Summary
- Open-world RPGs like Elden Ring and Fallout 3 offer immersive worlds filled with secrets and meaningful choices for players to explore.
- Games like The Witcher 3 and Skyrim prioritize storytelling and interesting characters within their vast open worlds for a more narrative-focused experience.
- Kenshi stands out as a truly open-world RPG, challenging players to navigate a hostile environment and create their own objectives for a unique gameplay experience.
One of the best things about RPGs is exploring interesting settings, and some of the best in the genre have memorable open worlds to offer. A great open world provides a large, seamless environment, but size isn’t the only necessary component. A world that’s truly open should also be filled with interesting opportunities and reactivity, making it feel less like window dressing and more like something the player can interact with in meaningful ways.
Not every great, expansive RPG has an open-world setting, and some standouts like the Baldur’s Gate series and the original Mass Effect trilogy don’t actually qualify in this regard. Anyone looking to scratch the open world itch, however, definitely won’t find a shortage of RPGs that manage to go above and beyond with the concept. Having the most open world isn’t the same as being the best open-world RPG ever, but anything that does so well usually ends up being one of the more memorable experiences.
Related
10 Best Open-World Games
The freedom of open-world games can be magical when everything clicks, and the best titles support their open worlds with great ideas all around.
10 Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth Is Full Of Fun
The Like a Dragon series (known for years as Yakuza outside of Japan) has always offered the opportunity to explore densely packed city streets full of fine side quests and activities. It hasn’t traditionally set its sights on scale, however, focusing more on the consistency of the entertainment than on the size of the world. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth blows past the size of previous games, and by managing to retain that emphasis on quality, it manages to be a best of both worlds scenario.
Another big shift over the course of the Like a Dragon games is the switch from brawling encounters to turn-based combat that first occurred in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The current protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, loves the Dragon Quest series, and the games reflect that by embracing classic JRPG elements. In Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Ichiban ends up in Hawaii, where opportunities like fighting sharks and playing an Animal Crossing-style mini-game abound.
Related
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review – “A Tremendously High Bar”
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth takes many of the best elements of the franchise’s past, expands on them, and adds more into sheer brilliance.
9 Kingdom Come: Deliverance Gets Down To Earth
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a game that deliberately embraces the mundane, focusing on a much more realistic medieval story than a typical heroic high fantasy. Henry, the son of a blacksmith, ventures forth on a quest for revenge that takes him through the interesting tangle of 15th century Bohemia rendered with enough historical accuracy to make it a genuinely educational video game experience.
As a game from a smaller studio than most open-world titles, Kingdom Come: Deliverance can be rough around the edges. When everything’s clicking, however, it can really shine, with NPCs that react to Henry’s behavior and plenty of freedom in how to approach combat, quests, and more. Looking for loot in hidden corners won’t be as rewarding as some other games, but the uniqueness of its strengths makes up for the lack of constant excitement.
8 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Brings Ancient Greece To Life
The Assassin’s Creed series made its name as action-adventure games focused around stealth and parkour, but Assassin’s Creed Origins took things in more of an open-world RPG direction, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey fully embraced these elements. There’s a much greater focus than ever before on quests, looting, and shaping the character according to player choices rather than following a completely prescribed narrative.
Related
Every Assassin’s Creed Setting So Far (Spin-Offs Included)
The Assassin’s Creed franchise immerses players in incredibly detailed reenactments of historical cities, from Ancient Greece to Revolutionary Russia.
The big draw of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is its setting of Ancient Greece, which is full of fascinating historical detail that can often outshine the missions themselves. There’s plenty of freedom to sail around islands in the Mediterranean and explore the mainland of Greece, and although every nook and cranny might not always have something truly bespoke, enemies to fight, creatures to hunt, and gear to pick up certainly aren’t in short supply.
7 Dragon’s Dogma 2 Makes Its World Real
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a game where the world really matters, ignoring some classic contrivances for player convenience in favor of making a deeply believable and reactive experience. Venturing outside city walls can be genuinely dangerous, and every decision involving paths to take and items to pack matters. The world lends itself to the roleplaying experience in a uniquely immersive way, offering constant intrinsic choices and opportunities that matter.
In terms of unique locations to find within the open world, Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t rank up there with the very best, and it definitely doesn’t fulfill the promise of climbing every mountain that Skyrim made such a big deal of. For those who care first and foremost about how player agency affects the game and want to struggle against systems that don’t make any concessions, however, there isn’t anything else that’s quite like Dragon’s Dogma 2.
6 Elden Ring Rewards Exploration
Elden Ring is very much an open-world successor to the Dark Souls games, which means it brings a lot of strong points along with it. A decaying fantasy world is filled with evocative grandeur, beautiful vistas, and a pervasive melancholy. Secrets — not all of which are pleasant — lurk around every corner.
