Best Open-World Games
Whether single-player or multiplayer, open-world games tend to attract a lot of attention. On paper, the genre sounds ideal since these projects can keep a user engaged for potentially months. In practice, these releases fluctuate significantly in terms of quality and scale; more importantly, bigger is not always better.
2023 is shaping up to be an exciting year for open-world titles. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Starfield, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League are just a handful of projects that might cement themselves among the best open-world games of all time. What does their competition look like?
Updated February 18, 2023 by Mark Sammut: So far, 2023 has produced a few open-world games, including one that happens to be quite magical.
22 Gothic 2
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Release Date |
October 28, 2003 |
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Developer |
Piranha Bytes |
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Platform/s |
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Since the early 2000s, Piranha Bytes has specialized in open-world games, serving as an AA alternative to their contemporaries. While janky and rough around the edges, the studio’s releases have their charm, and 2022’s Elex 2 is probably Piranha’s most complete package. However, 2002’s Gothic 2 holds a special place in the hearts of many people.
RELATED: Best 2000s RPGs (That Were Way Ahead Their Time)
Quaint as the title might seem in this day and age, Gothic 2 was an impressive and ambitious release back in the day. Khorinis is a fully realized world that grants players a lot of freedom in crafting their adventure, and this aspect of the game holds up well.
Also, Gothic 2‘s The Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos mod is fantastic.
21 Death Stranding
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Release Date |
November 8, 2019 |
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Developer |
Kojima Productions |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS5 |
Directed by Metal Gear Solid‘s Hideo Kojima, Death Stranding envisions a post-apocalyptic world devoid of human civilization.
While peppered with a couple of settlements, this version of Earth largely consists of a barren wasteland, and the game specifically concentrates on instilling a sense of isolation through its gameplay and presentation.
Tasked with delivering packages across the United States, Sam also sets out to install a communication network in an attempt to start humanity’s recovery. Death Stranding is the definition of an acquired taste; the campaign has an almost contemplative pacing, all the while delivering splashes of Kojima’s trademark storytelling.
20 Subnautica
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Release Date |
January 23, 2018 |
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Developer |
Unknown Worlds Entertainment |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS4 |
Subnautica and its sequel, Below Zero, stand out from other open-world projects due to their environments.
Except for a few locations, the games largely take place underwater, a creative decision that pays off beautifully. Set on an alien planet, Subnautica is a survival game that encourages the player to explore the sea to their heart’s content. This journey produces both gorgeous vistas and nightmarish encounters, while simultaneously revealing snippets of lore and plot beats.
RELATED: Best Underwater Games, Ranked
Reflecting the studio’s name, Unknown Worlds crafted a constantly-unpredictable sandbox that truly comes across as alien. Both Subnautica titles are great, but newcomers should start with the first game before moving on to Below Zero.
19 Cyberpunk 2077
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Release Date |
December 10, 2020 |
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Developer |
CD Projekt Red |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS4 |
CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 had a notoriously rough launch, to the point that the game was removed from the PlayStation Store.
This reception hurt the developer’s reputation at the time, but CD Projekt Red has done an admirable job of rehabilitating its name. Rather than just abandoning the sci-fi game, the company set out to right most of the launch version’s wrongs, including releasing multiple significant updates.
Nowadays, Cyberpunk 2077 is in a much better state, even if the last-gen versions are still difficult to recommend. Focusing solely on the open-world, Night City is phenomenal, detailed, and dense. The map showcases CD Projekt Red’s talent for environmental storytelling and world-building, and Night City’s sci-fi aesthetic sets it apart from The Witcher 3‘s world. While still not perfect, Cyberpunk 2077 has come a long way since 2020 and now deserves to be mentioned among the best open-world games.
18 Far Cry 3
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Release Date |
November 29, 2012 |
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Developer |
Ubisoft Montreal |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS4 |
The Far Cry franchise has gotten a bit long in the tooth in recent years, and the series has struggled to fully recreate the magic of its third main entry.
Far Cry 3 represents the pinnacle of the Ubisoft formula, an open-world game that expertly blends addictive gameplay with memorable characters (aka villains) and busywork that feels rewarding.
The FPS takes place on Rook Islands, a gorgeous tropical paradise that is not that welcoming of outsiders. The simple act of exploring this terrain is a joy, and the open-world is big without being overwhelming.
17 Outer Wilds
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Release Date |
May 28, 2019 |
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Developer |
Mobius Digital |
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Size tends to dominate conversations relating to open-world games, but it does not determine a map’s quality.
Outer Wilds is nowhere near as expansive as many other entries in this genre, but the title uses its terrain extremely well. Revolving around a 22-minute time loop punctuated by an exploding star, players must travel to different planets in a solar system in search of information regarding the Nomai race.
RELATED: Hidden Secrets Many Still Haven’t Found In Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds has an overarching narrative that guides the player’s actions, providing some structure to the experience. That said, the game encourages exploration and investigation, rewarding people who are willing to soak in the atmosphere and interact with NPCs who are simply living their lives.
