Designing an open world from the ground up with fun stuff to do is a challenge. Some games reach new heights, leveraging the open world to introduce brand-new ways to play. Others present timeless narratives and breathtaking immersion, bridging the gap between video games and real life.
However, there are some whose open worlds either don’t live up to the potential of their gameplay and setting, or crash and burn by doing everything that we’ve already seen a million times before but worse. Some are still good games and even classics, while others…not so much. Let’s look at 15 open-world games that wasted their potential.
Forspoken
As dire as the final product ended up being, Luminous Productions’ Forspoken had an interesting premise when first revealed. The idea of exploring a vast fantasy world with magical parkour, sailing over objects and unleashing powerful magic was enticing. It felt like the team, full of Final Fantasy 15 veterans, was using that knowledge and focusing on what players enjoyed the most about that RPG – its open world.
Unfortunately, not only was the story bogged down by awful dialogue and characterization, but Athia felt artificial. The vast empty fields full of endlessly respawning monsters, the fetch quests, and typical towers which unlock new icons on the map, adding to the “to-do” list, didn’t come together well. There are some interesting optional dungeons and bosses, for whatever that’s worth.
