10 Greatest Open World Games Of All Time

The Souls series was practically begging to be turned into an open-world game, as the series has always skirted along the edges of that genre since its inception. Elden Ring takes that flirting with the open-world genre to its logical extreme.

While Demon's and Dark Souls kept themselves to a series of winding mazes specially built to feel bigger and more complex than they might actually be, Elden Ring is a true blue, card-carrying open-world game, and it's one of the best.

Obviously, since Elden Ring is an open-world game, the player has a lot more variety in how they move around, such as - at long last - an actual jump button. Don't think for a second, however, that this makes the game easier. In fact, don't be shocked if you just randomly run into a super boss in your first few minutes of wandering around and get immediately atomized.

On top of capturing the danger that the Soulsborne series is known for, Elden Ring's lore and story are some of the most fascinating in gaming history, with the entire narrative centering around the player solving a murder mystery. Except the murder victim is, well, the entire world.

There are factions to join, optional bosses to fight, cute multi-armed eldritch doll witches to smooch, and in true Soulsborne fashion, the player is given naught but the gentlest of nudges in the direction of any of them.