Best Open-World Games

[Pumpkin]

What are your faves and why are they so awesome opossum?

[Laddy]

Fallout: New Vegas - Is not only full on content, it's full of content that matters. Each character, quest, and locale is tied to the greater setting and plot, making each element of the game feel connected. Moral ambiguity, a variety of solutions to quests, and a faction/reputation system that puts the World in Open World.

[Fynn]

I know some people don't consider it a fully open-world game since it is divided a little bit, but Xenoblade Chronicles wins if only because the world concept is so original and brilliantly executed.


That and the Sims 3 really felt so much more engrossing than the previous games because it had an open world and story progression

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

Probably Xenoblade since it's actually fun.

[krissy]

red dead redemption

[Pumpkin]

That and the Sins 3 really felt so much more engrossing than the previous games because it had an open world and story progression

I feel like The Sins 3 would be an open-world religion game where you play as Jesus or something and go cleanse people of your choice of their sins.

You could have decisions like whether or not to chill with the tax collectors or prostitutes and whether or not to get annoyed when your ship buddies wake you up because they're worried about a storm.

[Psychotic]

Fallout: New Vegas - Is not only full on content, it's full of content that matters. Each character, quest, and locale is tied to the greater setting and plot, making each element of the game feel connected. Moral ambiguity, a variety of solutions to quests, and a faction/reputation system that puts the World in Open World.Absolutely.
red dead redemptionDefinitely.

Also Saints Row 2 is a masterpiece and by far and away the best sandbox crime city game.

Finally, the Assassin's Creed series gets a lot of shit and deservedly so in many cases, but their recreations of cities are beautiful and densely packed - there's always something going on.

[Formalhaut]

That and the Sins 3 really felt so much more engrossing than the previous games because it had an open world and story progression

I feel like The Sins 3 would be an open-world religion game where you play as Jesus or something and go cleanse people of your choice of their sins.

Yeah, I feel like the mods on that game could get dark really fast. ^^;

I do agree that The Sims 3 was great at open-world, probably too much because it fries computers. I'm still surprised my laptop was able to play it.

Otherwise, I can't say I've played many true open world games. Dragon Age: Inquisition definitely doesn't count. Umm... I must have played more than just that!

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

Oh yeah, Final Fantasy VIII is also a great open world game.

[Pumpkin]

That and the Sins 3 really felt so much more engrossing than the previous games because it had an open world and story progression

I feel like The Sins 3 would be an open-world religion game where you play as Jesus or something and go cleanse people of your choice of their sins.

Yeah, I feel like the mods on that game could get dark really fast. ^^;

Well religion does get pretty dark, you know

[Del Murder]

For me, the world is the most important part of an open world game. I'm not all that interested in running around a recreation of a modern day city, no matter how detailed it is. My favorite open world games are the ones where the area itself is a fantastic place. So here are some of my favorites and where they took place:

Final Fantasy VI - the second half of this game is basically what we call 'open world RPG' today, and it takes place in a ruined world caused by the villain. How often does the villain actually succeed in destroying the world? Man this game is so great.

Red Dead Redemption - the Wild West, where the law was just a six shooter at your side.

Assassins Creed II - Florence/Tuscany, one of the most beautiful cities in existence, and recreated at its prime.

Assassins Creed IV - the open sea in the era of pirates. Possibly overlooked but I think this is the best AC. Like, Rockstar did the Cowboy Open World Game and it was fantastic so why did it take anyone this long to do the Pirate Open World Game?

Dragon Age Inquisition - a variety of your standard fantasy type settings but they are all beautiful and there's dragons.

Shadow of Mordor - it's in Middle Earth!

Xenoblade is a great RPG (one of the greatest) but I don't think I'd call it one of my favorite open world games. I love it more for the characters, plot, and battle mechanics. The settings are great but more for the running through them on your adventure. I don't see them as 'alive' as some of the other open world games.

[Slothy]

Just Cause 2. The world has almost nothing interesting going on it and the story is basically garbage but you know what? Doesn't even matter. You're a guy with a grappling hook, a parachute, and a metric fuckton of weapons and vehicles at your disposal and the amount of fun that can be found in all of that is truly something to behold. An excellent example of a game with a few core gameplay mechanics that are just so god damned fun and work so well together that it makes a game that would suck without any single one of them one of the best things going. You haven't lived until you just run around seeing what things you can tie together with your grappling hook and what happens when you do.

[Psychotic]

Assassins Creed II - Florence/Tuscany, one of the most beautiful cities in existence, and recreated at its prime.

