Open-world video games are among the most immersive experiences in the industry, but they are also the most time-consuming.
These experiences offer expansive worlds with countless secrets, side activities, and points of interest, often demanding a deep connection from the player in exchange.
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While not every game in the genre has an adequate relationship between its core experience and duration, some adventures know how to lure you increasingly into their fantastic worlds, whether through a great progression system, magnificent narrative, or satisfying exploration.
Considering I’m a selective player for these types of titles, as I have limited time to invest in such massive worlds, I’ve curated a list of ten open-world games that get better as you go, making every minute you spend on them worthwhile.
10
Gloomwood
Immersive Sim Glory
I rarely play early access games because I prefer to wait until they’re finished, but Gloomwood is a notable exception, and I can’t wait any longer for it to be fully done.
Given everything with New Blood Interactive‘s seal is an instant buy from me, I broke my rules and tried this immersive sim, which I can only describe as glorious.
As with every title in the genre, getting familiar with its mechanics and overall world is marvelous. It feels like Thief fused with Bloodborne, two of my favorite franchises of all time, so it’s just expected to be excellent.
It has stealth, horror, and FPS elements mixed with magnificent care, and they all come together perfectly as you explore it. To define it as an open world may be controversial, but I believe Gloomwood deserves recognition due to how it greatly conveys a broad experience.
9
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Between Horrors and Magic
As a fan of Dishonored and Jujutsu Kaisen, playing Ghostwire: Tokyo felt almost like a dream come true.
Combining an addictive magic system with superb atmosphere and movement mechanics, each passing second keeps getting better until the very end.
While you progress and unlock the game’s full potential, not only by having a more powerful character but also by getting familiar with the entire city, every gameplay system feels better.
From the combat to the exploration, everything builds up smoothly as you go, especially considering the unique and memorable side quests that you stumble upon across the map.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is one of the last couple of years’ most underrated games, so I deeply urge you to play it if you like video games with soul and many cats and dogs.
8
Terraria
Enough Content for a Lifetime
Terraria scared me away for many years because I was picky about long-playing games, and while I did the right thing by postponing it, I made an even better decision when I finally played it.
The game is among the best indie open-worlds of all time, and I’m still baffled due to how it manages to keep expanding its mechanics even after dozens of hours invested.
You can have 50 hours on Terraria and believe you may be getting closer to seeing it all, though it’s a sensation you will probably still feel after quadrupling that duration.
However, the game’s best aspect is that it progresses wonderfully despite its unholy amount of content. If you play it patiently, avoid feeling the pressure of discovering everything, and enjoy every little detail, it will never stop feeling better over time.
The Birth of Outer Heaven
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is a journey difficult to grasp at the beginning, as it changes its predecessors’ gameplay structure and opts for an open-ended experience that doesn’t quite fit the bill.
Yet, when you progress in the campaign and start getting used to Big Boss’ new way of handling things, everything starts to click. From the extensive levels to the secondary missions and Outer Haven’s functioning, it feels like the franchise’s biggest epic.
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I prefer the firsts entries’ more linear approach, but Metal Gear Solid 5‘s scale is adequate for what it tries to convey thematically. To build an army that wants to be a country is no minor task, so you get to participate in the creation of something bigger than before.
There’s a lot of valid criticism to be made of the title, but in a list featuring open-world games that get better as you go, it definitely fits the description.
6
Kenshi
An Endless Sandbox
Kenshi is among the most unforgiving experiences I’ve ever tried within the gaming industry, and it took me a long, long time to be able to appreciate its proposal.
However, the epiphany you reach after being beaten to death, enslaved, or lost countless times is why we should consider this odyssey a tremendously immersive RPG.
Without goals, indicators, help, or any kind of assistance that may guide you through your quest, Kenshi is a growing experience just for the sake of surviving.
It’s janky, oppressive, and awkward, but if it manages to seduce you past its initial colossal barrier, it never stops getting better. It’s really difficult to overcome that point, but I now know it’s at least worth trying.
5
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
From Pirate to Assassin
As the franchise’s last installment that I genuinely enjoyed, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is the most refined demonstration of Ubisoft’s capabilities regarding open-world adventures.
It takes its predecessor’s solid foundations to build a beautiful game where exploration is king, gradually unlocking its immense map to never make you feel overwhelmed but always giving you a horizon to look for.
