Games With Total Freedom In How You Shape The World

The most engaging games often let players completely shape the world around them. Your choices, actions, and even long-term decisions directly impact how the game world evolves. You’re free to explore, build communities, trade with others, cause destruction, team up, or just focus on staying alive. Unlike many games, you won’t be limited to following a strict storyline to make progress.

I’ve been playing a bunch of games lately, and what’s really stood out is how much freedom they give you. Some drop you into sprawling space operas, others into brutal deserts or worlds made of blocks, but the cool thing is I get to decide what’s important. I choose where to focus my energy and what ‘winning’ even means. If you’re tired of games holding your hand and want something more like a totally open playground, these are some of the best I’ve found.

7 Days to Die

A Survival Post-Apocalyptic Sandbox

Bases, defenses, and settlements exist only because players choose where and how to build them.
Build, craft, hunt, and fight to survive.

7 Days to Die is an expansive open-world game where you can explore, fight, build, and survive. The world is completely open for you to modify and use to your advantage. You can dig, build fortifications, set traps, and create complex defenses like towers and electrical systems to protect yourself from hordes of zombies. It’s a game about truly shaping your environment to survive.

In 7 Days to Die, players have incredible freedom to create almost anything – from basic tools to complex vehicles, protective armor, and powerful weapons. You decide what to build, where to build it, and how to use it, with no set path to winning or losing. You can choose to build a small, simple shelter or a huge, fortified base, and you can find resources by digging underground or exploring the world. Beyond building and exploring, you’ll also need to survive by farming, hunting, completing quests with characters in the game, and dealing with both dangers and opportunities. Ultimately, 7 Days to Die gives players complete control over shaping the world and choosing their own unique path.

RimWorld

Sci-Fi Colony Sim

A top-down game about managing survivors stranded on an alien planet.
Focuses on building a colony, managing moods, resources, combat, and survival.

In RimWorld, each new game creates a unique world with varied terrain, weather, and challenges, ensuring every playthrough feels different. Players are responsible for building and managing their colony, including choosing a location, growing food, defending against attacks, and resolving conflicts between colonists.

Instead of directly controlling people, this game focuses on giving tasks to your colonists. You shape the world by setting priorities and giving orders, and their individual personalities, moods, and needs mean your choices really matter. While an AI generates events and challenges, you decide how to react, where to build your colony, what to construct, and who to bring in – you’re fully in charge of the colony’s direction.

No Man’s Sky

Space Exploration In a Procedurally Generated Universe

Sci-fi game about exploring a massive procedurally generated universe.
Discover planets, gather resources, build bases, and fly spaceships.

No Man’s Sky features a huge universe filled with planets, stars, and various lifeforms. This universe is created using special technology that ensures there’s an almost endless number of places to find. Players are free to explore at their own speed, traveling seamlessly between planets. Each planet is unique, with its own plants, animals, weather, and dangers. Players can choose how they want to interact with these worlds, landing to explore, collect materials, and build tools to help them survive.

No Man’s Sky isn’t a game with a set storyline. It’s a space exploration game that lets you choose your own adventure. You can travel the universe discovering new planets and systems, build bases wherever you like, trade goods between star systems, or even battle space pirates. Whether you prefer to explore alone, become a galactic trader, or create massive colonies, the game is entirely up to you.

Elite Dangerous

Space Flight and Trading Sim

Realistic space sim centered on piloting ships across a 1:1 scale Milky Way.
Players engage in trading, combat, exploration, and faction politics.

Okay, so I’m totally hooked on Elite: Dangerous. It’s insane – the game literally recreates the entire Milky Way galaxy, like, one-to-one. You start with just a basic ship and not much else, but the cool thing is, there’s no set path. I can basically do whatever I want – become a trader, a bounty hunter, an explorer… it’s all up to me, which is awesome!

Players can choose their own path in the galaxy. Some might venture into unexplored space, discovering new planets and systems to share with everyone. Others may prefer to focus on activities like mining valuable resources, trading goods between space stations, or taking on dangerous bounty hunting missions. Whether it’s space battles, commerce, smuggling, resource gathering, or discovery, players are free to combine these options however they like.

