gaming Best 'Open Worlds' in Gaming

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,311]

'Open World' or Sandbox is a genre of games that has exploded in the past decade, most notably because of Grand Theft Auto 3 way back when. That  game started a revolution, giving us games that have game areas that are huge and let us do anything at any time.

 

With so many games now employing this concept, we can choose what our favorite open worlds are. So let's do that! What are YOUR favorite open world's in video games?

 

For me, it is probably a tie between GTA 3 and Skyrim. GTA 3 was just so fun in its simplicity and especially for its time. Hearing what citizens say and causing mayhem, driving around, it was just really nice.

 

Skyrim is just a wonderful example of how to do an open world near perfectly. It is massive, filled with all sorts of things to do and see, while creating your own adventure. It is simply amazing.

[James A Williams 199]

I really like the Open Worlds from LEGO Dimensions. They are all hub areas of locations from all sorts of franchises. There are loads of iconic places, loads of easter eggs and references in said places and there's always plenty to do.

 

[CaptainDoubloon 856]

Elder Scrolls Oblivion & Skyrim, and GTA 5 are some of my favorite open world places.

[Nara 84]

I only played a few such games but I did enjoy the Far Cry series and Goat Simulator for their open world aspects

[Concerned Bystander 2,902]

I always enjoyed 'Frontier: Elite II', one of the very earliest open-world games (1993).

[Castle Bleck 19,327]

GTA: San Andreas and GTA V.

 

Jaw-dropping scales and varieties.

 

 

See?

[Sporemane 546]

Red Dead Redemptions open world is amazing and full of diversity. 

[Luminance 2,186]

The Crew has a scale down version of the entire continental U.S. that you can actually drive through in real time. It takes about an hour to drive from large scale cities like New York City to Los Angeles across various terrain dotted with smaller cities all across America. There are also no boundaries within the map so if you wish to veer off the main road and take any route through forests, deserts and mountains then you can also do that too.

[Anneal 2,197]

The Long Dark is awfully expansive and large and it's rather fun to explore around. 

 

Surprised no one mentioned Fallout 4, though. There's just so much to do in that game, and it's mod-friendly (unless you're playing on the PS4) enough to keep its fresh value. Fallout: New Vegas's mods are a lot more diverse, though I think Fallout 4 can come up with a lot more interesting ones given time.

[Quinch 1,120]

I always enjoyed 'Frontier: Elite II', one of the very earliest open-world games (1993).

 

I have to admit, I was more partial to First Encounters.

 

The bugs, though. Man, the bugs.

[EmeraldStar04 250]

Skyrim.

 

Also, Skyrim.

 

And then there's Skyrim.

I really like the Open Worlds from LEGO Dimensions. They are all hub areas of locations from all sorts of franchises. There are loads of iconic places, loads of easter eggs and references in said places and there's always plenty to do.

 

Hogwarts.png World.jpg Wizard_of_oz.jpg Land_of_Ooo_Screenshot.jpg Springfield.png Wizard_of_oz-2.jpg

I'll only get a "Toys to life" game if I also get what I need to hack it and get what I need to play the game I bought.

[Appley Hooves 136]

For me it'd have to be the original Just Cause, I wasted so many hours in that just driving around and watching the sunsets. The second one's nice too but am just getting into it now thanks to my old PC hating it. Third one sounds...kinda like a bargain bin buy at best going by the issues friends have with it

 

Would have mentioned GTA V too, but I honestly find its world dead despite it being so detailed. On the other hand I've yet to do much multi or mod the heck out of singleplayer so that could change

[Ethan Tran 950]

_^Spyro^_

_^Grand Theft Auto^_

_^Need For Speed^_

[Stone Cold Applejack 381]

I really like Fallout New Vegas's world. Not a lot of people appreciate the game scenery and I think it's kind of a shame they don't. To be honest I liked it better than both Fallout 3 and 4's shit colored everything. I also really loved the countryside in GTA V. Red Dead Redemption's world was also a lot of fun to explore. Now I miss my 360.

[KatonRyu 1,033]

I really like Skyrim and I still occasionally play it, so that one is at the top. All of the GTA games since 3 are on the list as well, as is Oblivion. I would mention Fallout 3 as well, because I liked the atmosphere, but I never got very far in that game because it kept crashing.

[Twilight Dirac 721]

Britannia from the Ultima series.  Ultima was doing open world games long before many of the aforementioned games existed and arguably a lot better.  Where your typical open world game will often be little more than a small series of story missions buried in a sandbox full of unrelated side quest (see the Elder Scroll Series for that), in the Ultima series exploring the open world was essential to completing the game.  You weren't just given a set of story missions, you were given a seemingly insurmountable objective like becoming a champion of virtue, overthrowing an authoritarian regime, determining why magic was no longer functioning, etc.  Exploring the world was essential to simply figuring out what was going on and what you needed to do, in addition to gathering the allies and resources needed to achieve your goals.  The world allowed unrestricted exploration yet was guided by a central objective and worked as a cohesive whole at the same time.  It wasn't the sort of game where you just forgot what you were supposed to be doing an then 20 hours later looked at your journal and said "oh yea, I need to find my missing son."  The open world was an essential part of the game, not just a sideshow when you didn't feel like doing the story missions.

Edited March 6, 2018 by Twilight Dirac

[N.W. 3,619]

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series have some decent open worlds to explore, though I'll admit there is not too much to do in them besides basic quests.

That in mind, mods/break off games such as Lost Alpha and Call of Chernobyl bring back a lot of the maps that were never introduced or were otherwise limited in some way. Not only does it bring those back, but mods add more quests and such. 

[碇 シンジン 27,431]

Skyrim pretty much with mods only your imagination is the limit

[Steve Piranha 29,419]

The Witcher 3. There's always something to do everywhere, interesinteresting quest in industrial amounts, and gorgeous sceneries, specially Toussaint 

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

I havent played much open World Games but one of my favourites is Total Overdose. I think mexico looks cool and it also fun to drive around and maybe cause mayhem or just try to find secrets, play the special mini games or do stunts to get floating points, it was just a bit more fun then Grand Theft Auto for me. Even though i have to admit, i havent played all Gta´s and i havent beaten any of them so far.

Not sure if it counts, but the World in Final Fantasy 1 ( the Origins Version for ps 1 ) seems also pretty cool and interesting.

[Prospekt 11,018]

I'll probably get flak for this, but when it comes to open worlds, Minecraft is king for me. Cool terrain, enough biome variation that you won't get bored of the same stuff over and over, and plenty of room for exploration. It would take many people countless lifetimes to exhaust a randomly generated Overworld of resources. That's how big it is (outside of the console versions, of course). Heck, it would take many decades (in real time) to just walk from one edge of the world to the other without cheats.

It's the ultimate sandbox world. It's not really infinite, but it's huge enough that no one could ever run out of space to build and explore. And as if that's not enough, there are other dimensions that can be explored, as long as you can assemble the required portals.

[Brony Number 42 10,069]

Grand Theft Auto V. I would just drive around. I loved that world.

[EpicEnergy 23,174]

My favorite is probably Black Desert Online's open world.