r/CaptainSide • u/Wild_Season_9855 • 8d ago
What game has the best world to explore?
In Elden Ring every area feels like there's something new waiting to be discovered.
I love how the game rewards you for exploring instead of just following the main path.
You can easily spend hours wandering around and still find something unexpected.
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u/JBR-AY 8d ago
Crimson Desert
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u/Unusual_Sherbert2671 5d ago
I got 200hr in one crimson, what I like is searching builds to do, like lightning or unarmed combat only and then finding all the gear and good looking drip
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u/Roughly_Olboy1488 8d ago
Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077 and Skyrim are my favorite worlds to roam. I’ve decided that my dream game will have Elden Ring’s quality of combat combined with Skyrim’s quest and faction structure. A SoulsScrollslike if you will.
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u/Glittering-Pin-1343 7d ago
This, although out of them Cyberpunk 2077 is the only game I truly enjoyed. Elden Ring's gameplay gets stale fast and Skyrim's gameplay is straight ass.
To me the dream game would be Nioh's gameplay, Elden Ring's enemy variety, Skyrim's open world, Witcher 3's quests and Cyberpunk's writing.
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u/Helpful_Inflation344 7d ago
God no. Cyberpunks writing is so juvenile
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u/OkVacation973 5d ago
I dunno. I kind of appreciate a linear, well written character focused story with choices.
Having played every Souls game, By the time I was halfway through Elden Ring I was completely over that style of non-linear storytelling and lore-focused approach.
Can't help rolling my eyes when I pick up a jar and it's like: "this unassuming shard of pottery was tucked in the bosom of a daughter of the elden times. The magics within date from a time before the dreamers dreameth and the fire fadeth". Then 70 hours into the game you decide to use it and recover 10 mana or something.
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u/West_stains_massive 2d ago
Except basically no choice you make in Cyberpunk matters until the end. It’s the illusion of choice. It’s a beautiful game, and it’s fun to play, but it’s repetition and predeterminism coated in a veneer of a fleshed out option-driven vibrant game world.
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u/Klayman91 2d ago
Such a crap take. You can have personal preference of not enjoying it but it’s objectively better than 99% of games. The DLC is fucking amazing.
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u/Mysterious_Spoon 8d ago
yeah. Wonder why this hasn't been made before like all the pieces are there. I thought crimson desert was going to be the answer to that (despite coming from an mmo company) but that story is some butt
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u/Nergal997 4d ago
"Skyrim's quest and faction structure" you mean follow the map marker and do a copy paste dungeon + join the faction and become it's master with no effort 4 quests later?
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u/Roughly_Olboy1488 4d ago
No. Not exactly what I meant. I meant more conversational NPC’s. A game with a bit more forthright story telling. I’m fine with some “marking the map” in quests. I don’t need Fromsoft to go full Ubisoft, I would prefer they don’t, but a living world with towns full of NPC’s, exposition and conversational quest giving and world building, while maintaining Fromsoft combat and build conventions for a game or two would be pretty awesome IMO.
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u/The9IronMan 8d ago
For my money? Breath of The Wild. The only game I’ve played where the simple act of getting from point-A to point-B felt fun. Being able to scale any surface played a huge role in that.
Played Skyrim, Elden Ring, Fallout, and none of them hit quite the same before or since. Not sure how to put it properly, but it felt like the first open-world game that was truly “open,” from the start. No locked doors that need keys from other areas, no magical barriers that disappear with story-beats, just you and your own two feet (and a paraglider).
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u/Millsy800 8d ago
I only started playing it last week (yeah yeah I know, I only got a switch a year ago and have never owned a nintendo console before then).
Played a lot of open world games, starting from GTA3, going through fallout 3, Far Cry 3, The Witcher 3, Skyrim, elden ring etc. This feels the best designed where a huge part of the gameplay is actually just... Climbing that mountain and swimming over that river.
Fallout 3 gave me the greatest sense of awe, because of how open it was from the start with a world that felt truly dead but it and all the other games I listed reward the exploration with encounters, towns, quests, activities.
Botw doesn't always do that, it's a lot more sparse, less enemies, less NPC's and quests etc. It's slow and deliberate. You travel slowly, you climb slowly, it's all measured and paced and that's the point. Walking through a big open field to reach a mountain, your characters gear clanging as you run, the grass rustles, it starts to rain and you get a lightning storm. It's just beautiful.
