Zelda, Elden Ring and more: 12 open-world games you need to know

The greatest strength of open world games is that they immerse you in fantastic worlds full of freedom and adventure. Here we show you 12 games that belong to the absolute best representatives of the genre – from Elden Ring to The Legend of Zelda.

The best open world games of all time

For several years, open-world games have offered players fantastic freedom and huge areas to explore – peppered with adventures, challenges, collectibles and sometimes more, sometimes less exciting side missions and contracts. The genre has some of the most interesting worlds in video game history and numerous open-world games are now among the best games of all time. We select the 12 best representatives of this genus for you.

Traveling through Skyrim in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is a very special feeling. The world appears alive in a way that few other games have been able to. The majestic landscapes add up with the almost unimaginably extensive lore and the countless NPCs have contributed to the fact that players have been losing themselves in the open-world RPG since 2011.

For car fans and racing enthusiasts, Forza Horizon 5 offers the largest open world in the series to date: you can race through the different landscapes of Mexico at full speed while driving numerous different races, unlocking new cars and customizing and dressing your avatar according to your wishes. With great graphics and strong gameplay, Forza Horizon 5 is an open-world highlight of a special kind.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was little less than a revolution when it was released. It’s a fantastic open-world adventure that, unlike many other games, doesn’t dictate anything to you discover the freedom and rules of the world for yourself leaves. The adventure requires curiosity and a willingness to experiment and rewards you with fascinating landscapes full of lush green meadows, snow-capped mountains and lava-covered rocks as well as numerous quests and collectibles.

In Ghost of Tsushima you must protect your homeland from a Mongol invasion as the last surviving samurai. While the gameplay is reminiscent of many other open-world games, the PlayStation blockbuster cuts through the almost poetic beauty of his world from comparable games. Away from mini-maps and waymarkers, the game gives you the freedom to explore the fantastically animated island of Tsushima, visit shrines, weaken Mongol bases and pet foxes as you wish.

Fallout 3 lets you explore a post-apocalyptic world that has interesting stories to tell around every nook and cranny. While the sequel has also garnered a lot of buzz from players and critics alike, Fallout 3 works a little bit better – both as a first-person shooter and as a tactical RPG, in which you deliberately shoot off the limbs of your opponents.

The sci-fi adventure from developer Guerrilla Games is based on a graphically beautifully implemented open world with diverse and unique characters and varied opponents. The open world in the Horizon games manages to Bringing nature and high-tech into harmony and thus offers a completely unique charm that no other game has. With Aloy, you can explore this world to your heart’s content, finding exciting challenges and missions to save humanity throughout. While Zero Dawn has already created an impressive world, in the sequel Forbidden West it will be expanded and filled with even more activities.

While Rockstar has hit the mark with pretty much every entry in the Grand Theft Auto series so far – we’ll skip the release of the remaster trilogy here – is the success of GTA 5 is simply unprecedented. The open-world blockbuster drops you in the lawless city of Los Santos and offers you a gigantic sandbox full of activities. Along with unforgettable characters, varied missions and countless customization options, you can jump into the fray offline or online and experience the normal GTA chaos up close.

Minecraft has grown into a real pop culture phenomenon in recent years – a massive brand where pretty much anything is possible. This fits perfectly with the underlying game, because in the open world of Minecraft you can let off steam completely freely and according to your mood, create brilliant buildings, farm resources and hunt monsters. This world definitely doesn’t put any blocks in the way of your imagination.

With Red Dead Redemption 2, the desire for realism in triple-A games has reached a new level. You slip into the boots of outlaw Arthur Morgan and roam North America just as the days of the Wild West are coming to an end. A gigantic open world is open to you to explore, in which you anytime between mundane pastime and influential story missions can decide. For example, you can plan raids, go hunting or fishing, or play a game of cards in the saloon. You can spend your days in the massive and realistic open world exactly as you see fit.

The Assassin’s Creed series has already produced some impressive open worlds – and it’s purely a matter of taste which of them you liked the most. Although Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla offers an even larger world, the choice here falls on Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. The Adventures in Ancient Greece is simply beautiful to look at and has such fantastically mesmerizing landscapes up its sleeve that playing it feels half like time travel, half like a Mediterranean vacation. However, the side quests and assignments fall a bit short compared to other open-world games in this series of images – the individual activities are too repetitive.

With Elden Ring, FromSoftware combines the tough combat mechanics of Dark Souls with a real open world. You can therefore freely decide which fearsome opponents you would rather avoid and which you will face bravely. In addition the in-between littered with messages and fragmented stories, which you can piece together into a fascinating mosaic through thorough exploration. The fantasy RPG also convinces with enchanted landscapes that won’t let you go long after the most difficult battles.

No Man’s Sky had a disastrous release in 2016 – the sci-fi game was missing various features that had been confidently announced in advance. Since then, however, the developers have consistently developed and expanded the gigantic open-world game – and now you can actually play in No Man’s Sky explore the depths of space and procedurally generated planets, discover new alien species, mine resources and trade them. After the bumpy beginnings, a trip into the universe of No Man’s Sky is now definitely worth the trip.