15. Crackdown –
Released in 2007, Crackdown was a huge hit with Xbox 360 owners which later spawned a sequel that was not as well received.
In Crackdown you play as a bio-augmented agent who is fighting crime lords and their factions in Pacific City. It’s your basic run-of-the-mill 3rd person open-world shooter. Personally, I didn’t get too into it but I felt it deserved a place on this list…a crowd-pleaser, if you will.
14. Journey –
This game could be debated whether or not it is a truly open-world game in comparison to the other games on this list, and I like to think it is.
Journey takes your shadowy cloaked character and drops him in the middle of the desert, only to have it solve puzzles and grow the scarf around its neck while making its robed way to, and up, a snowy white mountain.
Journey has won multiple awards, including, “Game of the Year.” If you own a PS3 and looking for a, what I like to call “spiritual” and tranquil game experience, Journey is one game you need to play.
13. Dead Island Riptide –
Zombies, blood, gore, open-world terror, crazy-ass homemade weapons, and extremely bad dialogue make this follow-up game to Dead Island a diamond in the rough.
Dead Island boasts beautifully colored flora, crystal blue waters, and murky swamps that can be navigated by boat or (if you’re daring) waded through. Those zombies can be mighty overwhelming in chest deep water.
12. Saints Row: The Third –
Saints Row: The Third is the only game where you can run around an open environment and beat people with a huge purple rubber dildo. So yeah, it deserves to be on this list almost for that reason alone.
11. Infamous –
You’re probably sitting there wondering why I didn’t choose Infamous 2, because Infamous 2, “has this” and, “it has that.” But for me, Infamous had a great soundtrack and a superb atmospheric presence that I feel Infamous 2 lacked. Infamous was dark and grey and I felt the mood and tone of the game was more desperate than then its colorfully lit predecessor. Plus, this has one of the best environment traversal systems in my opinion and I straight up enjoyed the hell out of Infamous.
10. Burnout Paradise –
Burnout Paradise is an open-world arcade-style racing game where every stop light that you come to is either a race, time trial, takedown events, or other race-type event.
Burnout comes loaded with a ton of cars to choose from to roam its vast open world. This is also my favorite racing game because I get to destroy cars and have fun doing so without any repercussions. (I wrecked numerous cars in my day.)
9. Far Cry 3 –
This open-world game allows for complete freedom amongst its tropical terrain. Besides the usual run-and-gun of an open-world FPS, Far Cry 3 allows you to hunt animals, dive deep within its bays, and hang glide across the map. Also, weird drugs.
Warning: If you are deathly afraid of sharks like I am, Far Cry 3’s deep ocean environments will scare the crap out of you. You’ve been warned.
8. Borderlands 2 –
Gearbox Studios knows how to make big games and the proof is in its Borderlands franchise.
Building off the first game, Borderlands 2 is vast and colorful with a wide variety of diverse environments, ranging from a desolate desert to a winter dystopia to a caustic cavern. Borderland 2 also produces crazier battles with an even crazier cast of creatures and maniacs, that when played with 3 friends, make for an extraordinary experience.
Even Borderland 2’s DLC is humongous.
7. Arkham City –
This may not be the biggest open world game, but it sure is the darkest.
Arkham City is quite possibly one of the best games of this console generation and a lot of that success is due to the environment and the freedom for Batman to swing and stealth his way across the map on his way to take down the Joker.
6. The Legend of Zelda –
No, I did not just hit my head.
The Legend of Zelda is indeed an open-world game. Link travels from frame to 8-bit frame, collecting what he needs to enter each dungeon or cave and collect all the pieces of the Tri-force to save the venerated Zelda.
If you don’t believe this should be on the list, I challenge you to go back and play it.
5. Red Dead Redemption –
Red Dead Redemption is an extremely large game that allows the player to hunt, ride horseback, and even travel by train. When playing Red Dead you definitely feel the scope of what Rockstar was trying to execute in this behemoth of an open-world environment.
Red Dead Redemption takes our protagonist, John Marsden, from the snowy mountains of the US all the way down to the dusty villas of Mexico. Rockstar Games always does a great job at putting small tasks and missions in from of you so you never feel like there isn’t enough to do in this huge world.
I remember playing this game and thinking to myself, “I’m just going to walk across the whole map and see what happens.” I never made it because this map is ginormous.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City –
So, you could pretty much put any GTA game here. But for me, growing up in the 80’s, Vice City had it all. Pastel colors, neon lighting, one of the best soundtracks to any game EVER, plus awesome 80’s vehicles.
Eat your heart out, Kit. (That’s a Knight Rider reference for all youngsters and if you don’t know what Knight Rider is, you should brush up on your 80’s culture. Pssst….it’s a talking car.)
3. Shadow of the Colossus –
Big and Hairy, Large and Scary are the Colossi in PS2’s, Shadows of the Colossus.
So naturally a game with such towering and large crazy cracked-out steroid-looking Snuffleupagus’ roaming the land, you’d need a large open space to find and kill these monstrosities.
All kidding aside, Shadows of the Colossus is one of the most spiritual games I have ever played. There is something very serene about traveling across a desolate land by yourself, your horse, and a sword that guides you by reflecting the sun in the direction to these skyscraper-esque beings.
Once you arrive at a Colossi’s lair, you need to figure out how you are going to pounce upon and climb these beings to jam your sword into its vulnerable spot marked by a special symbol.
This is an amazing game this is definitely one of my favorites of all time and the fact that it’s incased in an open-world environment, is the topping on the cake.
An HD remake of Shadows of the Colossus and its spiritual successor, Ico, can be found for the PS3.
2. Fallout 3 –
Fallout 3 houses one of the most eccentric maps in all of gaming history. One of the reasons people love games made by Bethesda is the ability and freedom to roam its crazy vast environments at one’s own discretion.
Once emerging from Vault 101, you are encouraged to visit the closest town, but why would you want to do that? you have ghouls to see and places to pillage…or not.
Bethesda does an impeccable job of creating a desolate DC wasteland with dilapidated overpasses and crumbled building that bleed into barren woodlands and rocky hillsides which house Super Mutants and Radscorpions.
Sounds like my next vacation spot!
1. Skyrim –
Tamriel, Morrowind, and Daggerfall don’t come close to size and scope of Skyrim.
From Markarth to Riften to Falkreath and Winterhold, Bethesda completely immerses the player into their mountainous winter wonderland, Skyrim.
You can fish, fight dragons, and even build your own home (if you have the correct DLC, Heathfire). The diversity this open-world brings to the player is unparalleled. It’s so good, in fact, that I convinced multiple friends to play this game who doubted it and then ended up spending a good chunk of their lives scouring, sneaking, pickpocketing, and questing their time away in this majestic open-world game.
I, personally, have only spent 200+ hours (I know, what a noob) wandering the land of Skyrim and still haven’t seen or done everything there is to do in this monstrosity of a game.
At one point, I caught myself literally stopped at the side of a river to just sit and breathe in the environment. Ahhhhhh……
