Highlights
- Open-world games prioritize player exploration over linear quests, creating immersive worlds with mysterious lore and history to uncover.
- Elden Ring, Old School Runescape, The Witcher 3, and Death Stranding offer unique stories and gameplay experiences within their open worlds.
- World of Warcraft: Classic and New World delve into rich lore, drawing inspiration from real-world history to create engaging environments for players.
An open-world game allows players to freely explore their environment, without being hindered by a linear set of quests or a fixed pathway through a pre-determined storyline. Most MMORPGs are open-world, but some single-player and stand-alone games can also be designed with an open-world environment.
Immersion is a big factor in open-world games, and developers and writers often keep the lore and history of their creations mysterious. Part of the gameplay lies in how the complex backstory and characters are revealed as the story progresses and the players explore their world.
The Most Immersive Open World Games, Ranked
Open world games are some of the most popular because of how many hours you can spend on them! These are the most immersive.
6 Elden Ring
Metacritic Score: 96
Elden Ring
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Platform(s)
- PS5 , Xbox One , PS4 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , PC
- Released
- February 25, 2022
These dark realms that form the setting of Elden Ring are referred to only as the Lands Between. When the game begins, this is a place of violence and turmoil, fought over by several demigods and the mortals caught in their wake. The player discovers more of the lore as the game progresses.
Legends speak of the power of the Elden Ring that once kept order, but Queen Marika destroyed the ring and vanished, leaving the remaining gods and humans to fight over the world she left behind. The main character, a mysterious drifter only known as The Tarnished, has to find and repair the Elden Ring. Along the way, they discover the secrets of the demigods and Marika's disappearance.
5 Old School Runescape
Metacritic Score: 87
This could also apply to the more recent, updated version of Runescape, since it's mostly about the lore of Gielinor, the land where the games take place. When it comes to lore, not a lot has changed in Runescape, although each version of the game looks different. It gives the player a vast and impressive space to roam, with plenty of mysteries to uncover, which is part of why this game is still recruiting new players more than two decades after its initial release.
Old School Runescape: 8 Things To Do Before Becoming A Member
Stick with completing these tasks in f2p before spending your hard-earned gold on that precious bond!
Plenty of history and detailed quests in this game are based on the various factions, NPCs, quests, towns, and dungeons. These all include volumes of lore, and players can only find a lot of it by exploring the world and doing the quests. Old School Runescape isn't going to condense any of this into a cinematic cut scene either, so pay attention to that NPC's wall of text.
4 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Metacritic Score: 94
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Developer(s)
- CD Projekt Red
- Platform(s)
- PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Switch , PC
- Released
- May 19, 2015
Other volumes in The Witcher franchise didn't lean into the open-world format as much as this installment, but the lore of the whole franchise is shrouded in mystery. On one hand, Gerard's mission and how he achieves it is clear, keeping with the rules of the world and the tradition of Witchers. On the other, he lives in a dark, medieval world filled with ignorance, danger, and chaotic magic.
Gerard himself, and the Witchers as a whole, are a mysterious group that uses magic to fight monsters. However, the nature of their power, and the origin and purpose of the creatures that they hunt and destroy, aren't always as clear. Those who are more familiar with Slavic mythology have a better chance to decipher a game's secrets before they're revealed as part of the storyline.
3 Death Stranding
Metacritic Score: 85
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A concept that's equally impressive, confusing, and perhaps even chilling considering the dystopian vision presented, Death Stranding has been critically acclaimed for its lore and story. The game is named after the cataclysmic event that made the United States a dystopian hellscape. The main character, Sam Bridges, has to travel through this harsh environment to deliver his caches of supplies.
Death Stranding Is Too Weird To Be A Movie
Kojima Productions and A24 are working on a live action adaptation of Death Stranding, but is it too weird for the big screen?
It doesn't sound like a game that would include a variety of references to existentialism, specifically death and the afterlife. However, the Death Stranding event and the malevolent Beached Things (BTs) that follow it, are supposed to come from a realm beyond death. There's also the idea of a "Bridge Baby" or a child still in utero that can help a courier like Sam detect a nearby BT. It's not only mysterious, it's also heart-rending, beautiful, and bizarre.
2 World Of Warcraft: Classic
Metacritic Score: 81
Like other classic games that have been around for decades, World of Warcraft has had years to enrich the story of Azeroth. However, Classic takes place at a time before the expansions, when the world was still a mystery. The old game retains the stories of an Old God sleeping beneath Tirisfal Glades, which turned out to be partly true, and rumors that one of the King's closest advisors in Stormwind is a black dragon in disguise.
Other tales that had started in the RTS games of the franchise had yet to unfold, such as the ultimate fate of the High Elves and whether the new Tree of the Night Elves, Teldrassil, would survive and thrive despite not being consecrated. Some of this lore would form the basis of the later expansions and raids, and players could experience it for themselves.
1 New World
Metacritic Score: 70
Another MMORPG, New World streamlines things somewhat by starting players in a few certain areas and encouraging them towards a settlement. However, it's still very much an open-world game, with a heavy emphasis on survivalist themes. The title of the game isn't as generic as it looks; this is a reference to the Age of Exploration in real-world history, and the lost continent of Aeternum is intended to be part of the "New World" of the 16th century.
Unlike other games that base their lore on fantasy or sci-fi concepts with no basis in real-world history, New World takes ideas out of ancient history and even the Bible when it comes to the lore of the lost continent. That only deepens the mystery of the game as opposed to making it more familiar.
Hades 2: 5 Fascinating Lore Pieces That Are Easy To Miss
Just like in the first game, Hades 2 is loaded with lore and Easter Eggs. Some of that lore is easy to miss, as it pays direct homage to Greek myth.
