Best Open-World Games For Environmental Storytelling
Open-world games are perfect for environmental storytelling, and the genre’s greatest offerings use exploration to enhance their world-building, atmosphere, and immersion, rather than just as a way to kill time between major story beats. Dropped in expansive realms that are filled with characters who have, theoretically, lived full lives before the story’s start, players can stumble organically upon hidden narratives that might not be compulsory but significantly add to the game’s overall depth, beyond just rewarding useful items. If it emphasizes its free-roaming sandbox, a project needs to deliver captivating environments that tell tales that either complement the main quest or add flavor to the overall world.
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Like with anything else, environmental storytelling varies greatly from game to game, even within the open-world genre. A harsh post-apocalyptic setting should present a wildly different experience than a contemporary urban sim, and both can incorporate optional content that can be rewarding to discover and complete. More often than not, players want to delve deep into their environments, and it is up to the game to satisfy that curiosity.
1
Red Dead Redemption 2
Wild West Setting With Some Of The Most Believable NPCs
Red Dead Redemption 2 focuses more on forging your own path through the wilderness, with environmental storytelling emerging less frequently than in some other open-world games below. However, when players stumble upon an abandoned ranch, camp, shack, or cave that once housed someone, they’re often left with intriguing fragments of a story, provoking thought but offering few clear answers. Rockstar’s reputation for crafting intricate mysteries that players continue to analyze for years is on full display in RDR2, making each discovery feel meaningful.
What sets Red Dead Redemption 2 apart isn’t just its detailed locations ripe for exploration, but also the smaller, optional stories woven into towns and cities. These moments, often involving NPCs, aren’t marked as side quests but reward careful players with hidden opportunities. Whether helping or robbing people or piecing together subtle environmental clues to turn a profit as an outlaw, RDR2 offers a wealth of immersive experiences that make its world feel alive and unpredictable.
2
Skyrim
Timeless Destination That Every Fantasy Lover Must Visit
Like many Bethesda titles, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has stood as a benchmark for environmental storytelling for well over a decade, offering a vast world brimming with adventures and tales at every turn. From the very beginning, players are free to choose their own path – whether delving into deep caves filled with treasures, exploring ancient ruins shrouded in mystery, or wandering through bustling cities alive with NPCs and small errands.
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Among fantasy open-world games, few can rival Skyrim‘s unparalleled sense of freedom paired with its rich environmental storytelling – a key factor behind its enduring popularity in both the RPG and open-world genres. Each new location feels fresh and exciting, even after dozens or even hundreds of hours, thanks to the game’s masterful balance between subtle lore-driven narratives and engaging, direct storylines.
3
Elden Ring
Layered Lore Offering Endless Discoveries Across Each Region
In many ways, Elden Ring presents a post-apocalyptic world where cataclysmic events have already unfolded. The Elden Ring itself has been shattered, and many of the once-mighty Demigods have fallen far from their prime. As Tarnished, players traverse countless war-torn fortresses and castles, alongside desolate or corrupted settlements, villages, and entire cities. Only the most observant players can piece together the history of these intricate locations, uncovering subtle narratives through environmental details and items placed with deliberate intent. The Lands Between feels alive in its decay, rewarding those who seek to unravel its mysteries.
FromSoftware, masters of environmental storytelling, play to their strengths in Elden Ring. The game’s lore is incredibly deep and layered, with fans still uncovering connections between seemingly unrelated characters, events, and locations. This intricate design ensures that the world of Elden Ring continues to captivate players long after they’ve left its hauntingly beautiful landscapes and overcome all of its challenges.
4
Cyberpunk 2077
Futuristic, Immersive City Unlike Any Other
Cyberpunk 2077 marks a significant evolution in environmental storytelling for CD Projekt Red, building on the foundation laid by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The game leverages its futuristic setting – a sprawling, dark megacity where cultures, influences, and human values collide in a truly unique blend. Night City is one of the most ambitious and expansive urban environments ever created in a video game, with the studio’s meticulous, hand-crafted approach evident in every detail.
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From dozens of explorable buildings with richly detailed interiors to apartments that capture the essence of their owners at a glance, the world brims with personality. Gritty slums, secret warehouses, and the expansive wastelands surrounding the city further add to its depth. Night City itself feels like the game’s central character, telling countless stories beyond the main narrative, side quests, and jobs, all through its vibrant and immersive environmental design.
