9 Best Open-World Games of all time: If there’s one genre of video games that really exploded during the eighth generation of consoles, it’s the open world. Popularized by the likes of GTA, taking your franchise out in the open isn’t as much of a innovation as it used to be, with big names like Metal Gear Solid, Ghost Recon, and Mafia all going down the well, bad route.
But with mixed results. That said, there are plenty of great open world games for you to dive into.
So does anything qualify as an open world game? Well, the definition is usually pretty quick and loose, but an open world is generally a vast expanse into which you can jump without any restrictions on where you can go and what you can do. Sometimes the open world doesn’t have to be that big to qualify, as you’ll see on this list.
1. Crackdown 2
At the beginning of Crackdown 2, you’ll find yourself in the form of a normal badass, capable of taking away pain and stomping devils. You have a few guns in your arsenal, a nice car, and your athletic abilities are well above average. It’s just the beginning.
By the end you’ll be able to leap from roof to roof with ease, lift and toss cars and trucks, fill the sky with domestic missiles, and even play a flying squirrel. Can glide in the air. To become that ultimate superhero, you have to collect jewels. And that’s really the whole point of the game.
Orbs for driving skills can be earned by running over enemies, winning races, performing short stunts or flying through rings in the air. Catch enough, and you’ll unlock new cars.
Similar progressions work for strength, guns, and explosives. As you use these skills in battle, you’ll earn streams of jewels and be rewarded with new weapons and special moves.
2. Rage 2
Despite the negative feedback on this game, I honestly thought this game was phenomenal! The only weak spot in this game was its story, it’s straight forward and didn’t do anything new. Although the game is amazing! The fast paced action is addictive and gets your blood pumping every time you fight against a group of enemies.
I wanted more every time I dealt with a bunch of enemies. Action is the most memorable thing in this game. The open world environment is incredible to watch and love driving in the new open world. I’m not a fan of driving games but oh boy do I love driving in this game! It was fun and it felt satisfying to ride the vehicle.
The upgrade system was fun plus you could customize your weapons and vehicles and how you could upgrade your weapons and vehicles to be even more powerful. It takes a while to upgrade each one but you feel accomplished by it.
Ark is very addicting to get more weapons and power ups. It is very difficult to enter them but then, you feel accomplished and satisfied after exiting each. The characters in the main campaign could have been improved but I liked the characters in the DLC. 9/10!
Extremely underrated game that has a beautiful take on a post-apocalyptic environment and a very satisfying shooter mechanic. The progression/skill tree, although it has menus within menus in a strange fashion, is always rewarding and satisfying to explore when you get a new gun or ability.
I enjoyed locating the open structure, even though the story only progresses one way. After all, it’s not an RPG. As others have said, it is very addictive. You always want to reach that next map marker.
That being said, when life calls, the game is divided into separate encounters and areas, so it’s nice to have that bandit base complete and leave. The game runs “realistically” slow on Nightmare and makes you think about what you’re doing before charging.
When you’ve mastered that and are fast moving through enemies and taking out the hell – it’s really a thrill because one slip up can ruin the whole plan, even if you don’t have a ton of weapons/abilities.
Have a huge variety. I recently found this on sale at a third party “Game Keys” type site, but I really love Bethesda’s game and feel guilty.
3. The Division
I was introduced to the looter shooter genre two years ago when I bought The Division. The game improved a lot and the dev team did a great job bringing it back from the dead. The cover mechanics and fluid motion stunned me the most.
As for The Division 2, it is the best shooter game in this genre of smash and shoot as the devs introduce new concepts and improve the already polished mechanics even further. Speed and controls feel fluid, with customization being top notch so far.
Washington DC is on a whole new level. As a 3D animator, I can imagine how much effort it took to create such a master piece from scratch. The AI has been greatly improved, snipers take cover at sniping points, shotguns make you rush, LMG latches on for maximum cover and the different enemy classes are simply amazing to play against.
I just leveled up to 15 and I love this game. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves to explore a vast open world and have fun with a group of like-minded people.
4. Mad Max
First of all I would like to say that this game is absolutely fantastic. I enjoyed it very much. I have seen this game around in the video game store but never thought anything about it.
I thought it would be a poor imitation of the movie. I have never been so wrong. Here is a good time to say that I am a massive fan of the most recent Mad Max: Fury Road. I saw the movie 6 times at the cinema and have seen it many times since then.