16 Yakuza 0
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Release Date |
January 24, 2017 |
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Developer |
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS4 |
Sega’s Yakuza (or Like a Dragon) franchise has mastered the art of crafting small but dense cities that deliver immersion without over-relying on realism.
Yakuza 0 is generally regarded as the license’s best game, and it features two cities in Kamurocho and Sotenbori. These maps can be traversed in a few minutes, but they feel far bigger since each street is packed with minigames, side quests, stores, restaurants, and enemies.
Along with a stellar open-world, Yakuza 0 tells an awesome story that balances action, character growth, tragedy, and epicness. Furthermore, the optional quests do a splendid job of highlighting different aspects of the cities that might otherwise go unnoticed. Everything combines to create a world oozing with personality and substance.
15 Fallout: New Vegas
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Release Date |
October 19, 2010 |
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Developer |
Obsidian Entertainment |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
Xbox 360 |
Except for perhaps Fallout 76, all the entries in this franchise could feasibly rank among the best open-world games ever; however, Fallout: New Vegas strikes the ideal middle-ground between Fallout 1 & 2‘s player-driven campaigns and Bethesda’s 3D entries.
Technical issues aside, New Vegas brings to life a post-apocalyptic world that is drenched in culture, history, and socio-political ideologies.
This entry has one of the strongest narratives in the series, and that goes beyond just the main quest. While somewhat rudimentary in a post-Witcher 3 landscape, New Vegas‘ side quests were a touch above the game’s contemporaries and play a crucial role in shaping the world.
14 Hogwarts Legacy
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Release Date |
February 10, 2023 |
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Developer |
Avalanche Software |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS5 |
Harry Potter‘s universe has always seemed like the perfect fit for an expansive game, and Hogwarts Legacy takes advantage of that potential.
Unlike most other adaptations, Avalanche’s title takes place a century prior to Harry’s tale, a decision that permits players to create their own stories rather than rethread an established one. Cast as a latecomer to Hogwarts’ student body, players join one of the four houses and set out to explore the school’s iconic grounds, along with other famous areas introduced in the books and movies.
Hogwarts Legacy does have a relatively lengthy main storyline, but the game also encourages players to deviate from the beaten path. Immersion is a big selling point of most open-world games, and Avalanche absolutely nails this aspect. For long-time fans of the franchise, Hogwarts Legacy is a dream come true that finally allows them to become wizards and witches.
13 Ghost Of Tsushima
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Release Date |
July 17, 2020 |
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Developer |
Sucker Punch Productions |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS5 |
Helping to bring the PS4’s time as Sony’s main platform to a satisfying close, Ghost of Tsushima is a painfully gorgeous game set during the 13th Century in Japan.
After becoming occupied by Mongols, Tsushima Island evolves into a war zone as Japanese rebels try to strike at the invaders. Players are cast as Jin Sakai, a samurai who fails to protect his master but is given an opportunity to make things right when he avoids death.
RELATED: Modern Single-Player Games That Sold Extremely Well
Ghost of Tsushima‘s world is lavish, reasonably big, and filled with gripping content that is just waiting to be discovered. Even though the main story is nothing to write home about, the title makes up for it with an incredible setting.
12 Horizon Zero Dawn & Horizon Forbidden West
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Release Date |
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Guerrilla Games |
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Amazon Listing |
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Guerrilla Games left behind the FPS genre for open-world action RPGs, and the switch brought out the best in the studio.
Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth that is both ancient and technologically advanced, the Horizon games center around Aloy, an outcast who has to carry a massive load on her shoulders.
Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West are equally fantastic, and that is especially the case when it comes to their worlds. These games feature stunning environments filled with monstrous creatures and impressive social hubs.
11 Marvel’s Spider-Man
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Release Date |
September 7, 2018 |
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Developer |
Insomniac Games |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS4 |
Insomniac Games created what is arguably the best Spider-Man game ever when they released this PlayStation exclusive.
Open-world exploration in Marvel’s Spider-Man is a contender for the most fun of all time, as the simple act of swinging through the air is an absolute delight.
In Spider-Man, players are immersed in a version of Manhattan that closely measures up to the real thing. Spider-Man swings effortlessly from building to building, gliding as if for the first time. Spider-Man is an open-world game done (almost) perfectly, and Miles Morales is also great.
10 Forza Horizon 5
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Release Date |
November 9, 2021 |
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Developer |
Playground Games |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
Xbox & Windows |
Playground Games has been nothing if not consistent as the studio has produced one open-world masterpiece after another.
Consequently, this entry’s pick is primarily a placeholder for the overall franchise as someone’s preference is likely to come down to which setting they prefer. Forza Horizon 5 takes place in Mexico, and the game honors the country by delivering a massive and diverse map.
