10 Most Immersive Open World Games
Which games could you REALLY get lost in? #eldenring #thewitcher #skyrim
Transcript
00:00 At this point, there are more open world games than I've had hot dinners.
00:03 It's the industry's go-to genre and for good reason.
00:06 Fans love to dive into living, breathing worlds and spend tens, hundreds, or maybe thousands of hours
00:12 losing themselves in it.
00:14 Hell, that's why even usually linear franchises like Metal Gear Solid couldn't resist the allure of the sandbox.
00:21 But which open worlds immersed us the most?
00:24 Well, it's funny you should ask because I'm Josh from WotCulture.com
00:27 and these are the 10 most immersive open world games.
00:30 Number 10, No Man's Sky.
00:32 No Man's Sky is nothing less than the bar for a completely open-ended sci-fi RPG.
00:38 Yes, we all remember that historically messy, disappointing launch,
00:41 but even back then you could see the seeds that Hello Games were planting
00:45 for an infinitely generating universe of aliens, spaceships, trading, mining, and much more to come.
00:51 Today, following over half a decade of sizable free expansions,
00:55 many of which feel like a sequel's worth of content,
00:58 No Man's Sky lets you build hugely intricate bases, name your own planet,
01:03 and take on missions from identifying ancient artifacts
01:07 to gunning down a high-value bounty in another star system.
01:10 There's character customisation, ship customisation, optional multiplayer,
01:14 meaning that you can do everything that I'm mentioning here with a group of friends,
01:18 and the whole game's art direction is just chef's kiss.
01:22 Number 9, Outer Wilds.
01:23 In this interstellar time loop game, players take control of an anthropologist
01:27 eager to set out on their first expedition to study an ancient alien civilization.
01:32 Unfortunately though, this is the day that the sun just so happens to explode,
01:37 at which point the explorer awakens at the start of that day,
01:40 seemingly saved by a mysterious artifact that activated prior to departure.
01:45 Each of the five planets that you then explore are completely different in their visual style
01:49 and gameplay mechanics.
01:51 However, it's the revelations these planets contain that make Outer Wilds so enormously immersive.
01:57 Piecing together clues from snippets of lore is central to the experience.
02:01 It's entirely up to you which breadcrumb trail you follow first,
02:05 and though there's a heavy puzzle element to figuring out how things like gravitational
02:09 pulls can change from one place to the next, the overarching mystery always keeps you going.
02:14 Figuring out how these planets work, what their physical properties are,
02:18 and how they relate to the cosmos genuinely makes for an open world experience like no other.
02:24 Number 8 - Cyberpunk 2077
02:27 As many are now finally able to see with patch 1.5 delivering a version of the game
02:31 that any non-PC player should have had in 2020, CD Projekt Red did create an exceptionally grounded
02:37 and realized world in Cyberpunk, its city incredibly detailed and its entire landmass
02:43 only elevating the various stories told within.
02:46 Night City isn't only large in scope, but its scale is reflected within the verticality of
02:51 its skyline and the densely packed streets below.
02:54 Wherever you look provides some memorable takeaway,
02:57 apartments bustling with diverse groups of residents that you want to get to know,
03:01 and glossy oversized holograms hanging over dank back alley deals.
03:05 This grimy failed utopia with its crime infested underbelly paints Night City
03:10 as a place on the brink of collapse, something the story and its many endings
03:15 let you get lost in.
03:16 Number 7 - Fallout New Vegas
03:18 I got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle.
03:22 I personally will never get the Fallout New Vegas soundtrack out of my head.
03:27 When I think of some of the happiest times of my entire life,
03:30 I picture strolling through the Mojave Wasteland banging out some Marty Robbins.
03:35 The world Obsidian created here is one you can totally get lost in, as is Bethesda's Fallout 3,
03:41 but it's made extra special by the sheer depth of it.
03:45 This isn't a place with basic good guys and bad guys, with moral choices as simplistic as
03:50 "do you want to be bad and nuclear explode an entire town?"
03:54 No, the world New Vegas spins is grimy, multi-layered, and full of interesting factions.
04:00 Everyone has something going on, some kind of agenda to unearth,
04:04 and even the villains have fascinating motivations for why they do what they do.
04:09 Sure, the gameplay hasn't aged all that well and its rushed development time is present at every
04:13 turn, but those issues don't stop this from being a truly immersive world.
04:18 In fact, those drawbacks only make it even more impressive.
04:21 Number 6 - The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
04:24 Over a decade later, Skyrim is still hailed as one of the best RPGs ever made.
04:29 And while some aspects of combat and character models haven't aged so well, just like Fallout
04:33 New Vegas, Bethesda's crowning achievement holds up as an always-engrossing gaming experience.
04:39 What makes Skyrim work so well has always been its world.
04:43 The feeling of a realm genuinely alive with a thousand activities all happening at once.
04:48 Even after 100 hours of gameplay, there's always another quest to complete or dungeon to explore,
04:54 and that's not even factoring in the expansions.
04:56 Skyrim is a game that entices you to explore a little further each time.
05:01 While travelling to a location for one quest, the silhouette of an undiscovered ruin or cave
05:05 is enough to take you on a detour, which in itself turns into another detour or maybe three more.
05:12 From snowy settlements on the tallest mountains to strange subterranean areas hidden underneath
05:17 ruins, Skyrim has never felt like an entity any of us have seen every last part of,
05:22 and that's one hell of an achievement.
