Best Open-World game that captures the true spirit of freedom and exploration

When designing an open world experience, balancing is a tricky concept. Players don't want big, empty vistas that are a chore to travel between, or they simply resort to fast traveling between each objective and there might as well not be a huge world at all. Dynamic events, side quests that pop up, and collectibles to acquire are some valuable ways to keep things interesting as we explore. There's nothing like rooting out an enemy stronghold and making the country as a whole a little safer.

A world full of towns and cities is a world lived in, and that's the kind of feeling these titles strive to convey. Meanwhile, if it's also filled with mysterious cave systems and areas that may well hide valuable loot, all the better. Many of those who enjoy open world games are looking for the common concepts of freedom and exploration, and these games offer both in spades.

7

Immortals: Fenyx Rising

Become an ancient Greek legend

One of the most beloved open world games, The Witcher 3: Wild Huntrevolves around the concept of tangling with monsters and puzzles in a fantasy world. If you're looking for the same core concept but in a less grim and sinister package, Ubisoft's 2020 adventure Immortals: Fenyx Rising is a solid recommendation. Many people passed this title by when it was released, and it deserves a second look.

There are many excellent games inspired by Greek mythology, and in this one, Fenyx is a seemingly mortal warrior tasked with breaking Typhon's hold over the Olympian gods and restoring the Golden Isle to its former glory. Of course, the Golden Isle is a huge realm characterized by different biomes, Vaults of Tartaros to explore (think Breath of the Wild's shrines), collectibles to locate, and enemies to fight. These vaults can be puzzle- or combat-focused, and the Far Sight mechanic (through which Fenyx must “discover” some hidden spots on the map before they can be used as waypoints) has you exploring the world rather than just marking checkpoints on a map. The different themed areas, designed after the Olympian who lives there, keep the adventure varied as it progresses, and Fenyx's limited ability to fly via Daedalus' wings gives movement an exciting feel.

6

Ghost of Yotei

A desperate journey through an amazing part of Japan

As the predecessor Ghost of Tsushima (fans are still divided on whether or not Jin could beat Atsu), Sucker Punch's latest open-world hit eschews the allure of fantasy and opts instead for realism. Atsu's grueling journey for survival and revenge takes place in Ezo, northern Japan, and as she travels through the various regions that house the Yotei Six, the landscape shifts from stark coastlines to wide-open fields and mountains covered in a thick blanket of snow. The latter area introduces a survival mechanic, whereby Atsu begins to freeze when away from a heat source and her maximum health is reduced to mimic her condition. Laughing down muddy slopes (and fellow NPCs do on several occasions) also highlights the challenge posed by the elements, without interrupting the player's experience too much.

Additional survival elements like cooking are also more easily built in, and while not all players enjoyed the DualSense implementation for lighting a fire and so on, it was another way to emphasize that Atsu lives off the land and is connected to it. The small details are unparalleled: If you open the map while it's raining, you'll see small drops falling on it as if Atsu is physically holding it. The actions of delineating locations using the Spyglass and placing Isaburo's Traveler's Maps on your own to determine the location keep things engaging, also giving the sense that the player is manually learning more about the world and making an effort to do so. It is a pleasure to explore this harsh but fantastic world.

5

The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

A unique new way to explore Hyrule

The latest The Legend of Zelda titles, Breath of the Wild and The tears of the kingdomare so alike in some ways yet so different in others. With the former, the alignment is similar to that of Ghost of Yotei: Find your place in a vast world, collect food to cook for certain fans and collect map information as you go. These elements are not missing The tears of the kingdoms take on Hyrule, but there's an incredibly liberating kind of creative freedom that's quite unique among open worlds of its kind.

If you can see an area, you can often find a way to get there. Whether it's underground, through the floating islands, or by creating some kind of absurd vehicle, Hyrule is as much a playground here as it is an open world to explore. There is a variety of terrain and a verticality that Breath of the Wild cannot match, due to its design. Fans continue to debate the merits of one game over the other in that regard, but Tears of the Kingdom may be taking its liberty in a different direction. Zonai units were a great addition.

