It's one thing to birth and sustain fictional worlds in books, movies, or video games, but it's quite another feat entirely to produce one in an open-world game. For the most part, games in this genre go beyond works that one person or small teams can produce. They are colossal undertakings that take the time of hundreds, if not thousands, of people to the tune of millions of dollars to make.

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The scale and level of detail found in open-world games' worlds, can be make or break for the title.

Just like any product or work of art, there is never any guarantee of success. While caution and playing it safe may seem prudent when it comes to handling millions of dollars, without taking risks, there can be no innovation, creativity, or spirit. These franchises have not only managed to pull off a great undertaking once but have become pillars in gaming as they continue to tantalize the imagination of players the world over.

8 Assassin's Creed (Post-Origins)

A Hike Through Lavish Historical Recreation

The series' move to become true open-world adventures was divisive, but there's no denying that each environment throughout Assassin's Creed (snow, sea, desert) and the various ways that each assassin or proto-assassin moves through them are breathtaking to behold. Although the days of scaling painstakingly modeled architecture may be behind it, the environments, if perhaps a little sparse, are no less beautiful.

It isn't just the spectacular open worlds of Assassin's Creed games and their traversal that get the feel right post-Origins. The systems that convey the "life" of the open world are exhaustive and conducive to out-of-the-sandbox gameplay. For example, in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, when asked to take down a high-ranking military officer, players are able to lure soldiers out of the fort, backtrack, and use the distraction to find the best position to spring their attack, or they can just ignore all that and fight their way through.

7 Marvel's Spider-Man

Making A Playground Out Of NYC

While Marvel's Spider-Man is packed with superheroic power-fantasy features and tasteful Spider-Man nostalgia, it is best known for one thing: the joy of webslinging. But even with perfect movement, it would not be half as satisfying without the open-world design, with iconic, bustling areas, beautiful New York City architecture, and plenty of unlockable Spider-secrets to uncover off the beaten web for a man-sized wallcrawler to discover.

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Although swinging so fast across a skyline that the world becomes a blur is easily the game's broadest appeal, there's plenty of subtlety on offer for webslingers who like to take their time and soak in the NYC vibes. For example, the game's clever interior mapping renderer paints building interiors with decor and doors, selling the city as a lived-in place.

6 The Witcher

Sprawling Interconnected Worlds Of Endless Narrative Choice

A stumbling block that many open-world adventures trip on is actually filling their vast maps with enough content to keep their players, well, content. The Witcher series, The Witcher 3, in particular, managed to do this handily by populating its sprawling green landscapes and bustling streets with rich lore, engaging and varied quests, and meaningful choices that impact the world.

Rather than having a main questline and side quests unrelated to it, the decisions Geralt makes on his adventures tend to come back with delayed consequences. Open-world games tend to rely on their systems and go for linear stories so as not to complicate narrative development, but perhaps because of its novel source material, The Witcher series has made branching narratives a core part of its design.

5 Fallout

A Remarkably Beautiful Post-Nuclear Ruin

Bethesda's Wastelands have often been described as characters in themselves, and those seen in any Fallout game fit that description perfectly. The series began with an overworld map with random encounters but developed into a truly open world after going fully 3D in Fallout 3, complete with irradiated monsters, ruined national landmarks, and comedically arranged skeletons.

As an RPG focused on loot and leveling, the worlds offer an addictive gameplay loop of exploration (finding trouble), reclamation (finding loot), and compensation (selling loot), all while the player watches their character develop (often into a cannibal). The base building added in Fallout 4 not only empowered the player but gave value to the junk of the Commonwealth.

4 The Legend Of Zelda (Switch Era)

A Breath Of Fresh Air In A Crowded Scene

The Legend of Zelda's world design has changed much over the years. While it may not have always focused on working towards the concept of the open-world, with many games focusing on tackling dungeons accessible in a large overworld, it is clear that Nintendo was always gunning to capture the essence of a grand adventure through a seemingly endless environment.

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After dropping Skyward Sword's linear structure and unveiling Breath of the Wild's pastures and mountains, Nintendo proved that Zelda could evolve and handily compete in a world with plenty of other open-world titles. Its approach to guided exploration and organic discovery based on intensive player testing and experimentation was something of a second wind for the genre that had been somewhat mired in overused open-world mechanics and tropes.

3 Red Dead Redemption

Pushing Boundaries In The Closing American Frontier

The arrival of Red Dead Redemption's American frontier was a significant milestone at a time when video games were beginning to reach maturity in both the stories they told and their graphical fidelity. Eight years later, its sequel/prequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, managed not only to top it in terms of quality but also raised the cap on what could be expected from open-world games.

There is something intangibly real about the frost on the mountaintops, the glaze on the dewy long grass, and the painterly hues on far-off vegetation in Red Dead Redemption 2 that goes beyond shaders or hardware improvements. Given the enormous time gap between games, it is hard to imagine what a third game in the Red Dead Redemption franchise will look like, given how far into the future it will be before fans even get wind of RDR3.

2 The Elder Scrolls

A Grand Arena For Impromptu Adventure And Lore Hunting

As spectacular as Skyrim's vast, mountain-strewn landscape is, there is something more intimate about the provinces of the Elder Scrolls series that brings them to life. Memorable NPCs, emergent narratives via radiant events and quests, and some of the finest lore in video games are just a few elements that entice players to start a new life in Tamriel for the 99th time. Although there is plenty of sword and sorcery action, the sublime, often meditative soundtrack and richly detailed environments give each Elder Scrolls game a home-away-from-home feel.

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The early games in this long-running series took enormous leaps in their designs, so much so that the next game hardly resembled the last (for example, Morrowind's evolution into a sandbox game compared to Daggerfall's fantasy life simulator style). While recent Elder Scrolls games may not excel at one particular gameplay mechanic, the gallery of gameplay on offer evokes such a powerful appeal to players who can, at any moment, peel off and explore different avenues of adventure.

1 Grand Theft Auto

Stealing First Place In The Race For Open-World Supremacy

Grand Theft Auto is both the originator and, thus far, the leading innovator in the modern open-world genre. With its immersive world design and relentless offerings of gameplay variety, it has continuously pushed the limits on gamers' imaginations at each generation. While it is true that there was a markedly longer gap between the fifth and sixth entries than the others, each game is crafted with care, incredible attention to detail, and a focus on artistic merit as well as fun.

Every mission introduces a novel objective or mechanic for the player to grapple with without going too far afield. Each is casually punctuated by stellar writing and mo-cap performances that challenge the best of cinema or television. Even with such high-quality missions, the open world itself shines with the same polish and meticulous realism. Grand Theft Auto games take their time to produce, but each entry tends to be a landmark cultural milestone in its own right, raising the bar to previously unimaginable heights.

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