Best games with open world exploration.

[mingsoup]

!

 

[Draknahr]

The only game I can think of that is kind of like that is Just Cause 2 but I don't think it directly rewards you for exploration, its just fun to do so.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Holy shit that's a TL DR post that has no real substance. Let me try again for you:

"I loved the free-roaming aspect of New Vegas, but games like GTA IV didn't capture the same feelings. I've thought about Oblivion and Minecraft - does anyone else have an suggestions?"

 

[mingsoup]

I like writing on the internet because I don't have to be absolutely correct grammatically or structurally. I can wane and usually Nazis don't get too bent out of shape, I get enough of that day to day IRL. Thanks for the constructive response.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Far Cry 2 - some people love it, some hate it.

 

[Soundmanred]

I like writing on the internet because I don't have to be absolutely correct grammatically or structurally. I can wane and usually Nazis don't get too bent out of shape, I get enough of that day to day IRL. Thanks for the constructive response.

No worries, he'll be banned again soon.
I enjoy JC2 for the exploration, collecting all the itmes and most of all blowing stuff up.
There's hasn't been a game since then that has me playing so much.
Really trying to get into Fable 3, but can't seem to...

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Mount & Blade open sandbox world where you can do quests or ignore them. Not very exciting things to find on the map, it's mostly battles, gear and deals you make.

 

[Via]

Gothic - kind of big with some off the path stuff
Gothic 2 - really big with lots of off the path stuff
Gothic 3 - huge in every way

I was always partial to Baldur's Gate because it truly allowed you to go anywhere, even if it meant getting your party's ass kicked. I guess it's too old for some now, though.

 

[sao123]

sid meiers pirates isa completely open world.

 

[Zenoth]

I like writing on the internet because I don't have to be absolutely correct grammatically or structurally. I can wane and usually Nazis don't get too bent out of shape, I get enough of that day to day IRL. Thanks for the constructive response.

Ignore him.

Anyway, word of advice concerning the STALKER series, yes you can "explore" in those, and yes you'll see odd things randomly occurring (if you happen to be there when it happens obviously, the thing is you'll probably just stand near camps during night time since it's too dangerous to just wander around in the dark, and ironically mutant activity increases at night), but there is NO sense of "discovery", much less of reward for exploring. You can "discover" a few "hidden" packages and weapons, and some artifacts. With the sole exception of the third game of the series (Call of Prypiat) they are all placed at the same exact location and once you discover them once there's nothing new to be found, although in CoP some anomalies and artifacts (not all of them) change locations after a Blowout occurs (some kind of storm that happens every now and then turning the sky red and shaking the environment, forcing changes in the zone such as more mutants and changes in anomalies locations and increased radioactivity if you cannot find shelter during such blowouts).

I haven't played any of the STALKER games since a couple of months and I admit I only have vague memories of the third game, but I do remember that out of the trilogy CoP is the one in which the "exploration" can potentially be "rewarding" (I.E actually finding stuff here and there exactly because you took the time to just wander around curiously). With that said however you will NOT find random caves or ruins in STALKER which would happen to be inhabited by some lone wolf type neutral Stalker that seems normal only to discover some previously-unnoticed back story about him because you found some strange stuff about him while he's sleeping or anything of such depth, and the STALKER series isn't exactly about that either, it's way more linear than lots of people would like to admit unless you install some big modification that would change the "goal" of it but really, exploration in STALKER is very limited, restrained and you won't exactly discover hidden stories of individual NPCs or "Stalker communities" because you found some "village" or abandoned warehouse and you stumbled upon some hidden cache containing world or zone-shattering revelations or anything, forget about that kind of stuff from Stalker, just a fair warning.

I myself absolutely adore the whole STALKER series and what makes it a superb trilogy is the atmosphere and sense of immersion that it offers, but as mentioned above, when analyzing what the series does offer it terms of actual exploration and sense of accomplishment or reward for doing so is very limited, but yes it can be done, on paper. What is fun sometimes however is that while exploring you might be the unprepared witness of a random encounter between mutants fighting each others for territorial disputes, or you might see some lonely and very unlucky Stalker in the distance being chased by a bloodsucker, if there IS one thing that the series is good for during exploration then yes it is for stumbling upon random encounters and occurrences that have absolutely nothing to do with the story, but those encounters won't give you new side quests and you won't later discover that the random Stalker you saw being eaten by a pack of dogs happened to be some general with a hidden agenda concerning the mysteries of the exclusion zone, now that kind of discoveries belongs to the Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises.