The wonders of Skyrim

Now it is true that Skyrim launched way back in November 2011. Understandably, then, the vanilla experience is more than a little dated today, and the thriving modding community is doing a lot of heavy lifting to keep the title more palatable for today's tastes (and to minimize the impact of some of the game's more unfortunate bugs and issues). Even so, this huge slab of Tamriel is still quite impressive in its own way. It was the game that gave so many their first taste of open world adventure.

What an opening. You are given a brief opportunity to choose your character's race and a few other traits. A devastating yet timely draw attack prevents your execution. You then escape from the ruined Weekend, where you can pretty much explore as you please. You understand right from the start that this is a game that will be full of drama, that will let you make your own choices, and it more than lives up to that promise on both counts. From battling skeletal foes in eerie caverns to shouting foes scurrying off the clifftops of one of the highest peaks in the land, there's nothing quite like your first journey through Skyrim. Building a character with exactly the skills you prefer point by point allows for wonderful customization.

3

Fire Ring

You may need Git God

Of course, in all Soulsborne games there is one important caveat: To see all the content the game has to offer, you'll have to settle for some formidable Soulsborne bosses. Fire Ring was the game that unleashed fans on the Lands Between, a true open world rather than the series of huge, often interconnected zones they were usually used to with Soulsborne games. Mounting the Torrent and setting off through this new realm was exciting, because much of the time you really didn't know what you might find, or, more importantly, if you were ready to face it when you did.

The enigmatic nature of FromSoftware's games works in Fire Rings service, perhaps, allowing you to very slowly piece together more and more of the world's history and history as you go along. As always, those who take the time to inspect the seemingly insignificant things they pick up and read descriptions will really benefit from doing so. You really feel like you're exploring the Land Between as you go, especially as, unlike many open-world titles, there isn't a neatly arranged quest journal pointing you from objective to objective.

2

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

“It's a good day for all kinds of mischief”

There is something about the storybook image of pirates that just screams exploration and freedom. The Pirates of the Caribbean Even movies seem to tell us that these two concepts were absolutely central to the pirate's life. Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag goes to great lengths to explore them, with its historical moment beginning in 1715 in the Caribbean Sea. It's a huge area, open in the true sense of the word, and Edward Kenway and his Jackdaw are free to roam much of it as they please.

While the controls for ship-to-ship battles could be finicky, it was quite creative in keeping the action dynamic, with particular types of attacks (from broadsides to dropping flaming barrels) being more practical as the relative positions of the two ships differed. Chasing other ships in the water for resources or to bolster your crew meant there was often a reason to actually do it, and the chance to board other ships added an exciting variety to proceedings. Those who have already loved Assassin's Creed for the iconic feeling of jumping from rooftop to rooftop and grabbing collectibles was also well served, but much of the joy of Black Flag lies in jumping off the boat to search for treasure on a small island, or traveling a long stretch of sea while your crew sings a pirate's shanty. The atmosphere is second to none, and meeting so many legendary pirates throughout the game's history only added to it.

1

Terraria

A small but mighty world

Terraria is quite a different beast. It doesn't have a grand, fantastically realized world that Fire Ring or Ghost of Yotei. It's easy to underestimate it based on one look at its pixelated style. Still, it has a lot in common with those titles and in its own way captures the spirit of everything a good open world experience should be.

As with Fire Ringyou're not guided by a front-and-center quest log and can see as much of the world as your combat prowess allows (there are some pesky bosses to topple). Procedural generation means that even if you've played before, this new world will probably be completely different. Besides that, if you like to develop your character and get stronger all the time, Terraria can beat you in a way that Minecraft couldn't really take it. Even so, you're still free to build some impressive structures, and the impetus for doing so is that NPCs need homes. There is a wonderful sense of freedom and connection that comes with not just creating things for the sake of things, but developing homes for the residents. It has Stardew Valley quality to tackle several different genres and let players do a bit of each.