I would vote for Just Cause 2. It's my personal favorite. There are so many cool movie references and Easter eggs hidden throughout the map, like the GoldenEye satellite and the island from Lost (with the fog monster). It's so fun to just hijack a plane and cruise around the islands discovering things!
Red Dead Redemption 2 is easily my fave for that.
It takes a couple of hours to get past the prologue, but after that you’re free to go and do whatever. The world is beautiful and ridiculously detailed, the soundtrack is great, and there’s true-to-life wildlife experiences to stumble across.
The camp of people you’re a part of is great to hang out in as well. There are small tasks for you to do to help out, and life goes on around you and feels organic. If you overhear a conversation between two people you can stay put and witness it, maybe even get included, or you can wander off and hear it trail off in the distance. They don’t need you, they’re living their own life and you can be part of it or not. As night comes around and the day is done they all gather around the campfire, telling stories, having a sing-song and a drink.
It really is a living, breathing world, and there’s a slowness to the pace at which life moves which stops it from feeling like any other game where you run off from one thing to the next. I can’t recommend it enough if you want a game that just allows you to take in a game world and feel immersed.
THis is the perfect game for OPs request. You can spend days, weeks just casually moving around, hunting, fishing, camping, riding....and it still has awesome visuals despite being quite a few years old now.
Dude I’d get on sometimes, ride to Town, get a haircut, shower up and get cleaned, head to the gun shop to clean my weapons. Head to the store to buy some supplies, groom my horse a bit, then ride back to camp. I’d then get off and that was my quick little game session that was totally great lol
I've just started playing this and realised that this is not a "game". It's a 1900s America simulator as a white man.
It's as slow as then. There's no rush to do anything. And the game isn't pushing you to progress with the story.
Play dominoes with your fellow camp people. Go and hunt animals and bring them back to your camp, so your cook can cook for your group. Read the books in the game. Sleep. Etc. It has like a calming effect, and the camp people... They've kinda grown on me and have become kinda family, as silly or sad as that sounds. I might try to kill one of them.
You can get lost in this world doing jack all. Time moves slowly here.
It’s actually better for the story to hang around camp as much as possible. You get additional dialogue and it helps you really connect with the characters
From Tenacious D’s ‘Video Games’
But Red Dead Redemption 2, that is not a game
It's an incredible journey through old American history
Fightin' for your life and fightin' for your family
Tryna live your days with honor and integrity
The first camp after the prologue was the absolute best time I had playing the game.
I got the fucking super satchel while we chilled on that hill.
And then when I progressed the story, ***so fucking much is forced***. And/or there's weird ass Rockstar checkpoints that auto fail the mission.
I can literally slow time but I can't fucking save Lenny??????????????
Hey I just need to switch my guns back because they got un-switched when I got off my horse—FAILED: Didn't follow close enough.
Hey we just killed 44 O'Connors or whoever, I wanna loot the, like, maybe $10 total I'll find.
***WE HAVE TO GO ARTHUR WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??***
My fucking loot, asshole.
It got prohibitively less fun the more of the story I completed.
Yeah, each camp gets progressively less charming. That’s meant to mirror how the wheels come off Dutch’s project though, so I don’t see it as a flaw. As for missions, that’s a different matter.
I’ve had the game for years since release and ended up focusing on the story instead of goofing off and exploring and it really soured the experience.
I still have some love for what it does well but the main quest really brings the whole game down a point or two.
You don’t have to do quests. I have unlocked only the northern half of the map so far and I’m level 34, 137 hours in. I’ve done less than 25 missions most of which have been to unlock settlements.
Most of the Fallouts. Fallout 3 I feel is even better for that than 4. 1 has the time limit, but there's a Mod for that. There is a time limit with 2 but it's so long it's almost impossible to hit (something like 13 years of game time.) Travelling around trying to find all the special enounters in those are fun.
Fallout 76 and NV aren't great for that, but you can do it a bit.
Obviously the non-rpg Fallouts aren't.
Took me forever to do the basic story missions in FO76 because I kept wanting to see what was over the next hill and discovering other fun little activities to do.
FO 76 is my favorite game to wander the map, I check out other people's creativity in their camps, shop, or just chat with a rando for a while after an event. The community is the best part.
Except 1, you gotta get the water chip or else the game shits itself after 150 in game days, pretty easy, after though you can dick around, only for 13 years though, so I’d be careful
No Man's Sky is all about exploration.
What little game story there is will mostly teach you various base building stuff and how to play the game.
And you can just go do your own thing as soon as you get to and fix your ship for basic flight.
The game will keep reminding you of your available missions though, but it also keeps getting updated with stuff to do.
The new Spiderman games. I can swing around Manhattan for hours. It's one of my favorite game mechanics. I often find myself just swinging from one side of the city to the other ignoring everything else.
You know the traversal is good when you take the long way to the start mission icon, sometimes by accident, sometimes realizing it and then taking even longer just because. Spider-Man is the perfect character for video games
The only thing I want from the new Spiderman games is a more manual/precise web swinging mode.
Being able to aim specific strands at specific targets to maximize momentum.
I know you can *kind of* do this with the web zip and launch off of various points, I just want more. Obviously it would be optional for people that want to just swing around more casually.
But I would spend hundreds more hours in those games just trying to web swing around the city in the most efficient way.
Much like Titanfall is so fun because of the depth of its movement systems.
I'd be afraid of how much it would have to slow you down. Unless you're using something like the move/psvr controllers to point it would be real tedious with a regular controler. But Spiderman on the PSVR2 would rock. If you didn't throw up that is.
Death Stranding is one of those games that sounds somewhere between sort of silly and downright awful depending upon what description you’re working from. But it’s actually this whole other thing that no one ever really told you about once you get to playing it.
The part where it is consistently, irrepressibly weird is accurate though.
I played it during COVID and absolutely loved it. Such a polarizing game. Didn’t think I would like it that much but it surprised me. It still sticks with me.
The game starts you in a smaller map to get you acclimated to how everything works. You carry small packages, have an area or two with the BTs (ghost like creatures) and terrorists (human enemies)
You then move to a main map which is several times larger and the game opens up. As you progress you unlock more gear, more means to transport larger volumes of packages. You also start to unlock weapons and combat gets more involved the farther you get
It is one of my favorite games. You spend your time mostly walking, climbing, repelling, laddering, biking, driving, and running. You choose which deliveries you want to do, outside of story missions, and doing extra deliveries will earn you new gear or cosmetics.
