Dive Into The Unknown In These Great Games Focused On Exploration

Some games are set in established worlds with fine points set up in between for a curated experience. For example, there may be wilderness between dungeons and towns in Final Fantasy 9, but the vast majority of the world map is well-defined. The same goes for a bigger game, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, which is vast, but it is in an established realm.

For players who like a little bit more adventure in their games, these experiences are all about characters stepping into the unknown for various reasons. They may have crashed on a foreign planet or were hired to do a routine inspection of a new world. Whatever the case may be, the goal of these experiences is simple: explore.

No Man’s Sky

Mapping Out Space

No Man’s Sky is an expansive open-world game that literally knows no bounds, as the universe is infinite. With their trusty ship, players can manually fly anywhere they want and then land on planets.

Players will not find curated content and can instead explore planets to make new discoveries themselves based on scanning plant and animal life. With all of the updates, there are now more ways than ever to establish a home on a planet, customize ships, and join up with friends. Without a narrative, it’s up to players to be motivated enough to get out there and explore the galaxy.

Subnautica

Under The Sea

Subnautica is like the undersea equivalent of No Man’s Sky. Instead, they will salvage their gear from their landing and then try to establish a new lab in the ocean to try and study its inhabitants. Water can be a sore subject for a lot of players who grew up with bad technology in the 90s, like in various Mario and Sonic adventures.

Thankfully, tech has advanced enough to make swimming in Subnautica feel more natural. Thanks to the beauty of the ocean floor and all of the sea life, this game may even encourage players to take a trip to the ocean themselves and have a little deep-sea discovery adventure.

Revenge Of The Savage Planet

A More Humorous Space Sim

Revenge of the Savage Planet is a more humorous take on the more exploration-heavy open-world games. Players are hired to go to a new planet and set up a network there, but things go a bit haywire, and they crash.

After a brief tutorial wherein players have to regather themselves, the true game will begin. While there is plenty of gathering and exploring, there’s also quite a bit of combat and platforming for those seeking a more harrowing exploratory experience.

Xenoblade Chronicles X

Welcome To New L.A.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is the one game in the Xenoblade series that tries to connect itself with modern culture. Players are part of a colony sent to a new planet to reestablish the Earth’s population, and the name is this colony is New L.A., which is a great 80s action movie-like name.

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Through main quests, players will have to try and find peace between native tribes to prevent a war from breaking out. On the side, players are free to roam to their hearts’ content, planting homing beacons for fast travel and material gathering, and fighting in real-time with MMO-style combat.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Reconnecting The World

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is technically not about an explorer as the protagonist, Sam, is a courier instead. His main mission is to connect bunkers across Mexico and Australia, delivering packages as an opening to build relationships with these underground societies. In turn, that will take players across sandy deserts, lush forests, frozen mountains, and more.

The coolest thing about exploration in this game is that with asynchronous multiplayer, what one player discovers in their world will be different from someone else’s experience, whether that’s a lost package, an abandoned vehicle, or a secret hideaway.

Returnal

A House In The Darkness

Returnal is a roguelike wherein the protagonist, Selene, crashes into a foreign planet with seemingly no one around besides alien entities that wish to kill her. However, she starts to see visions of her past in the ever-rebuilding world, and she finds she cannot die either.

It’s a haunting game that manages to build atmosphere well, and with a good pair of headphones, players will get fully immersed. The little bits of exploration the game does sprinkle in will have players on the edge of their seats, guessing until the last frame.

Outer Wilds

Stuck In A Loop

The Outer Wilds is not a roguelike like Returnal, but it is a time loop game wherein the end of the universe is nigh. It’s one of those games that hides the truth from the player at all times, and after every run, they will discover a new piece of the puzzle.

The Outer Wilds is considered a Metroidvania wherein, instead of gaining powers to move forward, players will gain knowledge to bypass certain aspects of the gameplay on each new expedition into space. If players knew the twists going into the game for the first time, then they could easily beat it within thirty minutes.

The Oregon Trail

A Classic Everyone Has Played

The Oregon Trail

Systems

Released

1985

ESRB

e

Developer(s)

MECC

Any kid who grew up in the 80s, 90s, or even 2000s probably got some free time to play The Oregon Trail on an Apple 2 computer in their school lab. Players could name their family, gather supplies, and then set off on an adventure to make it from Missouri to Oregon.

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Players had to weigh in on decisions like when to cross a river, when to stop and rest, how to repair the wagon, and there was even a shooting mini-game. It may look dated now, but The Oregon Trail embodied the very spirit of the American Dream in the 1800s, and it did indeed pass the time in school.

Mass Effect

Big Mako Energy

Mass Effect was not an open-world game, but it did have some exploration options. Not every planet they visited was colonized, but the non-colonized planets could be explored with a buggy called the Mako. Players could gather supplies and sometimes go on quests for NPCs to make new discoveries for them.

It would be interesting to see BioWare make a spinoff that was like No Man’s Sky but with a richer story and gunplay mechanics. Either way, the Mako was a huge part of Mass Effect, and this ability to explore was lost in the two sequels within this trilogy.

Astro Bot

A Rescue Mission

Astro Bot finds the titular Astro Bot crash-landing on a foreign planet in the game’s intro. His ship is broken, and his entire crew is scattered. In each level, players can follow the guided path, but if they choose to explore instead, they will find bots in need of rescue.

Typically, these allies are dressed like classic characters from franchises closely tied to PlayStation, like Metal Gear Solid, Ratchet & Clank, Resident Evil, and more. It may be a small game, but Astro Bot does encourage exploration in a positive way.

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