10 Open World Games That NEVER REALLY END
A2
Sometimes a good open game world feels
like it never really ends.
So today we're just going to kick back
and talk about some cool stuff. 10 openw
world games that never really end. Let's
get started off with number 10. The
Planet Crafter. Uh now unlike a lot of
other survival crafting games,
especially ones involving space travel,
uh the world here was designed and it's
static. It's not randomly generated or
anything. This is a game with a
definitive end point uh where you can
stop, but there's nothing stopping you
from just continuously building up the
planet, adding more buildings and more
stuff and expanding your production
capabilities endlessly. It feels like
it's a game uh you can play alone or up
to 10 players, and it's essentially
Subnotica if you don't have to worry
about sea monsters jump scaring you.
That doesn't mean the game is easy,
though. You're still likely to die a lot
in the early game. Look, the whole point
here is to terraform a planet that
starts off as like a baron wasteland
with zero atmosphere and eventually
transform it into this verdant paradise
filled with life. And it's a longass
road to get to that point, but it's
extremely satisfying to actually
eventually get there. It takes a very
long time just to get through the main
progression path, but there's enough
complexity to the base building here
that the game can keep you occupied for
like hundreds of hours on top of the
hundreds of hours it just takes to
finish the damn terraforming project.
This game is not talked about enough.
Now at number nine, this is an obvious
one, but No Man's Sky. It's a game that
feels like a forever game at this point.
It's seen consistent updates ever since
it launched back in 2016. We're very
close to 10 years of totally free
updates for this game. And while at its
core, it's still the same crafting and
resource gathering game that it was when
it first came out, now there's just so
much more to actually do in the game
that you could spend easily hundreds of
hours playing it.
And if Steam reviews are anything to go
by, then a lot of people have. Now look,
the game gets accusations of being
shallow. And I think if you felt that
way, you still might feel that way. But
like all these new features they're
adding, it's nuts, right? They put in a
functioning gravity gun into the game.
That's huge. And it gives us something
new to play with. But ultimately, if you
want to spend a lot of time in No Man's
Sky, then you're either going to be
playing with friends, messing around
with them, or building out a base. There
are some incredible bases out there. I
mean, the game gives you so many options
for how to build that stuff. Like, the
players have come up with some really
wild stuff to keep them entertained. No
Man's Sky is a game that you can pretty
quickly technically wrap up if you want
to. You know, just fly to Descendant of
the Universe and call it a day. But the
real meat and potatoes of this game is
everything else you can do and how you
can actually live in this game. All the
stuff they've added on for years and
years, from freighters to mechs to all
different ways to explore and all
different ways to interact. It means
that the actual ending of the game
barely even matters anymore. And that's
impressive.
Next, at number eight, Valheim. Now, 5
years in early access with no end in
sight might sound weird to some, but
this game is already an excellent
survival crafting game with one of the
best, most intuitive base building
systems we've seen in the genre. It's
also a very challenging game that starts
off difficult and then only really gets
harder from there.
Part of what makes this game so long
lasting though is the difficulty on top
of the excellent crafting system and the
randomly generated and sometimes
downright gorgeous map that adds variety
to each new start. There's also a huge
selection of mods that breathe a lot of
life into the game and give players a
lot more variety for how they want to
experience what's there and see new
things. A healthy mod scene is just an
essential part of any game's long-term
future. Some good mods can double or
triple the play time of a game if
there's enough to chew on and a good
community behind it filled with
creative, smart people. And Valheim is a
perfect example of that. Valheim's
community is extremely productive,
right? There's a lot to dig into here.
like the base game is is more than
enough to keep someone busy for a long
time. But again, if you want to make
this a real forever game, then it's
entirely possible with mods.
Now, at number seven, Mountain Blade 2:
Banner Lord. Like the first game,
Mountain Blade 2 is more of a sandbox
game than just like a traditional openw
world experience. It's a complicated
game. It's a set world with cities and
factions that never change. But one
playthrough will never be exactly like
another. There is no set path forward in
this game. It's entirely up to you to
how you want to build your legend. And
that's what makes this game so
interesting. It's almost like a more
action focused game of Crusader Kings or
Europa Universalis. You know,
the game is more about playing a role
and seeing what you can accomplish more
than winning. Your general goal is
always going to be to raise up the ranks
and earning wealth and building an army
and engaging in diplomacy and warfare.
