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Published Feb 17, 2026, 12:30 PM EST
Elena Chapella (She/Her) is a current Writer for DualShockers, formerly an award-winning journalist for local news stations and newspapers in central Indiana.
Elena is passionate about writing, playing Dungeons & Dragons with her friends, and, of course, playing video games.
When she's not writing, Elena is actually a high school teacher by day. She teaches students essential life skills for adulthood, including job readiness, financial literacy, and college preparation.
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Open world games are among some of the most common in gaming as a whole — love them or hate them, you can't deny that they're literally everywhere, across all genres.
The main critique that people tend to have about open-world games is the amount of empty busywork that you have to dredge through, with players having to constantly grind in order to progress even a little. However, good open-world games don't rely on that busywork to keep you invested in progressing, immersing you more in the story and its world than anything else.
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Sometimes all players want is to explore without fighting and these games offer that exact experience.
These open-world games have little to no grinding, and if any exists at all, it's because players are choosing to do something repetitive and monotonous. It's not required to progress in these games in the slightest.
In fact, in these games, you should take things slow, methodically, with thoughtfulness being rewarded far better than any form of grinding.
10 Grand Theft Auto V
You Can't Rush Wealth in Story Mode
While you wouldn't immediately think of the Grand Theft Auto games being ones that prioritize strategy before action, in Grand Theft Auto V (specifically, in Story Mode), you genuinely need to go into a heist carefully instead of recklessly. You can save that recklessness for when you have five stars out on the road.
Of course, if you're not in Story Mode, or most especially if you're on Grand Theft Auto Online, you can expect a good amount of grinding, but when you're actually playing the game as intended, you're supposed to strategize.
The missions carefully take you through the story in a way where grinding is practically nonexistent, and you wouldn't really feel the urge to go out and do that unless you're short on cash. Even then, another mission will set you up nicely — plus, it's better to play through the story first, as it unlocks more things to do.
If Grand Theft Auto VI ends up following this trend, then we can expect its missions to be just as rich without any unnecessary grinding.
9 Watch_Dogs
He's Hacking! He's Hacking!
Watch_Dogs is all about being slick, unseen, and careful in nearly every situation — and that's because you're not meant to run into conflict head-on, but rather through whatever tech you're able to get into and hack for your benefit. And when I say there is a lot that you're able to hack, it's genuinely a lot.
You can even hack when you're driving, but just like doing anything literally while driving, it takes your eyes off the road, and you're more likely to get into an accident, so being careful even in a digital vehicle should be a given.
Sure, you're able to level up Aiden, but it caps out at 50, and it's incredibly easy to get to that level just by doing some missions and side gigs. Plus, the game just drops you in the world and lets you take everything at your own pace, and that's if you even want to take any of the routes in front of you instead of making your own.
It's one of the better examples of an open world that isn't an absolute slog, so if you're looking for something that doesn't force you to grind relentlessly, the world of Watch Dogs fits perfectly.
8 Fallout: New Vegas
Put Some Points in Survival
Most open-world games incentivize you to go out into the world and avoid any and all quests like the plague, opting for players to get lost in the map and its various contents. However, the Fallout games were never ones to make you grind in nothingness, and Fallout: New Vegas is one of the better examples of it.
In Fallout: New Vegas, you get the most rewards (whether it be bottle caps, XP, or whatever other loot) from doing quests directly. You don't have to wander aimlessly to hit the jackpot; you just have to complete a mission, and it's such a lovely change of pace. So long as you have a few points in the survival skill, none of the loot that you pick up will go to waste, either.
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For players who want to explore, but not be overwhelmed by a world larger than the story.
Because of this, you can simply play through the game thoughtfully, focusing on the story (stories would actually be more accurate), the characters, and of course, staying alive in the Mojave.
Not to mention, this should get you in the perfect mood for Season 2 of the show if you've not seen it already.
The Only Grinding is on a Grindstone
Bethesda strikes again with incredible gameplay, but this time, it's The Elder Scrolls, a series notorious for its extensive lore and incredibly rich world. All of The Elder Scrolls games reward slow and methodical gameplay (most especially Morrowind and Oblivion, where there is no hand-holding, requiring you to figure it all out on your own), and Skyrim is one of the better examples that doesn't require grinding.
The only "grinding" that you do in this game is to level up specific perks, but that's if you're working on that skill extensively. It always increases naturally, so long as you're using the skill, period — no grinding needed. If you get hit, your armor skill increases; if you smith something, your smithing skill increases; practically everything you do builds a skill, you don't have to work towards it like a goal.
So, while yes, you technically can grind, the game tries to discourage you from doing so, giving you plenty of incentive to just focus on the quests at hand and naturally level up as you play through them.
Plus, within the quests themselves, there are multiple ways you can approach it, especially if it involves some simple cave-diving. You can be as careful and intricate as you want, or you can just go crazy and go stupid.
6 Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection
Old AC was Known for Really Fun Missions
Assassin's Creed The Ezio Collection
There's a reason why everyone looks back on the old Assassin's Creed games with fondness and nostalgia, when the series had a distinct soul of its own. The main reason for this is how the games were structured, organized, and focused on the story first and foremost, rather than whatever busywork it can squeeze into a world.
Assassin's Creed II (the entire Ezio Collection in all honesty) is widely considered the best at this balance, where you're able to just do your missions and any exploration outside those missions is just that: pure exploration. Assassin's Creed III also did this wonderfully, but when the series started to steer away from Desmond Miles, that's when the series started to struggle with a lot of padding and unnecessary grinding.
