Highlights
- Open-world games feature great innovation, but that very innovation can turn players away if it becomes repetitive or lacks interest.
- Some open-world games, like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Fable , have elements that may frustrate players, such as tedious side activities and excessive loading screens.
- Batman: Arkham Knight and Mad Max have open worlds that, while faithful to the source material, can feel desolate and lacking in content.
Video games have always been subjective to each player, and these open-world games are no different. Some may consider these games the best of their genre, whereas others want nothing to do with them. Yet, there's one common thread that can be established: these open-world games feature great innovation over the competition.
The Open-World Games That Take The Longest To Beat
Even the most sophisticated gamer will be bewildered by the sheer scale of these games. These are the open-world games that take the longest to beat.
Sometimes, it's that very innovation that can turn players away. Whether it's a reliance and dependency on one of the best innovations in games, which can turn otherwise fun gameplay into a repetitive chore, or simply a lack of interest in said gameplay. There are many factors that can result in something just not meeting expectations, but still being a fun time.
7 The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The film of the same may not have met fans' expectations, but anyone who played The Amazing Spider-Man 2 at the time was probably hoping for a game that is similar to the great Spider-Man 2 from the PS2 era. Although the web-swinging in the game was fine, the open world of New York was a little bland.
However, the thing that ticked off players the most about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the Hero/Villain system. Random crimes would pop up across the map just like in every open-world Spider-Man game. Unfortunately, players who ignored enough of these side activities would be viewed as a villain on the scale and punished by being attacked by a slew of robots. This system made exploring the city a chore, but, after all, with great power, comes great responsibility.
6 Fable
Fable (2004)
- Franchise
- Fable
- Platform(s)
- PC , Xbox (Original) , Xbox 360
- Released
- September 14, 2004
- Developer(s)
- Big Blue Box Studios , Lionhead Studios
Perhaps one of the most innovative mechanics in video game history is the good and evil split in the first Fable. Every action had a consequence and the protagonist's appearance would slowly change over time as well as the NPC's reaction to the player character depending on how heroic or evil they behaved. Since Fable was a fantasy game, it also made sense for the story to take place in an open-world setting.
Fable: 10 Best Villains In The Games, Ranked
Many of the villains in the Fable franchise remain iconic to fans. Here are the most memorable evil-doers, ranked.
Unfortunately, this open world may have worked regarding the player feeling like their good or evil actions had consequences for the world around them, but why all the loading screens? The world of Fable is broken up into several regions, but each one requires the player to sit through an agonizingly long loading screen when trying to reach a new area. It isn’t even the different towns that require loading, Even the first forest in the game is split into seven separate maps, each one requiring a loading screen to enter.
5 Batman: Arkham Knight
Not even a brand new suit for Batman could solve fans' issues with the finale to the Batman: Arkham Trilogy. Batman: Arkham Knight's innovation is the same thing that made it underwhelming, due to the sheer dependency on the Batmobile, which was a lot of fun to drive, but too many missions focused on it.
The city of Gotham is fully open to the player; however, players find out in the story that all citizens have been evacuated. Such a decision leaves the open world feeling desolate and dull. All there is to do is glide around and beat up thugs, just as players have done in every other entry in the series.
4 Mad Max
A game that lets players live in the world of Mad Max was obviously a hit. The game, released to coincide with Mad Max: Fury Road, was a joy to fans because it was a faithful representation of the source material. The developers even included an innovative car health mechanic that saw the player’s vehicle of choice slowly degrade after taking too many hits. This feature drastically affected how the player faired in combat encounters.
Such a fun game should come with few problems, but the open world left a lot to be desired. There is only so much a developer could do with a desert wasteland, after all. However, there is a chance for players to occasionally run into a rock among the large swathes of sand.
3 Halo: Infinite
Halo Infinite
- Franchise
- Halo
- Platform(s)
- Xbox One , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S
- Released
- December 8, 2021
- Developer(s)
- 343 Industries
Many cited Halo: Infinite to be a great return to form for the beloved franchise. That is mainly, down to the fact that the game featured everything Master Chief could do before, as well as a new grappling hook to use for both combat and traversal, furthering the adventures of Microsoft's best hero.
6 Best Final Missions In Halo Games
The Halo series has stunned fans for decades with their thrilling final missions.
Halo: Infinite is the first main series Halo game to feature an open-world system. While this addition did not detract from the overall game, the map did end up being quite underwhelming. Players would recognize a lot of the scenery from past Halo games, and there is nothing fun to do in the space once players have wiped out all the Covenant.
2 Saints Row 2022
The reboot of the much-loved Saints Row series has been routinely described as a mess. Saints Row 2022 was supposed to be a return to form for the open-world crime series. Sadly, fans were met with a broken, buggy, and rushed title that has largely gone forgotten. What makes the open world in Saints Row 2022 so underwhelming is that, for the most part, it doesn’t work. Cars glitch through the floor, and the physics engine fails to work more often than not.
This is such a shame because the previous Saints Row games were great. The Saints Row franchise offered a comical option for players in a landscape where the GTA games were becoming evermore serious. There is a place for this type of innovation, but players will not find it in Saints Row 2022.
1 Death Stranding
Death Stranding is possibly the poster child for underwhelming open worlds. Conceived by the great mind of Hideo Kojima, Death Stranding takes place in a dystopian future where rainfall ages the population. So, what do players do in this innovative and interesting world? They play as a postman, of course.
This job title forces players to walk for hours across boring hills and grasslands in the hopes the rain doesn’t start and end their current run. Is a dystopian open world a no-brainer for video game developers? Yes. Did the concept work in Death Stranding? That's subjective.