The never-ending quest for games to achieve mainstream success and global reach is one that has had some less than desirable consequences- like the excessive dumbing down of challenge, paired with a tendency to constantly hold players’ hands and guide them through even the simplest of hurdles and roadblocks.

Thankfully, though this continues to become increasingly prevalent, we do still get notable exceptions that make it a point to go out of their way and do the exact opposite. Rather than taking agency away from players, these games build their identities around not holding your hand and, without providing any guidance, giving you full control of your virtual destiny.

Here, we are going to speak about a few notable open world titles from over the years that do exactly that.