10 Genre-Defining Open World Games

Open world games are among the most notorious and popular in modern gaming, with practically every other title giving players free roam of the map, regardless if they're a beginner to the genre or not. The adventure is pushed that far into the forefront.

Yet, it doesn't matter how someone got into open world games, because there are plenty of entries that deserve to be a part of their catalog for one reason or another.

For these particular open world games, they completely redefined open world games as we know them, bringing about new formulas and trends that gaming continues to follow. The genre, simply put, would not be the same without them.

In fact, gaming as a whole likely wouldn't be the same.

10 Elden Ring

A Completely New Formula

When looking at all the Souls games, Elden Ring is the only one that is actually a full open world — and it tackles the map unlike anything players had seen before within the genre.

It's such a simple premise, but it's executed well enough to where it leaves players awe-struck: once you get past the tutorial area, you are completely unshackled and unburdened to go anywhere else and do literally whatever you want. You don't have to go in any particular order to beat the game; you only have to beat a small handful of bosses (11 out of over 100) in order to actually get an ending.

Your only limit is your own ability while exploring; the exact pathway from Point A to Point B is completely up to you. Plus, that only makes replayability all the cooler, since it can be done in a whole new order with a whole new build to make it feel like a whole new game again. The possibilities are nearly endless.

It was a completely new approach to an open world formula. In fact, Elden Ring was re-writing it to suit itself — and it worked.

9 Ghost of Tsushima

Feel the World Breathe

There are all kinds of ways that a game can further immerse players into the world with good enough UI, but then there's making the elements of the UI part of the world itself, which resulted in Ghost of Tsushima having genuine magic in the air. Instead of your typical guided directions written out or given a distracting look, it's implemented into the world as a Guiding Wind. It's subtle enough to beautifully blend in with the world, but still serves as a way to help lost players.

That's just one example. Another includes yellow birds that guide you to points of interest, giving you an incentive to follow them off the trail you were initially on — and there are all manner of interesting things those birds can guide you to. Seriously, you will not be bored for a second in this game.

Not to mention, the stealth is also engaging and well-done, with A.I. that isn't completely blind to the world while also giving you some grace. Worst case, you could always take the loud route.

The sequel, Ghost of Yotei, is just as good, but it didn't end up redefining the genre in the same way its predecessor had. Open worlds don't breathe in the same way as they do in these games, and it's always so refreshing to dive back through.

8 Fallout: New Vegas

Morality is Tossed While Adapting

The concept of your actions having genuine consequences (the Karma system) can be traced all the way back to the original Fallout, but things are taken a step further in Fallout: New Vegas, where your morality plays an even bigger part.

Everything in New Vegas operates in a gray area, and you have to navigate through that grayness yourself if you want to simply survive, much less actually be successful in your operations. To this day, it's a gold-star standard for choice-driven RPGs.

Those choices influence everything, all the way down to the random encounters that you'll have with people far away from any civilization or person you may have wronged. Word seems to get around strong in this game (despite the lack of quick communication), and it's a lot more powerful than word of mouth today.

This just gives you all the more incentive to dive back into the game again and make different choices, and experience how different everything ends up being.

7 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Worldbuilding Unlike Any Other

It should be obvious, but the actual world that an open world game presents is easily the most important element for a proper experience — then there's the world that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt throws us into, and it's absolutely fascinating to dive through and explore. The world is the experience itself.

Every single element of this world is carefully fleshed out and detailed, giving players reason to thoroughly explore to not just soak in all the extras, but to properly learn about the world itself. You're thrown in a world that you're expected to live in (just as everyone has already been long-living in it), so you just have to peel back the layers of the world to properly live in it.

And when I say everything is thought of, that means everything, all the way down to the card games that you'll find people playing at tavern tables (and you can promptly join in and play along ... just be warned Gwent has one heck of a learning curve).

It's as if you just stepped into the world of The Witcher, and suddenly, you'll never want to leave.

6 Grand Theft Auto (Series)

Constantly Redefining the Genre

At this point, you can't go anywhere in the gaming world without the absolute buzz surrounding Grand Theft Auto 6 — and players have good reason to be excited. Regardless of how you're feeling about this highly anticipated release, the Grand Theft Auto games have always given players massive worlds to walk through, each more impressive than the last.

It's for one simple reason, too. When looking at the Grand Theft Auto games, it's much easier to ask: what can't you do?

