Players are no strangers to being tasked with a vital mission to save the entire world, humanity, a nation, or even the universe. In fact, almost everyone who plays video games has probably done so more than a dozen times, if not more, likely with a few examples just this year. While it can be fun to play as chosen ones, the most special person on Earth, the final hope, and all that, some games trade truly epic, high-stakes stories in favor of more intimate ones, to great effect.
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Such games offer more character-driven narratives that revolve around personal goals like finding friendship or a goal in life, searching for a lost love, or exploring darker angles like loss or revenge. Unlike epic tales of an unstoppable evil, these games allow for more grounded, nuanced storytelling and, at times, provide more freedom to play at one's own pace. Let's take a look at open-world games that focus on a more personal side of adventure rather than pumping up a truly epic, larger-than-life scope.
Days Gone
The World Has Ended, But Who Really Cares?
Days Gone is living proof that a game doesn't need to be a critically-acclaimed masterpiece or innovate on its genre to make a profound impact and become beloved by fans. With its familiar Ubisoft-like approach to the genre, Days Gone stands in stark contrast to many other similar titles, mostly thanks to its characters, who all feel alive, and a deeply personal story about Deacon St. John, who doesn't really care about the world's end. All that Deacon wants is to find his missing wife, Sarah Whitaker, dead or alive, to put an end to his own personal torture of living in the dark.
Days Gone's numerous characters and their interactions always feel slightly awkward and almost too ordinary, a far cry from the Hollywood-style cutscenes and always “cool” heroes in many other games. Deacon always mumbles something under his breath, which feels more natural than other protagonists who speak directly to the player; his buddy, Boozer, can't seem to find a common language or comfort him; and every friendly NPC treats players over the left shoulder, creating the convincing sense of a post-apocalyptic world where the last humans cling onto something personal just to make it through another day.
Ghost Of Yotei
Legendary Heroes Of The Past Are Nothing More Than A Memory
Unlike its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima, which took place during a full-fledged invasion, Ghost of Yotei tones things down in several ways in favor of a more profound and intimate feeling of a lonely wanderer driven by a personal quest. While Jin Sakai was a classic hero, determined to save his people, Atsu isn't a noble warrior who fights for a greater good. All that Atsu wants is to avenge her murdered family, and the entire plot highlights just how hard it is for her to move on and find any other purpose in life.
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While there is some grandeur to Ghost of Yotei, with epic battles and cinematic castle sieges, especially toward the finale, the majority of the game is just a slow-paced journey for Atsu to get stronger and to track down and kill her targets one by one. Despite the game's pretty standard revenge story, Ghost of Yotei spends enough time exploring Atsu's relationships with many other side characters, as well as delivering many quiet moments on the journey, to shift the focus from the endless cycle of violence to something else.
Assassin's Creed Mirage
A Refreshing Change Of Scope And Themes For The Series
As one of the longest-running open-world gaming series around, and with infamously tangled lore, almost every Assassin's Creed game to date features epic plots revolving around mythical artifacts, the fate of the world, ancient species, immortality, and anything in between. Assassin's Creed Mirage is a pleasant distraction from all that, especially amid the series' many titles released during the past decade. While there are some fragments of the franchise's classic grandeur and lore revelations, for the most part, AC Mirage is a much more personal and low-stakes story about Basim searching for his place in life and looking for answers to explain his haunting dreams.
Everything in Assassin's Creed Mirage reflects this shift from epic 100-hour-long games like Odyssey or Valhalla. The world is much more compact, the story can be completed in around 15 hours, and most of the time, Basim behaves more like the thief he was at the beginning of the game, searching for clues, freeing allies, and planning diversions. The game's recent free DLC, Valley of Memory, highlights just how personal AC Mirage's story is. It revolves around Basim looking for his father to get closure, and it's a truly intimate and moving finale.
Red Dead Redemption 2
You're A Good Man, Arthur Morgan
Even the game's grand ambition and colossal open-world scope don't hide Red Dead Redemption 2's emotional core. It's really a deeply personal story about Arthur Morgan, torn apart by the conflicted nature of the Van Der Linde gang and his morally-ambiguous family that has seen better days. The entire game's narrative is a down-to-earth quest where Arthur and Dutch are trying to find a better life, wash away past sins, and finally live free — even if Arthur feels that he may not deserve redemption for everything he's done and is essentially unable to change his outlaw nature.
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RDR 2 perfectly balances its intimate, mature story (perhaps the best in Rockstar's history) with the grand scope of a journey across the entire country, at times delivering breathtakingly cinematic missions. Constantly chased by lawmen and other gangs, the members of Dutch's gang find themselves facing uneven odds, but they keep on fighting in the hope of seeing a better future. The complex relationships of its lifelike characters are the game's bread and butter, as players never know what the next day will bring or what troubles are waiting around the corner.
STALKER 2: Heart Of Chornobyl
Going To Hell And Back Just To Get A New Home
Those who played through STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl's entire story with its several branching endings know that there are indeed some high stakes involved, including the fate of the entire Zone that the protagonist has to dictate. Even with this grand layer, deep down, STALKER 2 is a grounded story about an ordinary man who comes to the Zone after losing his apartment in a surprising accident, and wants little else but to get his home and normal life back.
On his quest, Yevhen Martynenko (Skif) meets many characters with goals and agendas of their own, and he has to decide who to trust and side with, choosing between all kinds of evil, almost like a Witcher. While every mission brings as many revelations as it does new questions, and every ally can turn out not to be who they seem, STALKER 2 players can fully embrace the protagonist's largely indifferent perception of the Zone, focusing more on exploration and experiencing the world as it is, like a true Stalker, rather than becoming a puppet in someone else's hands.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
The Coming-Of-Age Struggles Of A Young Hero
Unlike the mainline Spider-Man titles, which feature a truly epic scope and massive stakes, Miles Morales tells a much more down-to-earth story, providing a tighter and more focused experience with a lighter angle and a smaller map. The game's events take place largely in Harlem during the Christmas holidays, delivering a somewhat easy-going vibe, complete with a street-level villain who has personal connections to Miles rather than world-class threats like the alien invasion in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
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With all that, Miles' coming-of-age struggles take center stage, as Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales fully commits to exploring how tough it can be for a teenager to balance superhero duties, family tensions, friendships, and growing responsibilities, especially with the “main” Spider-Man not around to help out. A perfect standalone open-world game with even more heart than other entries in the series, Spider-Man: Miles Morales is all about protecting the neighborhood rather than saving the world.
Mafia: The Old Country
The Forbidden Love In Sicily
Like every Mafia game before it, The Old Country is a grounded tale of ordinary people caught up in complex situations, where every decision ultimately brings more troubles than resolutions. Revolving around a single criminal family and its legacy rather than epic, earth-shattering events, Mafia: The Old Country plays like a classic mobster tale, featuring young protagonist Enzo Favara, who becomes the newest member of the Torrisi family — a reliable tool to fix Don's every problem with his own hands and without any questions asked.
While other Mafia games mostly ignored romantic relationships (they were just kinda there) and focused on exploring the mafioso brotherhood ties instead, Mafia: The Old Country brings Enzo and Isabella Torrisi's forbidden love into the spotlight. From the very first romantic spark between the two characters, most players can tell that this story won't end well. The family code is as strict as it is imminent, and there's nothing worse than plotting behind a powerful father's back.
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