Open-world games promise exploration and immersion, but sometimes, bigger isn't always better. Games just keep getting bigger and bigger today, but in a race to create sprawling maps, many titles forget to actually fill those maps with meaningful content. Instead, you 🌟may just get a bunch of trees.

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10 Video Game Series That Should Never Go Open World 🔯

Imagine an open world where every corner coul🎀d lead to an animatronic jump scare

What you're left with is a gorge🎉ous playground that's ultimately hollow. Every town and mountain starts to blur together, and the spark of exploration quickly dims. Whether it’s due to weak stor🏅ytelling or environments that feel like they were built just to be stared at, these games prove that size alone doesn’t equal depth.

9 No Man's Sky

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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: No Man's Sky
Adventure
Action
Survival
Systems
4.0/5
Top Critic Avg: 72/100 Critics Rec: 36%
Released
August 9, 2016
ESRB
T for Teen: Fantasy𒅌 Violence, An🌼imated Blood
Engine
Proprietary

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

How Long To Beat
30.5🍨 Hours 𝓰
How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs)
150 hours
OpenCritic Rating
Fair

When No Man's Sky was first released, it felt like a proof of concept rather than the giant space epic promised. Sure, the promise of 18 quintillion planets was jaw-dropping, but most of them looked like sad, alien golf courses. Exploration was shallow, wildlife was copy-pasted, and that endless universe somehow felt smaller the longer you played. Needless to say, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:launch was disastrous.

This game has si🐼nce improved a lot through updates, but the original release is still a poster child for the "big but empty" problem that's common in so many open-world games.

8 💮 Fallout 76

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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Fallout 76
Action
RPG
Systems
Top Critic Avg: 54/100 Critics Rec: 8%
Released
November 14, 2018
ESRB
🔴 M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong 🔯Language, Use of Alcohol
Developer(s)
Bethesda
Publisher(s)
Bethesda
Engine
Creation
Multiplayer
ꦆ Online Multiplayer 𒉰

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

OpenCritic Rating
Weak
How Long To Beat
34 Hours

The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:post-apocalyptic sandbox Fallout 76 promised was looked forward to by many. However, instead, it gave us a sprawling Appalachian wasteland where the only thing more empty than the map was the feeling of loneliness while wandering it. At launch, there were no NPCs, just a few random audio logs. There was no emotional depth 🌠or storytelling liᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚke the other games in the series had.

Bethesda has added content since, but that first impression still has a huge impact on how the game is seen today. Plus, many players still complain𓃲 that it's unb🍬elievably empty.

7 Rage 2

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Your Rating

168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Rage 2
3.5/5
Top Critic Avg: 71/100 Critics Rec: 41%
Released
May 19, 2019
ESRB
M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Theme⛎s
Developer(s)
Avalanche Studios, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:id Software
Publisher(s)
Bethesda
Engine
𒉰 Apex: Avalanche Open World Engine

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

How Long To Beat
12 Hours
OpenCritic Rating
Fair

Rage 2 is what happens when developers build an open world because they feel like they have to, not because the game needs it. Th♕e combat is genuinely fun, and the driving is passable. But the world itself is a barren stretch of copy-paste outposts and sand-colored nothingness. It’s a post-apocalyptic map that somehow feels more artificial than any sci-fi landscape.

The side activities try to make the world a bit more real, bu𝔉t they feel like filler. There is little incentive to explore. It𒈔's not that the world is ugly; it's just that it's deeply uninteresting.

6 Mad Max

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Your Rating

Mad Max
Action-Adventure
Open-World
Systems
Top Critic Avg: 69/100 Critics Rec: 28%
Released
September 1, 2015
ESRB
M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Drugs ꦕ
Developer(s)
Avalanche Studi🍨os
Engine
Apex Engine
Franchise
Mad Max

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

How Long To Beat
20 Hours
OpenCritic Rating
Fair

Visually, Mad Max nails the look with dust storms and decaying outposts that just scream post-apocalyptic. However, after a few hours, everything starts to look the same.♎ The game leans hard on checklist design, filling its huge map with repetitive objectives and little variety. It doesn't take long to realize that you've already seen everything the game has to offer.

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2

That said, the combat is very fun. It is buried under hours of ro📖te scavenging in a sadly uninteresting world, tho🅷ugh.