Assassins Creed IV - the open sea in the era of pirates. Possibly overlooked but I think this is the best AC. Like, Rockstar did the Cowboy Open World Game and it was fantastic so why did it take anyone this long to do the Pirate Open World Game?I definitely agree with II and IV being highlights of the Assassin's Creed series. I was a huge fan of Venice in II, and I also enjoyed Rome in Brotherhood. As a biased Brit I've really enjoyed playing Syndicate too. London is a city I know very well so it's pretty cool to see it recreated, and the Victorian era is one I've always liked the aesthetic of. Plus the grappling hook (I have no idea when they added this, I assume in Unity) is heaven sent for exploration.

[Spuuky]

Also Saints Row 2 is a masterpiece and by far and away the best sandbox crime city game.This isn't actually completely true, I think. It's great, and better than SR3 and SR4, and certainly better than any GTA offering, but Sleeping Dogs is really good.

Some other open world games I adore in the category of "games I doubt other people will mention":

Gothic 1-3
Divinity: Original Sin (is this "open world"? what are the requirements?)

[Psychotic]

I don't disagree about Sleeping Dogs at all, it was a vastly underrated title and as a single player experience you could definitely make the case for it being better than Saints Row 2. What swings it for SR2 for me is the co-op mode which has given me hundreds of hours of fun with friends.

[Scruffington]

Skyrim, The Witcher 3, GTA: San Andreas, GTA V, Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed IV.

[Laddy]

Oh and fucking Mount & Blade, obvs.

[Vermachtnis]

New Vegas and Skyrim are my favorite places. Both are just fun to explore.

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

Does FFXI count as open world?

[Mr. Carnelian]

Skyrim's up there, definitely. A large world with some very evocative locations. There are, however, some areas which are a bit on the dull side.

Assassin's Creed has come up a fair bit in this thread, and now I'm going to throw in my contender: Istanbul, from Revelations. Absolutely stunning.

Borderlands 2 is also up there for me. Much more variety of environments than in the first game, and some great vistas. Some areas have a lot more character than others though, it has to be said: some are completely forgettable.

[Spuuky]

I have played all the way through Borderlands 2 (except DLC) and I would be hard-pressed to definitively remember a single zone in it, personally.

[Mr. Carnelian]

I have played all the way through Borderlands 2 (except DLC) and I would be hard-pressed to definitively remember a single zone in it, personally.

:gator: Fair enough. Personally, the stand-out area for me was the Highlands, with the Sandsea (from the Captain Scarlett piratey DLC), Lynchwood, Opportunity and the dwarf caves whose name I've forgotten (from the Tiny Tina's Bunkers and Badasses DLC) being close runners-up.

[Formalhaut]

Pretty much every area from Tiny Tina's DLC is great. I wouldn't say Borderlands 2 is the best open-world game for locations (I can generally summarise them as the ice level, the sand level, etc.) but I enjoyed them. Maybe the art style has something to do with it.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

Ookami, FFXIV, DA:I, Witcher 3, most Zelda titles.

[Vyk]

I wonder if an argument could be made for Gravity Rush. I'm currently enjoying it between sessions of Horizon: Zero Dawn and a replaly of Bloodborne, and every time I touch it, I wonder why I'm not playing more of it. The world may not be open in the normal sense, but it does have large open areas you load into similar to Dragon Age: Inquisition. And it's city life, so it could be compared to running around in GTA or Saints Row in an oblong way, but there aren't a lot of shops and no vehicles or anything to compare to. There's honestly not a lot of interaction at all in the sections. But for some reason they are still damn fun to explore. A floating steam-punk city oozing with style. And there are a lot of fun little activities to enjoy if you like the gameplay mechanics themselves. I just love the characters, story, art style, and world they've created. It'll be fun to dig into the sequel when the time comes

[I Took the Red Pill]

Oblivion
GTA V
Dark Souls (in a kindof different way)
Breath of the Wild

[Pike]

Morrowind, because the world is thick with arcane lore and the gameplay mechanics allow you to do basically whatever you want to break the game and become a god. Wanna enchant your shoes so you're permanently flying? You can do that.

[Vermachtnis]

I'm loving the new Zelda. I got sidetracked and ended up doing a main story quest. Never happened in other open world game.

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah it's Morrowind.

[Chibi Youkai]

Have to second Fallout New Vegas. It was an awesome way to loose time just running around doing stuff, and exploring all the nooks and crannies.

[Wolf Kanno]

Dark Souls. Why? Because it gives you a really beautiful open world with a large variety of locales to see with tight level design; and to top it all off they decided it would be a great idea to leave it alone instead of burying under a mountain of samey fetch quests and monster hunts. Exploration for the sake of exploration and no filler.