15 Best Open-World Video Games Of The Decade (So Far)

12. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood might have been a better AC game than Black Flag, but it was in tearing off around the Caribbean, slaying all sorts of creatures along the way, speccing your ship into the king of the seas and offing targets with your hidden blade that really made this a phenomenal open-world game. So good in fact, it managed to save the series from the brink following the godawful glitch-filled mess that was AC III, and although Unity and (as far as we can tell) Syndicate are dragging AC back into the doldrums, Black Flag remains the best next-gen Assassin's Creed money can buy. By ditching the modern day plot outside of doing a genius fourth wall-break and essentially making you an Ubisoft employee playing Assassin's Creed inside Assassin's Creed, the focus here was on exploration and discovery. It's the perfect pirate simulator; one that rewards capturing and plundering other ships with a solid crafting system, some intense ship-based combat where all involved could be decimated by a tidal wave or tornado at any moment - and a character who just wants to horde as many doubloons as possible. A great Assassin's Creed game? Not really, but a great open-world game? Oh yes.