10 Best Linear Games That Feel Open World

Due to video games like Skyrim and Breath of Wild, the hunger for open-world games rose drastically within the 2010s, and fairly frankly, everybody has remained fairly ravenous ever since.

The extent of immersion, participant freedom, and enjoyable an open world can present is difficult to match, however some video games discover a means.

They do that by offering linear structure to their narrative and development however using loads of design rules that permit for simply sufficient exploration, participant freedom, and option to make gamers imagine that they’re nonetheless the king of the playground they inhabit.

It is a powerful tightrope to stroll, however these video games handle to do it with aplomb, providing linear experiences that also supply that open-world feeling all of us crave.

10 Atomic Coronary heart

Crispy Critters

Whereas not everybody will agree with me, and I utterly get why, I do nonetheless really feel that Atomic Coronary heart was a greater sport than lots of people gave it credit score for.

It seemed beautiful, provided tight gunplay that felt like a mesh between Wolfenstein and Bioshock, and provided a surreal setting to get misplaced in. Solely, in actuality, you could not get actually misplaced when you tried.

You see, regardless of having massive open areas to roam, together with a center portion of the sport that expands dramatically, this sport may be very a lot a mission-based format, permitting for a extra tailor-made expertise with common set items.

Nonetheless, with common alternatives to go off the crushed monitor, delve into optionally available features of the sport, and take down mechanical monstrosities, Atomic Coronary heart masquerades as an open-world sport, even when it is nothing of the type.

9 Ultimate Fantasy XVI

Roaming Rosaria & Past

Ultimate Fantasy’s newest installment represents an ideal place for these unfamiliar with JRPGs of this ilk to hop into the sequence, because it’s probably the most accessible of all of the entries but, enjoying extra like an Motion RPG at occasions.

This accessibility additionally interprets to the world design and development of the sport, as gamers will likely be subtly funneled by way of semi-open areas and hub worlds as they push by way of the wonderful story on supply, with Clive on the heart of the motion.

It might be linear, however these huge, lovely areas, the wealth of facet quests and the reward for exploration within the type of objects and goodies. To not point out your Chocobo mounts, all make this linear expertise really feel a lot much less on rails than it truly is.

8 Stray

Little Cat, Large World

I typically say that Stray was probably the most overrated video games in historical past, but it surely’s not as a result of it was a foul sport. It is simply that it wasn’t the phenomenon the web would have you ever imagine. It simply goes to indicate {that a} cute cat can work wonders to your advertising marketing campaign.

However, even when it wasn’t a world beater, it was a sport that also did lots of cool issues, equivalent to providing a surprisingly emotional story, a surprisingly gritty setting, and pocket-sized open areas to discover to your coronary heart’s content material.

Many of the sport is noticeably linear, however at occasions, the sport opens up, like within the Slums and Midtown, providing a pseudo-open-world really feel.

You may not spend a whole bunch of hours exploring, however every space is kind of densely packed and well-designed, which means that it’s going to save your open-world needs, not less than for a short while.

7 A Plague’s Story: Requiem

So Many Bloody Rats!

A Plague’s Story is a sequence that goes a bit underneath the radar regardless of being a whole package deal. It appears to be like nice, performs nice, and has an impactful story. You already know, apart from the rat pope bit, however we are able to forgive that.

The sequence additionally succeeds when it comes to world design, and the second within the sequence is one of the best instance of this, providing areas with loads of optionally available winding paths, and again alleys to discover. To not point out, there may be lots of world-building by way of the set dressing and dialogue of the NPCs that occupy every space.

Briefly, the world feels alive, and although you might be being funneled by way of to your subsequent story beat, you are free to maneuver at your personal tempo and drink in each space.

Plus, the sport additionally has chapters that set out their stall as pocket-sized open worlds the place gamers are let off the leash to do as a lot or as little exploring as they please.

It is the epitome of a AA gem, and it is a sequence that I’d like to see made right into a trilogy. Fingers crossed.

6 God of Struggle: Ragnarök

Dad Of Struggle

Relating to distinctive programs that make linear video games really feel extra open-ended than they really are, Santa Monica’s technique of breaking apart the realms current within the Norse mythology-fuelled reboot of the God of Struggle franchise is correct up there.

Regardless of the sport having a really tailor-made and linear narrative that’s paced in a really explicit means, because of the participant with the ability to bounce from world to world freely, you by no means really feel like you might be on a conveyor belt.

Plus, because of the unimaginable set items, the visible splendor, and the quantity of optionally available content material on supply, equivalent to this sport’s equal to Valkyries, the Berserkers. There’s all the time a sense which you can go off the crushed monitor and be rewarded for doing so.

