Open world games featured in The Elder Scrolls or Grand Theft Auto give players plenty of opportunities to have fun without focusing on the main quest. Aside from side missions, books and NPC habits in The Elder Scrolls, as well as entertaining radio segments and mini-games in Grand Theft Auto, add significantly to the game's immersion. However, certain games subvert open-world expectations by outright punishing players for exploring the world too much.
The idea of open-world titles doling out punishment on players who delay their stories can get wild at first. However, these restrictions can add much-needed urgency in games with vast environments when done correctly.
The Best Open World Games With Female Protagonists
Open-world games are fairly new in comparison to other gaming genres. Here are some of the most notable female protagonists in the category.
7 The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
Focusing Too Much On Non-Combat Skills Causes Balance Issues
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Set in the region of Cyrodiil, players of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion once again take the role of prisoners caught up in a plot to save the world. This time around, players witness the assassination of Emperor Uriel Septim VII and are entrusted to ensure the survival of his last remaining heir, Martin Septim. While the game still allows players to delay the main quest and make their own fate in Cyrodiil, the game puts players at a disadvantage when they inevitably make too much progress in their levels.
Leveling up occurs by repeatedly performing chosen Major Skills. Theoretically, players who level up their combat-oriented skills won’t have much of a problem fighting stronger enemies who grow in levels with them. However, this scaling becomes a problem when players focus on non-combat abilities, rendering them much weaker than their foes in the long term. The fact that Major Skills are selected in Character Creation also force players to be more proactive even in their exploration, punishing leisurely playthroughs.
6 Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13
If Players Run Out Of Time, They Must Start All Over
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
Protagonist Lightning of Final Fantasy 13 wakes up from stasis in Lightning Returns only to find out that the world is ending in 13 Days. Tasked to save the world by the deity Bhunivelze, players and Lightning rediscover the course of events that led to his desperate pre-apocalypse and the true agenda of larger forces behind them. While Nova Chrysalia’s open world allows Lightning to freely take on quests and explore the world’s remnants, the game’s ticking clock will eventually wind down to its destruction.
If the Apocalypse happens, the game restarts into a New Game+, retaining the player’s current permanent buffs, equipment, items, and certain stats. However, despite this “reward,” players still have to repeat all main quests and side quests they finished. Moreover, players still run the risk of draining time all over again without proper time management.
5 Dead Rising
Players Can't Waste Any Time In 72-Hour Mode
Dead Rising
Photojournalist Frank West of Dead Rising is on a mission to discovery why Willamette Parkview Mall is overrun by zombies. Unique to the game is its more comical take on zombies that sets it apart from Capcom’s other hit zombie franchise, Resident Evil. On top of being able to use various weapons, Frank can earn Prestige Points from fights and taking photos to “level up” in an RPG-esque progression system.
Where the open world game actively punishes players is through its “72 Hour Mode,” the story mode where Frank and the players have three in-game days to finish all the game’s major missions and finish Frank’s journey. The only way to play Dead Rising in sandbox mode is through its “Infinity Mode,” the second mode unlocked after finishing “72 Hour Mode” and his extended one-day stay via “Overtime Mode.” Not only is the game’s “free-time sandbox” unlocked behind a persistent timer, failing to finish Case Files unlocks other endings that don’t count towards the game’s completion.
4 Outer Wilds
Players Must Complete The Game In 22 Minutes
Outer Wilds
Set in an unnamed solar system, players of Outer Wilds are astronauts linked to a statue of an ancient civilization just minutes before their star goes supernova. When the supernova begins, the world ends and the game resets, revealing a time loop. Players are encouraged to explore the game and discover the true nature of a race called the Nomai, the time loop’s causes, and ways of stopping it.
While failing the game’s 22-minute timer simply sends players back on a time loop, their time is best spent when maximizing time during exploration of the game’s many regions instead of mindless roaming. Not only that, the game’s puzzles, locations, and events often switch up with each subsequent playthrough, forcing players to remember how each puzzle works to reveal clues or risk having to repeat everything all over again.
3 The Forest
Improper Time Management Leads To Death
The Forest
In what may be described as Stardew Valley village management meets Phasmophobia frights, the story of The Forest takes place in a mysterious island where plane crash survivor Eric LeBlanc has to find his son Timmy. Regardless if games play alone or with up to seven friends, The Forest gamers have to hunt for food, gather and create supplies, construct settlements, and survive while searching for Timmy and unlocking the island’s mysteries.
The Forest: Best Base Locations
The Forest is an amazing survival-horror game that has a lot of options for great base builds, but choosing the right location is important.
When players waste too much time wandering around, they risk getting hungry, thirsty, and losing energy - all placing them at the risk of death. Likewise, players wandering aimlessly can encounter the game’s various mutant cannibals who, like the protagonist, evolve with armor, weapons, and even an extra appendage or two. Improper juggling of priorities can end up with players spending the night with no food, die of hypothermia with no fire, or end up outnumbered with no shelter to protect them.
2 Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War
The Nemesis System Can Make Life Miserable For Players
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War
While Middle-Earth: Shadow of War opens with undead ranger Talion and elf lord spirit Celebrimbor finally forging a Sauron-free Ring of Power, an encounter with the spider Shelob sends them on a quest to steal a Palantir from a besieged Minas Ithil. While it’s possible to ignore this main quest and explore the game’s more colorful biomes, delaying the story can pose a lot of disadvantages to Talion and Celebrimbor.
Not only does the game have a number of story-locked abilities, its main story also follows a general “path” across the game’s areas that also segregate enemies by level. While players can pull a Dark Souls and start defeating more powerful foes, the game’s Nemesis System may work against players who can’t handle the challenge. After all, Shadow of War’s updated Nemesis System now promotes enemies who defeat players, as well as boasts improved AI that can adapt to a gamer’s playstyle.
1 Fallout 1
The Main Story Is On A Timer
Fallout
Set in a post-apocalypse where the Great War plunged the world into nuclear hell, Fallout 1 is the first title of Bethesda’s acclaimed Fallout series. This is the first time players take the role of the Vault Dweller, where they need to replace Vault 13’s water chip. Throughout this main quest, the Vault Dweller discovers a plot that puts the remnants of humanity at risk. The open world’s punishing components come in the form of its in-game timers.
Players have an initial 150-day timer to find the water chip, where finishing this unlocks the second half of the story and its hidden 350-day timer. Version 1.1 gives players a hidden 13-year timer, instead. While all these timers may be enough for the casual player, playing the game in its first release can be punishing for extremely leisurely gamers. Not only would Vault 13 start deteriorating upon wasting the 150th day, but it will also be destroyed if the main story isn’t completed after the game’s 500th overall day.
10 Best Open World Games Without Fast Travel
Fast travel is often a crutch that people lean on in open-world games, but what of those titles that don't have such a feature?