Best Open-World Games With Low-Stakes Stories

Key Takeaways

• Relaxing, low-stakes open-world games allow players to explore beautiful terrains at their own pace.
• Games like A Short Hike, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Eastshade offer calming environments and creative tasks.
• These games provide a break from intense gaming, focusing on tranquil settings without pressure to progress quickly.

While there’s a lot to be said about the fun of immersing oneself in intense, gritty games full of war, crime, and danger, sometimes a relaxing, discovery-oriented game is the only thing that will do. This list details some of the most relaxing, low-stakes games in open-world settings, where players can relax and explore to their heart’s content.

Some of these games lean into creative storytelling and whimsical narratives, while others are entirely dependent on player exploration to decide what happens. What they all have in common are their beautiful, thoughtfully created, imaginative open-world terrains, ripe for exploring, solving mysteries, or building dreamy townscapes.

8 A Short Hike

A Brief But Relaxing Game

• Warm and cozy art style
• Beautiful mountainous terrain to explore

This game is rather short, but filled with relaxing scenery and calm, manageable side-quests. While it doesn’t invest in story as much as some of the games on this list, it does offer players a little bit of mindless fun.

Players move through A Short Hike as a bird, climbing to the summit of an island to get phone service. The environment of this game is truly stunning, with a number of different terrain styles built in charming 3D pixel art that feels as thoughtful as it does relaxing.

7 Animal Crossing: New Horizons

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• A recent addition to the popular Animal Crossing franchise
• Befriend adorable animal villagers

In this open-ended, highly creative game, players are sent to a deserted island to transform it into a thriving village. The focus is on cultivating a wholesome, aesthetically pleasing environment, with the help of the local animal villagers.

Players can work as fast or slow as they want in Animal Crossing. With no definitive endpoint, there’s no rush to create or establish the village. There’s also plenty to engage players, with seasonal events and updates to look forward to.

6 Eastshade

Paint and Explore

• Creative and artistic quests
• Stunning mystical landscape

On the whimsical end of the spectrum, Eastshade is a game all about viewing and creating beauty. The stunning natural landscapes of this game serve as inspiration for the player, a painter traveling and making art along the way. There are plenty of side-quests and characters to meet in the communities of the land of Eastshade, all of which appear as animals.

There’s little definitive ‘work’ to do in Eastshade, except exploring, getting in touch with nature, and capturing nice images. This game is perfect for players who like to walk, observe, and learn through meditative gameplay.

5 Stardew Valley

Cozy Countryside RPG

• Cute map with seasonal landscape changes
• Farm, mine, and explore

Stardew Valley is one of the most popular low-stakes games out there. Players explore the small community of Pelican Town, working towards wholesome goals and rebuilding their grandfather’s abandoned farm. What makes Stardew Valley so fun is that players can hone in on what most interests them: farming, mining, growing crops, exploring, and solving mysteries.

Players will love Stardew Valley for its adorable and vibrant pixel-art style as well as the gameplay: the game’s manageable goals feel engaging without any real pressure to succeed.

4 Spiritfarer

An offbeat adventure

• A gorgeous hand-drawn world
• Gentle and sincere plot

Spiritfarer is a game with a unique narrative: players are put into the shoes of Stella, a young girl who helps spirits pass into the afterlife. The tasks in this game revolve around helping spirits to move on, aiding them in fulfilling their final wishes.

This game is totally combat-free, with its simple tasks revolving around a beautiful, thoughtful story. Spiritfarer is perfect for anyone looking for a calm, relaxing game with a highly compelling story and a slow, gentle pace.

3 Lake

All About Slowing Down

• A casual small-town story
• Easy, mindless tasks

Lake is set in a small town in the mid-1980s, where the players are Meredith Weiss, a woman who begins working as a mail carrier. The slice-of-life nature of Lake is part of what makes it so relaxing, as well as the stunning open-world map combining nature and urbanity in a charming fusion.

This game is all about community and connection, with some low-stakes quests and a serene atmosphere without threats or pressurized challenges.

2 Minecraft

The Ultimate Sandbox Game

• Endless gameplay options
• Explore amazing landscapes of all types

Most gamers will know Minecraft. It’s one of the most popular open-world sandbox adventures around, and for good reason. Players can adjust the difficulty of their game, toggling between peaceful and survival mode, meaning the stakes are only ever as high as need be.

In Minecraft, players can mine, build, farm, and explore a limitless number of procedurally generated landscapes with almost endless possibilities for discovery and invention.

1 Firewatch

Solve Mysteries In The Wyoming Wilderness

• Explore an isolated piece of wilderness
• Creative, beautiful map and interactive environment

Firewatch offers one of the most stunning open-world maps, full of tall pine trees, dusty dirt paths, and vibrant sunsets. Set in the Wyoming wilderness during the 1980s, players are tasked with manning a fire watch station, ensuring the safety of the forest, and solving small mysteries as they travel across the map.

The story of the game’s protagonist, Henry, is introspective and there’s little communication with the outside world. This narrative matches the slow, thoughtful movement of this game, with no chance for failure and a plot that will wait for the player.