Best Open-World Games Built For Slow Exploration

Open-world games are incredibly diverse, ranging from action-packed adventures to emotionally driven stories, making it difficult to define them as one single type of game. However, almost all of them share a common feature: exploration. While some games emphasize exploration more than others, it’s a key component of the open-world experience. Ultimately, if a game doesn’t allow you to explore at all, can it truly be considered open-world?

Open-world games are consistently released, meaning there’s always a new world to explore. 2025 brought us excellent titles like Where Winds Meet, Ghost of Yotei, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 – games that really satisfy your desire to wander and let you focus on exploration over story if you prefer. Now, let’s highlight some of the best games for taking your time and discovering everything they have to offer.

8. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Or Oblivion Remastered

Because Skyrim Is Not Always The Answer

Many players immediately associate vast open-world exploration with Skyrim in the Elder Scrolls series. However, Oblivion offered a similar experience and was an impressive game in its own right, encouraging players to take their time and truly explore. While it, like all Elder Scrolls games, had a looming threat, the world of Tamriel in Oblivion felt more inviting than the harsh, cold landscape of Skyrim.

I absolutely loved exploring the world of TES4, with its beautiful forests, dangerous creatures, bandits, and even those creepy Daedroth! It was clearly made for taking your time and enjoying the journey. And what’s really cool is that the TES community is still going strong! Lots of players and modders have really upped the game, adding incredible custom graphics and 4K textures. It’s amazing how well Oblivion still runs, even when you load it up with tons – like, 200 GB! – of mods. That’s a big part of what makes it so special.

Today, Oblivion Remastered is often considered the best way to play this classic game. It keeps everything that made the original great while adding a few helpful, modern improvements, and it looks fantastic too.

7. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood And Wine

Geralt Definitely Needed Some Time Off in a Beautiful Wine Country

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was already a fantastic game that encouraged players to take their time and explore, but the Blood and Wine expansion made this even better. New features, including a unique Gwent deck for Skellige, certainly helped, but it was the stunning scenery of Toussaint that really drew players in. With its mountains, vibrant forests, and whimsical design, Toussaint is a truly captivating place to explore.

This addition to the game offers players a choice: they can embark on an epic quest to hunt a powerful vampire and stop a rebellion, or simply enjoy a peaceful journey through the scenic Kingdom of Knights. It serves as a fitting final adventure for Geralt, allowing him to retire after a long life of monster hunting and protect the people. It’s also a perfect way for players to relax and de-stress after completing the main story.

6. Last Oasis

A Game That Has Suffered A Lot, And Still Offers A Great Experience For Explorers

Last Oasis presents a fascinating idea: people travel as nomads to survive in a world where the sun relentlessly burns the land. They must constantly move to find new oases, or the ones they rely on will be destroyed. To do this, they use incredible machines called Walkers – think of a mix between a sailboat and an off-road vehicle – that ‘walk’ across the desert dunes on wooden legs.

This open-world survival game is designed for multiplayer, so teaming up with a clan is highly recommended. While you can play solo or with small groups on certain servers, expect occasional player-versus-player (PvP) encounters. Some players enjoy ambushing those who prefer a more relaxed pace, but the game offers plenty of ways to escape and avoid unwanted PvP, like using a grappling hook or a wingsuit to quickly get away.

Last Oasis is still in early access.

5. The Long Dark

Few Other Games Have Nailed The Slow-Exploration Experience Like This One

The Long Dark is a captivating survival game where you can explore a huge, almost empty wilderness, facing the harsh elements and dangerous wildlife. It’s rare to find an open-world survival game – aside from perhaps Green Hell – where the environment itself feels like such a constant threat.

The deliberate pace and careful planning aren’t just enjoyable aspects of the game; they’re essential for making it to the end. Hinterland Studios has truly succeeded in creating a ‘slow-exploration’ mechanic that is both engaging and difficult.

4. Red Dead Redemption 2

There Is NOT Another Game That Makes Players Lose So Much Time In Side Activities

Whether players are hunting for valuable animal skins, trying to earn the Legend of the West outfit, or completing tasks like gathering rare orchids for a collector, Red Dead Redemption 2 delivers the most immersive and detailed Western experience available in any open-world game.

The game is packed with side activities – far too many to mention – so expect to spend a lot of time exploring. That’s actually a positive, though! If you enjoy leisurely activities like hunting down criminals or taming unique horses, this game could be perfect for you.

3. Kenshi

A Dystopian Sci-Fi Wasteland Exploration Game, And It’s Not Fallout

Kenshi is a game all about exploring a huge, dangerous world where powerful clans rule with an iron fist. You can be anyone you want – a leader, a wanderer, a thief, or even a tyrannical ruler – and there’s no set path to follow. The core of the game is about traveling the wasteland, finding supplies, meeting people, and discovering what happens in this world.

This game is a massive, open-world simulation of life after a disaster, and it’s surprisingly more immersive than many games in the Fallout series. It even surpasses the Mad Max game in quality, and boasts a huge, active modding community with thousands of modifications available to enhance gameplay beyond expectations. Just be aware that you might find yourself lost in the world for hours!

2. The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

One Of The Best Games Nintendo Has Ever Made

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a game that really highlights the joy of taking your time to explore a huge, gorgeous fantasy world. It goes above and beyond what people expect from a traditional Zelda game, which usually focused on action and jumping puzzles, by offering a vast open world and RPG-style gameplay.

When Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were released, players were immediately captivated by how the games encouraged interaction with the world and its inhabitants. It’s more than just exploring; the games take interactivity to a new level. A key feature of both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is the player’s ability to use almost anything – or anyone – as a weapon, leading to countless creative ways to defeat enemies.

1. No Man’s Sky

The Greatest Comeback Story in Gaming, Where Players Explore a Universe

No Man’s Sky offers a unique gaming experience focused on relaxed exploration within a massive and constantly growing universe. It features hundreds of thousands of open-world planets to discover and is considered the pinnacle of space simulation games, continually improving with new features added each year. Despite a rocky start and initial criticism at launch, this space survival and simulation game, created by Hello Games, has thrived and continues to evolve.

This game offers endless adventures with a huge variety of ships, alien languages to master, and more activities than you could ever finish. Whether you prefer playing solo or with friends, you’ll always have something new to discover. Plus, each new expedition provides a fresh start and unique rewards that you can carry over to your main game, making it incredibly replayable.

2025-11-27 20:07