Only 4 Open-World Games Are Better Than Elden Ring (In One Area)

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring is more than 4 years old by this point, and the open-world genre continues to cry out for a new game that can match its brilliance, replayability, longevity, and surprising accessibility. Elden Ring still regularly hits 50,000 concurrent players on Steam, an absolutely absurd figure. The well-supported Crimson Desert probably came the closest to recapturing that lightning, but it’s way too divisive to be on the same level. Elden Ring deserves every single ounce of praise thrown its way, and “Shadow of the Erdtree” arguably set a new standard for expansions (even if I am partial to Bloodborne‘s “The Old Hunters,” myself).

An argument could be made that Elden Ring represents the peak of the open-world genre… but an argument could also be made that a handful of games have it beat, at least in a few important areas. Be it combat, world-building, exploration, and immersion, Elden Ring comes very close to being the standard-bearer, but it falls just short of taking the top spot. That doesn’t reduce FromSoftware’s accomplishments, but rather serves as an illustration of another team’s achievements.

Only games that cover somewhat similar ground to Elden Ring (so, combat-focused, dark fantasy, world-building, etc). No point comparing Elden Ring to Red Dead Redemption 2 or GTA 5.
I’m specifically highlighting one area for each game, rather than comparing the whole package.
I love Elden Ring, it’s my third favorite FromSoftware game (after Bloodborne and Dark Souls).

Nioh 3 – Better Combat Than Elden Ring

Just Team Ninja Doing Team Ninja Things

I don’t think it would be controversial to say that Team Ninja surpasses FromSoftware in terms of pure combat. Even putting aside Ninja Gaiden, which is a completely different type of beast, the developer’s Soulslike projects deliver fast-paced, satisfying action that features layer upon layer of mechanics.

Elden Ring: 17 Best Female Characters, Ranked

Elden Ring places many incredible female characters into the spotlight when it comes to the Tarnished’s journey in the Lands Between.

While I prefer Nioh 2, Nioh 3 showed that Team Ninja’s formula translates well into more open level design, and the incorporation of two simultaneous, complementary builds (Samurai and Ninja) encourages players to step out of their comfort zone and not focus simply on just one style. With the press of a button, you transform from a hard-hitting samurai swinging an odachi to a nimble ninja dual-wielding swords, and the game encourages you to switch back and forth frequently. Each build and weapon type comes with a plethora of skills that significantly enhance your abilities in battle, and Nioh 3 lets you reset your skill points whenever you want. Experiment to your heart’s content.

I played through the entirety of Nioh 2 with an odachi, and I wasn’t really excited about using a ninja build in the sequel. However, I ended up having so much fun with it that it became my primary build.

From recycled bosses to uneven difficulty and an underwhelming final area, Nioh 3 certainly suffers from flaws that Elden Ring avoids, but its gameplay is so fantastic that it overshadows everything else. FromSoftware’s games prioritize action above nearly everything else, but it’s arguably the fights themselves that are amazing, rather than the mechanics of the combat (which are still great, but not best-in-genre great). Nioh 3 hits that mark.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Better Traversal & Verticality

A Different Approach To Exploration

Elden Ring nails its exploration, although it takes a different approach than something like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. In FromSoftware’s game, the act of exploring the world isn’t inherently fun; it’s rewarding, though. You explore to find a new boss, dungeon, or loot. There’s nothing wrong with that, but repeat playthroughs lose a bit of magic since there’s no incentive to explore beyond the basics.

In Tears of the Kingdom, traversal and exploration are the fun parts, and it doesn’t really matter whether you find something worthwhile at the end of the road. BOTW also succeeds at this, but TOTK gives players so many tools to inject their own personality into how they approach the world. Personally, I don’t have the patience for crafting and designing my own vehicles, so I never went much further than just creating a makeshift bike. However, that was incredibly fun regardless. TOTK forces you to engineer wild, creative ways to cross Hyrule, especially due to its three-layer map and its Sky zone.

Kenshi – Pure Emergent Sandbox

The World Is What You Make It

Kenshi

Released: December 6, 2018

An indie game by one developer cannot be compared to a massive project like Elden Ring, as it would be unfair to both sides. Still, rough around the edges as it might be, Kenshi is an incredible achievement that puts to shame most triple-A open-world games in one area: Emergent gameplay. As much as I love Elden Ring, its world is the definition of static. If you go for the same build and mostly stick to the same route, two playthroughs will be pretty much identical. That’s perfectly fine, and variety comes from trying different types of characters.

7 Legendary Games That Defined Emergent Gameplay

Rather than sticking to a strict path, these iconic games encouraged players to do their own thing, establishing emergent gameplay in the process.

Even more so than Elden Ring, Kenshi doesn’t have a story, instead letting players write their own legends by existing within its world. Survival is the name of the game, and you are dropped into a post-apocalyptic hellscape as a complete and utter nobody. You can and will be killed by a weak bandit within a couple of minutes if you don’t know what you are doing. The game simulates a living ecosystem that doesn’t consider you to be the center of its universe. You can become a leader who builds cities, a nomad inspired by Mad Max, or a weakling who cannot seem to catch a break. You decide because the world won’t do it for you.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Better World-Building & Storytelling Combo

A Perfect Marriage

Just to avoid any confusion, I believe Elden Ring‘s world-building ranks among the very best in all gaming, not just the open-world genre. However, FromSoftware’s passive style of storytelling is an acquired taste that doesn’t consistently take advantage of the brilliant world-building, and it can feel disconnected from the Lands Between’s history. There’s just nothing all that fun about reading item text; at most, it’s a workmanlike solution that just about gets the job done.

Although hardly flawless, The Witcher 3 breathes life into its world-building through its storytelling, allowing them to complement and enhance each other. When you walk into a war-torn village in Velen, you don’t just see historical set-dressing; you experience the immediate, messy human cost of that history. A simple monster contract becomes a powerful look into regional politics, spirits, or even domestic abuse. It gives you a reason to care about the world’s people rather than just its history.