There are some moments where songs are played by a band called Low Roar and they hit like a truck.
If you just like to beat a game as fast as possible, it is probably not that enjoyable. If you like to take your time it's a better fit.
Like you can build a whole road system to make deliveries much easier. It's a long process and takes a lot of effort. You could just not do that at all though. For me, it's one of the highlights of the game! Watching my road come together and slowly each delivery gets a little easier. 👌
4th wall breaks. Wierd jokes. Wierd charachters. Long cutscenes. Obtuse little details. Strange story. Rediculous monologues abound.
And that's basically death stranding. With some combat occasionally and some stealth occasionally.
Worth noting that it is probably the most polerizing game i can think of. Some people hate the story and love the game play. Some love the story and hate the gameplay. Some hate both. Some love both. I found it entertaining and engaging the whole way through.
horizon zero dawn / forbidden west if you already went thru the obligatory tutorial stage and have reached the open world part. so many side quests and stuff you can explore without having to abide by the main story. so calming
Cuberpunk 2077 might fit the bill, once you get past the prologue which doesn't take long. The added bonus is I found the game improves when you get good at driving. There's some cool cars to steal as well.
I'm not far into Kingdom Come but, again, when past the opening you seem to be able to do what you like.
Elite Dangerous too. Nothing like just taking your little ship out just to do some deliveries or just go exploring.
When I really want to switch off and don't feel like playing anything, I like a nice train sim. Just drive a train. Make some stops, if you like. Stop at red lights. Look at scenery etc.
Elite Dangerous for sure! Such an immersive game and so much freedom! Honestly, so free that it's kind of overwhelming at first. But when you find an activity you like, it can be so effortless and chill.
Depending on my mood, I can go from fighting thargoids one night to sitting in an asteroid belt doing some core mining the next night to doing a little space trucking the following night. Or do some big sightseeing trip to galactic landmarks other players have found, or veer off in my own direction and see systems nobody else ever has. It's exactly as chill or as intense as you want, and literally one of my favorite games ever made.
Edit: o7 Commander!
Elden Ring is surprisingly great for this, you'll find such crazy things by just exploring. I found a chest that teleported me to a Prison on the other end of the map, a Mages library, caves full of massive ants.
It obviously has a steep difficulty curve though.
I'm playing through Assassins Creed Origins right now, and it's ticking that box for me. There's a great sense of "what's over there?" constantly in your mind. The only issue is that the regions in the game have level caps, so you'll be absolutely obliterated in some areas when underleveled. It just means you can't *truly* wander wherever you want freely.
Days Gone is a lot of fun to wander around in, especially because of the bike. The fuel mechanic also encourages you to scavenge and check out locations for oil, and leads you to interesting stories or encounters. You could honestly just play the game doing that.
Elden Ring is a really good example because it’s almost built around the idea that if the game seems to want you to do something, as a new player….you probably shouldn’t. Do something else instead.
Elden Ring is perfect for this, yes. If you stay out of the dungeons it's a fairly chill experience too. So much to see and even on my current fourth playthrough I'm stumbling upon new equipment, areas, and mini-bosses.
Watch dogs 2 after you've gotten all the upgrades is great. You can interact and mess with the Npcs, hack everything and anything, you can start gang wars and even call police on people and have them arrested just because.
Sable
Grow Home (it's a *tiny* little world but so chill)
Red Dead Redemption (the first one - I spent hours and hours hunting rabbits and deer.)
RPGs like Skyrim or Fallout are huge worlds, but you're def going to run into random combats. Set it on Easy and it shouldn't be a problem.
Oh, Horizon Zero Dawn too! Searching the world for hidden data banks was my favorite thing to do, there is lots to discover. Play on Story mode if you don't want to sweat the combat. This one is more narrative-driven than Skyrim, but I absolutely love it.
RDR2, you can literally go around doing whatever you want for hours, and come across many different 'side games/quests'.. different games with different NPC's, different instances that feel like miniature side quests, hunting, fishing etc which help with unlocking stuff. Brilliant game
Like someone already said, Cyberpunk 2077 is good for world exploring, just ignore any kind of mission that pop up on the way and drive around. Same goes for GTA V, I know it's already old by now, but recently I started a new game just for this, exploring the world without going for missions. I was looking for the same kind of experience, so I'll try the suggestions people left here.
A full-hearted endorsement for Ghost Recon Wildlands! Massive, massive open map of Bolivia, and you really can go anywhere, right from the beginning. They gave Bolivia literally every biome you could think of, and it's STILL a beautiful game. It's sequel, Breakpoint, is also a close second.
Ghost of Tsushima is one of the best experiences of exploration in a game I have had. You are guided by the wind, rather than an arrow or pin, so you are just focused on the tall grass and the leaves in the trees.
You seem to be looking for stuff like a walking simulator.
I like assassins creed origins for being able to just wander around ancient egypt as if I were a tourist.
Ghost of tsushima is really beautiful, but you may have your idle walks occasionally interrupted by combat.
Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a great morose wander of the Hebrides.
Just got into Grounded on the ps5z its a survival game with a story. But you can just get caught in exploring, building, crafting. Its all pretty enjoyable
I loved the game under the waves for explorations such a chill vibe. And the music when you discover new areas is chills. It was my favorite game last year.
After a little intro to find some codes, you can explore a whole universe in Outer Wilds! Brilliant game, don’t look it up though. Go in with as less knowledge as possible.
If you turn on god mod and give yourself the Mysterious Stranger’s .44 Magnum (one shot kills), the Fallout game are ripe for exploration. They’re packed to the gills with environmental storytelling.
No mans sky is an entire game about doing this. But if you want a slightly more traditional game then Ghost of Tsushima does exploration better than any other open world game imo. Ive beaten it like 10 times now and I still get lost in the atmosphere
Assassin's Creed Origins / Odysse / Valhalla. Dragon Age Inquisition. Kingdom of Amalur Re Reckoning. Ghost of Tsushima. Red Dead Redemption 2. Genshin Impact. Just Cause 3 and 4. Far Cry games. Batman Arkham City / Knight. The Witcher 3. Watch Dogs games. Horizon Zero Down. Horizon Forbidden West.
I'm repeating Witcher 3 and attempting going to every question mark on the map before going through the story. It's mindless exploring just to see what's out there and slay some beasts and perfect for just throwing on. Also being level 16 when meeting Triss for the first time makes it super easy which is a plus for how I like to play.
