One of the main things gamers want is a world that is massive to explore. If players can do a completionist run in less than 30 hours, then the world probably did not feel large enough for them. People want environments to wander through and they want to learn about every single obstacle and detail that the creators could imagine. Some games might be able to squeeze by with 20 hours of gameplay but they need to be an incredibly immersive experience.

There are a lot of video games that contain an immense world that you are free to roam at your pleasure. The Dark Souls franchise gives you quite an expansive world. So, do the games in the Super Mario franchise, such as Super Mario Odyssey, which was a top contender to be an example used in this list. However, we are going to focus on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild, mainly because the game is everything you could ever want from one of the most legendary franchises in the industry.

Besides simply providing gamers with a large world, Breath of the Wild is featured because of the range of regions you must journey across. You have to deal with frozen tundra, volcanic ranges, endless plains, and treacherous caverns. It is practically impossible to get bored during this game, because there is so much to explore and every inch of land is extremely different.

Just as there are countless environments to explore, there are countless ways to tackle each and every area. An open-world game simply would not be as much fun if you weren’t able to romp through the area as you pleased. With that in mind, let’s start talking about the next game on this list, which is infamous for letting gamers do whatever they want.

Another thing that gamers want from their open-world games is the ability to do just about anything. In these worlds, people want to be able to play around. They want to be able to jump off cliffs. They want to be able to swim underwater. They want to be able to do whatever they want in the world that is in front of them. It’s their sandbox to rule.

Grand Theft Auto V is the game to play if you are looking for a world where you can do just about anything. In fact, the Grand Theft Auto series is quite infamous for being one of the first series to truly let you do whatever you want. You want to mug someone, go ahead. You want to steal a car, well, that’s the title of the game isn’t it? You want to hijack a helicopter and shoot up a business, well that’s your prerogative. Your devilish imagination is the only limit in this game. It is amazing to think that this level of control actually came out way back in 2001, when Grand Theft Auto III was released.

The fun has only increased over the years in this franchise. Playing Grand Theft Auto Online is a complete blast, because it really has become a game of one-upmanship. What can you get away with in another living person’s territory? That’s the soul of the online play.

Admittedly, there are consequences for your actions, both in the online game and older entries. However, that’s part of the fun of the game. Would robbing a bank be any fun if the police didn’t chase you afterwards? Would it be any fun stealing from another person’s neighborhood if there was no threat of them answering back with vengeance? A good chunk of the fun comes directly from getting away with your crimes or stopping someone from enacting their revenge. The larger the squad of police you can get chasing you, the more fun you are going to have. The aspect of consequences leads us to our next game and topic.

More recently, gamers want every single action to have a consequence. Is there really any fun in a role-playing game if you decide to be an arsonist and then don’t even have to deal with having to run away from law enforcement? Is it really any fun if the next time you load the game, the town is back to normal and no one is mad? Open-world games go hand-in-hand with role-playing because they really let you decide who your character is and what you are all about.

Dragon Age Inquisition is as much about exploring as it is about making decisions. This game perfectly combines the first two aspects that gamers are looking for in open-world games, and it answers the third demand that has been growing more and more thanks to games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and The Witcher.

People want a world that is interacting with them. People want a world that holds them responsible for the actions they choose. People want a world that feels incredibly real. Dragon Age gives players a world that is very much alive with its own prejudices, disputes, political strife, and so many more real-world issues. In creating such an environment, the creators have made a world that is full of people who feel real.

There are so many areas to explore and with each area there are people to meet and with each person a plethora of choices to make. The story you receive depends on so many little interactions, which, by the way, gives the game massive replay value. Overall, this allows players to fully immerse themselves in the Dragon Age universe.

It’s interesting to admit that the intricacy of the world actually steals a little bit of the control you have over the world. Characters are not simply going to bend to your will. If you’re a male character, no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to convince Sera to have romantic feelings for you. Some can argue that this intensifies the experience, though, because everything is so much more realistic and you must actually make compromises.