Traversal is everything in an open world. Getting around a setting is just as important as the depth of the setting itself, and whether players aretraversing on horsebackor in a slick sports car, part of the immersion that comes from open worlds is how people are expected to navigate them. Some open world games take things a step further, however, and have traversal be a central mechanic of the setting as a whole.
This is where open world games with ships come into play. If a game is offering players the opportunity to traverse in a dedicated vessel meant for crossing huge expanses, be it the seaor the stars, then vehicles become more than simple fast-travel devices. These games in particular have ships as one of the core mechanics of the game, and to emphasize this, heavy customization or construction of these vessels are on the table for players.
Dedicated open world pirate games are few and far between, but one of the most popular emerges from an unlikely place.Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flagtook the franchise to the height of piracy in the colonial age, and it remains one of themost popular titlesin the series to date. This is partially because the title remains refreshingly free from the live service and looter shooter elements that would come to define later titles, but also because of its highly detailed shipbuilding.
Players don’t build a ship from scratch in this title, but their key ship is highly modular and has many customizable elements that afford both aesthetic changes and utility to help the piracy go smoother. Seeing these ship upgrades realized in a fully explorable ship on the sea is incredibly satisfying.
Over the course of a decade,No Man’s Skyhas grown from an astonishing flop to one of the best open world titles on the shelves today, with updatesstill redefining the game today.Besides helping to set the precedent of larger games releasing partially unfinished and then being touched up with updates, this success story has given players access to a spacefaring game like no other.
Recent updates have greatly expanded what is possible with ship building, and now players can customize their ship with a myriad of parts and features, building dedicated exploration vessels, swift fighter ships, colossal cargo haulers, or anything they can imagine.
Bethesda’s spacefaring RPG was perhaps more divisive than they had hoped, but there’s stilla dedicated fanbasefor this title that has come to love the sparse, wistful moments of exploration this game affords as players explore space in a dedicated vessel of their choosing. Ship building is intuitive and easy to grasp, while still offering players an incredible amount of freedom in terms of how they design and build their ship.
Players with a high piloting skill will have virtually no restrictions in creating a huge freighter, or what is essentially a needle piercing through space at the highest speeds possible. This is one of those ship-building mechanics where players will get as much out of it as they put into it.
3Starcom: Unknown Space
A Smaller Open World Title With A Lot To Offer
The tile-based ship-building inStarcom: Unknown Spaceis incredibly unique, and potentially more modular than any other title on this list. If you want to make a dedicated, immersively built craft - or just see what kind of gargantuan behemoth you can create to destroy enemies - this is the game for you.
This game’s main story can often be put to one side in favor of exploration, taking on jobs, trading between systems, and building up a reputation with one of the many factions that inhabit each procedurally generated universe.
Despitea lukewarm reception, players that want to engage in an immersive ship-building experience could do far worse thanSkull and Bones. Unlike other titles in this vein, this game lets players actively customize their ships in a modular way similar toStarfieldwith the implementation of blueprints that can give them defensive bonuses, new ship styles, or entire new compartments in their vessel to experiment with.
Putting together wood and bronze, players can turn their ship into a fearsome ramming device that can shatter enemy vessels, or they can create the swiftest ship on the sea to outmaneuver any and every foe. It really comes down to what style of traversal players are most interested in.
Thisfantastic, cozy open worldtitle has players building a ship to help gently usher spirits on their final journey before rest. Helping lost spirits in this game find their own peace and come to terms with death is a poignant, but incredibly cathartic experience.
The interesting element of shipbuilding in this title is simply the verticality that players can achieve with their ship builds. Their vessel rarely widens, but it’s very easy to build upwards and turn this small dingy into a colossal barge on which forlorn spirits finally find their inner peace.