RELATED: Fastest Cars In Forza Horizon 5 (& How Fast They Can Go)
The latter characteristic is the sandbox’s true achievement; Forza Horizon 5 features 11 biomes, each of which has its own flavor and nuances. This variety heightens the simple act of driving across the country since there always seems to be something new to see and experience.
9 Xenoblade Chronicles 3
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Release Date |
July 29, 2022 |
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Developer |
Monolith Soft |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
Switch |
The Xenoblade Chronicles franchise consists of nothing but great open-world games, including the Wii U’s Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Any entry could have made the cut, but the 2022 project gets the nods since its transitions between different areas are the most seamless. The JRPG is built upon a real-time combat system that is overflowing with mechanics and depth, ensuring battles remain engaging throughout the lengthy campaign.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3‘s world is massive, detailed, and packed with things to uncover and do. The Nintendo Switch does struggle to run the game at times, but XC3 nevertheless accomplishes a lot on the console’s limited hardware.
8 Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
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Release Date |
October 29, 2013 |
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Developer |
Ubisoft Montreal |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS4 |
Assassin’s Creed has an impressive track record when it comes to crafting sandboxes based on historical time periods, even if not every game is a masterpiece.
Ubisoft’s franchise has produced quite a few epics, quite a few of which would not look out of place among the best open-world games; that said, the series may have peaked with Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.
The pirate-themed adventure takes players to the West Indies and delivers a unique experience even within its own franchise. This game was so successful that fans have been clamoring for Ubisoft to return to the sea ever since.
7 Elden Ring
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Release Date |
February 25, 2022 |
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Developer |
FromSoftware |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS5 |
Elden Ring successfully expands and opens up the Dark Souls formula, a transition that somehow retains nearly all the strengths of the latter while introducing plenty of new reasons for fans to get excited.
Set within the harrowing Lands Between, players are left to their own devices as they explore towering castles, hidden underground cities, and battlefields soaked in blood.
RELATED: Best Combat Systems In Open World RPGs, Ranked
FromSoftware delivered a flexible combat system, dozens of challenging boss fights, incredible lore that can easily be ignored, and a plethora of unforgettable side quests.
6 Grand Theft Auto 5
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Release Date |
September 17, 2013 |
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Developer |
Rockstar North |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS5 |
Rockstar Games didn’t let up with its most recent Grand Theft Auto title.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is a behemoth containing a vast open-world set in and around Los Santos, which is inspired by Los Angeles. The sandbox is packed with an abundance of activities to keep players busy.
As an open-world game, GTA 5 is exceptional, presenting players with a lot of freedom on how they would like to leave their mark on the map. It is not just the world that delivers the goods, though, as the game’s story and characters are also great, while GTA Online has grown into a massive beast.
5 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
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Release Date |
March 3, 2017 |
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Developer |
Nintendo EPD |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
Switch |
The Legend of Zelda might have been late to embrace the open-world craze but, as Nintendo is known to do, Breath of the Wild changed the genre.
Arguably the quintessential example of a pitch-perfect sandbox, this version of Hyrule is sprawling and, more importantly, unrestricted. Outside of an end goal to defeat Calamity Ganon, players are otherwise free to explore this fallen kingdom at their leisure; the only waypoints on the map are the ones Link places himself.
Except for maybe Elden Ring, Breath of the Wild delivers a sense of adventure and discovery perhaps better than any other open-world game on the market. Even after spending hundreds of hours in Hyrule, someone could still have plenty to do.
4 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
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Release Date |
May 19, 2015 |
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Developer |
CD Projekt Red |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS4 |
It was clear long before The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released that developer CD Projekt Red had a hit on its hands.
It is an adventure that truly needs to be experienced, even if players are discouraged by the combat’s learning curve (make sure to select «alternative movement»).
RELATED: Open World RPGs That Take The Longest To Complete
Some boss battles are intense beyond words, and the quality of the game’s side quests is far ahead of any other RPG released around or after 2015. Although not as diverse or gorgeous as some other environments, The Witcher 3‘s world is dense, immersive, and authentic to the franchise’s lore.
3 Red Dead Redemption 2
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Release Date |
October 26, 2018 |
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Developer |
Rockstar Studios |
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Platform/s |
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Amazon Listing |
PS4 |
Rockstar might take its time developing a new project, but the company tends to make the wait worth it.
Red Dead Redemption 2 takes place prior to 2010’s entry, which is also one of the greatest open-world games of all time, and follows Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang.
Rockstar prioritized realism when crafting RDR2, and that extends to the protagonist’s controls, the gameplay mechanics, and the world’s presentation. Narratively, this game is a masterpiece with precious few peers.
Death Stranding review | GamesRadar+
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By Leon Hurley
last updated
(Image: © Sony)
GamesRadar+ Verdict
Kojima’s mysterious would be epic has its moments but can’t carry the weight of expectation.
