In no particular order, these are some of my favourites:
Burnout Paradise (PlayStation 3)
Driver (PSone)
Fable II (Xbox 360)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PlayStation 2)
Gravity Rush (PS Vita)
Horizon Zero Dawn (PlayStation 4)
inFAMOUS (PlayStation 3)
I’m not sure if Fable II qualifies as ‘open world’ and more so a linear open world design, which is why I added an extra game just in case it doesn’t count!
Not a fan of Fallout (although the dialogue and writing is genuinely superb in New Vegas) or the Elder Scrolls series despite trying to get into them numerous times (the remarkably average combat doesn’t help in the latter series either) and I haven’t played The Witcher III enough to justify putting it on the list.
p.s. Looks like my list is a little bit different from the rest in this thread.
Grand Theft Auto 3. This was the first true open world game I ever played, back when it first came out & I played it on my cousin's PS2. I was blown away by it & to this day it's still my favorite GTA game.
I think many people see GTA3 as being the spritual starter of the genre. Obviously there were older games that technically fit the description but it does seem to be GTA3 that started it as a craze.
This is really hard for me to do since I haven't played many open world games. I actually had to do some "research" to make my list.
Zelda:BOTW - Being a huge LoZ fan and this game being open world worried me at first because I was scared I'd get bored. Luckily this game exceeded my expectations. It does have its flaws (no real dungeons and lack of variety in bosses), but the good in the game made it overall enjoyable for me.
Minecraft - The first open world game for me to actually like. I like the ability to create in games, so that made this game a huge draw. Lack of story doesn't bother me. This is a super relaxing game to play.
Borderlands 1 and 2 - The humor in this game caught my attention right away so I bought the first one so I could play it on my roommate's xbox and fell in love with the series. I almost didn't put this on the list because I feel it isn't near as open world as most games in the genre.
It is kind of a sad list, but I mostly steer clear of open world games because of games like GTA, AC, and RedDead bored me out of my mind.
Tricky one. I've enjoyed the genre, and own most of the games people have listed, but not actually sunk a whole lot of hours (or any in many cases) into many of the highest profile of them, so my list is a work in progress.
Breath of the Wild - this is a safe one. A real treat to have been there for Day 1.
Assassin's Creed - I'm a fair way through AC2, and while there are some obvious improvements (e.g. swimming), it hasn't grabbed me in the way the original did because it's not much different, and I really dug the whole "Nothing is true; Everything is permitted" aspect to the writing in the original.
Watch_Dogs - An unfairly maligned game, it played really well on the Wii U with some great variety in the mechanics that let you take different approaches whenever you liked and, while I didn't really get away from the main story much, I really enjoyed my time finishing it.
Grand Theft Auto 3 - I've only played 3 & 4, and never finished 3 (played at uni on a housemate's PS2, but 3 blew me away and really felt like a 'next gen' experience. 4 didn't really seem to play much different (I.e. not enough), just had better graphics and an annoying cousin.
By rights my last entry should probably go to GTA4 or Wind Waker HD (though it's probably not classed as open world), as these are games I've actually finished, but as I have issues with both those games, and because I've already selected other titles in those series, I'm instead going to go with...
Red Faction: Guerilla - Not a game I've finished, and I've not played it in a while as it maybe began to feel a bit samey, but for the first 10 hours that I've played, the carnage was legit.
Oh right, I forgot The Wind Waker. That's a much better mix between a Zelda and open world game. I guess the waste-your-time overworld stuff is better in Breath of the Wild, but that part of the game isn't particularly compelling in either of them. (Specifically the sea and copy-pasted islands in TWW, stuff that's technically in the open world like Windfall's windmill puzzles are great!)
Red Faction: Guerilla - Not a game I've finished, and I've not played it in a while as it maybe began to feel a bit samey, but for the first 10 hours that I've played, the carnage was legit.
3. Red Dead Redemption - God this game was great. I will almost certainly not enjoy it as much again on a second playthrough but what a great time this was in 2010.
4. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - See: Red Dead Redemption, except 2007
5. Assassin's Creed 2 - See: Elder Scrolls IV, except 2009
I've come to a realization that this is probably less me saying that open world games become dated as much as open world games are not ones that are a big priority for me to replay. Doing the slower, more redundant parts of the game once? Sure. Doing it again for the same game instead of playing new games? NOOOOOO.
@Octane Well both have areas (Hyrule Field, Eldin, Lanaryu, Mt. Doom, Gerudo's Fortress) locked behind progress and items. And that's good, I wouldn't want them to be more open for the sake of modern online opinions. I think 3D Zelda games are metroidvanian in structure, requiring items to access secrets or new areas. The difference is that they're a little less restrictive than Metroid games, etc.
Where my friends and I usually get stupid:
https://www.twitch.tv/MUDWALLHOLLER - Come by hang and visit our Discord. The link for Discord is on the Twitch page.
What would you call TP or OOT? I used to call them open-world, since you can go anywhere, and the games aren't level or chapter based.
I mean, I don't consider it because open world's modern definition for gaming has a specific structure and/or size that doesn't entirely fit with what open world games tend to be like (also it would totally be cheating to include Zelda since it would be half the list for most of the people here at least :V).
I'd explain more but Mass Effect is considered an RPG series, so figure that one out first!
To be honest, about half of the games that have been listed don't really fit the definition of open world I gave.
Including the Witcher 3, as I pointed out. You can't explore the whole map from the beginning like in Skyrim/BreathofWild/XenobladeX
i always wanted to play this, but you can only get censored versions here in germany. like in the wii version they even took out one whole mission out of the game (chainsaw)
@Dezzy You can't explore the whole map from the beginning in BOTW either, you're stuck on the Great Plateau. Likewise you're stuck in White Orchard in TW3.
@Dezzy You can't explore the whole map from the beginning in BOTW either, you're stuck on the Great Plateau. Likewise you're stuck in White Orchard in TW3.
Boom! Mic drop...
You guys had me at blood and semen.
What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?
@Dezzy You can't explore the whole map from the beginning in BOTW either, you're stuck on the Great Plateau. Likewise you're stuck in White Orchard in TW3.
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