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The 15 best open world games on PCKeep your options open
Keep your options open
Image credit:Hello Games, Bandai Namco, PlayStation, Sega, Bethesda Softworks
Image credit:Hello Games, Bandai Namco, PlayStation, Sega, Bethesda Softworks
Our list of thebest open world games on PCis for those who look at a forest and think about seeing what’s in the middle. For the players who really do want to climb that mountain. Sure, the size of games these days means in some sense they all have an open world, but here we’re leaning in to those games that want you to adventure, where the onus is on exploring and seeing what you find. These are the games where part of the destination really is the journey, and you can tell the devs wanted you to stop and look around every so often to see what you could find. They might not be for everyone, but if you’re the sort of person who likes getting lost in a game for a long time, then these open world games will help you do that.
Elden Ring’s Open World Is Impossibly Rich | My Fav Thing In… (Elden Ring Review)Watch on YouTube
Elden Ring’s Open World Is Impossibly Rich | My Fav Thing In… (Elden Ring Review)
The 10 best open world games
15. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Image credit:Bethesda Softworks
What else should I play if I like this?The other Elder Scrolls games are easy recommends here, especiallyMorrowind, which is a fan favourite for being enduringly strange. For the pick of the best open worlds in Bethesda’s other famous series, go forFallout 4orFallout: New Vegas. There’s alsoStarfield,I guess.
Look, there’s a reason some things become so entrenched in pop-culture that their very existence is sort of a joke. How many times has this game been released, arrow to the knee, see that mountain? Yuk it up, but we wouldn’t be able to make those jokes if we didn’t actually all love this game.Skyrimis still incredibly popular, not just for the huge vistas and engaging world, not just for the slightly janky physics that sends you screaming into the air the first time a giant attacks you, and not just beacause of the 2016 remaster, or the Anniversay Edition update that officially welcomes mod content into the game.
14. A Short Hike
Image credit:adamgryu
What else should I play if I like this?GiveDonut CountyandFrog Detectivea whirl for similar, stress free vibes. Don’t discountAlba: A Wildlife AdventureorTchia, if you’re after a whimsical tour of some lovely countryside.
13. Hitman: World Of Assassination
Image credit:IO Interactive
What else should I play if I like this?The many Hitman games that came before it.Hitman: Blood Moneyis excellent, as isContracts.
Hitman: World Of Assassinationmay not spring to mind as a traditional ‘open world game’, but hey, it’s all ofHitman 2and 3’s offerings bundled into one mega-package of mini-sandboxes. You control Agent 47, a bald man with a barcode on the back of his head. He’s good at garroting folks and making quips while garroting folks, and it’s up to you to deploy the garrote, and sometimes explosive rubber ducks, to assassinate high profile people.
What makes Hitman such a great open world game is the freedom you’ve got from the off. Each formula one race course, or Italian town, or quaint manor house has so many ways to creatively kill off the bad guys. There’s a demo on Steam, too.
12. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Sega
What else should I be playing if I like this?The rest of the Yakuza series! Here’sthe orderwe’d recommend you tackle them in.
Yakuza: Like A Dragon was a joyful introduction to a new protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu, and transported players to the city streets of Isezaki Ijincho, as well as Kamurocho Sotenburi. In Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth you’re whisked away to Hawaii. Though Ifinite Wealth has an optional island area to play a sort of upscaled version ofAnimal Crossing, there’s much fun to be had riding a Segway around Hawaii.
As ever, seemingly small quests can spiral into strange, multi-part stories, but great attentino to detail has been given to making the setting feel authentic. You can buyKonacoffee, Mango shave ice, see the living statues on Waikiki beach, and visit the canals, malls and markets that actually exist in Honolulu. It’s a real holiday, getting to run around and indulge in the Yakuza series' signature brand of kind of wacky antics - unabashed fun, noless - but with more of a beach party vibe.
11. Forza Horizon 5
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/ Xbox Game Studios
What else should I play if I like this?Admittedly, it was a very close contest between Forza Horizon 5 and its predecessorForza Horizon 4, so yeah, go play that too. FH4 has, arguably, nicer streets and the nicer scenery if you’re into Scottish fields as opposed to the Mexican sunshine.
Justin saidForza Horizon 5is “as close to flawless as any racer has ever come” in ourreview. Whatever you might think of this, the game is a might open world racer that’s - as cheesy as it sounds - an actual festival. Chopping up Mexico’s dusty beaches, tangled jungles, and sunny streets is a carefree celebration of swinging the back out. The map is filled with interesting slants on traditional races, and it’s perhaps one of the most positive games, ever? It’s the sort of game where if you could crash your Bugatti Veyron through someone’s porch, it would give you a little treat for doing so.
