The very notion of an open-world game is daunting. Even games where players merely have to go in a straight line until they find the end of the level can feel challenging under the right circumstances, so there’s no shame in being afraid to try a game out of fear of getting overwhelmed.
Luckily, there are plenty of open-world games that feature surprisingly small worlds. There are even those that feature incredibly huge worlds — or even star systems — and still remain pretty friendly when it comes to the challenges they put in front of players. It’s time to look at some of the best open-world games that aren’t too hard for even new players to beat.
The original Red Dead Redemption is, as many would state, the best game in Rockstar’s history. What it isn’t, however, is its hardest. Whereas Red Dead Redemption 2 made shooting more complicated, the original game makes it a breeze.
The game has since been released on PC, where players can go without the automatic aim assist options and see how being an outlaw in the Wild West would pan out. However, the original version featured such a powerful aim assist that all players had to do was press up and shoot to get an instant kill on any enemy. The dead-eye mechanic is cool, but the game’s shooting is so easy that it’s barely ever necessary.
One of the reasons Oblivion became Bethesda’s first truly earth-shattering RPG was the console-friendly menus. The other was the ease of the gameplay. One of the biggest challenges in Morrowind, Oblivion’s predecessor, was learning where to go next. Oblivion makes that a breeze, and even lets players fast travel to most places with no hassle.
On top of that, this is the first game in the series to feature enemy level scaling, which means the enemies will only get stronger if the player does. Entering a new area where a new enemy will obliterate the player in one hit is commonplace in RPGs, but that will never happen here.
Even though the great majority of players love Skyrim, there’s still some dissent among the ranks of older Bethesda fans who don’t enjoy the amount of hand-holding Skyrim does for players. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as being stuck without knowing where to go in the massive world of an RPG is never a great feeling. Still, there must be a sweet spot between being completely in the dark, and having an arrow on top of the main character’s head telling them exactly where to go.
Also, this game is about fighting dragons, but at no point do players have to find smart ways to climb on top of them or to bring them to the ground to avoid getting burned to death in a simple fly-by. The dragons land so that they can do battle with the player, out of a misplaced sense of honor, perhaps.
One of the few complaints that few people have against The Witcher 3 is that its combat isn’t as deep and challenging as the combat in Dark Souls. That’s true, but it’s not necessarily a drawback. Geralt is meant to be a sort of superhuman, and the game is meant to let players feel powerful.
Better yet, players who want to feel like they have main character plot armor can choose the game’s “story mode,” where they can rest assured they’ll get to spend all their brainpower absorbing the story. In this mode, all combat-related elements will become so easy everything will almost feel like it has been staged to make Geralt look good.
7/10
August 9, 2016
T for Teen: Fantasy Violence, Animated Blood
Proprietary
No Man’s Sky has had one of the most interesting life cycles in the history of gaming. It began as a very promising title, then got accused of being an absolute lie upon release, then gradually grew into something arguably even better than what had originally been promised.
No Man’s Sky has always been great at providing players with a soothing interstellar exploration experience. There’s never any huge threat here, and there’s so much cool and colorful stuff to see, with a nearly infinite number of planets to relax on. Avoiding getting sidetracked is the biggest challenge at play.
9/10
November 10, 2015
M FOR MATURE: BLOOD AND GORE, INTENSE VIOLENCE, STRONG LANGUAGE, USE OF DRUGS
Creation
When Fallout 4 was first shown to the public, many complained that it didn’t look good enough for a game of its generation. That was a pretty mean backlash, as the game looks way too gorgeous for a post-apocalyptic landscape.
A more poignant critique that came about upon the game’s release referred to the game’s simplicity. Fallout 4, despite its inhospitable setting, provides a simple combat experience that most will master in no time. It also features a more streamlined kind of dialogue that put many off, but that actually felt more intuitive for many others. In the end, Fallout 4 is a different Fallout experience — an easier one, but definitely not a worse one than Fallout 3.
The Forgotten City was originally a Skyrim mod, and is one of the best sleeper hits in recent memory. The game tasks players with finding out what’s happening in the ancient Roman-themed town they’ve found themselves stuck in. The player will have to find answers by talking to the inhabitants, but everything will feel much more like the best history and philosophy lesson ever, and less like the job of a desperate detective who needs to find well-hidden clues to escape their doom.
The Forgotten City’s greatest triumph is featuring a mystery that will truly have players invested in learning about the town for the sake of it, and not just so they can finish the game. It is possible to rush through and finish a playthrough in less than an hour. However, that would be a total waste of a game.