5 🏅 ♔ Ghost Recon Breakpoint

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Your Rating

168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Ghost Recon Breakpoint
Third-Person Shooter
Systems
1.5/5
Top Critic Avg: 57/100 Critics Rec: 16%
Released
July 26, 2019
ESRB
m
Developer(s)
Ubisoft
Publisher(s)
Ubisoft
Engine
anvilnext

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

OpenCritic Rating
Weak

Ghost Recon Breakpoint had all the ingredients for a tactical open-world hit. It took place on a massive island with a big emphasis on stealth play. However, the island quickly begins to feel like a copy-paste. Auroa is technically huge, but its zones blend 🅘together in a haze of forests, rocks, and sterile military outposts. Instead of feel⛎ing like a dynamic battlefield, it feels like a giant multiplayer lobby dressed up as an island.

While it was a game we wa🍌nted to love, once you add in the always-online requirement and a ton of microtransactions, it quickly bec♈omes more frustrating than immersive.

4 ༺ Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora

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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora
Action-Adventure
Systems
4.0/5
Top Critic Avg: 72/100 Critics Rec: 52%
Released
December 7, 2023
ESRB
T For Teen Due To Language, Mild Blood, Violen⛦ce
Developer(s)
𝔉 Massive Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Ubisoft
Engine
Snowdrop

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

How Long To Beat
20 Hours
OpenCritic Rating
Fair

Frontiers of Pandora looks stunning. Ubisoft nailed the biolumin♕escent beauty of Pandora, but there isn't actually mu🧔ch in the world. Despite the deep lore of the Avatar universe, the world rarely reacts to you, and it just doesn't feel as full as you expect it to.

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These open-world 🅘games offer peaceful exploration.

The game begs to be explored, but it rarely🍨 rewards you for doing so. You can marvel at the beauty of the plant life a 𝔍couple of times, but that's really all the world has to offer. It's more of a theme park than a living planet.

3 🔜 Generation Zero

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Your Rating

Generation Zero
First-Person Shooter
Systems
Top Critic Avg: 49/100 Critics Rec: 7%
Released
October 18, 2018
ESRB
t
Developer(s)
🐻 Avalanch꧋e Studios
Publisher(s)
๊ 👍 Avalanche Studios
Engine
Apex Engine

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION

OpenCritic Rating
Weak

Generation Zero promised one of the most intriguing settings in recent memory, an alternate-history Sweden where killer robots stalk the couꦚntryside. While the concept is gold, the executiꦯon feels unfinished. The world is plenty moody and atmospheric, but it's also strangely static. You'll spend your time wandering through empty towns, where you'll rarely encounter anything more exciting than the occasional patrol.

It's an open wor🥀ld full of mystery, but it doesn't give you much reason to explore deeper. With friends, it can be fun, but if yo🍰u're playing solo, it gets repetitive every fast.

2 Just﷽ Cause 4 👍

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Your Rating

168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Just Cause 4
Action
Adventure
Open-World
Systems
Top Critic Avg: 68/100 Critics Rec: 30%
Released
December 4, 2018
ESRB
M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Intense Violence, ꦇStrong Language
Developer(s)
ꦉ Avalanche Studios
Engine
Apex: Avalanche Open Wor♒ld Engine

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

How Long To Beat
25 Hours
OpenCritic Rating
Fair

You’d think Just Cause 4 would be the ultimate sandbox. After all, it has wingsuits and explosions. What more could you ask for? Sadly, its massive map leaves a lot to be desired. Many of the townsꦗ are barebones, and side activities quickly become cookie-cutterꦺ. The main quests help a bit, but they quickly become repetitive, too.

Once you've grapple-hooked your 50th fuel tank, the novelty fades quickly. I🐭t starts outඣ massively fun, but doing the same thing over and over again can only hold your attention for so long.

1 Metal ꦫGear Su❀rvive

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Your Rating

168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Metal Gear Survive
Top Critic Avg: 60/100 Critics Rec: 16%
Released
February 21, 2018
ESRB
m
Developer(s)
Konami
Publisher(s)
Konami
Engine
Fox Engine
Multiplayer
🅠 Online Multiplayer ⛄

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

OpenCritic Rating
Weak

Metal Gear Survive takes the genius of Metal Gear Solid V’s sandbox and somehow makes it boring. The alternative dimension setting is a slog through lifeless zones of fog and repetitive base-building. Instead of tactical espionage, you’re poking zombies with a stick and managing hunger levels like you're playing Oregon Trail. I❀t all feels a bit confused and quickly becomes repetitive.

There is little to explore once you find the first few outposts. It's all the same. In the🌃 end, 🉐this game feels divorced from the richness we've come to expect from the series.

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🥂Some of the best o☂pen-world games ever released in the 2010s.