05:24 Number 5 - Elden Ring
05:26 FromSoftware have been known for their phenomenal world design ever since the original Demon's Souls.
05:31 In Elden Ring though, the team has mastered a coalescence of exploration, combat and discovery
05:37 that doesn't let you go for literally hundreds of hours.
05:40 Every last inch of the lands between is a gargantuan open space, that somehow also retains
05:46 a handcrafted level design, with certain pockets of the map turning into miniature Souls games
05:52 all on their own.
05:53 With pure curiosity fuelled exploration paramount to the experience, Elden Ring has no waypoints,
06:00 only a vague marker on where to go if you find its sites of grace, and few map markers unless
06:05 you make your own.
06:06 It forces you into a mindset of picking a direction and just seeing what you can find,
06:10 and fortunately, every area houses new deer, new enemies, new bosses, items, XP and various
06:17 other elements that fold back into whatever the hell you want to do next.
06:21 Number 4 - The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt
06:24 The first time through The Witcher 3, really taking in just how much CDPR had written,
06:29 designed and crafted everywhere across the game world was just…well, it was something else.
06:35 Geralt's continent-spanning quest to find Ciri had players spending dozens of hours
06:39 slaying monsters, and if you were a big nerd, playing Gwent, but we also had a ton of literal
06:44 question marks promising extra objectives, underground caves, bandit camps, rare items,
06:49 gear and everything in between.
06:51 Now I've talked a lot about gameplay immersion in this list, but it's worth saying that
06:55 truly exquisite writing and that extra level of attention to detail can really elevate
07:00 the experience as well.
07:01 No matter how insignificant a quest may seem, each one in The Witcher 3 is tied to a rich
07:06 and engaging narrative, or functions as a neat memorable one-off.
07:10 There's no such thing as a throwaway task here, even scavenger hunts are connected in
07:15 their own way through letters and notes found on the journey.
07:18 Number 3 - The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
07:21 If there was one game that showed how immersive an open world can be,
07:24 it was The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.
07:26 After spending just a few hours with this masterclass in game design,
07:30 it's easy to see why it's so easy to get lost in the stunning vistas of Hyrule.
07:35 When Link awakens at the start of the game and emerges into the expansive world that
07:39 opens before him, the world becomes fully explorable from the gore.
07:44 Freedom is at the core of the journey here, nothing is really off limits.
07:49 Players can set off in any direction they choose to tackle the non-linear story,
07:53 in any order that they desire.
07:55 Hell, players can even head straight to the final boss if they're feeling especially brave that day.
08:00 Though the vast freedom awarded to players right out of the gate is all part of what
08:03 makes this gorgeous world so great, it's the sense of discovery and experimentation
08:08 that cement this open world as one of the best.
08:11 With barely any map markers telegraphing key locations,
08:14 it's up to players to uncover what's out there.
08:16 And with many of these secrets requiring players to solve cryptic puzzles,
08:20 there's always something new to find in Hyrule.
08:23 Number 2 - Grand Theft Auto V
08:25 When a certain generation gets older, they're gonna look back on GTA V's portrayal of LA
08:29 and its surrounding areas as somewhere that they used to genuinely visit.
08:33 The sheer amount of combined time that we as a people have invested into GTA V's world,
08:39 both its offline story and GTA Online, is staggering, genuinely and completely unmatched.
08:46 Hell, I know its streets better than the place I grew up.
08:51 Whether you're going on a rampage through bustling streets,
08:53 racing across the open countryside or simply taking in the scenery from the air,
08:57 GTA V prides itself on letting you spend your time however the hell you like.
09:02 And with GTA Online, that time has continued to provide plenty of surprises.
09:07 Number 1 - Red Dead Redemption 2
09:09 Whether Arthur Morgan's heart-wrenching character arc, phenomenal characters and acting performances
09:15 or a magnificent soundtrack reminiscent of the golden age of Western cinema,
09:19 Dan Howes' last Rockstar game is an absolute masterpiece.
09:23 It's also a masterpiece precious few have even finished,
09:27 but that's largely because they were so enamored and thoroughly enraptured by its world.
09:32 See, Red Dead 2's expansive portrayal of the Old West is a painterly one,
09:36 something that takes influence from how the rolling hills and sweeping cloud formations
09:40 of the late 1800s paintings would romanticise the period overall.
09:44 Obviously, there's a dark reality to the lawlessness within,
09:47 but Rockstar's unique endless budget crafted an eye-widening amount of activities to do
09:53 and secrets to find.
09:54 Setting a deliberately glacial pace to surpass even the grandest Westerns of Hollywood,
09:59 Rockstar are begging players to just take their time, soak in every detail at your own pace
10:05 and just enjoy the time you have in this game.
10:08 Everything from brushing Arthur's horse to polishing a pistol is purposefully slow
10:13 and methodical.
10:14 Every movement feels weighty and grounded in the world around it.
10:18 This is the nearest thing we've ever got to virtual reality without the goggles,
10:22 and the result is arguably the most immersive digital experience ever created.
10:26 But I want to know what you guys think about that down in the comments.
10:29 Do you agree?
10:30 Or are there any immersive experiences that I missed that you think deserved a spot in this top 10?
10:35 While you're down there as well, could you please give us a like, share, subscribe
10:37 and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
10:42 Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching and I'll see you soon.