This game really does the Mad Max franchise proud. In the game your character looks like a young Mel Gibson. Most of the characters have Aussie accents (which is cool considering I am Australian). Mad Max is basically an open world adventure game.
There are 2 parts to this game. One part is when you are in your car – the Magnum Opus, the other part is when you go on foot to fight the war boys and their camps. It feels so amazing, driving the Magnum Opus around the desert wasteland.
Everything about the car is cool. The way it sounds, the way it looks, the way you can harpoon enemies or shoot them with your thunderpoon and destroy them. You really feel like you are in the wasteland righting for your life. You feel like such a badass driving your Magnum Opus around the desert.
Your hunchback companion “Chumbucket” serves you well from the beginning to the end of the game by repairing your car whenever it needs it. The upgrade system works great.
You collect scrap around the wasteland and use it to improve your car or fighting style in many ways. This includes weapons, armour, fighting skills and so on. The second part to this game is when you go on foot to infiltrate a war boy camp. Bashing up war boys has never felt so good, especially when you take on a whole squad of them.
Its good to explore their camps and destroy them, making them your own. The only negative thing I have to say about this game is that the story is a bit lacking… But its okay seeing as this is an open world game and most of the game is really exploring many facets of the desert wasteland.
I completed the main story in 24 hours but had only completed 44% if the entire game. I often give up on games after I have completed the main story, but there is a lot more to do in Mad Max if you are a completionist.
My final word about this game would be that this is one of the most underrated games I have played, and I think that I think you will enjoy it very much, especially if you are a fan of the movies.
5. Days Gone
We can say anything but still… it won’t do justice to this low rated gem. It’s exceptionally cool, I just finished it on PS5 but I plan to buy it for PC as it was included in the PS Plus collection for free and I really support the studio and its effort.
want to do An epic adventure, thrilling story, graphics, sound, music and effects at another level for its time, a masterpiece of the gaming industry, literally dragging the user like a whirlwind in its vibrant and dangerous post-apocalyptic world, Which represents Deacon St. John’s and the struggle of the survivors to survive and their own world (or perhaps our world?) The actions of those who, despite the devastation they face and the daily danger they face, continue to pursue their own personal interests.
continue to act based on passion or malicious intentions as if nothing has changed. From the first introductory scene to the end, it keeps you alert about everything, it literally makes you want to tackle every aspect of the game, to accomplish everything as it relates to your own life, not a single one. of the digital hero.
You become a part of everything you experience and that is really the great success of the game in my opinion. If this game was released by Rockstar Games with attention to detail and it’s something more we’re used to delivering, we’d probably be talking about a better title than RDR2 and the best we’ve seen as truth , that is, there are flaws and bugs, to date although most of them have been fixed since the initial release.
Music and sound effects are worth noting separately, the game music score is perfect. For the most part the voice acting is really great and helps you connect with the characters in the game.
The 60 fps on PS5 turns up the game and delivers a ton of next-gen, even for a small percentage. On PC, it will be a completely new experience as we are mostly talking about a very powerful system thanks to the graphics engine of the game. As far as Sony is concerned. What can we say other than lots of applause and a big “thank you”.
The quality and completeness of the titles that the company mentions as specifications, at least the ones I’ve tried so far (God of War, TLOU and TLOU Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone) really impress and set the bar Very high, as they reached a quality level unreachable to the competition.
and translation, subtitles or full translations into multiple languages is another very strong point where the heavy attention to detail and professionalism of its creators. This is another way that makes their exclusives stand out from the competition.
And yes this is one of the important reasons to choose your own console today, if you have to choose any of the three available in the market. I won’t give any spoilers so that you can live this wonderful journey till the end but what I can say to PC and PS5 users is just to respect this game, we need more titles like this. Definitely worth the time you invest in it.
6. Infamous 2
It was the first one I played and oh my god, it still has to be my favorite if of all time. I went back and played them again and infamous 1 and 2 are the greatest games of all time. so much fun.
Notorious 2 is my favorite from the series and with badass characters like Cole, emotional rollercoasters, crazy twists, cool powers, fun gameplay, beautiful map, and just so much fun. Just such a good game. Also coo and nicks are cute i won’t lie
I’m a sucker for sandbox games and solid third-person action titles, but Infamous didn’t intrigue me leading up to its 2009 release. Superheroes and comic books aren’t my thing, and I figured I’d ignore it while waiting for something more fascinating to come.
