Out of all the gaming genres, the open-world space has arguably some of the heaviest and most in-depth titles out there, only beaten out by MMORPGs. A lot of this depth comes from the number of different mechanics and gameplay elements that all feed into one another, as well as the gigantic landscapes that can often take enormous amounts of time to even explore between smaller locations, making the whole experience feel pretty overwhelming in the end.
8 Best Open-World Games That Everyone Should Play, Ranked
There's a reason that open-world games are so popular, and while there are countless choices available, these genre entries are must-play experiences.
Some games lean heavily into the realism department, forcing players to manage realistic meters and resources, while others dedicate their attention to scope, introducing dozens, if not hundreds, of different elements all at once that can be borderline impossible to learn in a reasonable amount of time. Out of all the gruelling journeys and heartbreaking stories, a few games stand above the rest, testing players and their abilities to persevere through challenging enemies and complex environments, while also juggling an encyclopedia of knowledge to guide them on their path to victory.
Death Stranding
The Spaces In Between
- Long stretches of quiet exploration.
- Deeply thought-provoking narrative.
Death Stranding is a remarkable open-world game that many have labeled a walking simulator, and for good reason. For the majority of each playthrough, players will find themselves marching on foot across empty landscapes, forced to pay attention to their balance, weight, and even the contents of their bladder to successfully deliver every package.
This persistent management during even the simplest of actions makes each step taken feel like a monumental step forward, made even more impactful by the complexity of the narrative that only begins to make sense towards the later stages of the game. It is a challenge just to move around, and even when players manage to chart out transport routes or use those created by others, it can still be quite a feat to make it across even the rugged post-apocalyptic terrain.
Gothic 2
No Safety Nets Here
- Slow progression with many setbacks.
- Content locked off by single choices.
Gothic 2's heaviness comes from its refusal to accommodate the player at any point in the game. The world is hostile, and progression is slow, which means that players need to carefully navigate the early stages, as even seemingly friendly NPCs can quickly turn around and ruin their day.
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A lot of the choices made during quests and interactions will actually alter or lock off large sections of the world around the player. Factions may treat them differently, mistakes can have dire consequences, and even when players think they have mastered the fundamentals, they will be thrust back to square one, with no easy path to clawing their way back.
Elden Ring
Directionless From Start To Finish
- Little guidance, both in story and gameplay.
- Brutal boss fights, and even basic enemy encounters are challenging.
Elden Ring is practically the poster child for heavy game design in an open-world context. Rather than giving players clear paths to progress, other than a few basic strands of light, they are effectively thrown into a gigantic map with nothing but their own will to explore to guide them along the way.
What makes things even harder is how challenging many of the bosses and even smaller foes are, pushing players mechanically right from the start, with no clear way to improve other than by dying and trying again. The sheer scope of the game is also what makes it a daunting experience overall, with many different items, enemies, weapons, and characters that couldn't be more fragmented and obscure if they tried.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Realism Leading The Charge
- Basic tasks become major challenges.
- Progression requires constant attention to smaller systems.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance takes realism to new heights, incorporating the struggles of the real world into virtually every mechanic. At the start, even something as commonplace as reading is an obstacle that players need to overcome, and when it comes to combat, they are probably better off sticking to the training dummy until they can hone their skills for the true battles later on.
In a lot of ways, the game is far more about learning to overcome minor challenges than taking on grander threats, encouraging a much slower style of progression that, for many players, can be a barrier to entry. When they do eventually master those core elements, players are rewarded with a huge amount of freedom, but the road there is long and demanding, and at times, too much to bear.
Pathologic 2
Suffering In Its Purest Form
- Intentionally exhausting design
- Scarcity and time pressure always
Pathologic 2 takes players on a roller-coaster ride from which they may never recover. While it might not flood their minds with demanding mechanics or a huge amount of content, it constantly tests their abilities to function under the pressure of time and dwindling resources, without any way of knowing what consequences may come as a result of their actions.
The world is small but dense, and survival becomes a game of compromises, often resulting in the deaths of others just to make it a little bit further. It isn't even a game about winning; it's about enduring through the pain and coming to terms with not just the possibility, but the inevitability of failure.
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
Understanding Through Interpretation
- Refusal to guide the player.
- Hidden systems govern large aspects of gameplay.
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, like many of the other ES games, is full to the brim with information and content, yet rather than guiding players through it peacefully, they instead need to navigate the world with next to no direction or help. Quest markers are nonexistent, meaning that dialogue becomes the main way of moving forward, and when it comes to combat, there is a big reliance on hidden dice rolls that may never become apparent to the player.
Much of the responsibility to learn falls on the players themselves, as they will never be explicitly told which groups to follow or which areas to avoid. Instead, they need to pay attention and delve deeper to progress. Without any of those modern conveniences, it can be a challenge to take that first step out into the world, something which many players cite as an issue, but is also the game's biggest strength.
UnReal World
Survival Taken To The Extreme
- Simulating true survival challenges.
- Mistakes are often fatal.
UnReal World is perhaps less of an open-world game and more of a faithful prehistoric simulation that presents the concept of survival in its purest form. Every action, from hunting to crafting, requires a library of knowledge and planning to complete safely. Without that preparation, many failures can result in major setbacks or even death.
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There are no scripted heroics or triumphant character arcs, only the player and their endless fight against the brutal wilderness before them. Only with a strong will can players reliably push through these struggles, but even if they manage to brave the harsh weather or brush off a nasty injury, they will always be met with another series of hurdles rather than a definitive point of success.
Kenshi
The Freedom To Fail
- Cruel world with weak characters early on.
- Defeats teach more than triumphs ever will.
Kenshi is a double-edged sword that presents players with a huge amount of freedom, but locks it behind a brutal series of knowledge barriers and environmental challenges. Characters start weak, and the world is beyond cruel, meaning that the initial hours will be filled with far more failures than meaningful steps forward.
The game's systems effectively simulate a living world where factions fight and cities fall, yet the player will only get to interact with it in a meaningful way once they have pushed past the monumental hurdles at the start. The world doesn't care about their goals or ambitions, and it never once lets up, always forcing players to make tough choices and battle against overwhelming odds without any positive end in sight.
Caves Of Qud
Staggeringly Complex
- Simple mechanics can take dozens of hours to understand.
- An unpredictable world with limited clear routes.
Caves of Qud pushes pretty much every limit an open-world game can. The procedural nature of the environments creates a world that feels endlessly deep and inaccessible. From a mechanical point of view, many players will invest countless hours before even scratching the surface of the options available to them.
When it comes to the different builds and choices the player can make, they will either end up with something wildly creative or catastrophically flawed, and many runs are dictated by a single miscalculation that even keen-eyed adventurers will miss. Learning the game feels like studying a foreign language, and after a lifetime of failures and retries, mastery is still not a guarantee.
EVE Online
Galactic Levels Of Depth
- Governed by player politics and warfare.
- Permanence in every loss.
EVE Online set a benchmark that was already a high bar to clear when it launched, but even today, it remains the pinnacle of open-world depth. The world itself is a player-driven universe governed by large-scale political parties and realistic economies, which means that every action has real consequences that often affect thousands of players in a matter of moments.
The learning curve is immense, and a lot of the systems are incredibly inaccessible for new players, requiring expansive initial knowledge to even break into. For many, it represents something more than a single game, offering enough scope to be considered a second life that is full of pressures and commitments, and where a single loss can represent months of effort being erased before the player's eyes.
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