RPGs that are "true" open-world

[pOcHa]

A working definition of Open World:

• Constant scale relative to the player-character(s), for the entire overworld
• Continuous movement through the overworld
• Seamless map spanning the entire overworld
• Sizable enough that it can be considered an overworld
• Individual character(s), rather than a vehicle simulator
• Non-linearity, to at least some degree

Some Open World RPGs:

• The Faery Tale Adventure (1986), created by one person in seven months
• Times of Lore (1988), the only imitator of FTA
• The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (1996), but self-defeating since fast travel is always used between map locations
• Faery Tale Adventure II: Halls of the Dead (1997), by the creator of FTA with a much larger team
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002), established the 3D Open World RPG
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006), massive decline from Morrowind but still Open World
• Fallout 3 (2008), Oblivion with guns
• Fallout: New Vegas (2010), Oblivion with guns and skill-checks
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), further decline from Morrowind
• The Witcher III (2015), close enough though the entire Open World is not contiguous (one very large zone, one large zone, two small zones, and one tiny interior space)
• Fallout 4 (2015), Skyrim with guns
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018)
• Kenshi (2018)
• Outward (2019), close enough though the entire Open World is not contiguous (four sizable zones)
• Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), except it's based around one city almost all of which is just for display (lacking interior spaces)
• Elden Ring (2022), Action RPG meets Open World
• Dragon’s Dogma 2 (2024), Action RPG meets Open World
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (2025), presumably

I agree with this list but why you omitting Gothic 1-3 or any other PB game?

hate to agree with BruceGPT - but because Zion Duke of Genocideville is a filthy console peasant

 

[ERYFKRAD]

filthy console peasant

Only if the amiga and amstrad and what not count as consoles.

 

[pOcHa]

filthy console peasant

Only if the amiga and amstrad and what not count as consoles.

had amstrad "schneider" cpc myself - but who used amiga and commodore for anything besides gaming?

 

[deuxhero]

Gothic 1's final dungeon isn't accessible from start (short of clipping glitches). Gothic 2 needs a quest to access the expansion area.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Ultima 3 & 4 don't count?
I guess not Questron nor LOA or LoDS. There are a few minor hoops in Questron to get to dark continent. LOA, maybe a few to get to final castle & shit but that is coins related. LODS, I forget. U4 just a few items for last dungeon. U3 you can get everywhere but killing exodus you'll still need cards and mark of force. Be painful without mark of fire. A ship might spawn inside beyond serpent so you don't need snake mark snd a dude finished game with no mark of kings (that seemed impossible imho).

U1-2 too much shit you have to gather, U5+ same.

Wizard's crown, you technically could but would die. ED, locked. Shard of spring can't hit the final area without a few things. Demon's Winter, I can't recall.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Magic Candle 1, 2, 3, Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds (mostly)

Interesting how so many classic RPGs were open world, no? Yet codexers complain like it's a modern fad.

 

[ColossusCimmerian]

Interesting how so many classic RPGs were open world, no? Yet codexers complain like it's a modern fad.

Since Morrowind, before there was no open world

 

[deuxhero]

If you count the final areas of the expansions, even Morrowind doesn't count. Daggerfall only counts because of a major glitch that lets you get into the final dungeon. Really, while Skyrim's locking dungeons with unique shouts until you go through some random guild questline is a unique abomination, games that truly lack any restrictions on where you can go and aren't tiny or pure proc/random gen are super rare.

 

[Average Manatee]

Geneforge games? I think you can get to at least every major area from the start on 1 if not also the dungeons. Later games went on a downwards trend in freedom.

 

[luj1]

Some criteria:

• All areas of the game must be accessible from the very start of the game.

I know only of Morrowind and Kenshi which are absolute in this regard

Gothic has some limitations

EDIT: oh and Call of Chernobyl mod for Stalker

 

[Dark Souls II]

Morrowind is the only open world game to ever exist.

EDIT: oh and Call of Chernobyl mod for Stalker

No, you still have to disable the brain scorcher to be able to go to many areas.

 

[luj1]

Morrowind is the only open world game to ever exist.

Is it?

What about Skyrim? Breath of the Wild? Kenshi?

 

[Dark Souls II]

I think the complexity of various modes of moving in the world also contributes to the degree of openness. Fallouts 1, 2 and NV are quite open because you can theoretically just decide to go to a place and go there (you will probably die). But how freely you can actually move through the map?

Morrowind has numerous independent modes of moving through the world map. You have silt striders (the typical fast travel between cities that most games have), guild guides (only between mage guilds in cities that have mage guilds), ships, levitation, mark/recall, divine intervention, almsivi intervention etc. All of these have their own different rules, and you have to combine them to move through the world efficiently, but together they give you an absolute degree of freedom that makes Morrowind an absolute open world, compared to other open world games. What other game allows you to mark any point on the map that you desire, and then teleport to it instantly from any other point on the map? You can even enchant an item with +1000 fortify acrobatics and jump from one side of the map to another. Nothing even comes close to the absolute openworldness of Morrowind.

 

[NecroLord]

I think the complexity of various modes of moving in the world also contributes to the degree of openness. Fallouts 1, 2 and NV are quite open because you can theoretically just decide to go to a place and go there (you will probably die). But how freely you can actually move through the map?

