Open-world games are seemingly designed to be broken, and players tend to go on a fairly predictable journey. You start as a scrub with nothing to your name, and end up as a walking nuke who can mow down god-like enemies with a swing of their sword. Even the "hardest" open-world games, like Elden Ring, allow players to become overpowered, as long as they are willing to put in the time and effort to master their builds or grind levels. Skyrim, Cyberpunk 2077, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning are well-known open-world RPGs that eventually let you become a god, but you have to put in the work to reach that status.
So, what if you just don't? What if you start OP and gradually just become more OP? Sometimes, you just want to live out a power fantasy and not have to sit through dozens of hours of quests and character optimization to get there. Sometimes, I just want to get to the fun part, at least when I feel like letting off steam and destroying roughly everyone without even blinking. These open-world games make you feel powerful straight away.
As “immediately” is a somewhat vague term, let’s define it. For a game to qualify, players must feel reasonably overpowered within one hour of starting the campaign. They will likely get stronger as the story progresses, but they should feel powerful nearly straight away (or, at most, after the tutorial and opening section).
Also, the games are only loosely ranked by how quickly and how satisfyingly they make you feel OP.
8 Infamous 2
Ride The Lightning
inFAMOUS 2
- Released
- June 7, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Sucker Punch
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 3
Once upon a time, Sucker Punch was more interested in superheroes (or supervillains) than samurai; however, despite Infamous and Ghost of Tsushima being nothing alike in most ways, both properties work well as open-world power fantasies. That said, the former not only features way more potent protagonists than Jin, but they also become powerful quickly.
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The first Infamous and Second Son take some time to get going as they need to set up their worlds and showcase their characters acquiring and learning to use their abilities. Conversely, Infamous 2 gets right to the meat of things, with Cole starting as the god of thunder. Yes, he gains new powers that are even more extraordinary than his original skills, but Cole arrives OP and doesn’t reset at the start of the second game.
7 Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed
An Old-School Open-World OP Game
Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed
- Released
- August 30, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Black Forest Games
- Genre(s)
- Shooter, Adventure
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
Full disclosure, I don’t consider Destroy All Humans to be truly open-world; however, the games are classified as such on both Wikipedia and Steam, so it seems like I am in the minority.
Hailing from one of the old-school masters of destruction, Destroy All Humans is about as “2000s” of a gaming series as they come, despite being very blatantly inspired by classic sci-fi movies from the ‘50s and ‘60s. While Reprobed is a remaster/remake, its irreverent humor, simple gameplay loop, and open-world that consists of self-contained maps are all echoes of the original version’s decade, and none of that is meant as a criticism.
You are Crypto, an alien who has come to take over Earth and, for the most part, is light years more powerful than the humans he faces. The campaign’s second half hits a few difficulty spikes, but Destroy All Humans! 2 knows that its selling point is Crypto’s OP nature, which allows him to blast meat-sacks into nothing and blow up pretty much any building he wants. Right out of the gate, you are nearly unstoppable, and that barely changes as things progress.
6 Saints Row 4
Embracing Absurdity And Saying Goodbye To Its GTA Clone Routes
Saints Row 4
- Released
- August 20, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
That one time when the Saints became trapped in a simulation and their leader became a god-like superhero...aka, the most fun Saints Row game. While the series always had a comedic edge, Saints Row 4 pushed things into pure absurdist parody territory, a decision that arguably left the original timeline with nowhere to go. However, taken in a vacuum, SR4 is simply an unapologetic romp that drops players into a broken version of Steelport and tells them to go nuts.
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Before long, you gain super-speed, super-strength, telepathy, and other abilities, while also having access to a pretty impressive range of powerful (and silly) weapons. Yes, you can upgrade everything to get stronger and stronger, but your default state allows you to bend physics to your will.
Even before acquiring superpowers, you start the story as the President of the United States, which is OP in another way.
5 Just Cause 3
Rico Destroys A Whole Island...Without Breaking Any Real Sweat
Just Cause 3
- Released
- November 30, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Avalanche Studios
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Third-Person Shooter
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
For anybody else, challenging an island’s all-powerful dictator and destroying everything he holds dear would be an impossible task, but for Rico Rodriguez, it is just another Tuesday. Frankly, all the Just Cause games make you feel OP immediately, but Just Cause 3 has the perfect balance of awesome over-the-top action, wanton chaos, liberating traversal mechanics, and B-movie storytelling.
