Summary
- Older games were simpler, with minimal dialogue and easy controls.
- Modern open-world games like GTA 5 & The Witcher 3 are dialogue-heavy.
- Newer games like Cyberpunk 2077 & RDR 2 offer immersive dialogue experiences.
Some people miss the days when games could direct the player without needing to put it into words. At worst, they had to explain the controls in the manual, and at best players could pick out what was what through the game's design alone. But that was also back when controllers had two action buttons or so. It didn't exactly take much brainpower to figure out what did what, compared to the 8+ they have today.
Best Open-World Games With Minimal Dialogue
An open-world game doesn't necessarily need a bunch of dialogue, and these titles prove that.
In turn, games have gotten bigger, offering larger worlds filled with more characters to interact with, and longer stories to keep the player engaged. All of which need dialogue, be they simple text boxes or voice lines, and some games offer more of it than others. If players want to dive into the chattiest open-world games around (or avoid them), they should keep an eye out for these titles.
8 Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
A Hideo Kojima Game
Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain
- Released
- September 1, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
The Metal Gear Solid games are infamous for their lengthy cutscenes that cut into the gameplay. Though, ironically, its first open-world title, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, has the opposite problem. It offers plenty of gameplay time, as players can roam Afghanistan and the Zaire-Angola border as long as they like. But its story was left lacking thanks to its messy development. That doesn’t mean it’s light on dialogue, though.
There are plenty of audio tapes to grab on the field or unlock through the game. Then players occasionally need to listen in on NPC conversations for intel, or to call the Codec for gameplay tips. That is, if Ocelot and Miller didn’t give them enough chatter whenever an enemy breathes their way (“Snake, watch out! The enemy sniper…”). It may be mild for an MGS game, but it’s still an MGS game.
7 Yakuza 5
A Giant Game With A Lot To Say
Yakuza 5
- Released
- December 8, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
When Yakuza/Like a Dragon fans think of a game that relies too much on dialogue, they might think of that bit in Yakuza 3 where Defense Minister Tamiya reveals the whole plot through an interminable series of visual novel-esque text boxes. Others might point out Yakuza 0's slow start, which is more varied, but still walks the player through the basics, whether they're newbies or veterans. But Yakuza 5 is dialogue-heavy just through its sheer size.
It’s basically four to five smaller Yakuza games wrapped together, as Kiryu, Saejima, Haruka, Akiyama, and Shinada have their own campaigns, substories, and side-activities, some of which require picking the right things to say over its combat. By the time players are trying to figure out the best time to pick Haruka's responses in the Manzai minigame, they'll have likely forgotten the whole street-racing subplot from Kiryu's chapter at the start of the game.
6 Grand Theft Auto 5
Attack People Verbally & Physically
Grand Theft Auto 5
- Released
- September 17, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar North
- Franchise
- Grand Theft Auto
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action
- Platform(s)
- Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Unlike Yakuza/Like a Dragon, the Grand Theft Auto games weren’t as big on story. That doesn't mean they had no plots or story beats worth mentioning, as the games have provided all sorts of colorful characters and narrative twists, like GTA4's dour case of an ex-soldier's past coming back to haunt him, or GTA: San Andreas’ tale of betrayal. It just meant they played second fiddle to racing across the city and causing chaos.
Grand Theft Auto: Every Game’s Story, Ranked
The best Grand Theft Auto storylines find ways to complement the chaos for which the series is best known rather than simply facilitate it.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is the same way, but by giving players three characters to switch between, it gives players three times the banter to work with. Michael, Trevor, and Franklin have different interactions with each other, different supporting casts who occasionally cross over with each other, a multitude of missions, and the option to bark out extra dialogue/verbal abuse at Los Santos' citizens.
5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Requires A Sharp Tongue & A Sharp Sword
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- Released
- February 4, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Warhorse Studios
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Action-Adventure, Open-World
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
There are more ways to be reliant on dialogue than just having lots of cutscenes and textboxes. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and its predecessor still offer all that, as it takes more than just brute force to reinstate King Wenceslaus IV to the throne of Bohemia. The game will speech-check players as well as test their strength, and Henry of Skalitz has more than a few things to say.
