I want to go on a lonely adventure into an unknown, interesting world. Any game recommendations?

I'm very starved for a decent open world experience right now. I'd like an open world game that's more on the sandboxy side, where I can truly feel like an adventurer. Something that's more gameplay than story-driven and where there's very little urgency. Something where the world destruction I have to save everyone from can wait until I actually start giving a **** about it.

What I want is something with a vast, open world that's interesting to explore, where I can just go on a lonely adventure (preferably with my own created character, but that's not a dealbreaker), full of immersive experiences, exploration and interesting discoveries. Something where almost every few steps there's a new, unique cave/tomb/dungeon to explore and plunder, an atmospheric landmark to look at, a village/town to restock my supplies in, or an interesting quest to complete.

In general, I'd like the game to have a very fleshed-out side content department and a world that doesn't feel empty, so that I won't get bored of playing it too quickly. The problem with finding such a game is that many of today's open world games feel pretty much like single player MMO, where the world is just a lifeless, barren space, with some monsters sprinkled around, and where the quest variety begins and ends with "bring me 10 wolf pelts because reasons".

At the risk of repeating myself, but at the same time to give you a good idea of what I'm after exactly - I want a game that's like what people are hyping Breath of the Wild to be. I want this awesome sandbox experience, where I can just go as far as the eye can see and even further, and always stumble across something cool to see or do. I said specifically "what people are hyping BOTW to be" because my skepticism (backed up by experience), as well as the videos I've seen and threads I've read about this game really make me think that it's all just hype because it's new and because it's Zelda, and in reality this game isn't nearly as good as people make it out to be. Still, all that hype really made me crave for such an experience.

Here are some examples of games that have scratched that itch for me in the past, to a larger or smaller extent:

• Starbound. Its slow-paced nature that required from you to explore every planet thoroughly really did it for me. Not to mention its godlike map generator that always managed to surprise me with something new I haven't seen yet. Villages, ancient temples, tombs, research facilities, military bases, abandoned mineshafts, even whole underground cities - this game had a lot of going on when it came to variety of optional shit you could find. Also, chests filled with cool-ass loot lying everywhere! It lacked heavily in the quest department, but the aforementioned factors really compensated for it.
• Bethesda games. I think there isn't really much to say about them that isn't already known. My favourites were Morrowind (it had a really unique world, full of interesting places), Oblivion (tons upon tons of really well-written sidequests, plus some really nice vistas), Fallout 3 (New Vegas had better story, but FO3 had a much more expansive world), and Fallout 4 (the world was very condensed, but it had tons upon tons of cool, optional locations you could find and explore; unfortunately I could only play it up to a certain part before it started being unplayable due to my weak PC combined with shit optimization).
• Assassin's Creed 4. Its side content got a tad bit repetitive after a while, as per usual with Ubisoft's games, but the world was super fun to explore. The atmosphere was unmatched, too. I haven't played a better pirate-themed action adventure game than that in my entire life.

Here are my PC's specs. It's pretty low-end, which I'm aware is a heavily limiting factor. Unfortunately, I can't afford to upgrade it at this moment, so you're gonna have to work with what I have currently:

• AMD Ahtlon II X4 @ 2.8GHz
• 4GB RAM
• AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB

So, based on that, do you have any ideas for a game that might scratch that itch for me? I'd really prefer something that takes place in either a fantasy, or any other setting where the main method of dealing with conflict is via melee combat, since those kinds of settings are the best ones in conveying the feeling of good ol' adventuring, but other settings are also fine with me, as long as the game meets the criteria given.

Also, don't suggest The Witcher 3. I know I'm making it hard on you by ruling it out, since it's probably the closest thing to what I want, but the problem is that I don't have enough hard drive space for it. I have a pretty small hard drive, with lots of important files on it that I can't just delete, so I simply can't spare 50+GB on a game, no matter how good it is.

Thanks in advance for helping me out.

