was the open world in *context* of the missions. You literally had a hundred ways at your fingertips to complete most objectives. Having the missions in an open world format was the fun part. Weather coverage, time of day, wildlife, approaching from a huge distance in any direction (in many cases), capturing nearly anything for your own base...
Doing stuff outside of missions really just didn't interest me, partially because I'm not a completionist, and partially because there wasn't much to see, as you said. But I didn't care because the missions were cool and there were a lot of them.
It also never bothered me that there weren't neutral or friendly NPCs in the world (besides your team), but I definitely agree that would've helped to step up the quality and intrigue.
Valheim.
It took the declining Survival crafting genre and injected it with Breath of the Wild - esque positive reinforcement.
The gameplay loop is incredibly motivating because you always have a clear goal in mind, not just ticking off Quests for the sake of it.
Robust and innovative mechanics for building, cooking, exploring, and incentives to actually build a nice large home because there are so many functional furniture pieces.
The game can be cozy af too.
I came here to say the same thing.
One of the things that I think Valhiem does right that almost no other game does, is that it gives a sort of faction sense to the enemies. That is to say that the Deep Forest people will hate the Swamp people, who will hate the Plains people who will hate the Mountain people. One of my favorite memories of that game was watching a sea serpent attacking a troll. It's two titanic creatures that dwarf you in size just bashing each other over the head.
It makes the world seem alive. These aren't robots wandering around aimlessly, they're engaged in a never ending territorial struggle between each other.
Fallout 3 did something similar. Wandering around and finding enemies fighting each other possesses a sort of wonder that never seems to go away.
That was the first open world game that caused to take a step back and say "fuck...this is to big".
Not that it's a bad game, it isn't. But it is absolutely ginormous.
I liked the newer Bethesda games too, but I'd put Morrowind first. No quest pointers, needing to train your skills, almost no quick travel, no repetitive landscape since a lot was designed by hand and not just reused.
It’s definitely the best game they ever made in my opinion. I would love a full remake of this game with modern tech, could be so pretty, and the voice acting might not feel so, uh, disconnected from the characters as it does currently.
Skyrim, there is no punishment or huge incentive to explore the world. It's just, there. You can grind. You can go fast, slow, whatever.
That said, Red Dead 2 has the best open world I've ever seen, I just wish you could do more in it.
Tons of ways to stay occupied is a bit of a reach lmao. Once you get the learning curve down it doesn't take too long to experience most of what the game has to offer.
I won't deny that exploring the galaxy is beautiful af though
Unpopular opinion here, while i think MGSV mechanic is cool, it hardly affect the gameplay at least in my initial playthrough. The enemy layout remains the same, they still get upgrades no matter your playstyle, you actually have to try to notice the differences. If you just use stealth like the game force you to, it will be no problem.
The *Watch_Dogs* series is epic for doing the open-world hacker fantasy, manipulating cars, trains, steam pipes, the whole world around you feels so much fun to mess with.
Also, *Cyberpunk2077,* it’s just great all around.
This is my answer too. The thing is I usually don't like open world games; I have tried but failed to get into Assassin's Creed, GTA, Skyrim, Zelda BotW and the Witcher. Meanwhile Elden Ring is my favorite game of all time. Fromsoft took out all the filler and just let me explore and do the combat, which apparently is all I wanted. May not be for everyone though.
Even after all these years, GTA: San Andreas.
The map is just stuffed full of things to do and accidentally discover. Plenty of collectibles for those who like that kind of thing, unique vehicles, random races and minigames wherever you look. And all of it fun.
I vote for a triple tie: Far Cry 2, MGS V and Breath of the Wild. Why these three games? Pure open world sandboxy systemic gameplay goodness, that's why.
Skyrim's fun, and I have sunk several hundreds of hours in it, but the difference between a world full of copy-pasted, pre-designed situations with a bunch of canned solutions isn't the same as a game where you can use real world logic to come up with your own solutions by using the tools the game gives you.
The outer wilds by a long shot. It isn’t the biggest open world in terms of time to cross the map but in a game mechanic space it is an entire simulated solar system with planet that rapidly change and interact with each other. It also includes quantum mechanics, mechanically sound time travel and pocket dimensions.
It won awards for its game mechanics and rightly so. As an all round package nothing comes close to a simulated open world as The outer wilds. (Not the outer WORLDS)
For me it's OSRS. I love the way world is connected with quests, but also just because in it's "microscale" it feels very realistically. It's also very pleasurable to traverse and the slow process of unlocking different ways of teleporting/fast traveling makes it even better.
Ark Survival Evolved/Ascended.
Every single item in the game has a use, and you start naked on a beach picking berries and fighting off compies with a stick and by end game you're flying around with jet packs like Ironman and fighting titans with dragons.
The map they just dropped is like 10 miles x 10 miles and official servers support 70 people.
Fantastic game if you can look past some of the frustrating bugs and have patience to die a lot.
Watch dogs 2.
You can mess around with almost everything in the world. Hack traffic lights, manhole, switch boards, cranes, vehicles, NPC's phones, etc. Fly a drone or use an RC car. You can cause a gang war and also accuse any NPC or gang member of a crime and watch police come to arrest them. If they refuse arrest then watch a shootout unfold. All of the hacks and gadgets have upgrades in the form of a skill tree. It's always fun looking out for different ways to complete a mission, using your environment in your favour.
I’d have to say RDR2 is the best open world game I’ve ever played. Every section of the map has something going on. Whether it’s other travelers, animals, fishing, landmarks and POI, gang members etc.
The way you explore the world, especially the "climb everything" mechanic, is the best out there. The amount of freedom it provides is unmatched in any other game except something like Minecraft.
Well games like assassins creed allow you to climb pretty much anything you want. But there’s something about BotW that made it so much more rewarding. The stamina system and having to think about how and if you would be able to traverse terrain. In games like assassins creed I always feel like I’m just sort of floating through the environment.
