Summary
- Modern open-world games are constantly evolving, causing prominent titles to age poorly in terms of scope, mechanics, and graphics.
- Games like Grand Theft Auto 3, Far Cry, and Dead Rising have not aged particularly well.
- Despite being groundbreaking in their time, games like Body Harvest or Saints Row can feel clunky, lack content, and feature outdated graphics and mechanics.
Modern-day open-world video games are very different from ones released twenty or even ten years ago, and that’s because this is a genre that’s constantly changing and evolving. Needless to say, this is one of the many things that make open-world games so interesting and exciting to most players.
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These games can be completed without players needing to stray from the main path too often.
However, this rapid evolution also means that some very prominent titles, ones that were once considered some of the very best in the genre, have aged quite poorly in terms of scope, content, mechanics, and graphics, and the following are the best examples of this unfortunate occurrence. Of course, just because these games have aged like milk, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not worth playing today; it’s just that gamers should be aware of their old age before giving them a shot.
Body Harvest
The Predecessor To The 3D Grand Theft Auto Games
Body Harvest
- Released
- October 20, 1998
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo 64
Shortly after creating Grand Theft Auto, but before making the jump to 3D with GTA 3, DMA Design (which would later be known as Rockstar North) made an interesting Nintendo 64 exclusive titled Body Harvest, which was highly praised for being one of the very first 3D open-world games on the market.
Finding and hunting down aliens on a vast map that could be explored with vehicles was seen as ambitious and unique, and it paved the way for what the Grand Theft Auto series would become a few years later. However, as one of the first games in this genre, Body Harvest has inevitably aged quite poorly in comparison to the titles that came after it. The draw distance is almost non-existent, the third-person combat (both inside and outside vehicles) doesn’t feel good, and the presentation is severely outdated.
Grand Theft Auto 3
The Very First 3D GTA Game Can’t Even Compare To Its Sequels
Grand Theft Auto 3
- Released
- October 23, 2001
WHERE TO PLAY
A few years after Body Harvest, DMA Design took the entire world by storm with the release of Grand Theft Auto 3, an incredible open-world sandbox game that the player could explore to their hearts’ content. Needless to say, it quickly became a huge critical and commercial success and popularized this brand-new facet of the genre.
GTA 3 is one of the most important video games ever made, but it has also aged like milk, especially when compared to its immediate successors, like Vice City or San Andreas. The map, while ambitious for its time, is not as big as it may seem, nor does it really have many things for the player to do outside the main story. The driving and shooting mechanics are quite clunky, and Claude is a very dull and boring protagonist.
Far Cry
Can Barely Be Considered An Open-World Game By Modern Standards
Far Cry
- Released
- March 23, 2004
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Intense Violence, Blood
- Genre(s)
- FPS, Open-World
Nowadays, Ubisoft’s Far Cry series is well-known for its huge open worlds filled with dangerous characters and over-the-top scenarios, but there’s a reason gamers just talk about the third entry and everything that came after it. The original Far Cry from 2004 is a great game, but it has aged quite poorly, quite quickly.
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Far Cry has a fascinating original concept, gorgeous graphics (for its time), and solid shooting mechanics, but its exploration and open world leave a lot to be desired when compared to its sequels. While it is an open-ended FPS with some level of free roaming exploration, it still feels severely restricted, and the map is more like a bigger and non-linear version of a typical FPS level instead of feeling like a true open world.
Saints Row
It Was Once Seen As Just Another GTA Clone
Saints Row
- Released
- September 1, 2006
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- 18+
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action-Adventure, Shooter, Racing
The growing popularity of the GTA franchise during the early-to-mid 2000s directly inspired the creation of many similar open-world sandbox games with a focus on gangsters and criminals, and 2006’s Saints Row is one of the most famous examples. Similar to GTA 3 and Far Cry, this is not a bad game per se, but it just pales in comparison to its superior sequels.
