Open-World Games With World-Building That Rivals Elden Ring

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring stands as the company’s greatest achievement in world-building, even when compared to the company’s other massively successful franchise, Dark Souls. At its core, the game is a masterclass in archaeological storytelling, where a shattered statue or an overrun fort carries a long history of tragedy.

Working together with George R.R. Martin, FromSoftware has created a world as grand and poetic in nature as any other in the gaming landscape, with storied histories and character motivations not only revealed through dialogue but also showcased in the aforementioned architecture, as well as item descriptions and character actions. We can see and discover new truths at every turn through playing the game, diving as deeply as we want to through player exploration into The Lands Between and its history.

But Elden Ring isn’t alone in such a commitment to world-building; many other open-world titles have done much of the same—and many to similar effect. Doing so requires a dedication to internal logic, cultural depth, and environmental storytelling that rewards the player for paying attention. From the high-fantasy political machinations of Thedas to the desolate, uncaring dunes of Kenshi, the following seven titles offer worlds that demand to be examined, landing among the very best worlds in gaming.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Thedas is Corrupted, Broken, and Beautiful

BioWare has always been a titan of world-building, but Dragon Age: Inquisition represented the pinnacle of their efforts to make the continent of Thedas feel like a lived-in world. Every region players visit, such as the turbulent waves of the Storm Coast or the opulent palaces of Orlais, is steeped in thousands of years of recorded history—all of which is accessible through the in-game codex for further reading.

Aside from history and world lore, the games explore the internal politics of nations and geopolitical relationships between sovereign states, while also confronting topics like racism, bigotry, and slavery at every turn. The discord between the mages and Templars of Thedas is one such conflict, with mages being powerful but susceptible to demonic possession, and Templars serving as the militant arm of the church, enslaving or subjugating mages for their own ends.

A standout element of this world is its treatment of religion and mythology. The Chantry, the Elven pantheon, and the Dwarven traditions are competing ideologies that must be reckoned with throughout the course of the game, serving as narratives that the player must navigate in understanding the stories of Thedas and the people who espouse them. Much like the Golden Order in Elden Ring, the religious structures in Dragon Age are flawed and oppressive, but offer comfort and perceived safety to those who abide by them.

Dragon Age: Inquisition adds many layers to this world-building by casting doubt on the veracity of some religious texts and worldviews, while also lending credence to others in the same breath. For all of this and more, it is an excellent and extensive world for people to discover and dig into.

Kenshi

Danger Lurks on Every Dune of the Desert

Developed largely by a single person over a decade, Kenshi’s world takes more of a “show, don’t tell” approach to its world-building. Lo-Fi Games’ Kenshi offers a world that is largely indifferent to the player, with much of it showcased through its architecture and visual design rather than exposition—similar to Elden Ring.

Players are ostensibly nobodies who can be eaten by a gutter or enslaved by a passing caravan within the first ten minutes. This indifference makes its world-building so potent, pushing players into the role of someone who is a part of the world rather than molding it.

Knowledge about the xenophobic Holy Nation can be obtained by observing their rituals and seeing how they treat non-human characters, and players piece together the history of the Skeletons by visiting their secluded workshops and listening to their cryptic, apologetic musings. If this isn’t enough, players can also visit libraries to get a better picture of the world, though even these are not necessarily the objective truth, as they themselves are subject to the writer’s biases, lies, and omissions. This world-building is just one of many reasons to try out Kenshi.

Outer Wilds

Ancient Civilizations Guide the Way

Outer Wilds is a game where the world-building is in the gameplay, where lore provides context for combat, and serves as the only tool players have to progress. Controlling an astronaut in a small solar system trapped in a twenty-two-minute time loop, players must stop the loop by learning about the Nomai, an ancient race of nomadic scientists who inhabited the system thousands of years ago.

The world-building here is exceptional because it is largely functional, with every mural translated and every recording found providing a mechanical clue on how to navigate the increasingly volatile planets. As players explore the crumbling Brittle Hollow or any of the other worlds, they discover the histories and scientific breakthroughs of those who came before them.

The atmosphere is at times melancholic and at others foreboding, with dilapidated structures of the ancients scattered across the system, and giant threats to scare players or deter their progress—all of which must be confronted while that ticking clock hangs over the player’s head.