The difference between how BotW and Assassins creed handle the same style of traversal cant be overstated. In BotW you can “theoretically” go everywhere. But actually doing so requires smart use of the geography’s geometry and conserving stamina and dealing with weather.
There are lose conditions to climbing and traversing the world in BotW.
It’s more rewarding in BOTW because you can actually climb every single surface with your hands and feet rather than follow a set climbing wall path like in other games.
Tears of the Kingdom clears this. The mechanics are unreal, the physics/chemistry engine is insane, and the fact that you can go from the top of a sky island to the bottom of the Depths with no loading screen feels like a miracle on the Switch.
Zelda BotW/Tears of the Kingdom always only reward you for exploration and the gadgets let you do absolutely crazy shit with the game’s physics engine.
MGS V: The Phantom Pain is basically an immersive sim with the amount of gadget interactivity you have.
For anyone that doesn’t know… instead of a mini-map with a path telling you where to go, or a compass or anything like that… the wind blows in the direction your next quest objective is. All the trees flowers and grass sway in the wind and it’s beautiful.
And along the way, you might see a yellow bird flying around or a fox.. if you follow them instead of the wind they lead you to points of interest/collectibles nearby. Or you may see a flock of birds swarming over something in the distance.
Makes for amazingly organic feeling gameplay and it’s great having no UI up while exploring. I want every open world game to do some variation of this now.
Fallout 3 is probably still the best open world ever designed. The amount of stuff, the story telling, the design itself! It blows Fallout 4 out of the water and puts Zelda to shame.
Have to agree. The world was very cohesive in atmosphere and emotional tone. Great atmosphere, attention to detail, stories, quests etc.. I'm waiting to play it again - just have to forget an unforgettable experience first.
Doing a Tale or Two Wastelands run. Forgot how amazing FO3's world was. I know some hate downtown cause you need to use the metro to reach some areas. But I love it. It could use a bit more trees, but I am sure there are mods for that.
I’ve never seen a comment section like this where the top 9 answers are all unique. I guess these games really do have something good going for them in their open worlds.
Guild Wars 2.
The only MMO where you just do whatever you like. You walk around the world and things just happen naturally. You see something, you explore it. Something happens, you can join in. You are just exploring this fantastical, natural world and everything you do gives rewards. It really feels like it's a living world and not a amusement parks with some rides.
It has absolutely fantastic mounts aswell. I got pretty burnt out on it but still feel the urge to log in for some griffon flying/gliding sometimes.
Everytime I play a different mmo my experience is a bit tainted by the fact that, though other aspects might be better, I miss the multilevel maps and my griffon and sand jackel in particular.
RDR2 & GTA(at release) I don't think many games come close to Rockstar imo. When you play it feels the most like you are existing in a world and stuff is happening to and around you. Rather than most open world games that fall victim to the theme park style of every new area is filled with the same little mini games, collectibles and (?)(!)s just given with a slightly different flavor.
Elden Ring. I really do love the idea of an open world filled with nothing but dungeons and enemies, hope we get more like it. As far as I know it’s the only AAA open world like that.
Just Cause 2 was the most amazing open world experience I ever had.
Jumping from a mountain cliff and gliding with my parachute across a giant tropical valley with trees and rivers below, slowly learning the mechanics of piloting all kinds of vehicles (boats, planes, helicopters, cars, trucks, etc) and how you could manipulate and hijack them with the grappling hook.
The constant searching with your radar to find the power ups that upgrade everything.
Realizing you could go to far off islands and tall snowy mountain ranges to marshes and cities. Scaling giant buildings and diving off to float off to some other area.
The story sucked, and missions were just fine to get through, but raiding bases and destroying everything was so satisfying. I’m sure I’m missing something but damn it was just a plain fun game.
I could go on and on but I’ll leave it at that. I still jump in and mess around now and again.
Death Stranding. The fact that you can see other peoples bridges etc they build and you can also use it isn't something I have seen before. You see a barren area turn into roads when you revisit it later on is kind of cool.
Some of my favorite open-world games have really fun, finely-tuned traversal mechanics.
For example, in Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Knight, grapple gun + glide cape is one of the best-feeling combos, ever. Add in the Batmobile from Arkham Knight, and getting from point A to point B in Gotham feels fun as hell.
The Just Cause games have somewhat similar traversal mechanics, since it has grappling hook + parachute + wing suit. There's even a DLC that gives you a jetpack, making it one of the very few open-world games that actually gives you the ability to fly like a superhero.
If an open-world game has excellent traversal mechanics, I'll probably enjoy it.
Maybe not the best but it’s kinda insane to me that over a decade later seemingly nothing has been able to match the environmental interactivity red faction: guerilla pulled off with its destruction mechanics. Seeing any structure and knowing you can and will level it was always such a cool feeling
I so badly want a modern version of this.
The finals has insane destruction done server-side on a multiplayer game. It works incredibly well and you can flatten multi storey buildings with multiple people fighting inside. Made by ex DICE devs so it has a Battlefield feel
One of my favorite things to do is to go to the bottom floor of an objective as a heavy with sledge, knock out all the structural pillars a d watch as the ENTIRE building collapses. Fighting through the tight rubble to try and steal the objective is always fun.
I knew nothing about this game other than the name and it's another F2P PvP. You just sold me on it.
Nice turret, it’d be a shame if someone blew up the three floors below you.
Grapple, sniper, bank it, Seoul is an absolute vibe. Nothing quite like quick scoping in a collapsing building and grappling out last second.
Remember kids: The enemy may have secured an objective on the second floor, but they have not secured the actual floor
I swear in the beta the battles were so much better in the Finals. By the time the game released everyone figured out how to be fast boys and they made some of those cap points indestructible and now it just doesn't hit the same spot anymore. I remember having some epic battles of destruction back then, so much that I even purchased cosmetics that I later found out wouldn't transfer, and that's not something I normally do ever. It just wasn't the same, idk.