But how it all plays out will be
different between each run. The second
game has a lot to do and is generally
just a better looking and more
accessible game than the first Mountain
Blade. But if you want to keep the game
going forever, then the first Mountain
Blade has a lot of incredible mods made
for it. It's a game that could
theoretically keep you playing like a
good portion of your life, man. I mean,
hell, there are people out there that
only play Mountain Blade simply because
of the absolute incredible amount of mod
support that the game has gotten over
the years.
Next, at number six, Fallout 4. Look,
you could say just about any Bethesda
openw world game never really ends or
you could live in it for a really long
time, but Fallout 4 especially gives you
a lot to do outside of simply completing
quests and just exploring the world,
right? The settlement building aspect of
the game gives it a lot of life past the
point the credits roll. And the Skyrim
style radiant quest system at least
gives you something to do even after the
rest of the game's content is
technically completed. Skyrim has
similar randomly generated quests, and
it's obviously a game that has kept
people playing for a really, really long
time simply on the strength of the game
world. But Fallout 4 has more built-in
systems designed to keep you playing for
a really long time. It's just whether or
not you actually want to do that. It
might not actually be effective for
everyone. You know, a lot of people
prefer the more role-play ccentric
Fallout New Vegas, but the base building
in Fallout 4 is satisfying. It's really
well done.
were created on purpose.
>> And the colony management aspect where
you have to keep your settlements
powered and defended offers at least a
little depth to what otherwise would be
a pretty basic building and crafting
system. It gives you a reason for it.
There's also the mods, of course. Most
notably something like Fallout London,
which is one of the most impressive
total conversions out there. It's
insane. There's a lot to do in Fallout
4. It might not be what we actually want
in a Fallout game, but it can still get
its hooks in you, and it has with a lot
of people.
Next, at number five, Legend of Zelda:
Tears of the Kingdom. It's the Ultraand,
man. Like, it still feels like a game
mechanic from the future. The way this
game is able to seamlessly allow you to
combine multiple objects together to
create various contraptions is still
kind of mind-blowing and it gives so
much depth. It's a mechanic that's so
good that it needs to be replicated and
copied, but I legitimately don't know if
any other game makers are even capable
of making something that manages to be
so intuitive but also so complex at the
same time. The way they're able to take
something that was possible only in
something like Gary's mod where you
could combine stuff together, but it was
a jank fest into the mechanic we got
here fully fleshed out with Tears of the
Kingdom that feels so natural and
frictionless. It's just an incredible
feat of video game programming.
This thing alone makes it possible to
waste hundreds of hours in the game if
you're up for it. Far beyond the amount
of time you'd actually spend on like,
you know, defeating Ganon or something.
Sure, it's tempting to just slap
together something extremely effective
and basic, but the real fun, if you're a
tinkerer, is building stuff that's as
inefficient and weird and creative as
possible. When this game released, it
went viral for a reason. The amount of
creative weird things that people did in
this game and the amount of time they
spent doing it is nothing short of
amazing.
Now at number four, Project Zomboid.
This is an early access game that never
ends. Just last year, they finally
brought in multiplayer support. It's
unstable, but it's something. Look, this
sandbox zombie survival game is still
technically not complete, but there's
already more than enough here to keep
someone busy for a very, very long time.
Just look at the Project Zomboid fan
base. So, the map of Knox County is
entirely handbuilt, but it's absolutely
massive. Actual like square mileage
estimates are all over the place, but if
you actually play the game, then all
that matters is that getting around
takes a long time. Even with a vehicle,
it's a hell of a trick getting from one
end of the map all the way to the other.
It's possible with enough knowledge and
practice to stay alive for a very long
time in this game, but for most people,
their play times are going to be
measured in like minutes at first and
then hours, but rarely ever days.
