Open-world games build engaging landscapes with colorful characters and scenic locales. Players can jump in and out of these worlds, whether to continue the main story or just to mess around and get into whatever trouble comes their way. That's the beauty of open-world games, they offer amazing environments for players to experience while still allowing freedom.

While every open-world brings something unique to the gaming adventure, some of them can be marred by a slow start, oftentimes to build up the story and characters. A rough start to a game can be a major deterrent for any player, but that doesn't mean the rest of the game isn't a fantastic journey.

Updated April 25, 2022, by Mark Sammut: Open-world games can be notoriously slow. After all, these packages usually come with so much to see and do, that it can feel like hours pass before anything of significance happens. Titles like Elden Ring and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild fall within this category, but the freedom they provide means that the experience rarely feels dull, at least if they sink their hooks into a player. However, the same cannot be said for every great open-world game out there. Some just require time to get good.

20 Mafia

The first Mafia game has a lot going for it, even after all these years. Main character Tommy isn’t a mafia don at the beginning; rather, he is just a simple broke taxi driver trying to make ends meet.

While it would be outrageous for him to start the game with guns blazing, the first handful of missions are pretty routine for most open-world games. The recent Definitive Edition of the game at least patches up some of these slower parts.

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19 Yakuza 0

As a prequel to other Yakuza games, 0 is forced into the early storytelling corner that most prequel games are. Backgrounds, motives, and settings need to be established, even at the expense of gameplay sometimes.

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With that said, Yakuza 0 doesn’t linger too long in the rough slog of early game grinding. The cut scenes are just rather lengthy, and take up a decent portion of the game’s first couple of hours. Once players have some free range, they can find endless activities to get into around Kamurocho.

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18 Days Gone

Days Gone got a middling reception upon its release; while hardly considered terrible, it garnered criticism for feeling like just another open-world zombie game. Basically, the game did not seem special, and the fact it launched with quite a few technical issues certainly didn't help.

Another aspect that might have hindered Days Gone's appeal is its incredibly slow start. Not only does the story take a while to pick up momentum, but the gameplay feels too restrictive in the opening 5-10 hours. Things do improve considerably as the campaign goes along, becoming genuinely great once Deacon and company move to Lost Lake. The gunplay also becomes more satisfying as weapon upgrades are unlocked.

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17 Deadly Premonition

A game that players seem to either love or hate, Deadly Premonition is one of the more unusual open-world games to come from the past decade. The eccentric supernatural survival horror open-world hybrid formula is bizarre, but fans are still drawn to its weirdo story and dialogue.

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The game takes a bit of time to get into, thanks to clunky controls and some odd pacing. However, once players can put its faults behind them, Deadly Premonition is actually a pretty fun game.

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16 Skyrim

The opening sequence of Skyrim has become something of a meme in recent years, but to many fans of the series, it is a nuisance as well. The opening mission is a laborious ordeal for players who are well acquainted with sword combat and basic maneuvers, but the game still makes it a point to hammer these things in.

The subsequent missions aren’t all that wild either: go here and find this item and bring it back, maybe kill a few monsters along the way. The game really starts to pick up once the first dragon is defeated and players can start leveling up fast.

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15 The Witcher

While not as well-known or highly received as its sequels, The Witcher still makes full use of the open-world quest system and intricate combat mechanics the franchise is so beloved for. The story of Geralt begins here, with all the crazy side plots and romances that come with it.

As amazing as The Witcher series is, it did have a rough initial landing due to strange fighting controls and the confusing open-world layout of the game, but that's not to say the amazing story more than makes up for it.

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14 Fallout 3

The game that brought the Fallout franchise into a new era. Fallout 3 is still as powerful an open-world game as it was when it came out in 2008. The amazingly detailed map is a breathtaking spectacle to behold from the moment players first step out of their vault.

To get to that point requires some pretty mindless tutorial pandering that is as rough as it is mind-numbing, but once players get past the first few hours, Fallout 3 starts to look and feel alive.

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13 Death Stranding

One of the more unique open-world games to be developed in recent years, Death Stranding is an exploration into the intense journey an open-world gamer experiences. Fraught with dangers and lonely roads, Death Stranding is not a game for everyone, and that's okay. Players who can get over the hump of the rough first few hours will likely find themselves further entranced by Hideo Kojima's strange open-world.

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12 L.A. Noire

Arguably one of the most realistic open-world games to ever be developed, L.A. Noire is a knockout game filled with wild car chases and shootouts around 1940s L.A. The open-world map takes some getting used to as fans of similar Rockstar Games titles may get confused by the intricate layout of the city and its streets.

There are no choppers for flying across the city, and driving through crowds is very frowned upon. The tutorial is a bit rough around the edges and feels skippable, but after the first few hours the game is addicting and its story gripping.

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11 Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

One of the most gorgeous looking games to ever grace the screens of gamers, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain changed the series forever with its bombastic release. The arid desert where Snake sets up shop is a thrilling open-world location to explore and a great change of pace for the Metal Gear Solid franchise.

As with many Metal Gear Solid games, the opening hours are rough and filled with exposition, but the game more than makes up for a slow start with the later missions.

