10 Open-World Games That Feel Empty After Just A Few Hours

Unfortunately, the open worlds in games like Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, Halo Infinite, and the original Assassin's Creed do more harm than good.

[MadLad]

I legitimately loved Halo's switch to open world. They made traversal of the map entertaining, and everything involved just tied into the (what I consider) awesome gunplay.
The entire time I really felt the slow takeover of the map, and all the little steps forward felt satisfying.

I don't know what more people really want there, considering the setting and story. A handful of soldiers hunkered down on enemy territory; slowly trying to win the battle.

[giovonni]

I agree I liked the switch to the open world, it was large with beautiful land scapes. However, it did feel a bit empty, and wasn’t as action packed as I would have liked. A lot of the bases felt like fillers instead of something of wonder. Let’s see what 343 under new management does from here cause Halo needs some updating

[archibold]

I'm surprised they scrapped the Slipspace engine. I thought the graphics looked great, the sandbox physics were as good as ever, and the AI worked well. Clearly a lot of work went into it and it appears to have been optimized for the new generation of GPUs. The only issue I had with it was the lack of environments, would have been cool to have different biomes on the ring to explore. A bit more variety in missions would have been nice, maybe some timed events where you have to manuever a banshee through forerunner architecture or some mongoose speedruns would have spiced things up.

[CrimsonWing69]

I think R* are the only ones who have made compelling open worlds. I can’t stomach most open world games and how boring they are with busy world. It’s like a flex to make this massive environment, but it’s extremely boring to traverse and play in. GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 blew me away with how incredible their worlds were. Elden Ring was the only other game to give me that sense of awe.

[giovonni]

GTA V and unfortunately, Saints Row the original have had some of the most aggressive open world features where the world doesn’t feel so bland. To me what makes GTA V so special is the way the characters react to the world around them vs how the world reacts to them. For example, in GTA when you switch to Franklin and he walked past an attractive female he responded “ damn you fine” or in Saints row you can run up in the pawn shop flash a gun and watch them respond by raising their hands in the air, or they press the silent alarm making you have to run away from the cops. Halo infinite doesn’t have those kind of moments that make you feel apart of the world it just feels like it’s there.

[bloop]

Trevor talking to random vegan npc: "You suck c*ck, but you don't eat meat.... It don't make sense to me "

Classic. Such a shame we won't get that humour again now that R* have gone all in on virtue.

[Abear21]

AC Odyssey with the next gen patch is pretty incredible, especially if you like a sea shantie. Lol.

[Abear21]

I’m back on an open world kick after Horizon. I don’t know what clicked in me but exploring the map and seeing the detail work has me loving open worlds again. Playing AC Odyssey on hard and really enjoying it and the map. Reinstalling RDR2 tonight because damn, that map is just incredible for sightseeing.

[Sonic1881]

Halo Infinite felt off. It's like the developers didn't know what they really wanted to do

[Demetrius]

Depends on which open world titles u play, most of em are shitty AF, but I honestly admire open world genre, sometimes to just take a break from fighting and missions you explore n see details you haven't noticed before cause you were too busy body at first, then boom finding some dope equipment or things to sale

[ThichQuangDuck]

Got to separate open world from sandbox. It can be a huge open world but if there is only kill or don't kill in the world and the world doesn't realistically react to the player in any way then its open world but still very linear

[GhostScholar]

I’d love an la noire sequel. Still the best looks facial captures around.

[SyntheticForm]

We will never see its like again.

[neomahi]

I've tried playing Halo. It came out when I was in High School and I haven't played it until very recently, I wanted the hype the die and it seemed like a great time to play it while Xbox is eating some humble pie. There's also a pretty good stretch where I'm not gonna have much to play and it's time to dip into my back catalog and this seemed like a good series to start. I was also playing it alongside Shenmue and just finished I&II.

As I started Halo, I was starting to buy into it. It felt like it was gonna be linear to allow it to get to the point and tell a good story and on the ship, I was getting the feel for it. However, once I landed on, I guess it's Halo? The open area was bland and confusing. The planet looked horrible, and as I said, I just finished Shenmue II and, man, Act III is absolutely beautiful and you could see how it pushed the Dreamcast..... So what's Halos excuse? There's no waypoints and the you had no idea where you were going and the bland settings made it all the more difficult, everything looks the same.

The Covenant are a poor man's Locust, and The Locust and The Lambant from Gears of War are so much more interesting and Gears of War characters as a whole are much more interesting. Halo is also BRUTALLY difficult l, how did 10 year-olds beat this game at the time!?! Your shields are weak, you got through health packs before you can exhale and having no waypoints makes it all the harder. Someone you take a one hit death, and I was barely into the game. It's too hard for its own good. I was thinking the whole time starting the game how much I already missed and how much more I wanted to play Gears instead, Cliff Blezinski must've played Halo and though, why is this so friggin hard? It'd be nice if you could take cover behind something, and that likely birthed Gears of War.

Yeah, Halo was super dissapointing, it's bad. I've beaten modern games on their most brutal difficulties and Halo is still brutal and unfair. I don't like it. You have one chance to make a good first impression, and Halo blew it. Gears is a better face of Xbox but Xbox is letting it fizzle out and die

[PunksOnN4G]

Crazy all the high scores Halo got... Crazy that game got a pass