Summary
- Fast travel in open-world games can be a crutch for players that kills the sense of adventure.
- Embracing struggle without map markers is essential for authentic open-world experiences.
- Handcrafted open-world games challenge players to navigate without quest markers.
Open-world design is a delicate balance. On the one hand, players yearn for the open fields and mountaintops that a loading-screen-free game can provide. On the other hand, developers don't want players to get so lost and confused that they miss all the best bits or quit out of frustration.
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Fast travel is often a crutch that people lean on in open-world games, but what of those titles that don't have such a feature?
Then again, getting lost in the content wilderness and having to find the path back alone can be a wonderful and weird experience. Many players feel that too many developers are too easy to lend a hand to get players back on track. These games, however, do no such thing, as they fully embrace the philosophy that discovery and struggle are essential open-world experiences.
7 Miasmata
An Eerie Search For A Cure In Unknown Territory
Miasmata
- Released
- November 28, 2012
WHERE TO PLAY
Some of the most immersive adventures involving exploration are done behind the eyes of scientists, who, for lack of answers from on high must piece together the world for themselves. This is exactly the case in Miasmata, which tasks players with exploring a near-abandoned island in search of a cure for the plague.
From microscopes and note-checking to realistic map triangulation cartography, a great deal of care was put into making the player really experience venturing alone into the unknown in the eerie but beautiful wilderness (beautiful even by today's graphical standards), as opposed to a guided tour of a theme park.
6 Outward
Adventure And Danger Lies Out There
Outward
- Released
- March 26, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Genre(s)
- RPG
It is a cliche to compare a game to Dark Souls, but in terms of its combat mechanics, difficulty, and approach to player choice and consequence, Outward was one of the best examples of an open-world Soulslike concept before FromSoft had its turn, which is especially impressive considering the size of its development team. Every part of the adventure is designed to be tough but fair.
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Without a magic compass on the map, quest markers, or even so much as a hint on where to go next or what to do, players are left completely on their own in Outward (unless they opt for split-screen co-op). If the player takes too great a risk and attacks an overwhelming enemy, the game autosaves after the game over-screen, and it is up to the player to get themselves out of their own mess, where they may find themselves robbed and left to die or captured as a slave.
5 Kenshi
A Whole Moon Of Hurt For The Unprepared
Kenshi
- Released
- December 6, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- nr
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Open-World, Survival
A game's difficulty is often one of the best ways to convey the flavor of its setting, and Kenshi's brutal, borderline nihilistic challenge level should instruct players on everything they need to know about the setting. Players can be robbed, left for dead, or have their limbs severed and their friends killed.
Everyone and everything is hostile and can be deadly in Kenshi. However, if the player manages to avoid combat long enough to learn the ropes and sufficiently train a martial skill, they will find the world (or moon) open up. This will allow them to gain great riches, build a large following, and rewrite the unwritten rules of the land.
4 Outer Wilds
Putting Together The Puzzle Of The Cosmos Piece By Piece
Outer Wilds
- Released
- May 28, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ due to Fantasy Violence, Alcohol Reference
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
The time loop in Outer Wilds may seem constrictive, but it is a useful tool that lets players use the scientific method to problem-solve throughout the miniaturized solar system. Trial and error are crucial in discovering the system's mysteries, and the game wastes no time letting players figure out everything for themselves, from becoming accustomed to the ship's controls to the overarching question of the great time reset.
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This has the side-effect of making every morsel of information, be it text or the layout of a new area, extremely engaging for the player to analyze, as the right reading or perspective may hold the key to continued progress. Autonomous testing without the game ever giving up so much of a hint is ultimately what makes discovering the answers so satisfying.
3 Morrowind
The Old-School Art Of Following Directions
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- Released
- May 1, 2002
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Blood, Violence
- Genre(s)
- RPG
After eschewing the procedural generation of its predecessor, Bethesda opted to make their next Elder Scrolls open-world, Morrowind, a hand-crafted open-world and a land mass brimming with interesting twists, turns, cities, and streets. Generic town layouts and NPCs went out the window, but this presented its environmental designers with a problem. With a world so big, how can anyone find their way to their next quest objective? Morrowind players must look toward the peoples of the ancient past, or those prideful fathers at a hardware store, and rely on their own sense of direction and memory.
The player's next destination does not show up on a map, but the route is described by an NPC who gives the quest: "Go down the next road, turn right at the market, second door on the left," and so on. Some players unfamiliar with this kind of roleplaying may express frustration when making a mistake or a wrong turn and getting lost. However, most will agree that organic discovery makes every corner of Vvardenfell that much more memorable.
2 Shadow Of The Colossus
Guided By Nought But The Blinding Light Of Faith
Shadow of the Colossus
- Released
- February 6, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Blood, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
Besides the guiding light of a sword, which provides a general direction, the Forbidden Lands contain no maps, signposts, or even roads to point the player in the direction of their next task in Shadow of the Colossus, nor are the hints about how to proceed up the legs, sides, or back of a titanic beast to somehow take it down.
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As a counterbalance to the overwhelming landscape and task ahead of them, besides collecting hidden apples, lizard tails, and coins, there are no other activities to distract players on their quest. The demise of each colossus comes from the player's own thinking and tenacity, making each victory feel hard-won and intimately personal.
1 Elden Ring
For Those Who Crave The Glory Of True Adventure
Elden Ring
- Released
- February 25, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
It should come as no surprise that an open-world game from FromSoft, the studio that birthed the Soulsborne genre, would leave the player's fate, ill or glorious, in the player's hands. Guided by gorgeous landmarks on the horizon and intuition about an enemy's strength, players of Elden Ring must forge their own path through the Lands Between, where every crumbling tower, hidden catacomb, or distant glow on the horizon could mean triumph or disaster.
The game refuses to mark its map with objective markers or difficulty ratings, instead trusting players to read the world itself. Elden Ring doesn’t guide players, it dares them to explore, rewarding boldness with discovery and punishing haste with brutal and (importantly) memorable consequences.