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After all the conspiracy theories, conjecture and just plain hype, Death Stranding turns out to be about carrying boxes from A to B. And, often, back again. That’s it. That’s the game. This is going to be a spoiler free review in terms of story, but mechanically it’s hard to talk about anything without making it clear: you carry boxes around pretty much the entire time. Sometimes you fall over, occasionally ghosts appear and get in the way, but otherwise almost the entirety of your time involves staggering over uneven terrain carrying a backpack loaded to spine-rupturing levels with anything from underpants to medical supplies.
(Image credit: Sony)
Extinction event
The idea is that ‘the Death Stranding’, a cataclysmic past apocalyptic event, has reduced the world to little more than walled cities and bunkered survivors, known as preppers. The outside world is a rocky hellscape filled with ageing Timefall rain showers and Beached Things, or BTs – spirits of the dead unable to pass on, and now drifting the wasteland fatally seeking out the living.
Even now, after some 70-odd hours of playing, it still sounds exciting, and the first time you encounter these ethereal spectres, tethered to the world by a ghostly umbilical cord, there are shivers. At the front end there’s an exciting prospect laid out in front of you: it looks incredible, with a beautiful landscape you can endlessly drink in, and some incredible facial capture (one late scene contains some of the best in-game performance I’ve ever seen, that’s almost impossible to distinguish from someone just being filmed). The world, the idea, and the promise looms large.
And so you set off, carrying your boxes full of stuff to wherever you’re meant to go. And you carry, and you carry. Sometimes you fall over. Sometimes you creep through fields of somnolent, shadowy wraiths, sometimes you get a moment of contemplative isolation over an amazing vista. Sometimes you fall over again. But as you deliver, and deliver, you start to realise that the mechanic of carrying things is almost the only way you can reach in and touch the world.
In the same way that a shooter only really lets you interact with a game’s world through shooting things, Death Stranding principal form of interface is transportation.
(Image credit: Sony)
It’s not a bad idea per se – there’s a contemplative element to loading up, choosing your gear and then setting out – but it’s basically all you do and there’s only so long that idea can be interesting. It’s a gameplay language with little vocabulary, so the experience struggles to express itself in any deep and meaningful way. Your cargo might be very fragile, or explosive, as a variation, or the ground might be extra rocky… but that’s about it. In the later stages of the story, when the stakes are raised, the only way Death Stranding’s gameplay can really express any sense of tension is by asking you to walk incredible distances or, in several ‘oh Jesus, really?!’ moments, ask you to walk back, or further, on completion. (There’s is eventually a fast travel system, but it only transports ‘you’ and no cargo.
)
Fighting chance
There are moments of variation – some more traditional third person combat (again, seen in trailers) – but these are tangential, fleeting moments that feel like an addendum. Arguably show stopping moments but not really substantial enough to have any real impact. Even in these moments of direct conflict however there’s almost no real threat, and generally the worst that happens is damaging a package so much you fail the mission. There are a scattering of human enemies called Mules who, for reasons, are addicted to stealing cargo. They’re easy to Square button thump into submission though, even before you unlock any weapons, and even easier to avoid. Even the BTs, the poster monsters for the whole thing, aren’t particularly dangerous. They’ve easy to avoid, and even if you do get ‘caught’ — triggering a one-on-one boss battle with a giant BT monster — it’s easy to defeat the creature or just run away. (Often it’s almost a viable tactic to get caught on purpose to clear the area as winning the boss fight gets rid of everyone.
)
«There’s almost no real threat, and generally the worst that happens is damaging a package so much you fail the mission»
The lack of risk contributes to making it all feel a bit like a chore. There are always multiple deliveries on offer, leaving you juggling an eternal dilemma: do you pick it all up at once and be comically overloaded, your goods towering above as your knees buckle, risking falls that can dent your completion score, or fail you outright? Or do you take one thing at a time – a safer option that’ll have you backtracking endlessly back and forth one box at a time? It’s basically ‘Overencumbrance: The Game’. The essential gear you need – things like ladders and climbing ropes, healing Blood Bags and canister repair sprays to negate Timefall rain damage – all occupy the same boxed units as cargo that stack up on your back and body to the point that even a light loadout can quickly pile everything on. With more weight your stamina falls faster, you’re more likely to fall, and there’s more risk you can lose something along the way.
(Image credit: Sony)
The game provides tools to help: things like exo-skeletons, floating trolleys and vehicles but it often feels like for every solution there’s a problem. When you eventually unlock the basic starter bike vehicle, and later trucks, it’s in a location so rocky and uneven it’s almost impossible to drive anywhere, as you clang and catch on rocks. Plus, batteries can run out and wheels can get stuck, so you take a risk loading up anything with more than you can carry alone should machines fail. Which, much of the time, pushes you back to being on foot, which is a frustratingly inconsistent experience. Stamina, footing, speed and ground angle all contribute to an animation system that can have you wrestling with the sticks and shoulder bracing buttons to stay upright should you trip. Your stability improves as you level up stats, and unlock better gear, but there’s always the lingering fear that the slightest movement could randomly result in anything from a skipped step to a full-sprint face-planting fall.
