author: Krzysiek Kalwasinski
Open Worlds That Don't Overwhelm. Good Games With Small Open Worlds
Dive into our handpicked selection of open-world games, where immersive narratives and detailed environments outshine sheer size. Quality over quantity is our motto today.
Open worlds in games may have a negative connotation nowadays, but they have been trendy for a good decade now. Personally, I'm not a big fan of most of them, but the openness (and sometimes sheer size) isn't really the issue here. Everything depends on what a given world or game have to offer. A huge world densely filled with little interactive activities does not look too appealing in the view of many players. But over the recent years, we've seen the emergence of a refreshing variety of games that break the mold and introduce some innovative concepts. Here are good open-world games that won't overwhelm you.
We've written about slightly smaller open worlds in the past in a somewhat different context, but in the mentioned article, you'll also find a few other interesting titles with small, open worlds.
Yakuza Kiwami 2
- Developers: Ryu ga Gotoku Studio
- Platforms: PC, PS4, XOne
- Release date: August 28, 2018
You could basically put all the installments of this awesome series in this spot. That's because some things in it haven't changed to this day – including the structure of the world itself. In Yakuza, there isn't a typical open world, or rather, not the kind we've become accustomed to in the increasingly bigger games. There is, however, an open hub (a district of the city) that we can freely traverse for most of the time. And while we do, we enjoy the available content to our heart's content – and there is plenty to savor there. It's pulsating with life!
Since we are dealing with a city district, there's no question of randomly scattering uninteresting activities at the production stage. Here, we have various establishments such as shops, restaurants, and other venues where we can spend our free time in a specific way – for example, singing in a karaoke bar, playing at a Sega arcade, fishing, golfing, or participating in RC car races (and collecting parts for them). There's really a lot of it and apart from a few specific cases, these are fully optional things – none of this is really mandatory. On top of that, there are side quests, many of which can be quite funny or memorable for various reasons – like Kiryu's acting gigs, guys in diapers, dealing with all sorts of scammers or solving ridiculous problems. You won't find another series like this one!
