A lot of ingredients go into making an unforgettable open-world game. The story has to be engaging enough for players to stick around for the long haul, the gameplay and side quests must offer a wide variety of things to do, and the world itself must have engaging lore to make it feel believable to the player.
There are a lot of open-world games that fail to build their world in a way that keeps players invested. But games like Final Fantasy XV and Days Gone succeed by creating believable locations that feel lived in and have tons of secrets to uncover.
Assassin’s Creed II is Alternate History Done Right
Ezio walks forward through a crowded street in Assassin’s Creed 2Image via Ubisoft
The world of Assassin’s Creed is very complex, taking place in both the present day and during significant historical time periods. The worldbuilding in this franchise has always been strong, but it came alive when Assassin’s Creed II snuck onto the scene.
The story of the assassin Ezio Auditore spans several years and multiple locations, detailing how he waged war against the Templars during the Italian Renaissance and clashing with several real historical figures. Both Assassin’s Creed II and its sequels, Brotherhood and Revelations, expanded the series’ lore while also telling a character-driven story that made Ezio the franchise’s best character.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Fits Snugly in the Wider Universe
Image via Ubisoft
The world of James Cameron’s Avatar is always expanding thanks to all the new films. The world got even bigger thanks to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, telling its own original story that puts players in the shoes of their own Na’vi hero who was trained as a human but must unite their own against the invaders.
The game introduces several new tribes and characters into the existing lore, bringing new customs, weapons, and biomes that haven’t been seen in the movies. These meaningful additions make Frontiers of Pandora a good companion to the movies.
Days Gone is a Zombie Story With Heart
Image via Deep Silver
Post-apocalyptic zombie stories need strong worldbuilding to get players hooked when they’re not fighting the undead. Days Gone does a good job at this by giving protagonist Deacon St. John plenty to do in zombie-infested Oregon.
In addition to side quests and exploration, there are numerous factions Deacon can interact with that fully explore what living in a world decimated by the undead is like. It’s a gritty and unforgiving version of America that comes together in a believable way, which makes Days Gone an underrated PlayStation exclusive.
Final Fantasy XV is Another Square Enix RPG Gem
Prompto takes a selfie with Noctis in Final Fantasy XVImage via Square Enix
Final Fantasy games always have strong worldbuilding, and Final Fantasy XV is no different. The world of Eos has a long and complicated history, explored both in the main game and the extra games and DLC.
Through all of this material, fans learn all about the war between the lands of Lucis and Niflheim, the story of the six Astrals, and the role that protagonist Noctis plays in becoming a prophesied king. Once the story of Final Fantasy XV begins, it’s hard to turn away.
CBR Exclusive · Quiz WHICH FINAL FANTASY HERO ARE YOU? The Crystal Has Chosen You From the slums beneath Midgar to the shores of Spira, from the burning ruins of Vector to the edge of a godless future — Final Fantasy’s greatest heroes carry worlds on their shoulders. Each one is a different answer to the same question: who do you become when fate asks everything of you? Fifteen questions. One destiny.
FFVII Cloud Strife Ex-SOLDIER
FFVI Terra Branford Magitek Warrior
FFX Tidus Star Blitzball Player
FFXIII Lightning L’Cie Warrior
01
The party is falling apart before the final dungeon. You: Every hero faces the moment the mission starts to crack.
02
Your past is catching up with you. How do you carry it? In Final Fantasy, no hero escapes who they were.
03
What is the source of your greatest strength? Power in Final Fantasy always comes from somewhere real.
04
You must give something up to save everyone. You choose to sacrifice: The hardest choices reveal a hero’s true values.
05
Someone tells you to smile more. You: Small moments reveal the biggest personalities.
06
A prophecy names you the chosen one. Your reaction? Fate is Final Fantasy’s oldest weapon — and its greatest test.
07
Your battle style in a crisis is: The way you fight is the way you live.
08
The crack in your armor is: Even the legendary have a weakness in the stats screen.
09
An ally betrays the party. Your response: Trust is the most fragile currency in the Final Fantasy world.
10
The world is ending. What keeps you moving? Final Fantasy always asks this. The answer defines everything.
11
Strangers meeting you for the first time would say: First impressions in the overworld matter.
12
You discover everything you believed about yourself was a lie. You: Final Fantasy loves this moment. So does character.
13
What does the party mean to you? No hero wins alone. But why they need others varies.
14
The world that shaped you was: Every hero is a product of the world that broke them.
15
Standing before the final boss, you think: The last save point is behind you. This is what you’ve been building toward.
THE CRYSTAL HAS SPOKEN YOUR FINAL FANTASY HERO
Your scores appear below. The character with the highest number is your match — read their description to discover which legend of the Final Fantasy universe has always lived inside you.