Many of the game's encounters give the player multiple responses via a dialogue tree, but they'll get different options available to them, depending on how good Henry’s stats are. If his powers of persuasion, intimidation, and/or coercion are too low, he won’t get far. As a result, it makes for a very dialogue-heavy game that can be too much for players who just want to hack other knights in battle.
4 Fallout 4
Become The Wit Of The Wasteland
Fallout 4
- Released
- November 10, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Bethesda
- Franchise
- Fallout
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
KCD didn’t invent the concept of speech checks and stats. If anything, it’s been more associated with the Fallout games, which let players use the gift of the gab to avoid difficult encounters back in their tactical RPG days. That is, if they had the right stats to open that option. Or they could make them purposefully low to get different, disrespectful lines in turn.
This was carried over to the open-world games, where Fallout: New Vegas gained a Guinness World Record for the most lines of dialogue in a video game at 65,000. This has since been exceeded, with Fallout 4 having 111,000, with a good chunk of that being the different voices players can pick for their character. Which makes people wonder how long its script would've been if it didn't limit their responses to four options max per encounter.
3 Cyberpunk 2077
Worldbuilding Through Word-Building
Cyberpunk 2077
- Released
- December 10, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- CD Projekt Red
- Franchise
- Cyberpunk
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
Some people don’t mind overly verbose games, so long as the dialogue works for the story, character development, etc. Others would rather skip all that and just stick to the gameplay. It’s easy enough to do that in GTA and MGS5. The Yakuza games offer a story-less "Premium Adventure" mode where players can roam around the city with at least a touch less dialogue than the main campaigns.
Best Quotes From Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 has some amazing quotes that showcase the brilliance of dialogue and characters, whether emotional or funny.
Even the story-heavy Cyberpunk 2077 will open after its first act, letting players tackle main missions, side missions, and other activities at their leisure. But it’s still a dialogue-heavy game, with plenty of walk & talk cutscenes where all the player can do is listen in or skip past them when possible. For some, it's all part of the experience, helping to immerse players in its futuristic world and characters. For others, it’s a bit of a slog to get through.
2 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Filling The Woods With Words
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Released
- May 19, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- CD Projekt Red
- Franchise
- The Witcher
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
The Witcher games are some of the best fantasy-based open-world games around, and the chattiest too. They could rival the novels they're based on, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt having 450,000 lines of dialogue, 70,000 of which belong to its moody lead, Geralt of Rivia. Much of it is tied to the main quest, where he and Yennefer must discover why the titular Wild Hunt is pursuing his former apprentice.
But there are also plenty of side quests and activities to tackle, some of which require picking the right responses at the right time, like in "The Play's The Thing." It annoyed some players, who found the game was 30% gameplay and 70% talking. This is after editing too, as the developers cut out much of the 900 hours' worth of recorded dialogue, and the quests they were tied to, for space and pace reasons.
1 Red Dead Redemption 2
It's Not Only The Brooks That Are Babbling
Red Dead Redemption 2
- Released
- October 26, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
Following up on the success of Red Dead Redemption was a tall order. They just needed to put together a follow-up that was bigger and broader. RDR1 took six years and about $100 million to make. The eventual sequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, took seven years and between $370-540 million to make Arthur Morgan ride around the Wild West as both it and the Van der Linde gang declined.
It took that much time and money to have five fictional states' worth of land to explore, which meant there were more players in its plot, more activities to dabble in, and other features that needed dialogue to explain the gist of things. Most of it changes, too, as players get different lines depending on how much Honor they have. So, if players wanted to hear all 500,000 lines of dialogue in the game, they’d have their work cut out for them.
7 Open-World Games With The Best Dialogue Systems
A good dialogue system can significantly enhance immersion in an open-world game. Here's which games absolutely nailed it.