While the large open world may seem impressive, Size doesn’t mean everything. The most important thing in open world games is what you can do in the world, not on the vast scale of beautiful scenery and maps.
I like many open world games Final Fantasy XV and Just cause 4 It has an impressively huge world for players to explore, In reality, there’s not much to do in areas other than walking around.
However, small open world games don’t need to be too interested in impressing players with landscapes that stretch through miles. Instead, They depend on density. Each area packs content that players always have what they need to do Every turn.
Rank the smallest open world games based on size estimated from fans and official sources. Otherwise, I’ll use it A rough estimate based on the size of the game world.
12 Outer Wild
Exploreable dioramas
Outer Wild It can be considered a small open world game. Because it is a world packed with essentially a dense world as explored within a strict 22-minute time frame.
If you don’t know much about the game, I’m not going to ruin the magic for you. Play and experience this game for yourself.
You’ll think it’s about the same size as other space exploration games There’s no man’s skybut Outer Wild There are only enough celestial bodies to travel within a minute.
Space travel is extremely fast as each planet is less than 1 kilometre in diameter and also has a distance of several kilometres.
But don’t let your little solar system do stupid things. From hourglass twins to dark bramble, the naughty planets are packed tightly Secrets you can discover during your expedition.
Outer Wild It’s a beautiful once-in-a-lifetime experience that doesn’t boast a large playable area, but each square inch is filled with plenty of details that can only be done with love and attention.
11 Sleeping dog
Hong Kong representative
United Front Game Map Sleeping dog It’s a fairly accurate facsimile on the main island of Hong Kong. There are four explorable areas based on real-life districts of Hong Kong Island;Sleeping dog It provides a fairly accurate portrayal of the city I grew up in.
Hong Kong is small both in-game and in real life, The narrow roads and roads are full of people and vehiclesit will be a city that will never sleep.
There is a map In total, less than 3km, totaling about 8 square kilometers, Sleeping dog It also translates the tone and aesthetics of each district completely. From the commercial and metropolitan areas of Central to the more urban and working class environments of North Point.
It’s a shame there’s no sequel to Sleeping Dog. Inside, we may have an expanded map of Hong Kong, including Kouulun and the new territory, perhaps even Lantau Island. who knows? It is also possible that you have obtained the MTR Metro system.
Sleeping dog There are great gameplay that lets you sneak into dangerous, hidden territory, including embodied combat mechanics, hacking, and even rock picking mini-games.
10 Bully
I’ll stay at school
Sometimes it’s lovingly called more PG versions grand theft autoRockstar Bully It is known as one of the studio’s best works.
Sadly, I am very suspicious that this underrated gem is getting a remaster or sequel soon.
The world of gaming is set in the small town of Brewers in New England and its local boarding school, Brewers Academy. Bully It is home to interesting NPCs and realistic towns. It was even more impressive in 2006.
Not only can players run around the two-storey campus to explore more of the available classrooms and offices; But they can also explore Brewers, but that could risk being chased by police officers who want to make sure you stay at school.
9 Grand Theft Auto 3
“I can only see good for you, my boy.”
grand theft auto The franchise, along with most other games created by Rockstar, is always known to offer a densely packed open world sandbox for players to explore, but this hasn’t always been the case throughout the series.
3D Open-World games didn’t exist until the early 2000s GTA 3 I developed the formula Allows players to explore every corner of Liberty City.
The map size is smaller than the newest GTA game, Liberty City is a functional city with 4.38 square kilometres of land to explore. It gives gamers of the time a glimpse of the ultimate revolutionary potential for the gaming industry. GTA 5.
8 Subnautica
Don’t try Sarasophobia: Impossible
It’s as if you’re crashing and stuck on an alien planet Subnautica, You are forced to explore the depths, and live in the flora and fauna there, You don’t know when you might turn into the next diet of a predator.
The entire map of Subnauticaincluding underwater caves, coral reefs, and ruins, It is located on an underwater plateau known as the “crater.” It doesn’t take much time to swim from one side of the crater to the other. It is not very common on the surface of the crater. Dive deeper and uncover the secrets of this planet.
After swimming from the edge of the crater, You will only find the deep dark depths of the void, But not before hearing the unforgettable words: “Warning: Entering the ecological dead zone. The outlook for survival is approaching zero.”
Swimming under the beautiful sea can be a relaxing experience, Trench and depth Subnautica It might be scary, It is especially combined with the fact that there is no real way to protect yourself from Leviathan-class creatures that are straight from the horrors of Lovecraft.
Want to risk your life exploring the depths?
7 witness
It’s all about perspective
The open world we see can get smaller and smaller, but that doesn’t mean that complexity has decreased.
Don’t confuse it with Destiny 2 Is it a big bad? Love, death, robot episode, witness It is a puzzle game that revolves around panel puzzles, allowing players to grasp the rules themselves around the island, which are estimated to be nearly 2km x 2km.
Made by Jonathan Brow and published by Zakura, the Island of the Island witness It may be small, but it’s big enough to explore and solve 500 puzzles scattered throughout the map, each one being more difficult than the next.