Related
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review – FromSoft’s Greatest Hits
Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is a victory lap for FromSoftware, bringing in elements from past games without losing what made it special.
What makes Elden Ring feel especially open is that it isn’t too strict about gating progress, avoiding there being any one standard order to take on challenging areas or clear bosses. It also heavily rewards venturing off the beaten path, as key items and interesting NPCs can be found in areas that might not be all that easy to come across. Like Dark Souls, Elden Ring doesn’t take any prisoners, but stepping up to the challenge is highly rewarding for anyone seeking an exceptional open-world experience.
5 Fallout 3 Is Packed With Interesting Details
The Fallout franchise offers a lot of great open worlds to explore, but the most open one of all might be Fallout 3. Exploration in the Capital Wasteland is arguably the game’s strong suit, and the possibilities of how to approach the game are nearly limitless. It’s possible to step out of the vault at the beginning and never even head to the starting town of Megaton, and there are surprises to be found around every corner.
Fallout games focus on a post-nuclear America where nostalgic trappings marry the blasted landscapes of a harsh world, presenting interesting choices and stories within that strange environment. There are arguments to be made for the other Fallout games as well — among the modern titles, New Vegas might be the overall best, and Fallout 4 and 76 are huge and full of content. When it comes to the opportunities available in an exploration-focused world, however, Fallout 3 feels like the most obvious choice.
4 The Witcher 3 Has A Great Fantasy Setting
The Witcher 3 doesn’t focus on the sandbox aspect as much as some other open-world RPGs, but it’s a great fantasy game with an open world that does offer a lot of meaningful contributions. Continuing the plot of The Witcher books and the other games, The Witcher 3 focuses more on the discrete character of Geralt of Rivia and his story than on indulging the most random whims of its players.
Related
Baldur’s Gate 3 Finally Surpasses The Witcher 3 With A Major Milestone
Days after the announcement of official mod support, Baldur’s Gate 3 manages to surpass The Witcher 3’s total number of downloaded mods.
Many of the quests that litter The Witcher 3 offer interesting choices, and some of these impact the world and other quests in interesting ways. Others tend to explore interesting moral grays, as nothing is ever all that simple in the harsh world of The Witcher. Interesting politics, characters, and foes help the setting feel alive, and although wandering off without any goals could quickly prove dangerous, there are plenty of beautiful sights to explore.
3 Xenoblade Chronicles X Offers A Huge Planet
Xenoblade Chronicles X is an unusual turn for the Xenoblade franchise, focusing less on the story and switching from an emphasis on fantasy elements to a full embrace of sci-fi. It’s consequently not always a favorite for fans of the series, as it’s hard to compare it directly against games that are doing very different things. What it definitely does well, however, is its open world, which is absolutely enormous and consistently exciting to explore.
Progressing through Xenoblade Chronicles X is built around discovering more and more of the planet Mira, where survivors of Earth have landed and are attempting to carve out a stable society. Exciting combat and interesting side plots provide plenty of entertainment, but the real draw of Xenoblade Chronicles X is how it makes the player’s approach to building a home for humanity on Mira feel meaningful.
For many people, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is what first comes to mind when thinking of open-world games, and that’s not without good reason. Skyrim‘s scenic, mountainous world is full of interesting discoveries, and it’s easy to end up straying far from the main quest in the pursuit of everything else that the game has to offer. At its best, Skyrim‘s world feels genuinely alive, and NPCs even have their own routines to follow.
Like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls has a lot of competitive open world games to offer, and the extensive trust that Morrowind places in its players or the quest and reputation systems of Oblivion make them great choices as well. Skyrim might be the easiest to get lost in for the first time, however, and an enormous modding scene enhances the sense that it’s still full of possibilities today.
1 Kenshi Is Truly Open-World
Kenshi isn’t a game for the faint of heart, but it’s open in a way that very few games can come close to. Getting started in the game can be tough, as players are simply thrown into a hostile desert environment and forced to work their way up through an uncompromising world. Despite the fact that it can take some time to adjust to its complex systems, however, Kenshi really shines once things start to click.
Related
My Most Anticipated Sequel Is A 10/10 Steam Game Made By One Person You Haven’t Heard Of
This expansive open-world RPG might not get the notoriety of other big AAA games, but its sequel is something that I’ve been looking forward to.
Any experience in Kenshi is likely to be unlike any other, with wide-ranging possibilities for growth influencing core elements of the gameplay and random events throughout its world shaping the future of a player and the squad they build up. It doesn’t have any traditional RPG quests, instead pushing players to make their own objectives and shape the open world in whatever way they see fit.
