Summary
- Don't Starve throws players into survival immediately without tutorials or guidance, providing a brutal blend of permadeath and horror.
- Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl's opening is suffocatingly difficult, boasting unforgiving mechanics and overwhelming enemies.
- Elden Ring overwhelms players from the start with no hand-holding, cryptic dialogue, and deadly enemies, offering a challenging and empowering experience.
Open-world games tend to be generous when it comes to introductions. A slow drip of mechanics, some forgiving enemies, a starter village or two—it’s usually enough time to get cozy before things get real. But not all games are like this. Some titles toss players into the deep end with a rock tied to their ankle and then set the water on fire.
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These open-world games waste no time in introducing players to a lasting first impression that shows them the good time they're in for.
Whether it’s due to brutal mechanics, overwhelming freedom, or sheer player disorientation, these open-world game openings are memorably punishing—and often the reason players never make it past hour two. But for those who do, some of the best experiences in the genre await on the other side of the pain.
7 Don’t Starve
You’re Cold, You’re Hungry, And You’re Probably Dying
Don't Starve
- Released
- April 23, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Fantasy, Violence, Crude Humor
- Developer(s)
- Klei Entertainment
- Platform(s)
- Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PS Vita, Nintendo Wii U, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PC
- Genre(s)
- Survival, Management
Klei Entertainment’s Don’t Starve doesn’t care if players know what they’re doing; it cares if they can improvise. Dropped into a stylized but hostile wilderness with no instructions and only the vague advice of a creepy gentleman named Maxwell, players are expected to start surviving immediately. There's no tutorial, no real guidance - just the grim certainty that nightfall means death unless a fire is lit and food is secured.
The game’s unique blend of permadeath survival and psychological horror comes out swinging from the first minute. Hunger, insanity and temperature all need to be managed—often simultaneously. Newcomers might build a decent camp by day three, only to be ripped apart by shadow monsters because their sanity meter dipped below a mysterious threshold they didn’t know existed. Crafting is essential, but it’s also a slow and opaque system that punishes trial and error. And when winter hits, that’s when Don’t Starve really starts to live up to its name.
6 Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
Radiation, Bandits And A Whole Lot Of Misery
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
- Released
- March 20, 2007
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- GSC Game World
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- FPS, Survival Horror
It’s not just the bleak setting that makes Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl hit hard right away; it’s how utterly unequipped players are to survive it. This cult classic from GSC Game World drops players into the lawless, irradiated wasteland known as the Zone, just outside the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. And while it might say it’s an open-world FPS with RPG elements, the truth is that it’s more like a hazing ritual disguised as a video game.
The weapons jam, the guns miss, and the enemies shoot like trained spec ops while the player scrambles with a rusty Makarov. Add in confusing map design, stamina-draining sprints, hunger mechanics, and anomalies that vaporize anyone not paying attention, and it’s no wonder most players meet their first death within fifteen minutes of booting it up. Even the first mission—clearing out a bandit hideout—is less of a warm-up and more of a suicide pact with one's fellow Stalkers. Still, it’s exactly this suffocating difficulty that gives Stalker its legendary atmosphere. The Zone does not welcome; it endures.
5 Pathologic 2
Just A Town Doctor? Cool. Go Save A City From Collapsing
Pathologic 2
- Released
- May 23, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Ice-Pick Lodge
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Pathologic 2 is a psychological endurance test wrapped in a surreal plague simulator. Players control Artemy Burakh, a surgeon returning to a mysterious steppe town where things spiral into chaos at an alarming pace. By the time the tutorial ends—if it even had one—the town is already suspicious of Artemy, his father’s been murdered, and there’s a deadly disease creeping in from the edges.
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It’s paramount that a horror game is actually scary, but this level of terror is sometimes reflected in the game’s difficulty.
As for the opening hours, they are brutal. Hunger, thirst, exhaustion, health, and reputation are all tracked independently, and each system fights for attention. There are no power fantasies here—just tough moral decisions, ambiguous quests, and constant time pressure. Most newcomers will fail, and that's intentional. The developers even inserted a character who mocks players for struggling, because Pathologic 2 isn’t trying to be fair; it’s trying to simulate the feeling of helplessness in the face of catastrophe. And it does it so well that many players quit before ever seeing the full scope of its brilliance.