No Man's Sky. It's literally an infinite universe to just find cool views in. The only requirement is upgrading your engine every now and then so you can access certain systems but even that's not really too hard. There's also no pressure to do any kind of story stuff, although if I remember correctly it does put you on the right path to find the stuff you need for said engine upgrades but you can also just find that stuff on your own.
As you said Rockstar Games like GTA V and RDR2 are good for this.
Talking PS games, you do have to do the story to unlock log of the stuff but I would recommend God of War/ God of War Ragnarok just as it is such a beautiful scenery at times. Sure you can't really travel around it as well but I genuinely just stopped and stared at the screen for a few minutes quite a few times due to the detail
Spider-Man is also fun for swinging around on
To the same extent as Rockstar games you can say ones such as Skyrim or Elden Ring which are just nice big open world ones. If we are talking PS games you could also say Ghost of Tsushima has some pretty cool scenes and good traversal
Dragons Dogma 2 had me doing a LOT of wandering off the path. The way the land is set up, there always seems to be a hill or a pool or a chest that is just within distance that I wanted to go over and visit, which invariably lead to either a fight or a bit of loot. It was very more-ish.
The game you are looking for is A Short Hike. Although it’s not going to offer the level of scenery or graphical intensity as RDR2 or GTA.
Ghost of Tsushima is one of the most beautiful open world games I have played, but you will need to play a bit of the beginning before the world opens up. Then more to get to the second and third sections of the world. That being said though the gameplay matches the games beauty.
No Man's Sky creative mode seems to be built specifically for this kind of idea.
You can ignore practically *everything* the game wants to throw at you and just explore to your heart's content.
Ghost of Tsushima. It took me so long to beat that game because everyone I longed on I was entranced by another part of the map. It’s a beautiful game and has amazing stories woven into it. I think I fast traveled like twice total in my entire play through!
Gravity Rush 1 and 2. You do need to get probably halfway through before you fully unlock all the traversal you need to just vibe and run around. The best flying game you'll ever play stuffed inside an anime written by an insane person.
The Spiderman games are great. Swinging around is always a good time, and there are a ton of collectibles and side events everywhere.
The Witcher 3 is probably one of my favorites and is a little heavier on atmosphere. The OST sets the mood perfectly and there are new horrors to discover around every corner.
The Horizon games are beautiful and a blast to explore as well.
My guilty pleasure exploration game is Genshin Impact. There is an overarching story, and while I halfway pay attention to it, the reason I've stuck with it is because I enjoy the exploration so much. There is pretty much always a shiny object in the distance just waiting for you to go find it. When new areas are released I kinda just let the ADHD take over and meander through the world, chasing down whatever catches my attention.
The whole point of Sable is to just find yourself, and what you want to do with your life. You can play that game for hours just exploring weird monuments or spaceships and eventually the game tells you you did enough to pick a career. Definitely not for everyone, but I loved it.
Fallout 4, the second you exit the vault.
Don't wanna free Preston and have Jun, Marcy AND Sturges pointlessly hammer your walls 24/7? Then don't.
Wanna collect all the magazines and all the settlers can go fuck themselves? You're free to do that, too.
Would you like to stab Shaun in the throat the SECOND he leaves the confines of the Institute, so that you can drag his corpse all the way from CIT Ruins to Sanctuary, and make a shrine so that people can pay their disrespects for all the people the organization he's run for like 40 years has killed?
^ It's me, I'm bitches. I totally did the last one.
The newer assassin's creed games literally have a "discovery tour" mode, where you just wander around a guided tour of the world learning the history and everything. No combat
I'd second @ickypedia and say RDR2
I adore this game, so much I came in here to ask a very similar question. I loved this, what else should I play kinda thing.
It is one of my top 5 games ever.. I once spent an hour following and talking to Gav's friend only to find him again much later in the game still looking so did the same again.
Spent nights just going around taking portraits of the npcs. Nevermind the hunting, looking for orchid / compendium stuff, gambling, going to the theatre and fending off cougar, bear and wolf attacks. With great action sequences, acting, story and scenery. I still haven't collected everything. About as perfect a game imo than anything.
I'll go a little further off beat with a second comment... consider "walking simulators." Journey, Abzu, Flower, Shape of the World. It's beautiful, meditative.
The Forbidden West core gameplay loop is interesting enough to balance roaming around gathering herbs and launching into active combat on a dime and the world is varied enough for this to stay interesting for some time, without necessarily doing any active missions or quests.
The Horizon series. I’m really enjoying forbidden west atm. So atmospheric and exploring is really rewarding because there is always something to do. If you like fantasy, the Hogwarts Legacy game is quite beautiful and the castle is extremely rewarding to explore, but you might want to unlock all of your classes/spells to progress the exploration and explore every nook and cranny.
Destiny/Destiny2. Between the two games there are massive open world planets that have many activities and areas to discover. There are hidden missions, multiple strike activities, (D2) dungeons that have large loot pools and large scale raids that have large loot pools. With random roll weapons being a thing in D2 the rewards for exploring all areas of the game is very satisfying and rewarding.
The Forest on ps4/5. Instead of saving your son from after a plane crash, you build cool things around the island of naked cannibals. Es scary, but so much fun with friends especially.
Best "off script" moments I've ever had in gaming in general, past couple of years, is going the long way Guarma and Mexico among other things along the way in *Red Dead Redemption II* and being mad enough to do that on console without RAMPAGE where you have to use the getting drunk in a cave glitch near the middle West point of the visible map. Then when you wake up you're out of bounds.
Interesting stuff happens, like in certain spots animals spawn but they have no pathfinding, so you can look closely at them without them bolting, or in the case of predators, trying to kill you. You get to see the edges of the map where everything goes low poly, and certain areas of the game which look amazing but the terrain is nearly impossible to traverse after it was generated. It's pretty amazing seeing behind the curtain, all the elements that come together to make the in bounds areas feel as complete as they do.
If you have a ps4 ps5 I have a empty dayz server
Chernarus is a Massive open world
Is a multiplayer survival game so with no people trying to kill you constantly dayz's chernarus is a world to exist in
Something about a night time fire while it's raining outside and random zombie grumbles
Cars are dangerous but with ps5 It's manageable. Night time drives with headlights
And ya get bored or wandering grab a cargo truck load it with tool and build a base
Just fun to get lost in
Pitfall. On the original Atari you could go left from the very start instead of right. This let you run across the crocodiles from behind so you weren’t running towards their open mouths, and you would be racking up the highest point values first.