Project Zomboid is a game that is
notoriously lethal. Like something as
simple as an infected cut can kill you
in the long term. And forget about a
zombie bite. Even a scratch is enough to
infect and kill you. Death isn't the end
of your story, though. It's possible to
reload into the same game you died in as
a new character, and it's possible to
find your previous character, shuffling
around as The Walking Dead where you
left them. So, the game truly never
ends. You can just keep dying and
starting over and over again if you
want, and Knox County will just keep
going on without you. It's a game that's
highly dangerous, but it's possible to
live a very long time if you're truly
dedicated. This is a really unique
zombie experience.
And now down at number three, 7 Days to
Die. It's zombie Minecraft set in a
massive world filled with unique
handcrafted points of interest. There's
enough just to explore that you can keep
someone busy for a really long time, but
then throw in the base building, the
horde defense mechanics, the
multiplayer, and the [ __ ] ton of mods,
and this is a game that can be played
for a really, really long time.
Now, I know it's far from the most
beautiful or intuitive games, but
there's just so much there. What still
impresses us here is just how elaborate
a lot of the points of interest are. You
know, they're not just generic
structures that you wander in and out of
in a second. Many of these buildings are
full-on dungeons with puzzles to solve
and keys and stuff to collect, all
carefully designed to be engaging.
They're not just the generic sort of
randomly generated structures you're
used to seeing in a survival game.
Exploration is fun, but base building is
just as good. You know, the zombie
hordes are pretty relentless when they
attack, so even the most impregnable
fortress can be breached. Just trying to
build the perfect defensive structure
can keep someone busy for a really long
time. It really is a game of two halves,
but both of them are extremely fun in
their own right, especially with a
friend or two along for the ride.
Now down at number two, Satisfactory.
This factory building game has a
definitive end point technically. like
your progression does eventually stop at
some point and that's the end of the
game, but there's nothing stopping a
Satisfactory player from just
continuously building out their ultimate
eternal factory for hundreds of hours
past the point where the game was
actually technically meant to end. It's
easy to get obsessive about this game.
That's the charm of it. It's so cool.
It's so immersive with the first person
camera and just existing in this massive
structure that you built from the ground
up. It It's just so satisfying. It's a
game that's hard to give up. You know,
you just want to keep optimizing your
production chain and make even more
elaborate and impressive structures for
your factory. That's the real
satisfactory here. It's the part after
you unlock everything. The story, in
quotes, is essentially a tutorial. After
that, it's all about taking everything
you learned and using the many levers at
your disposal to create the ultimate
world spanning factory. And you're going
to want to do it for a long time.
And now finally down at number one,
Kenshi. This game is like if Rim World
wasn't a colony sim, but an RPG. It's
less of a full openw world game and more
of a storytelling engine where you can
do whatever you want and just see what
happens. Now, like Rim World, Kenshi
generally involves a brutal failure and
crushing defeat. This is an extremely
unforgiving game. Even when you give
yourself the most favorable start
possible, you think you're set up for
success, it's still really easy to run
into trouble that can very quickly
escalate out of control until you're
just a torso crawling through the empty
desert, counting the minutes until your
inevitable death. Yes, it's that type of
game.
This is a pain in the ass, but it's also
very engaging and rewarding and
entertaining, and it's surprisingly
deep. Eventually, you can cyborg
yourself out, get an entire posi to
follow you, and even start up your own
town with building mechanics and
everything. There's a lot to do in
Kenshi if you manage to survive starting
out, which you generally probably won't,
but that's what makes the game so
interesting. It's not much of a looker.
I get it. You're looking at this, you're
like, "This is number one." But like, as
far as emergent narratives go, very few
games can match the sort of controlled
chaos that is Kenchi. It's an extremely
weird, unforgiving game, which can be a
turnoff for a lot of people. This is
literally not a game for everyone. But
if it clicks with you, if you are that
type of person, then Kenshi's World is
one you can spend a ton of time getting
lost in. Uh, but those are 10 openw
world games that never really end. This
was fun to talk about and I know there
are a bunch more examples out there. So,
let us know in the comments some of your
favorite games that feel like they never
end. Whether by design or just how you
play and how you engage with them. If
you like talking games with us every
single day, clicking the like button is
all you got to do. It really helps us
out. And if you're new, consider
subscribing, maybe hitting that
notification bell cuz we do put out
videos every single day. But as always,
thanks for watching and we'll see you
guys next