The problem with these kinds of games is that they start off being a ton of fun, but they quickly become slogs when everyone figures out what the most OP shit is and they only use that. As the saying goes. Players will find a way to optimize the fun out of the game. Pushing SBMM and gaming getting bigger as a whole has been what's driving this, IMO.
I loved the “rush” mode in BFBC2. Some of the objectives were in houses. If you couldn’t manage to push the defenders out, you just launched rockets and artillery until the building collapsed.
I grew up on red faction 1 and 2 and the warlords map I believe it was called in number 1 I still have extremely fond memories of. My brother and I would literally create tunnels between the two fortresses and it would become a whole new map.
I remember just blasting tunnels everywhere, like time to dig a tunnel to the edge of the map. They knew their audience well those with adhd.
This is so true lmao
Mercenaries 2 was good like this too, maybe not as much destructive environment but I had fun with it
Wtf thank you. I don’t think the industry has grasped the potential of physics or immersive destructibility as more than just a gimmick. I know the indie market is saturated with these things but not so much the well funded studios that could provide a well-rounded product. TOTK is a great example of physics and device-building driving the game with huge success. But nothing holds a candle to demolishing the enemy fortress piece by piece with your sledgehammer.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The game is absolutely full of fun interactions and mechanics. something as simple as mastering the use of a grindstone to keep your blades in good repair is satisfying and a challenge to master initially. I've logged close to 30 hours in the two weeks since i bought it, would highly reccomend.
Warning don’t become disliked in the monastery (you’ll regret it)
Qui bibit, sanctus est
Qui skibidi, mortum est
Been playing it the past little while, brother Nicodemus is a prick lol. Failed his herb quest like a dummy
I remember reading the achievement for that. >!fucking burned at the stake lol. Unless it’s for something else.!<
This game was amazing. I’m so excited to see what Warhorse can do with the second one, now that they actually have some resources.
Indeed. I just started my second playthrough after picking it up for a few bucks. I first played it in 2020-ish and thoroughly enjoyed it. I logged around 120 hours into it.
I just started playing this. I knew I was gonna love it when I tried to sneak behind someone and they turned and looked at me and said “what’s the matter? Have to shit?”
The thief stuff in it becomes pretty fuckin broken once you max it. Especially since stores keep their inventory in a container in the back.
You don't even need to max it. Just stealing shit from the first town is enough to sort you out for the rest of the game.
How do you get used to the combat? It feels floaty and unreliable and hits never feel like they connect. I want to love this game, the plot kind of opened up and I feel completely helpless lol. Is that the point in the beginning? It’s a steep learning curve! Edit: I think I’ve caught a glimpse of the magic this game has. Restarted, glanced at the tutorials, and accepted that Henry will struggle for a bit. That skill bar is still ticking up. It’s not flashy, it’s immersive, and demands you slow down a bit. If anyone has tips/tricks for stealth/pickpocketing/lockpicking, lmk.
Getting the riposte ability from the swordsman (bernard?) In rattay is crucial to combat. That, and practice! The combat is at its best when it's methodical with parries, ripostes and well timed dodges. It's admittedly not for everyone!
Note: the move you want is called Master Strike. Before you get that one Bernard talks about perfect block and counter striking, but that is very meh and blockable. I thought that was the move everyone was talking about and struggled with combat for a while until going back and learning Master Strike. Master Strike gives you an unblockable automatic Riposte when you Perfect Block and is the absolute business. Can pretty much 1v1 anything at that point just by timing the blocks.
I don’t mind being patient with it, admittedly, im not sure if I got that ability. I’ll keep at it, thanks!
Don't worry you'll be playing for hours and suddenly you'll realize you're way stronger than you thought and you adapt pretty well as time passes. Get those skills leveled up.
Try using a Mace or Warhammer and unlock the Head cracker perk. The bonks are very satisfying and feel much more weighty, especially on an armored opponent.
before you go hunting with the Prince, make sure to train with Bernard. Do everything you can with him until feel like you have the basics down. Then learn the master strike until you have the hang of it. This will help make one on one battles pretty simple (but still challenging) then you can go hunting with the prince, which will subsequently start the next mission when you return and you wont be able to train with Bernard until you finish. *tip - even if you got the quest to hunt with the prince, its not time sensitive so you can meet him any morning. Next - when you feel like you have enough groschen, do the Rattay tournament - you most likely wont win your first or second try but keep at it, its really satisfying when you land combos.
I have to always remind myself that I’m a blacksmith son not Warrior of Light. I can’t solo 5 enemies. And running away is a sound strategy
But the very rare time you actually manage to drop four or five enemies, you feel like a God... one that's bleeding and torn to ribbons, that is.
The combat is grindy. It's very hard at first to get you to learn the mechanics, but when you level up abilities and get better weapons it isn't as much of a chore. The moment you are seriously tired of the combat is usually right where it starts to get better. You also need to understand your opponents armor may be resistant to your weapon, and another one might make them light work. In my case, I spamming the stab worked on many foes.
I think the combat design is pretty poor. It doesn't matter how good you as a player are, if you try to go on the offensive the opponent WILL master strike you and there's jack and shit you can do about it. They give you these combos but there's no point even trying them because they WILL be interrupted without fail. The only proper way to play the combat is to wait for the opponent to strike and master strike them instead. Hopefully it's fully reworked in the sequel. I liked what they tried to do with it but they missed the mark. It's fortunate that the world is so engrossing.
I just bonked everyone on the head with mace. Not the most elegant, but got the job done. What really bothers me with the combat system, is how clunky it is against multiple opponents.
