10 Terrifying Secrets In Open World Games

Alongside the breathtaking scenery and extensive list of side activities for players to complete, developers also like to fill their open world games with a vast array of secrets and Easter Eggs.

Whether they’re tucked away in hard-to-reach areas that sometimes require breaking free of the game’s boundaries to find or hiding them in plain sight, players can expect to find dozens of small hidden details and references if they look hard enough.

Although many of the secrets that players will find during their time exploring these vast and sprawling worlds are normally light-hearted jokes that pay homage to a piece of pop culture or a small in-joke that has to do with another of the developer’s games, not every Easter Egg that players stumble upon is an especially pleasant discovery.

Sometimes developers will include some genuinely frightening pieces of hidden content into their open worlds that players won’t expect to find. These can range from harrowing pieces of worldbuilding, mysterious encounters that raise chilling questions, or some good old fashioned jump scares.

Whatever form these secrets come in, though, players may wish that they never found them in the first place. 

When players get access to their spaceship in Starfield, they’re free to traverse the stars and discover the countless wonders and secrets that this game has in store.

Being a massive RPG from Bethesda, a large chunk of these surprises are Easter Eggs. Whether these are references to some of the developer's other titles or pop culture juggernauts like The Office and The Shawshank Redemption, there are plenty of amusing details that players can come across during their interstellar adventure.

Not all these secrets are light-hearted, though, with one genuinely unnerving homage to Dead Space being tucked away in a far-off star system.

Travel to Schrodinger III within the Schrodinger system and players will find The Colander, an abandoned starship floating lifelessly amongst the stars. With no option to hail the crew, things already seem wrong with this location, with events only getting creepier once players board Starfield’s version of the Ishimura.

Through reading the ship's logs, players can uncover the sinister events that happened onboard. Explore further, and they'll eventually face the monstrous creature responsible for massacring the entire crew.

With a fearsome power level of 85, this Necromorph-like creature is likely to make short work of any unsuspecting adventurers.