The Grand Theft Auto games have served as the blueprint for open world titles to follow, with each new entry presenting a new blueprint to follow along — even now, people can't shake away the deeply intertwined connections between GTA and open world as a genre at this point.

So for a series that's known for constantly reinventing the genre by itself, it makes me really curious to see what it plans to bring to the table to with GTA6.

5 Assassin's Creed (Series)

The Games Set a Formula

Some games make a loud entrance, with an even louder impact on its players. The Assassin's Creed franchise came out the gate swinging, and the genre immediately felt the impact of each punch.

Right off the bat, Ubisoft ended up creating the concept of Towers all around the map, each exposing more of the map as you climb/discover them (these became affectionately known as Ubisoft Towers). Not to mention, it basically invented the open world formula as we know it today.

It's just unfortunate that the series has turned into what it is now (losing all semblance of itself and what made it so beloved in the first place), but I'm honestly hoping that Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced is going to help revive what the series is supposed to be. Just saying, Resident Evil came back to its roots, so it's possible with anyone.

Either way, playing literally any Assassin's Creed game will show players just how influential these games were on open world titles, regardless of which you think is the best one.

The Richest World Open World Can Offer

At this point, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a game that needs zero introduction. As old as it is, looking just at the graphics can make it seem silly, but as you play, you're going to end up sucked into the warmth and richness of the world in ways no other game will be able to replicate — it's like coming home.

Skyrim's world is easily one of the most in-depth, especially as you uncover little bits of lore that can only be picked apart by paying attention to the environmental storytelling. Seriously, pay attention, there is a lot that your eyes can easily gloss over if you don't know that it's actually relevant to the world or its story.

And of course, there is just a charm to this world that you don't feel anywhere else. It's alive in every single sense of the word; even when you're completely on your own and away from any civilization, you will find that the world is vast and exploding with life. Even at its most empty, the game is full, and that will only make sense if you've played it.

At this point, Skyrim is just timeless, and there is no better open world game that I would recommend to those trying to appreciate the genre's giants.

3 Minecraft

The World is Your Oyster

While Minecraft didn't start off as an open world game in the traditional sense, it took an open-world-approach to sandbox games, and what came out of it was one of gaming's most iconic legends. The name of the game is simple: survive and make the world however you want.

From there, players are given the ultimate freedom to approach this — to where "beating" the game is honestly whatever goal you set for that file. If you want to do the traditional Defeat the Ender Dragon route, there are still countless different ways that can be approached, exponentially more so while preparing to even face this boss.

And the best part is? It's done entirely with your hands; literally every single decision, all the way down to the carpet in your house, is carefully thought through and selected by you.

It's freedom in its purest form, and no other open world game can replicate that.

2 Red Dead Redemption 2

A Platinum Standard for Gaming

Red Dead Redemption 2 came out nearly a decade ago, but you would genuinely not believe that when you're playing it, as it remains one of the most realistic and insanely immersive games of all time, much less for open world games. Even now, players are still finding more details that make the world even more realistic.

The game also takes everything that you know and love about Red Dead Redemption, then amps it up to 11.

It's an incredible balance between realism and stylization, one that does lean more towards realism if it has to make a choice — and it created an experience for players that they can't simply forget. It became the name of the game and The Standard for open world as we know it; even now, there are countless games that end up being compared to this one when gauging quality.

If this game is being used as an index, you know that it's more than lightning in a bottle.

1 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Exploration, Redefined

There's exploration, and then there's the level of adventure that The Legend of Zelda manages to emit with every game in the franchise. But then along came Breath of the Wild, completely revolutionizing open worlds as we know it and how we explore them. It even ended up improving on the Zelda formula, which seemed impossible.

Nintendo's approach to this game was simple: let the players fully guide themselves, and leave as many points of interest within line of sight as possible — yet not too many to completely overload someone. It allows someone's natural curiosity to guide them in whatever way they see fit.

This is only emphasized with the intense focus on creativity in this game, with players given complete free roam once they're done with the Great Plateau. If you want to do the Divine Beasts before anything else, you can do that. If you want to ignore everything and just explore the world, you can do that. If you want to go straight to Ganon wearing your underwear, armed with a stick and a dream, you can do that.

The only limitation in this game is your own confidence, and that's the perfect approach to an open world game, one that both the franchise and the genre has been frantic to maintain ever since.