IGN Top open World Games of All Time

IGN just dropped their top open world games of all time.... Wondering what system wars thinks?

https://youtu.be/QVE6gj1Wyxg

Did IGN nail it? Or do you have better choices for such a list? Why?

I feel like MM is a weird choice considering the base game is what established the open world.

The phantom pain is also kind of meh... Some of the best gameplay I've ever played in one of the worst open worlds I've ever played. Is it really the best? Opinions I suppose.

BOTW and Elden Ring would be #1, #2 on my list.

Also.... New Vegas isn't as fun as fallout 3.... Suck it.

Pick most popular and mainstream games.

terrible list.

No STALKER 1 or Far cry 2.

Miles Moracles... Lol

Definitely some great games there. My two favourites are Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring.

I'd put Arma series in "most open world in the world ever" list. But IGN won't know how to play it. And it's on PC.

Dicks.

Breath of the Wild easily number 1, so many games will learn from its greatness. Crazy a Wii U game is the best to ever be made.

Not a terrible list, some games on it I haven't played however.

I will say this: BoTW has set a new standard for open-world games to me and it'll always be very high on my list. As is Witcher 3.

MGSV's world isn't particularly bad but it's not great either (the gameplay is what made it good). Skyrim and GTA5 are no-brainers.

Mine would look like this

1. Arma 2
2. Ultima 7 (Did BotW 25 years before BotW)
3. X3 Terran Conflict
4. Star Citizen Early Access
5. Terraria
6. Kenshi
7. MineCraft
8. Breath of the Wild
9. Fallout New Vegas
10. Forza Horizon 5

With the exception of Breath of the Wild, all of these are available on PC. Some even exclusive.

Having no Sleeping Dogs on there is a true crime but it's IGN I didn't expect much.

I guess that is a reasonable list given the public reception. Personally there are many games I think are more fun than for example GTA V and RDR2. Such as Cyberpunk 2077, Arkham Knight, Assassin's Creed: Origins. However I can see that those three games had a more mixed reception.

Miles Morales got a 7 here at GS where it matters

Here is my list of open worlds that don't suck:

• Elden Ring
• BotW
• Subnautica

The rest are just waypoint simulators.

Okay... I'm exaggerating a bit, and I'm sure I'm missing a few good ones, but nothing is worse than starting with a fully-revealed map loaded with POIs (aka the Ubi formula).

Also, per the OP, I do think FO3's world is a lot better than FONV. NV is missing something like the subway system that gives you a whole other layer to explore and use as a way to cross dangerous areas in the early game. Story sucks tho, like every other game developed by BGS. Great lore, terrible main plots.

1. Fallout NV
2. Elden Ring
3. Fallout 3 or Divinity OS 1 if it counts as an open world title.

Spider-Man 2 on the PS2 will always and forever be the best open world Spider-Man game, so to put Insomniac's on that list and leave out the other is audacious! You wouldn't get that game without Treyarch perfecting the Spider swing. A close second would be Ultimate Spider-Man

Not sure what was open world about Elden Ring. You just go around killing things. Basically, a big Souls game.

This is something liked about Arma 2 compared to 3 and really distinguished it from a lot of military games as well.

It had almost light RPG elements where you conversed with people in the villages. Cause, that's generally what you do in the army, in fact, it's mostly what you do, most people face very little actual combat.

Arma 3 was a more polished product with less jank and game breaking bugs, but it was also a significantly less interesting one.

Yeah, arguably the best gameplay on that list. But the open world isn't really good and often feels pointless. It's cool how you can infiltrate larger bases from any angle, adds a lot of flexibility and replayability to the missions. But just sooo much dead space between.

Probably would have been a better game if they laid the bases out in semi-open yet relatively linear fashion. Would still be a bigger game than all of the previous MGS titles too.

I'm not big on open world games, but enjoyed Breath of the Wild a lot. Can really recommend Valheim as well.

I think it has a lot to do with progression if I'm gonna like an open world game or not. Those two games nailed it for me in that they never felt overwhelming, slow, like a chore or like I was unnecessarily traversing land just so the developer can say they made a big world.

my friends its because its nintendo childish game? if it was not you would not like it. or if mario become open world with cars you will praise it..

@ghosts4ever:

My friend. You should play more video games.

what are more games?

I'm not sure how to answer this.

unrelated:

@ConanTheStoner said:

@ghosts4ever said:

what are more games?

I'm not sure how to answer this.

unrelated:

my friend, I play more games than most people here including one who only play GTA, sleeping dogs, mirrors edge, spec ops, lol.

@ConanTheStoner: you just won the Internet! Well played sir!

On topic, decent list, how you put MM instead of Spider-Man on the list seems a bit sketchy… I mean MM was fun, but was basically just a smaller and worse version of Spider-Man!

No GTA 3? Practically the grand daddy of open world.

Well, similar outlook as GirlUSoCrazy, don't really consider open world a genre in itself. More like an extension of other genres. Unfortunately a lot of open world games do adhere to a samey checklist of design principles, but not like all of them must fit into that box.

ER can be a bit monotone in its core loop, but the loop works well and I'd rather they not tack on gameplay variety for the sake of it. Think it does a great job of pushing variety within its own confines. Plenty of unique shit to kill, ways to kill them, and places to explore. Would argue the open world traversal and exploration aren't functionally interesting, but are mostly made up for in other ways. And in the larger "dungeons", everything you want from a Souls game.

Anyways, just don't think being big souls discounts it from the convo. Huge sprawling world that begs to be explored, more open out the gate than a lot of open world titles.