It seems oddly scripted at times: I found catastrophic, can’t-stop-it tumbles far more likely to happen near ravine and cliff edges where I was, ironically, being so, so careful.
Network connections
There’s one other thing that also makes life easier, and that’s everyone else playing the game. There’s a wonderfully inventive asymmetrical online element that sees items and constructions from other players appear in your world and vice versa. The ladders and ropes you leave around on your travels appear for other people in their game. You can build bridges and roads, or contribute resources to other people’s, with the landscape slowly becoming more traversable as this equipment and structures appear, bearing the name of whoever originally built it and showing the ‘likes’ its received (one is automatically given whenever you use something, and you can add more with a button press or three).
(Image credit: Kojima Productions)
It’s a fantastic idea; a lovely expression of strangers pulling together against an inhospitable world, adding moments of solidarity in an otherwise bleakly isolating world.
The space where this system first comes into play is full of youthful enthusiasm, sprinkled with charging stations, roads, bridges and more as players test it all out. The further you get (both physically and in terms of time) progress slows and things are spaced out with a more weathered and functional minimalism. When the story moves to more mountainous routes, ziplines pop from peak to peak, becoming a literal game changer. Throughout, the idea holds up well as players collectively shape and inform the world through their actions, routes evolving over time. Someone’s bridge might become a crucial landmark, or let you negate some terrible, rough terrain. Your space becomes signposted and defined by the player tags attached to the things around you. You start to recognise these unseen faces as you repeatedly run into their traces. The names have meaning, so when you find items of lost cargo flagged with a friendly face you can return it for extra likes and the chance to pay it forward.
It’s a game you play alone, but in a world you share.
The whole game riffs on this idea of connection. As mentioned already in the trailers (the only story stuff I’ll bring up) you play as Norman Reedus’ Sam Porter Bridges, tasked with saving the world through the medium of delivering stuff. You’re basically an apocalyptic Amazon Courier reconnecting a shattered America, location by location, to the Chiral Network, a sort of metaphysical AT&T that enables communication, as well as 3D printing of all your gear. You can’t see or access player structures until an area’s connected, or fabricate the gear you need to push on either, so making these deliveries is essential if you want to… make more deliveries.
A Hideo Kojima game
Obviously this is a Hideo Kojima game, which I’ve stayed away from until now in an attempt to discuss the game on its merits alone, without everything that name brings with it. It’s a name that obviously conjures up huge expectations and Death Stranding doesn’t entirely deliver on them.
I can’t explain why in too much detail without spoilers but there are no real ‘holy shit’ moments, no surprises, just an okay-ish game about carrying boxes at the end of the world. The story is fine: high fantasy sci-fi full of Kojima’s trademark lengthy cutscenes, most of which involve characters explaining the story with broad swathes of exposition that doesn’t so much break the ‘show don’t tell’ rule as pound it into submission with line after line of careful rationaled explanation.
(Image credit: Sony)
There’s a lot of symbolism and metaphor spread thickly all over all of the story and characters, and some of it is incredibly literal – Mama is a mother, Heartman’s heart stops every 21 minutes, etc – some of it is nonsense. And plenty of it seems to exist just to provide the possibility for people to attach meaning to – like multiple slices of toast that may or may not contain the face of Jesus. At least a handful of critical plot points and elements seem to defy explanation or logic utterly, beyond a ‘ta-da!’ curtain reveal.
Death Stranding does have its moments though, despite the overall monotony of its principal activity. The groundbreaking visuals create a beautiful world, and there’s an incredible atmosphere when you reach a great view, or take a moment bathe in the glory of the snow crusted mountain you’ve just scaled. When the setting, progress and music combine it is a mood. If nothing else I’m a Low Roar fan now having played 70 odd hours of possibly the most expensive interactive music video ever made.
Progress is key to really enjoying it. I hit around 30 hours at the Chapter 3 mark, before I discovered I was barely a quarter of the way through and made the conscious decision to focus more on the story. Doing so gives everything more impact and meaning by bringing the cutscenes and story closer together, and adds more variety to what limited texture with a quicker progression of new locations, equipment and other things. You can spend days if not weeks making side-deliveries to a cameo heavy cast of survivors and gain little from it bar a deafening gulf between narrative beats that leaves fragmented isolated moments devoid of all connecting momentum.
There is an okay experience here, filled with a scrapbooking hokum of afterlife mythology and pseudoscience, with a cast of likeable if bluntly literal characters but it’s a game that, ironically, is easily lost in its lengthy delivery.
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I’m GamesRadar’s Senior Guides Co-ordinator, which means I run GamesRadar’s guides and tips content. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.
24 best open world games
Open world games have been around for a long time, although they used to be the exception rather than the big deal. In the last decade, the situation with open-world titles has changed significantly — developers have at their disposal enough tools and platform power to regularly release such games, which is constantly expanding and improving.