Although it launched in a notoriously awful state, most of the game’s issues were resolved in due time, leaving behind a sequel that improves upon its (incredible) predecessor in nearly every way. Once the tutorial/intro is out of the way, Just Cause 3 opens up and lets Rico go wild, and relentless destruction is his entire reason for being. You will be tearing down buildings in almost no time, while also using a grapple hook and wingsuit combo to soar through the skies.
4 Goat Simulator 3
The Ultimate Open-World Breaker
Goat Simulator 3
- Released
- November 17, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Coffee Stain North
- Genre(s)
- Simulation, Adventure
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
So, I went back and forth on whether to include this one, as Goat Simulator 3 is such a different beast that its definition of “overpowered” feels unique. Poking fun at open-world tropes in both clever and stupid ways, Goat Simulator 3 casts you as a bug in the system.
You are a force of unstoppable chaos who can cause reality itself to lose its bearings. The relatively large city is little more than a playground for the goat’s aggressive creativity, and there is nothing anybody can do to stop the indestructible glitch. Yes, you are pretty much immortal right out of the gate. OP feels like an understatement.
3 Megaton Rainfall
An OP MC VR Open-World Game
Megaton Rainfall
- Released
- September 26, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
Want to be a superhero? Want to be a superhero in VR? Want to be a superhero who can put some versions of Superman to shame? Megaton Rainfall lets you become all that, and its scale was straight-up unbelievable in 2017. Here is a game that lets you not only explore a few pretty realistic cities on Earth, but also grants you the possibility to fly off into space and travel through the unknown. Like, how was this possible almost a decade ago?
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To be fair, Megaton Rainfall’s actual combat and “story” are not particularly great, as they mostly involve taking out nondescript aliens that are attacking the planet. While the latter are destroying buildings and killing humans, you are meant to, well, stop them. However, you can also very easily destroy the very things you are endeavoring to protect, and it feels great to do just that (despite the game very much not wanting you to do that). Exactly after you load into the world, you are OP enough to break any power scale.
2 Batman: Arkham City & Knight
A Mortal God-Like Figure
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Batman: Arkham City
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9 /10Display card main info widget end Display card media widget start Display card media widget end- Released
- October 18, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
DIGITALPHYSICAL- Developer(s)
- Rocksteady Studios
- Platform(s)
- PS3, PC, Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Switch
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Batman: Arkham Knight
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9 /10Display card main info widget end Display card media widget start Display card media widget end- Released
- June 23, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
SUBSCRIPTIONDIGITALPHYSICAL- Developer(s)
- Rocksteady Studios
- Genre(s)
- Action
Batman is a myth come to life. He is a breathing nightmare that single-handedly terrorizes Gotham’s scariest offenders, most of whom are fairly powerful in their own right. Yes, technically, Batman is just a man, but he proves that mortality is no roadblock to inspiring fear in the pursuit of justice.
Arkham City and Arkham Knight feature a seasoned Bruce Wayne who 100% knows what he is doing, and they let players instantly become The Dark Knight in all his glory. Thanks to a smooth-as-butter and intuitive combat system, you are immediately capable of beating down a group of thugs without any real trouble, all the while taking out powerhouses like Bane. Bats picks up a few gadgets as the campaigns progress that complement his base skillset, but he is just built different from the very start.
1 Prototype
Created In A Lab To Be OP
Prototype
- Released
- June 9, 2009
WHERE TO PLAY
Oh, yeah, this is how you do an OP MC open-world game. Prototype follows Alex Mercer, a guy who is genetically engineered to become a cross between Venom, the Hulk, and Mystique, a combo that sounds absurd on paper and is even more ridiculous in action. After a relatively brief intro that sets up the story, Alex is unleashed on Manhattan, and the city and military are not remotely prepared to deal with a being who can throw cars, smash-climb buildings, and transform body parts into weapons.
Now, Alex gets quite a bit stronger as Prototype advances, due to a well-paced progression system that gradually unlocks new arm transformations and Devastator attacks. However, his base level is stronger than most characters’ final forms, and he spends most of the early hours going up against weak enemies who barely put up any resistance.
Prototype 2 also qualifies and is great, but I have a softer spot for the original game.
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