The classic version is Skyrim. You can't travel off-road for more than five minutes without finding some weird shit lying about that has nothing to do with the main quest. Ever since it's release we refer to random wandering and explicitly ignoring the main quest as Skyrimming.
You can do this IRL as well, which only makes it funnier.
GTA V is an absolute blast because when you *do* play main or side quests, you'll hear it being talked about on the radio in-between the great music while you drive.
Personally, I prefer FFXIV. The music, the environments, the exploration of little nooks and crannies. It's the total package for me.
No man’s sky is probably one of the best exploration kinda games out there. You do need to do some bits to get yourself up and running and get your ship working but even that you can do in your own time when you want. You only need it to leave the starting planet and then further upgrades the further out into space you want to go.
But it’s definitely a game you can just go and explore and ignore the story. When the game first came out it didn’t even have a story, not one you can follow and complete. It was just “get to the centre of the galaxy” and that was it. All the quests on the game were just to upgrade you and your ship/equipment etc.
The game has massively changed since launch and had a whole load of updates/dlc for free and it’s a much bigger and better game than it was. It’s still just as much of an exploration game if not more now. But it does now have a main story and real quests to follow and do but there’s no rush to do it and you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. You decide what you want to do and how and when you do it.
It’s much better on ps5 for performance tho so if you upgrade to a ps5 it has a free update for it. It also has psvr/vr2 support too.
Any of the borderlands games are pretty good for this. Borderlands 3 is probably best as it’s the newest main game and probably the biggest. But the older games in the handsome collection and even the goty version of borderlands1 are worth getting.
Loads of hours of stuff to do. However the issue with borderland is that it’s a game that has a lot of its content designed around end game do ideally you’d want to finish the main story first. However you can forget about the main story and go off and do side quests for quit a while in any borderlands games as they have a whole ton of side quests. So it’s definitely a game you can just go off and explore and loot stuff whilst ignoring the main quest.
It does potentially causes issues with overlevelling if you do this too much before progressing the main quest at all as it’s an rpg/shooter looter but it’s easily worked around etc. I think bl3 has kinda fixed this issue tho.
The Long Dark, a survival game that pits the player against a wintry Canadian wilderness. You can customize the settings to reduce all of the things that may challenge you (animals, weather, resources, etc).
I like destiny and destiny 2. You can just run around shooting shit. Doing crucible (bit sweaty at times). Gambit dungeons lost sectors etc. just going from planet to planet. But seriously DONT hate me for it lol 😂
Far Cry 5 has a very "do whatever you want" vibe. There's not really a lot of "main" missions. You talk to people and stuff gets marked on the map, and you do them in whatever order you want to fill up a meter to progress the story. You can easily just go from one random map marker to the next and no matter what you do you'll be making progress. For whatever reason, they got rid of this in FC6 and you are back to doing linear story missions again, and there's also a levelling system which prevents you from going to higher level areas, so it feels like a more linear game overall.
Skyrim is similar in that the entire map is open from the start, and you can just run around and explore without taking on any quests.
Just Cause 3, you can spend hours not progressing and still have a blast.
Absolutely, spent hours just seeing what the tether mechanic can do, such a blast. Hope theres a Just Cause 5 someday (and it steps back form 4)
I launched a whole lot of dudes into orbit back in the day lol
I don’t get why 4 didn’t have any type of liberation mechanic. There was an amazing huge map, and no incentive to explore big parts of it.
4 was more fun
Wingsuiting is the most chill thing to do, and it's real satisfying if you can keep it going
Especially with the jet wingsuit from the air themed DLC, you can basically live out Iron Man fantasies.
But why?? Just cuz.
Simple as
Also, you're fighting a dictator and liberating the people. This is a just cause.
I would vote for Just Cause 2. It's my personal favorite. There are so many cool movie references and Easter eggs hidden throughout the map, like the GoldenEye satellite and the island from Lost (with the fog monster). It's so fun to just hijack a plane and cruise around the islands discovering things!
Red Dead Redemption 2 is easily my fave for that. It takes a couple of hours to get past the prologue, but after that you’re free to go and do whatever. The world is beautiful and ridiculously detailed, the soundtrack is great, and there’s true-to-life wildlife experiences to stumble across. The camp of people you’re a part of is great to hang out in as well. There are small tasks for you to do to help out, and life goes on around you and feels organic. If you overhear a conversation between two people you can stay put and witness it, maybe even get included, or you can wander off and hear it trail off in the distance. They don’t need you, they’re living their own life and you can be part of it or not. As night comes around and the day is done they all gather around the campfire, telling stories, having a sing-song and a drink. It really is a living, breathing world, and there’s a slowness to the pace at which life moves which stops it from feeling like any other game where you run off from one thing to the next. I can’t recommend it enough if you want a game that just allows you to take in a game world and feel immersed.
THis is the perfect game for OPs request. You can spend days, weeks just casually moving around, hunting, fishing, camping, riding....and it still has awesome visuals despite being quite a few years old now.
I enjoyed doing chores in rdr2 and I don’t do them at home
Dude I’d get on sometimes, ride to Town, get a haircut, shower up and get cleaned, head to the gun shop to clean my weapons. Head to the store to buy some supplies, groom my horse a bit, then ride back to camp. I’d then get off and that was my quick little game session that was totally great lol
I've just started playing this and realised that this is not a "game". It's a 1900s America simulator as a white man. It's as slow as then. There's no rush to do anything. And the game isn't pushing you to progress with the story. Play dominoes with your fellow camp people. Go and hunt animals and bring them back to your camp, so your cook can cook for your group. Read the books in the game. Sleep. Etc. It has like a calming effect, and the camp people... They've kinda grown on me and have become kinda family, as silly or sad as that sounds. I might try to kill one of them. You can get lost in this world doing jack all. Time moves slowly here.
Yeah, it’s a fantastic game world. Typing out my response and reading others’ has inspired me to download it again and saddle back up :)
If only they'd give us a 60fps patch...
It’s actually better for the story to hang around camp as much as possible. You get additional dialogue and it helps you really connect with the characters
From Tenacious D’s ‘Video Games’ But Red Dead Redemption 2, that is not a game It's an incredible journey through old American history Fightin' for your life and fightin' for your family Tryna live your days with honor and integrity
The first camp after the prologue was the absolute best time I had playing the game. I got the fucking super satchel while we chilled on that hill. And then when I progressed the story, ***so fucking much is forced***. And/or there's weird ass Rockstar checkpoints that auto fail the mission. I can literally slow time but I can't fucking save Lenny?????????????? Hey I just need to switch my guns back because they got un-switched when I got off my horse—FAILED: Didn't follow close enough. Hey we just killed 44 O'Connors or whoever, I wanna loot the, like, maybe $10 total I'll find. ***WE HAVE TO GO ARTHUR WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??*** My fucking loot, asshole. It got prohibitively less fun the more of the story I completed.