A big part of that is when you don't have any XP in combat, Henry himself *sucks* at fighting. So when you are making attacks at low level, they are weak and floaty with no structure and don't hit well. When you get much more experienced, the game handles more like you would "expect."
Not to mention on hardcore mode you literally have to use the sun/markings to navigate, otherwise you can get lost in the forest. I’ll never forget being saved by those little knocker things in the streams to help me find one to follow and get back to civilization.
Absolutely. For open worlds, I was going to say, KCD or RDR2. KCD is my all time favorite game and I'm pretty old.
I adored this game…but could not deal with the bug that would just make all of my gold disappear out of the blue. I am looking forward to a sequel because it’s something I enjoyed so much. Wasn’t able to progress due to it. (Playing on console)
I gotta say I played it for 8 hours and could not get into it. It was just so slow and boring to me. Everything I did was just monotonous, patrol a town, find your horse, hunt rabbits. I didn't find it engaging, unfortunately.
Yeah, a lot of the game elements force you to simulate actually living in medieval Europe. It's not for everyone.
Seconded! Finished this long ago but it still holds the number one spot for me always ❤️
Yakuza has so much squeezed into like 20 streets.
Yakuza 0 id the best
Mechanically, i think Skyrim. Xp is awarded by using your abilities, not completing objectives, so it doesnt punish you for wandering off and exploring a well crafted map with lots of hidden locations and randomized events.
Unfortunately it did accidentally punish you sometimes. You gain levels by using skills, not all skills are combat and the game has scaling (though not to the degree people seem to think it does, there are a lot of misconceptions around it). So if you decide to do a lot of smithing/enchanting/alchemy at the start then go explore a tomb, you might run headfirst into a Deathlord.
Thats a very valid point. If you do the stealth/one handed greybeard exploit, or the riften speech, 10000 iron daggers, very true. You can push the game into end level with not great weapons/armor/health items 😂
Lol, glad I'm not the only one to be punished for having crafted a boatload of daggers
Honestly i dont know how they expect anyone to get to dragonbone armor without doing it like that lmao
Oh absolutely need to do it ... but the problem comes when smithing is level 70 and your weapom skills are all at the base level since enemies take total skill level into account (something like that at least, been several years since I booted it up)
Morrowind took this to the extreme. You need to practice hitting to shit to hit shit, but it rewarded you through stacking, such as brewing alchemical potions that improved your alchemical potions, which you could use to brew even more powerful alchemical potions.
You can do that potion thing in Skyrim kind of. You can brew potions that make your enchanting better and you can enchant gear to make your brewing better
Yep, until you get to the natural conclusion of all Skyrim playthroughs of realizing making your 1 trillion defense diaper allowing you run around mostly naked and kill everything with spoons has once again sucked the fun out of that run
That's why I always impose limits on myself, mostly by means of roleplay. An orc with heavy armor and a 2H axe wouldn't know restoration magic, for instance, or he wouldn't use a recurve bow but maybe a crossbow
The crossbow is one of those things since you can only get it by joining the dawnguard it would make sense to add it to your arsenal as a new member
This is what makes the game fun, and same for many games like CK3. Sure, every now and then you just want to min max and play god. The funnest play through are the ones where you play within your character and see what happens.
Tbh it wasn't that bad in Morrowind. You only needed to make sure that the weapons/schools of magic that you'll be using are your class' major skills. So if you make daggers your major skill and dump points into their corresponding attributes (for daggers I think it's either agility or speed), then at the very start of the game your dagger skill will be 60/100, which means your hits would actually land most of the time.
It absolutely is that bad in morrowind, You can absolutely cheese the fk out of both leveling and levels to break the game over your knee. 1) Make shitty skills your primary and secondary, make skills you want to use your tertiary (Which dont actually contribute to levels) 2) Get to the very first town and get just enough gold to buy the spell "Drain Skill" 3) Craft a custom spell, drain (skill of choice) 100-100 on self for 2 seconds. It costs like next to nothing to make the spell, and only like a handful to buy it. 4) Go to the trainer in the first town (there is one for almost every skill), cast the drain spell taking you to 0 skill, immediately talk to trainer and train, it costs 1 gold to go from 0-1. Spell wears off returning what it drained, net +1 skill for 1 gold. Wash rinse repeat until lv100 in the skill for not even 100 gold. 5) repeat for all skills you want to level to 100, theres more than enough gold just lying around in the first town to max all your skills Alternative to #1, make them primary skills and actually get levelups and attributes out of them as well, following certain patterns to get guaranteed 5x attributes on each level up. If you do the method i described your still level 2 or 3 when leaving town with maxed skills. take that 100 alchemy and go brew a fortify int potion and fortify alchemy potion. drink both, craft another set, drink them, craft another set, drink more, craft more etc.. until you have 100,000+ in both int and alchemy. Now craft a int and fortify enchanting potion. Go learn the enchants you want, find the gear you want, and drink potions, enchant gear with rediculuous level stats like 10,000,000 hp/mana/stam per second regen, +100000 health stamina and mana, fortify everything.. now you have 100 base level skills, shitty attributes but bonkers level enchanted armor, that can take a basic iron dagger and 1 shot anything in the game with a poke. All for just a few thousand gold, if even that much. 1 shot anything in the game, nothing can touch you because you have a massive health pool and regen any damage taken instantly, you can run at mach speed, jump over the whole continent (and survive the fall damage from said jump) and just do whatever you want. Morrowind was absolutely busted. Its the whole reason there is hard caps on potions and enchanting, as well as a limit on what enchants can be put on what armor, and how many active potions effects you can have at any one time in Oblivion.
The thing is, most people playing Morrowind nowadays at the very least use patches that fix thousands of bugs, including that one. Although yeah, there's that exploit, and like a dozen others or more you can exploit in the game. Soul trap on target Fortify x Permanent stat boost right there. But as far as not using exploits like that, Morrowind is one hell of an open world. You can kill everyone and everything, and all the game will do is tell you "shits fucked, reload save lol".