Morrowind has numerous independent modes of moving through the world map. You have silt striders (the typical fast travel between cities that most games have), guild guides (only between mage guilds in cities that have mage guilds), ships, levitation, mark/recall, divine intervention, almsivi intervention etc. All of these have their own different rules, and you have to combine them to move through the world efficiently, but together they give you an absolute degree of freedom that makes Morrowind an absolute open world, compared to other open world games. What other game allows you to mark any point on the map that you desire, and then teleport to it instantly from any other point on the map? You can even enchant an item with +1000 fortify acrobatics and jump from one side of the map to another. Nothing even comes close to the absolute openworldness of Morrowind.

What other games allow you to finish them in merely a couple of minutes?
Fallout - Just go to Mariposa and blow up the Vats, then kill the Master. VOILA! You have finished the game.
Of course, that is not exactly the way to play the game and, by extension, an RPG, but that's what an "Open" RPG is.
You coming up with ingenious ways to accomplish things.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

In terms of absolute limitations on all travel besides combat difficulty, just having locked doors anywhere would fail that criteria.

Open world = player driven gameplay. The player decides where to go, what to do, when to do it, etc.

 

[Average Manatee]

In terms of absolute limitations on all travel besides combat difficulty, just having locked doors anywhere would fail that criteria.

If an obstacle is character skill at lock picking, or the ability to find dynamite, it's still open world. It isn't when there's only one key in the world that can open it that can't be stolen because it doesn't even exist on a character until you finish a specific quest

 

[luj1]

What about Wasteland 1? Should be absolute open world

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Magic Candle 1, 2, 3, Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds (mostly)

Interesting how so many classic RPGs were open world, no? Yet codexers complain like it's a modern fad.

Moving abstractly around a map is not equivalent to moving directly through an overworld in an Open World game. This is confusing two entirely different ways of representing the "world" in a game.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Magic Candle 1, 2, 3, Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds (mostly)

Interesting how so many classic RPGs were open world, no? Yet codexers complain like it's a modern fad.

Moving abstractly around a map is not equivalent to moving directly through an overworld in an Open World game. This is confusing two entirely different ways of representing the "world" in a game.

I agree but your definition is shit and it's muddying the waters when I'm trying to find games about non linear exploration. Who gives a fuck if there are area transitions or abstract map movement. The important thing is the freedom to fuck off and do whatever you want instead of being forced to do something specific every 5 minutes.

Having giant empty fields to stand around in before having to go to the one spot on the planet that isn't the exact same as everywhere else because it's where the only quest starts is not an open world in my book.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Non-linearity and Open World are not synonyms, although the former should be considered a component of the latter. If you just want games with non-linear exploration, you can write that, and have an extremely wide selection from CRPGs.

Ground-level map for Legend of Grimrock II, which is not Open World, but has considerable non-linearity in overall structure after the first two areas.

 

[Damned Registrations]

You can't have an open world without a world, and empty terrain populated with level scaled monsters does not constitute a world.

Lets do a hypothetical. We'll make a game about a ring world.

Game A: The world is dotted with dungeons, cities, various impassable terrain you'd need a vehicle to get past, a transport network that teleports you from site to site in a dozen or so places, and a small nation surrounded by walls that denies you entrance until you've done a quest to earn their trust. Unique quests and treasures all over the place, with multiple ways to reach many of them, but some locked behind various quests or dungeons. The game uses something like Fallout 1's system for overworld travel. Enemies vary by location and don't scale to you in any way. The dimensions of the world are something like 20x200 tiles on the overworld.

Game B: The overworld has a single city where the only unique questline takes place, and is otherwise filled with fields, forests and hills, all of which contain the same monsters which are scaled to your level, but with cosmetic differences between them. You can explore the world on foot wherever you want, ala Fallout 3. There are also MMO style quests of the 'kill X enemies of Y type or at Z location' randomly placed around the world, and they all reward the player with random level scaled loot drawn from the same pool as every other quest. The dimensions of the world are something like 2x2000 arbitrary distance units, you can basically see both edges of the ring at once while in the middle and circling it would take a hundred hours IRL.

Which of these is really an open world game? Because to me the second one is a hiking simulator.

 

[JarlFrank]

Gothic 1's final dungeon isn't accessible from start (short of clipping glitches). Gothic 2 needs a quest to access the expansion area.

Gothic 2's mine valley is also only accessible in later chapters, not right away.

 

[anvi]

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is an enormous open world. You can even fly around it on a pegasus or griffin or something. All dungeons are just there, no loading screens. They planned to make it completely seamless and if you have a fast SSD then it mostly is. Huge world too and some great content and gameplay. Lots of unfinished stuff though.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Which of these is really an open world game? Because to me the second one is a hiking simulator.

Faery Tale Adventure (1986) is a hiking simulator, and it's also the first Open World RPG.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

All areas of the game must be accessible from the very start of the game.

If you interpret this literally, then you should exclude any game that has at least a room with a locked door with a key that you don't have in your inventory at the start of the game. I don't think this is a good criteria.

A better criteria could be that, when you access/open new areas these are interconnected with old areas and old areas are still accessible and not secluded.