Terraria

2D Action Adventure Sandbox

A side-scrolling game focused on exploration, crafting, and combat
Players explore an underground world filled with unique biomes, fight bosses, and upgrade gear.

In Terraria, players can explore a vast and diverse world filled with unique landscapes, caves, and hidden areas. There’s no right or wrong way to play – you’re free to dig underground, construct buildings and towns, create farms, or battle challenging bosses.

In Terraria, players have complete control over shaping the world to fit their preferred playstyle. Whether it’s building elaborate defenses, designing massive underground cities, or creating a quiet haven in the clouds, the possibilities are endless. The game offers true freedom, not just in how you build, but also in how you interact with all of its features. The world changes based on your actions, choices, and imagination – it’s entirely up to you to decide what it becomes.

Kenshi

Harsh Open-World Survival That Leaves Everything to the Player

A squad-based RPG set in a brutal, post-apocalyptic world.
Start with almost nothing and improve through survival, combat, and exploration.

Kenshi doesn’t have a predetermined hero or storyline. You’re not told who you are or what to do. Instead, you immediately start in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world with warring groups, dangerous beasts, and constantly changing alliances. You’re free to explore anywhere from the start, as long as you can survive the journey – there are no areas locked behind quests or story progression.

In Kenshi, you begin as a vulnerable character and grow stronger through combat, construction, and crafting. You can choose to become a trader, a powerful leader, a wanderer, or live a more peaceful life – and the game world will gradually change based on your actions and the mark you leave on it.

Minecraft

Block-Based Sandbox That Allows Players to be Creative

Players mine resources, craft items, build structures, and explore.
A creative and survival game built around blocks and simple systems.

As a huge fan, I think what’s so amazing about Minecraft is just how free it is, and it achieves that with such simple building blocks – literally! You can build absolutely anything you can imagine. Some people love the challenge of surviving – gathering resources, making tools, and hiding from monsters when it gets dark. But others, like me sometimes, just go straight into creative mode where you have unlimited resources and can fly around building whatever you want. It’s just incredible!

Minecraft doesn’t have a set path you have to follow. You can explore, build, battle, and experiment all at the same time. It’s up to you when to delve underground, expand your world, or just build something new simply because you can.

Conan Exiles

Shape the Harsh Conan Exiles

Start with almost nothing in a harsh desert and grow into a powerful warrior in the world of Conan the Barbarian.
Gather resources, build settlements, fight enemies, and survive.

In Conan Exiles, you begin with almost nothing and must survive in a vast, open world. The game lets you build a home, collect materials, create tools, and learn the skills needed to stay alive. Building, controlling territory, and defending your base are key to success. Where you choose to build is important, as the landscape, available resources, and dangers from enemies will all impact your ability to survive.

I’m really excited about the idea of joining a clan and teaming up with others to carve out our own space in the game world! It’s awesome knowing that the world isn’t static – it’s constantly changing because of what players do, whether we’re working together or battling for control. I can see myself getting lost in crafting incredible structures, but I also love the idea of exploring and maybe even getting into some combat. It’s cool to think that everything we build, destroy, and protect will actually leave a mark on the land, shaping the world for everyone.

EVE Online

Players are Responsible for Everything That Happens

Join thousands of players in a universe focused on player-driven conflict and cooperation.
Trade, mine, explore, and wage large-scale wars.

EVE Online is a massively multiplayer game with a truly unique scope. It features a vast, persistent universe where thousands of players interact, and the game world evolves continuously based on player decisions – not pre-written storylines. Starting with a single spaceship, players are free to forge their own destiny within this dynamic environment.

In this game, players are free to venture into unexplored star systems, scan for new discoveries, and collect data. They can also engage in trading goods across different areas and participate in massive territorial conflicts. What makes this game unique is that the player base largely controls the in-game economy – players create, trade, and even destroy ships, components, and resources. Essentially, almost every change within the game world is a direct result of player actions.

2026-01-19 11:36