Summary
- Exploration-heavy games like Rain World and Gloomwood offer immersive atmospheres and deep gameplay.
- Games like TUNIC and Hollow Knight combine meaningful exploration with expressive combat for engaging experiences.
- Titles like Deep Rock Galactic and Dark Souls provide unique exploration through procedural environments and deep combat mechanics.
Games that focus their efforts on exploration tend to lean on immersion and atmosphere to remain engaging. Others make use of collectibles to keep players engaged, while some excel through sheer accessibility.
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However, there are a variety of exploration-heavy games that succeed with great gameplay. From the hardcore survival and simulated ecosystem of Rain World to the challenging combat of Dark Souls, these titles offer a variety of exploration-heavy experiences.
8 Rain World
Tough Survival In A Simulated Ecosystem
Rain World
- Released
- March 28, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Videocult
- Publisher(s)
- Akupara Games, Adult Swim Games
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
Rain World is a hardcore survival platformer that takes place in a harsh and hostile interconnected world. Elevating the overall experience is a simulated ecosystem that provides a great deal of immersion despite a minimalist visual style, coupled with procedural animations that breathe life into the game's many exotic creatures.
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Despite being wholly focused on methodical exploration of its unforgiving and overgrown landscape, Rain World's gameplay can be tremendously rewarding. This is thanks in large part to the game's expressive movement controls and emphasis on patient play, which rewards cautious curiosity.
7 Pacific Drive
Ragged Road Trips Through Supernatural Environments
Pacific Drive
- Released
- February 22, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ironwood Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Kepler Interactive
- Genre(s)
- Survival
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
Pacific Drive is a game that excels with its supernatural setting and immersive atmosphere, providing a dense ambiance that balances tranquility with an eerie undertone. However, it's backed up by a unique extraction-based gameplay loop and supported by engaging survival game mechanics.
The emphasis on car maintenance and resource management provides a tense and rewarding loop that elevates Pacific Drive's exploration-heavy gameplay. Combined with a variety of hazards, tools, and objectives, Pacific Drive is able to provide players with consistently engaging exploration.
6 TUNIC
Meaningful Exploration & Lightweight Action
Tunic
- Released
- March 16, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Andrew Shouldice
- Publisher(s)
- Finji
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Fans of games such as Dark Souls and The Legend Of Zelda are more than likely going to enjoy TUNIC not only for its exploration-heavy structure, but for its expressive gameplay. TUNIC facilitates a deep and meaningful sense of discovery with its unique tutorial design and pseudo-open-world, but its intuitive combat keeps the moment-to-moment engaging.
TUNIC takes the stamina management and expressive dodge rolling present in Dark Souls and combines them with classic hack-and-slash gameplay to provide engaging combat encounters that are equal parts accessible and rewarding. Combined with an abundance of loot that rewards players for exploration, TUNIC is able to offer a well-balanced loop.
5 Deep Rock Galactic
Procedural Cave Exploration With Expressive Tools
Deep Rock Galactic
- Released
- May 13, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ghost Ship Games
- Publisher(s)
- Coffee Stain Publishing
- Genre(s)
- FPS
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Deep Rock Galactic is able to offer unique exploration with its distinctive procedural caverns, providing players with truly alien and often awe-inspiring underground environments. With little in the way of hand-crafted content to uncover, Deep Rock Galactic's exploration-heavy gameplay relies heavily upon its core mechanics to remain engaging.
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The destructible terrain in particular makes the moment-to-moment exploration a satisfying experience, but it's the game's frequent injections of explosive combat and variety of expressive movement tools that elevate it. With such a diversity of character classes, each with their own unique toolset, Deep Rock Galactic allows players to explore and battle in their own way.
4 Gloomwood
Survival Horror In An Interconnected City
Gloomwood
- Released
- September 6, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
Gloomwood offers an immersive and deeply atmospheric adventure through a dark and eerie Victorian city. Gameplay is heavily based around exploration, with players needing to scrounge resources from the environment in order to survive, and the interconnected nature of the city provides a frequent sense of discovery.
The structure and mechanics of the game, which deftly combine elements of the survival horror and immersive-sim genres, support this focus on exploration. More specifically, Gloomwood is heavily centered around resource management and creative problem-solving, both of which encourage players to explore the world with close attention to detail.
3 Resident Evil 2
Deeply Atmospheric Exploration & Nail-Biting Combat
Resident Evil 2
- Released
- January 25, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Publisher(s)
- Capcom
- Genre(s)
- Horror
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Many survival horror titles center around exploration, thanks in no small part to their emphasis on careful resource management. Resident Evil, a pioneer of the genre, is no exception. While the original games hold a certain charm and their own unique challenges, Resident Evil 2 — more specifically, its recent remake — offers a modern take on survival horror that's tremendously engaging.
The over-the-shoulder perspective provides an experience that's decidedly more immersive than the original's tank controls. However, it's the intuitive controls and satisfying gunplay of Resident Evil 2's remake that elevate it, allowing this survival horror title to be a more accessible and, arguably, a more tactile experience.
2 Hollow Knight
Accessible & Expressive Action
Hollow Knight
- Released
- February 24, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
- Team Cherry
- Genre(s)
- Metroidvania
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, macOS, Linux
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Hollow Knight is a distinctive Metroidvania that excels with its unique underground world and immersive, melancholic atmosphere. The sense of discovery provided by its interconnected locations is a particular strength, but Hollow Knight is supported by a fluid combat system and meaningful upgrades.
The charm system in particular provides a simple and intuitive method of build-crafting that's both accessible and strategic. Furthermore, each of the game's upgrades provides meaningful milestones, opening up new and exciting locations for players to explore. The hack-and-slash combat and resource management of Soul, used to cast various spells, also provides consistent engagement as players explore the dangerous locales of Hallownest.
1 Dark Souls
Metroidvania-Style Exploration With Deep Combat
Dark Souls
- Released
- September 22, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Publisher(s)
- Namco Bandai
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Soulslike, Adventure
- Platform(s)
- Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
With its interconnected world, plethora of secrets, and abundance of meaningful loot, Dark Souls is an incredibly exploration-heavy game. However, its nature as an ARPG provides consistent action, supported by a unique and innovative combat system.
A particular strength of Dark Souls is its sense of scale and discovery. However, its expressive combat drives the experience forward, allowing players to approach the game in a multitude of ways and, as a result, encouraging players to explore and seek out new items to support evolving strategies. The variety of impressive, memorable boss fights are a particular stand-out, providing consistent skill-checks that can be tremendously rewarding to overcome.
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