10 Most Beautiful Open World Video Games You Must Play

One of the finest role-playing games of its day, Horizon Zero Dawn follows a hunter named Aloy on her quest to scale through a post-apocalyptic world overrun by powerful machines and learn more about her past.

This world is absolutely gorgeous, with the Decima game engine that was originally used for Killzone Shadow Fall altered for Zero Dawn. Anthropologists were consulted to ensure the world looked as accurately post-apocalyptic as possible, which lends the whole game with a real sense of being almost out of world.

"Risky" was the word game director Mathijs de Jonge used to describe the concept of Horizon Zero Dawn when it was first pitched, and it's an accurate way to describe the entire feel of the game when running around its open world.

For an open world that really captures the escapist bliss that only video games can provide, Horizon Zero Dawn should be every gamer's go-to.