Best Open World Indie Games

Open worlds are a key selling point for many AAA and AA games, from the expansive and interconnected worlds of the Dark Souls games to the more standard environments of games in the Far Cry franchise. Open-world games rarely restrict the player's movements in the world, while also offering a variety of things to do within them.

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Indie open-world games are relatively rare, especially on larger scales, due to the time and effort it takes to design and populate a fully open environment. However, minimal open worlds such as Sludge Life have proven to be immensely popular. Indie developers can bring these worlds to life through a combination of dedicated development and lo-fi visuals, offering old-school experiences with fresh ideas.

1 Sludge Life

A Quirky Open-World Game About Graffiti

This stylish indie game is thick with atmosphere, featuring a unique aesthetic and a gameplay loop that revolves around tagging buildings with graffiti. Sludge Life features several quirky NPCs to meet and locations to explore, presenting players with a truly distinctive open world.

Despite featuring an open world, Sludge Life is a fairly minimalist game. Sludge Life takes place on an isolated, heavily polluted island, and although it's densely populated, it never overwhelms the player. This results in a remarkably relaxing experience, and the multiple endings allow it to be somewhat replayable.

2 Lil Gator Game

A Wholesome, Low-Stakes Experience

This wholesome story takes place in a minimal open world packed with colorful environments and characters. The gameplay of Lil Gator Game is mostly focused on collecting items, taking out cardboard enemies, and exploring the island the game takes place.

Lil Gator Game is a low-stakes, low-pressure experience that's extremely accessible. This is mostly due to the game's lack of challenges, which may turn some players away. However, Lil Gator Game's open world provides a great sense of wonder for an afternoon.

3 The Long Dark

Open-World Survival In The Wilderness

The Long Dark is a quiet, contemplative open-world survival game with a dense, immersive atmosphere that takes place in a hostile wilderness. The eerie, snow-blanketed environments of The Long Dark can range from dangerously harsh to quietly tranquil, and the game consistently rewards players for risking an excursion out into the wild.

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The Long Dark's open world is also dotted with cabins and shacks for players to hole up in, providing a welcome respite from the cold and unforgiving exterior environments. Players are likely to spend many an evening huddled by a crackling fire, counting their precious resources, but eventually, they'll be forced back out into the open.

4 Project Zomboid

An Open-World Zombie Apocalypse

This expansive open-world survival game puts players smack-bang in the middle of a vicious zombie apocalypse, tasking them with doing their best to survive. Project Zomboid is a simulation-heavy experience that gives players a great deal of mechanics to be concerned with, but its open world keeps it an engaging and immersive experience. Project Zomboid's world is extremely dangerous, and the player's character is fragile, especially at the beginning of a run.

As a result, adventuring out into the open world is a massive risk, but one that players are forced to take regularly. Scavenging for resources and equipment is a necessity in Project Zomboid, especially before players have stockpiled any important items, and the risks players take to acquire these resources often lead to emergent gameplay. Furthermore, the resources found in Project Zomboid's open environments are appropriate for the location they're discovered in, which helps to immerse players in the world.

5 Kenshi

A Sandbox RPG In An Open-World

This open-world sandbox RPG puts players in control of a highly customizable character exploring a harsh, dangerous world. Kenshi is an unforgiving, slow-paced experience that won't be for everyone, but the sheer freedom it offers players will make it worthwhile for many.

Kenshi is also party-based, allowing players to recruit and customize a variety of followers. Players are also able to base-build and hunt bounties, but exploring Kenshi's world (and trying not to die in the process) is a key part of its gameplay loop. Thankfully, Kenshi's world continuously offers new surprises and environments, although there's plenty of dangerous desert to traverse in and around its more interesting areas.

6 Dread Delusion

An Open-World Reminiscent Of The Elder Scrolls

Seemingly taking inspiration from old-school Elder Scrolls games, Dread Delusion is an open-world, first-person RPG that takes place in a bizarre fantasy land. Strange, twisted creatures, memorable NPCs, and cryptic mechanics are a dime a dozen in Dread Delusion, offering a truly distinctive open-world experience.

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Dread Delusion also features a retro aesthetic in keeping with its old-school RPG inspirations, though it manages to keep its environments both stylish and recognizable. Each location in Dread Delusion offers its own quirks, making for an experience that consistently rewards curiosity and exploration.

7 Outer Wilds

An Immersive Adventure Through Space

This immensely immersive open-world experience puts players in the shoes of an explorer in space, searching for answers among the stars. Outer Wilds is an incredibly cozy experience, featuring a charming soundtrack and a consistent sense of wonder as players explore its distinctive planets and the environments within.

Outer Wilds is best experienced with as little prior knowledge as possible, so the less said about it the better. However, curious players who enjoy exploration-focused games, flying spaceships, and immersing themselves in weirdly wonderful worlds are likely to remember their experience with Outer Wilds forever.

8 Caves Of Qud

An Expansive RPG That Combines Handmade And Procedural Content

This open-world RPG can be played as both a traditional roguelike and a more casual RPG, with the key difference being the inclusion (or lack) of permanent death for the player character. Caves Of Qud may not look like much to most players, featuring an art style akin to old-school roguelikes, but its incredibly unique sci-fi fantasy world is dense with memorable locations and procedurally generated content.

Caves Of Qud is also a mechanically dense game, with a variety of abilities and skills that players need to master to survive. Managing resources and assessing threats is extremely important to survive, along with prioritizing the right targets in combat. Quests, interesting NPCs, mysterious locations, and an abundance of exciting loot to find make exploring the world of Caves Of Qud a highly rewarding - and replayable - experience.

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