Best Open-World Games Where You Play As A Nomad
One of the best features of any open-world game is the act of exploration, with any open-world worth its salt offering up stretches of land to journey, brimming with interesting locations and things to do within them. Many of these titles also allow players to purchase and/or build their own home within their worlds, and this is particularly true of open-world games.
5 Best Open-World Games To Play At Night
Nighttime has the potential to transform certain open-world games into something better, where the silence and the darkness amplify the adventure.
While building or purchasing a home can be extremely rewarding and comes with the added benefit of a place to rest and store items, there’s a certain charm to living out a nomadic life within these worlds. Games such as Kenshi allow base-building, but players will spend much of their time as a nomad, while titles like The Long Dark allow players to rest anywhere, but encourage them to keep on the move in order to survive.
Honorable Mentions: Open-World Games That Capture The Nomad Lifestyle (Even If They Are Technically Not About Nomads)
If you are looking to travel in solitude and without a fixed home, the following open-world games could very well hit the mark with you. Their protagonists might have established roles, but their lifestyles are very similar to nomads.
- Conan Exiles
- Days Gone
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Green Hell
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance
- Mad Max
- My Time at Sandrock
- Outward
- Red Dead Redemption 2
6
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Nomadic Questing Across The Supernatural Zone
Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl is an iconic (albeit rough-around-the-edges) first-person open-world survival game. The game takes place in the infamously dangerous Zone and is rich with interplay between distinctive factions, nasty creatures, and atmospheric environments. Players have no home in Stalker, instead roaming its supernatural land as a nomad, completing missions and resting at campfires with fellow Stalkers.
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.
The immersive atmosphere that Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl offers is perhaps its greatest strength, with each excursion into the Zone often being a long and perilous journey through unpredictable territory. Each friendly camp that the player comes across, often accompanied by the sweet sound of an acoustic guitar played by an NPC, provides a warm embrace, offering a sense of safety and relief.
The other entries in the series also fit this mood, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is by far the biggest (in size) game in the series. Call of Pripyat is also great and very open.
5
Caravan SandWitch
A Combat-Free Sci-Fi Adventure With A Rumbling Caravan
Free of combat, Caravan SandWitch provides a wonderfully relaxing and low-stakes experience that focuses on thoughtful exploration in a visually stunning open world. Caravan SandWitch focuses its gameplay on exploring both on foot and with the titular caravan, the latter of which adds an element of play to exploration that somewhat fills the gap left by a lack of combat. However, it goes without saying that Caravan SandWitch won’t be for everyone due to its general lack of combat mechanics.
The nomadic lifestyle of exploring in the titular caravan, collecting items, and meeting new people along the way, is part of what makes Caravan SandWitch unique. However, the laid-back atmosphere and, most notably, the ensemble cast of quirky, colorful characters is what makes Caravan SandWitch so memorable. This is furthered by the fact that Caravan SandWitch features no player death, ensuring that the stakes are always low and experimentation is never punished.
4
Death Stranding
Travel Across America, Connecting People
Death Stranding might be the first game that people think of when they picture nomads, as the campaign revolves entirely around traveling from spot to spot across the United States. Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Sam is a courier who must not only bring packages to isolated areas that desperately need them, but also establish communication spots to link everyone together. He must always be moving forward, exploring unknown terrain, and planning his route to his next destination.
Although you eventually unlock the means to travel quickly, most of Death Stranding is spent traveling on foot while trying carefully not to damage your haul. You might occasionally run into other humans (or something more terrifying), but most of your time is spent on your own. It is really just you and the land, a combination that makes for an oddly soothing and tranquil journey.
3
Caves Of Qud
Adventuring Across A Retro-Futuristic Land Of Unknown Opportunity
Mutants, cybernetics, quirky NPCs, evocative writing, and a delicate balance of procedural and hand-crafted content make Caves Of Qud a truly unique open-world game. Exploration is a massive part of Caves Of Qud, and it’s easy to get completely and utterly lost in its labyrinthine cave systems and diverse world. The world itself is richly detailed, dense with lore, and full of interesting items and curious characters, combining science-fiction and fantasy to great effect.
8 Best Survival Games If You Like First-Person Exploration, Ranked
These striking survival games offer plenty of first-person exploration — perfects for players who want to get up close and personal while exploring.
Being a roguelike centered around exploration, Caves Of Qud doesn’t feature base-building or housing, despite having many RPG mechanics and systems. As a result, players are thrown into the game world and left to explore, wandering the lands of Qud and making camp wherever they see fit. Although Caves Of Qud plays like a traditional roguelike, it features a forgiving “roleplay” mode that makes the game more accessible and allows players to enjoy the game as a regular RPG.
2
Kenshi
A Sandbox-RPG That Starts Players With Nothing And Encourages Exploration
Kenshi
- Released
-
December 6, 2018
Kenshi is an incredibly ambitious open-world sandbox RPG that takes place in a remarkably unique and utterly strange setting. The harsh wasteland environments of Kenshi are packed with interesting locations to explore and NPCs to interact with, but there are more dangers than there are friendly faces. As a result, exploring can be extremely dangerous, but players will often find themselves roaming the world to search for new squad members and hunt down bounties.
Base-building is possible in Kenshi, but players will always begin the game as a nomad, roaming from town to town. It’s also highly likely that players maintain their status as a nomad for hours on end, as building (and defending) a base is no small feat.
1
The Long Dark
A Tranquil Survival Game That Keeps Players On The Move
Taking place in the aftermath of a natural disaster, The Long Dark sees players desperately trying to survive in a harsh, cold, and unforgiving world. Temperature, hunger, thirst, and dangerous wildlife are all major concerns for players in The Long Dark, and this makes shelter incredibly important. However, players will need to move around frequently, as resources will eventually dry up in the surrounding area.
Because resources will eventually begin to dwindle, players are forced to be nomadic out of necessity, hopping around from one place to the next. It’s these journeys between shelters that offer the most risk, exposing the player to the elements, but it’s a risk that must be taken frequently in order to survive.
7 Open-World Games Worth Playing Just For Their Exploration
Many open-world games reward players for exploring the game map or require exploration for the player to progress.