Inspired by Cyan mistthe difficult and esoteric nature of puzzles witness Since its first release, it has split the gaming community. Some praise the level of design and philosophical themes as clever and inspiring, while others call them excruciatingly difficult and overrated.
6 The unity of assassins’ beliefs
Living in the revolution
Like many years assassin’s creed Traditions based on historical events, Unity Bringing the franchise to The bloody French Revolution In the late 1700s, I created an almost 1:1 model of Paris.
Winding paths and forking alleys, Unity Paris is home to civilians and enemies, even on the ground level. Gives claustrophobic immersion Things you can only experience on small streets in a city with a large population.
However, when we climbed up a polished stone wall and landed on the roofs of many buildings in Paris, You will find yourself in a vast playground Perfect for parkour enthusiasts.
Still, the map appears on approximately 2.4 square kilometers, making it one of the smallest in the franchise.
5 Disco Elysium
White mourning
Disco Elysium It will be held in Martinize, a small district in the metropolitan city of Lebakol. you Amnesia Superstar/Apocalypse/Sorry/Borry/Honor/Art/Hobo Policeman The job is to travel around the Martiners. Solve the mysterious case of a man hanged.
The only area you explore is the Martiners, It is divided into three small sections on the map. The main waterfront, the sheds of poverty-stricken fishermen, and abandoned churches.
Each area with pre-rendered backgrounds has a unique story that tells the connection Socio-political struggles among the Martiners people; Also, there are no accurate measurements of martinizes or lebakol, but it doesn’t take long to move from one end of the district to the other.
There is no official Martiners measurement, Based on this ranking based on distance calculated via successful visual calculation checksstates that the distance between the sniper’s nest and the rag’s turning is about a few hundred metres apart, and there is the rest of the Martinize, which is a little larger than that.
Thanks to the small range of Martiners, the district itself feels alive but nervous. Because you’re caught up in the midst of a strike of workers who are threatening to throw the city into complete chaos.
4 Batman: Arkham City
Justice…for Gotham!
Perhaps one of the most iconic collections of superhero-inspired games Arkham The series has always been loved for its precise portrayal of Batman aesthetics, which fans know and love.
It’s the second game in the series, Arkham City Shifting the world from linear progression to free roaming of mega prisons like isolated cities that house Gotham’s most dangerous criminals.
Despite the small map size of approximately 1 square kilometers (approximately 0.93km), Arkham City It’s packed tightly A unique and easy-to-recognize domain of unique themes And it clearly shows the type of enemy you encountered there.
Arkham City Not only will the rest of the series set the standard for how it tackles traversal and freeloam, But the dirty, rough, dark aesthetics also solidified due to other franchises.
3 Shenmee
The Room version of the game industry
Shenmee This is an action adventure game released in 1999 for The Dreamcast. Due to its overly ambitious budget and lukewarm reception, Shenmee Despite Sega getting a sequel, it didn’t become the hit that Sega wanted.
With a cheerful, bad voice acting and a pale, unseasonable combat compared to Virtua Fighter, Shenmee It has gained cult support due to its small yet immersive world.
What will be made for those fans? Shenmee That’s what’s special Life sim models where each NPC has its own routine, In addition to the desire to immerse players in the game further through what some might consider to be excessive realism.
Shenmee The same goes for the map Compared to the remaining maps on this list, You can run through suburban towns in just three minutes. Despite the small map size, Shenmee There’s still a lot to offer.
The fans loved it Shenmee They crowdfunded their third game in 2019 from development from hell. The quality of the game itself may still be an acquired taste.
2 Short hike
It will take some time to stress
Short hike A short, cozy indie game created by one developer, Adam Robinson-Yu. Depending on whether you’re distracted by the game’s quirky NPCs and side quests, You can complete, give or get this game within an hour.
The relaxed story of the game revolves around Claire, a young anthropomorphic bird who travels to a regional park in Hawk Peak State to escape town over the summer. Her goal is to climb to the top of Hawk Peak and find a mobile reception where she expects to receive important calls.
The story culminates in a heartwarming ending, with the entire game taking place in the park. This is on an island where you can talk to people talking to interesting landmarks to discover.
Due to the winding paths and verticality of the map, the island itself feels much larger than reality. The main story is pretty short, and traversal is easy and fun to try and force it with enough golden feathers, but the park has plenty of content to explore and find.
1 Yakuza 0
Not many in Camrocho
Almost all games regardless of settings Like a dragon The franchise will take place A dense city full of fun mini-games and substances in serious crime dramas.
The locations featured in each game are heavily based on real-world locations, such as Sotenbori as the Dotonbori district in Osaka, Ijincho in Pond as Izezakicho in Yokohama, and more recently Honolulu in Hawaii.
perhaps The most iconic place in Like a dragon The franchise is Kamurocho. I was inspired by the Tokyo straddles of Shin UKU. Despite being a relatively small entertainment district consisting of several blocks, Kamurocho feels alive regardless of time.
There’s always something to do with Camrocho. Karaoke, visiting a hostess bar, playing an arcade machine, or gambling Like a dragon The franchise is more than just a beat action RPG, An immersive experience that thrusts you into dense cities you want to visit in real life.