"or not reload and keep playing the cursed save you created"
Brewing in Morrowwind was so busted you could make infinite loop stat boosting potions cheap and easy very early on, get all your stats to an insane level, then you are essentially a one punch killing, super speed running, able to leap over mountains god.
Or you could just use the console if the only point is to exploit the game
Everywhere I went I was jumping to level up that stat lol
Dude, we'd jump constantly for like the first 5hrs of game play, then be able to leap onto buildings and shit
I just got the vr version but am having an awful time getting the mods to work to make it playable
The modding process for skyrim has become so over bloated I gave up. Just when you think you got it going, something breaks.
I recommend not giving up, I’ve spent a lot of time modding, but the game has become like, the ideal RPG for me, and it’s in VR 🤤
Probably unusual take but I would say Death Stranding. I absolutely love this hostile world where at the beginning you focus on survival only. But when you reach endgame you conquer the world and try to min-max every trading route.
Nah you’re on the money. Didn’t beat the game but even from the early chapters the world feels so alive which is an incredible feat considering a lot of the environment is not exactly filled with activities to stimulate the player, yet it still compels you to want to spend time in it and traverse. Only game that ever made me make an intentional decision on which path I was gonna take to get somewhere. Also the asynchronous online elements were cool. Players slowly populating the world with helpful tools is an awesome concept I’ve only ever seen before in the souls games (in the form of messages.) It worked so well for death stranding.
Huh, interesting. I read some reviews when it came out & it made it seem like its basically just a walking simulator & that you are a glorified Fedex man. I got it for free on Epic a while back, maybe I'll give it a shot some time 🤷🏼♂️
It’s probably the weirdest game I’ve ever played but I really enjoyed it.
It is effectively a walking simulator, except your walks are always interrupted, you'll get chased, hunted down, drawn into cosmic horrors... I like it, but yea most of it is indeed walking
I'd call it a walking simulator if the walking was easy. It's more of an action puzzle game, and the puzzle is how to get anywhere. Need to get over a mountain? Puzzle. Backpack throwing off your balance? Puzzle. Where and how do I set up my ziplines? (The best part) Puzzle. And there are action scenes with shooting or stealth in there too. People who dismissed it probably gave up before they got the first few gear upgrades.
I don't know why but no one explains that you also get vehicles. after like 3 or 4hrs gameplay, a whooooole way bigger map opens up, and the progression gets way better. My biggest tip for new players is to just focus on doing the main storyline missions as fast as possible, once you get up over a steep ass hill and cross a body of water, THAT is when the game world really opens up a ton of possibilities. I would have hated the game if it kept the same mechanics that you start off with, for the entire 40hrs+ of gameplay. It's new and interesting at first, but gets tedious after a few hours, so don't try to do side quests initially, you can come back to do those if you want. Just get over the giant hill and over the body of water for the game to really get incredible. Really glad I gave the game a chance, became a top 20 all time favorite game for me.
I hate how it was described as "walking simulator" it if it is a walking simulator, Wind Waker is a boat simulator. There's so much going on in the game. Like, just stacking your goods on your back is a whole mini game. You're not just walking, you're carving routes so you don't drop everything and have to fight all kinds of humans and monsters. And when I say "carving routes" I mean literally. You're setting up ladders and ropes and getting from point A to point B is an adventure. And the world is alive. Like if you put a rope down, it may appear in some random person's game, making life easier for them. If you walk the same path enough times, it starts to carve a foot path. You may stumble across an abandoned car or motorcycle. And you have to maintain the roads between destinations because they degrade.
It's the Gran Turismo of walking simulators. It's a very bizarre game, and I don't just mean the story, but the mechanics of the game itself. Despite all of that I've played through the game twice and absolutely love it. I can't wait for the next game.
Yes! Norman Reedus and the Funky Fetus is one of my favorite games. The story is absolutely insane and crazy, but they pull it off perfectly. And the world is gorgeous and so fun to traverse. You really connect with the world and the people inside it. Hartman is especially loved by me.
Great band name
DS graphics, audio and music are more sophisticated than most. 100% top shelf execution across the board.
Rip Ryan Karazija
I'm currently playing it for the first time and I second this. It's an amazing built world, it makes you appreciate what little interactions you have with other characters
I feel like RDR2 is the correct answer for most categories here. The amount of detail put into every little thing is sometimes staggering. Can only imagine what GTA 6 will bring.
Wish it had a new game plus. Want to play thru it again but with all the extra gear and stuff I unlocked cause I finished those tedious challenges and not ready to do them again lol
If you are on PC, you can download save files from the start of any chapter, with all of the unlocks already done. I found it really convenient when I switched to PC and didn't want to do the grind again.
Originally played on PS4 but do have a pc now. May have to grab it next sale and try that out, thanks!
Absolutely. 140 hours, and I'm still not bored. Insane attention to detail. So many random events. Great AI for animal and NPC. Tons of mysteries, secrets, and strangers. The whole world feels so alive for a video game. GTA 6, I am hyped. Don't let me down, lol
As someone who wants to get into more open world games, can I play Red Dead Redemption 2 and still enjoy it without having played 1? Also is it a good intro to open world games?
Yes, it's a prequel that was designed to be perfectly playable without playing RDR 1 I'd argue that it's not a good intro to open world games because its world is so detailed and beautiful that nothing else comes close 😭
RDR2 is technically a prequel and fully enjoyable without having played the first one. I think the two games are very enjoyable (story-wise) regardless of which order you play them
Yes for sure! It’s a prequel technically. It’s the best open world game ever imo
My only minor compliant is that I wished there were more towns to visit since it was so lively
Not even gonna claim it as my favorite open world game. But anyone who denies the mechanics of it are lying to themselves. It’s a masterpiece.