5 Metro Exodus

Not The Nuclear Winter We Wished For

There’s nothing like a bit little bit of Eurojank, and maybe apart from STALKER, the Metro sequence is the king of this very particular style.

Metro 2033 and Final Mild could have been about as linear as an FPS marketing campaign may presumably be, however Exodus spiced issues up, providing a extra open-ended expertise that allowed this already harrowing and atmospheric sequence to delve even deeper into themes of depravity, hardship, and human resilience.

The sport remains to be very eager to maintain the story on rails and tempo issues appropriately so that every story beat lands with the suitable weight it ought to.

However critically, there are a lot of extra huge open areas to discover, extra optionally available features to hunt out, and extra moments that contain participant alternative.

Regardless of the apparent flaws that come half and parcel with Eurojank video games, Metro Exodus is one other shining instance of why this sequence is so beloved, and it stays the strongest outing but for the sequence, even with a really current VR outing placing in an honest displaying, too.

4 Bioshock Infinite

The Prospects Really feel Infinite

Bioshock Infinite is a sport that’s obsessive about providing the phantasm of alternative as a result of, in the long run, the loop will proceed, and all issues will find yourself the identical. You want solely chat with these Lutece oddballs for clarification on that.

Nonetheless, the sport can be centered on providing the phantasm of an open world, because the participant is given the runaround Columbia with numerous story beats, locking you out of outdated areas and thrusting you into the subsequent.

Nonetheless, because of the seamless nature of those set items, and the open nature of every chapter’s map, you by no means really feel like there’s a hand in your again shoving you ahead, although there completely is.

It may be agitating for completionists to search out out that there is no technique of backtracking. I do know I used to be irate on the time, however apart from that, it is intelligent design that makes Columbia appear extra grand than it maybe really is.

3 Dishonored

Degree-Based mostly With Plenty of House

An immersive sim is a tricky kind of sport to provide as a result of providing full participant freedom and seemingly limitless paths of development takes lots of meticulous planning and joined-up considering. Nonetheless, when it comes off, it will possibly make a level-based and linear sport really feel as open-ended as any sport in the marketplace.

That is true of Dishonored, a sport that’s purely level-based and plops you into numerous open areas in Dunwall with the last word aim of exploring, remaining out of sight, and coping with your goal, both by assassinating them, or by extra inventive means,

Due to the wealth of the way to navigate any given state of affairs, and the densely packed open areas, there may be by no means a second the place you’re feeling such as you’re enjoying something aside from a sport the place you are in management. When, in actuality, you’re a slave to the extent development and duties, you may be offered in a inflexible order.

2 The Final of Us: Half Two

A Saunter in Seattle

Whereas TLOU2 undoubtedly pales compared to the unique narratively, there may be no argument that the sequel steps it up in nearly each different division and world design is actually a type of.

The sport just isn’t solely probably the most visually completed video games of the period but in addition one which incorporates a depiction of Seattle and past, which is a pleasure to discover.

Whether or not it is the intentional pocket-sized open worlds of Downtown Seattle or the wealth of areas that current open areas with densely packed enemies, objects, and factors of curiosity, all the things feels grand in scope and scale, although, in actuality, it is a tiny little cul-de-sac.

It is about as open as a sport of this nature may be whereas nonetheless managing to ship a fluid and well-paced narrative because it does. It may not be as beloved as the primary outing, however as a full package deal, it is leaps and bounds superior, and the world design performs an enormous half on this.

1 Uncharted 4: A Thief’s Finish

Uncharted & Unguided

Then, to wrap up, if we will have TLOU in there, we have to additionally embrace Naughty Canine’s different marquee franchise.

Uncharted as a sequence was all the time recognized for its slightly linear and inflexible gameplay that blended motion and narrative, chopping and altering at common intervals. Nonetheless, the fourth installment of Nathan Drake’s story bucked that pattern.

You continue to have all of the bombastic set items and death-defying feats and agility, however you even have huge open areas the place you’ll be able to discover at your leisure with out having to remain consistently on excessive alert in case a stray bullet connects together with your cranium.

Exploration rewards you with optionally available treasures, relics, and strands of dialogue that you just would not get in any other case. Plus, you get to roam round through boats and jeeps, which is slightly novel as nicely.

On the finish of the day, Drake nonetheless has to fulfill his future, and no optionally available path will cease destiny, however you’ll be able to undoubtedly procrastinate for a very good whereas within the huge areas Uncharted 4 has to supply.