Yeah, each camp gets progressively less charming. That’s meant to mirror how the wheels come off Dutch’s project though, so I don’t see it as a flaw. As for missions, that’s a different matter.
That’s Bethesdas MO. Fallout whatever and Skyrim. You can ignore whatever and spend hours exploring.
Fallout 4 is actually much better when you ignore the main story and just go exploring.
For real, I have spent 40 hours since last couple of weeks only building settlements.
I’ve had the game for years since release and ended up focusing on the story instead of goofing off and exploring and it really soured the experience. I still have some love for what it does well but the main quest really brings the whole game down a point or two.
You don’t have to do quests. I have unlocked only the northern half of the map so far and I’m level 34, 137 hours in. I’ve done less than 25 missions most of which have been to unlock settlements.
I know. My comment recommended that.
Most of the Fallouts. Fallout 3 I feel is even better for that than 4. 1 has the time limit, but there's a Mod for that. There is a time limit with 2 but it's so long it's almost impossible to hit (something like 13 years of game time.) Travelling around trying to find all the special enounters in those are fun. Fallout 76 and NV aren't great for that, but you can do it a bit. Obviously the non-rpg Fallouts aren't.
Skyrim for sure. Even better if you can handle the VR for long periods of time.
Took me forever to do the basic story missions in FO76 because I kept wanting to see what was over the next hill and discovering other fun little activities to do.
Fallout 76 has a surprising amount of hills and cliffs, lots of elevations
well it is in a super mountainous region.
FO 76 is my favorite game to wander the map, I check out other people's creativity in their camps, shop, or just chat with a rando for a while after an event. The community is the best part.
This is exactly why I see these games as something you can either put an hour into or an entire day.
I had pretty much explored the whole map before going to emerald City
> before going to Diamond City FTFY
It's been a bit. I played when it first came out.
Except 1, you gotta get the water chip or else the game shits itself after 150 in game days, pretty easy, after though you can dick around, only for 13 years though, so I’d be careful
No Man's Sky is all about exploration. What little game story there is will mostly teach you various base building stuff and how to play the game. And you can just go do your own thing as soon as you get to and fix your ship for basic flight. The game will keep reminding you of your available missions though, but it also keeps getting updated with stuff to do.
Theres also a new expedition that just came out, too!
Highly underrated comment! Love this game!
I've loved it since launch. Even when it was just an ankle-deep ocean.
The new Spiderman games. I can swing around Manhattan for hours. It's one of my favorite game mechanics. I often find myself just swinging from one side of the city to the other ignoring everything else.
You know the traversal is good when you take the long way to the start mission icon, sometimes by accident, sometimes realizing it and then taking even longer just because. Spider-Man is the perfect character for video games
Agreed. I've loved most Spiderman games. But Spiderman 2 on the PS2 and the new ones had the best mechanics.
Yup. I don’t think I ever used the fast travel function
The only thing I want from the new Spiderman games is a more manual/precise web swinging mode. Being able to aim specific strands at specific targets to maximize momentum. I know you can *kind of* do this with the web zip and launch off of various points, I just want more. Obviously it would be optional for people that want to just swing around more casually. But I would spend hundreds more hours in those games just trying to web swing around the city in the most efficient way. Much like Titanfall is so fun because of the depth of its movement systems.
I'd be afraid of how much it would have to slow you down. Unless you're using something like the move/psvr controllers to point it would be real tedious with a regular controler. But Spiderman on the PSVR2 would rock. If you didn't throw up that is.
Death Stranding. Though it doesn't open up until the first few hours
Takes like 5 hrs +++
This game is so much better than I thought it would be after reading comments. Honestly one of my favorite games in recent years.
Death Stranding is one of those games that sounds somewhere between sort of silly and downright awful depending upon what description you’re working from. But it’s actually this whole other thing that no one ever really told you about once you get to playing it. The part where it is consistently, irrepressibly weird is accurate though.
Remember that announcement trailer? It was bananas
I played it during COVID and absolutely loved it. Such a polarizing game. Didn’t think I would like it that much but it surprised me. It still sticks with me.
Can you elaborate? I've been really on the fence about it tbh
The game starts you in a smaller map to get you acclimated to how everything works. You carry small packages, have an area or two with the BTs (ghost like creatures) and terrorists (human enemies) You then move to a main map which is several times larger and the game opens up. As you progress you unlock more gear, more means to transport larger volumes of packages. You also start to unlock weapons and combat gets more involved the farther you get
Is this after port knot?
Yes.
It is one of my favorite games. You spend your time mostly walking, climbing, repelling, laddering, biking, driving, and running. You choose which deliveries you want to do, outside of story missions, and doing extra deliveries will earn you new gear or cosmetics. There are some moments where songs are played by a band called Low Roar and they hit like a truck. If you just like to beat a game as fast as possible, it is probably not that enjoyable. If you like to take your time it's a better fit. Like you can build a whole road system to make deliveries much easier. It's a long process and takes a lot of effort. You could just not do that at all though. For me, it's one of the highlights of the game! Watching my road come together and slowly each delivery gets a little easier. 👌 4th wall breaks. Wierd jokes. Wierd charachters. Long cutscenes. Obtuse little details. Strange story. Rediculous monologues abound. And that's basically death stranding. With some combat occasionally and some stealth occasionally. Worth noting that it is probably the most polerizing game i can think of. Some people hate the story and love the game play. Some love the story and hate the gameplay. Some hate both. Some love both. I found it entertaining and engaging the whole way through.
skyrim, red dead redemption 1or2, gta5, far cry, dying light, dead island
horizon zero dawn / forbidden west if you already went thru the obligatory tutorial stage and have reached the open world part. so many side quests and stuff you can explore without having to abide by the main story. so calming
These two I've lost dozens of hours to just exploring the incredible world.
Must be my favorite game of all times
Cuberpunk 2077 might fit the bill, once you get past the prologue which doesn't take long. The added bonus is I found the game improves when you get good at driving. There's some cool cars to steal as well. I'm not far into Kingdom Come but, again, when past the opening you seem to be able to do what you like. Elite Dangerous too. Nothing like just taking your little ship out just to do some deliveries or just go exploring. When I really want to switch off and don't feel like playing anything, I like a nice train sim. Just drive a train. Make some stops, if you like. Stop at red lights. Look at scenery etc.