4 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Wake Up, Link, The World’s Already Ending
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Released
- March 3, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E for Everyone: Fantasy Violence, Use of Alcohol, Mild Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo EPD
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Wii U, Switch
Compared to older Zelda entries, Breath of the Wild is shockingly hands-off. There's no hand-holding, no fairy companion, no dungeon-by-dungeon structure. After waking up in a centuries-old resurrection chamber, Link is given a tablet and then shoved into a decaying Hyrule that’s already been ruined by Calamity Ganon. Players are told they can go anywhere, but no one tells them how to survive out there. Weapons break constantly, weather can kill, food must be cooked, clothing must be changed based on biomes, and even simple traversal can result in death by fall damage or stamina drain.
The opening area, the Great Plateau, is a masterclass in sandbox design, but it’s also full of ways to accidentally freeze to death, get squashed by a boulder, or anger a Guardian who turns Link into red mist in two seconds flat. It’s freedom that feels exhilarating until it becomes terrifying, and that tension is exactly what makes it unforgettable.
3 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Oh, You Thought You Were A Monster Slayer?
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Released
- May 19, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content
- Developer(s)
- CD Projekt Red
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
By the time players hit Velen in The Witcher 3, most will have already died a couple of times—not to giant beasts, but to drowners and packs of wolves. CD Projekt Red’s opening hours pull no punches, especially for those treating it like a standard action RPG. Even on normal difficulty, enemies flank, overwhelm, and punish careless attacks, and the slow early leveling means that Geralt doesn’t feel like the mutated killing machine he’s supposed to be—yet.
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Players who have completed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt can try out these similar games if they want to go through another action-packed experience.
But it’s not just combat that’s overwhelming. The sheer amount of lore, side quests, skill trees, and alchemy systems can flatten newcomers like a Leshen’s root attack. Want to upgrade that gear? Better start understanding how oils and decoctions work. Want to take on a contract? Better read up on the beast or get ready to reload saves for an hour. And then there’s the Griffin fight—a boss that tests whether players have been paying attention to any of the game’s many systems or just swinging swords and hoping for the best.
2 Monster Hunter: World
No Tutorials, Just A Jagras And A Prayer
Monster Hunter World
- Released
- January 26, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
Monster Hunter veterans might not blink at Monster Hunter: World’s opening hours, but for newcomers, it’s like getting tossed into the deep end of an Olympic swimming pool while wearing full plate armor. The first few hunts don’t ease players in; they expect them to understand combos, armor skills, sharpening, tracking, trapping, and, oh right, fighting monsters the size of buildings. The opening assignment to hunt a Great Jagras is deceptively easy—until the thing retreats, heals, and then gets mad. Suddenly it’s rolling through players like a scaly wrecking ball, and the 50-minute time limit becomes very real. On top of that, this is just the tutorial monster.
Each weapon has its own unique move set, many of which don’t even share basic inputs. The game doesn’t explain much of this. Instead, it assumes players will learn by failing, trying again, watching Palicoes get knocked across the map, and failing again. And that’s kind of the point. Survival in Monster Hunter isn’t just about dodging and attacking; it’s about patience, knowledge and preparation—and the opening is designed to make that painfully clear.
1 Elden Ring
You Died. Get Used To It.
Elden Ring
- Released
- February 25, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
The beauty of Elden Ring’s opening is that it gives players a choice and then makes them regret it. Walk through the chapel, take a left, and boom: A towering, multi-limbed monstrosity slaps Tarnished players into a loading screen within thirty seconds. But that’s just FromSoftware saying hello. What follows is one of the most overwhelming intros in any open-world game. Limgrave is massive, full of secrets, NPCs, dungeons, and terrifying enemies. But there’s no obvious route or glowing arrow; there's just a golden tree in the distance and the looming presence of Tree Sentinel—a knight on horseback who patrols the main road and annihilates early players in two hits.
Add in cryptic dialogue, a confusing UI, dozens of upgrade systems, and the fact that almost every path leads to something that can and will kill players instantly, and it’s no wonder Elden Ring’s opening causes so much early attrition. But for those who persist, who slowly learn the language of dodge rolls and flask management, who embrace the freedom to go anywhere—even to their death—it becomes one of the most empowering experiences in the genre.
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