I like a game world that's just fun to be in even when I'm not advancing the story. Taking a break to explore is awesome, and much easier in an open world.
this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2026
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Outer wilds is the only true open world game since you are exploring a whole (kind of miniature) solar system and you can just fly in one direction forever (kind of). And it's open worldness is integral part of the gameplay. There is literally no story arch (except the ending), you are just exploring.
I'm not sure that it's *better*, but it's hilarious when you go off and do all the side quests and end up completely over powered by the time you get round to the main quest and just beat the shit out of the main bad guy without realizing that they're important.
Big bad: "so you have finally come to meet your doo-"
Competitionist: *drops bag of loot on boss, crushing all his bones*
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There can be benefits of open world. When traversal is a primary mechanic and is half the fun of the game like in a lot of Spider-man and Crackdown games. When the vaste distances with little to no civilization, just natural terrains, forrests, and the occasional temple ruin and giant beast fill you with a sense of wonder and unease to set the tone of the game narrative like in Shadows of Collosus. When the world itself is a living puzzle to be unraveled like in LoZ: Majora's Mask.
The problem is when games have big maps just by expanding terrain, filling it with tedium and unthoughtful design, make traversal a slog, and make everything feel unintentionally void of life and interesting things to do/see. And narrative driven games almost always benefit from at least some linearity.
Alpine Skyline and Nyakuza Metro were my favorite levels in A Hat in Time. The movement mechanics of the game are well-suited for exploring larger levels like them, and they made the journey to each objective fun
Cyberpunk 2077.
I like the linear missions, but just exploring the open world and discovering things naturally is fun too. I think they could have done more with that, and it definitely feels like the game was way more linear in early development, but with all the updates CDPR managed to make something pretty cool IMO.
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I think sequence breaking is fun, and it works better in open world games. IME many modern open world games avoid this by tightly tying loot to levels or stats that you increase by leveling or even advancing the main story, which kinda defeats the point of open world games IMO.
Though honestly, I do enjoy having at least an illusion of choice, very linear games that don't even maintain an illusion of openness feel really restricting to me. Modern open world RPGs just took it way too far while getting some of the important details wrong.
My favorite open world game that ISN'T a fantasy rpg also happens to be the easiest "finish the game early" I've ever experienced.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Basically you start the game in "realism" mode which turns loot levels off,. Then in the intro mission, when you see the bad guy kill a team member, you gain control of your character before he gets in a helicopter and leaves. Run forward with a scoped gun to shoot him in the head, or have something explosive ready to blow up the helicopter.
Congrats, you've killed the main bad guy of the game and the last level no longer has you fight him in some building.
You still have to do everything else in the game, but I managed to do that by accident my first play through. Put probably 150 hours in that game over the years and multiple playthroughs and still have yet to play with loot leveling on. I do sometimes let him live though just for funsies.
That's amazing, and surprising that the boss actually stayed dead!
Last night I had a realization that the whole reason fallout 3 was given a radio is to fill the hours and hours of nothing in between locations. And also for the dungeon crawling.
For me, half the fun in Fallout is discovering some old building and piecing together what fucked up thing happened there.
Bethsoft often pisses me off or lets me down but they are absolutely good at environmental storytelling, no doubt
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There's definitely something to that. I liked that detective kind of work too. Games don't need dialogue to tell good stories. There's even good ways to just wander a large empty world and see sights.
Too bad that the music selection is so tiny that you basically need mods with more (lore-friendly) music.
Agreed.
As a completionist open-world games give me progressively more anxiety. Worried I might miss something or mess up a quest line I like.
I am perfectly fine with a clean story or just don't bog me down with a growing list of uninteresting side quests. No I don't want to harvest 500 goblin dicks for a helmet that completes my set.
Tap for spoiler
Yes the helmet is a big floppy dick for my Phallus gear set. I get all the pieces, it unlocks a projectile attack that sticks enemies in place.
Try Kenshi.
There's no main quest at all, beyond try not to die.
Everyone has different tastes. My tend to get narrowed the older I get.
Now I pretty much stick to co-op games with drop-in and out via a matchmaking. Usually with a mechanic for tweaking things, like DRG or Darktide.
If I play anything solo, I'm a big mech fan (MW5) or I lean towards city builders.
But overall I need more than survival games or open world blank slates. I know people love those, but I'm from an era without that as the norm. I don't mind some rails if it's good content.
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Why not both? -your average dark souls enjoyer
Test Drive Unlimited.
Genshin does have a story somewhere, but exploring the world is the real fun.