Open-World RPGs Where You Can Accidentally Ruin Entire Regions

The idea of choices having real consequences is central to most good role-playing games, especially those with large, open worlds. When you’re exploring a detailed and interactive world, you naturally expect your actions to have an impact on it and the people within it. However, this is surprisingly difficult to achieve well. Often, consequences only affect a single quest or the character who assigned it. Few open-world RPGs truly commit to the idea of lasting consequences that continue to affect the game and the player throughout the entire experience.

Some open-world RPGs take player choice to the extreme, with mistakes and bad decisions having surprisingly far-reaching consequences. These can include losing important characters, missing out on quests or endings, or even permanently altering the game world – sometimes to the point of destroying entire areas. Revisiting a place you’ve irrevocably changed can be a powerful experience, really emphasizing the impact of your actions. Here are some of the best open-world RPGs where players can accidentally – or intentionally – cause lasting damage to the game world, along with some of the most striking examples.

Please be aware that the following content contains spoilers for the games mentioned. Read at your own risk!

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Players Can Accidentally Doom The Entire Starting Region Of Kefalonia

The Assassin’s Creed series began experimenting with open-world action RPGs with Assassin’s Creed Origins, but Assassin’s Creed Odyssey truly embraced the genre. Odyssey let players choose between two different characters and featured quests and conversations where choices actually mattered, moving away from simple cutscenes. Many players didn’t anticipate how deep the game would be, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Odyssey quickly showed players how their decisions could have a real impact on the story, especially in the early stages of the game.

At the beginning of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, all players start on the island of Kefalonia, completing early quests for the local people. One of these quests, “The Blood Fever,” presents a difficult choice: players encounter a family quarantined due to a plague and must decide whether to kill them or spare them in hopes of finding a cure. Choosing to spare the family unknowingly dooms Kefalonia to the epidemic, which unfolds off-screen. Many players may never realize the consequences of their decision. However, if they later return to Kefalonia, they’ll find a desolate island filled with a graveyard, skeletal remains, and abandoned houses. This optional side quest is particularly effective because the game doesn’t require players to revisit the island and see the results of their choice, meaning some may never discover the full impact of their mercy.

Dragon’s Dogma 2

Hidden Dragonsplague Mechanic Can Turn A Playthrough Into Hell

While Dragon’s Dogma 2 seems like a typical open-world RPG at first glance, it handles many common features in unique ways. This includes its companion system (called Pawns), the lack of quick travel, and a clear difference between day and night that affects how you play and explore. The game doesn’t explain everything upfront, so you might be surprised by the Dragonsplague. This sickness is exclusive to Pawns and can be caught during dragon battles, even from Pawns you hire who don’t show obvious symptoms. Over time, signs of the sickness appear, but they’re subtle. If you don’t pay close attention to your Pawns, they could transform into raging dragons, destroying towns and settlements while you’re unaware.

Players are often stunned when they first experience Dragonsplague in the game, witnessing vibrant towns become eerily empty, filled with bodies and devoid of any characters or quests. Because the game saves automatically, there’s no going back to prevent this shocking event, making it truly memorable. Beyond Dragonsplague, the endgame in Dragon’s Dogma 2 presents a unique challenge: the dark Unmoored World. Here, monsters relentlessly attack settlements, and if players don’t respond quickly enough, towns can be completely destroyed, along with everyone inside. Any side quests or content available in these areas will disappear if players take too long to help or prioritize exploration elsewhere.

Fallout 3

What’s A Nuclear Post-Apocalypse Without Blowing Up An Extra Nuke?

Fallout 3 gives players a lot of freedom to shape their experience. The game features a reputation system where your actions – good or bad – affect how different groups see you. The world is dark, and you can do truly awful things, even destroy entire towns. While you can kill almost anyone, like in other Bethesda RPGs, there are even bigger, more impactful choices for players who want to be villains. A particularly memorable moment is the optional quest ‘The Power of the Atom,’ where you can detonate a nuclear bomb right in the middle of Megaton, one of the first cities you encounter.

While it’s unlikely a player would accidentally destroy Megaton – the game makes sure you know what you’re doing – it remains a memorable event in gaming. Once the bomb goes off, the entire town is wiped off the map, becoming a radioactive wasteland. Dozens of characters and their associated quests are lost, and certain random events might even be activated. Later in the game, some important characters will share their thoughts on what you did. And, honestly, the explosion itself is visually impressive – as long as you’re watching from a safe distance!

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Geralt Is Meant To Kill Monsters — Not To Trust Them

The creators of The Witcher series have always prioritized player choice and its impact, notably in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, where early decisions could drastically alter a large section of the game, leading to entirely different areas and alliances. While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features a fully open world, it doesn’t have the same branching storyline as its predecessor. However, almost every quest offers multiple solutions, constantly challenging players to make difficult moral choices as Geralt. The Witcher 3 also excels at creating a complex world filled with ambiguous situations, making it hard to predict the long-term consequences of even small decisions.

In The Witcher 3, players often have the chance to rebuild villages by clearing out bandits and monsters, watching them thrive again. However, choices can have devastating consequences. During the quest “The Whispering Hillock,” players encounter a spirit trapped in a tree who claims to protect orphans. If players choose to release it, believing they’re doing a good deed, the spirit instead attacks the village of Downwarren, killing everyone and leaving it in ruins for the remainder of the game. This decision can also have a major impact on the overarching story involving the Bloody Baron. Ultimately, the game suggests Geralt, as a monster hunter, is meant to destroy such creatures, not assist them, offering a cautionary lesson about trusting appearances.

STALKER 2: Heart Of Chornobyl

Everything And Everyone Can Be Lost To The Dangers Of The Zone

Although STALKER 2 has some RPG features, it’s not quite a traditional open-world role-playing game. However, it’s such a good example of the genre that it deserves to be mentioned.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is an open-world first-person shooter with strong role-playing elements. Players will encounter branching storylines, make choices in dialogue that matter, join different factions, and experience multiple endings – all influenced by the decisions they make throughout the game. As the character Skif, you can forge alliances and rivalries, and even switch sides or betray factions when the opportunity arises. The game world itself will also change significantly as the story progresses, with major events reshaping areas like Wild Island, SIRCAA, and Duga.

Okay, so in STALKER 2, a lot of the big stuff just happens no matter what you do, but sometimes your choices actually matter. There’s this huge event around the halfway point where the brainwashed Monolith group comes back and starts attacking everyone – the stalker camps, military bases, the whole Zone. I first got a call for help from Zalissya, this newbie-friendly hub, and they were getting completely overrun. The game doesn’t really tell you this is urgent, which is a problem. I made the mistake of going off to do something else first, and by the time I got back, it was too late. Almost everyone in Zalissya was dead! It turned what was a safe place into a ghost town for the rest of my game. Apparently, a lot of other players learned that lesson the hard way too – losing a really useful base because they didn’t rush to help fast enough.

2026-02-13 08:36