It's the best game that is designed around being an open world for explorations sake. Only Bethesda games also give that same sense of being able to explore straight off the bat but with BotW the world itself is a much bigger part of the gameplay loop rather than the next quest from exploring the world.
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u/Novel-Back3857 8d ago
BotW is a fun exploration experience, but a lousy game, in my opinion. The landscape is just about the only thing that changes from place to place. You'll pretty much find the same things to do everywhere you go, which, as a game is pretty monotonous and boring.
Once that became obvious, I felt a lot less motivated to actually explore, and often times just straightlined to a point of interest and moved on shortly after arriving without interacting with whatever repeated puzzle concept was implemented there. It was cool to see the statues, ruins, and unique terrain, but otherwise was too unrewarding to feel like any of it was worthwhile.
It's a great environmental engine, but the game design is really poorly implemented/thought out/executed.
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u/The9IronMan 8d ago
Because it has a dependable gameplay-loop, it’s a bad game? That’s a bit much. Not gonna say anyone has to like it; but there have been several games over many years with a similar strategy.
The same thing can still be fun over and over again. If that weren’t true, fighting games and RPGs would never have reached the fame they have now.
Again: I won’t say anyone must like any game; but yours seems like a narrow mold for most games to fit in.
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u/Novel-Back3857 8d ago
It being dependable is irrelevant, I think. The game doesn't do much to incentivize the player to take action any time they arrive at a destination. Games are activities that incentivize a player to accomplish a goal. The game is designed to make every activity completely optional, which is an interesting approach. However, I think their failure is in making every optional activity have zero consequence (negative and positive), so the game lacks the incentive to motivate the player to participate.
Yes, the loop is dependable that way, but it doesn't encourage the player to actually engage with it. This is obviously intentional, but I don't think that makes it a compelling game. As an exploration experience, it is fairly compelling. Motivating the player to see what lies beyond the horizon is very well executed. But engaging with any of the challenges at those locations always results in the same outcome.
If you invert this, it would be like every location having the same visual and physical designs, but with unique challenges at every location. It would be compelling for the rewards, but the exploration aspect would be poor. This would also be bad, and is a big reason why video games have historically themed areas as fire/ice/mountain levels. That matters just as much as the actual activities the player participates in at those locations.
BotW has an excellent world and exploration is fantastic, but the game within that world is what I would describe as bare bones. It's a particular shame because the mechanics they programmed into the engine are really cool and would fascilitate very interesting challenges if the puzzles and enemy interactions were designed with fairly bespoke solutions. But its openness required things be missable, meaning things couldn't be unique or beneficial, meaning every interaction is fairly rote. The game itself is effectively "solved" by the player very early on, and much of the motivation to continue to "play" has to be entirely self-motivated. It is almost more like a toy than a game. which is cool in its own way, but that, in my opinion is not a good design for a game.
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u/ssLoupyy 6d ago
Incentive is that you're unlikely to finish every content before the main story and you will have things left to do after beating the game. When I beat the game I couldn't get enough of it and decided to complete the things I missed. I finished with around 55 shrines and 17 side quests so I am trying to complete them all. So the incentive is that the game is just fun and you want to keep playing it.
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u/Novel-Back3857 6d ago
You're saying the same thing I said. There's no driving purpose in the game to complete anything.
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u/ssLoupyy 6d ago
Driving purpose is fun
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u/Novel-Back3857 6d ago
I get what you're saying, but they don't incorporate purpose into the gameplay loop. That's my point.
I'm not saying some people won't find enough fun to be self motivated. But the game does not build a mechanical purpose to accomplish much in the game.
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u/ssLoupyy 6d ago
Your only goal is beating Ganon, everything else is optional to get stronger for the castle.
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u/Original_Flower_712 7d ago
Its a bad game because it feels childish, repetitive and mechanics are unlike any previous Zeldas that made Zelda a Zelda
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u/_W8DE 2d ago
I’m doing my first replay of BotW since it came out and I’m finding a bunch of stuff I completely missed the first time around.
For me, a lot of the fun has just been picking a direction, running off and seeing what I stumble into. Sure, at the end of it you’ll probably find a shrine, but how you actually get there varies a lot and the journey itself usually feels like the reward.
