Questlines in the open-world genre are one of the most important aspects in keeping players invested in the world over a long period of time. It's no good having a compelling world without reasons to explore it, and hence, it is important to give players a sense of meaning and purpose in the midst of all the action and chaos. However, as engaging as the main quests can be, in some situations, the side content actually provides an even more enjoyable experience, taking players on journeys across the landscape, following characters and clues that they may never have encountered if they stuck to the standard path.
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Some of these quests are one-offs, but still manage to be incredibly fun and memorable, while others are far more expansive, spanning several steps that often take hours to fully see through to the end. What makes them so great is their ability to feel deeply important on a similar level to the overarching goal of the narrative, allowing players to feel invested in storylines and characters that they had no obligation to care about in the first place. By filling the world with so many interesting quests, the environment feels more alive, and players can feel far more excited about exploring every minute detail, knowing that there may be an incredible adventure waiting for them just around the corner.
Skyrim
Curiosity Leading The Way
Details:
- Unmarked locations that can often trigger huge questlines
- The best stories have no relevance to the main path
Bethesda has always been known for cramming its games with a huge number of quests, and Skyrim is no exception. It is pretty hard to walk far into a city without finding a person in need of help, or even out in the mountains, where a lost traveler may be looking for someone to help them defeat a terrifying monster. One of the best examples of this is The Mind of Madness quest, where players begin by speaking to a seemingly harmless madman wandering around Solitude, but quickly find themselves journeying into a world of dark humor and insanity, with more than a few twists along the way.
Other quests, like the Forbidden Legend, can be completely overlooked, as the condition to begin is literally tied to reading a random book. From there, the mystery unfolds gradually, revealing ancient betrayals and plenty of powerful rewards for those who paid close attention to their surroundings. In all of these cases, the quests really feed into the idea of curiosity within a large open landscape, as, rather than explicitly showing players exactly where to begin, they must instead go out of their way to hunt and explore in the hopes of finding a new story to follow. And, because the map is so densely packed with these adventures, it is easy to get lost in the side content for hours, forgetting there is even a fearsome dragon waiting to be conquered.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Paths That Branch On For Hours
Details:
- Contracts quickly spiral into massive arcs
- Timing and obscure choices feed into which quests are available
The Witcher 3 is full to the brim with quests and narratives, both optional and compulsory, but as players journey across the lands in search of adventure, they will quickly find that a lot of the side missions are actually more enjoyable and interesting than the main one. Some, like Equine Phantoms, take players on a more strange yet intriguing path that couldn't be further from the actual larger quest at hand, yet it still manages to be a short yet fun little journey to go on in between taking down camps of enemies and saving entire towns from collapse.
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Because the writing is so exceptional, even smaller side characters can feel incredibly believable. Where the Cat and Wolf Play is a good example of a quest that many players completely miss, yet it offers an incredibly complex tale about trauma and the cost of survival in the world. It also poses a tough choice to the player that has just about as much weight as any of the other big quests in the game, demonstrating the importance of having a rich environment that doesn't feel empty, but is instead brimming with life.
Fallout: New Vegas
Faction-Driven Narratives That Can Easily Be Missed
Details:
- Certain groups are entirely optional and missable
- Dialogue options can permanently lock content without warning
Fallout: New Vegas stands at the top of the RPG genre and for good reason. Its characters and questlines are among the best in the industry, and some of the best of the bunch are tucked away in less obvious parts of the map or places that players would never think to explore the first time around. More importantly, a lot of quests can actually become locked and inaccessible depending on the choices made by the player, forcing them to think carefully about their decisions from the moment they step into the wasteland. The Beyond the Beef is an incredibly infamous side story that can not only be missed, but is also heavily influenced by the choices the player made leading up to it.
After heading to the Ultra-Luxe casino, players can speak with Heck Gunderson with the hopes of finding his missing son. But that initial interaction quickly turns into a disturbing conspiracy involving cannibalism and social decay, despite initially appearing as a pretty basic missing-persons case. There are so many other examples similar to this, some involving humor like Come Fly With Me, and Not Worth a Hill of Corn and Beans, which is a lot more grounded and focused on skill-checks over presenting a longer storyline. No matter where players are in the desert, there will always be something new to see or someone to talk to, so going the extra mile and really checking those hidden rooms is often a great way of finding some of the best quests in the entire game.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Profound Stories Off The Beaten Trail
Details:
- Each area hides a huge number of compelling stories
- Some quests can unfold over many hours without interacting with them
Red Dead Redemption 2 tucks some of its most emotionally resonant content far away from the main story, often behind vague triggers or hidden in isolated locations. The Widow of Willard's Rest is a heartfelt quest that sees players teaching a grieving woman how to survive on her own in the world, which creates a quieter and human story away from the grander adventures elsewhere. The quest unfolds over several visits, encouraging players to return time and time again with no real incentive other than to help a struggling soul, with many players finishing the game without ever realizing it exists.
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Another standout is the Veteran questline, which is initiated by meeting an injured veteran deep in the remote Grizzlies. The series of missions focuses on companionship and healing on a much smaller scale, making it feel like a deeply personal set of tasks that sharply contrasts the game's larger narrative. A lot of quests like this thrive on their isolation and simplicity, reinforcing the game's belief that the most meaningful stories are often the most human ones and that in a world full of all kinds of people, even the most insignificant ones can matter the most.
Elden Ring
No Quest Markers To Guide You Forward
Details:
- Lack of clear steps for each NPC
- Unpredictable characters that can move with no notice
Elden Ring is a game that is practically one long mystery scattered across a giant world. There are no real markers or ways of locating individual NPCs reliably, so players instead need to follow subtle cues or spend a lot of time googling to be able to actually follow these stories through to their ends. The biggest of these are actually tied directly into endings, like Ranni's and Fia's quests, which, without venturing into the farthest and deepest parts of the map, can very easily be missed on a first playthrough. The latter literally sends players into the depths of the earth and back, forcing them to take on fearsome foes and succumb to the Frenzied Flame, again, all without explicitly showing them where to go next.
The DLC continues this theme by hiding entire bosses and quests in the smallest cracks of the environment. The Putrescent Knight is already far from the beaten path, but even further lies St Trina and Thiollier's questline, which is not only about as far away from the main area as possible, but it also tasks players with an adventure across the entire landscape that can very easily be avoided. Metyr, Mother of Fingers, follows the same pattern, this time having the quest be the precursor to the actual fight. Players need to run across the Realm of Shadow, ringing bells and performing gestures, only then being rewarded with one of the weirdest bosses in the entire game. This philosophy of obscurely leading players around the world is what makes the game so engaging, as a lot of the NPCs and stories wouldn't be anywhere near as interesting if they were just shown to the player right from the start.
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