Summary
One of the great appeals of open-world games and why they’re so popular is the freedom they offer players. In theory, a great open-world game will have open-enough mechanics where the player can decide their own way to fun, through whatever method suits them the best.
There’s a lot of leeway for what constitutes freedom. For some sandbox games, freedom is everything, whereas more tightly controlled open-world action games have a relatively wide range of options for their genre. This list is ranked not just by game quality but by how much freedom a player has, compared to how much that genre usually allows freedom.
WhileMetal Gear Solid 5is probablythe most controversial entry into theMetal Gear Solidseries on account of its strange structure and the tumultuous exit of Kojima from Konami afterwards, no one is in any doubt that the game is an absolute clinic in open-world stealth gameplay that remains unsurpassed almost ten years later.
Set in the broad maps of Afghanistan and Angola-Zaire, players have a wide scope of freedom with their choices in stealth action. They can be chaotic, quiet, have companions, use vehicles, lethal, non-lethal, almost anything they can think of, and usually the enemy AI will respond in interesting and new ways. For stealth-action, it’s an unparalleled amount of freedom.
After the release ofBreath of the Wild, the game that revitalized the entireLegend of Zeldafranchise in an open-world context, many gamers wondered how Nintendo could surpass the freedom now offered to avid fans. Somehow,Tears of the Kingdommanaged to up the ante again, making creativity a core part of its central design.
With Link’s new magical arm andset of new abilities, players are able to construct vehicles, weapons, and solutions to puzzles and combat on the fly, saving them as blueprints, where the player’s creativity is the only limiting factor. This is maximal freedom in a game that already celebrates it openness, leading to some truly remarkable machine designs from the worldwide community.
FromSoftware games are renowned for being difficult, but they vary wildly on how much freedom they offer the player in surmounting that difficult. Games likeBloodborneandSekiro: Shadows Die Twiceare very limited, where the player has to adapt to what the game wants or suffer.Elden Ringis the opposite side of the scale.
InElden Ring, not only do players have unparalleled freedom in a massive open world, but player builds can wildly divert based on stats, gear, and world progression. No two builds are exactly alike, and the player is free to choose whatever solution suits them best to conquerthe game’s fearsome bosses.
WhileSkyrimwasn’t the first game to feature a classless progression system, it undoubtedly popularized the system, taking a marked step away from the fantasy RPG’s roots in the class-based TTRPG world and towards a more dynamic, open, and flexible modern game design that annoyed some hardcore fans, but opened up the genre to a whole new list of possible Elder Scrolls aficionados.
In the game, skills level up alongside player use. So, if the player uses a bow a lot, their character will naturally get better with a bow, but other skills like magic will fall behind. It’s an intuitive system that lets the player dynamically take the lead in constructing their own build, letting them play however they like.
Ever since evolving into the video game space, RPGs have struggled between the demand of modernizing and being open to new players, while still satisfying the TTRPG hardcore who like their gameplay systems complex and freeform. Somehow,Fallout: New Vegasbridges the gap between the two camps, becoming one of the best open-world RPGs ever made.
In the game, players can dynamically make a build based on investing points wherever they like, and the game’s quest design is famously open,particularly with its many factions. To get past a situation, a player can likely talk their way out of it, shoot their way through it, find clever solutions, or just avoid it all together. The game somehow captures the endlessly adaptable nature of TTRPGs within the limitations of a video game, and no other game (perhaps exceptingBaldur’s Gate 3) has managed to do it again.
Dwarf Fortressis a game about failing. This new version, based on the ASCII classic but with some updated graphics, brings the classic hard game to a whole new audience who soon learn that disaster awaits no matter their choices. In short,Dwarf Fortressfinds the player trying to make a home for a procedurally generated clan of dwarves who inevitably get up to mischief, resulting in total collapse.
There are no goals inDwarf Fortress. Instead, players are encouraged to make their own fun. If that means making an actually successful dwarven city, then go for it. If that means RP, then the game covers that too. If it means causing absolute mayhem and seeing what happens,Dwarf Fortressis more than happy to accommodate. It’s an endless sandbox full of disastrous fun.
The great appeal of a Rockstar game isn’t just the story, world, or the presentation, but the simple baseline appeal of a sandbox crime simulator where the player is free to do whatever they like. Quite like a sandbox in a playground, creativity isn’t just encouraged, but is necessary to making the whole thing work.
While the single-player mode accommodates plenty of freeform fun, that creativity really comes into play inGrand Theft Auto Online,which uses the basis of Los Santos as a mutual playground whereit’s truly difficult to get bored. Racing, fighting, shooting, exploding, acting, RPing, and so much more can be done inGrand Theft Auto Online, where players really are free to play however they want.
It’s genuinely hard to imagine a game that allows a player to have more freedom thanMinecraft. Based on the simple idea of a procedurally generated world based out of a variety of blocks,Minecrafthas evolved into the most legendary and influential game of the 21st Century so far, largely due to the freedom it offers players.
In either the unlimited creative mode or the more mechanically-focused survival mode, players can build cities, dungeons, spelunk in the caves, fight other players, construct battle arenas, tell stories, and do whatever they like. With an active mod scene, the game is a functional foundation for anything a player wants.
