Summary
Many gravitate towardopen-world gamesfor the prospect of putting their features to the test, and to see how the map’s inhabitants will react. While some games will roll with the punches, proving to be less alive than many of their contemporaries, others will react in kind and may even have systems in place to dealwith player shenanigans, like wanted levels.
In the same breath, these game worlds are often accompanied by stories with mature and consequential themes that will force a player to slow down and assess what is really going on. This tonalshift between humor and dramais at the core of some of the best open-world games out there.
TheFableseries has never taken itself too seriously, but that isn’t to say that bad things don’t happen in Albion. For instance, inFable 2, the game starts with the player’s sister being murdered right in front of them, before being left for dead on the city streets themselves.
Despite the daring quests that follow, though, players still haveample opportunity to goof offin the game’s open world. That’s because the immersive world ofFableallows players to be exactly who theywant to be, and if that person happens to want to annoy NPCs by farting in their faces, so be it.
A Ful-Ton Of Fun
Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain
Konami Digital Entertainment continues forth the ‘METAL GEAR SOLID V Experience’ with the latest chapter, METAL GEAR SOLID V: The Phantom Pain. Ushering in a new era for the franchise with cutting-edge technology powered by the Fox Engine, MGSV: The Phantom Pain will provide players a first-rate gaming experience as they are offered tactical freedom to carry out open-world missions.Nine years after the events of MGSV: GROUND ZEROES and the fall of Mother Base, Snake a.k.a. Big Boss, awakens from a nine year coma. The year is 1984. The Cold War serves as the backdrop as nuclear weapons continue to shape a global crisis. Driven by revenge, Snake establishes a new private army and returns to the battlefield in pursuit of the shadow group, XOF.The METAL GEAR SOLID team continues to ambitiously explore mature themes such as the psychology of warfare and the atrocities that result from those that engage in its vicious cycle. One of the most anticipated games of the year with its open-world design, photorealistic visual fidelity and feature-rich game design, MGSV: The Phantom Pain will leave its mark as one of the hallmarks in the gaming industry for its cinematic storytelling, heavy themes, and immersive tactical gameplay.
As fully featured and tight asThe Phantom Pain’sgameplay is, it’s also some of the most goofy. This is seen especially in one of the most widely used tools in the game: the Fulton. It allows Snake toattach a balloon to anythingin the game, from artillery weapons to horses, and launch them into the sky, somehow sending them to the player’s base of operationsfor later use.
Similar in tone to this gameplay is agreat deal of over-the-top charactersand an extremely convoluted story. All of this resides snugly alongside missions like “Shining Lights, Even In Death,” which forces players to stop the spread of a deadly virus in their FOB by putting down a fraction of their men. Moments like these prove that even the silliest games have the power to bring players to their knees.
3Fallout Series
A Game Full Of Messed-Up Quirks
The premise of theFalloutgames is enough to make any person’s skin crawl, especially within our present-day global climate. Despite this, the games manage to find a way to make the nuclear apocalypse inviting, filling it with a multitude ofmarvelously mangled and mutatedoddities.
For every disturbing vault experiment, like Vault 11’s forced sacrifices, there’s another with a more darkly humorous edge, like the mad “Gaaaary"clones of Vault 108. The rest of theserich and rewarding adventureshave players befriending all manner of quirky robots or uncharacteristically kind super-mutants, all adding up to some of the most wicked fun players will ever have in a derelict wasteland.
No matter how bad things get in Sony’sSpider-Mangames, their stories' focus remains on the personal struggles of the main characters Miles Morales and Peter Parker. That is to say, the games have moments of genuine emotion, like in the firstSpider-Mangame when Miles loses his father at the hands of Mr. Negative, or inSpider-Man 2when Peter first begins to lose himself tothe Venom Symbiote.
Thankfully, the fast-talking,smart-mouthed nature of both Spider-Menis excellently represented in these games as well, and it’s ever-present during main quests, side-quests, and odd jobs alike, making sure thatthere is never a dull or unfunny momentfrom beginning to end.
The wild west was a time of downright lawlessness, with cowboys and cowgirls doing just about anything to bring in money forthemselves or their crew. It’s a lifestyle that players get to experience first-hand inRed Dead Redemption 2as they play through the game’s story about a band of ruffians just trying to make it to their next big score.
To keep things lively in the midst of the ever-brewing drama between the main character Arthur Morgan and his fellow band of misfits, players get to freely explore the world and get into aheap of unrelated trouble.Whether they’re getting tossed around by a legendary albino crocodile, partaking in a random brawl on the street, or playing a game of cops and robbers online,RDR2isfull of moments that can go horribly wrong in terribly hilarious ways.
