The 10 Most ACTUALLY Open Open World Games

“Fallout: New Vegas” (2010)

Though “New Vegas’s” map is pretty small, it’s far more open than the map in “Fallout 3” and more interesting than the larger map of “Fallout 4”. As soon as you leave Doc Mitchell’s house – which takes mere minutes – you’ve got all of the Mojave to explore. Of course, you’re probably not going to be able to explore it because large areas are full of dangerous, high-level enemies, but if you’re good enough and know how to wield some of those early game weapons, you CAN tackle “New Vegas’s” quests in whatever order you want. And unlike “Fallout 3”, you don’t have to traverse endless Metro tunnels to get to new parts of D.C. – though, there ARE loading screens locking you out of New Vegas itself.

“Forza Horizon 5” (2021)

As soon as you’re through the bombastic intro, all of “Forza Horizon 5’s” version of Mexico is available to explore. There’s absolutely nothing in your way, and you’ll even have some great supercars available to you from the get-go. From huge volcanoes to dense jungles full of ancient temples, it’s one of the best-looking video game worlds we’ve ever seen. You’ll never tire of driving along Mexico’s miles of beautiful coastline in your favorite classic cars. With in-game achievements dedicated to exploring every single road the game has to offer, this is a title where you’ll never get bored of racing your friends while the music blasts.

“The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” (2011)

Like all Bethesda games, there are still portions of the map that require loading screens to get to – the many cities and indoor areas, for instance. But “Skyrim” is perhaps the most open of all Bethesda’s games, at least until “The Elder Scrolls VI”, and remains beloved for its world design to this day. From Todd Howard’s lofty claims that you can walk to every point on the horizon to the popular mods that make the world even livelier, “Skyrim’s” setting is the main reason people are still buying and playing it over and over again. You can even play it in VR now and see Tamriel’s frigid northern lands as if you’re really there.

“Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” (2023)

How do you make the map of “Spider-Man” 2018 even better? You make it bigger, of course! “Spider-Man 2” added two more boroughs of New York, Brooklyn and Queens, and a new gliding mechanic to enable you to fly across the East River quickly. While the first game’s map was already the most highly detailed version of New York ever seen in a game – despite having very few interiors for Peter to explore – “Spider-Man 2” added even more, including putting its own spin on Coney Island and other historic landmarks. Better yet, nothing stops you from going between the three available boroughs as soon as you get to free roam; it’s all available from the beginning.

“Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” (2018)

It’s got the naval exploration of “Black Flag” but cuts out ALL the loading screens. Yes, no matter how many Greek cities or underwater ruins Kassandra explores, unless you’re fast travelling, she never has to sit through a loading screen; and even if you do fast travel, the loading times have always been pretty quick, even on PS4 and Xbox One. This complete realization of Ancient Greece is the kind of video game map we’ve always dreamed of, sailing from Athens to Sparta and waging war in between. It’s also got a diverse range of environments, from volcanoes and arid lands in the south, to Greece’s beautiful islands in the east, and dense, Mediterranean forests in the north. As soon as you get the ship, the world is yours for the taking.

“Fuel” (2009)

“Mad Max” meets “Forza” in this infamously huge racing game, which still boasts one of the most impressive open worlds in a game. What makes it impressive isn’t just sheer size – though it’s over 5500 square miles in area – but how dynamic it is, especially for 2009, with complex weather events to contend with. As a racing game it has a lot of flaws, but it’s certainly a solid title and even by today’s bloated standards, that game world is enormous. If you get it running on a high-end PC, it’s also still gorgeous, and arguably ahead of its time visually – though, racing games are known for their high-fidelity graphics.

“Kingdom Come: Deliverance II” (2025)

If you’ve always wondered what it was like to contract the plague, get shot with arrows, or have your head cut off, “Kingdom Come: Deliverance II” is the game for you. You’re allowed to do anything you want in this sandbox, within the boundaries of Medieval Europe. Admittedly, you have two huge maps to explore, rather than one even huger map, but these maps are extremely detailed recreations of real environments in the Czech Republic. You’re also given immense freedom from a gameplay standpoint, and able to do almost anything you can think of, including wasting your days getting drunk and womanising at the local tavern.

“Elden Ring” (2022)

While FromSoftware’s games all feature large, interconnected worlds without loading screens for the most part, none is as open as “Elden Ring”. “Elden Ring” mercilessly drops you into the Lands Between and expects you to figure everything out from there, as a big “F you” to games that hold your hand and drown you in waypoints. You’re expected to meander through the story at your own pace by simply exploring the fascinating world FromSoft has built, guided not by menus and UI but by large landmarks and the physical design of the world itself. We wish more games would learn from “Elden Ring’s” significantly more immersive approach to exploration.

“The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” (2023)

Before “Elden Ring”, there was “Breath of the Wild”, which had a similarly open take on Hyrule and left Link to make his own mind up about where to go and what to do. Six years later and Hyrule was expanded even more with “Tears of the Kingdom”, which not only added huge new areas for Link to explore, but new ways in which to do it, thanks to the Ultrahand and its surprisingly deep construction mechanics. Though the Switch is certainly showing its age in a game with this much scope, we don’t doubt that we’ll see an enhanced re-release on the Switch 2, and we can’t wait to explore Hyrule all over again with even better graphics.

“No Man’s Sky” (2016)

Undoubtedly, “No Man’s Sky” has the biggest world of any video game to date, thanks to its potentially infinite scale. And provided you have enough fuel in your ship, you can theoretically go anywhere you want in your quest to reach the center of the galaxy. It also doesn’t technically have any loading screens, though veterans will know that you have to wait a long time to travel between galaxies. This, however, just adds to the depth of the world, since it would certainly be more unrealistic to immediately fast travel to different planets and star systems. As well as that, the planets themselves have only gotten more dynamic and interesting with the many post-launch updates.

Let us know in the comments which of these open worlds you’ve spent hundreds of hours exploring.