@xxninja666xx: Have you tried Breath of the Wild? :P

So you're looking for interesting worlds by looking at your avatar i'm assuming you're a huge Soul's fan. Soul's have some of my favorite locations.

It's hard to find sandbox open world games that have good worlds I think the problem most i've seen do quantity over quality

• Okami linear open world you must advance the story to open up new areas but they all fill unique
• The Witness very small open world sandbox so every area is different it's a puzzle game so you unlock new areas by doing puzzle (haven't played more than a few hour myself)
• Antichamber puzzle game the game is basically a maze it's a lot of fun learning how the world works.
• Ico your goal is to escape a Castle (which is badass) but has some of the worse melee combat also has cool puzzles

I need to get fallout 3 working on my pc myself but my attempt of modding it was unstable game

I just recommended non pc games in the pc forum and wasn't even aware of this, thought this was game discussion lol

Yeah, they do, but Souls games aren't open world in a sandbox sense, so they're not what I'm looking for.

As for the rest of your suggestions, they aren't what I'm looking for either. They're all linear games that allow little to no exploration and don't have any side content in them.

I'm not looking for something super exceptional, though. Something that isn't complete garbage and has a charm of its own is good enough. However, I'm having a really hard time finding even something like that.

Not yet. I'm waiting for the PC release.

@xxninja666xx:

• skyrim if you have not played it yet,
• divinty II developers cut,
• mount and blade with fire and sword

It's among the Bethesda games bullet point. I think I played literally every Bethesda game there is (even the retro ones such as Daggerfall, Arena, and Battlespire). I didn't mention it, though, because Skyrim probably my second least favourite Bethesda game (the first one being Arena) and I only mentioned my favourites.

Hmm. I remember hearing about this game, but I've never given it a try. Now might be as good of a time as any. Thanks for reminding me of it.

Played it. It's probably my least favourite mod/DLC for Mount and Blade, despite the historical period in which it takes place being one of my favourite ones in Polish history. Because of its small scale, covering pretty much just Poland, it got pretty samey really quickly, especially in terms of units.

@xxninja666xx:

- The Solus Project

- GRAV

I bought both on sale, but have not played either. They both look interesting.

Dying Light is also a great open world game. Especially with The Following expansion. It is on sale right now at the Humble Store.

Also, you can get a 1TB HDD for cheap. Limited HDD space is such a lame excuse for not installing a great game like The Witcher 3. You really need to build a new rig. Go flip some burgers or suck some dick to earn some extra cash. Do what you gotta do! We won't judge you. LOL

The Solus Project looks kind of interesting, but I don't think it's the type of experience I'm looking for. It's a game without combat, which focuses on puzzles instead, and I suck at puzzles and would prefer it to actually have some combat. I'm not ruling it out completely, though, and I might actually check it out, but for now I think I'll wait for more suggestions.

As for GRAV, it looks good, but it's Early Access, so I'm not touching it with a 10-foot pole. Maybe when it actually gets finished, I'll give it a try.

I tried playing Dying Light, but my PC is too weak. The framerate was shitting the bed hard pretty much every time there were more than 3 zombies on the screen, so it was unplayable more or less 99% of the time.

If you live in a first world country, which I don't. Hardware is pretty expensive here and you can't just buy a 1TB HDD with money earned from a day of burger flipping.

@xxninja666xx:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/367500/Dragons_Dogma_Dark_Arisen

http://store.steampowered.com/app/102500/Kingdoms_of_Amalur_Reckoning

http://store.steampowered.com/app/288470/Fable_Anniversary

Enjoy

:)

What you describe you want IS BotW. Worth the price of a Switch if it's the only Switch game you ever buy IMHO.

Not exactly what you want, but you might like the STALKER games.

Crashworlds, The Surge, Hyper Light Drifter, Terraria

@saintsatan

I'm sorry, but none of these really fit,

Dragon's Dogma, while certainly an open world game, is pretty much empty when it comes to any sort of content. Apart from Gran Soren and Cassardis there are no settlements of any kind, there are, like, 3-4 major dungeons, and that's pretty much it. The rest of the map is just empty fields of grass.

