Which games could you REALLY get lost in? #eldenring #thewitcher #skyrim
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00:00At this point there are more open world games than I've had hot dinners.
00:03It's the industry's go-to genre and for good reason.
00:06Fans love to dive into living, breathing worlds and spend tens, hundreds or maybe thousands of hours losing themselves in it.
00:14Hell, that's why even usually linear franchises like Metal Gear Solid couldn't resist the allure of the sandbox.
00:21But which open worlds immersed us the most?
00:24Well, it's funny you should ask because I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com and these are the 10 most immersive open world games.
00:31Number 10, No Man's Sky.
00:32No Man's Sky is nothing less than the bar for a completely open-ended sci-fi RPG.
00:38Yes, we all remember that historically messy disappointing launch, but even back then you could see the seeds that Hello Games were planting for an infinitely generating universe of aliens, spaceships, trading, mining and much more to come.
00:51Today, following over half a decade of sizable free expansions, many of which feel like a sequel's worth of content,
00:59No Man's Sky lets you build hugely intricate bases, name your own planet, and take on missions from identifying ancient artifacts to gunning down a high-value bounty in another star system.
01:10There's character customization, ship customization, optional multiplayer, meaning that you can do everything that I'm mentioning here with a group of friends,
01:18and the whole game's art direction is just, mwah, chef's kiss.
01:22Number 9, Outer Wilds.
01:23In this interstellar time loop game, players take control of an anthropologist eager to set out on their first expedition to study an ancient alien civilization.
01:33Unfortunately though, this is the day that the sun just so happens to explode,
01:37at which point the explorer awakens at the start of that day, seemingly saved by a mysterious artifact that activated prior to departure.
01:44Each of the five planets that you then explore are completely different in their visual style and gameplay mechanics.
01:51However, it's the revelations these planets contain that make Outer Wilds so enormously immersive.
01:57Piecing together clues from snippets of lore is central to the experience.
02:01It's entirely up to you which breadcrumb trail you follow first,
02:05and though there's a heavy puzzle element to figuring out how things like gravitational pulls can change from one place to the next,
02:11the overarching mystery always keeps you going.
02:14Figuring out how these planets work, what their physical properties are, and how they relate to the cosmos,
02:20genuinely makes for an open world experience like no other.
02:24Number 8, Cyberpunk 2077.
02:27As many are now finally able to see with Patch 1.5 delivering a version of the game that any non-PC player should have had in 2020,
02:34CD Projekt Red did create an exceptionally grounded and realized world in Cyberpunk,
02:39its city incredibly detailed, and its entire landmass only elevating the various stories told within.
02:46Night City isn't only large in scope, but its scale is reflected within the verticality of its skyline and the densely packed streets below.
02:54Wherever you look provides some memorable takeaway.
02:57Apartments bustling with diverse groups of residents that you want to get to know,
03:01and glossy, oversized holograms hanging over dank back alley deals.
03:06This grimy, failed utopia with its crime-infested underbelly paints Night City as a place on the brink of collapse,
03:12something the story and its many endings let you get lost in.
03:16Number 7, Fallout New Vegas.
03:18I got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle.
03:21I, personally, will never get the Fallout New Vegas soundtrack out of my head.
03:27When I think of some of the happiest times of my entire life,
03:30I picture strolling through the Mojave Wasteland banging out some Marty Robbins.
03:35The world Obsidian created here is one you can totally get lost in,
03:39as is Bethesda's Fallout 3, but it's made extra special by the sheer depth of it.
03:45This isn't a place with basic good guys and bad guys,
03:48with moral choices as simplistic as, do you want to be bad and nuclear explode an entire town?
03:54No, the world New Vegas spins is grimy, multi-layered, and full of interesting factions.
04:00Everyone has something going on, some kind of agenda to unearth,
04:04and even the villains have fascinating motivations for why they do what they do.
04:09Sure, the gameplay hasn't aged all that well, and its rushed development time is present at every turn,
04:14but those issues don't stop this from being a truly immersive world.
04:17In fact, those drawbacks only make it even more impressive.
04:21Number 6, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim.
04:24Over a decade later, Skyrim is still hailed as one of the best RPGs ever made.
04:29And while some aspects of combat and character models have an age so well,
04:32just like Fallout New Vegas,
04:34Bethesda's crowning achievement holds up as an always engrossing gaming experience.
04:39What makes Skyrim work so well has always been its world.
04:43The feeling of a realm genuinely alive with a thousand activities all happening at once.
04:49Even after 100 hours of gameplay, there's always another quest to complete or dungeon to explore,
04:54and that's not even factoring in the expansions.
04:56Skyrim is a game that entices you to explore a little further each time.
05:01While traveling to a location for one quest,
05:03the silhouette of an undiscovered ruin or cave is enough to take you on a detour,
05:08which in itself turns into another detour, or maybe three more.
05:12From snowy settlements on the tallest mountains to strange subterranean areas hidden underneath ruins,
05:18Skyrim has never felt like an entity any of us have seen every last part of,
05:23and that's one hell of an achievement.
05:24Number 5, Elden Ring.