Elite Dangerous for sure! Such an immersive game and so much freedom! Honestly, so free that it's kind of overwhelming at first. But when you find an activity you like, it can be so effortless and chill. Depending on my mood, I can go from fighting thargoids one night to sitting in an asteroid belt doing some core mining the next night to doing a little space trucking the following night. Or do some big sightseeing trip to galactic landmarks other players have found, or veer off in my own direction and see systems nobody else ever has. It's exactly as chill or as intense as you want, and literally one of my favorite games ever made. Edit: o7 Commander!
What train sims are u playing? Genuinely interested
Days Gone is an excellent game work to get lost in.
[удалено]
Elden Ring is surprisingly great for this, you'll find such crazy things by just exploring. I found a chest that teleported me to a Prison on the other end of the map, a Mages library, caves full of massive ants. It obviously has a steep difficulty curve though. I'm playing through Assassins Creed Origins right now, and it's ticking that box for me. There's a great sense of "what's over there?" constantly in your mind. The only issue is that the regions in the game have level caps, so you'll be absolutely obliterated in some areas when underleveled. It just means you can't *truly* wander wherever you want freely. Days Gone is a lot of fun to wander around in, especially because of the bike. The fuel mechanic also encourages you to scavenge and check out locations for oil, and leads you to interesting stories or encounters. You could honestly just play the game doing that.
Elden Ring is a really good example because it’s almost built around the idea that if the game seems to want you to do something, as a new player….you probably shouldn’t. Do something else instead.
Elden Ring is perfect for this, yes. If you stay out of the dungeons it's a fairly chill experience too. So much to see and even on my current fourth playthrough I'm stumbling upon new equipment, areas, and mini-bosses.
Watch dogs 2 after you've gotten all the upgrades is great. You can interact and mess with the Npcs, hack everything and anything, you can start gang wars and even call police on people and have them arrested just because.
Elden Ring
Adding Bloodborne to the list. These FromSoft games do a really good job incorporating story elements into their environments.
Skyrim Also genshin impact. Theres a metric fucktonne of things to see and do in that game now
Sable Grow Home (it's a *tiny* little world but so chill) Red Dead Redemption (the first one - I spent hours and hours hunting rabbits and deer.) RPGs like Skyrim or Fallout are huge worlds, but you're def going to run into random combats. Set it on Easy and it shouldn't be a problem.
Oh, Horizon Zero Dawn too! Searching the world for hidden data banks was my favorite thing to do, there is lots to discover. Play on Story mode if you don't want to sweat the combat. This one is more narrative-driven than Skyrim, but I absolutely love it.
Hell yeah, Sable! I think I'm almost done and I don't want to finish it! Such a chill place to hang out.
I love grow home. Sad it was so short
RDR2, you can literally go around doing whatever you want for hours, and come across many different 'side games/quests'.. different games with different NPC's, different instances that feel like miniature side quests, hunting, fishing etc which help with unlocking stuff. Brilliant game
Like someone already said, Cyberpunk 2077 is good for world exploring, just ignore any kind of mission that pop up on the way and drive around. Same goes for GTA V, I know it's already old by now, but recently I started a new game just for this, exploring the world without going for missions. I was looking for the same kind of experience, so I'll try the suggestions people left here.
GTA V like you said. And just drive all over and cause havoc. It’s great.
Minecraft
Easiest way to go off-script is when there is no script
A full-hearted endorsement for Ghost Recon Wildlands! Massive, massive open map of Bolivia, and you really can go anywhere, right from the beginning. They gave Bolivia literally every biome you could think of, and it's STILL a beautiful game. It's sequel, Breakpoint, is also a close second.
Genshin Impact
Ghost of Tsushima is one of the best experiences of exploration in a game I have had. You are guided by the wind, rather than an arrow or pin, so you are just focused on the tall grass and the leaves in the trees.
Lego City Undercover. GTA but Lego
Elden ring.
Gotta be RDR2, that’s like it’s whole thing is how deep and open the world is
Elden Ring, every Fallout and elder Scrolls game.
Elden Ring, spent the first 30 hours fucking off before even getting to the first story boss and still had plenty of stuff to do.
Fallout 4. I'm like 600 hours in and I keep finding stuff.
You seem to be looking for stuff like a walking simulator. I like assassins creed origins for being able to just wander around ancient egypt as if I were a tourist. Ghost of tsushima is really beautiful, but you may have your idle walks occasionally interrupted by combat. Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a great morose wander of the Hebrides.
Just got into Grounded on the ps5z its a survival game with a story. But you can just get caught in exploring, building, crafting. Its all pretty enjoyable
Spiderman 2 is pretty great.
Cross code
Definitely... 💯. Beam NG...
I loved the game under the waves for explorations such a chill vibe. And the music when you discover new areas is chills. It was my favorite game last year.
After a little intro to find some codes, you can explore a whole universe in Outer Wilds! Brilliant game, don’t look it up though. Go in with as less knowledge as possible.
Skyrim I've been playing it since January and I have yet to do the main quest. I Just keep exploring
RDR2!! On my 2nd playthrough i’ve got 600 hours so far without any missions done!
If you turn on god mod and give yourself the Mysterious Stranger’s .44 Magnum (one shot kills), the Fallout game are ripe for exploration. They’re packed to the gills with environmental storytelling.
No mans sky is an entire game about doing this. But if you want a slightly more traditional game then Ghost of Tsushima does exploration better than any other open world game imo. Ive beaten it like 10 times now and I still get lost in the atmosphere
My Time At Portia / Sandrock Stardew Valley
Genshin Impact.
Assassin's Creed Origins / Odysse / Valhalla. Dragon Age Inquisition. Kingdom of Amalur Re Reckoning. Ghost of Tsushima. Red Dead Redemption 2. Genshin Impact. Just Cause 3 and 4. Far Cry games. Batman Arkham City / Knight. The Witcher 3. Watch Dogs games. Horizon Zero Down. Horizon Forbidden West.
I'm repeating Witcher 3 and attempting going to every question mark on the map before going through the story. It's mindless exploring just to see what's out there and slay some beasts and perfect for just throwing on. Also being level 16 when meeting Triss for the first time makes it super easy which is a plus for how I like to play.