Kingdoms of Amalur, while rich in content, looks and feels pretty much like a single player MMO, so it does a thing I have the biggest problem with when it comes to open world games.

Finally, Fable's world isn't big or expansive at all. It's just a series of narrow passageways connected to each other.

Not when you have to pay five times more for it than everybody else. You wouldn't really want to buy it if you had to pay 1500$ for the Switch and 260$ for Zelda, now would you? Because, when compared to the average salary in my country, that's pretty much the price equivalent.

Already played it. I liked Starbound much better, though, due to it having more overall content and its focus being more on the adventure side, rather than just being 2D Minecraft.

My PC can't even run many of the games from 2014 and 2015. Do you really expect it to run an AAA game that just came out?

Already played it. A fun game, I admit, but it's not open world in a sandbox sense. It also doesn't have any side content whatsoever - literally everything you stumble across is progress in one way or another.

If you mean this then I'm not even gonna bother with it. It looks like garbage in every imaginable way.

I played Shadow of Chernobyl back when it came out. It definitely was something else and I liked it a lot, but I don't think it's what I'm looking for right now. What I'm after right now is something where adventuring in dangerous places feels cool, fun, and rewarding, not a simulation of how adventuring in dangerous places would look like and real life, where you end up in some hole, wounded, with no ammo and food, slowly dying from radiation poisoning.

@xxninja666xx: sorry I meant Crashlands:

sorry about The Surge but the GPU qualifies - CPU does not sadly.

@PredatorRules:

Please tell me this game isn't nearly as obnoxious and "hehe so randumb and meta XD" as this trailer makes it out to be. Because it surely didn't convince me to play it - it had the exact opposite effect.

It's got goofy dialog as you can tell by how the devs introduce us to their game, but the game itself is very good IMO - it also got metascore of 8 by users if that concerns you.

I couldn't care less about metacritic scores.

Also, I'd really like a more elaborate answer on what exactly makes it "good" and how does it fit in with what I'm looking for, if that's not too much trouble for you. I'm asking because I've seen some gameplay videos in the meantime and the game looks kind of boring. However, this might be just a wrong first impression, so I need to know what the game truly is like - no needlessly hyping it up, no needlessly hating on it, just plain truth.

The game feels like arcade oldschool style with it's short range attacks, you can't spam attacks - you need to let the enemy try to hit you and then instantly attack him back again.

Game offers near and better gear when you kill and collect resources from enemies and new areas you explore just like you do with Terraria.

The game lets you explore with an enemy pet that when you find an egg and then evolve it.

It has lots of humor and it looks good IMO, you can also play the exact version on your mobile phone.

@PredatorRules:

Does it offer anything interesting content-wise, though? Am I to expect some sort of interesting landmarks, towns, dungeons, quests? Or is it more or less just Terraria with a different camera angle?

I would say as much as Terraria but with different combat system.

If you want landmarks, towns, dungeons and quests then I would vote for MMO like Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2 or basically any other good MMO, you can finish most MMOs nowdays 80% of it on your own but it's much fun to go on adventure with a friend.

If you still insist on playing singleplayer you can try Mass Effect series, Gothic series, Two Worlds, Dark Souls, KOTOR, KOTOR2, Dragon Age.

@xxninja666xx

Since Guild Wars 2 is F2P I would also recommend it. The Core game (i.e. not the expansion, Hall of Thorns, which is not free) can be completed solo. There's lots of things to do, and plenty to discover just wandering around. It's a very casual MMO in that you don't need to min/max or even group up if all you're doing is PvE, which it sounds like the OP wants.

The unique thing about GW2 is you benefit from other players being around even if you aren't grouped. This means you can run solo, drop in on a world boss, kill it and then continue your adventure without having to actually interact with other players. If you do damage, you get to loot, so there's no such thing as kill stealing. Resource nodes are the same way: everybody gets their share.

