Open-World Games With Better Exploration Than Elden Ring

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In 2022, Elden Ring became incredibly popular for several reasons. It built upon the foundation FromSoftware created with Demon’s Souls in 2009, continuing the legacy of challenging “Souls-like” games. However, Elden Ring went beyond the typical Souls-like formula with its vast open world. This made the game somewhat more approachable for some players, as they could explore and defeat bosses in almost any order.

Unlike many other open-world games that guide you with clear stories or objectives, Elden Ring encourages players to find things on their own, which often leads to unexpected and rewarding experiences. While Elden Ring‘s open world is impressive, other games offer more compelling reasons to explore, often through how you move around. These other games might not be perfect, but their exploration systems are a major reason why they succeed.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Connecting Continents

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach expands the world to include areas of Mexico and Australia, challenging players to connect isolated bunkers with a vast network. With most of humanity living underground due to the threat of creatures called BTs and hostile raiders, couriers like the main character, Sam, are essential for delivering vital supplies. Players will navigate a harsh, desert-like landscape filled with dangerous sandstorms, aging rain, and challenging terrain, all while avoiding BT hives. While many bunkers are tied to the main storyline, players can also discover and share user-created structures, adding a unique layer of exploration and community to the game.

Like the player invasions in games such as Elden Ring, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach features interactions with others, but in a helpful way. Players can find shelter built by others to wait out storms, or use established roads to reach safe zones faster. This level of indirect multiplayer interaction is unique and really impressive. The game also includes expertly crafted side areas that offer incredible quests, like fighting a giant lake creature or encountering a paranormal investigator. You can definitely feel director Hideo Kojima’s signature style throughout the game, for better or worse. While the core gameplay revolves around delivering packages and exploring, there’s also plenty of combat with both otherworldly creatures and hostile players.

The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

Beauty In Destruction

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an outstanding action-adventure game that offers a vast, open world to explore right from the beginning, and gives players more ways to move around than Elden Ring. The game features a beautifully designed Hyrule with a painterly art style, but don’t let that fool you – it’s a challenging game where enemies can quickly defeat Link. Beyond the difficulty, players gain tools that not only help solve puzzles in smaller dungeons, but also allow them to manipulate the environment and find new routes.

In the game, players can manipulate ice to create platforms for reaching new areas. They can also climb almost any surface, as long as they have enough stamina. Once they’ve climbed, players can glide down to explore the vast and often desolate world, dotted with occasional settlements. This combination of climbing and gliding was a key feature that made The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a groundbreaking open-world game, especially for a console launch title.

No Man’s Sky

Going Beyond Earth

When No Man’s Sky first came out, it wasn’t well-received, but the developers at Hello Games have worked hard to improve it over time. Today, it’s considered a fantastic open-world – or rather, open-universe – game. Players start with a spaceship and can explore a virtually endless number of randomly generated planets. While you need to manage things like fuel and supplies during your travels, you can usually find everything you need by exploring and gathering resources on the planets themselves.

While there’s some action, No Man’s Sky is primarily about exploring the universe. It’s closer to the spirit of Star Trek – discovering and scanning planets, collecting resources, and building bases – than the fast-paced battles of Star Wars. After a while, planets can start to feel similar, but seeing what other players have created together adds a lot of excitement. And between planet-hopping, you can enjoy exploring space, finding other players, or even engaging in spaceship combat.

Red Dead Redemption 2

The Dusty Plains Of The American West

Set in 1899, Red Dead Redemption 2 portrays the end of the Wild West era. As part of the Van der Linde gang, players take on the role of Arthur Morgan and navigate a changing world. You can choose to fully embrace a life of crime or attempt to find redemption and do good despite being caught in difficult circumstances. The game features a vast and varied landscape, from wide-open plains to towns, plantations, and dense forests, all waiting to be explored.

Like other Rockstar games, Red Dead Redemption 2 is full of hidden secrets and optional missions that aren’t handed to players easily. For example, there’s a serial killer mystery that players must solve by finding and examining clues at various crime scenes. These investigations share similarities with the cryptic clues found in Elden Ring, but Red Dead Redemption 2 feels more unsettling because it grounds its horror in a realistic setting. Encountering something frightening in a world that feels real is much more disturbing than facing dangers in a fantastical one, making the game’s wilderness truly feel dangerous and unnerving.

Xenoblade Chronicles X

Fortifying Civilization

In Xenoblade Chronicles X, players begin a new life on an alien planet, assisting with the establishment of a new Earth colony called New L.A. – a place that feels surprisingly modern. Similar to the world of Elden Ring, this planet is full of danger; monsters can easily defeat players who are much higher level. Simply fighting for hours won’t always work, so stealth is often the best approach. Players can eventually overcome these challenges using powerful mechs called Skells.

These transforming machines take some getting used to, but they’ll significantly improve gameplay for dedicated players. You can use them to fight fearsome creatures, travel across land, or take to the skies. The ability to traverse the world with Skells unlocks a vast new landscape filled with rare monsters, secret treasures, resources for side quests, and much more. While already impressive on the Wii U, the game is even more user-friendly on the Switch (or a potential Switch 2) thanks to the remaster. The newly explored planet in Xenoblade Chronicles X presents challenges, but it’s also a beautiful tropical world worth exploring.

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2026-01-06 20:09