The verynature of open-world gamestends to lend itself more often to fantasy and other less high-tech settings. It’s not easy to emphasize exploration of a vast and rich world when you’ve got flying cars and dense forests of skyscrapers obstructing the view.
But in some cases, those advanced wonders can be their own view. Meanwhile, in other cases, storytellers understand that a sci-fi setting doesn’t mean you can’t have a fun and wild region to explore on foot. So what are some of the best futuristic open-world (and open-zone) games out there?
The Outer Worlds brought much of the vibe players grew to love from Fallout: New Vegas into the future, witha planet-hopping adventurethat features plenty of clever writing in a late-stage capitalist dystopia. Obsidian knows how to get your attention.
The regions are somewhat limited in scope compared to New Vegas, but the exploration element is there, and it’s as satisfying as ever. Whether you’re traveling alone or with one of your gun or hammer-toting companions, you’ll find plenty of charm in this all-too-realistic look forward.
A sad reality of sci-fi stories is that they tend to go hand-in-hand with a certain type of pessimism. It’s understandable that hope for a bright future may be in short supply these days. But that doesn’t mean it can’t still look pretty, and Cyberpunk 2077 has mastered this.
Perfectly mixing the sleek elegance of an idealized tomorrow with the grungy grit of what it’ll more likely entail, Cyberpunk 2077 sucks you right in. You’ll find yourself stopping often just to gawk at your surroundings as youtake on merc jobsand just attempt to survive in the vast metropolis of Night City.
Trying to find a new home for humanity is a tried-and-true premise for a good sci-fi story, and Mass Effect: Andromeda uses it to create some truly gorgeous settings. From the frozen wastes of Voeld to the lawless mountains of Kadara, you’ll definitely find a fair few photo ops during this galactic adventure.
Boasting arguably the best combat in the Mass Effect series, Andromeda sees you traveling to a new galaxy in search of a new start for the Milky Way races. But it’s not all exploration, as BioWare’s penchant for fun characters is present and accounted for.
Along with exploring on foot and in the Nomad vehicle, you also have a jump jet which makes climbing hills and structures a breeze.
The future is neon, apparently. The future is also the year 2007. That’s clearly the main takeaway from Far Cry 3’s standalone expansion, Blood Dragon, which sees you exploring and fighting your way through a hazy, retro-futuristic island right out ofa synthwave album cover.
You’ll fight glowing dinosaurs with laser eyes, take out outposts full of cyber commandos, and collect random trinkets in this oddly loving parody of 80s action movies. You can also get a sniper rifle with explosive rounds.
It took the Star Wars series long enough to fully delve into open-world game design, and it was frankly worth the wait. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor expands on nearly every aspect of its more linear (yet still great) predecessor, granting the player a wonderful feeling of discovery with its new wide open spaces.
You’re free to check out all the planets at your own pace as you discover them, but your progress can be blocked until you get new Force powers and gadgets. So there’s a natural sense of exploration that comes with advancing the story.
Some worlds in Jedi: Survivor, like Coruscant, are much more linear but places like Koboh and Jedha let you explore to your heart’s content, provided you have the right abilities.
If you want open-world exploration, you call Bethesda. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything for the sci-fi lovers out there until 2023’s Starfield, a game whose scope is still kind of unfathomable. Hundreds of planets ready for you to explore andeven build outposts on, and these planets are massive.
If you want that classic Bethesda gameplay loop, you can pretty much just land on a planet, pick a direction, and let the good times roll for as long as you want. But there are also plenty of populated cities to check out and some genuinely decent space combat as well.
Sci-fi can take many forms, and sometimes, that form is a tribal societyfighting robot dinosaurs with bows and arrows. While sounding like a parody of cheesy action movies, it works shockingly well in the Horizon games, with serious stories and a poignant look at humanity’s potential future through the eyes of player character Aloy.
The second game, Horizon Forbidden West, improves on its predecessor’s open-world formula, adding new forms of traversal like a glider and making exploration feel even more rewarding. The Burning Shores DLC is also a must-play, with a cool new region and maybe a little long-overdue romance for Aloy.
While Jedi: Survivor brought the series into the open-world genre, Star Wars Outlaws refined it beautifully. Newbie scoundrel Kay Vess finds herself on the wrong end of a Death Mark and that seems as good a motivation as any to find some new planets to explore.
You get to check out plenty of familiar locations like Tatooine and some great new ones as well, with Kay’s speeder serving as an enjoyable method of traversal. The story is fun enough, but getting out there and discovering new points of interest on your own (no towers here) feels completely natural and incredibly satisfying.
You’ll find tons of new locations simply while driving around on your speeder, including while on your way to other objectives, so don’t worry about missing out.
The Xenoblade Chronicles series has always been fond of massive and gorgeous areas to explore. But only one of them lets you go from one end of the map to the other in as straight a path as you’d like. (Usually, that path will involve a giant mech.) That game is Xenoblade Chronicles X.
The exploration and traversal on the huge world of Mira is fun right from the beginning, even long beforeyou get your Skell(the aforementioned mech), due to your immensely satisfying running and jumping speed. Between the varied biomes with new alien species and your home city of New Los Angeles, you’ll always have something to find.
