10 Video Games You Didn't Realise Were Originally Open World
7. Dead Island 2
As the original Dead Island was an open world game, it was a reasonable expectation that its sequel would also be, but when Dead Island 2 finally came out in 2023, that wasn't quite the case.
The game's scope was constrained to a number of smaller, more confined hubs which players could explore, and though Dead Island 2 was a surprisingly fun time given its hellish development, it's little surprise that the end product was very different from the original vision.
The earlier versions of the game developed by Yager Development and Sumo Digital - before Dambuster Studios finally came aboard and rebooted the project - were far more of a card-carrying open world game set across the state of California rather than mere hubs of Los Angeles.
And while Dead Island 2's eventual linearity left some players disappointed, it in the very least allowed Dambuster to control the game's scope and get it out the door after so many years in development.
Best of all, it went on to become a surprise success story, scoring solid reviews and selling 4 million units to date.