Best Open-World Adventure Masterpiece Games

All open-world games, in a way, promote a sense of adventure. Players are able to freely dive into worlds and explore to their heart's content, or they can just as easily follow the story. It’s really up to them. That said, action-adventure games, or just pure adventure games, offer a more potent dose of the vibes some players crave.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain are good starting examples, each offering some different form of adventure. How are they different, and what are the other games on this list? Take on a reading adventure and find out.

Some Specific Open-World RPGs To Consider

RPGs belong in their own category and won’t be focused on today, but for those curious, check out the following.

• Elden Ring
• Skyrim
• Xeno

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

Sailing For Adventure

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is one of the best games in the series that everyone should play. Following the third numbered game, it’s almost like a reboot because it mostly abandons the present aspects of the story to give players a big world filled with pirates and a seemingly endless ocean to enjoy.

Players can sail around looking for adventure, whether that involves hunting down rare animals to get their pelts, lost packages to make some money, battling fellow pirates in canon battles, or the occasional assassination. It’s an incredible game on all fronts, and at this point, it’s worth waiting to play the game until the remake, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, comes out in July, which will hopefully improve an otherwise flawless game.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

The Post

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, at its core, is a very simple game. Players need to walk across part of Mexico and all of Australia to try to connect underground bunkers to a network to reestablish their links with the modern world. By doing so, they can converse with other bunkers, give players more missions, and this will also lead to new blueprints, which can 3D print new equipment, including vehicles, to make the journey more accessible.

Players can take ladders with them to climb mountains, an all-terrain truck to haul supplies to repair lost roads, or kits that can build shelters in the world to rest at. Players have a lot of freedom in the world, and while there is action, be it from paranormal entities or bandits, it’s also a relaxing adventure about a courier just trying to do his part in reconnecting the world.

Ghost Of Tsushima

The Honor of the Samurai And The Birth of a Ninja (Or Ghost, To Be More Accurate)

Ghost of Tsushima, at its heart, is about a warrior trying to take back his home island from Mongolian invaders. It’s a brutal action game set in an ancient world filled with plenty of samurai action, stealth ninja takedowns, and big epic set pieces involving battles on the beach or taking down enemy ships with a ballista on a high cliff.

However, it’s also a game about beauty and finding inner peace amongst all the war and turmoil. Players can explore the island to visit ancient temples or shrines, play with wildlife like foxes, or reflect by the pond and recite some poetry while sipping tea.

Horizon Forbidden West

Go West, Young Aloy

Horizon Forbidden West is one of the best-looking post-apocalyptic worlds because it’s not set in a blown-up world filled with browns and grays like the Fallout games. Instead, players will journey across Colorado all the way to the West Coast and see brightly colored forests overgrowing once massive structures, from buildings to bridges.

For West Coast players, Horizon Forbidden West can especially be a treat for those familiar with the area or great for those who have always wanted to vacation out there. This is the next best thing. Exploration is only part of the fun, though, as the wealth of bow-based gameplay and gadgets at the heroine’s disposal, Aloy, are great whether she is dealing with robotic animals or bandits trying to do her in.

L.A. Noire

A Classic Noir Story

L.A. Noire is a more laid-back game, even though the core material is gruesome. Set in the 1940s, players can drive around L.A. to see the sights, which wonderfully captures the era, but there’s not much side activity to do, akin to other open-world games set in cities.

Instead, this is a pure adventure game at its core, involving the evolving life of Cole Phelps, who goes from a beat cop to a detective, solving cases along the way from murders to crimes involving fire. For fans of detective stories or specifically noir films, L.A. Noire will not disappoint those looking for a rich series of cases to solve with a big budget backing them up.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Hyrule as You’ve Never Seen Before

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the grandest open-world games of the modern era. Players will wake up as Link, who has been in a chamber for a hundred years. After reestablishing their connection with the world, involving getting gear, players will be set loose on Hyrule with only a vague goal to save Zelda and to stop Ganon.

Along the way, players can help citizens, take down monster camps, solve Shrines that have fun puzzles inside, look for anthropomorphic plant creatures, and more. Almost a decade later, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is still a game that imbues a sense of freedom and adventure, highlighting why video games can be so fun.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Two Heroes, Twice The Fun

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 gives players control of both Peter Parker and Miles Morales in this epic superhero game set in New York City. Together, they will try to mitigate damage from big villains like Sandman, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, and so many others.

With each hero, players will have control over various web-slinging powers and gadgets, and the freedom they will feel while swinging through the city will be incredible. It is not only one of the best Spider-Man games ever made, between the story and gameplay, but it’s also one of the best superhero games ever made that can give any MCU project a run for its money.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Another Hideo Kojima Masterpiece

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is a stealth action game involving players going on individual missions from their HQ, Mother Base. From side quests to story missions, players can explore open areas to focus on goals, or to meander and gather supplies or recruit enemies to serve at Mother Base.

Building up Mother Base’s defenses and allies is part of the fun of the game, but like so many Hideo Kojima games, the set pieces are also incredible. From taking out an elite squadron of soldiers in a desert storm to having an epic sniper battle, this is one adventure players won’t soon forget in the Metal Gear saga.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Relive The Glory Days Of Cowboys

Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the best ways to experience the Old West outside of watching classic films like Tombstone or Unforgiven. As Arthur Morgan, players have freedom to decide how they want to play this once ruthless bandit who can now turn over a new leaf and help others, or to continue being a lowdown good-for-nothing.

Either way, players will get to explore deserts filled with nothing but endless possibilities, quaint old towns, swampy forests, or even grand mountains. Fight the law or fellow bandits in epic gunfights, hunt animals, take on cases both big and small with the locals, and overall, just drink in the wonder that Rockstar has created.

Shadow of the Colossus (2018)

Linearity Disguising Openness

Shadow of the Colossus is one of those types of games where the fewer players who know and see about it, the better experience they will have. At its core, the game is about a series of boss battles, taking down the titular Colossi, each designed differently. Players can scale them, looking for weak points, and once a colossus is killed, it’s on to the next one.

While there are secrets to be found in the open world, like lizards that can improve stamina, it’s more of a linear game disguised as an open-world game. The open world is a tool to set the atmosphere more than it is something to be explored, and while that may not be appealing to all open-world game fans, it is still an incredible environment to behold, complete with a haunting aura that a Soulslike game would kill for.