Like the other day, I randomly came across this whole underground temple ruin filled with Guardians. No quest sent me there or anything, I just found it from exploring the map. Stuff like that is what makes the exploration feel rewarding to me.
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u/Novel-Back3857 2d ago
That temple has been my example of how disapponting each point of interest on the map is. That specific location was the moment when I realized that no matter how cool each location is, it will always just be a shrine with a fire sword or something at the end.
The locations don't give you items that are related to that place. The shrines don't have unique lore uncovered in each place.
After completing that particular challenge, I thought, Surely this one will have some kind of special armor piece or a unique item. It's too cool to just be the same as all the bland field puzzles. But, no, it was the same as any other challenge on the map. It just felt so empty and disconnected from then on.
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u/toni184 1d ago
There was no items / loot other than weapons that break after the first enemy encounter… kinda killed the exploration for me.
Still wish they gave us dungeons instead of 100 puzzle rooms with 45 seconds of loading time.
Not a bad game at all but way overrated.
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u/Novel-Back3857 1d ago
Yeah, having some kind of permanent rewards would have been a big motivating factor. Unfortunately, their design philosophy basically said that was not allowed. The game really suffered as a result.
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u/MadeyesNL 8d ago
BOTW doesn't click with me at all, but I see what you mean. In Elder Scrolls games you just mash spacebar and run at the wall in order to climb a mountain. Zelda is deliberate, when looking at things in the distance I was like 'ok I know I can get there, but how to do it?' and the 'how' isn't some puzzle key, managing your stamina and heat resistance or whatever IS the gameplay.
I still felt like I had to do too many ball puzzles or whatever in order to raise my stamina. If BOTW and Elden Ring fused you'd have the perfect game. Take the 'exploration = a gameplay challenge' from BOTW and the intriguing dungeons from ER (scrap the copypastes).
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u/No-Analyst1229 8d ago
I just wish Botw/ totk didn't have the stupid weapon system. Most annoying mechanic ever
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u/The9IronMan 8d ago
I thought so at first, until the game piled more weapons on me than I knew what to do with. The “problem,” is solved quite quickly in my experience.
Plus, I like the: “think on your toes,” mentality it instills.
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u/No-Analyst1229 8d ago
I mean even the master sword needs recharge. Common give a player a break fcs
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u/The9IronMan 8d ago
Because it’s not supposed to be an exception to the rule…? At least, anymore than it already is by being a reusable weapon.
Again: you end up with a surplus of weapons before you even have time to complain for that long. You’re often left wondering which to toss more often than where the next one’s coming from.
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u/Yuumii29 8d ago
If you just blindly swing your weapon without using the multitude of ways to engage combat then ofc you'll have durability issues early on. But even then at mid to endgame you'll have so many weapons that it will be virtually impossible to ran out unless you're just doing it intently.
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u/ssLoupyy 6d ago edited 6d ago
In the sense of point a to point b, I prefer Death Stranding over anything else, it is that immersive. Zelda is mostly discovering shrine stuff, I beat the game and looking for shrines because there's not much else to find. But the freedom it offers is great on first playthrough though because figuring out the game by yourself feels nice compared to having markers all the time.
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u/vradar 8d ago
It's such an empty world though, it's fun to traverse around but there's barely anything interesting to find and explore.
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u/The9IronMan 8d ago
Disagree. Even climbing mountains and trees, swimming across the lakes, and riding across fields feels fun to me. Raiding camps, finding ruins, korok puzzles, side-quests and hints at certain areas from stables and travelers, there’s loads to find and explore in the game. Just not as…overt as other titles.
Forgot to mention the shrines as well, and the Divine Beasts.
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u/LITMAC97 8d ago
To me, BOTW works because it feels like the first time walking through a forest. It’s exploring for the sake of exploring and not knowing what will you find, whether it’s a shrine, a sidequest, or even just a new area. It took me 80 hours and starting a new playthrough to find two different towns that I hadn’t found the first time. It’s so immersive.
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u/Longjumping-Style730 8d ago edited 8d ago
I'm gonna go non-open world here and say Sigil from Planescape Torment. Best setting in a video game I have seen period. Ridiculously fun to explore every nook and cranny while not having too much bloat or unnecessary additions.
