As open-world games compete to see who can be the biggest and longest, many often forget that the best open-world games are ones with densely packed worlds rather than the largest. If a world feels alive and is full of things to do, fans are far more likely to connect with it than a map full of huge fields of nothing.
This makes single cities the perfect candidates for settings in such games. Cities are, by design, full of life. They're tightly packed with hundreds of citizens and loads of things to do, ensuring players are never bored. Their winding streets allow the worlds to feel bigger than they truly are if designed well.
Updated September 26, 2021 by Ryan Woodrow: Open-world games are incredibly popular in this day and age, but it can be overwhelming to jump into a sprawling map that covers what feels like an entire world. Sometimes, a more contained sandbox is preferred, and there are plenty of games that use their solitary city to craft a setting that feels truly alive. While these types of maps might not be extremely common, there are quite a few games that fit the bill on the market. Consequently, this article has been expanded to include a few more great open-world games set in one city.
13 Marvel's Spider-Man – New York
One of, if not the most famous city there is, New York has been recreated in a multitude of different games. What makes the New York from Marvel's Spider-Man the best is how lively and vibrant the entire world feels. This is helped in large part by the game's brilliant open-world game design, meaning there's always something to do around every corner, and the interactions Spider-Man can have with the people give the whole thing an extra layer of fun.
Marvel always plays things relatively light with their worlds, and this game managed to capture that. There are dark moments, and bad things happen, but that signature Marvel charm and joy never disappears. That's not even mentioning how great it feels to move around the city as Spider-Man. It's been said all before, but Insomniac's web-swinging is among the best movement systems in any game ever. The city is part of what makes it such a joy to play with.
12 Infamous 2 – New Marias
When a game bases its original city on a real one, there's always a tough choice for designers to make. Do they stick close to the real city? Or do they take some creative license and only keep a select few elements? New Marais is a unique case because it feels like the developers did both at once. New Marais is a diverse city in both culture and design.
Few open-world games have such an extensive array of memorable areas and locations out there in the world. It's the kind of game that even a relatively new player could probably find their way around without a map after a handful of hours. At the same time, it has an atmosphere to it that is uniquely New Orleans (the city New Marais is based on). The swamps, the architecture. Even though the overall city design does hold true, it's still obvious where this city's identity comes from.
11 Cyberpunk 2077 – Night City
Cyberpunk 2077 feels almost like it cheated in making such a brilliant, living world because everything Projekt CD Red needed was right there in the existing literature. At the same time, there was a lot of pressure from the existing Cyberpunk fanbase to make it accurate to how it's been described in all the existing media, a job it did very well.
Putting the game's problems to one side, it's undeniable that Night City feels completely and totally unique compared to any other modern open-world. It's not just because of the overall setting, either. Night City manages to visually capture the divide between those with and those without in this dystopian society. The streets and skyscrapers are pristine and beautiful, but as soon as players go off the beaten path, the rot at the heart of the city comes into full view. It's brilliant environmental storytelling.
10 Sleeping Dogs – Hong Kong
A short-lived franchise, Sleeping Dogs went a somewhat unconventional route with its world. Despite being called Hong Kong, the map doesn't follow much of the geography of Hong Kong at all. Instead, the city is more based on Hong Kong from a thematic standpoint.
It was the perfect place to set Sleeping Dogs. Many martial arts trace their origins back to that region of the world, and while many games are set in Eastern Asia, it's often in a historical setting rather than a modern one. It was a great novelty at the time to see a modern city of Eastern Asia in an open-world game.
9 Mafia 3 – New Bordeaux
Mafia 3 went the more well-traveled route for open-world games, basing their city off of a real one – in this case, New Orleans. However, they changed the name and some key parts of the geography for a bit more creative license.
New Bordeaux is a great example of how games can capture the feeling of the city they're based on, without having to stick strictly to the geography. Some franchises struggle to make different American cities feel distinct from one another, but this city feels completely different from Lost Heaven & Empire Bay of previous Mafia games.
