10 Tiny But Excellent Open World Maps In Video Games

7. Arkham City - Batman: Arkham City

In order to be the baddest and coolest guy protecting an entire city, you need to feel like you have a lay of the land and presence in said city and Batman absolutely gets that in this surprisingly modestly-sized open world.

Arkham City is a giant prison enclosure that exists as a walled off district of Gotham City.

Given it’s offering up an open world playground for Batman to stroll, glide, and grapple his way around, it would be easy for it to feel too small given our main man gets around town pretty quickly. This would be the case if there weren’t so many reasons to stop and smell the roses. Or stop and pick up the riddler trophies and knock a criminal’s lights out in this case. The world is fantastically designed, a joy to explore, there’s so much to do, and it feels like loving detail has been poured into every single feature. It may be bigger than its predecessor Arkham Asylum which could also easily occupy a spot on this list, but it still feels densely packed and satisfyingly conquerable.

It’s tricky to nail an open world that actually makes you feel like the world’s greatest detective but if anyone was right for the job, it’s absolutely Rocksteady.