Open-World Games That Are Immediately Fun
Open-world games are, by design, massive time sinks that can consume weeks, if not months, of your life. This aspect makes these projects both daunting and exciting, especially the thought of completely immersing yourself within a fantastical or realistic realm. However, due to their length, most open-world games have slow starts, and that includes all-time masterpieces like Red Dead Redemption 2. It is not so much that these titles take forever to become good, but rather they delay gratification and force players to wait before they can get into the core gameplay loop. Fortunately, not every release goes down this route, and some open-world games are instantly fun.
Free Open-World Games With The Best Exploration
These free open-world games offer vast and beautiful open worlds, great exploration, loads of content; there’s almost no catch.
Rather than frontloading themselves with tutorials or plot exposition, these games rush you through the basics and then quickly let you loose on their world, allowing you to learn as you play. While they might not all end up being masterpieces, they nail the most important aspect of gaming: the fun factor.
8
Slime Rancher
Accessible Mechanics & A Small Open-World
Slime Rancher is a small-scale open-world farming sim in which players grow crops and take care of bouncy, personified balls of slime. The gameplay is familiar and easy to learn, but lifted by a colorful open world that’s a joy to explore.
The game’s design hinges on the Vacpack, a multipurpose tool that allows players to vacuum fruits from trees, pull vegetables from the ground, and, of course, capture slimes. This tool is intuitive and, more importantly, provides players with an immediate, fun way to interact with the world.
7
Outer Wilds
An Exploration Game That Gets To The Point
The lack of gameplay mechanics in Outer Wilds may turn some players away, but it takes no time to show players exactly what the intended experience is; players are introduced to a variety of quirky characters from the offset, and it’s not long before they’re thrust into the cockpit of their spaceship and sent off to adventure with little direction.
Flying through the galaxy with complete freedom and immersive, intuitive controls provides an immediate sense of control. Furthermore, the small scale of the open world ensures that players will quickly come across new locations, often invoking a wonderful sense of discovery.
6
Dredge
A Tactile Fishing Game That Gives Players Immediate Control
Although the game mechanics of Dredge are tremendously simple, it benefits from giving players almost immediate control; in the game, players are able to sail across a small open-world archipelago, partaking in accessible mini-games and interacting with the nearby townsfolk. The simple gameplay loop of sailing, fishing, and inventory management is solidified within minutes of playing, immediately giving players a taste of what makes Dredge so addictive.
The day/night cycle helps tremendously with this, naturally segmenting the experience and providing clear dividers between gameplay elements; daytime is for fishing, but the night brings a slew of Lovecraftian horrors that must be avoided. This ebb and flow make up for much of Dredge, with new mechanics drip-fed to players throughout, and the game does a brilliant job of showing players the experience they’re in for from the very start.
5
Gloomwood
An Immersive-Sim With A Cold Open
Although its world is tremendously small in scale, consisting of a single interconnected city, Gloomwood excels with its championing of player agency. As an immersive-sim, players are offered a great deal of freedom from the very start of the game, able to overcome obstacles however they see fit through exploration and experimentation.
The Best Dark Fantasy MMOs
From genre classic to modern iterations, dark fantasy has seeped its way into the MMO genre, and it doesn’t look like it will let go any time soon.
Focusing its efforts on stealth gameplay and inventory management, Gloomwood stands out with its Victorian setting and survival-horror elements. The atmosphere, controls, stealth, and immersive-sim nature of the game are all set up with an excellent cold open, which immediately drops players into the deep end.
4
Elden Ring
A Short Tutorial That Quickly Opens Up A Punishing World With No Restraints
Similarly to the Dark Souls games, the opening hours of Elden Ring benefit from the game’s enigmatic world and to-the-point tutorial. It doesn’t take long to learn the basic controls of Elden Ring, especially for those familiar with FromSoftware’s Dark Souls games, as the challenge is more about learning the telegraphing of enemy attacks.
As in Dark Souls, Elden Ring almost immediately forces players to become familiar with the difficulty they’ll be facing on the regular, letting them know what to expect going forward. For those who enjoy a challenge, this is almost instantaneous, and the game simultaneously gives players mini-bosses and plenty of easier enemies to battle in the interim. Furthermore, Elden Ring’s open world provides players with an immediate sense of awe, which quickly transforms into boundless discovery.
3
Terraria
An Open-World Side-Scroller That Teaches Through Play
This open-world survival-crafting game is immediately fun thanks in large part to its nature as a 2D side scroller, streamlining the process of exploration by providing fewer options. This allows players to immediately start exploring and quite quickly discover new biomes, creatures, and resources.
Terraria also benefits from intuitive controls and a user interface that allows players to learn on the job. The crafting in particular is tremendously accessible, allowing players to quickly see what they’re able to build at any one time.
2
LEGO: The Lord Of The Rings
A Familiar Setting & Accessible Gameplay With A Quick Pace
Fans of Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings films will most certainly find in this LEGO adaptation an immediate sense of nostalgia and familiarity. Taking players on a journey that parallels the films, LEGO The Lord Of The Rings offers players immediate joy with its open-world exploration, intuitive controls, sense of humor, and frequent references.
As with all LEGO games, LEGO The Lord Of The Rings takes almost no time to learn how to play, allowing players to get straight to the fun. The open-world environments of Middle-earth are also likely to provide players with instant joy as they explore the familiar nooks and crannies of its iconic locations.
1
Fallout: New Vegas
A Brisk & Immersive Tutorial That Opens Into A Wild Wasteland
Fallout: New Vegas benefits from a truly simple, but utterly intriguing, story setup; a quick cut-scene informs players that they’ve been shot in the head, and moments later, they’re in a doctor’s office creating their character. The immersive character creation provides a suitable introduction to the world and prevents the multitude of options from becoming overwhelming, and best of all, it takes very little time to wade through before being thrown into the open Wasteland.
The introductory town of Goodsprings also gives players immediate access to the player agency that drives Fallout: New Vegas and its various quests. There are a multitude of characters to meet, enemies to battle, and sides to take, and all in the opening hours of the game.
Best Open-World Games To Play If You Are Tired Of Open-Worlds
These great games offer interesting open worlds that provide unique experiences, ideal for those who think open-world games have become cookie-cutter.