To answer a question as complex as knowing the evolution of open worlds, there is nothing better than exploring what each video game has achieved. From GTA San Andreas to the latest Death Stranding, we tell you how open world games have evolved in the last two decades.
The evolution of open worlds comes a long way, but it really didn’t take off until relatively recently. The last two decades have given us very important titles, with contributions that have gradually enriched this important genre. Several factors have been involved in this. On the one hand, hardware improvements, with increasingly powerful systems. On the other, multi-million dollar developments , with a lot of personnel involved and the use of sophisticated tools.
Here we must talk about the companies. Rockstar of course leads the way, with an impressive track record. However, various companies have joined the bandwagon, from Bethesda to Ubisoft , the latter especially focused on the design of this type of experience. And although this “open worlds” has been something eminently Western, the Japanese have gradually been introduced to this way of building experiences. The case of Square Enix is one of the most notable (with its iconic Final Fantasy XV ), but we have also seen brave attempts by Sega (Yakuza saga) or Nintendo itself.
When making a selection of the video games that contributed to the success of the open world genre, it’s easy to get left behind. Minecraft , for example, proposed an unusual approach, heavily supported by construction. Just Cause is like fireworks are exploding all the time. Saints Row is another version more focused on humor, while Sleeping Dogs and its oriental theme proposed a change of scene. Red Faction Guerrilla , Mafia ,The Division , Ghost Recon Wildlands , Batman Arkham City … The list would be endless, but I think this selection will give you a good perspective on the recent history of the open worlds. And if not, what we always tell you: we wait for you in the comments with your valuable contributions.
GTA: San Andreas
ROCKSTAR NORTH (2004)
It is impossible to understand the evolution of open worlds without stopping at what Rockstar did back in 2004, nothing more and nothing less than with a very modest PlayStation 2. The title not only stood out for an interesting plot and an emblematic character (CJ), but for a world full of possibilities in which the developers experimented with a thousand crazy sandboxes on land, sea and air . It was freedom taken to the maximum expression that could be at that time, and with secrets as iconic as Hot Coffee . Without a doubt, a before and after in the genre.
YOUR GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO GENDER cannot be summed up in a single concept. It showed how to create an open world game where the player could express themselves with a very high degree of freedom. This made it hilarious, since beyond completing the missions, getting lost in his city was the really interesting thing.
Shadow of the Colossus
TEAM ICO (2005)
The great achievement of Shadow of the Colossus in the field of the open worlds is in making attractive a scenario that starts from the design by subtraction so typical of Fumito Ueda , and that was presented as a powerful development solution in the time of PlayStation 2. The delight for the beauty of a lonely, enigmatic, but at the same time interesting place, pushes the player to defeat the colossi that separate him from an unpredictable end. It is not a world full of activities, but in its emptiness there is something mystical and pleasant , something that many creatives have learned from, especially in the indie scene.
HIS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO GENDER has been to make us understand that the construction of an open world depends not only on its activities, but on the sensations it can bring us. This was something that worked in Ico and that later would work in the also sensational The Last Guardian , although from another approach.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
BETHESDA (2006)
It is considered one of the best in the saga … for a reason. It was one of the first games of its kind to make pure RPG mechanics accessible . Where other games were unnecessarily dense, Oblivion added elements to aid players in their adventures, both in terms of maps and quest markers. Plus, the narrative was easy to follow and the secondary ones were a genre high. Morrowind had a unique atmosphere and Skyrim a huge world full of possibilities. It’s hard to choose, but perhaps the biggest revolution came with TES4.
ITS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENRE comes from simplifying issues of a type of game anchored in the classic conventions of Dungeon & Dragons. Oblivion stepped up and successfully combined RPG, action, and adventure so that more people were interested in getting into The Elder Scrolls.