RDR2 was the first game where I actually felt like I was in the world. I had to snap myself out of it a few times
Just Cause 3
Just blow shit up and swing away like a crazy spiderman demolition badass, then rinse and repeat
Any game where you can destroy a bridge and then watch a train barrel over the void where said bridge once was is a 10/10 in my book.
#JUST!?
#CAUSE?!!
THREE??
Then add in the DLC jetpack and it becomes an Iron Man game.
Liberating a whole town by shooting/blowing up all the chaos objects without ever touching the ground just made me angry there was never a good Iron-Man game. I actually enjoyed the movie tie-in game for the Ds but the one on console was shit. But I mean come on the physics/mechanics/controls are RIGHT THERE and they're already perfect!!! Just slap a gold-titanium alloy skin over the top and give the people what they really want!!
Cyberpunk. No loading screens to break the immersion.
And driving at 300mph with the Bruce Wayne car!
Witcher 3. The side quests actually having an effect on the main story and changing the ending. They also had better storylines than most other games’ main quests. Edit: Clarified for everyone saying good side quests aren’t a “mechanic” I should’ve been clearer.
100% TW3 side quests are better than 90% of AAA games main stories. So many side quests that took hours and were enjoyable the entire time. I hope they do TW4 like 3 but just bigger and better and more optimized with less clunky controls. The armor was so dope too.
I spent like 3 hours doing the Blood Baron quest line... and then it dawned on me "holy shit, this is just a side quest!"
I'd also like TW4 to have a bit more distance between villages/caves/side quest objectives. Having a villager give you a very sad story about their daughter dying by suicide and becoming a moonwraith is great. But when she is literally floating around 100 yards from his door it loses a little oompf.
There is a balance here though. Maps shouldn’t be so big it’s annoying to traverse.
Agreed 100%. Assassins creed Valhalla is a good example of a map that is just huge and empty. Pretty to look at it but it felt very much like a video game map.
Yeah, but side quests aren’t mechanics. Nothing really jumps out to me, with how Gerald’s mechanics add to the open world
Storyline =/= Mechanics
+ u get better endings if u actually do the side storylines Same with Cyberpunk Both reward u for actually doing the sidequests
Project Zomboid. It's a deep and wonderful open world sand box experience.
now this is an underrated comment right there
Ultima Online. Everyone was fair game in the beginning...
We don't see too many single player games that get close to UO's depth and variety of mechanics, and they pulled it off in an MMORPG before the term MMORPG was even a thing.
UO will always been one of the greatest games! Vesper will always be my home!
I’m a skara brae guy myself, but damn if I can’t appreciate Vesper’s layout!
Moonglow graveyard was where I spent most of my days.
Zelda tears of the kingdom has Freeform vehicle building and an insane amount of content
Can't believe this opinion isn't more popular. You can interact with pretty much everything in the open world, create almost anything your mind can imagine, literally swim through hard surfaces, climb anything. You can fuse an explosive barrel to a stick and now you have an exploding stick. In terms of open world mechanics, nothing comes even close.
I feel like I'm in a weird minority that prefers BotW to TotK. BotW is a more simple, pure experience. TotK has way more content but it often just feels like sensory overload.
You somehow don't find much appreciation for Nintendo games in general on r/gaming. And if you do, it's always after scrolling waaaay down.
I'm surprised this was so far down, and I haven't seen BotW yet. Open World games were feeling stale when BotW came out and practically made the idea feel new again, and TotK expanded on that really well. I still love being able to climb everything. TotK is especially open in that it lets you use your vehicles to skip a ton of content if you want.
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Never have I seen a more desolate world, full of melancholy and danger. Have been hunting that feeling ever since, never able to find it elsewhere. Maybe Metro Exodus is closest to it. Creates such a big expectation in my mind, STALKER 2 has essentially no chance to live up to that. Other than that, the usual suspects: Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, RDR2, Fallout 3/NV/4, Skyrim.
It was Star Wars: Galaxies.
The shuttle waits, the need for buffs, wound healing, consumables, an entirely player driven equipment and market. Such a great community driven game reinforced by the mechanics.
World of Warcraft Burning Crusade era 2007. PvP server with a bunch of friends. Still chasing after that high.
I feel like that was once in a lifetime experience. Sometimes I think about going back and playing TBC or WotLK but then u realize that I can't get back to that time. Friends are gone, time is precious and scarce, servers are rare. But then I listen to Elwynn Forest and it my body shivers. Maaan, it was a great time to be a teenager.
Yakuza series. The amount of stuff you can do, see and interact with can make you dizzy. Even the lore will melt your brain.
Yes! It also has the best usage of map recycling I’ve ever seen. I know Kamurocho and Sotenbori like I lived there myself.
Any one in particular? I’ve never played the series but i have heard only good things
Play zero first in my opinion.
I think that MGSV did openworld right. I just wish Konami gave Kojima break and let him actually finish it. It would be worth it. I really don't get the hate for Metal Gear going open world. MGSV did it right. From getting the crafting materials, weapons, recruits to the mechanics like having to have guy that actually does speak the specific language on support team, to actually understand what NPCs are saying - MGSV was amazing. Too bad we prolly won't see another game this complex/this good anytime soon.
I’m sorry downvote me if you wish but MGSV’s world was soulless and empty af. There was literally nothing except enemy outposts. No towns or villages, no non-combative NPCs, just completely dead. I couldn’t finish the game because the environment was so boring.
For me the best part was the open world in *context* of the missions. You literally had a hundred ways at your fingertips to complete most objectives. Having the missions in an open world format was the fun part. Weather coverage, time of day, wildlife, approaching from a huge distance in any direction (in many cases), capturing nearly anything for your own base... Doing stuff outside of missions really just didn't interest me, partially because I'm not a completionist, and partially because there wasn't much to see, as you said. But I didn't care because the missions were cool and there were a lot of them. It also never bothered me that there weren't neutral or friendly NPCs in the world (besides your team), but I definitely agree that would've helped to step up the quality and intrigue.