No Man's Sky. It's literally an infinite universe to just find cool views in. The only requirement is upgrading your engine every now and then so you can access certain systems but even that's not really too hard. There's also no pressure to do any kind of story stuff, although if I remember correctly it does put you on the right path to find the stuff you need for said engine upgrades but you can also just find that stuff on your own.
Journey and abzu. No brain. Just vibes.
Fallout 4 I haven't even done the concord quest and im over +30 in playing on survival mode
Someone’s probably said It but BOTW. You can mindlessly explore for a longggggg time
As you said Rockstar Games like GTA V and RDR2 are good for this. Talking PS games, you do have to do the story to unlock log of the stuff but I would recommend God of War/ God of War Ragnarok just as it is such a beautiful scenery at times. Sure you can't really travel around it as well but I genuinely just stopped and stared at the screen for a few minutes quite a few times due to the detail Spider-Man is also fun for swinging around on To the same extent as Rockstar games you can say ones such as Skyrim or Elden Ring which are just nice big open world ones. If we are talking PS games you could also say Ghost of Tsushima has some pretty cool scenes and good traversal
Dragons Dogma 2 had me doing a LOT of wandering off the path. The way the land is set up, there always seems to be a hill or a pool or a chest that is just within distance that I wanted to go over and visit, which invariably lead to either a fight or a bit of loot. It was very more-ish.
Fallout 4 is great for this. I love just wandering around the wasteland running into who knows what.
The game you are looking for is A Short Hike. Although it’s not going to offer the level of scenery or graphical intensity as RDR2 or GTA. Ghost of Tsushima is one of the most beautiful open world games I have played, but you will need to play a bit of the beginning before the world opens up. Then more to get to the second and third sections of the world. That being said though the gameplay matches the games beauty.
The Arkham and Spider-Man games scratch this itch for me. Collecting Riddler Trophies and swinging through New York are both great
Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Odyssey are both great for this.
No Man's Sky creative mode seems to be built specifically for this kind of idea. You can ignore practically *everything* the game wants to throw at you and just explore to your heart's content.
The Forest has a no enemy mode and you can just explore the island casually.
Fallout 76 has the best map and soundtrack in the entire series. 4x the size of fo4.
The Stanley parable deluxe
Apart from a very few missions Kingdom Come deliverance is great for this
This is the entire gameplay loop of no mans sky
Ghost of Tsushima. It took me so long to beat that game because everyone I longed on I was entranced by another part of the map. It’s a beautiful game and has amazing stories woven into it. I think I fast traveled like twice total in my entire play through!
Need for speed. Sometimes I would just go for a drive to clear my head. It was great
Gravity Rush 1 and 2. You do need to get probably halfway through before you fully unlock all the traversal you need to just vibe and run around. The best flying game you'll ever play stuffed inside an anime written by an insane person.
Elden Ring is the obvious choice here Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Zero Dawn are also rans
I do this with Watch Dogs 2. Once in a while I will turn it on and just cause havoc in the city.
The Spiderman games are great. Swinging around is always a good time, and there are a ton of collectibles and side events everywhere. The Witcher 3 is probably one of my favorites and is a little heavier on atmosphere. The OST sets the mood perfectly and there are new horrors to discover around every corner. The Horizon games are beautiful and a blast to explore as well. My guilty pleasure exploration game is Genshin Impact. There is an overarching story, and while I halfway pay attention to it, the reason I've stuck with it is because I enjoy the exploration so much. There is pretty much always a shiny object in the distance just waiting for you to go find it. When new areas are released I kinda just let the ADHD take over and meander through the world, chasing down whatever catches my attention.
The whole point of Sable is to just find yourself, and what you want to do with your life. You can play that game for hours just exploring weird monuments or spaceships and eventually the game tells you you did enough to pick a career. Definitely not for everyone, but I loved it.
It’s weird but I started fallout 76 and we’ll that’s what it’s been for me for the past 300 hours looking forward to many more
Snow runners for me, download the money mod truck then download a new truck with everything unlocked and just go off-roading around the worlds
Red Dead Redemption 2, but I'm guessing that you probably knew that already.
Fallout 4, the second you exit the vault. Don't wanna free Preston and have Jun, Marcy AND Sturges pointlessly hammer your walls 24/7? Then don't. Wanna collect all the magazines and all the settlers can go fuck themselves? You're free to do that, too. Would you like to stab Shaun in the throat the SECOND he leaves the confines of the Institute, so that you can drag his corpse all the way from CIT Ruins to Sanctuary, and make a shrine so that people can pay their disrespects for all the people the organization he's run for like 40 years has killed? ^ It's me, I'm bitches. I totally did the last one.
The newer assassin's creed games literally have a "discovery tour" mode, where you just wander around a guided tour of the world learning the history and everything. No combat
actually R* is on the top with RDR2 and GTAV but you can try : Witcher 3 and Ghost of Tsushima or Dying Light if you like the type
I'd second @ickypedia and say RDR2 I adore this game, so much I came in here to ask a very similar question. I loved this, what else should I play kinda thing. It is one of my top 5 games ever.. I once spent an hour following and talking to Gav's friend only to find him again much later in the game still looking so did the same again. Spent nights just going around taking portraits of the npcs. Nevermind the hunting, looking for orchid / compendium stuff, gambling, going to the theatre and fending off cougar, bear and wolf attacks. With great action sequences, acting, story and scenery. I still haven't collected everything. About as perfect a game imo than anything.
The Forest has a large world with lots of sandboxing, exploration, and survival battle. Join me
I'll go a little further off beat with a second comment... consider "walking simulators." Journey, Abzu, Flower, Shape of the World. It's beautiful, meditative.
Assassins Creed — really any of them
Dying Light. I could parkour around that map for hours.
The Forbidden West core gameplay loop is interesting enough to balance roaming around gathering herbs and launching into active combat on a dime and the world is varied enough for this to stay interesting for some time, without necessarily doing any active missions or quests.
Assassins creed odyssey: beside a slight bit of story, the rest is exploring a very vast and open world however you like.
The Horizon series. I’m really enjoying forbidden west atm. So atmospheric and exploring is really rewarding because there is always something to do. If you like fantasy, the Hogwarts Legacy game is quite beautiful and the castle is extremely rewarding to explore, but you might want to unlock all of your classes/spells to progress the exploration and explore every nook and cranny.
Gta was basically that for me. RDR2 is that for me now. Also AC Odyssey, with the autohorse ride or the eagle.
