10 Greatest Open World Games Of All Time
9. Borderlands 2
The most famous entry in Gearbox's beloved looter shooter franchise, Borderlands 2 is a MASSIVE game, even by today's standards. Even without the nightmarish amount of DLC that can be bought for this one game, the world of Pandora is one of the most well-realized settings in gaming history.
The planet of Pandora is a harsh, brutal, just barely liveable world filled with the kind of wildlife that makes Australia look like...well, any country that ISN'T Australia. But while the first Borderlands gave players a good introduction to its brutal ecosystem and the volatile societies of people forced to survive on it by the corporations that dumped them there, 2 explores it to a degree that leaves the first game in the dust. it's no wonder that when you ask someone about this series, they immediately jump to the second one.
One would think the looter shooter elements would detract from the gameplay, but the way the game ties the weapon variety back into the world-building, giving every gun a specific arms manufacturing corporation to belong to - each coming with its own unique gimmick - was a stroke of genius.
And even if the guns you get for quests are hilariously inferior to what you're currently packing, like any good open-world game, the side quests are still worth it, often packaging tiny world-building details or character arcs into hilarious side activities.