Valheim. It took the declining Survival crafting genre and injected it with Breath of the Wild - esque positive reinforcement. The gameplay loop is incredibly motivating because you always have a clear goal in mind, not just ticking off Quests for the sake of it. Robust and innovative mechanics for building, cooking, exploring, and incentives to actually build a nice large home because there are so many functional furniture pieces. The game can be cozy af too.
I came here to say the same thing. One of the things that I think Valhiem does right that almost no other game does, is that it gives a sort of faction sense to the enemies. That is to say that the Deep Forest people will hate the Swamp people, who will hate the Plains people who will hate the Mountain people. One of my favorite memories of that game was watching a sea serpent attacking a troll. It's two titanic creatures that dwarf you in size just bashing each other over the head. It makes the world seem alive. These aren't robots wandering around aimlessly, they're engaged in a never ending territorial struggle between each other. Fallout 3 did something similar. Wandering around and finding enemies fighting each other possesses a sort of wonder that never seems to go away.
If that's the sort of thing you dig, try Kenshi.
Assassins Creed Odyssey. I love sailing to new islands to explore everything that they have to offer
That was the first open world game that caused to take a step back and say "fuck...this is to big". Not that it's a bad game, it isn't. But it is absolutely ginormous.
I liked the newer Bethesda games too, but I'd put Morrowind first. No quest pointers, needing to train your skills, almost no quick travel, no repetitive landscape since a lot was designed by hand and not just reused.
It’s definitely the best game they ever made in my opinion. I would love a full remake of this game with modern tech, could be so pretty, and the voice acting might not feel so, uh, disconnected from the characters as it does currently.
There was something satisfying hunting down targets for the assignation missions. Just a general direction to where they are at.
Skyrim, there is no punishment or huge incentive to explore the world. It's just, there. You can grind. You can go fast, slow, whatever. That said, Red Dead 2 has the best open world I've ever seen, I just wish you could do more in it.
Shadows of Doubt is a really good open-world game mechanically.
Elite Dangerous. Open world 1:1 scale map of the milky way, 400Bn star systems to visit, and tons of ways to stay occupied.
Tons of ways to stay occupied is a bit of a reach lmao. Once you get the learning curve down it doesn't take too long to experience most of what the game has to offer. I won't deny that exploring the galaxy is beautiful af though
i gotta say its MGSV
I wish more of it was like Ground Zeroes. The mechanics were definitely on point though.
Unpopular opinion here, while i think MGSV mechanic is cool, it hardly affect the gameplay at least in my initial playthrough. The enemy layout remains the same, they still get upgrades no matter your playstyle, you actually have to try to notice the differences. If you just use stealth like the game force you to, it will be no problem.
Red Dead 2
The *Watch_Dogs* series is epic for doing the open-world hacker fantasy, manipulating cars, trains, steam pipes, the whole world around you feels so much fun to mess with. Also, *Cyberpunk2077,* it’s just great all around.
Elden ring. So much to explore so many hidden goodies and caves dungeons.
This is my answer too. The thing is I usually don't like open world games; I have tried but failed to get into Assassin's Creed, GTA, Skyrim, Zelda BotW and the Witcher. Meanwhile Elden Ring is my favorite game of all time. Fromsoft took out all the filler and just let me explore and do the combat, which apparently is all I wanted. May not be for everyone though.
Rdr2
Even after all these years, GTA: San Andreas. The map is just stuffed full of things to do and accidentally discover. Plenty of collectibles for those who like that kind of thing, unique vehicles, random races and minigames wherever you look. And all of it fun.
I vote for a triple tie: Far Cry 2, MGS V and Breath of the Wild. Why these three games? Pure open world sandboxy systemic gameplay goodness, that's why. Skyrim's fun, and I have sunk several hundreds of hours in it, but the difference between a world full of copy-pasted, pre-designed situations with a bunch of canned solutions isn't the same as a game where you can use real world logic to come up with your own solutions by using the tools the game gives you.
The outer wilds by a long shot. It isn’t the biggest open world in terms of time to cross the map but in a game mechanic space it is an entire simulated solar system with planet that rapidly change and interact with each other. It also includes quantum mechanics, mechanically sound time travel and pocket dimensions. It won awards for its game mechanics and rightly so. As an all round package nothing comes close to a simulated open world as The outer wilds. (Not the outer WORLDS)
Ghost Recon Wildlands. Different biomes and different ways to travel. The world was truly great.
Somewhere between Just Cause and Wildlands is the perfect third person open world action game.
For me it's OSRS. I love the way world is connected with quests, but also just because in it's "microscale" it feels very realistically. It's also very pleasurable to traverse and the slow process of unlocking different ways of teleporting/fast traveling makes it even better.
Ark Survival Evolved/Ascended. Every single item in the game has a use, and you start naked on a beach picking berries and fighting off compies with a stick and by end game you're flying around with jet packs like Ironman and fighting titans with dragons. The map they just dropped is like 10 miles x 10 miles and official servers support 70 people. Fantastic game if you can look past some of the frustrating bugs and have patience to die a lot.
Watch dogs 2. You can mess around with almost everything in the world. Hack traffic lights, manhole, switch boards, cranes, vehicles, NPC's phones, etc. Fly a drone or use an RC car. You can cause a gang war and also accuse any NPC or gang member of a crime and watch police come to arrest them. If they refuse arrest then watch a shootout unfold. All of the hacks and gadgets have upgrades in the form of a skill tree. It's always fun looking out for different ways to complete a mission, using your environment in your favour.
I’d have to say RDR2 is the best open world game I’ve ever played. Every section of the map has something going on. Whether it’s other travelers, animals, fishing, landmarks and POI, gang members etc.
