It can be difficult in the modern world of gaming to create a single-player experience that will fully satisfy gamers. The need to have some way to play with friends is something that stops a lot of gamers from enjoying the modern single-player experience in some of the biggest AAA games available on the market.
Not all gamers think this way, and so game companies often have to find a solid in-between that allows them to give great single-player experiences while also providing the opportunity to play multiplayer as well. Many open-world games have found a place between the two so that games can be played in either of these fashions.
7 Minecraft
Minecraft is one of the most obvious choices for a game that completely destroys the barriers between single-player and multiplayer in an open-world environment. The highest-selling video game of all time has taken over the world of gaming in the last decade and is known for producing one of the largest open worlds in gaming, which is easy to get to grips with.
Not only this but between a huge modding community, realms, and various spin-offs from the main game, Minecraft has the most options for a game, both in single-player modes and multiplayer versions. Players can play alone even in a multiplayer server, or choose to invite their friends into their own world in order to play more with them.
6 Stardew Valley
Another friendly open-world game that gamers have loved in an enduring manner is Stardew Valley. This farming simulator provides a lot of scope for players as they seek to make friends with the residents of their local town, fill in collections, farm, and fight enemies in the mines. There are a lot of different ways to play this delightful simulation game.
Players are able to choose whether to play cooperatively with their friends on a new farm. The way that players can jump in and out of their friend’s game is flawless, making Stardew Valley a perfect game for friends looking to build something impressive together over time without everybody having to be there at once.
5 Halo: Infinite
After being updated in late 2022, Halo Infinite gained a huge capability for players that have never been seen in the Halo franchise before. The FPS franchise has always had a multiplayer mode available, but now the campaign, the first in the franchise to provide an open-world experience to players, has the capability to be cooperative as well.
This completely changed the style for Halo campaigns and will hopefully continue into the future after Halo Infinite received great reviews for the campaign. Players being able to flawlessly jump in and out of campaign mode with their friends makes for a fantastic experience either in single-player or multiplayer, which is fortunate because the multiplayer mode has died off quickly.
4 Dead Island
Dead Island is a Techland game that managed what many have attempted to do well, allowing anybody to jump into a game and take part, even with complete strangers. This feature, which players could toggle, allowed them to have unique experiences within Dead Island as they continued their open-world adventure around a zombie-infested island.
Players could help out their friends or complete strangers and allow them to jump into their game, all while continuing their own adventures and not having to pay any attention to the others if they chose not to do so. This flawless switching of game modes made for an impressive experience that many games wished to replicate.
3 Warframe
Warframe is an enormous game, which takes players hundreds of hours to satisfactorily complete. For this reason, especially, many players seek to play in different ways. While players are able to be completely independent in their style of play throughout Warframe from any other players, they can take part in adventures with them as well.
This blending of single and multiplayer was a genius choice for Warframe that helped launch the game to a much bigger audience than a restricted purely single-player version of the game could have managed alone.
2 The Forest
The Forest is another adult-rated open-world survival game that did an ingenious job of allowing players to jump into a game together or apart. Featuring separate modes that are identical in many respects, The Forest allowed players to tackle cannibals and an island mystery alone in single-player or build bases and arsenals alongside their friends in the open lobby mode.
Players could even leave their lobbies open to the public and random players from around the world could jump in, providing assistance or sometimes even hindering players. This made for an amazing experience which found other survival games in similar open-world formats wishing they had achieved a similar blending of single and multiplayer.
1 Elden Ring
Elden Ring is one of the best and weirdest open-world games of the past decade, providing the kind of experience that players love in FromSoftware games. The various entries in the Soulsborne franchise have a similar capability which was perfected in Elden Ring, the ability for players to jump in and out of their friends’ games in order to help them in particularly difficult boss fights.
These switches between modes were easy to do and encouraged players to gather their friends, so they can have an easier time with just some of the many bosses in Elden Ring. This capability adds a level of fun playfulness to games which are known for their high level of difficulty when players go into battle alone.