The world builders really outdid themselves as it's a beautiful and varied world to explore. There's story if you want to do it, but it is entirely optional. I've been playing since release and have never finished the story simply because I'd rather do other things, and there's plenty to do.

The combat is also more active than most MMOs, as positioning and dodging are essential. A lot of the skills also move you around. So, you know, don't use a dash skill if your enemy is backed against a cliff. It doesn't end well.

Edit: My GW2 folder is 28.7GB.

Have you played AC:Syndicate? It's my favorite since Black Flag.

Two Worlds 2 is a kinda unique game, god awful bad ending though which made no sense and had a very unrewarding final boss fight, but there are parts in the game which are pretty funny at times. The main character is a total troll hes pretty funny to listen to im not sure if hes joking or just reading the lines wrong but it made me laugh. The game is a bit more focused than a game like Skyrim, you can do you own thing but you don't find as many caves or random things to do. The game is a wierd one at times and i gotta say i hope the rumor is true and they are making a third one. Character creation is limited though, you can only make a male character.

Dragon Age Origins is another one, its superior to the following two sequels, it doesn't have much randomness side tracking, its fairly story focused and not as non linear as something like Skyrim where you just go wherever.

Wizardry 8, old game and turn based fighting system which is suprisingly addictive similar to something like the old might and magic games but better. Looked dated even back in 2001 just a warning. But it has a good grind to it and if given a chance is a rare gem to someone with patience for old classics. No forced path here you find you own way at your own pace in this game.

Someone mentioned Dragons Dogma and Kingdom of Amalur, those are worth checking out maybe. Kingdoms of Amalur is a very easy game with good guidance, not easy in a bad way either just not frustrating... you won't get lost in the game but the opposite can be said about Dragons Dogma, the quest tracking system is very bad and you can get really lost in the game at times.

Other old games that u may wanna give it chance, KOTOR 1 and 2, maybe Jade Empire. All really nice story focused games, but kinda linear.

I'm not looking for MMOs. I want an exclusively single player experience. No exceptions. Period.

No. Does my PC look like it can run Syndicate to you?

So... it's less open-ended than Two Worlds 1, while cranking up the crappiness factor to 11 at the same time? I don't think it's what I'm looking for, to be honest.

So, they all are a complete opposite of what I'm looking for. Gee, thanks.

I don't think I do anymore, unfortunately. I used to still have it, like, 5-6 years ago, but when I finally got a PC capable of playing newer games, I completely lost it because, when compared to new games' smoother controls and intuitive mechanics, the old games suddenly became needlessly clunky, to the point of being unplayable in many cases.

They aren't. I already explained why.

@xxninja666xx: more info on these games if not played alredy can be found on gog, steam and origin

• neverwinter knights 2
• pillars of eternity
• divinty original sin enhanced edition (different from divinity 2)
• baldurs gate enhanced edition complete saga
• jade empire

@urbangamez:

Literally none of these fit what I'm looking for. Don't want to be rude here, but are you even trying? Or have we already reached the point where you're just gonna post literally random suggestions just for the sake of contributing to the thread?

Looking at the thread, I don't think I'm gonna get anything better, so I guess I'll just give Divinity 2 a try. Seems the closest to what I want, even if it doesn't cover every base exactly. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

I no what you mean. I want something like Skyrim with out enemies but more focused on adventuring.

BOTW is a bit of a one off. well its a bit like far cry 3 (im assuming you have played that) but the execution is far more interesting.

but a bit of a long shot here: the long dark. its a survival game where you have a few huge maps to explore (all connected) and you basically need to last as long as you can (stay warm, keep fed and hydrated and so on). its in beta at the moment but nearing release. you can play it so that animals attack you also or, if you are looking for something a bit more laid back, you can set it so that animals will just run away.

plenty of landmarks and exploring. the content is not as interesting or as well developed as BOTW but then nothing really is. you are also the only survivor. no townsfolk to talk to or anything.

