Summary
- Some of the best open-world games offer fun alternatives to gun usage.
- Unique titles like Outer Wilds and Dredge prove that no combat can still create a thrilling experience.
- El den Ring and Ghost of Tsushima showcase gameplay variety sans guns, providing challenging options.
Ever since Activision's Call of Duty series became the highest-selling video game series in the world, a dramatic shift towards games featuring guns has occurred. Open-world games where players have the option to employ firearms are generally fine, but many of these clearly don't require them to be enjoyable.
8 Games Where The Open World Is Better Than The Main Story
Open-world game design offers players the ultimate freedom to discover something truly special, and explore at their own pace.
Luckily, there are still lots of big open-world games—even in the highly competitive AAA scene—that don't follow the COD influence and find fun and interesting alternatives to just blasting away enemies with gunpowder or laser-powered weapons. Let's look at some of the best open-world games where players have to save the world—or universe—without any guns at their disposal.
8 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Magic Doesn't Count
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Released
- May 19, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
Though Geralt of Rivia is a super-human capable of incredible feats of athleticism, magic, and even questionable drug use, he refrains from using the gunpowder option. He has a crossbow, sure, but that's the closest he'll get to a firearm, and that's also the weakest weapon in his arsenal in The Witcher 3.
With that said, Geralt will have to venture through some of the most dangerous—albeit also most beautiful—forests and marshes in his world by employing mostly hand-to-hand combat. Whereas Geralt is stronger than any human, plenty of challenges await him that make all of his options feel much less overpowered than players would think.
7 The elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered
The Classic, Modernized
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
- Released
- April 22, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action, RPG, Open-World, Adventure
Oblivion, the biggest title of '06 and the one that really put the Xbox 360 on the map as a contender for the throne of consoles, is back in remastered form, and the result is a triumph. While some might miss the beautiful bloomed-up colors of the original, the remaster makes up for it by also introducing a bunch of more modern gameplay options that make Oblivion Remastered feel like a virtually new title.
As with all Elder Scrolls games, players have a range of customizations and spells to choose from—many that will make them completely overpowered—but they'll still have no access to guns. It's really cool that Bethesda refrained from including firearms here, even if only as a funny Easter Egg.
6 The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
The Classic That Doesn't Get Old
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Released
- November 11, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol
Dovahkiin, the Dragonborn from Skyrim, is still the most powerful main character in The Elder Scrolls' history. They have a set of abilities that the main characters from the previous games simply don't possess—one of which is a shout powerful enough to send any human flying through the air—but he still likes to take things up close and personal. The same applies to all the enemies—even the dragons—who kindly land on the ground whenever the Dragonborn challenges them to a battle.
It's nice of these incredibly powerful fiends to not just burn the player from the safety of the sky with their fiery breath, the dragon equivalent of a machine gun. Though Skyrim's gameplay has been criticized for holding the player's hands too much when it came to guiding them through the main quest, it remains a very solid title, especially for anyone who likes the rare open-world game with lots of snow in it.
5 Outer Wilds
Sci-Fi Without The Combat
Outer Wilds
- Released
- May 28, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ due to Fantasy Violence, Alcohol Reference
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
In the post-Call of Duty world that many were born in, the notion of a sci-fi title where the player doesn't have access to guns—or weapons of any sort—seems incomprehensible. Luckily, there's Outer Wilds, a title that invites players to hop on their spaceship and roam at will around a solar system on a quest to solve a mystery that will save everything they know.
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Outer Wilds doesn't hold players hands, which can often lead to silly little mistakes that end up wasting a lot of time. Here's how to avoid them.
Though it makes for an amazingly soothing experience from beginning to end, Outer Wilds hides plenty of danger, and the player can only beat it through preparation, wits, and foresight. This is a game unlike any other, and one of the most unique and best ever made.
4 Dredge
No Guns, Just Fishing (And Nightmares)
Dredge
- Released
- March 31, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Use of Tobacco
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
Dredge takes place in a time long after the invention of guns, but also in a place where nobody seems to care to use them, even when Lovecraftian monstrosities lurk nearby. Anyone looking for a title that mixes relaxation and terror should look into Dredge, a game where the players get in the shoes of a fisherman who just has to catch fish, recover some treasure, and also have to deal with the unimaginable terrors lurking in the sea.
Dredge features no combat—from the player's side, at least—but it offers an experience unlike any other open-world game out there. It's unique blend of casual fishing simulation, open-world exploration, a day-night cycle, and the abject terror of giant sea monsters is one of a kind.
3 Ghost Of Tsushima
Believe The Hype
Ghost of Tsushima
- Released
- July 17, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
One of the best things about Ghost of Tsushima is the gameplay variety at play. In truth, it doesn't even offer that wide a variety of gameplay options, but it lets players constantly swap between Samurai and Ninja styles, which is basically anything anyone could ever hope to be in such a game.
Players can go about combat in the most cinematically honorable way imaginable, or go down the dark path of the Ninja, but never stoop so low as to fire a gun. The same can be said about the enemies, who might absolutely turn the main character into an early version of Swiss cheese via nearly infinite waves of arrows, but they'll also refrain from using something as unfair as a gun.
2 Elden Ring
Hundreds Of Alternatives To Gunpowder
Elden Ring
- Released
- February 25, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
Elden Ring is by far the title in FromSoftware's catalog that offers players the most gameplay options, but none of those options involve guns. Yes, even after Bloodborne got FromSoft players all hyped for pistol and blunderbuss action, and Sekiro had them fearing snipers, Elden Ring dials back on the gunpowder.
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That's actually great, as this game already has way too many things capable of easily killing the player, including enemy arrows that seem to travel across the entire map just as quickly as a bullet would—as anyone who's ever fought Radahn will attest to. That's without even mentioning the sniper lobsters...
1 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Not Tears Of The Kingdom Because It's Actually Possible To Make Guns In That One
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Released
- March 3, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild remains one of the best open-world games of all time, and that's because, on top of all the great places it allows players to explore, it also allows players to interact with these places in a myriad of extremely original and fun ways.
This entry could have also featured for Tears of the Kingdom, if not for the fact that Tears offers players so many gameplay options that they might creatively manipulate them to create functional guns. Just remember to be wary of lasers, because some enemies do use those—a wise loophole for gun usage—and they're pretty dangerous.
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Thanks to how accessible the combat systems in these open-world games are, players can sit back and enjoy the ride without a care.