But I was wrong. After committing to writing the IGN guide for Notorious, I jumped into an experience I thought I wouldn’t be interested in and ended up loving every second of it. I beat Infamous four times. No matter how many times I played, Infamous never got old, and it quickly became one of my favorite games of an entire generation.
7. Far Cry 3
I don’t know what an immortal bear really is, but I’ve vowed to kill it. I hope it’s just a name. It is a mission for the Rakyat tribe of the island, and Rakyat tradition dictates that I must defeat the creature with the infinite-ammo pump-action shotgun given to me by them.
A recent tradition, I suppose, but one I’m happy to honor. The truth is, I have an ulterior motive for finding and killing the legend: I really need a new rucksack.
A lot of everything you do in Far Cry 3 raises perplexing questions: Why would a rucksack made from immortal bear skin be any more than the one I made from the first four dead dingoes?
Can’t I just make one out of six dead dingoes? What is it about immortal bear skin that specifically features the giant rucksack design? And more to the point: if it’s never died, how would anyone know?
8. Horizon Zero Dawn
The PC port of Horizon Zero Dawn is a great way to experience the game. Despite a rough start most of the wrinkles have been ironed out. Like some console games before it the PC version was a glitch that had to be fixed but is now stable and enjoyable.
My time with HZD was disappointing at first. I struggled to break 60 fps and couldn’t play for more than an hour or two without crashing on the desktop. However, I carried on, as I remembered the game from my game on PS4. However it was taking a toll and I was starting to question the logic behind porting it to PC.
Luckily for me, and as a PC gamer base, things went well after a few patches. With the latest patch (1.03 as of 9/4/2020) things have stabilized and I haven’t had any crashes after playing for several hours. My frame rate has smoothed out quite a bit, rarely dropping below 60 fps. My GTX 1080ti is getting a little long in the tooth but I’m happy to see that even at 1440p it’s more than capable.
Horizon Zero Dawn is a game for those who love the spirit of exploration but also want a strong story to keep them going. There’s a pretty believable sense of progress in the vast and varied world the game is set in, but the story really keeps you going. Which is saying a lot for a game featuring robot dinosaurs. The copies of the base alone would (and I doubt it) be copies sold. Robot, awesome.
Dinosaurs, awesome. Robot Dinos, Double Amazing. This may seem like an odd point to begin with but in a very real way it communicates the overall theme of Horizon Zero Dawn. It is a game that tries to make some sense of the things it has to offer. It works well because nobody but me was asking why robots look like this.
Everyone else seemed satisfied that they were awesome. Just the fact that they took the time to answer a question some people were actually speaking about how seriously Guerrilla Games took their new IP. (Slight spoilers ahead) The story here is presented in a variety of ways, with most of it being presented as you progress, but with extra money for those who want more. When you roam the world you will come to know a lot about the world that was once or not, it is up to you.
I really appreciate the little things, like the ancient message that hinted at what life was like for the average person before the world ended. HZD sounded great on PS4 and on PC it’s even better. While you’ll need some robust hardware to play it, the additional games here are worth a second if you’ve already played on the PS4. However, this does not mean that the port is perfect.
There are some issues, especially with characters in cutscenes animating at 30fps even though the world is at 60. Still, an improvement overall, to be sure. For those who haven’t played it on PS4, now’s your chance to play a great title that really helped define the PS4.
9. Fallout: New Vegas
The Mojave capital is far from the grim, broken ruins of the barren land. This part of the United States had never been bombed so heavily, and has retained some color and life through the centuries. Fallout 3 was a sea of blues and grays, but New Vegas burns with oranges and reds.
It’s a more vibrant post-apocalyptic wasteland, but still with the melancholy, desolate tone that defines the Fallout series. You start the game on the edge of the desert between isolated towns and rolling tumbleweed, then move closer to New Vegas, where civilization has a strong foothold.
“So much of Fallout is bleak,” says writer and designer Eric Fenstermacher, in a ‘making’ film included in the collector’s edition. “Everything is blown up, but the New Vegas Strip is unique in that no nuclear weapons hit it. So when you walk inside you’re immediately struck by the fact that it’s one of the last places that’s still alive.” Feels like old world.”
And although the strip’s reveal isn’t as impressive as it could have been — a result of the slightly awkward, ugly engine in which the game was built — it’s still interesting to explore an area of Fallout’s wasteland that hasn’t been completely ruined. Has happened.