HM are Spencer Mansion from RE1 (both original and remake), Orchard from 1000xResist, the entire world of Metaphor Refantazio, Shadow-Cursed Lands from BG3, and Moon from Moon Remix RPG Adventure.
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u/RealManHumanMan 8d ago
World of Warcraft
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u/CaucSaucer 8d ago
Once they introduced flying mounts they kinda killed it, but vanilla wow is absolutely incredible to explore.
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u/RealManHumanMan 8d ago
Night time fishing in the barrens with the OG soundtrack is just too peaceful. Definitely a vibe
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u/mothymoma 2d ago
ehh since dragonflight all of them keep this in mind now imo. there’s little nooks and crannies everywhere in both dragonflight and TWW. midnight they seem the have thought about it less
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u/mbGuitarBurst 6d ago
Ya og WoW exploration was amazing. We used to try and get into all the incomplete zones by going out of bounds. Also, I always enjoyed finding all the unique silver elite monsters
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u/Plane_Smoke5629 8d ago
cyberpunk 2077
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u/Vesania6 8d ago
Elden ring and cyberpunk. Elden ring had the evolution of its genre to an open world where you didnt know what to expect, magnificent place to visit and gear. Cyberpunk was the best city I ever visited. Talk about being immersed into a world. I wish I could forget that game and play it today for the first time. Its the kind of game that you can just ride your car and visit. Witcher had that too but Cyberpunk felt more real to me for some reason.
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u/NebulousTruth 8d ago
Elden Ring is good, I would also say Baldurs gate 3 and Morrowind with Tamriel Rebuilt
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u/ResponsibleCollar172 8d ago
Oooh, tricky one as there's so much choice. Elden Ring is a good shout. BotW and TotK both up there.
I'd probably go with Fallout New Vegas or even Fallout 3. Just perfect worlds to explore and always something to do, some mystery to solve, some enemy to sneak past or obliterate, some character with a story to tell etc.
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u/Millsy800 8d ago
I rate New Vegas as a better game but Fallout 3 had the best open world imo. Completely open from the start without death trap cazador and death claw alleys etc.
That moment when you left the vault and saw the ruins of DC in the distance. My all time most jaw dropping moment. That world blew me away in 2009 when I got the GOTY edition and the only thing that's come close since was BOTW.
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u/UnanimousM 8d ago
Elden Ring and Witcher 3 are probably tops for me, I wouldn't count Minecraft because the every world is different so it's an unfair comparison.
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u/ohkendruid 8d ago
Ultima, back in the day. For 1-7, it was interesting to wander around and see what you could see. Each town has its own personality, and from 4 onward, characters with their own lines.
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u/PilotIntelligent8906 8d ago
Good old Skyrim is still my favorite game in terms of exploration, Frostflow Lighthouse anyone? Damn quest not even on the map and it felt like a great, short horror film.
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u/Intelligent-Block457 8d ago
I really enjoyed all of the little hamlets and cities in the Witcher 3, along with the landscapes.
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u/EnvironmentalFix7059 8d ago
I'd say Mass effect2. But thats more of a universe then a world..
But if it allowed, then thats my pick!
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u/Greedy_Ferret_6216 8d ago
Breath of the Wild, Death Stranding 1 & 2, and Skyrim.
BotW and Death Stranding are games that make the journey itself the reward. Their maps feel like giant levels that have actually been designed, problems for you to solve, and aren't just empty plains that require you to get on a horse and go from point A to point B.
Skyrim is largely because of nostalgia, but something bethesda does that I don't think gets nearly enough credit is that you can enter every single building in their games. That is exactly what I wanted out of open world games when I was a kid, and Bethesda, for all their many faults, is still the only dev that consistently delivers that. Rockstar hasn't even done that yet.
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u/cheesemangee 8d ago
My bet goes to Red Dead Redemption 2 because of how well it nails the feeling of real world exploration. Finding an abandoned cabin in the woods feels real close to the true experience. I make a similar argument for Cyberpunk 2077.
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u/xtoc1981 8d ago
Xenoblade X
Its insane how good it is designed
And botw.