I guess depends what criteria doing it on.

Most influential or good games that hold up?

While not one of these "GTA always sucked" type folk, def wouldn't put GTA3 in that category. Even Vice City which came out soon afterwords made it redundant.

IYO of course.

Cry moar!!!!

🤣🤣🤣🤣

@ermacness: And IGNs opinion

@ConanTheStoner said:

@ghosts4ever said:

what are more games?

I'm not sure how to answer this.

unrelated:

OMFG, perfection!

I feel like Breath of the Wild had the right idea. Give you an actual world to explore. You can go in any direction and find something interesting to do. Elden Ring felt more like, you explored because you had to level and collect items.

I dunno man, feel both games offer that.

Like sure, I find the "open-worlding" in BotW to be more interesting and engaging, at least from a gameplay standpoint. ER at times does feel more like the typical open world downtime between points of interest.

But they're both pretty dense with activities in any given direction. Suppose you just prefer the variety and unique instances of BotWs, which I mean, yeah fair.

Can't say my motivations to explore in ER were so pragmatic. Obviously looking to level and gear up, but the curiosity and discovery were the main drivers for me. If that didn't land for you, then yeah, probably not nearly as enjoyable.

@ConanTheStoner: yea ER does have those discovery moments too, but like in Zelda, you can just start randomly climbing shit and boom, there’s this huge dragon flying through the sky and you’re like what the hell is that about lol. Maybe there was just more stuff to do in Zelda other than just killing stuff lol?

Lol at Miles Morales.

Well yeah, no doubt.

Basic traversal itself is more interesting.

Get the "chemistry engine" to play with as opposed to a static world. Which not only leads to cool shit that the player can choose to do, but more importantly the unexpected emergent situations that regularly arise from it.

Get lots of enjoyable puzzle solving in the shrines and beasts as well as on-the-fly solutions in the world itself. As well as the shrines that have you fulfill a unique external task.

Unique instances like the labyrinths, lost woods, shrouded shrine, Tarrey Town, ninja hideout, citadel ruins, sand seal racing, golf, paraglide course, footrace, horse races, mine carts, etc. etc. Eventide Island was fucking dope, basically a Subsistence mission from MGSV. Get the survival considerations for some of the different biomes, and the various means to handle them.

One play session can be completely different from the activities in the next, not disagreeing with that.

-

Just bringing it back to the original discussion though, don't think this makes ER any less of an open world game is all.

@ConanTheStoner: well my comment was in the context of the best open world games, hence I don’t think Elden Ring belongs at the top because it‘s not much of an open world 😎

@SolidGame_basic:

Ha, well I'll just agree to disagree man. ER isn't my favorite open world game, but it's up there.

Seems a large part of your criteria is having a multitude of distinct activities, personally I don't see that as a qualifier. Even if that's common for open world games, don't see that as what defines them.

I don't mind ER having nothing but combat.

Just means ER didn't have to spread resources thin trying to add anotheer ****ing fishing minigame.

@Maroxad:

Yep. Maybe could have come up with additional modes of play that are actually interesting, who knows. But I show up for a Souls game knowing I'm gonna explore some thoughtful level design, kill some crazy shit, and take in the vibes.

For the most part I tend to appreciate games that are laser focused on a singular core loop. Not to be mistaken for a lack of variety, plenty of games find interesting ways to play on said loop. SMG2 has more meaningful variety than a lot of games, even if the core is just standard platforming.

My beef with BOTW is, as fun as the open-world is, the rewards are just awful. It's either a weapon that breaks after a couple of strikes, a Korok seed, or a shrine.

This is kind of the problem I had with it as well tbh.

Rather than think "wow new weapon" I spend most of the game tepidly trying to hoard shit as I knew they would break.

And when they broke it didn't force me to be tactical or anything, just paused mid combat and changed a shitty wep with another shitty wep most of the time.

Maybe just bad at playing it and not suppose to do that. But there was definitely a lack of gratification from weapons.

The heart stuff was fine, though after a while samey samey set in.

@Juub1990: That cause your playing it for the wrong reason. Its avbout the journey, not the reward. Thats why BotW is the best, no cheap reward like other games.

Same. I wish they would at least have a system like automatically swapping to your next best weapon once the one in your hand breaks. Another problem I had with the game was the frequent pauses mid-combat to change weapons, arrows, or shields. Completely broke the flow.

Yeah, both ER and BotW fizzle out on the rewards, but in opposite ways.

BotW - Almost every reward will have a use, be beneficial. (Until your arsenal is stacked, then some weapons become throwaway.) But of course yeah, becomes exponentially less rewarding, not exciting at all. Better hope you're enjoying the journey.

ER - Nature of builds, 90+% of what you find will be useless to your build. So again it's like welp, hope you enjoyed that dungeon. Though on the flip side, when you do find something suited to your build, great feeling.

Never struck me as an issue in the previous Souls games, obviously more compact though. Not really going out of your way for "nothing".

Same.

If I play a Kamiya game, I play a game because I want ace combat, and thankfully they have delivered here. If I play Fire Emblem, I want a fast paced SRPG (definitely fast paced compared to other SRPG), I certainly don't want a ****ing monastery again (which thankfully seems de-emphasized in Engage).

@ConanTheStoner: This is why I would love to see the Strength and Dex stats merged, the Int and Faith Stats Merged.

Or make the Dex and Str stats actually do something interesting, so they are not the same stat, only covering different weapons. Like in D&D, where the whole system was probably inspired from.

As for Zelda, I would love to see the return of Oracles Ring system or Skyward Sword's trinkets.