It’s the type of game players can never recapture on repeated playthroughs, as so much of what makes the game interesting is in the discovery, but further exploration can help deepen players’ understanding of the worlds and their peoples, past and present.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Monsters, Magic, and Men—Oh my!

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt excels at world-building, in no small part thanks to its status as a continuous world from prior games and novels. This long history of world-building allows The Witcher 3 to build upon the foundations laid by other works, expanding upon specific elements or more fully realizing the concepts and imagery previously touched upon.

Despite being set in a world full of magic and monsters, CD Projekt Red spends a massive amount of time grappling with the mundane. The cities are some of the very best in video games, and are lively, well-thought-out spaces that have their own issues and cultures. The people within these cities are equally represented, with human and non-human relations at the forefront of many conflicts.

This connection between the environment and the people who live in it creates an unparalleled sense of place. The war-torn fields of Velen feel authentically dour, with villages occupied by ghouls and deserters hanging from trees. The Skellige Isles feel culturally distinct, with their own Celtic-inspired cultures and ancient blood-feuds. There is also a comprehensive journal that can be used for reference, should the cutscenes fail to explain something to the player’s liking. These journals detail the events of the game and contain character entries from the books, monster breakdowns, and world histories for players to examine.

The Continent is a space defined by war, famine, and oppression. Even the monsters themselves often have a backstory or place in the greater world; A fiend may have been brought upon a place by mistake, or a noonwraith may have ties to a local town and family. The meticulousness with which The Witcher 3 dives into even these seemingly small encounters is astonishing.

Cyberpunk 2077

Capital Provides Equal Opportunity Oppression

Night City is arguably the most detailed urban environment ever created in a video game, and its history could fill out a novel on its own. Drawing upon decades of lore established by Mike Pondsmith’s tabletop RPG, Cyberpunk (plus Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Red), Cyberpunk 2077 presents a world that represents the logical conclusion of oppressive capitalist structures.

There’s a bit of sensory overload when walking through Night City, with an overwhelming number of neon signs and advertisements blaring from every screen, but every detail contributes to a society that is decaying in the long aftermath of corporate wars and takeovers. Gangs control sectors of the city, and NPC behaviors and lifestyles are guided by the affluence of the places they live and the communities that they navigate.

The game does an incredible job of making players feel like a pawn in a game played by immortal corporations, with characters and entities each having their own motivations and end goals. V is only a small part of a much larger, more deadly sphere, and making their mark will take a lot of work in a world as storied and deep as that of Cyberpunk.

Death Stranding

Take a Walk on the Beach Where Wonders Await

Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2 are home to the weirdest world of the games on the list. It presents a planet that has undergone a supernatural cataclysm, where the boundary between the land of the living and the land of the dead has blurred. The concepts introduced (BTs, Timefall, the Beach, Bridge Babies) are entirely unique to this universe, and are treated with the same seriousness as the political conspiracies from Kojima’s other work.

Death Stranding grounds its bizarre mythology through its traversal, with the fractured landscapes of America, Australia, and Mexico each telling its own stories of survival. Given the destructive nature of BTs and the debilitating effects of the Timefall, people have largely holed themselves up in bespoke shelters, with supplies and equipment being transported by specialized porters.

The empty space between these locations serves as a playground for the player to explore while also giving space for cooperation, with its in-universe chiral network connecting players through shared effort. Those same themes of connection are brought to bear in the main story, as well as the individual side-stories and deliveries players can do as Sam Bridges, filling out the world in surprising ways.

Fallout: New Vegas

Your Time in the Wasteland Can Be a Bit of a Gamble

The Mojave Wasteland of Fallout: New Vegas is perhaps the series’s best look at factional relationships in a post-apocalyptic world. Factions like the bureaucratic New California Republic and the brutal, Roman-inspired Caesar’s Legion have a distinct philosophy on how society should be run. How these factions ended up in this specific space, and how their actions align with the series's long-running history, are interesting tidbits to discover.

On top of the excellent environmental storytelling, characters like Mr. House have deep ties to the past and serve as a reflection of both the world that was and the world that must now be tamed. As the player character, the Courier has some sway on the future of the wasteland through the player’s actions and factional alliances, but regardless of the player's choices, Fallout: New Vegas draws from the series's deep lore and oddities while presiding over the introduction of its own unique spin on the world.