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VPNs for ad-blocking Since GTA III’s wild success, every developer under the sun has tried their hand at creating rich, open worlds. Some more successful than others. With 20 years of experience roaming the wastelands, punching it down a Los Santos highway and wayfaring across the cosmos, we’ve learned a thing or two about what makes an open world successful. It needs to be jam-packed with engaging lore and memorable characters. It needs to keep you on your toes, curious about what’s in that one shed you haven’t raided yet, or fearful of an untimely attack from one of the townsfolk. It needs to be peppered with excuses to keep exploring; excuses other than 10,000 collectibles. Lastly, it helps if your mode of transportation is a horse you’ve formed an undying bond with or web-swinging between the towering buildings of Manhattan. So, if you love nothing more than boundless exploration, you’re in for a treat - here are our top 10 picks for the best open-world games on Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Series X and S and Nintendo Switch. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is legendary because it’s the hybrid of a complex fantasy framework laid by author Andrzej Sapkowski and the meticulous minds at Sweden’s CD Projekt Red. Breath of the Wild is light on the cutscenes and exposition and heavy on the experimental sandbox gameplay. Horizon Zero Dawn is a more traditional open-world game with a unique sci-fi story to tell, stunning environment design and a steep learning curve for some of the game’s more challenging robo-dinosaur battles. Oh, did we forget to mention there are robo-dinosaurs? Loads of ‘em. The environments are rich and incredibly detailed, the cars ultra-realistic and the gameplay smooth as silk, and only more so on the Series X and S. As one of Microsoft’s flagship series, it also benefits from regular (and pretty damn generous) updates and content additions, including new cars, songs, gameplay modes, and more. Waking after a hundred-year sleep (god, I’m jealous), Link is tasked with saving the Kingdom of Hyrule from the evil Calamity Ganon, a monstrous, demonic creature who, after regaining his strength while being sealed away in Hyrule Castle for 10,000 years, threatens to break free and destroy the world. Everything from the art style and soundtrack to the combat and puzzles is simply exquisite. The only downside? You can’t pet the dog. Red Dead Redemption 2 takes us back to a time when John Marston (the original game’s protagonist) was just a scrappy bandit in the Van Der Linde gang; still struggling to tell right from wrong, much to the chagrin of our new protagonist, the equally conflicted Arthur Morgan. Unlike many of the games on this list, Red Dead Redemption 2’s open world isn’t exactly littered with distractions. Sure, there’s a small nation’s worth of quirky personalities who will happily request your assistance in robbing a train or flogging some Kentucky Saddlers but the real beauty of this game is found in the moments of serene silence between missions, trotting through the wondrous Western landscape of Austin, Lemoyne and New Hanover. Rockstar’s latest frontier foray isn’t for everybody. If you’re more into moment-to-moment action, Red Dead Redemption 2 might have you feeling a little hogtied. But if you don’t mind a more measured pace, it’s one of the best ways you can lose a few hours roaming the countryside from the comfort of your couch. If you find Red Dead Redemption 2 slow and laborious, don’t even look twice at No Man’s Sky. But if the idea of therapeutic space exploration appeals to you, then engage thrusters and prepare to blast off. No Man’s Sky tasks you with collecting various minerals and resources in order to upgrade your ship and warp cells to power your Hyperdrive. And that’s about it. The rest of it is pretty much optional. It’s all about discovery. Discovering planets, flora and fauna and naming them something stupid to give some lone wanderer down the line. On that note, if you happen to find a small constellation of planets named in tribute to Will Smith’s Big Willy Style and Willenium, come to say g’day. So, let us suggest GTA V… again. If, like us, you spent an unholy amount of time cruising the streets of Los Santos when GTA V first released in Australia, you may have been less inclined to pick it up when it re-released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (or you simply couldn’t afford any more time off work). Now that it’s been six years since your last playthrough, we highly recommend reconnecting with Trevor, Franklin and Michael for a fresh first-person perspective on your depraved criminal fantasy. The Dragonborn’s adventure is a tale as old as 2010 and nine years later there’s still something so appealing about booting up a game, creating a Khajit with a cute cat name like Sooty and venturing off into the wilds of Tamriel. Marvel’s Spider-man is your average neighbourhood action game but it’s dressed from head-to-toe in open world spandex. And that’s just fine by me. Side-missions, repetitive as they may be, can be thwipped up in a matter of minutes and the game uses unlockable Spidey suits as a reward for cleaning up the streets in the most stylish and efficient way possible. The MGS series has always been about tactical espionage and while dropping Snake from a roaring helicopter into a sprawling warzone doesn’t sound like your typical stealth game, MGSV gives you a ridiculous number of tools and weapons to help you sneak across the desert. Snake uses everything from horse-droppings, to high-altitude balloons and Afghanistan’s ever-changing weather patterns to conceal his emotions- location, to conceal his location. Before Breath of the Wild, The Phantom Pain was the premiere game for rewarding out of the (cardboard) box thinking. If you take Watch Dogs 2 at face value without a sense of humour and you’re likely to come down with a severe case of cringeitis. But spend some time with its over-the-top characters (including a masked hacker that conveys its feelings via ASCII emojis on its mask) and you’ll find a colourful interpretation of San Francisco that’s an absolute blast to explore. Hack the world. Avalanche Studios made the most of its sparse world with incredibly designed outposts and outcrops on every horizon; rusty monoliths in the distance that are begging to be explored. Approaching these destinations in Max’s iconic Interceptor, which you upgrade from a roadside rustbucket to a wasteland war machine, is one of the most satisfying joyrides you will ever take in a game. If you are considering trading your hard-earned guzzoline for Rage 2, we strongly suggest you buckle up for Avalanche’s previous apocalyptic adventure first.
