10 Open World Games with Massive Plot Holes (But We Don't Care)

No matter how good of a story you write, there's bound to be something that was overlooked — plot holes have existed in video games since the birth of them, and that's just because plot holes have existed long, long before in all kinds of other media.

Open world games are no exception to this – in fact, they tend to be held under stricter scrutiny due to the vast amount of details that are meant to be kept track of.

Don't get me wrong, these games still tell great stories, and they end up being a fantastic time, but there are still some things left missing from the plot that we wouldn't mind an explanation for. Simply put, it just needs a bit of clearing up.

Some of these games just happen to have plot holes that are a bit harder to ignore. But then again, these games are just so good and simply way too fun, that we honestly don't care.

10 Ghost of Tsushima

Iki Island Did Some Retconning

I absolutely adore Ghost of Tsushima, as someone who has been to Japan and knows a lot more Japanese history than the average Westerner, this game is simply a masterclass in historical fiction. And yet, the fiction itself decided to tweak itself.

While playing the base game, when you speak with Yuriko, who was the main housekeeper of the Sakai Clan estate, she will describe how Kazumasa, Jin's father, was killed by bandits. Specifically, bandits from a rival clan within Jin's hometown.

However, when you play the Iki Island DLC, it's retconned to Kazumasa being killed during a civil skirmish on Iki Island, rather than being back in Jin's home. Sure, they maintained the idea that he was killed by bandits from a rival clan (they even gave a little more motive and backstory), but the locations are different enough to raise an eyebrow.

That being said, it's a minor nitpick in the grand scheme of the whole game, one that could be easily explained by Yuriko's deteriorating mental state or a slip of the tongue. The performance from the cast during Kazumasa's slaying is stellar, and the gameplay is just as terrific; by the end of the DLC and the main game, you really don't care about how Jin's father was cut down.

9 Red Dead Redemption 2

It's All About Money

From the very beginning of Red Dead Redemption 2, we notice that the gang is struggling with a significant loss of cash. During a heist gone horribly wrong, everyone scrambles to fend for themselves and stay out of dodge, leading to the camp consistently struggling and unable to achieve any goals.

That is, until you come back to camp with enough money to send everyone to Tahiti and back, and there isn't a single mention of it. Making money is incredibly easy, so it's not difficult to end up with thousands of dollars before you're even halfway through the game, but nobody will even comment on it.

Sure, it's a minor detail, but this game is notorious for thinking of every possible minor detail. Just about every possible reaction and outcome has been thought through, and you can see this with every single NPC interaction. Yet, Dutch or nobody else seems to notice that Arthur happens to be absolutely loaded.

At the very least, it would have made for a fun joke ending, considering all the angst you have to go through to get either canon ending.

8 Cyberpunk 2077

Arasaka is Surprisingly Chill

Throughout the opening main mission in Cyberpunk 2077, you end up stealing a relic from Yorinobu Arasaka, the heir to the Corpo giant that rules Night City (and basically the whole world). The Arasakas are easily the most powerful family on the planet, and you steal one of their most precious experiments.

However, they don't seem to care too much. Sure, they go after Takemura after he pulls you from the garbage heap, but you never see them again outside of the main quest. Even then, in the main quest, they're surprisingly chill and cooperative with you instead of just taking you out on sight.

This is even more of a head-scratcher when you play as Corpo V, who already has direct ties to Arasaka in their counterintelligence unit. V was lucky enough to not be killed the first time they were kicked out, so it's even more confusing that they don't kill you when you actively provide them more ammo against you.

Then again, maybe Hanako Arasaka is just that good of a diplomat.

7 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Nothing About Fake Ciri?

A big question that many players had while playing through The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt actually comes from a quest in The Witcher 2, specifically the one where Emhyr var Emreis sought out to make Ciri his wife. A very long story short, another woman ended up taking her place, serving as an impostor Ciri without anyone being any wiser.

However, by The Witcher 3, we learn nothing more about her or the situation she was put in. It's completely omitted from the game entirely, making players wonder what happened to her and how developers plan to finish the story out. It's even more puzzling when data-miners noticed that she actually was mentioned within the files.

That being said, it's such a small storyline in the grand scheme of The Witcher as a whole, it's easy to overlook a cut that's seemingly minor as this one.

Maybe The Witcher 4 will touch on it since we'd be playing as Ciri herself, but we'll just have to wait and see.

6 Far Cry 5

There Are Some Arrest Discrepancies

There are a lot of questions that fans of Far Cry 5 think to themselves while they're playing the game and after they've even completed it: one of which being how the main antagonist of the game, Joseph Seed, managed to get his hands on some nukes, and the other being a question for authorities.

