If you find yourself rushing through a game, chances are there are two reasons for it: one, you feel fatigued and just want to get to the end by skipping some of the optional side quests. This typically happens in massive open-world games where the content feels endless, and you’re at risk of gaming burnout after a while. Two, the game is so good that you can’t help but keep devouring its content, wanting to know what happens after the next part, and then the next.
7 Open-World Games That Mastered The Art Of Slow Exploration
There have been some truly breathtaking open-world games over the years, and these titles let you explore at your own pace.
I don’t have a solution to offer, other than heading over to r/patientgamers for some inspiration. The modern mentality is about getting things done fast, but the truth is, we gain a lot more from purposefully slowing down and appreciating the experience. This is especially true now that games are more expensive, and each title bought feels like a real investment. It would be a shame to rush through it and not get your money’s worth. If you want to practice being more patient, or maybe you’re already the slowest, most zen gamer out there, try the following games that give the biggest payoff when you slow your gameplay down.
Whisper Of The House
The Game’s Main Story Is Short, So Don’t Waste It
Speaking from personal experience here, Whisper of the House is a game where you definitely want to juice out every second of your gameplay and just enjoy and appreciate the scenery. It’s the perfect cozy game for any decorators, organizers, and interior designers out there, with adorable pixel graphics. As the new arrival to town, your job is to help the locals organize, clean, and move in their furniture. You’ll find out a lot about their lives as you do this, and a bit about some mysteries going on in town, so it’s best to linger in each house for as long as possible to find all the secrets and puzzles.
There are also just so many objects to sort through that, with no timer on, you can pretty much spend as much time as possible with each mission. It’s a pretty short and sweet game, so don’t be like me and devour it because everything is just too cute and amazing to look at. Luckily, you can always come back to it and create more rooms and unlock more objects by picking up items in town and designing the houses you acquire around town, but the story itself is limited for now.
Outer Wilds
The Temptation To Google The Solution Must Be Resisted
Outer Wilds is often cited as a favorite among many gamers due to its unique premise and gameplay. You’re stuck in a strange timeloop, where you have a set amount of time each day to explore the planetary system you’re in to discover the secrets within it. The game gives you zero direction as you set out into space, and at first, you’ll probably be frustrated, confused, and aimless. Resist the temptation to seek hints, though!
This is one of those titles where getting spoiled for the solution will rob you of a pretty cool puzzle experience that you’re going to be hard-pressed trying to find in any other game out there. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea initially, but please give it the time and consideration it deserves. You won’t be disappointed.
Stardew Valley
Min-Maxing And Speedrunning Can Be Real Killjoys
If I had to name one game that’s supposed to be cozy and make you slow down and appreciate the vibes, but truthfully has the opposite effect on me, it would be Stardew Valley. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say this game turns me into a min-maxing, money-hoarding millionaire in the first couple of days. And yet, that’s clearly not the intention behind it. Save for grandpa’s assessment on the Spring of Year 3 and some of the timed orders, you’re not in a rush to do anything.
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You can develop your farm at your own pace, and that’s where the charm and beauty of this game truly lie. It’s easy to pick up for thirty minutes or more, and then you just put it down when you’re ready to play more. Rushing through it to unlock everything and grind for Perfection is certainly an option, but it’s an incredibly exhausting way to play the game and, in my opinion, as someone who did all of that, kind of robs the joy out of it. You escaped the Joja Corp life just to grind even harder at grandpa’s farm. In what world does that make sense?
Starfield
Skipping Major Side Quests Makes The Ending Less Interesting
Big, open-world RPGs are the number one suspects when it comes to rushing through games, because of the sheer amount of content pumped into them. Starfield is no different, and with how badly its procedurally generated world was received, it’s understandable why people just rush through it, as POIs are essentially the same after a while. That said, this game is also a special case where some players believe the best way to play it is to rush the main quest to get to NG+. I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t.
At the very least, you should complete all the major side and faction quests around the galaxy, because these will have a noticeable impact on your character’s ending. You’ll also enter NG+ with a fresh perspective. I won’t spoil the exact details, but just don’t skip the side quests in this game, and make sure to also unlock all the special locations the Constellation has you investigate (again, no spoilers). I should also add that the game’s skill system does lock you out of traveling to some of the furthest locations anyway, so you’ll be somewhat forced to grind them out before you can even expect to fly to the game’s final quest location.
