SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS
Shadow of the Colossus’ open world is perhaps one of the most unique open worlds you’ll ever find, to the extent that it eschews pretty much every single convention that defines open world games as a whole. It’s vast and varied and beautiful, yes, but it’s almost completely empty, serving more as a hub for you to traverse through and get to the next set-piece boss battle. That emptiness, however, is a crucial element of the experience, and helps sell the isolation and atmosphere that the game relies on so heavily. It also helps, of course, that it’s an absolutely gorgeous game (both the original and the remake), which means that even when you’re just peacefully riding your horse through vast stretches of emptiness, you always have something beautiful to behold.