5
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Almost Every Location Tells A Story With Admirable Attention To Detail
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a true haven for explorers, with the Zone brought to life in stunning detail. Equal parts dangerous and beautiful, the Zone is packed with mysteries and rewards for observant stalkers who take the time to learn its rules. Beyond the main and side quests – or even the thrill of artifact hunting – STALKER 2 is brimming with small stories, random encounters, and, most notably, well-hidden stashes. Claiming every stash is no easy task, but players are often rewarded not only with valuable items but also with a glimpse into the tale of its previous owner or the unfortunate events that led to its abandonment.
One of the greatest strengths of STALKER 2 is the layered complexity of its world and narrative. The game masterfully blends the real-life story and consequences of the Chornobyl disaster with fictionalized elements, creating exclusion zones inspired by real-world locations while adding imaginative twists of its own. This approach results in an immersive, realistic world that appeals to both newcomers and series veterans, with countless nods to the earlier games for long-time fans to uncover.
6
The Division
Detailed Streets And Abandoned Buildings Perfectly Capture Collapsed Cities
Tom Clancy’s The Division was eerily prescient, depicting the devastating collapse of major U.S. cities due to a deadly virus – a scenario that feels even more unsettling in the post-Covid real-world pandemic. Combining the haunting allure of post-apocalyptic environments with a uniquely atmospheric Christmas setting, The Division stands out as one of Ubisoft’s finest examples of environmental storytelling and one of the most immersive in the open-world genre.
Even today, the game impresses with meticulously detailed streets, littered with remnants of chaos, and its abandoned apartments that tell countless tragic stories of survivors struggling to endure. The Division doesn’t rely on elaborate cutscenes to convey its dark, chilling narratives – it places them directly in front of the players, woven seamlessly into its world.
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While The Division 2 carries on this legacy with its own strong environmental storytelling, the sunlit streets of Washington, D.C. lack the same distinct charm as snow-covered, holiday-tinged New York. That said, which setting resonates more ultimately comes down to personal preference.
7
Fallout 4
Every Corner Of This Vast Wasteland Holds Secrets Waiting To Be Discovered
Surpassing Skyrim was no small feat, yet Bethesda managed to do so brilliantly in the realm of environmental storytelling with Fallout 4. The previous entry, Fallout 3, had already set a high bar, showcasing the franchise’s unique ability to weave subtle and nuanced stories through exploration alone. However, Fallout 4 elevated this aspect with a much larger and denser wasteland, packed with countless hidden locations and multi-story buildings, each room offering intriguing discoveries or small, thought-provoking scenarios for players to unravel.
Every step through the Commonwealth – the city of Boston and its surrounding Massachusetts region – is filled with new revelations. From tragic or darkly amusing tales of ill-fated settlers and vault dwellers to snapshots of everyday life and struggles in a post-apocalyptic world, the game offers endless moments of discovery. While there’s some repetitiveness in its quest structure, particularly with settlement-related tasks, exploration remains engaging for hundreds of hours. Players are rewarded not just with valuables or crafting materials, but with something far more meaningful – stories and personal moments that breathe life into the wasteland.
8
Outer Wilds
An Epic Tale Told Entirely Through Exploration And Discovery
Although not as well-known as Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption 2, Outer Wilds exemplifies the “explore to discover and learn” mantra that many open-world games attempt to live by. The campaign revolves around 22-minute loops, with the galaxy exploding at the end of each run. Your mission is to travel to different planets in search of knowledge that might eventually stop this catastrophe, and players are free to tackle this journey however they see fit. Although not completely devoid of direction, Outer Wilds primarily leaves players to explore on their own, allowing them to discover new areas that contain story beats or cultural remnants of an advanced society that once existed.
Due to having no combat or traditional progression systems, Outer Wilds rewards you through acquired knowledge and the satisfaction of discovery rather than stat boosts or power scaling. The environments are expressive and evolve as the story progresses, and they are not handed to you. No, you need to be driven by genuine curiosity instead of a desire to check off quest markers from a map.
Honorable Mentions
Almost all the greatest open-world games incorporate environmental storytelling to an extent, even if they might not be synonymous with the concept. As covering everything would be nearly impossible, here are a plethora of other open-world games that also tells stories through exploration, and they are easy fits for this topic if you have already played through all of the above or are looking for something a bit different.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Death Stranding
- Outward
- Kenshi
- Subnautica
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