Assassin’s creed
UBISOFT (2007)
Since its first installment, released in 2007, the Assassin’s Creed saga has been a major influence in the direction the open worlds have taken. One of his greatest contributions was his iconic climbing system , which added verticality to the genre. This was backed by a whole set of mechanics that gave robustness to an action and adventure game. The combat was conspicuous by the remarkable use of counterattack, but above all by stealth killings. Over the years (it became practically an annual series), its concept has evolved with multiple proposals, from maritime navigation in AC: Black Flag to the powerful RPG component that debuted in AC: Odyssey .
HIS BIGGEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENDER was probably the use of watchtowers, high points on the map that you had to climb to unlock the activities of a certain region. This added variety to the game concept. In addition, going up to certain places became quite an experience.
Fallout 3
BETHESDA (2008)
The arrival of the third numbered installment of Fallout was a revolution within the saga devised by Tim Cain. We are talking about a video game that adapted its deep role-playing concept to a first-person perspective, with a post-apocalyptic world in an open world. It would be the prelude to so many exponents who came later. However, nobody can take from Fallout 3 its particular throne, that of a highly immersive RPG , with fights between factions, choices in the dialogues, karma, the popular VATS targeting system and a great level of detail in everything that is refers to its setting.
HIS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO GENDER is difficult to synthesize, but we would say it has to do with the impact the player has on what happens in the world of Fallout: their decisions. It exemplifies the toughest RPG branch within the open worlds, and that is precisely where others have things to learn.
Far cry 2
UBISOFT (2008)
Ubisoft has played an important role in the evolution of open worlds in recent years. Their video games have taken advantage of the trend and squeezed it out. In particular, Far Cry was one of the earliest exponents of the company, a game in which the shooter concept was brought to an open world gameplay, with enemy settlements and vehicle handling. What did Far Cry 2 do? Practically revolutionizing the original formula with mechanics such as territory control and, above all, its intense sense of survival (something very important for the saga).
HIS BIGGEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENRE was the introduction of enemy positions as mechanics, something that has influenced a number of games. Weapon breaking and the need to heal continually added elements of survival, completed with a novel use of fire as a playable mechanic.
Borderlands
GEARBOX (2009)
The arrival of Borderlands in 2009 was a breath of fresh air for a genre that was on the eve of experiencing its great boom. The company founded by Randy Pitchford produced a rather unusual shooter at the time, with such a good cel-shading section that nowadays you don’t feel like the game has aged too much. But what fit in well, above all, was the strong RPG component that the game treasured, with an emphasis on equipment. In the following installments, humor was strengthened as a script element, added to a cooperative without which it was impossible to understand the success of this saga.
HIS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENRE was successfully introducing RPG elements into a shooter game. It is the popularization of the so-called looter-shooter, which would evolve from then on in games as important as Destiny or The Division, to name a few.
Xenoblade Chronicles
MONOLITH SOFT (2010)
This case is curious. You will see that most of the open world productions are western. Xenoblade Chronicles arguably was one of the pioneers in Japan, and also achieved greater success in the West than in her native country, something unusual in JRPGs. Its mammoth surroundings left everyone in awe. It was something unusual, and it was made possible thanks to an important collaboration with Nintendo. You already know the rest of the story, but if you don’t, we recommend this report in which we delve into the trajectory of Monolith.
HIS BIGGEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENRE was proving that gigantic worlds could be created, even on hardware as modest as the Wii. The feeling of adventure magnified is Monolith’s great achievement, something that earned him the support of Nintendo and collaborate in the making of ZBOTW .
GTA V
ROCKSTAR NORTH (2013)
Since its first installment, the Grand Theft Auto saga has shown us how much fun it can be to travel a city committing crimes. Each installment has gone a bit further in concept, from the move to 3D in GTA III to the explosion of freedom that San Andreas brought to the construction of a solid plot in the case of GTA IV . However, the most complete game to date has been GTA V, both for its impressive technical execution and for the trio of characters that we can handle in an adventure full of variety and possibilities.
HIS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENRE is not limited to a single aspect, but one of the things that most attracts the attention of GTA V is how it is able to tell three stories within the same video game … and that they all interrelate and make sense (also from a purely playable point of view). That was brilliant.
