Which games could you REALLY get lost in? #eldenring #thewitcher #skyrim
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00:00At this point there are more open world games than I've had hot dinners.
00:03It's the industry's go-to genre and for good reason.
00:06Fans love to dive into living, breathing worlds and spend tens, hundreds or maybe thousands of hours
00:12losing themselves in it.
00:14Hell, that's why even usually linear franchises like Metal Gear Solid couldn't resist the allure
00:19of the sandbox.
00:21But which open worlds immersed us the most?
00:24Well, it's funny you should ask, because I'm Josh from WockCulture.com
00:27and these are the 10 most immersive open world games.
00:30Number 10, No Man's Sky.
00:32No Man's Sky is nothing less than the bar for a completely open-ended sci-fi RPG.
00:38Yes, we all remember that historically messy disappointing launch,
00:41but even back then you could see the seeds that Hello Games were planting
00:45for an infinitely generating universe of aliens, spaceships, trading, mining and much more to come.
00:51Today, following over half a decade of sizable free expansions,
00:55many of which feel like a sequel's worth of content,
00:58No Man's Sky lets you build hugely intricate bases near your own planet
01:03and take on missions from identifying ancient artifacts
01:06to gunning down a high-value bounty in another star system.
01:10There's character customisation, ship customisation,
01:13optional multiplayer, meaning that you can do everything that I'm mentioning here
01:16with a group of friends,
01:18and the whole game's art direction is just chef's kiss.
01:21Number 9, Outer Wilds.
01:23In this interstellar time loop game, players take control of an anthropologist
01:27eager to set out on their first expedition to study an ancient alien civilization.
01:32Unfortunately though, this is the day that the sun just so happens to explode,
01:37at which point the explorer awakens at the start of that day,
01:40seemingly saved by a mysterious artifact that activated prior to departure.
01:45Each of the five planets that you then explore
01:47are completely different in their visual style and gameplay mechanics.
01:51However, it's the revelations these planets contain
01:54that make Outer Wilds so enormously immersive.
01:57Piecing together clues from snippets of lore is central to the experience.
02:01It's entirely up to you which breadcrumb trail you follow first,
02:05and though there's a heavy puzzle element to figuring out
02:07how things like gravitational pulls can change from one place to the next,
02:12the overarching mystery always keeps you going.
02:14Figuring out how these planets work, what their physical properties are,
02:18and how they relate to the cosmos,
02:20genuinely makes for an open-world experience like no other.
02:27As many are now finally able to see with patch 1.5
02:30delivering a version of the game that any non-PC player should have had in 2020,
02:34CD Projekt Red did create an exceptionally grounded and realized world in Cyberpunk,
02:39its city incredibly detailed, and its entire landmass
02:43only elevating the various stories told within.
02:46Night City isn't only large in scope,
02:48but its scale is reflected within the verticality of its skyline
02:52and the densely packed streets below.
02:54Wherever you look provides some memorable takeaway.
02:57Apartments bustling with diverse groups of residents that you want to get to know,
03:01and glossy, oversized holograms hanging over dank back-alley deals.
03:05This grimy, failed utopia with its crime-infested underbelly
03:09paints Night City as a place on the brink of collapse,
03:12something the story and its many endings let you get lost in.
03:18I got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle.
03:22I personally will never get the Fallout New Vegas soundtrack out of my head.
03:27When I think of some of the happiest times of my entire life,
03:30I picture strolling through the Mojave Wasteland and banging out some Marty Robbins.
03:35The world Obsidian created here is one you can totally get lost in,
03:39as is Bethesda's Fallout 3, but it's made extra special by the sheer depth of it.
03:45This isn't a place with basic good guys and bad guys,
03:48with moral choices as simplistic as,
03:50do you want to be bad and nuclear explode an entire town?
03:54No, the world New Vegas spins is grimy, multi-layered, and full of interesting factions.
04:00Everyone has something going on, some kind of agenda to unearth,
04:04and even the villains have fascinating motivations for why they do what they do.
04:09Sure, the gameplay hasn't aged all that well,
04:11and its rushed development time is present at every turn,
04:14but those issues don't stop this from being a truly immersive world.
04:18In fact, those drawbacks only make it even more impressive.
04:21Number 6, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim.
04:24Over a decade later, Skyrim is still hailed as one of the best RPGs ever made.
04:29And while some aspects of combat and character models haven't aged so well,
04:32just like Fallout New Vegas,
04:34Bethesda's crowning achievement holds up as an always engrossing gaming experience.
04:39What makes Skyrim work so well has always been its world.
04:43The feeling of a realm genuinely alive with a thousand activities all happening at once.
04:48Even after 100 hours of gameplay,
04:50there's always another quest to complete or dungeon to explore,
04:54and that's not even factoring in the expansions.
04:56Skyrim is a game that entices you to explore a little further each time.
05:01While traveling to a location for one quest,
05:03the silhouette of an undiscovered ruin or cave is enough to take you on a detour,
05:08which in itself turns into another detour or maybe three more.
05:12From snowy settlements on the tallest mountains
05:14to strange subterranean areas hidden underneath ruins,
05:18Skyrim has never felt like an entity any of us have seen every last part of,
05:22and that's one hell of an achievement.
