10 Open-World Games That Punish You For Rushing The Main…

Open-world games often have some of the longest-running storylines in the entire gaming industry, sending players on epic quests that can take upwards of 30 hours to complete, even when they are focused on the main story. However, in many cases, players will actually feel punished for choosing to rush through the narrative, whether due to being underleveled later on or by missing out on some important pieces of information that can only be found in the side content.

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By Evan Regan

Some games don't mind if players want to breeze through the protagonist's adventure, with a few even forcing players down that route, but in other cases, they are actively harmed by doing so. This is mainly to encourage players to explore further and see the rest of the world, giving them upgrades and other rewards to incentivize experiencing everything, as well as offering up plenty of additional quests to follow that can make the world feel just a bit more enjoyable to play in.

Elden Ring

Underleveled Before You Know It

Damage and difficulty spikes at multiple points.
Missable upgrade options early on.

Elden Ring is one of the purest examples of a video game that doesn't want the player to just rush through the main content all at once. Instead, it actively encourages them to explore. First, the game does not place clear quest markers to follow, and second, it floods the rest of the map with points of interest that are all filled with loot that any playstyle can benefit from.

Also, players who decide to skip past the endless dungeons and secondary quests will quickly find themselves struggling to keep up with the insane damage output and health of some of the later bosses. Even the first few can be a challenge for underleveled players, yet because of how well the game is designed, doing a bit of extra exploration never feels like a chore and instead feels like just another chance to witness video game greatness.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Walking Past The Most Interesting Stories

Punished in the sense of missing out on great content.
Powerful weapons sit just outside the main path.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt rewards thorough exploration and actively punishes haste through both mechanics and narrative structure. Main quests frequently assume familiarity with gameplay elements like alchemy and the resistances and weaknesses of specific monsters, information that can only be learned and mastered through side contracts.

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By Vlad Mazanko

Skipping past the learning phase can lead to more challenging combat encounters, which start to feel borderline unfair the further into the story the player gets. From a narrative perspective, rushing through the main story undermines a lot of the vital questlines that provide much-needed context to the world, taking what is arguably one of the best RPG experiences of all time and turning it into a typical fantasy adventure.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Slow And Steady Wins The Race

Skills are tied to longer-term practice.
Forced progression never works.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance actively discourages players from rushing by forcing them to learn skills from the ground up through repetition. Early-game story missions can prove to be quite a struggle if players decide not to learn the basics and progress through the weaker stages of peasant life.

The story reinforces this philosophy by portraying its protagonist as inexperienced and vulnerable, with a monumental task ahead of them that can only be achieved through learning. Furthermore, ignoring side activities almost always leads to avoidable failures that could have easily been overcome if the player were a bit more patient and willing to explore the world around them.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Wider Context Matters The Most

Characters become richer when contrasted against the rest of the world.
Large story arcs come together only after fully exploring.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is structured around immersion rather than urgency, and a lot of the joy comes from learning more about the characters on a deeply personal level. The emotional power of its main narrative depends heavily on camp interactions, optional conversations, and stranger missions. By skipping these moments, character arcs feel weaker, and the relationships just don't feel as personal.

There are also plenty of gameplay incentives given to players who go out of their way to explore the furthest edges of the map. However, the real reason to explore further is to understand the backstories and intentions of the people in the world, adding a lot of additional weight to an already heavy story.

Fallout: New Vegas

More Paths Than You Could Ever Need

Faction dynamics change when followed closely.
Huge benefit to taking side quests, both thematically and gameplay-wise

Fallout: New Vegas severely punishes impatience by hiding a lot of the more impactful and interesting faction storylines behind side quests. Players will be presented with far more options and a much more enjoyable playthrough if they choose to poke around more and work through the long list of tasks given to them by the NPCs found throughout the world.

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By Vlad Mazanko

Not only do these side quests provide a lot of much-needed context, but they also bring real changes in power, in some cases altering how helpful certain factions can be during pivotal moments. On the other hand, blindly progressing can feel quite lackluster, reducing a lot of the more enjoyable quests down to a series of basic tasks.

Cyberpunk 2077

Power Isn't A Guarantee

Builds rely heavily on optional content.
Challenging fights are made trivial with more exploration.

Cyberpunk 2077 allows players to rapidly progress through the story if they want to, but it penalizes them in fairly subtle ways. Effective character builds depend on cyberware, perks, and resources that are primarily earned through gigs and side jobs, so ignoring tasks outside the main path results in a fragile character with limited combat options.

The story missions also scale in terms of intensity and demands, as there is an assumption of power that is never really communicated. Much like the story itself, the game rewards side hustles, making most of the simpler pieces of content feel equally important as the main quest in the long run.

Borderlands 4

Levels With Seemingly No End

Global level scaling means even early enemies get stronger by the end-game.
Optimized weapons and builds are far more effective.

Borderlands 4 has no problem with players skipping to the end straight away, yet the path there and afterward is anything but straightforward. Because enemies scale everywhere on the map, even after beating the game, players will still have to compete with high-level opponents even in the earlier parts of the map.

A big part of the game is mod optimization, as rather than finding one specific gun that is stronger through raw numbers, it is better to hunt around and find that perfect combination. By avoiding the side content, players will end up with a random loadout of guns that may or may not be powerful enough to take on the late-game, gating them until they can finally gear up for the bigger fights.

Dragon’s Dogma

Knowledge Is Survival

Tactical understanding is gained through repetition.
Vital mechanics are taught through exploration.

Dragon’s Dogma expects players to learn its world before attempting to conquer it, as a lot of details like enemy behavior and elemental weaknesses are introduced organically through exploration rather than explicit instruction.

Rushing forward without understanding these systems leads to frequent deaths and a loss of resources, often slowing players down in the long run. Instead, it is better to prepare and experiment to build up a knowledge base that is far more prepared for dealing with the multitude of threats in the world, as opposed to trying to brute force the main story through to the end.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

The Grind Is The Gameplay

Level gating is tied to exploration.
Side content opens up gear upgrades.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey structures progression around regional exploration and content completion. Main quests scale aggressively, assuming that a lot of contracts and mercenary encounters have already been completed along the way, but by overlooking these activities, players will be met with artificial difficulty walls that can completely halt progress.

Gear upgrades and ability effectiveness are similarly tied to side content, as to reach the later stages of the skill trees, players have to do more than just rush through the story. This design enforces the concept of breadth over speed, demanding that players engage with the wider world to maintain momentum and avoid frustration.

Days Gone

Failure To Prepare Is Preparing To Fail

Progression is centered around more than just the main story.
Hordes become increasingly challenging later on.

Days Gone harshly punishes players who prioritize constant narrative momentum by locking a lot of crucial gameplay elements behind side content. Everything from bike upgrades to ammo supplies is placed away from the main road, meaning that at several points in their playthrough, players will need to double back just to keep going forward.

Later on, there is a rough guideline of power and knowledge that the game expects, and if players don't match it, they will quickly fall to a new and unexpected threat. Much like an actual zombie apocalypse, rushing through without care can be incredibly costly, making even minor departures into the forest feel like meaningful paths that will pay off down the line.