Such projects have everything: plot, quests, missions, tests, but at the same time, players have the right to choose the pace of passage that suits them. The very best games invite gamers to go their own way, but wrap everything up in an interesting way, from fantasy kingdoms and simulated galaxies to modern cities and post-apocalyptic wastelands.
Together let’s take a look at the biggest open world games we can play right now.
Original post: PCGamer
Red Dead Redemption 2
Perhaps it was Rockstar who invested more effort and money in open-world games than anyone else.
Finally, the sequel to their western hit the PC, and now you don’t need a console to play Red Dead Redemption 2. The history of the franchise tells about the time when the internal borders of America gradually began to be erased. RDR2 is replete with details and overflowing with numerous trifles: animal corpses remain in place and gradually decompose, Arthur Morgan comments on almost any place he visits and characters he meets, and random events create a feeling of a truly living world.
All wrapped up in an excellent story that will take you as long as watching the entire Deadwood series. And that’s only if you’re in a bit of a hurry. And to top it off, you can also interact with other players through Red Dead Online.
Today RDR2 is also one of the most beautiful games available on PC. With numerous mods, the project will remain popular for a long time.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
As much as Ubisoft has been hated for its attitude towards the development of its franchises, we have to admit that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was a breakthrough.
This game almost completely changed the familiar series, turning into a full-fledged RPG. At the same time, we were given access to a vast, detailed open world, full of beautiful landscapes and «motley» tasks.
Size doesn’t usually matter, but the sheer scale of Ancient Greece in Odyssey does the trick. Especially for the reason that every area seems so crisp and detailed. It’s a vast world to explore, and each zone has a subtle aesthetic that makes it unique, from the arid and barren lands of Crete to the verdant plains of Arcadia. This is not only the biggest, but also the most beautiful Ubisoft game.
Steven Messner, PCGamer
Subnautica
Subnautica’s large underwater world and diverse biomes provide one of the most vibrant, gorgeous and terrifying open worlds for PC.
The world simulation is pretty superficial, but Subnautica has collected major awards for how it creates the illusion of an ecosystem.
Big fish eat small ones, and their physical and behavioral characteristics depend on the area in which you meet these animals. Against the backdrop of the dark depths of the ocean, they look quite impressive.
Between all these studies with you, by the will of natural curiosity, different stories happen. We won’t go into too much depth, because that would just ruin a great sci-fi mystery.
GTA 5
Another result of the labors of Rockstar Games. The developers managed to create a kind of fake based on the real world. So stunningly accurate in atmosphere and detail that this place can actually seem even better than reality. Los Santos represents the elaborate approach that Rockstar took for Liberty City in GTA 4, and then scaled up to release year San Andreas. The result is a near-perfect open world that perhaps only Rockstar itself can surpass.
Between GTA 5’s powerful multi-protagonist campaign and the crazy GTA Online playground, hundreds of hours of chases and gunfights await you across land, air and water.
And for GTA 5 there is just a huge number of mods for PC players.
Assassin’s Creed Origins
The Origins world is one of the best in the entire series. It’s also one of the most beautiful locations in any open world game.
After about 35 hours to complete the main story, many players will not even have time to visit certain areas of the map. On their own, players can find entire quest chains, characters and communities that they did not know existed, concentrating on the story.
Assassin’s Creed: Origins proves that Ubisoft is able to resurrect interest in already bored series through artistic execution. However, it is not necessary to create something new. Ancient Egypt is just a great place, and it can also be explored without any killings in the educational-tourist mode.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Whatever one may say, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an immersive open-world RPG sim whose ambitions outstrip its problems (most of the time).
Not only does this little slice of medieval Bohemia look great, but it’s also a complex (and only superficially historical) life-and-death simulation.
The details of the simulation are almost absurd: this is the depth that many studios simply would not touch even with a three-meter peak. However, Kingdom Come holds all the elements together quite well. You control a vulnerable, naive and unremarkable guy. Problems fall on his shoulders, and around every corner this attractive and awkward character is waiting for a simple world filled with secrets and danger — just what we expect from adventurous adventures in the open world.
Forza Horizon 3
Forza Horizon 3 is not just another arcade racing game. This is a huge, vast and beautiful sandbox, full of city streets, beaches, dense forests and deserts, which is a significantly reduced copy of the Australian expanses. The vast and varied terrain provides plenty of opportunities: races, challenges, jumps, collectible hunts, not to mention hundreds of cars.
Forza Horizon 3 is the best of the excellent series in terms of size, depth, variety and entertainment.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
The open world of Stalker is your enemy. Areas with radiation, anomalies and radioactive storms can finish off the hero in a matter of minutes. In any building, bandits or terrible, mutated creatures can hide. Ammunition and armor are scarce, and you are lost in a desolate, bleak and truly aloof place. However, many people who consider themselves stalkers know that the Zone has its own charm. Only here you can explore many abandoned factories, factories, high-rise buildings.