The original Saints Row is a very fun open-world experience with charming characters and storylines that kept fans of the genre busy while they were waiting for GTA 4, but it does feel pretty generic at times, not to mention that the player character’s customization is very limited and some of its gameplay mechanics are clunky and outdated in retrospect. Fortunately, its sequel, Saints Row 2, was much better, and it turned this series into a mainstay of the open-world genre.
The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Dark And Hyper-Realistic Graphics Don’t Always Age Well
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Released
- November 19, 2006
WHERE TO PLAY
While some of the older 3D Legend of Zelda titles may not seem all that impressive nowadays, most of them – like Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and The Wind Waker – still hold up surprisingly well. Nevertheless, the series’ open-world action-adventure formula felt quite stale by the mid-2000s, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a prominent (albeit strange) example of this, seeing as it feels even more outdated than its older predecessors.
It goes without saying: Twilight Princess is an incredible action-adventure video game with a captivating narrative, lovable characters, expertly designed dungeons, and epic boss fights. However, its open-world gameplay is quite lackluster because the map feels bigger and emptier than the ones in previous titles, going from one point to another feels like a chore at times, and its exploration is surprisingly limited. Additionally, Twilight Princess ditched the colorful and timeless cel-shaded art style of The Wind Waker in favor of a dark and realistic presentation, which was impressive at the time, but has also made the game age even worse.
Dead Rising
An Outdated Zombie Game With A Lot Of Interactive Elements
Dead Rising
- Released
- August 8, 2006
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- m
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure, Survival Horror
The fact that Dead Rising is themed around a zombie invasion is already an obvious sign of its old age, seeing as zombie games are nowhere near as popular now as they were in the mid-2000s and early 2010s. However, its main gimmick, which brilliantly sets it apart from other similar titles, is still extremely enjoyable to this day.
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Dead Rising takes place entirely within a large shopping mall, and the gameplay has an impressive level of interactivity that allows the player to use almost every single object they find to either protect themselves or fight against the growing zombie threat. This aspect of Dead Rising is still impressive to this day, but pretty much everything else about it has aged horribly: the controls for the combat and the movement are extremely awkward, the AI of the enemies and the bosses can be very unfair at times, and the restrictive time limit of the main mode hinders the open-world gameplay.
The Witcher
The Start Of A Legendary Game Franchise
The Witcher
- Released
- October 30, 2007
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- m
- Genre(s)
- RPG
Everybody knows and enjoys the Witcher franchise nowadays, but most people have only played its critically-acclaimed third entry, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, whereas the first two games seem to have been forgotten. In the case of the very first one, simply known as The Witcher, this is because it hasn’t aged particularly well.
Back in 2007, CD Projekt Red’s loose adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels was highly praised for its cinematic presentation, immersive atmosphere, and strategic combat system. However, when compared to other open-world RPGs (especially its follow-ups), The Witcher quickly begins to show its age. Despite its slow and frustrating action, confusing camera placements, reused character models, questionable graphics, and confusing menus and HUD, this is still a very important title that paved the way for its incredible sequels and also put CD Projekt Red on the map.
Assassin's Creed
Established A Unique Gameplay Formula That Was Improved In Its Sequels
Assassin's Creed
- Released
- November 14, 2007
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Strong Language, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Stealth, Action
Similar to many other games on this list, the original Assassin's Creed was once a great game that was surpassed in every way by its direct sequels, which cleverly improved its open-world formula. For its time, this game was fascinating, like nothing else that was available on the market: the premise of going back in time to explore a historical period was brilliant, its atmosphere was captivating, and its gameplay, which combined stealth with real-time combat, was quite satisfying.
Nevertheless, Assassin's Creed feels severely outdated when played today, seeing as the gameplay loop is extremely repetitive, the climbing mechanics feel very awkward and are difficult to grasp, Desmond’s modern-day sections are boring and occasionally ruin the immersion, and Altair is a very dull and generic protagonist. Fortunately, Assassin's Creed 2 and subsequent games in the series fixed pretty much all of these issues, although it can’t be denied that this aged first entry still has a unique charm of its own.
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