8 Yakuza Series – Kamurocho
Featured in several Yakuza games, Kamurocoho – based on a region of Tokyo – is one of the smallest open-worlds out there. However, it also ranks among the densest, especially in Yakuza 0. Players barely have to walk around a corner to find some new or interesting activity to partake in or a surprising Easter egg.
This tightly bound city feels great for the narrative too. When spread across so many games like this, players can gather a real sense of familiarity with the city and see the subtle ways in which their actions affect it.
7 L.A. Noire – Los Angeles
While a city like Chicago or New York might sooner come to mind for a game along these lines, Los Angeles was by far the best choice for this story. L.A. is an extremely diverse city, full of quiet suburbs, large industries, and glamorous downtowns.
These different locations give huge variety throughout the cases in L.A. Noire. One minute players will be talking to someone in a quaint suburban home; the next, they'll be chasing someone through a factory. Few other cities can give players such a variety in terms of both people and places.
6 Driver: San Francisco – San Francisco
Driver: San Francisco's core mechanic makes exploring a big city essential. The entire game world is in the protagonist's mind, as they're in a coma. This allows the protagonist to float above the world and possess the driver of any car.
Naturally, a city with an interesting layout was necessary for a game all about driving, and San Francisco was a perfect choice. The game restricts how much of the city players have access to at first, which was a great touch. Each new area gave players something new and exciting to explore, and each felt different from the last. Players start in the city center with highways and grid streets, but soon they'll be racing along the winding roads of the suburbs.
5 Bully – Bullworth
This is another relatively small world, but one stuffed to the brim with character. In fact, it's so full of content that it doesn't even give players access to most of the world until about halfway through, yet exploring the small area doesn't get boring.
Bully excels at pulling the joy out of the mundane. Running around the school of Bullworth is a lot of fun. The need to get to classes and other activities quickly forces players to learn the lay of the land. Once the full city does open up, there are more fun places to explore – the kind of places school kids would care about. There's a comic book/antique store; there's a cinema and a funfair. Every inch of the world is brimming with charm like few other Rockstar games have ever done.
4 Saints Row 2 – Stilwater
Saint's Row has used a couple of different cities in its franchise; however, none have come as close to the mad fun that Saint's Row 2's version of Stilwater held. The landscape is far more varied than in other games, and each area feels quite distinct for the gang that's controlling it narratively.
What it does best, though, is provide a fantastic playground for all the wacky antics the game encourages. The highlight of these is undoubtedly the underground mall. This area features layers of open-plan shops filled with all kinds of unique vehicles waiting for the player to steal and mess around with.
3 Watch_Dogs Legion – London
Both Chicago and San Francisco from previous Watch_Dogs games were great recreations of their setting, but Legion's London wins out for using a setting that so few games have. When London is featured in open-world games, it's almost always historical. Never before has modern London been properly recreated like this.
While there is a dystopian spin on it, the game still captures the feeling of the city, even down to small details. UK and US citizens alike often think that American and British cities are fairly similar, but Legion is the first game to showcase how different a British city feels. The fact that any and every NPC can become playable, with a great variety of skills, helps the city feel truly alive as well.
2 Grand Theft Auto – Vice City
Like with many older GTA games, when players look at Vice City's map as a whole, it's surprisingly small. It surprises many players, because of how good a job the developers did of designing the city to feel so big. This is partly due to the dense packing of activities and landmarks, but also clever road mapping.
While GTA V has the most impressive map in the franchise, it doesn't stick to one city, as over half the map is rural sprawl. On the other hand, Vice City, keeps everything neatly packaged in a city that feels alive.
1 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Rome
Though it's one of the few open-world games to stick to a single city, the developers made sure to stuff Rome with as much as possible. While Rome was technically a playable location in Assassin's Creed 2, players don't spend much time there, and there's not much to explore. Brotherhood decided to take this missed opportunity and become one of Ubisoft's best open worlds in the process.
The game feels a lot more polished as a result. It's just big enough that there's always more nooks and crannies to explore, while not so big to lose the sense of familiarity open worlds can bring. Each district feels distinct for different reasons. The game created a city that truly captured the atmosphere of what players imagine renaissance Rome would have been like.