If you actually want to play a game that is more... say... "sandbox-focused" than I'd highly recommend to just not buy Stalker games. Unless of course you just don't mind, in such a case yeah just go for it, give one of them a try, if you can only buy one then go for the third one, Call of Prypiat, it's the only that really does focus more on "exploration" than the previous two unless as I mentioned you play with modifications, most of which are very unstable and often mess up with pre-established vanilla missions.

Not that those mods aren't "fun", mind you, they are, but technically they do temper around to an extent that would just send important NPCs to their death, or would permit mutants to randomly roam within an area where by default there should be none, the best mods however don't temper too much with randomization where it shouldn't be in the first place, mods like the "Complete" series of mods (for all three games) add to the vanilla experience and pretty much leave the default missions in place, which is better that way, but mods like AMK for Shadow of Chernobyl or mods like REDUX for Clear Sky will occasionally conflict with NPCs, paths they need to take and locations where missions have to start from or finish at, often including new mutants that weren't properly coded nor even included in the final version. I must say though that I'm speaking with the memories I have in mind dating back from when I did play those games with and without mods from months ago, it IS quite possible that at least as far as modifications are concerned they have changed a lot since then and they surely have been fixed or changed for the "better" and are now more stable, etc, I wouldn't be aware of it at the moment.

So anyway, point being that I do know what you want, and you won't find exactly that kind of stuff from the Stalker series although yes as I said you do explore and do find things here and there, but nothing with the depth (potentially anyway) of the random discoveries that can happen in Fallout 1, 2, 3, Vegas, or even from Oblivion or Morrowind. The "exploration" in games like Just Cause 2, or Grand Theft Auto 3 and beyond (Vice City, GTA4, etc) isn't going to reward you with much either, other than seeing some random things happening like a guy suddenly being chased by cops on the streets or a drunk driver starting to run over pedestrians for no particular reasons or some random battles and firefights between warring bands and gangs... that's not what you're looking for exactly, although the fun factor in seeing those things unexpectedly cannot be denied, but the novelty wears off fast enough, it did for me anyway, I got bored of GTA4 in less than a week and I never completed it, it's still uninstalled now and it has been since more than a year now.

I just wanted to give you some advices about the Stalker series overall. But I can't really think of any other titles besides Fallout 3, Morrowind and Oblivion right now that do offer the kind of exploration and sense of discovery that you're looking for specifically. I might just not be thinking about one or two right now that I would otherwise suggest, so if I suddenly remember about another game I'll edit my post and mention it, for now I would simply recommend going for Fallout 3, and if you do then get the Broken Steel DLC for increased level cap and story continuity beyond Fallout 3's vanilla ending, the other DLCs are pretty much self-contained mini stories that have nothing to do with the rest except for being part of the same context of post-apocalyptic chaos and survival (although the Anchorage DLC could be considered as a mini prologue, or perhaps prequel even of the events that lead to the general Fallout games' starting point, in the original Fallout).

 

[BFG10K]

The Stalker games, Borderlands, Far Cry 2.

 

[Ross Ridge]

No worries, he'll be banned again soon.

Actually, I found his summary quite helpful. The original post rambled a bit much, and that's not a criticism of grammar or structure.

Anyways, pretty much any MMORPG I think would meet his requirements. They usually have lots to explore and discover.

Hmm... there's the classic Fallout and Fallout 2, if he hasn't played those yet. Freelancer has a fair bit of exploration to it. Ooo... he's willing to go really old school, games like Starflight, Star Control 2 and Alien Legacy were all about exploring. They don't make games like that anymore. Maybe the X series of games, but I haven't played them.

 

[OCNewbie]

Actually, I found his summary quite helpful. The original post rambled a bit much, and that's not a criticism of grammar or structure.

I agree about the summary. I'm just browsing the PC Gaming section, and clicked on this post. When I saw how long the OP was, I was like "noooooot really up for this right now". Then I noticed the summary. Assuming the summary was accurate, I thought it was quite helpful.

 

[Texashiker]

The Stalker games, Borderlands

+1 on those 2

Stalker has some bugs that harms the game play - like auto-accepting quest, and some of the quest being time based, confusing city maps. To complete some of the quest, I had to go online several times.

Borderlands - is best with a friend in co-op.

 

[ZzZGuy]

+1 for STALKER series.

