The experience of open world games are broad, extensive worlds to explore providing many secrets, challenges and immersion in endless adventures.
If you’re looking for some of the best open world games on PC in 2024, then look no further, here are some of the best open world games on PC that really show the appeal and depth of this genre.
Best Open World Games on PC
1. Elden Ring
Mysterious RPG Elden Ring takes place in the alien lands between, where you’re likely to spot, or get eaten by lots of weird things and ancient ruins.
Elden Ring is unlike many open world games as it calls you back onto the main path to secret dungeons and breathtaking landscapes. They roam on foot or as their spectral steed, facing the dangers and the ability to either be clever or creative with character builds.
The game is set up to be an adaptable one, whether you want to wield a sword or attempt to cast spells or even cross over into hybrid builds. Elden Ring’s version of open-world is complicated, making the exploration worth it and daring you to tame its hostile or attractive nature.
2. Horizon Forbidden West
Inspired by the dangerous excitement of the natural world, Horizon Forbidden West takes players into a stunningly diverse open world of redwood forests and parched deserts, post apocalyptical California and more.
The game takes place a thousand years after an AI driven apocalypse, uniting human tribal societies which suddenly have to fend for themselves with robotic wildlife that have evolved to help fill an ecological void.
Also reminiscent of cities such as San Francisco and Las Vegas, players hunt robotic dinosaurs in the environment. Vibrant water features and a dynamic day-night cycle are added to the landscape. Visually rich with a world that really acts as an open playground for players to get lost exploring the past and present.
3. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
Although Vampire: Masquerade – Bloodlines has a much smaller open world, the depth is in the dark atmospheric world. Players blend amongst a multitude of spirits, freaks and indeed themselves as they traverse through a satirical take on Los Angeles in Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Chinatown.
It’s got moral choices (sort of) and can be completed using a variety of methods, from seduction to stealth to combat. It’s hardly an open world, but Bloodlines’ story and worldbuilding are strong, creating an intriguing, supernatural lore filled playground that follows memorable characters.
4. Dragon’s Dogma 2
A fantasy world of dragons, ogres and bandits like the cult classic is improved upon in Dragon’s Dogma 2. Unlike most RPGs, travel in Dragon’s Dogma 2 requires proper planning, as you’re much more likely to find yourself in conflict with ‘dangerous creatures’ who come out during the night.
Players have to decide whether they can take the route, considering, for example, it’s safe, or whether they have the resources necessary to reach the furthest point.
Even if they choose to travel by foot or play it safe and pay for a cart, players never know what black eyes are going to con them on the golf course.
The really quite expansive nature of this game, a world that demands strategy and preparation, is delivered with this attention to travel mechanics feeling truly expansive, as it has really created a world to explore.
5. American Truck Simulator
American Truck Simulator is not your ordinary open world game, but it takes you to get that open road experience throughout a concentrated area of the western United States.
It’s playing Americana on famous highways, small towns and scenic landscapes as players haul loads. You had to explore off the main routes offering touristic spots that make each drive more than delivery nothing.
For those that enjoy a taste of open world freedom and adventure on the road, American Truck Simulator is a meditative experience with lots of beautiful scenery to explore in side routes.
6. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain combines open-world exploration with tactical stealth, and is a powerful mix. Set in broad deserts, there are many options for faking into enemy camps.
It can be one makes a stealthy push on horseback, it can be all stealthy tactics, or it can be getting heavy artillery in. The game’s open world design encourages creativity allowing players as much creativity as possible to try a new strategy or tool on each mission.
Its sandbox mechanics and expressive gameplay gives you the world of Metal Gear Solid V open to you, and every encounter can be a puzzle waiting to be solved.
Conclusion
The variety of the best open world games of 2024 show the strength of the genre’s evolution, from conventional RPG enclaves to strange adventures like those so found in American Truck Simulator. Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West have massive, lovely detailed worlds that invite you out into unknown areas.
Meanwhile, Vampire: Atmospheric, choice driven experience with smaller world is what The Masquerade – Bloodlines offers, and Dragon’s Dogma 2 focuses on perilous journey through strategic travel mechanics.
American Truck Simulator shows American landscape – highways as open, meditative space of all dimensions. Metal Gear Solid V finally merges immersive simulation with stealth, and in its open world, players can play around. And each of these games does it with a different open world design angle, ultimately bringing exploration and player choice to the front.
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