There was a time when most video games only included linear levels that would disappear from the game once the player had finished it. However, that changed when home consoles became more advanced. Developers could add more content to video games, and slowly the worlds that these games existed in got a lot bigger. That is when the open-world video game was born.
An open world video game is any game that features a fully explorable environment outside the levels that players need to finish to progress. More and more video games are starting to include an open world as a backdrop for players, and some open world franchises have been putting out new content very consistently. For players who can’t get enough of these games, it’s worth getting invested in these series.
5Saints Row
The GTA Clone Isn’t As Successful As Its Counterpart
Six games may not seem like a lot for a series, but theSaints Rowfranchise is still less than twenty years old. Plus, the series does have a lot of entries compared to the other games that were released in the 2000s with the intention of capitalizing on the success of theGTAfranchise.
Saints Rowis very similar toGrand Theft Auto, as it is an open-world crime game that takes place in a large city where players can explore in a car or on foot. However, asGTAbecame more serious,Saints Rowopted to become more ridiculous. The fourth game in the series, and the spin-offGat Out Of Hell,even had players receiving superpowers in the main story. The more grounded reboot that launched in 2022 may not have been what fans wanted, but this series is too popular to die out yet. There are sure to be moreSaints Rowgames in the future.
4Far Cry
An FPS That Grew To Become About Survival
Many critics didn’t believe that the firstFar Crygame would go on to spawn a very expansive franchise. The game was good, but the first-person shooter gameplay and the narrative were nothing new at the time. However, each subsequent release in the series expanded the open-world maps even more. The games started to focus more on surviving in a harsh environment than gunning down waves of enemies.
Every game in theFar Cryseries now comes with an open world full of dangerous creatures and enemy patrols, so players have touse their wits more to keep moving forward. With such an imaginative premise, the developers behind the series have released several spin-off games to explore new survival scenarios. One of these isFar Cry: Primal,a game set in the past that sees players trying to survive the wild as an early man or woman.
3Assassin’s Creed
The Historical Franchise That Keeps On Going
Every gamer has seen or played anAssassin’s Creedgame at some point in the last decade. This open-world series about an underground group of assassins has successfully kept bringing players tonew countries throughout significant moments in history,and it shows no signs of slowing down.
Starting out in the Middle East, theAssassin’s Creedgames have expanded to include stories set in Renaissance Italy, aboard a pirate ship, in Ancient Egypt, and in Viking-controlled England. Each of these games is filled with NPCs to assassinate and optional side quests. Plus, the researchers on the development team always go out of their way to ensure that the periods in history in these games are as accurate as possible.
2Grand Theft Auto
The Original Crime Series
Ask anyone what the first open-world video game they played was, and the chances are high that they will reply with one of theGTAgames. This open-world crime series started out on the PS1, and was played from a top-down perspective. Players can use all mannerof weapons in vehicles in this game to cause chaos in the city, and lead the police on an epic chase. However, gaming changed forever when the thirdGTAgame in the series was released on the PS2.
This new version had all the action of the first games, but this time, everything was in 3D. TheGTAgames from the PS2 era may look dated by today’s standards, but they were instrumental in showing the gaming world exactly what to do with an open world. Now, every new game developer is trying to recreate this success. TheGTAfranchise has continued to add more fun concepts to the genre in its subsequent sequels and spin-offs.
1The Elder Scrolls
The Niche Fantasy Series That Took Over The Mainstream
The fantasy genre is one that seems perfectly suited to an open-world video game series. Luckily, Bethesda releasedThe Elder Scrolls: Arenain 1994 on PC, to give these fans exactly what they wanted. The first two entries in the main series were pixelated action games that took place in the fictional realm of Cyrodiil. Taking a lot of cues from the medieval lore of Tolkien’s Middle Earth and other classic high fantasy, this series features plenty of amazing creatures and fantastical places to visit in these once randomly generated worlds.
However, the fate of the series changed whenThe Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowindwas released. This game was a hail-Mary effort to keep the studio alive, and so Morrowind became a fully 3D game that drew a lot more attention from gamers than its predecessors. The franchise picked up more steam, as the next two games in the series were released on home consoles. Now, TheElder Scrollsis one of the biggest gaming series in history, and its spin-off games and online MMO all take place in this colorful and quirky open-world.