@osan0:

Too long of a shot, unfortunately. I don't want a straight up survival game. It can have survival elements, but what I'm after is a sandbox game where I can just roam around, explore stuff, kill monsters, find treasures, and feel super cool about it.

@xxninja666xx: try Gothic. Open world, sanbox. You just have to run with community patches to enjoy. But, pretty good once it's patched up.

@Alondrix:

Already played them. Risen, too.

@xxninja666xx: you're really rude to what i suggested you didn't have to respond like that and you've been making smart ass responses to the other people in here. You make this thread to just waste peoples time and put people down i guess?

@Yams1980:

>describe the game as a total piece of crap

>get offended when I don't want to play because it seems like a piece of crap

Okay...

literally all the games i listed meet your requirements,

• can play on your pc
• create own character
• hours of story, villages, world, dungeons and loot
• at least three of the games baldurs, pillars and divinity are as good as any bethesda game or better, obsidian literally developed fallout new vegas the one with the better story and cool stuff as you put it. i wont bother comparing ubisoft assassins creed 4 to them there is no comparison.
• not mmo or co-op

now if you have played them and didn't like them cool, to each his own, but if you have not played them, then give baldurs then pillars or divinity a try. there is plenty of info out there for you to assess them, which why i listed the sites.

I haven't read the entire thread so I apologize in advance if these have been suggested but for what you're looking for, and the specs you have:

- Baldurs Gate Series

- Icewind Dale Series

- Torment 1 and the new sequel Torment: Tides of Numenera (spiritual sequel)

- Pillars of Eternity

- Neverwinter Nights

- Witcher 1 (the first Witcher was originally isometric so your PC should run it fine)

Now all these are hardcore RPGs, but I've played all of them (finished the Baldurs and Icewind series) but you can spend countless hours on them without even touching the main storyline.

Darksiders Warmastered is a fun game and should run fine on your PC.

Darksiders 2 Deathinitive is good as well, but a lot more demanding hardware wise, so not sure about that one.

Sure, if we're to look at every criterion separately, they technically fit, but in the overall sense, they don't fit at all. They aren't open world, sandbox RPGs, where you can go wherever you want and find random stuff to do. They're very linear, story-driven RPGs. And yes, I've played all of them, but didn't like them.

@FelipeInside:

Same as with @urbangamez's suggestions. They fit in a purely technical sense, but they don't offer the type of experience I'm looking for. I know it might be a long read, but I advise you actually read the thread thoroughly to get a better idea of what I'm after. If you still want to help, that is.

I've already played both for a bit. Darksiders 1 was a bit too linear for me, so I jumped straight to Darksiders 2, hearing you don't need to play DS1 and you won't get lost in the story at all. In general I'd say I liked it and I also liked that it was inspired by Zelda so much, but turns out the creators seemed to be so enamored with the adventures of our androgynous elf boy in green, they decided to put every design choice from that series into their game, including the terrible ones, such as a very small, barren world map, with literally nothing of note on it apart from the main dungeons, and literally every sidequest being exclusively of "bring me this" or "kill that" variety, making it the exact opposite of what I wanted in that regard.

@xxninja666xx: Did you just create this thread to rip people and put people down? wow you are one rude jerk. People made some great suggestions. Dude, just upgrade that computer already and buy witcher 3.

No. I made it because I'm looking for a specific type of game.

It's hard to keep my cool and patience, when I come here to get a specific thing and I'm not getting it. Not only that, but people are also giving me ones that range from "close but no cigar" to "literally random", and I have to explain every time why it's not something I'm after in order to give people a better idea of what I want, for them to give me more accurate ideas. After a certain amount of times, when people seem to still not get it, it gets pretty frustrating, you know? But sure, whatever you say, pumpkin - I made this thread specifically so I can be an ass to people for literally no reason.

