Wide Open Spaces: The Best Open Worlds in Gaming

In the buzzword orgy that comes out of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, “open world” has been one of the most prominent offerings. You can't walk a mere foot without hearing PR reps talking about the huge, massive, friggin' ginormous open worlds their games boast. Bigger than all their other games combined! Bigger than anything else on the E3 floor! Bigger than the state of Rhode Island!

But as many ladies and some guys will tell you, it's not always the size of the open world that counts; it's what you do with it, if you know what I mean.

WATCH_DOGS clearly knows what I mean. As Nick Tan pointed out in his review, not only are players free to roam around Chicago as they want, scads of opportunities for side missions and fetchquests exist, to the point where the immersive main quest only makes up about 20% of the available objectives.

To show that it's in good company, here are our selections for the best open worlds in open-world gaming. These open-worlds are the ones that not only allow (mostly) free-roaming, but a lot of options as to when to pursue side quests and when to focus on the main story. It's time to see who can really rock the socks off an open world and who just has a big… uh… map screen, but doesn't know how to use it.

Upcoming Releases
Kindred Fates is an open world monster battling RPG, and a love letter to the monster battle genre. Our goal is to evolve the genre, and finally bring fans what they've been asking for.
Inspired by the beauty of the natural world around us, Everwild is a brand-new game in development from Rare where unique and unforgettable experiences await in a natural and magical world. Play as an Eternal as you explore and build bonds with the world around you.
Atlas is an action-rpg with rogue-like elements where you use your ability to control the ground to fight the enemies and move through procedurally generated worlds.
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