BOTW. Just the fact you get actually interested in going and checking out the stuff you see is a marvel to me.
The way you explore the world, especially the "climb everything" mechanic, is the best out there. The amount of freedom it provides is unmatched in any other game except something like Minecraft.
Well games like assassins creed allow you to climb pretty much anything you want. But there’s something about BotW that made it so much more rewarding. The stamina system and having to think about how and if you would be able to traverse terrain. In games like assassins creed I always feel like I’m just sort of floating through the environment.
The difference between how BotW and Assassins creed handle the same style of traversal cant be overstated. In BotW you can “theoretically” go everywhere. But actually doing so requires smart use of the geography’s geometry and conserving stamina and dealing with weather. There are lose conditions to climbing and traversing the world in BotW.
It’s more rewarding in BOTW because you can actually climb every single surface with your hands and feet rather than follow a set climbing wall path like in other games.
An open world game that rewards you for exploring. What a concept
Red Dead Redemption 2. The systems interact with each other. Even without the player, the open world moves on.
RDR2
GTA IV. The physics, interactivity, attention to detail and how it seems every NPC is unique makes the city feel alive and very realistic.
Elden Ring
Tears of the Kingdom clears this. The mechanics are unreal, the physics/chemistry engine is insane, and the fact that you can go from the top of a sky island to the bottom of the Depths with no loading screen feels like a miracle on the Switch.
Breath of the Wild. Hands down, the game that best understood *why* it was open world.
Zelda BotW/Tears of the Kingdom always only reward you for exploration and the gadgets let you do absolutely crazy shit with the game’s physics engine. MGS V: The Phantom Pain is basically an immersive sim with the amount of gadget interactivity you have.
Ghost of Tsushima
For anyone that doesn’t know… instead of a mini-map with a path telling you where to go, or a compass or anything like that… the wind blows in the direction your next quest objective is. All the trees flowers and grass sway in the wind and it’s beautiful. And along the way, you might see a yellow bird flying around or a fox.. if you follow them instead of the wind they lead you to points of interest/collectibles nearby. Or you may see a flock of birds swarming over something in the distance. Makes for amazingly organic feeling gameplay and it’s great having no UI up while exploring. I want every open world game to do some variation of this now.
I love having no HUD
I really wanted to love the open world design but it hurt to find out it’s just your typical Ubisoft collect-a-thon. At least it looks gorgeous.
I don't mind a collect-a-thon when I get to make Haiku and pet foxes.
Fallout 3 is probably still the best open world ever designed. The amount of stuff, the story telling, the design itself! It blows Fallout 4 out of the water and puts Zelda to shame.
Have to agree. The world was very cohesive in atmosphere and emotional tone. Great atmosphere, attention to detail, stories, quests etc.. I'm waiting to play it again - just have to forget an unforgettable experience first.
Doing a Tale or Two Wastelands run. Forgot how amazing FO3's world was. I know some hate downtown cause you need to use the metro to reach some areas. But I love it. It could use a bit more trees, but I am sure there are mods for that.
I’ve never seen a comment section like this where the top 9 answers are all unique. I guess these games really do have something good going for them in their open worlds.
Guild Wars 2. The only MMO where you just do whatever you like. You walk around the world and things just happen naturally. You see something, you explore it. Something happens, you can join in. You are just exploring this fantastical, natural world and everything you do gives rewards. It really feels like it's a living world and not a amusement parks with some rides.
It has absolutely fantastic mounts aswell. I got pretty burnt out on it but still feel the urge to log in for some griffon flying/gliding sometimes. Everytime I play a different mmo my experience is a bit tainted by the fact that, though other aspects might be better, I miss the multilevel maps and my griffon and sand jackel in particular.
RDR2 & GTA(at release) I don't think many games come close to Rockstar imo. When you play it feels the most like you are existing in a world and stuff is happening to and around you. Rather than most open world games that fall victim to the theme park style of every new area is filled with the same little mini games, collectibles and (?)(!)s just given with a slightly different flavor.
I really liked the far cry games for the open world Although if you really want to get into it. Saboteur is also really well done for when it came out
Elden Ring. I really do love the idea of an open world filled with nothing but dungeons and enemies, hope we get more like it. As far as I know it’s the only AAA open world like that.
Just Cause 2 was the most amazing open world experience I ever had. Jumping from a mountain cliff and gliding with my parachute across a giant tropical valley with trees and rivers below, slowly learning the mechanics of piloting all kinds of vehicles (boats, planes, helicopters, cars, trucks, etc) and how you could manipulate and hijack them with the grappling hook. The constant searching with your radar to find the power ups that upgrade everything. Realizing you could go to far off islands and tall snowy mountain ranges to marshes and cities. Scaling giant buildings and diving off to float off to some other area. The story sucked, and missions were just fine to get through, but raiding bases and destroying everything was so satisfying. I’m sure I’m missing something but damn it was just a plain fun game. I could go on and on but I’ll leave it at that. I still jump in and mess around now and again.
BotW and TotK **would** be contenders... if Link could pet a fucking dog.
Death Stranding. The fact that you can see other peoples bridges etc they build and you can also use it isn't something I have seen before. You see a barren area turn into roads when you revisit it later on is kind of cool.
Some of my favorite open-world games have really fun, finely-tuned traversal mechanics. For example, in Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Knight, grapple gun + glide cape is one of the best-feeling combos, ever. Add in the Batmobile from Arkham Knight, and getting from point A to point B in Gotham feels fun as hell. The Just Cause games have somewhat similar traversal mechanics, since it has grappling hook + parachute + wing suit. There's even a DLC that gives you a jetpack, making it one of the very few open-world games that actually gives you the ability to fly like a superhero. If an open-world game has excellent traversal mechanics, I'll probably enjoy it.