In a year when so many people had to spend the majority of their time indoors, open-world games provided a particularly special escape. The genre was always impressive, but with the new generation of consoles and advancements in technology, open-world adventures are more breathtaking than ever.
The following list provides literally hundreds of hours of enjoyment to anyone who wants to explore these massive worlds. The runtimes described here generally describe how long it takes to beat the main story path. When adding side quests into the equation, many of these games' lengths take well over twice as long to go through.
10 Watch Dogs: Legion (17 Hours)
Each entry in this franchise changes up the formula. The debut was a standard open-world action game, the sequel added more non-lethal options, and Legion lets players take control of infinitely many characters. This unique aspects is also its greatest weakness. The lack of central protagonists make the story feel disjointed. However, the emergent gameplay is enough for the game to create its own stories with each playthrough.
9 Cyberpunk 2077 (18 Hours)
Despite the massive amounts of potential hidden within the world, beelining it through Cyberpunk 2077's main story takes less than twenty hours. In this way it is more like Fallout than The Witcher 3. Time will tell how fans receive this different structure from CDProjekt Red, but early impressions from reviews reveal an impressive technical achievement. Many may want to wait for some more patches to come in, since bugs are reportedly abundant.
8 Ghost Of Tsushima (23 Hours)
After Infamous: Second Son, Sucker Punch Productions went on to craft an open-world samurai epic, Ghost of Tsushima. The game takes a more grounded approach to the genre, with the player mostly forced to adhere to several rules instead of running amok. The side quests are given a particularly special care and are just as compelling as the main path. The lack of hud and gorgeous environments also lend the world a special cinematic flair.
7 Immortals: Fenyx Rising (24)
The term Ubisoft open-world game is either a great thing or something players bemoan. Immortals: Fenyx Rising has some DNA from the company, but it does several things to differentiate itself from the likes of Farcry and Assassin's Creed.
The art style and focus on humor are an acquired taste, but those who spend time with it give the game its approval. Comparisons to Breath of the Wild are apparent, though the sense of discovery is not quite as organic.
6 Wasteland 3 (36 1/2)
The gap between the first two Wasteland games, twenty-five years, is one of the biggest in the medium. Fortunately, fans did not wait nearly as long for Wasteland 3. The open-world isometric RPG puts the focus on narrative, with dialogue choices massively impacting the plot development. The battles take a lot of cues from the XCOM series, and the way the party develops creates numerous combat possibilities.
5 Genshin Impact (41 Hours)
While it may be written as forty-one hours to beat, the structure of a game like Genshin Impact wants players to stay in the world as long as possible. To its credit, players can spend well over twenty hours in the free-to-play world before having to engage with any of the microtransactions, longer than most games of its ilk. Even more so than Immortals, Genshin Impact wears the Breath of the Wild influence clearly on its sleeve.
4 Yakuza: Like A Dragon (48 Hours)
With the switch from a brawler to a turn-based RPG, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a great entry point for the long-running series. It also features a new protagonist. Despite these changes, avid fans will find a lot familiar to the series, including silly side-quests with more narrative depth than most other contemporary games. While it is already out, PS5 owners have to wait a few more months for their version, though they can still play the PS4 release on the new console.
3 Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (50 1/2 Hours)
Xenoblade Chronicles made a decent enough splashback in its day, but the Wii's hardware prevented the massive RPG from really shining the way it should have. With the re-release, the developer does not only give the visuals a nice facelift, but they also add some much-needed quality of life improvements. The future of the series is still unknown, so the remake should tide fans over while they wait for a proper sequel or spin-off.
2 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (51 Hours)
Modern Assassin's Creed games are so incredibly long, few players ever actually beat them. Most of them still receive story DLC too.
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla continues this trend, with gamers spending literal days in order to conquer the campaign. With game prices coming in at sixty dollars and potentially increasing permanently, some will find comfort knowing this title will occupy them for months.
1 Animal Crossing: New Horizons (60 1/2 Hours)
Saying it takes sixty hours to beat Animal Crossing: New Horizons perhaps is not exactly accurate. There really is no beating an Animal Crossing title, even if one does end up paying off their house. With constant updates and changes to the town with the seasons, one's time with the Nintendo Switch game extends as far as the their enjoyment. The release came at a time when many were looking for a comfortable gaming experience to help pass the uncertain early quarantine period, turning it into a phenomenon.