Red Dead Redemption 2
A World That Invites You To Live In It
Rushing and Red Dead Redemption 2 are two things that should never be in the same sentence. From the get-go, the game tests your patience with a rather slow-paced introduction, but after that, things start to pick up, and the world opens up to you. Some might be tempted to do the classic gameplay thing of rushing through specific parts to unlock some gameplay features, but just take a step back and enjoy the world at a deliberate, slow pace.
Rockstar put a lot of detail into its universe, and it’s truly a shame if you just run through it, as you’ll miss out on what makes this game feel truly special. The side content, as well as some of the side characters you meet in camp, are part of an unforgettable experience that makes RDR2 what it is at its very core. While you can still roam the world after the main story is completed, you’ll definitely want to do all your exploration while the main quest line is still active, no matter how engrossing the plot might be. That’s all I’ll say, without spoiling a word!
Disco Elysium
The More You Explore And Interact, The Better It Gets
A game with staggering detail and thought behind it, Disco Elysium wowed gamers when it first released for its fresh approach to the RPG genre. You play an amnesiac detective, Harrier Du Bois, who’s a bit of a tabula rasa. Your playstyle, the thoughts you internalize in your Thought Cabinet, and the stats you level allow you to shape the kind of person he ends up turning into throughout your playthrough. Watching this slow growth is more rewarding than just rushing through the bare minimum of the game.
Personally, I didn’t have high enough dice roll chances for a few quests and missed out on them, and they’ll forever haunt me, but I really made sure to comb through everything on the map before the final part of the story. It was nice to get a breakdown of my character’s personality by the end of it, a sort of summation of all the actions I’d taken. For that alone, just enjoy the ride, and if it gets too much, just take a step back and come back to it when the time is right. It’s not an experience you rush through.
Death Stranding
Appreciate The Sights, The Sounds, The Journey
Death Stranding can be a slightly divisive game, depending on your expectations. It’s not another open-world third-person shooter where you rush from one quest to another, but rather an atmospheric journey. It’s a game that invites you to stop, to take it slow, and to appreciate what you see around you as you take on the role of delivery man Sam in a futuristic, destroyed world where only a few survivors remain.
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The best part is that Death Stranding forces this slow approach on you in multiple ways. It delivers long cutscenes that have you wondering whether you’re playing a game or watching a movie. Even after you drop into the world itself, Sam can’t rush through the terrain just willy-nilly. If he slips or doesn’t plan his pathing well enough, he risks his cargo. All this, in service of a message Kojima wishes to deliver to you, about human connection.
Baldur’s Gate 3
The Game Is Full Of Secrets And Side Quests
Baldur’s Gate 3 has to be one of the biggest games I’ve ever played. The sheer number of quests and secrets in its three acts is absolutely staggering, and I would highly recommend every player to explore and visit as many of its locations as possible. Don’t just follow the main quest line to try and get to the end. In many cases, the side quests will contain valuable loot, additional allies, or even choices and dialogue options that can help you further down the main quest. There’s a lot of additional lore to be uncovered, and there are very few of these side adventures that feel truly half-baked.
It’s a tremendously long game, and can get pretty tiring with the inventory management and leveling up of four different characters, so it’s perfectly okay to put it down for a bit and play something less heavy for a change. Just chip away at it at your own pace, because you’ll be happy to see the fruits of your labor translated into the ending that best suits your character, based on the culmination of all your choices in quests and companion dialogue. It’s a D&D experience at its finest, and that takes time to get through.
No Man’s Sky
There Is No End Goal, Only A Journey
No Man’s Sky is the definition of just “vibing out.” Assuming you jump into the standard survival mode of gameplay, it can be pretty tempting to just try to speedrun all the progress. There’s a main quest in No Man’s Sky, which acts more as a tutorial and unlocks some key gameplay features for you in a relatively easy, streamlined way. While you could rush this just to get your hands on everything you need early on, I’d advise against it.
The whole point of No Man’s Sky is to enjoy the freedom that’s dropped into your hands. You’ve spawned in, the world is your oyster, so who do you want to be? What would you like to do? And of course, the game is so much about exploring and discovering new frontiers, more than it is about checking off another task on the list. Try to lean into that freedom, and you’ll find your next visit to space a lot more whimsical.
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The time-consuming nature of open-world games means that backtracking rarely holds much appeal. Thankfully, these games got the memo.
![Moros Protocol (v1.0.12.6) [GOG] – MaxBit](https://i0.wp.com/gamepcfull.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Free-download-moros-protocol-gamepcfull.jpg?w=100&resize=100,100&ssl=1 "Moros Protocol (v1.0.12.6) [GOG] – MaxBit")