Watch dogs
UBISOFT (2014)
Ubisoft treated the open worlds from different perspectives. One of the most striking was the one he made with Watch Dogs, a video game in which the player could hack the environment and control it at will. This was the great innovation, which added a high level of variety to the classic “open worlds” formula. Although this first installment was in charge of making a pioneering approach to the concept, it would be the sequel that would exploit its possibilities, both in the narrative missions and in the open world itself. The systemic gameplay had an important milestone here, and if you don’t know what we’re talking about, you can watch this video .
HIS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENRE was to give us a highly manipulable environment, in which the player could express himself through hacking. The open world no longer just means moving freely, but using the city to our advantage. This was further explored in Watch Dogs 2 and Legion.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
KONAMI (2015)
MGSV came up with one of the best and most complex open worlds ever designed in a Japanese studio. Hideo Kojima saw the important movement that was developing around this genre and decided to put all the Konami machinery at the service of this installment. This earned him many enemies, but he also built an infiltration game that after five years has yet to be overcome (or equaled). The keys? An ambitious development, an immaculate finish and a degree of freedom for Snake like never before has been experienced in a game in the Metal Gear series .
HIS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENDER is adding a layer of freedom to the player’s actions, in this case in the stealth genre. It proposes a number of situations that can not only be solved in a single way, giving the ability to experiment with different solutions, some of them really creative.
The witcher 3
CD PROJEKT RED (2015)
Despite certain technical difficulties and that it did not propose much innovation compared to its predecessors, it must be fair and say that the Polish studio was brilliant with this delivery. The open world of The Witcher 3 is one of the most immersive that has been built, both for its size and for the amount of activities and details it presents. Varied, beautiful environments with many secrets that you did not discover until you went deep enough. That’s what made this title great, coupled with an interesting narrative and characters.
ITS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO GENDER is taking advantage of a large open world with lots of content. Each region of the map contains a good number of quests, and they also have their own history, thus contributing to the enrichment of the game universe.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
NINTENDO (2017)
Nintendo did the rest with Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a video game that went back to the roots of the saga, but with an open world like never before seen in the industry. The great achievement of the Kyoto developers was to come up with a map that was fun to explore and in which everything in sight could be reached. For this, many conventions of the Zelda saga were broken, but without implying losing the essence. In short, one of the most exemplary developments in recent times.
ITS BIGGEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENRE was providing a fun map to explore, where you can solve situations in different ways. In this regard, its physics (and chemistry) system gives rise to a multiplicative gameplay, in which each user gets a different experience.
Red Dead Redemption 2
ROCKSTAR STUDIOS (2018)
The GTA developers have little to show us when it comes to open worlds, but with RDR they hit the table again. Added to the sense of freedom from previous games was unmatched beauty and realism . The first Red Dead Redemption stood out for its powerful immersion in a western world, but the sequel was already literally incredible in terms of detail. There is no one like Rockstar when it comes to leveraging existing hardware, and the best verification of this claim is that no open world game has surpassed it today.
HIS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENRE was to demonstrate an unusual degree of playable and graphical detail, in which everything seems incredibly real. In addition, he embroidered it in everything, from the playable to the narrative, going through the sound. It will take a long time for something similar to be seen. Titanic.
Death stranding
KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (2019)
Hideo Kojima’s first work in his post-Konami era resulted in an absolutely groundbreaking open-world video game. The Japanese author broke genre conventions by turning the game’s map into the biggest playable challenge. Your task as Sam Porter was to connect a fragmented country, building “bridges” through a series of unique and quite innovative mechanics. A game concept that had not been seen before, and that was accompanied by an outstanding technical realization, in addition to the participation of familiar faces in the style of Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen or Lea Seydoux.
HIS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO GENDER was to make people understand that travel can become a central part of the experience. Thanks to excellent use of the physics engine, as well as highly polished control, driving Sam through the lands of Death Stranding resulted in one of the most enriching experiences we’ve ever played.