Other than that, to maybe make it a bit easier for you, I'm loosening up a little on my strict requirements. Since it seems incredibly hard to find games without simple fetch quests as side content, from now on, as long as the game meets the rest of the criteria to a tee (and really I mean it), games with fetch quests are allowed. There are two things, though:

1. The game can't be just fetch quests. It has to have at least a few "story-driven" side quests alongside all this FedEx work. To make it easier for you, though, let's say the ratio of story-driven quests to fetch quests should be, more or less, 3 to 8.
2. The fetch quests must be written in a non-lazy way. What do I mean by that, exactly? A good example of what I want would be side quests from Way of The Samurai 4. This game is riddled with fetch quests, but many of them are written in a way that doesn't feel like the creators didn't give a **** about anything. Each of those better written ones has a neat little story or reasoning to it, that makes you understand why would a certain character want such things from you. Many of them also have you acquire the items wanted in creative, non-standard ways. Here are some examples:

• A guy who offers you a series of theving missions is an amnesiac, who's trying to recall who he is. Every item he tells you to steal turns out to be connected to his past and helps him recover his memory bit by bit. The ways you have to gain those items include, among other things, pretending to be a bandit and assaulting wandering merchants from a certain merchant guild in order to find ones carrying the items you want, picking them up from a cemetery, where a pack of rabid dogs resides, and fighting a small-time Yakuza boss and his army of goons.
• A simple assassination quest, given to you by a government official, where you have to kill an ex-constable, whose family got murdered, and he might go berserk and start murdering random people out of despair. When you get to him, it turns out his family got murdered by the official's assassins because the constable was against corruption within the magistrate and was about to spill his beans. It's not a quest that turns the tides and has you turn against the magistrate if you want, but is interesting nonetheless due to giving you more insight on who you're working for.
• Another assassination quest. An old man has you kill a certain man and then report back to him when you're done? Why does he want the man dead? Because the man is a child rapist, and the old guy's grandson fell victim to that.

All of those quests are simple in their structure because they're still "bring me this" or "kill this man" ones, but they're 10 times more interesting because of those little backstories you get, instead of the lazy "I want 10 bear pelts because of my personal vendetta against all the bears of Skyrim" (that's an actual quest btw). They don't need to be nearly as dark - actually, I'd appreciate an overall more lighthearted atmosphere way more, but they have to be written in such a way, in order to not make them boring and tedious.

That's as far as I'm willing to tone down my requirements. Should give you some breathing room, I think. Do you have any ideas now?

Definitely worth the price of a Switch (or a used Wii-U if you can find one cheap). Best RPG I've played since Witcher 3.

Yeah definitely the ones I mentioned before are the closest to what you want.

Call of Chernobyl - http://www.moddb.com/mods/call-of-chernobyl

You might like the forest on steam.

Max Payne 3

the Stalker games? have these not been mentioned? I didn't read the entire thread

dude you are going to have to compromise if you are going to find a game to enjoy. Not one game is going to fit that criteria perfectly, and since you are running a PC with dated hardware you can't be that picky.

I enjoy shmups and my Favorites are Raystorm for PS1 and Layer Section for Saturn, sadly every Shmup I play I compare to those two, and most of the time other games aren't as good, but I still enjoy the genre and I am willing to play other games.

As far as my suggestion I would Look into Rime

http://store.steampowered.com/app/493200/RiME/

It may not meet all of your criteria, but you meet the minimum spec, and it's a new game.

You can't be picky man, don't be afraid to try new things and experiences. Also.....beggars can't be choosers.

Limbo.

People took their time to try introduce you to what they feel might help you, some even listed reasons as to why and you behaved like a condescending ass. Just cause you didnt get what you want (which is basically the most perfect game of the highest standards) like a spoiled immature child.

Nope, while i've some games in mind but i wont bother cause i don't feel you deserve my help(like), just want to call you out on your bullshit behaviour. I genuinely wanted to, its always nice to discuss and share games with like-minded gamers but i'm glad i actually took time to read into the thread further. But like another guy said, beggars cant be choosers so either you take a break from games and work to save up more, like everyone else for a better pc or suck it up. PC hardware being expensive wherever you are is not their problem, thats yours to deal with.