Hold on for a few minutes and soon this lifeless silence will become beautiful.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3 is a remarkable technological achievement that spearheads a new wave of open-world games that harness the power of today’s gaming systems to create a detailed and massive project.
The swamps of Velen are a gloomy aperitif that precedes the bustle of Novigrad and the vast forests of the northern part of Skellige (one of the most beautiful locations in the game).
You can spend hours sailing around these islands, bumping into quests, breaking curses, killing monsters, and playing Gwent with noisy townspeople. Cities in The Witcher 3 are noisy places where life is in full swing. And many cities of other open worlds will seem to you simply lifeless.
It’s nice to just choose a direction and move in it on foot.
Elite: Dangerous
Few open world games are truly as open and expansive as Elite: Dangerous. By piloting your spaceship and flying through a simulation of the Milky Way, you can fight pirates (or become a pirate yourself), mine asteroids, transport and sell goods, or simply explore uncharted stars, planets and systems. Whether you decide to play alone or join an online galaxy, you are sure to find new adventures among the many star systems.
You may even run into aliens!
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
Black Flag offers one of the most exciting adventures since the release of Assassin’s Creed 2. It is especially exciting to move through the waters of the Caribbean archipelago, trying to cope with the sails on the ship. Tiny islands, whales, coastal fortresses, and large armadas provide plenty of variety in the ocean, while huge islands offer traditional series action. After not the most successful third part, «Black Flag» became a breath of fresh air.
The cities are smaller and the story is pointless, but few games can match the thrill of taking down a port. First, shooting at the walls, then penetrating inside and searching for the commander for the subsequent «execution».
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
In Morrowind you can find replicas of Victorian streets — maybe too monochromatic brown, but despite the outdated technology, the game still attracts veterans with its unique atmosphere and world.
For many, this was one of the first such large-scale open games. Morrowind bridges the gap between modern, polished but featureless 3D blockbusters and the idiosyncratic RPGs of yesteryear.
Mods like OpenMW and Skywind keep the game alive.
Metal Gear Solid 5
Metal Gear Solid 5 becomes an open world game only when you stop using the helicopter for every mission and instead make your way through either of the two vast territories (Afghanistan and the borders of Angola and Zaire) by completing side missions. Kojima’s stealth action encourages true freedom while properly rewarding the gamer and the progression system.
You start by killing enemies with a headshot with a regular pistol, and end up pulling opponents with a magical robotic arm, attaching tanks to balloons and calling in airstrikes on bears.
Starbound
Starbound’s enchanting 2D pixel universe brings together everything you need: quests, battles, boss battles, exploration, survival, resource extraction, crafting, building and interplanetary space travel.
The sandbox will appeal to everyone who loves to explore the surfaces of planets, explore new star systems and build small cities, populating them with friendly NPCs.
Just Cause 2
Of the entire list, this is perhaps the least deep open world, while at the same time inspiring incredible, crazy, absurd adventures. Rarely does such a huge and beautiful open world feel like a playground, and the hero has a grappling hook and endless parachutes to quickly navigate the lush tropical world. Your boots will barely touch the ground before you want to take to the air again, moving from place to place, wreaking havoc and destruction.
The world of subsequent Just Cause may have become larger, but in the second part it remains the best.
Mad Max
There is a certain dark beauty in a ruined and decaying world. This also applies to the horror-filled wastelands of Mad Max. A dangerous and atmospheric place to explore, including ruined industrial landscapes, desolate areas, and lakes of toxic sludge.
In addition, you can travel through all this chaos in a car covered in spikes. On it, you can fight with tramps and other crazy lovers of high speeds. Alas, gradually Mad Max begins to repeat itself.
You lose interest when you have to get out of the car over and over again to fight the bad guys. However, the open world of the game will provide you with several hours of high-octane fun.
Saints Row 4
A delightful parody of video games. Don’t be put off by the slightly boring city from Saints Row 4. Abilities like superhuman speed, the Hulk’s jumps, and a range of comedic wrestling tools and moves are the closest PC game that has so much in common with Crackdown. However, it is even better, because there is much more humor. The game also features an inflato beam that inflates enemies until they burst, and a dubstep cannon that fires in different modes depending on the suit.
Westerado: Double Barreled
Appearances can be deceiving.
Westerado is an open world action game that offers more freedom than most games. The story is simple: you are looking for a desperate villain who killed your family, but the identity of the perpetrator changes every time. As you explore the dusty world of the Wild West and find your target, you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want, including accusing anyone of murder.
You can even draw your weapon and shoot any NPC, even in the middle of a conversation. Be a hero or a scoundrel. Or anyone else. The choice is entirely yours.
Fallout 4
The gray post-apocalyptic wasteland is supposed to be boring, but the decades Bethesda spent perfecting the open world formula paid off in Fallout 4. Although not as impressive as its predecessors, this world has become a battleground where warring NPCs show up . The defenders of Diamond City fight on the outskirts of the city, while crazed raiders and wild animals attack everything that seems edible.