Plus, in these missions of early Assassin's Creed, you have to genuinely sit and wait in patience while observing the guards, because many missions will result in immediate desynchronization if you're caught. So you have to scope out the area, pay attention to the guards' patterns, and move carefully before you draw your hidden blade. Slow and methodical is the name of the game here.
Cautionary gameplay is the entire foundation of Assassin's Creed, so it's no wonder Ethan didn't have a good time with Assassin's Creed: Shadows, where that gameplay is completely thrown out the window, and grinding has come to the forefront.
5 Dying Light
Survival Horror in an Open World Done Right
Staying alive in a zombie apocalypse is something we've all thought about at least once — the places we want to raid for supplies, the tactics we think would be foolproof, the whole nine yards. Yet, in Dying Light, you have to actually try out these techniques and see how well it works out for you.
Dying Light is an open-world survival horror game with one simple objective: stay alive. Of course, this is easier said than done (especially at night), but it's an incredibly fun time — and if you play through carefully, you'll be rewarded far better than if you were to just try and grind by killing zombies.
Considering you have to avoid these infected for the most part, the game encourages you to be careful and meticulous, with a crafting system that's equal parts flexible to your needs while also being just limited enough to keep from being a breeze. If you try to wildly run through the map guns blazing, you're in for a rough time.
While grinding is a bit of a component to this game, it's clearly meant to be done sparingly.
4 Ghost of Yotei
Think Quick on Your Feet
Ghost of Tsushima is one of the purest, most perfectly effective examples of a game that doesn't require grinding, and will push you to use methodical, thoughtful gameplay instead. The game's sequel, Ghost of Yotei, thankfully kept this energy going, being another shining example of how to power-scale your protagonist while encouraging caution.
The only "grinding" that exists in these games is wiping the map of enemies, whether it's clearing out camps, duels, bounties, Mythic Tales, or whatever other quests you end up with. However, within these Tales themselves, you have to be particular with your approach — sure, you can run in with your sword well above your head and start blindly swinging, but that won't work out as well for you the same way stealth will.
The thing with these games is adaptability, being able to think quickly on your feet and take out an enemy before you're caught by some nonsense. So when you play, you need to think carefully before attacking or taking any action, because you have no idea how you'll have to improvise.
Oh, and if you can, play in Japanese. Experiencing these games through Samurai Cinema is truly out of this world, even better if you're a fan of Akira Kurosawa and his work.
3 Cyberpunk 2077
You Get Street Cred Regardless
The world of Cyberpunk 2077 follows a few rules: when you first open your eyes in Night City, you're a nobody, and if you want even a chance at being somebody, you have to earn yourself some Street Cred. Thankfully, you don't have to grind hard to get any Street Cred, because the game hands it out like candy so long as you're completing gigs.
Leveling up in this game (and in the DLC, Phantom Liberty, which is arguably better than the main game) is incredibly easy because all you have to do is do something, and you'll earn a bit of money with that coveted notoriety every single time. Plus, considering how your V is a blank slate, you can do these gigs however you want to — quiet, loud, it doesn't matter, since the caution you have to exhibit will manifest differently depending on your build.
For example, if you set up your V to be a Netrunner (my favourite build), a lot of your gameplay would require you to use cameras as extra eyes, able to hack your way through an area before anyone even knows you're there. On the contrary, if you build your V to be an average merc, complete with an entire arsenal at your disposal, you still have to strategize your gunfights and combat overall.
Not only do you have to carefully plan out an idea, but you have to think equally as hard about what to do when that idea eventually goes south.
2 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Silence and Stillness Reign First
The Legend of Zelda laid out the blueprint for open-world games with their first title for the NES all the way back in 1986 — while they weren't the first to do an open world, they were the pioneers of the subgenre, utilizing the feeling of adventure to their advantage when designing the world.
However, when it comes to looking through all the Zelda games, none do open world as perfectly as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild does, especially with how it incorporates the concept of ma (間).
Ma, meaning "negative space," is something that was popularized by Hayao Miyazaki, the creator behind our favorite Studio Ghibli films. Miyazaki infamously clapped his hands twice and explained that the silence between the two claps is ma, emphasizing that getting rid of that pause would create messiness and noise — with that in mind, it's clear that ma is exactly what Breath of the Wild incorporates into the world and gameplay.
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Seriously, the game focuses on your adventure first and foremost — everything else comes after — and this adventure is slow, thoughtful, and intricate. Unlike the game's sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which is almost exclusively empty busywork, Breath of the Wild doesn't force you to dredge through anything in order to progress.
In fact, as we've been proven by the absolutely mad lads running straight to Ganon in their underwear, you don't even have to progress at all.
1 Red Dead Redemption 2
The Slowness is the Game
No game rewards taking it slow better than Red Dead Redemption, with Red Dead Redemption 2 taking it a lot more literally by physically slowing you down. At times, it's so realistic it almost feels sluggish, but that's simply because the game wants you to take things slow.
Whether it's camp chores, soaking in the world around you, hunting, fishing, or other casual activities, you're meant to play the game as slowly as possible rather than fly through all the missions. Walk around, talk to people, get involved — there is simply so much in this world that things are still being discovered nearly a decade later. The whole game is a slow-burn, and it rewards you if you treat it as such.
The game is far more focused on mission-based progression rather than farming XP until you level up. In fact, the only "grinding" you'd be able to do would be while you're hunting or fishing for food or pelts, since you tend to get generously paid after each mission; in fact, you can only unlock certain missions (including strangers and freaks) after you make progress in other missions.
So the best thing to do in this game is to simply experience it and reflect afterwards, since that's exactly what you're meant to do.
NEXT
10 Best Open World Games, Ranked by Worldbuilding
If an open world game doesn't have a rich world, it's not worth playing.
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