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10 Far Cry 2

The second game in the Far Cry series gets a bad rap, namely for the annoying medicine prompts and choppy technical issues, but it still delivers on the open-world realism factor. In Far Cry 2, players are dropped off in the African landscape with little assistance from the game. One wrong turn can spell doom for novice Far Cry players exploring the open-world landscape.

While this makes things a bit rough at the start, the game picks up the pace in the second half, offering new areas to explore, bigger guns to shoot, and easier gameplay mechanics.

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9 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Perhaps the series most responsible for bringing amazing open-world games to the masses, Grand Theft Auto is still a leader in building exciting cities and characters. While the beginnings of GTA games are always slower than the explosive missions that occur later, San Andreas is notorious for cramming some really annoying missions into its first section.

The painstakingly difficult train mission and lack of decent weapons early on make the introductory component more frustrating than players might expect. Thankfully the rest of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is smoother sailing, featuring some of the most outrageously fun missions in the whole Grand Theft Auto franchise.

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8 Sleeping Dogs

Hong Kong makes for an amazing open world in Square Enix's Sleeping Dogs. From the colorful neon lights to the lively city streets waiting to be explored, the game packages an engrossing open-world filled with intrigue and vice around every corner.

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The game is slow to start and frankly a little rough, putting emphasis on the story and main characters rather than dynamic missions and gameplay. This shouldn't deter potential players, as the action certainly picks up as the plot unfolds.

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7 Batman: Arkham Origins

Comic book video games are always going to be judged down to the last pixel by die-hard fans, and naturally, the Batman series is no exception. Batman: Arkham Origins is the prequel game to the Arkham series, positioning Batman in a fight to save Gotham on Christmas Eve.

Arkham Origins jumps around a bit at the beginning, starting with a prison break before jumping into the open-world city itself. The story and missions are a bit disorganized, especially during the introduction, but as the game progresses players will be treated to a collection of amazing side quests, fun puzzles, and some of the best boss fights in the whole franchise.

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6 The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

The introductory sequences of The Elder Scrolls games are legendary in and of themselves, although Morrowind is something of an anomaly even among other Bethesda games. The game simply drops players off in a strange alien land to fend for themselves.

The lack of direction and HUD makes the first few hours of Morrowind quite challenging and rough around the edges, as new players are forced to find weapons and armor to ensure they aren't dying as soon as they step out of town. The game's sweetest moments come later, as players learn their way around the gameplay and become accustomed to the lay of the land.

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5 S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl

Survival horror and open-world games go together like chocolate and peanut butter, with notable game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R. leading in terms of scares per square foot. The first game is not a walk in the park, heavily emphasizing the survival aspects of gameplay over most other features.

New players are exposed to a lawless open world filled with mutated monsters, radiation pockets, and rogue gangs of trigger-happy bandits. The realistic shooting mechanics and lack of equipment make the beginning of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl rougher and tougher than what most players might be expecting, but the open-world exploration makes it all worth it.

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4 Dead Rising

Dealing with zombies overflowing a shopping mall sounds straightforward enough, bash and slash them by the horde and then move on to the next swarm. But the first Dead Rising doesn't shy away from mixing things up. At the start of Dead Rising, players are exposed to the confusion of the undead invasion without much of a clear trajectory.

The first few hours of the game are spent finding a few survivors, progressing the story along through open-world exploration, and introducing a few characters. The game is unforgiving early on, as players are low-level and have few health bars or item slots, but Dead Rising is still an amazing game once players get used to the mechanics.

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3 Assassin's Creed 2

The exposition of a video game can be dramatic and flashy while still introducing players to the key gameplay elements. The Assassin's Creed series rarely changes the core mechanics of its games, but the second game significantly built off the first game with new features and characters, which significantly helped the franchise become one of the most popular in video game history.

RELATED: Assassin's Creed: The Strongest Templars, According To Lore

Assassin's Creed 2 still takes its sweet time getting to the actual assassinations, more so than subsequent games in the Assassin's Creed series. However, the game has to take time to introduce the themes of Ezio's story and ease players into the open-world map of the Italian Renaissance's intricate cities.

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2 Red Dead Redemption

Building an amazing open world that lives and breathes as its own entity is easier said than done. Rockstar Games always demonstrates masterful world-building and excels in making every inch of a map interesting.

The first Red Dead Redemption is no exception. The Western theme is a huge draw and the iconic campaign is still one of the best of the modern gaming era. Still, the rough first few hours of the game are slow and take a decent amount of time to set the pace before fully cutting the player loose to experience the open world to its full potential.

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1 Crackdown

Most open-world games usually get more fun as the plot moves forward and the challenges become more demanding. The first Crackdown game keeps things interesting by leveling up the player and expanding upon their super-powered abilities as more areas of the huge open-world map are unlocked.

Crackdown's gameplay doesn't change too much beyond "go here and kill this person," but the methods of attacking an enemy stronghold are much more diverse and thrilling when players can super-jump or run lightning-fast. Put simply, players will have to spend a few hours grinding to level up their abilities to get over the rough opening of the game.

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