The combat is as fluid as ever, the parkour is the series’ best, and every element related to the sea, including diving, fighting on ships, and upgrading your brigantine, makes up for terrific gameplay that never ceases to amaze you.
With interesting characters, a majestic setting, and an overall great progression in terms of narrative and mechanics, the game’s rhythm is unbeatable, crafted with a delicacy that delights the player with ease.
Besides the modern counterpart to Edward Kenway’s story being so awful that it hurts, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is part of my favorite open-world games and surely among the franchise’s finest entries.
4
Fallout: New Vegas
Immersion in Pure State
I thoroughly appreciated my time with Fallout 3, but I always felt it was missing something I couldn’t define. That’s when I played Fallout: New Vegas, probably Obsidian’s best game of all time, and the main reason I can’t enjoy Bethesda’s entries anymore.
While the game suffers from the franchise’s usual issues, as it’s mechanically and technically rough, the game’s density and detail are just out of this world, explaining why it’s often considered among the best first-person RPGs.
Its universe is vibrant, packed with incredibly interesting characters, secrets, and scenes, constantly teasing you to explore every corner you can see. As it progresses, it even makes you forget you’re in a video game.
What Fallout 3 neglected was a deeper inclination toward role-playing elements, which New Vegas does have. Thus, even when its gunplay isn’t that entertaining anymore, its quests, decision-making, and narrative are at their peaks, so it’s excellent from start to finish.
3
Death Stranding
Rebuilding a Country
Death Stranding has one of the tallest entry barriers I’ve seen in a video game. If it weren’t for Hideo Kojima’s name, recommending a game about package deliveries would be practically impossible, but I’m glad this isn’t the case.
From the control scheme to the story, map, systems, and objectives, there’s nothing in the title that feels intuitive. The campaign’s first chapters are rough and exhausting, and you will spend your initial hours wondering if you should keep playing.
I certainly felt this way, but my passion for Metal Gear Solid kept me going, allowing me to eventually discover the last decade’s most groundbreaking and unique AAA experience. You either hate or love Death Stranding, and I’m undoubtedly one of the latter.
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These games have such immersive universes that the optional content ends up being just as good as the main campaign.
When you become a veteran, build entire roads, arm yourself with more weapons and equipment, discover new biomes, and understand the lore, your progress through the game becomes more accessible and also memorable.
By the time you’re about to finish, Death Stranding is a different game, and you’re a different person. You must tolerate the initial tediousness, but the reward is thousands of times greater.
2
Dragon’s Dogma
A Growing Fantasy of Power
To this day, it still pains me how underrated Dragon’s Dogma is despite being among its generation’s greatest RPGs.
Following the genre’s conventions, you are a nobody who turns out to be the chosen one, starting as a feeble warrior fighting goblins. However, this is true until half an hour passes, when you will face a giant Cyclops that will show you why this isn’t your typical role-playing experience.
Dragon’s Dogma scale is just extraordinary, and it never ceases to expand. From city to city, boss to boss, ability to ability, and class to class, every single gameplay element grows to the point you should be fighting gods.
Each encounter is considerably difficult, but you always have the necessary tools to deal with them. The progression is simply perfect, so much so that you will start NG+ immediately just to keep exploring and evolving.
The statement is also true for Dragon’s Dogma 2 word by word, so if you want two open-world games that will fill your needs of epic fantasies, there are hardly better alternatives.
1
Elden Ring
The Most Epic of Journeys
I’ve played more than 400 games in my lifetime, including numerous open worlds. Regardless, there’s a clear king in this category for me, and that’s Elden Ring.
FromSoftware’s masterpiece is directly the most epic journey I’ve ever experienced, and also the most surprising. The game is full of mysteries, but also has an ever-expanding structure that never lets you know what’s coming.
After 50 hours into my playthrough, I thought I was about to finish the adventure, though I had just arrived in Leyndell, completely in awe at what I was witnessing. Then, I felt the same at the Mountaintops of the Giants, Farum Azula, and Miquella’s Haligtree.
Behind each area fully explored, demigod defeated, and secret discovered, my astonishment was equally genuine in the first hour as in the hundredth. Elden Ring knows perfectly when to put an end to its voyage, so it never gets tiring.
Considering the DLC has more of the same sensations, it’s by far the most adamant example of an open-world game that gets better as you go.
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