05:26From Software have been known for their phenomenal world design ever since the original Demon Souls.
05:31In Elden Ring though, the team has mastered a coalescence of exploration, combat, and discovery
05:36that doesn't let you go for literally hundreds of hours.
05:40Every last inch of the lands between is a gargantuan open space.
05:45That somehow also retains a handcrafted level design,
05:49with certain pockets of the map turning into miniature Souls games all on their own.
05:53With pure curiosity-fueled exploration paramount to the experience,
05:57Elden Ring has no waypoints,
05:59only a vague marker on where to go if you find its sights of grace,
06:04and few map markers unless you make your own.
06:06It forces you into a mindset of picking a direction and just seeing what you can find,
06:10and fortunately, every area houses new deer, new enemies, new bosses, items, XP,
06:16and various other elements that fold back into whatever the hell you want to do next.
06:21Number 4, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt.
06:23The first time through, The Witcher 3 really taking in just how much CDPR had written,
06:29designed, and crafted everywhere across the game world was just, well, it was something else.
06:35Geralt's continent-spanning quest to find Ciri had players spending dozens of hours slaying monsters,
06:40and if you were a big nerd, playing Gwent.
06:43But we also had a ton of literal question marks promising extra objectives,
06:47underground caves, bandit camps, rare items, gear, and everything in between.
06:51Now, I've talked a lot about gameplay immersion in this list,
06:54but it's worth saying that truly exquisite writing and that extra level of attention to detail
06:59can really elevate the experience as well.
07:01No matter how insignificant a quest may seem,
07:04each one in The Witcher 3 is tied to a rich and engaging narrative,
07:07or functions as a neat, memorable one-off.
07:10There's no such thing as a throwaway task here.
07:13Even scavenger hunts are connected in their own way through letters and notes found on the journey.
07:18Number 3, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.
07:21If there was one game that showed how immersive an open world can be,
07:24it was The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.
07:26After spending just a few hours with this masterclass in game design,
07:30it's easy to see why it's so easy to get lost in these stunning vistas of Hyrule.
07:35When Link awakens at the start of the game and emerges into the expansive world that opens before him,
07:40the world becomes fully explorable from the go.
07:44Freedom is at the core of the journey here.
07:46Nothing is really off-limits.
07:49Players can set off in any direction they choose to tackle the non-linear story in any order that they desire.
07:55Hell, players can even head straight to the final boss if they're feeling especially brave that day.
08:00Though the vast freedom awarded to players right out of the gate is all part of what makes this gorgeous world so great,
08:06it's the sense of discovery and experimentation that cement this open world as one of the best.
08:11With barely any map markers telegraphing key locations, it's up to players to uncover what's out there.
08:17And with many of these secrets requiring players to solve cryptic puzzles,
08:20there's always something new to find in Hyrule.
08:23Number 2, Grand Theft Auto V.
08:25When a certain generation gets older,
08:27they're going to look back on GTA V's portrayal of LA and its surrounding areas
08:30as somewhere that they used to genuinely visit.
08:33The sheer amount of combined time that we, as a people, have invested into GTA V's world,
08:40both its offline story and GTA Online,
08:42is staggering, genuinely and completely unmatched.
08:47Hell, I know its streets better than the place I grew up.
08:51Whether you're going on a rampage through bustling streets,
08:53racing across the open countryside or simply taking in the scenery from the air,
08:58GTA V prides itself on letting you spend your time however the hell you like,
09:02and with GTA Online, that time has continued to provide plenty of surprises.
09:07Number 1, Red Dead Redemption 2.
09:10Whether Arthur Morgan's heart-wrenching character arc,
09:12phenomenal characters and acting performances,
09:15or a magnificent soundtrack reminiscent of the golden age of western cinema,
09:19Dan Houser's last Rockstar game is an absolute masterpiece.
09:23It's also a masterpiece precious few have even finished,
09:27but that's largely because they were so enamoured and thoroughly enraptured by its world.
09:31See, Red Dead 2's expansive portrayal of the Old West is a painterly one,
09:36something that takes influence from how the rolling hills and sweeping cloud formations of the late 1800s paintings
09:42would romanticise the period overall.
09:45Obviously, there's a dark reality to the lawlessness within,
09:48but Rockstar's unique, endless budget crafted an eye-widening amount of activities to do and secrets to find.
09:54Setting a deliberately glacial pace to surpass even the grandest westerns of Hollywood,
09:59Rockstar are begging players to just take their time,
10:03soak in every detail at your own pace,
10:05and just enjoy the time you have in this game.
10:08Everything from brushing Arthur's horse to polishing a pistol is purposefully slow and methodical.
10:13Every movement feels weighty and grounded in the world around it.
10:18This is the nearest thing we've ever got to virtual reality without the goggles,
10:22and the result is arguably the most immersive digital experience ever created.
10:27But I want to know what you guys think about that down in the comments.
10:29Do you agree, or are there any immersive experiences I miss that you think deserved a spot in this top 10?
10:35While you're down there as well, could you please give us a like, share, subscribe,
10:38and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
10:41Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.