To put it simply, Joseph runs a massive cult that runs the entirety of Hope County, Montana. Seriously, every person in town is deeply loyal to him and to his cult, so it's easy to assume that anyone going in to take the cult down would be met with some mighty resistance.

So why on Earth would the government, fully knowing how armed and dangerous the Seeds are, only send a helicopter of five people? To make matters worse, one of them (you) is a complete rookie, brand new to this kind of thing ... so of course, it ends as catastrophically as you would imagine.

But on the bright side, it throws you into this game, and it's one you're going to have so much fun with, you won't wonder on the government's planning too much.

Why Can't We Call Out Ulfric?

While playing through the main quest and Civil War questlines of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you will learn that Ulfric Stormcloak is not the humble, rebellious patriot that he painted himself out to be. In fact, if you were to do some digging, you'd find that he's actually a traitor in his own right, a turncoat for the Thalmor.

You know, the very elves he claims to despise.

Even worse, you can't throw this back in his face. Normally, while you're out and exploring the rich world, if you find some new information, you're actually able to get new dialogue options that are relevant to what you learned. However, when it comes to Ulfric, you can't say anything to him; there isn't even a hint of different dialogue.

On the bright side, you could just side with the Imperials and kill him, you have much less of a mess to deal with that way.

4 Fallout 3

Was a Sacrifice Really Necessary?

While the Fallout games are fantastic and will do an incredible job of immersing you in the post-nuclear-war world, these games have their fair share of plot holes. None of them, however, are quite as pressing as the main one in Fallout 3.

Throughout the whole game, your end goal is to complete Project Purity. However, once you get to the actual end of the game, you'll be faced with an impossible choice in order to actually see Project Purity all the way through: in order for the code to be input, someone will have to take on a lethal dose of radiation to do so, literally dying for the cause.

Your options are sacrificing yourself, having Sarah sacrifice herself for it, or completely sabotaging the whole thing. Sarah suggests drawing straws, but that's not even an option when you're faced with them, so the most realistic option is already off the table.

It really makes no sense for the game and for the world to have this be the outcome, and it's something gamers have been upset about since Fallout 3 was initially released. That being said, that's not going to keep the game from being a ton of fun and a great time all the way through ... just not until the end.

3 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff

The Legend of Zelda is no stranger to time travel, or dealing with time in any capacity. That being said, time travel is the easiest way to write yourself into a plot hole, and it seems that's exactly what happened to developers in Tears of the Kingdom, the official sequel to Breath of the Wild.

In this game, we learn that Zelda is thrown back in time to basically the origins of Hyrule itself, and in order for her to get the Master Sword back in Link's hands, she undergoes Draconifcation, immortalizing herself by turning into the Light Dragon with the Master Sword stuck firmly in her head.

Which makes sense ... until you remember that you don't get the sword from her in Breath of the Wild, rather finding it by the Great Deku Tree in the Lost Woods. That means there are now either two Master Swords in the current timeline, or someone overlooked a key detail in the previous game.

Considering the game and how messy time travel stuff can get, it's likely the latter. But players tend to overlook that in favour of the beautiful open world and the gameplay within it.

2 Grand Theft Auto V

You Have to Overlook a Lot

Realistically, nobody really plays Grand Theft Auto V (or any GTA game for that matter) exclusively for the plot. The gameplay and the world are what draws people in and keeps them there, and it's strong enough for them to overlook any plot holes that might pop up in the main storyline.

Good thing, too, because there are a ton of plot holes you have to overlook.

Whether it be how information got to specific people, why the characters even decided to work with each other, how Michael managed to properly escape and fake his death to Trevor, and there's more. About a good half of the plot leaves players with more questions than answers, but they have to suspend their disbelief if they want to continue.

Then again, you just got your hands on a rocket launcher, so who cares?

1 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Oh, Okay, We're Doing This Now

The Assassin's Creed games are no stranger to plot holes, even back in the earlier games. While Assassin's Creed II didn't deal with it as much, its side story, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, takes the plot and then decides to really complicate things.

Specifically, you're introduced to a group of god-like beings (called the Isu) that had been here before humans (in the game you're specifically speaking to Juno). Not only does it toss out a lot of the reality that the historical fiction story was grounded in, but it ends up breaking its own rules just moments later.

In particular, right after Juno is talking about her people and how they're unable to control assassins .... she turns around and physically controls Desmond into killing Lucy, who was secretly with the Templars. Sure, it was helpful to keeping Desmond safe at the time, but it ends up going against the continuity that had just been established.

My theory is that Desmond was easy to control because he had originally renounced his assassin title, or that Juno was simply lying, but it ended up being such a stark contrast to everything this game was rolling with so far. Then again, people play the Assassin's Creed games to immerse themselves in a part of actual history, and for the most part, the games absolutely nail it.