Maybe one of FH5’s strongest assets is being a racing game for people who might not be into racing games. You can take it as seriously as you’d like, and it’s an actual joy to hop in and drive around Mexico for a bit, whether that’s with pals or on your lonesome.
10. Baldur’s Gate 3
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Larian Studios
What else should I play if I like this?You can do much worse than look to Larian’s previous work with Divinity Original Sin 2. You can look backwards to the other Baldur’s Gates, plus Planescape: Torment and its spiritual successor Torment: Tides Of Numenera. For more of the Baldur’s Gate setting, Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2. For big lush fantasy maps but less intensive combat, Dragon Age: Inquisition.
There’s so much to say about Baldur’s Gate 3. Perhaps up top we should mention that it has difficult turn-based combat built on Dungeons & Dragons' D20 system, so it’s not for everyone. But if you’re alright with that, the fantasy world in BG3 is a real doozy. The maps are huge and fold in and around each other, full of secrets and weirdo characters who are as likely to ask you to steal an egg or track down a missing child as they are to be, er, having sex in a barn. It’s worth the effort to go on an arduous quest to save Faerûn so you can keep running around the place.
From waking up in the wreckage of an exploded ship, you gingerly explore and find temple ruins, a rocky coast, a secret druid grove. There are sun-dappled forests and a camp of hard-partying goblins. Did someone order a bustling city with docks and fortresses? What about a swamp, or the Underdark - an underground realm full of bioluminescence and living mushroom people. There’s a cursed land covered in life-leeching fog, with an equally cursed castle at the centre of it. There’s a vampire’s stronghold, and a lair in actual hell. The world of Baldur’s Gate 3 holds basically anything you can imagine for a fantasy epic.
9. Red Dead Redemption 2
Image credit:Rockstar Games
What else should I play if I like this?Give the original/sequel Red Dead Redemption a go! Other Rockstar Games might not capture the wild west vibe, but don’t discountGrand Theft Auto V.
Red Dead Redemption 2might seem like too obvious a choice for a list like this, but it’s an obvious choice for a reason: it’s really good. And man, its open world is an astonishing feat and totally transportative. The diversity of flora and fauna, hooves crunching in snow, crouching over a clifftop and watching a herd a bison graze. It might not be as densely packed as say, Elden Ring, yet that isn’t Rockstar’s aim here.
As we pointed out in ourRed Dead Redemption 2 review, the game is more of an orchestration of action rarely seen in open world games. You’ve got carefully curated heists, with a slow-burn story that catalogues the rise and fall of Arthur’s gang as motivations once aligned go out of joint. There’s relative freedom to relax - at least early on - and soak in the pleasures of taking a bubble bath or hunting a gator, or simply rolling a potential purchase around your hands in some out-of-the-way shop in a little town. RDR2 is special.
8. Subnautica
Image credit:Unknown Worlds Entertainment
What else should I play if I like this?Subnautica: Below Zerois set two years after the original and plays quite similarly, if a little worse. Still, it’s more Subnautica.No Man’s Skymight offer a similar feeling of discovering new alien lands.
Subnautica’s open world is, for the most part, an underwater wonderland filled with coral reefs, volcanoes, and neon jellyfish. It’s a survival game at heart, where you craft oxygen tanks and pod homes to keep yourself in tip top condition underseas. And there’s nothing quite like riding your handmade submarine off the edge of a cliff and staring into a vast inky blackness. Honestly, it’s both mesmerising and terrifying as you wonder what’s beneath, then hear a bloodcurdling roar bubble upwards. Subnautica is, without a doubt, a horror game in disguise.
As with all the open worlds on this list, Subnautica lets you submerge anywhere and everywhere early on. But it’s great in letting you know your limits, and gradually exposing you to new and helpful materials, or areas, or whatnot. The game never makes the survival aspect a chore.
7. No Man’s Sky
Image credit:Hello Games
What else should I play if I like this?Subnautica (above you on this list) andSubnautica: Below Zeroare about exploring alien places. You could also check outThe Outer WorldsandStarfieldfor more, albeit tonally different, space exploration.
But for our purposes on this list, we should also highlight that basically everthing on every world you explore in No Man’s Sky - and there are a lot, as you head towards the centre of the galaxy - is created through procedural generation. It leads to unexpectedly beautiful planets full of weird ferns and wonky dinosuars, bright purple rocks and yellow skies. Sights that only RNG could come up with. The most recent update to No Man’s Sky was this year (which is true of basically every year). It’s one of those games where the best time to start playing is always today.
6. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Image credit:Konami Digital Entertainment
What else should I play if I like this?There isn’t anything like MGSV, really, but you could give Kojima’sDeath Strandinga go. While it’s markedly different, it’s got an open world with all of Kojima’s weirdness bundled up in there.
The world of MGSV is a delight, sure, but it’s the playful things you can do in it that makes it feel truly special. Every journey back into enemy territory is a fresh opportunity for expressive decision making. Part immersive sim, part stealth sandbox, the game really is something else.
5. American Truck Simulator
Image credit:SCS Software
What else should I play if I like this?Euro Truck Simulator 2 offers a very similar trucking experience for those who find no adventure in Aberdeen, Washington but go weak at the knees imagining delivering potassium to Aberdeen, Scotland.
One job you’re hauling a load up the Pacific Coast Highway on a glorious day, next you’re winding through narrow unknown roads at night with a wide load, then you’re blowing through mundane towns you’ve never heard of and wouldn’t want to live in but are glad to have briefly known. And you can always sack off and go exploring because hey, it’s only money. The developers are also increasingly supportive of tourism, adding viewpoints at pretty places and evencreating reasons for trucks to go where they shouldn’t, into Yellowstone. Honk honk!
4. Dragon’s Dogma 2
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Capcom
What else should I play if I like this?The firstDragon’s Dogmais the obvious pick here, but elsewhere in Capcom’s stable of ‘wailing on giant monsters’ games, go forMonster Hunter: Rise
Point is, Dragon’s Dogma 2 isn’t technically a tactics game, but you have to approach travel very tactically if you want to succeed. And because of the systems in the game, there’s a chance that when you make it to town a massive bastard dragon will just wander up to the gates anyway. It’s great!
3. Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines
Image credit:Activision
What else should I play if I like this?MaybeBloodlines 2if it ever comes out. The original Fallout games aren’t exactly all that gothic or erotic, but they capture a similar amorality. There was also a debate as to whether this spot should go toDragon Age 2, the more compact Dragon Age where you see a city change over decades.
Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines may need abig ol' modto get it in working order, but it’s pen ‘n’ paper RPG is a wonderful descent into sex, blood, and dependency, going to dark nooks and crannies which other games dare not. The game offers you so many choices, too - ways to succeed or fail, miserably - in the first half, which makes it one of the truest RPGs on PC. There are a myriad of ways to tackle any situation, whether that’s finding some passcodes, sucking on some necks, or doing some sexy sweet talk. Couple these choices with superb writing and you’ve got a world that genuinely feels alive, even if the character models look… less alive.
But why is Bloodlines on an open world list? Because of its setting in a grimy 00s playground, small but dense, where you get to know the denizens that stay up late for all sorts of reasons. There are odd pockets and secrets to find in the four areas: Santa Monica, Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles, and Chinatown. And after the gunsmoke has cleared and you’ve failed your last attempt at a seduction, the thing you’ll remember most is your rundown apartment in Santa Monica, the red lit windows of the club in LA, the graveyard in Hollywood…
2. Horizon Forbidden West
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation
What else should I play if I like this?Defo go for the first in the series,Horizon Zero Dawn, if you haven’t already. The Dragon Age series captures something of the lush open world, as does (of course)The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Horizon Zero Dawn was one of the first games to escape PlayStation exclusive containment and make it onto PC. Thus, we get a taste of the sequel, too. Set a thousand years in the future after rogue robots turned everything living on Earth into fuel, the Horizon series starts when things have been in a more stable state for a while. An advanced AI system has been producing robots that take the place of some of the missing animals to cultivate the planet, while humans have re-evolved into disparate tribal societies with their own cultures and customs. In Forbidden West you head over to California, which means you get redwood forests, and rocky desert along with your lush jungles and snowy mountains.
There are also new huge robot dinosaurs to hunt, including ones that are like giant brown bears, or massive snapping turtles. The ruins of the old world are still around, too, so you get to climb and leap around the sky scrapers that were once San Francisco, or explore the underground remains of Vegas. Coupled with a day and night system, and some absolutely beautiful water that covers the place with jewel green and blue rivers and ponds, and you’ve got an open world you can really get lost in.
1. Elden Ring
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / FromSoftware Inc, Bandai Namco Entertainment
What else should I play if I like this?Other Souls games may not offer similar scope, but the contentiousDark Souls 2is, arguably, the most similar of the bunch.
Elden Ringis an open world RPG set in the Lands Between, a place teeming with gangly beasts that want to murder you. Except it’s a really wonderful world, actually. One that gently guides you in the right direction, yet tempts you off the beaten track and into ruined forts, or tight knit caverns, or elevators that’ll blow your mind. Without sounding overdramatic, you probably haven’t ever encountered an open world as dense as Elden Ring’s.