05:24Number 5, Elden Ring.
05:26FromSoftware have been known for their phenomenal world design
05:29ever since the original Demon's Souls.
05:31In Elden Ring though, the team has mastered a coalescence of exploration,
05:35combat and discovery that doesn't let you go for literally hundreds of hours.
05:40Every last inch of the lands between is a gargantuan open space,
05:45that somehow also retains a handcrafted level design,
05:49with certain pockets of the map turning into miniature Souls games all on their own.
05:53With pure curiosity-fuelled exploration paramount to the experience,
05:57Elden Ring has no waypoints, only a vague marker on where to go
06:02if you find its sites of grace, and few map markers unless you make your own.
06:06It forces you into a mindset of picking a direction and just seeing what you can find,
06:10and fortunately, every area houses new gear, new enemies, new bosses, items, XP
06:16and various other elements that fold back into whatever the hell you want to do next.
06:21Number 4, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt.
06:24The first time through The Witcher 3, really taking in just how much CDPR
06:28had written, designed and crafted everywhere across the game world,
06:32was just, well, it was something else.
06:35Geralt's continent-spanning quest to find Ciri
06:37had players spending dozens of hours slaying monsters,
06:40and if you were a big nerd, playing Gwent,
06:42but we also had a ton of literal question marks promising extra objectives,
06:46underground caves, bandit camps, rare items, gear and everything in between.
06:51Now I've talked a lot about gameplay immersion in this list,
06:54but it's worth saying that truly exquisite writing
06:57and that extra level of attention to detail can really elevate the experience as well.
07:01No matter how insignificant a quest may seem,
07:03each one in The Witcher 3 is tied to a rich and engaging narrative,
07:07or functions as a neat memorable one-off.
07:10There's no such thing as a throwaway task here,
07:13even scavenger hunts are connected in their own way
07:15through letters and notes found on the journey.
07:18Number 3, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.
07:21If there was one game that showed how immersive an open world can be,
07:24it was The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.
07:26After spending just a few hours with this masterclass in game design,
07:30it's easy to see why it's so easy to get lost in the stunning vistas of Hyrule.
07:35When Link awakens at the start of the game
07:37and emerges into the expansive world that opens before him,
07:40the world becomes fully explorable from the gore.
07:44Freedom is at the core of the journey here, nothing is really off-limits.
07:49Players can set off in any direction they choose to tackle the non-linear story,
07:53in any order that they desire.
07:55Hell, players can even head straight to the final boss
07:57if they're feeling especially brave that day.
08:00Though the vast freedom awarded to players right out of the gate
08:02is all part of what makes this gorgeous world so great,
08:05it's the sense of discovery and experimentation
08:08that cement this open world as one of the best.
08:11With barely any map markers telegraphing key locations,
08:14it's up to players to uncover what's out there.
08:16And with many of these secrets requiring players to solve cryptic puzzles,
08:20there's always something new to find in Hyrule.
08:23Number 2, Grand Theft Auto V.
08:25When a certain generation gets older,
08:26they're gonna look back on GTA V's portrayal of LA and its surrounding areas
08:30as somewhere that they used to genuinely visit.
08:33The sheer amount of combined time that we, as a people,
08:37have invested into GTA V's world,
08:39both its offline story and GTA Online,
08:42is staggering, genuinely and completely unmatched.
08:46Hell, I know its streets better than the place I grew up.
08:51Whether you're going on a rampage through bustling streets,
08:53racing across the open countryside,
08:55or simply taking in the scenery from the air,
08:57GTA V prides itself on letting you spend your time however the hell you like,
09:02and with GTA Online, that time has continued to provide plenty of surprises.
09:07Number 1, Red Dead Redemption 2.
09:10Whether Arthur Morgan's heart-wrenching character arc,
09:12phenomenal characters and acting performances,
09:15or a magnificent soundtrack reminiscent of the golden age of western cinema,
09:19Dan Howes' last Rockstar game is an absolute masterpiece.
09:23It's also a masterpiece precious few have even finished,
09:27but that's largely because they were so enamoured
09:29and thoroughly enraptured by its world.
09:32See, Red Dead 2's expansive portrayal of the Old West is a painterly one,
09:36something that takes influence from how the rolling hills
09:39and sweeping cloud formations of the late 1800s paintings
09:42would romanticise the period overall.
09:45Obviously, there's a dark reality to the lawlessness within,
09:48but Rockstar's unique endless budget crafted an eye-widening amount of activities to do
09:53and secrets to find.
09:54Setting a deliberately glacial pace to surpass even the grandest westerns of Hollywood,
09:59Rockstar are begging players to just take their time,
10:02soak in every detail at your own pace,
10:05and just enjoy the time you have in this game.
10:08Everything from brushing Arthur's horse to polishing a pistol
10:11is purposefully slow and methodical.
10:14Every movement feels weighty and grounded in the world around it.
10:18This is the nearest thing we've ever got to virtual reality without the goggles,
10:22and the result is arguably the most immersive digital experience ever created.
10:27But I want to know what you guys think about that down in the comments.
10:29Do you agree?
10:30Or are there any immersive experiences I missed that you think deserved a spot in this top 10?
10:35While you're down there as well, could you please give us a like, share, subscribe,
10:37and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
10:42Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.