Top 10 Open World games of the last 10 years
There is something that I really love about exploring large digital worlds. It’s the freedom to choose your own path, the beauty of these worlds and the discovery of secret areas or bosses. It allows you to do what you would never do in real life. It feels like you are living in that world. A good open world game isn’t about the size of the map, it’s the content that is the most important. It should make you want to explore and find interesting people and quests that are engaging. Another great thing that makes a world feel lived in is environmental storytelling. Finding clues about what happened at a location makes you want to explore it even more. Anyway, let’s get to the top ten list.
Honorable Mentions -Far Cry 3, 4 and 5
10. Sleeping Dogs
A game where you control Wei Shen, an undercover police officer who returns home to Hong Kong after living in San Francisco for a while. You get to see both sides of the story, solving crimes as a cop and helping the triads. Wei begins to care about some of these characters, but he has to make sure he is he is doing the right thing. Sometimes the cops aren’t always good.
Sleeping dogs is a fun, action-packed experience with a vibrant and interesting city to explore. Bright lights and signs fill the streets and the vendors all want to sell you something. It feels alive and realistic while still being enjoyable.
The combat is one of the best things in the game. Learning how to fight at the training schools and competing in tournaments is loads of fun. Using the environment to take down enemies and even using a fish as a weapon, this game has it all. The driving is less realistic but just as great. Jumping from one car to another and speeding through the city only adds to the action.
9. Watch Dogs 2
Another great and realistic feeling city is what you will find in Watch Dogs 2. The game takes place in San Francisco in the modern day. You get to explore all the famous landmarks from the area and even take selfies when you visit them. The city is much more colorful than Chicago from the first game. There is lots of side content to keep you busy. Go-kart racing, hacking bank accounts and being a taxi driver are just some of the side activities you can take part in.
You play as Marcus Holloway, a young man who is falsely accused of a crime based on his race and background. The story is about a hacker group called Dedsec. These are your main allies in the game and their goal to to right the wrongs of society and take down the corrupt people behind the CTOS 2.0 system. The characters are likable and interesting, a huge improvement over the boring ones from the first game.
The driving is also much better and the hacking is loads of fun. Switching off traffic lights, controlling cameras, cranes and even vehicles with your cell phone. What more could you want?
8. Spider-Man (2018)
This is the best Spider-Man game ever made. It is a huge improvement over the movie based games that came before. The developers, Insomniac, put lots of time and effort into this game because they love the character and it shows. New York City is a common setting for games, but it has never looked this good. The colorful environments and attention to detail is incredible. You can even visit the Avengers tower. Swinging from building to building is great fun and getting to be Spider-Man is more enjoyable than ever.
The combat is also fantastic. Swinging enemies with your web, hitting them into the air and slamming them down or even just kicking them in the face is just so satisfying. The story and characters are so well done that it is even better than the movies. There are lots of side activities to take part in and villains to take down, everything you could possibly want from a Spider-Man game.
7. GTA V
Rockstar is known for their great open world games and one of the best they have ever made is Grand Theft Auto V. It is set in Los Santos, the GTA version of Los Angeles, and the surrounding areas. The world is full of detail and looked so good for a large free roam game at the time. It still amazes me to think that the PS3 and Xbox 360 could run this. It was a huge improvement over GTA 4. The world was much more colorful and vibrant compared to the greys and browns from the previous game. The driving was also much more realistic and there are a large amount of vehicles to steal. The radio stations and TV shows return and are just as entertaining.
The story follows 3 main characters and the game allows you to switch between them at any time. All these characters have lives and are still exploring the world when you are not controlling them. All of them are interesting and have their own interests and vastly different personalities. Michael is an older man who has retired but is brought back into a life of crime, Franklin is a younger man looking to make it out of his poorer neighborhood and Trevor is the craziest maniac to ever exist.
6. Assassin’s Creed Origins
The Assassin’s Creed series has explored so many different time periods and so many parts of the world. Renaissance Italy, Victorian London, The American Revolution, Ancient Greece, The Caribbean and more. Black Flag almost made this list but I did not want to include more than one entry from the same series. Origins was a great comeback for the series after it took a year off. Unity has so many problems and Syndicate’s sales were low compared to the other games. Something had to happen to save this franchise and it did.
Origins was so different from the previous entries and in a good way. The time period was far into the past, long before any other game took place. Ancient Egypt was such an interesting place and time to explore. Discovering secrets in the pyramids, riding a camel in the desert and seeing those mirages if you were in the sun too long. It was exactly what I wanted it to be. There were good side missions, a great story, a great main character and new and improved combat that felt very different. This felt so refreshing after a long period of repetitive copy and paste AC games.