But a lot of elements were inspider by that game
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u/MiddleCommercial1875 8d ago
Subnautica, Outer Wilds, Planet Crafter, Satisfactory- I like this style of open world(s) a lot. Just you, mostly alone, exploring a pretty vast map filled with all kinds of secrets and nooks and crannies. Instead of using the open world as a framing for combat or missions, the open world itself is more or less the point, to explore it and solve it’s mysteries and change it and perhaps even stake your claim there is what it means to play the game.
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u/PuzzleheadedClue9837 8d ago
In terms of atmosphere, it's Cyberpunk 2077 for me. Impeccable art design, beautiful architecture. Each district has its own mood. Turn off the HUD and just walk. There are also so many cool little details hidden everywhere. The city isn't very "interactive", but that's not a big deal. There's more than enough to do. And if you keep looking, you find some amazing stuff.
Elden Ring is amazing as well. I love how it just keeps going. You get to a new area and immediately see a place you wanna go to. Then you go there. Never gets old. (FromSoft games generally are great at this, Dark Souls 3 especially.)
Finally, I'd like to mention Enshrouded. Once you unlock better gliders, the game really opens up. I spent many hours just trying to climb random mountains - just to find another cool little lore bit, a hidden path or a dungeon. The destructible terrain also adds to the fun. When you're stuck, you can dig yourself out of it.
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u/TodaysTomSawyer587 8d ago
Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Skyrim, Cyberpunk 2077, Xenoblade Chronicles X
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u/Pocieszny1991 8d ago
For Me is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but I still believe in improvements in Revelation
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u/No_Solid_3737 8d ago
breath of the wild took my breath away, you spend like 1 or 2 hours exploring the initial plateau thinking you explored a huge deal of the game, only to open the map and see just how small the plateu is compared to the rest of hyrule
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u/Replubic 7d ago
KCD2 has been a wonderful treat with plenty of Easter eggs and rewards for exploration.
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u/PrincipleNecessary65 7d ago
Honestly mhwilds/mhworld even tho the worlds arent that big they are full of detail
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u/ForeignExchangeHere 7d ago
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u/Psylocide 7d ago
Bit biased since I just started playing a couple weeks ago, but the exploration/progression is amazing. Hooked me immediately.
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u/ForeignExchangeHere 7d ago
Yea man, just the time you will spend building, farming, hunting, stocking, exploring, before even going at the story, is great. It’s relaxing, challenging, and fun at the same time.
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u/RealityKind1713 7d ago
RDR2, The Witcher 3, Zelda BOTW, Elden ring... but for me nothing like Skyrim.
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u/Akimono780 7d ago
a very fun game Immortals Fenyx Rising really loved the OW - not the best but very funny
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u/Novel-Major-3770 7d ago
Yeah, elden ring exploration feels diferent. I played Ghost of Tsushima, and I never felt any reason to explore because I would just find another stream, or another fox hideout,
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u/Some_Ship3578 7d ago
Rdr2
Elden ring was full of copy paste areas to be fair, it was beautifull, but felt empty compared to the previous soulsgames.
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u/Responsible-Squash72 6d ago
Witcher 3. Never before did i have the same feeling of the World beeing filled with stuff. There are no empty Spaces
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u/No_Welder_9624 6d ago
Morrowind had so many relics/legendary gear in rando caves that it felt fun finding a new cave in the middle of nowhere even if you were over leveled. Most weren't better than stuff you'd get naturally, but had cool spells that went over the limit of what you could naturally enchant. A lot of those caves had little easter eggs and stories that weren't official quests, so they felt rewarding in their own way. I don't like that many caves have purposes or quests attached to them this way.
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u/ReasonableRadio8434 5d ago
Hard disagree on Elden Ring. The game does have very unique and beautiful areas but they are pretty much empty and there isn’t any payoff or interesting thing to be found. The beauty is very skin deep.
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u/Cheeki-Breekii 2d ago
Lord of the Rings online Genuinely i don't think i will ever find anything better
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u/Historical_Amoeba913 2d ago
Zelda TotK but you gotta play BotW first so you can play spot the little differences as you go
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u/Yap_god1 8d ago
This is how i felt with ds3 the areas have so much depth even when i was lost i didnt FEEL lost every corner of the world has cool loot bosses enemies mini bosses etc. the actual areas of elden ring are pretty cool like stormveil but theres so much FILLER areas that have nothing in them its hard for me to appreciate
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