Minecraft, it's about the unique randomly(ish) generated terrain, what you build and what others built. Youtube video will tell you if you'd be interested in the terrain, you can find open severs where you can enter and explore what others have built and finally you can download single player maps others have uploaded (from the official forums). Note the game is still under development with new things added and others changed, there are also texture packs and mods.

Then there are MMO's.
WoW (yes, I said it)
Mortal Online.
Darkfall.

You can always try the free trails and ask how best to travel around quickly.

 

[JimmiG]

Obviously, Oblivion and Morrowind, as you mentioned.

Get the Morrowind Overhaul mod to make it worth exploring. It looks almost as good as modern games. For Oblivion, get Better Cities and Unique Landscapes (and Oblivion Graphics Extender v2 for some nice effects) and Qarls Texture Pack if your system can handle it. Also check out the Nehrim mod for Oblivion for a completely new world to explore.

Another "open world" game I've been playing a lot recently is Two Worlds 2. It fixes many of the gameplay issues of the first game, but unfortunately has problems of its own. The biggest problem is that the game world is pretty small compared to Oblivion and the first Two Worlds. Just one medium sized desert/Savannah island and a couple of smaller islands. There's an addon coming later this year which will hopefully add some more land mass and make sailing more worthwhile.

One not so obvious "sandbox" style game is X3 Terran Conflict. It's an old game, but new content has been continuously added over the years. It still looks pretty good too. You're not really exploring a "world", you're just flying through empty space really, hopping between sectors by means of teleportation. But it's pretty fun and there's definitely a sense of discovery as you explore new sectors.

 

[CottonRabbit]

Risen

 

[KaOTiK]

Red Faction Gorilla

You are on Mars, you can destroy everything with a giant sledgehammer. I can't remember much else about it other than it is 3rd person as well. It was fun destroying everything, but that is all I can remember, it has been quite awhile since I've played it.

 

[NoSoup4You]

Red Faction is open ended but there's none of the discovery gameplay the OP is looking for. Someone else mentioned Risen, this game fits the bill however it's production values are lower than the Bethesda titles the OP has already listed. Voice acting is hit or miss, mostly miss. Also the combat never really gets interesting. However there's an open world to explore and Risen rewards you for having an inquisitive eye. I still remember in the very beginning of the game wandering along a cliff wall and seeing a slight ridge shrouded heavily in shrubs, obscuring what lay beyond. I wondered if I could jump up onto it and sure enough it ended up leading me to a decayed skeleton and I got a short sword from him, long before the game actually gives you your first sword (I was still using a piece of driftwood as a weapon at that point). Stuff like that - the game rewarding you for being the type to look around - happens all the time in Risen. These little places don't, however, have much (if any) backstory to them. They're simply there to be discovered. Bethesda games give you a little story to go with these random finds.

 

[finglobes]

Oblivion is good but repetitive - all those underground caverns, dungeons and crypts etc start to look the same real fast.

 

[Schadenfreude]

I've been on a classic game kick lately, so I'd go with recommending the classics:

- Fallout 1
- Fallout 2
- Baldur's Gate II (The first one was . . . okay, but it sure did have a lot of fetching quests: on top of that when I played on the original release, it was a PITA to have to swap discs to go to a new area to get something that an NPC wanted, and swapping AGAIN just so I can return and complete the quest - and I walk uphill to school both ways too . . . anyways, thank god for digital releases, eh?)

 

[Via]

I've been on a classic game kick lately, so I'd go with recommending the classics:

- Fallout 1
- Fallout 2
- Baldur's Gate II (The first one was . . . okay, but it sure did have a lot of fetching quests: on top of that when I played on the original release, it was a PITA to have to swap discs to go to a new area to get something that an NPC wanted, and swapping AGAIN just so I can return and complete the quest - and I walk uphill to school both ways too . . . anyways, thank god for digital releases, eh?)

But you could install the whole game and not have to swap.

 

[Markbnj]

This is a bit of a pain to set up, but it's worth it. The world is just huge, and whole Morrowind/Tribunal/Bloodmoon quest series are pretty damn epic.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2153791&highlight=morrowind

 

[HunterDT]

Gothic III with the community patch! Seriously. It's a bit quirky and rough around the edges production-wise, but you'll get to love it and its "Gothicness".

 

[mindcycle]

Gothic - kind of big with some off the path stuff
Gothic 2 - really big with lots of off the path stuff
Gothic 3 - huge in every way

+1 on the Gothic games. You won't get much more open world than those. Check out Risen as well, which is from the same developers.

I've also been having some fun with Two Worlds 2. It has a fairly large world to explore and is quite a fun game as well.