5. Horizon Zero Dawn
When I first saw the trailer for Horizon Zero Dawn, I was intrigued. I thought the idea of these robot dinosaurs was so cool and different from anything else I have ever played, but I still wasn’t sure if it would be a really good game or not. Eventually, when it released, I saw the positive reviews and I was so glad to know that people liked it. I bought it and I was not disappointed.
It has such a unique world that hasn’t been done before, which is rare for large AAA games. The game was set in a post post apocalypse, 1000 years into the future. It wasn’t just a sci fi game though, it almost felt like it was set in the past. People were part of tribes and lived in little villages, but the robots were there too, which is what made it so different. The story is also very interesting as the main character, Aloy, discovers how and why this technology was invented.
The Combat was also different from anything else. You can shoot parts of the robots off with your bow and use their guns as weapons. You can use your spear for close combat and even override other robots to fight for you. The world is filled with so many unique creatures and the landscapes are beautiful. There are so many good side missions and secrets to uncover, it is simply a must-play game. Hopefully Horizon: Forbidden West can top it.
4. The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
What else is there to say about this game. It took hundreds of hours of my life and many others lives as well. I only played Oblivion in 2011 and that was my first Elder Scrolls game and I was hooked. I even went back and played Morrowind. When Skyrim came along I just fell in love with it’s world. The environmental storytelling is one of the best things about this series and it makes every location feel important. The lore is so complex and interesting that you can read about it for hours. There are so many quests that it can feel overwhelming at times, but yet you still want to continue exploring and find out what is around every corner.
The Dragonborn is a fun character to control with all those Shouts. Who doesn’t love using Fus Ro Dah on a character they dislike and watching them fly off the side of a mountain. You can be a mage, warrior, thief, assassin or a combination of these. You can choose from 10 races. You can buy houses, adopt children and get married. You can live another life in this world. Killing dragons and flying into the air after being hit with a giant’s club are some of the best memories I have. This game continues to be supported with mods to this day. Now if only Elder Scrolls 6 would release in this lifetime. That would be great, Bethesda.
3. Ghost of Tsushima
The wind blowing through the trees. The leaves in the air. The beautiful grasslands, mountains and rivers. This game might have the most stunning open world to explore. The way everything moves in the wind is amazing. The fact that there is no mini map and you just follow the wind to your objective. I know I am mentioning the wind a lot, but it is what makes this game look so good. Tsushima is a large map but it is filled with great side quests, characters and a fantastic story.
Jin Sakai is a samurai who survives an attack from the Mongols and must find a new way to survive and take the enemy down. Him and his allies must save the island from the Mongols by using any means necessary. The combat is not very hard but is great for gamers who want to be a badass samurai and a master of the katana. Oh, did I mention the wind?
2. Red Dead Redemption 2
Can you believe the first Red Dead Redemption came out more than 10 years ago? How time flies. The world of RDR 2 is filled with so many secrets and details that people took ages to find. From the cold Grizzlies to the humid swamps of Lemoyne, this is a gorgeous and realistic world. You can live the life of a cowboy as you rob trains and banks, shoot bandits, hunt wild animals and ride into the sunset on your trusty steed.
The game is a prequel and you take control of Arthur Morgan, a man who is part of Dutch’s gang. You can interact with the gang and do side missions for them, watch how the gang changes over time and how Dutch changes. The story is one of the best stories in any game or movie. Your choices matter, how you behave as Arthur changes who he becomes.
Your horse is a very important part of the game. As you use your horse you bond with it and it trusts you more over time. You brush it’s mane, feed it and name it, which makes it that much harder if it dies. Having to start all over with another horse makes you miss your old one, but you will eventually bond with that one too. RDR 2 is so good because the characters and the world are believable and realistic.
1. The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt
This is my favorite game of all time. It has everything I love. A beautiful open world fantasy setting, great characters, cool monsters, fun combat, fantastic side quests, Triss, Yennefer and Triss (I like Triss okay). Anyway, this game has a more realistic fantasy setting compared to a series like The Elder Scrolls, but the world is still filled with monsters and magic.
The view of the mountains when you are start the game in Kaer Morhen is breathtaking. The sunsets in this game are gorgeous and the environments are very well done. The combat is fun and fighting monsters like the leshen, wyverns and griffins is so epic.
All these things are great, but what makes the Witcher 3 stand above the other games is the side quests. The main story is very good, but the side quests feel like their own stories. Some of them spin off from the main quest. There are so many interesting quests with tough choices to make. Should you throw a baby into the oven to get rid of an evil creature? Should you side with Dijkstra or help Ves and Roche? Should you kill Radovid? Should you save a spirit so it can slaughter a village or let the spirit live and save the orphans? So many choices, so many memorable quests. Plus the DLC is also phenomenal. This is why The Witcher 3 is number one on this list.
Thank You For Reading
