10 Unique Open-World Games With Awesome Mechanics

This article is brought to you in partnership with Biomutant! Coming May 25th, 2021 on PS4 XBox One, and PC.

Video game fans have enjoyed no shortage of great open-world experiences over the past decade.

Once a relatively rare genre, the now vast technical capabilities of the humble console means it's now rarer to see a game release without a sandbox at the centre of it. While that's resulted in players being able to lose hours at a time in fully explorable worlds, it's also made it a bit difficult to pull something truly unique out from the crowd.

Of course, uniqueness isn't everything - an original idea needs to be backed up with solid mechanics, interesting characters, and often a great story - but it is satisfying when something truly creative comes along and steals your attention. Far too often have gamers been greeted with a stunning canvas on which to paint, but given far few brushes to ever really feel creative.

But that's not a problem that the following games have. They're all instantly accessible, but each one brings something new to the table, with a specific focus on awesome mechanics.

We shouldn't still be talking about Dying Light in 2021.

This was a zombie open world game released at the saturation point for both zombie and open world games. Everything was stacked against it - not least the fact that the developer's previous title, Dead Island, didn't blow people away - and yet here we are, years later, still singing its praises.

Why? Well a huge reason is the parkour system.

See, Dying Light isn't your regular zombie brawler. The player is capable of free-running all around the open world, evading undead hordes on rooftops and making quick escapes when special infected turn up to ruin your day.

It feels awesome to indulge in, as it's one of the few first-person games to really nail the sense of locomotion and momentum of parkour from that perspective.

Throw on top a dense city sandbox, satisfyingly punchy combat and a risk-reward element where staying out after sunset sees near-impossible-to-defeat zombies spawn to hunt you down, and Dying Light still stands as a unique instalment in an otherwise generic sub-genre.