FINAL FANTASY VII Cloud Strife
FINAL FANTASY VI Terra Branford
FINAL FANTASY X Tidus
FINAL FANTASY XIII Lightning
You are formidably capable and brutally self-contained. You built walls so high that even you sometimes forget there’s someone worth knowing on the other side of them. Your strength is real — but it was forged in grief, and part of you has never fully left that burning town. What makes you extraordinary isn’t the sword or the silence: it’s that underneath all the cold precision, you still care about people with an intensity that frightens you. The ones who earn your trust don’t just gain an ally. They gain someone who will walk into the end of the world for them, without ever saying a word about it.
You are extraordinary and don’t fully believe it yet. Something inside you — something ancient and luminous and untameable — has always been there, waiting. Others have tried to control it, define it, weaponize it. What they never understood is that your power isn’t the dangerous part: it’s your heart. The capacity to love that you spent so long being afraid of is your greatest strength. You are not a weapon. You are not what was done to you. You are what you choose to become — and that choice, made quietly, every day, is the most heroic act in the game.
You feel everything at full volume and refuse to apologize for it. Where others calculate, you leap. Where others grieve in silence, you cry out loud and then help everyone else back to their feet. You understand instinctively that love is not sentimental — it’s the most courageous thing a person can do. You walked into a journey you didn’t fully understand for people you had only just met, and you gave it everything you had. That isn’t naïveté. That’s the rarest kind of bravery: the kind that smiles on the way into the dark.
You are relentless in a way that unsettles people who don’t know you — and humbles the ones who do. You buried everything soft about yourself because the world required it, and you made yourself into something no fate, no god, and no system could stop. What people mistake for coldness is actually grief in armor: you loved someone so completely that losing them rewired everything. Underneath the discipline and the precision is a person who would unmake the laws of the universe for the people they love. And has. More than once.
Hogwarts Legacy Reinvents the Wizarding World
Image via Warner Bros. Games
A franchise as big as the Wizarding World is filled with many different stories outside of Harry Potter. Hogwarts Legacy does the smart thing by focusing not on the boy who lived, but instead on a new story set in a different time period of Hogwarts.
It’s through this new lens that fans of the franchise get to learn about a new group of students and teachers, the war between wizards and goblins, and ancient magic that ties to the founders of Hogwarts. The world of Hogwarts Legacy fits well within the franchise without disrupting what was previously established.
Immortals Fenyx Rising Delightfully Plays Around with Greek Mythology
Image via Ubisoft
Games that take inspiration from Greek mythology always play fast and loose with the mythology. Immortals Fenyx Rising takes a comedic, colorful approach to that mythology and creates its own identity in the process.
Players get to learn about each of the Greek Gods’ stories, and watch both them and Zeus change as they interact with Fenyx. It makes Immortals Fenyx Rising a surprisingly character given game given its epic scope and silly sense of humor.
Infamous: Second Son Shows the Aftermath of the Beast’s Rampage
Image via Sucker Punch Productions
After the events of Infamous 2, the world was wide open for new lore to expand the series. Infamous: Second Son came in and made the world of the Conduits even bigger.
A second generation of conduits, including the protagonist Delsin Rowe, comes with an array of new powers and a government faction trying to hunt them down. And with an open-ended conclusion, there could still be more room for Infamous stories.
Far Cry 4 is a Nation Full of Secrets and Intrigue
Image via Ubisoft
Each Far Cry game comes with its own lore that stands alone from each other. For Far Cry 4, players are transported to the fictional nation of Kyrat in the midst of a civil war against its tyrannical leader, Pagan Min.
Not only is Kyrat a big place to explore, but it also features an extensive amount of lore to uncover. Following the history of the nation from ancient times to modern day, as well as learning about a legendary Kyrati warrior through dream sequences, is one of the best parts of playing Far Cry 4.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Feels Both New and Familiar
Image via Insomniac
Marvel’s Spider-Man allows Insomniac Games to craft their own version of the webslinging hero. The result is a superhero game that stands on its own compared to many other stories in the Marvel universe.
There are new versions of Peter Parker and his rogue’s gallery of villains, versions that offer new twists that comic readers won’t see coming. As the series grows past the games and into its own comics and novels, the world of Marvel’s Spider-Man is set to surprise us even more.
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a Triumph of Tolkien Storytelling
Image via WB Games
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor takes place within the world of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Though it shares the same universe as The Lord of the Rings, this game tells its own story about a fallen warrior seeking revenge against the people who killed him.
The game balances telling an original story following new characters with references and cameos from classic Tolkien faces like Gollum and Sauron. Like many tie-in games like Hogwarts Legacy, Shadow of Mordor doesn’t mess with established lore, but instead adds upon it in meaningful ways.