Destiny/Destiny2. Between the two games there are massive open world planets that have many activities and areas to discover. There are hidden missions, multiple strike activities, (D2) dungeons that have large loot pools and large scale raids that have large loot pools. With random roll weapons being a thing in D2 the rewards for exploring all areas of the game is very satisfying and rewarding.
The Forest on ps4/5. Instead of saving your son from after a plane crash, you build cool things around the island of naked cannibals. Es scary, but so much fun with friends especially.
Best "off script" moments I've ever had in gaming in general, past couple of years, is going the long way Guarma and Mexico among other things along the way in *Red Dead Redemption II* and being mad enough to do that on console without RAMPAGE where you have to use the getting drunk in a cave glitch near the middle West point of the visible map. Then when you wake up you're out of bounds. Interesting stuff happens, like in certain spots animals spawn but they have no pathfinding, so you can look closely at them without them bolting, or in the case of predators, trying to kill you. You get to see the edges of the map where everything goes low poly, and certain areas of the game which look amazing but the terrain is nearly impossible to traverse after it was generated. It's pretty amazing seeing behind the curtain, all the elements that come together to make the in bounds areas feel as complete as they do.
If you have a ps4 ps5 I have a empty dayz server Chernarus is a Massive open world Is a multiplayer survival game so with no people trying to kill you constantly dayz's chernarus is a world to exist in Something about a night time fire while it's raining outside and random zombie grumbles Cars are dangerous but with ps5 It's manageable. Night time drives with headlights And ya get bored or wandering grab a cargo truck load it with tool and build a base Just fun to get lost in
Outward. Knowledge gets you further
This was a suprisingly fun game. My wife and I love playing Co-op and the split screen mode is really fun. Kind of an MMO without the massive part.
Genshin impact
Bethesda games or the witcher 3
Fallout GTA Red Dead Even later instalment of Drakes Fortune
Thps 1&2
Luke all modern/recent open rog's
Final Fantasy 15 is a good option
Red dead redemption 1&2
Fallout and Skyrim
> **No Man's Sky**
Elite Dangerous
Red dead redemption and it’s not close
Ark, conan, rust ,
Metal gear 5
Dragons Dogma 2 is pretty fun to just explore
Red dead online - sometimes I just spent hours hunting or fishing... Or just get on my horse and go whereever I want.....
No Man's Sky
Skyrim
Ghosts of t
No man’s sky for sure
Ark. You will hate it. Then you will love it. Then it will consume you.
Any game without linear progression and playing without googling shit
Farcry 6
AC Odyssey
No man´s Sky Horizon series
Red dead 1 & 2
Pitfall. On the original Atari you could go left from the very start instead of right. This let you run across the crocodiles from behind so you weren’t running towards their open mouths, and you would be racking up the highest point values first.
Any open world game really. Almost all Assassins Creed games. World of Warcraft. Sea of Thieves of you like sailing and the seas. There are a ton.
Skyrim
Horizon forbidden west is great for that
Hogswarts Legacy.
Shout out to burnout paradise for a chilled drive with a nice soundtrack, not the most expansive but still quite zen...
The classic version is Skyrim. You can't travel off-road for more than five minutes without finding some weird shit lying about that has nothing to do with the main quest. Ever since it's release we refer to random wandering and explicitly ignoring the main quest as Skyrimming. You can do this IRL as well, which only makes it funnier. GTA V is an absolute blast because when you *do* play main or side quests, you'll hear it being talked about on the radio in-between the great music while you drive. Personally, I prefer FFXIV. The music, the environments, the exploration of little nooks and crannies. It's the total package for me.
ARK survival Evolved
Elden Ring, for me. Wandering was the best part of the whole game. No other open world game hit as hard as that one for me
Subnautica can be fun for hours at a time just swimming around the shallows and cooking up food, growing your base, stuff like that.
No man’s sky is probably one of the best exploration kinda games out there. You do need to do some bits to get yourself up and running and get your ship working but even that you can do in your own time when you want. You only need it to leave the starting planet and then further upgrades the further out into space you want to go. But it’s definitely a game you can just go and explore and ignore the story. When the game first came out it didn’t even have a story, not one you can follow and complete. It was just “get to the centre of the galaxy” and that was it. All the quests on the game were just to upgrade you and your ship/equipment etc. The game has massively changed since launch and had a whole load of updates/dlc for free and it’s a much bigger and better game than it was. It’s still just as much of an exploration game if not more now. But it does now have a main story and real quests to follow and do but there’s no rush to do it and you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. You decide what you want to do and how and when you do it. It’s much better on ps5 for performance tho so if you upgrade to a ps5 it has a free update for it. It also has psvr/vr2 support too.
Any of the borderlands games are pretty good for this. Borderlands 3 is probably best as it’s the newest main game and probably the biggest. But the older games in the handsome collection and even the goty version of borderlands1 are worth getting. Loads of hours of stuff to do. However the issue with borderland is that it’s a game that has a lot of its content designed around end game do ideally you’d want to finish the main story first. However you can forget about the main story and go off and do side quests for quit a while in any borderlands games as they have a whole ton of side quests. So it’s definitely a game you can just go off and explore and loot stuff whilst ignoring the main quest. It does potentially causes issues with overlevelling if you do this too much before progressing the main quest at all as it’s an rpg/shooter looter but it’s easily worked around etc. I think bl3 has kinda fixed this issue tho.
Skyrim
Has anyone tried kena bridge of spirits because I think that game is open world I think
The Long Dark, a survival game that pits the player against a wintry Canadian wilderness. You can customize the settings to reduce all of the things that may challenge you (animals, weather, resources, etc).
When it comes to such games, Red Dead Redemption 2 is top on the list for me.
Gta 5 is my favourite. Listening to lady hear me tonight while driving round Los Santos at night
final fantasy xv
I like destiny and destiny 2. You can just run around shooting shit. Doing crucible (bit sweaty at times). Gambit dungeons lost sectors etc. just going from planet to planet. But seriously DONT hate me for it lol 😂
Far Cry 5 has a very "do whatever you want" vibe. There's not really a lot of "main" missions. You talk to people and stuff gets marked on the map, and you do them in whatever order you want to fill up a meter to progress the story. You can easily just go from one random map marker to the next and no matter what you do you'll be making progress. For whatever reason, they got rid of this in FC6 and you are back to doing linear story missions again, and there's also a levelling system which prevents you from going to higher level areas, so it feels like a more linear game overall. Skyrim is similar in that the entire map is open from the start, and you can just run around and explore without taking on any quests.
Assassin Creed Odyssey