10 Best Open-World Video Games

Open world games used to be a rare treat, only released once in a blue moon, but now they’re coming out of the floodgates left, right and centre.

There’s plenty of choice, but only finite time and money. The genre can eat up a lot of your time, so eventually you're going to have to choose what to play and what to skip. To that end, I'm aiming to highlight some big name games, but I'll also shine a light on a few titles that you might not be aware of.

Every single game on this list is worth both your time and money, offering varied experiences that all make use of the best qualities of open world titles. There are plenty of tropes that we associate with the genre too, whether that be climbing towers to fill in maps or hunting for a near-endless amount of collectibles.

Whilst a good number of games have these and more, all of the games on this list take the cliches of the genre and make them their own. The hugely talented creators of each of these titles have taken the science of game development and turned it in to an art form.

Minecraft is a fairly literal version of an open world. You can go in any direction, do anything you want to do and build whatever you fancy with very few rules. It’s the complete freedom of agency that makes Mojang's creation so great, not to mention the fact that every new world is different from the last.

In most open world games you’ll run out of content eventually, but the main focus here is the lack of solid content, you get to create your own adventure.

It might seem like an excuse for not providing a legitimate story or objective, but it’s quite the opposite. Minecraft is absolutely packed with things to do:

You can set out on a quest to find treasure, or venture out to defeat deadly enemies. It’s even better when you take the fun online, playing with your friends to mine, build and explore together.

Minecraft may be a huge, open sandbox, but it never feels empty.