With the exception of Minecraft, this is the only game on the list that gives gamers little control over the terrain.
Liberate settlements to turn them into your domain by rebuilding luxurious cities and installing a system of water pipes and towers that will protect you from scavengers. And since the game is built on the updated Creation engine that was used in Skyrim and Oblivion, this is a real paradise for modders.
Dwarf Fortress
If you learn how to play it, Dwarf Fortress will be the best game ever made. Similar to Minecraft, here you can create an entire planet in minutes. Next, you need to use erosion systems to build realistic river routes or geology to distribute the ore in the depths. You can also interact with people by creating heroes, wars and religious beliefs. Sometimes (often) in the process of creating the world, a society can perish. And instead of them, in the role-playing game mode, you will encounter abandoned halls and ruins.
The ASCII interface helps a bit and is best used with helpers.
This is the most advanced open world generator available and the game is still being improved with various updates that add new features and behavioral tweaks. At the same time, a full-fledged visual interface is already in development and the game will be available on Steam.
Sunless Sea
It’s easy to equate open-world play with absolute freedom and carefree fun. Intriguing storytelling and challenging (and sometimes violent) gameplay leads to a lesson in humility and personality building that isn’t often found in the games on this list. If you don’t like to read a lot, then Sunless Sea is unlikely to please you. However, in this game, along with its underwater addition, there is always something attractive, forcing you to plunge again into the dark, humorous and gloomy seascape.
Far Cry 4
Starting with Far Cry 2, the events of the series are developing in different parts of the world — from Africa to the tropics and the Himalayas.
The setting, the systematic approach to action sequences, and the interesting satellite system in Far Cry 2 created a real sensation among critics. Far Cry 4 has improved stealth systems, added co-op and impressive mountain landscapes. With each addition, the series becomes more refined, even if we had to deal with numerous outposts. These are open challenges that allow us to improvise with our choice of weapons and approach to conquest. And the dynamic gunfights of Far Cry 4 have become one of the best for many.
Minecraft
What if the open world doesn’t just offer various challenges that you need to complete in order to survive, but serves as the basis for creating your own universe? For many years, various projects have tried to emulate Minecraft. For example, the developers of Terraria and Starbound did a good job, but Minecraft became a generation-defining project and continues to grow with each new update. There was also a place for the struggle for survival.
However, this is primarily a building game, and its tools have been used by many gamers to create extraordinary things. It’s not just an open world game. Minecraft is a cultural phenomenon.
Mount & Blade: Warband
It may not be the prettiest world, but Mount & Blade: Warband offers free rein to make up for what it lacks in production value. Navigate a map dotted with medieval villages, towns and castles, and gather allied armies (or go it alone) fighting on foot or on horseback. Exciting and intense battles await you in which you can really choose your own path. Complete quests, support any faction, become a ruler and get vassals. Or just roam the world looking for trouble. You can expand the adventure through numerous mods.
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Until recently, open-world games with freedom of action were presented exclusively on traditional gaming platforms, since recreating a full-fledged open world in the browser was too costly and did not recapture the resources spent. With the development of browser technologies, a holiday has finally come to our streets: in this section you will find the best open-world online games that exist today, which you can play for free and without registration. You should not expect gameplay miracles from them, but if you have become a hostage of a weak PC or you are simply taken by a gaming interest, these games will give you many joyful moments!
- Popular
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Orion Sandbox: Enhanced Edition
open world
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Classic Minecraft
open world
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minecraft online
open world
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Joker forever
Action
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Pixel Craft
minecraft
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The New Spiderman in Vice Vegas
Superheroes
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Russian Grand City Auto
About Russia
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World Z
Survival
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Grand Auto Town Project
Action
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pixel box
with physics
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Mad City San Andreas
GTA (Grand Theft Auto)
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Christmas deer simulator
open world
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cat paradise
Simulators
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Cry Islands
Shooters
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Evo F3
accidents
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Evo F4
Simulators
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Russian Car Driver HD
Driving
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KraftMine
minecraft
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Derby Crash 4
open world
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Main Clone
minecraft
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Shootout in the city of stickmen 3D
Shooters
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Trick Mania 2
Simulators
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Sandbox
with physics
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Carmyard
Driving
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Parkour: Jump and Climb
open world
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puk
Action
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City Driver (2021)
open world
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Wangers
Action
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Zero maze
crafting
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Stickmen Battle Royale
Survival
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Super MX: The Final Season
Race
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Playnec: Car Stunt
open world
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Islander
crafting
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Madness in Los Angeles
GTA (Grand Theft Auto)
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Killer City
Survival
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LA Stories 3: Challenge Accepted
GTA (Grand Theft Auto)
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Tricks in the old town
Apocalypse
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City Car Driving Simulator: Stunt Master
With good graphics
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Joker 2
Shooters
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Killer city car driving simulator
Cool
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Mine Craft.
