What's more fun than embarking upon an epic quest, saving the world, and answering one's true calling as a hero? Altogether ignoring that quest to go chasing chickens instead. That's what. Or putting the hero’s calling aside for 30 minutes to harass an unassuming villager, simply because the player doesn't like the cut of his jib.
Open-world games offer epic adventures enhanced by a refreshing sense of freedom. Rather than facing linear, level-by-level gameplay, players can explore vast maps in whatever way they like. With great freedom comes little responsibility, however. Broad maps often lead players to more trivial and silly pursuits, if only to test the boundaries of their freedom. Also, sometimes non-quest antics are just more fun. They break up the non-stop toils of a hero protagonist, providing amusing respites from the game’s mainstream journey.
9 Get Way Off The Beaten Track
Despite open-world games implicitly encouraging free roaming and choice, they still encourage players to follow the main story’s trail of breadcrumbs more so. Fair enough. Otherwise, they might not find the game’s intended story at all.
Still, it’s liberating to be able to turn one’s back on the game's trail of breadcrumbs, making instead for the distant reaches of the map. Players can hunt for remote treasures or confront strange and overpowered enemies, before running away squealing like a child or simply getting spectacularly clobbered. It can be invigorating to uncover a map’s mysteries in one’s own way, never knowing what's going to happen. After all, isn’t that the point in an open-world?
8 Find Hidden Treasures No One Else Knows About
Surely they do know about them, but the lengths one goes to find said treasure make it feel as though they’re rarely discovered by other, mere mortals. Only one person with two hard-working thumbs and an adventurer’s heart will be carrying this particular sword/tome/fluffy jacket.
There’s always a sense that off the beaten track in some sidewinding location, there’s something extra shiny to be found. Something the developer didn’t intend players to find until later on, if at all. Find it early and it’s going to give the player a sublime boost, however, and a smug sense of satisfaction for having craftily exploited the open world system.
7 Love Basic Starter Items
The pull toward distant nooks and crannies to find hidden treasures and early, character-enhancing kit is strong. However, such items being hidden means that even if players do go hunting for them, they may not find them. Even if they do, they must rely on what they have in the meantime.
During such times, the player’s most prized possessions take the form of rusty old swords or lowly peashooters with extremely limited ammo. They’re a sight better than the character’s fists, after all. No weapon in the whole game is going to be as treasured as these low-tech hand-me-downs the player first receives. They transform their character from an entirely vulnerable peasant person to a god among the rats and the rabble. Someone with a pocket full of dreams and now the means for accomplishing them. Many players even stick with or revert to these beloved items later on, to keep the game challenging.
6 Chase Them Sheepies (And Other Animals)
Why keep struggling toward the character’s Mount Doom equivalent when it’s such a nice day in the world? The player could instead get out their big butterfly net and collect some interesting data on the various wildlife. Be that studying their behaviors, their types, or how much their meat is worth when skewered with an arrow or exploded with dynamite.
Chasing animals through the undergrowth of an open-world game is a great way to throw caution to the wind and live a more modest, carefree existence. It’s a game in itself, but simpler and somehow more wholesome than the whole saving the world thing. A hero’s long road and lofty undertakings naturally lead to procrastination with suitably benign endeavors. Like observing, pursuing, and sometimes exploding the local fauna.
5 Harass The Locals
No open world is complete without its inhabitants. The greater the variety of inhabitants and NPCs, the richer and more realistic the world will seem. The best open-world games have swathes of characters shambling about, just living their lives. It’s exciting to know the player can interact with any of them at any time and completely ruin their day. If they so choose.
Eventually, the desire to do that is more than a player can bear, and they become either a practical joker or a full-on menace to some unfortunate towns person. That do-gooder crossed the player’s path on the wrong day, saying something stupid, something sweet, something confrontational, or even perfectly normal, it really doesn’t matter. Sometimes, tormenting the NPCs to see how they react is just irresistible.
4 Reach The Highest Heights
Life is about success, achievement, overcoming obstacles, etcetera. Every game has this universal truth baked in, in its story and side quests – a chance at redemption or to save the world or what have you. However, that same sense of accomplishment can be sought through no more single-minded, crystal-clear aspiration as spotting the highest thing on the map and saying "I'm gonna climb that."
Of course, there’s no need or advantage to do so story-wise. In fact, climbing that mountain or building may take the player miles from their official objective and sink a good hour’s playtime, but it’s a self-imposed quest that’s as important as any other. Perhaps more importantly, players just know there’s going to be an award for reaching that zenith, doubling the satisfaction with official recognition and the console’s achievement jangle. If that's not something to be proud of, who knows what is.
3 Throw Yourself From The Highest Heights
Of course, there’s only one thing players want to do after reaching the highest point on the map. And that's jump off it, of course. Parachute or not. Curiosity killed the cat indeed. Who can survive the curiosity of what will happen to their player character when hurled from a 300ft drop?
Of course, there’s no great mystery in reality, but it’s fun to see them plummet and ragdoll at speeds the character never otherwise achieves in the entire game. Just be sure to save the progress before the ill-advised base jumping.
2 Take Up Hobbies
A lot of open-world games, especially RPGs, allow players to turn their back on that big wide world at any moment and indulge in some pedestrian pastimes instead. Why not take a break from the be-all and end-all tasks to get stuck into something light and restorative, i.e. exploring some much-needed hobbies.
Try to catch the biggest fish in the river or beat that mini-game at the arcade. Go golfing or taxiing everyday citizens across town. It may not have any practical benefits for the player’s overriding mission but even heroes need to take a day off. Indulge in some yoga, or play a round of cards, or ten, and lose all the character’s money for no good reason. It's all for the greater good.
1 Romance Everyone And Everything
An open world aiming to provide that sense of freedom and choice can only enhance the feeling with things like character customization, narrative options, or the opportunity to find love and romance. A well-rounded game with many side features to expand the immersion is not complete without opportunities to romance NPCs.
And what do players do when given these options? Use them of course. Everyone wants to find love in life, and it’s no different in virtual ones. In fact, with the nothing-to-lose nature of virtual worlds, it’s almost obligatory to romance the living daylights out of anything the player can. To revel in the resulting drama after hiding the hero’s dalliances badly, without fear of game-shattering consequences. Though it should be mentioned that in some games it can actually impact the story, even its ending, such as in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.