Best Speculative Fiction Open-World Games, Ranked

Summary

• Open-world games are ideal for speculative fiction, offering deep lore and exploration experiences that bring surreal elements to life.
• Each game mentioned highlights a unique aspect of speculative fiction, from historical fantasy to science fiction and post-apocalyptic storytelling.
• These games encourage immersive storytelling, exploration of complex themes, and player decision-making impacting the game’s world.

Speculative fiction is a broad and beloved genre, encompassing everything departing from realism. This covers fantasy, the supernatural, utopian and dystopian tales, alternative histories, the futuristic, and much more. Naturally, these themes are some of the most popular in games, offering the real potential for players’ imaginations to run wild, exploring distant concepts that are far from lived experience.

Open-world games serve as a great setting for speculative fiction, offering vast and open-ended exploration experiences, with deep histories and rich lore that truly bring surreal elements to life. Many of these games take their players on exciting journeys where learning and gathering knowledge about the fantastical and mysterious informs gameplay creatively.

10 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Fictional Recreation Of Ancient Greece And Its Culture

Sitting firmly within the historical fantasy subsection of speculative fiction, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey brings Ancient Greece to life at the time of the Peloponnesian War. Mythological and historical elements heighten the gameplay experience, as players get the chance to fight iconic monsters and partake in conquest battles based on real events.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey brings to life the fascinating tapestry of Ancient Greek culture through its sprawling map, which covers a number of essential locations. The scenery is punctuated with gorgeous azure waters and picturesque mountains in the distance.

9 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

A Rich And Historic Slavic Fantasy World

Players of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt take on the role of Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter on his quest to find his daughter Ciri, who is being attacked by a supernatural force known as the Wild Hunt. The game balances great combat and exploration with a focus on the rich lore of the open-world setting.

By way of speculative fiction, Wild Hunt combines Slavic folklore with high fantasy in a complex and intriguing way. Fans love the storytelling in particular, and its exploration of destiny and power through its immersive world of magic and monsters.

8 Subnautica

Explore An Underwater Alien World

Subnautica‘s survival-focused gameplay begins with players stranded on an alien planet, 4546B, which is covered in ocean. Exploring reveals vast biomes where it’s possible to craft items, investigate the ecosystem of the planet, build underwater habitats, and face mysterious dangers that lurk in the deep.

The game takes on many aspects of the science fiction genre, which is especially evident in the setting, and the technology used throughout the story. There’s also plenty of tension created by the isolation of underwater exploration.

7 Fallout: New Vegas

Post-Apocalyptic Exploration And Combat

Fallout: New Vegas takes place in the Mojave Wasteland, a post-apocalyptic interpretation of the Mojave Desert. Players take on the role of a courier who wakes up after being shot in the head, and begins to track down the fate of his final delivery.

The gameplay combines survival aspects and detailed storytelling that explores conflict and morality, with player actions having a tangible impact. This post-apocalyptic style of speculative fiction offers critiques on the reconstruction of society and the human struggle for power after global disasters.

6 No Man’s Sky

Classic Sci-Fi Alien Planet Exploration

This open-world space adventure is set in a procedurally-generated universe full of wonderful alien planets, each with unique ecosystems. Players can mine resources, build bases, and unravel mysteries against the vast backdrop of endless space.

Naturally, No Man’s Sky leans heavily into science fiction. It focuses on the exploration and discovery of distant planets, challenging players to embrace the awe of an infinite and complex universe full of millions of unique alien worlds. The solitude of space exploration heightens this experience, encouraging the sense of wonder and discovery.

5 Outer Wilds

Science Fiction On A Thought-Provoking Time Loop

Another science-fiction game, Outer Wilds offers a different approach to space exploration compared with No Man’s Sky. The player is the pilot of a small spacecraft, exploring a mysterious solar system while stuck in a short time-loop. The time-loop mechanic prompts free investigation of the environment, with players exploring interstellar mysteries.

This mechanic makes the game poignant and philosophical, with an existential edge that other science fiction games don’t always have. Outer Wilds prompts a sense of wonder and mystery when it comes to questions of life, death, and the purpose of the universe.

4 Cyberpunk 2077

An Urban Cyberpunk Tale With Great Style

Cyberpunk 2077 dips into the dystopian elements of speculative fiction. Against the sprawling backdrop known as Night City, players can explore ideas of social inequality and futuristic technological advancement. Players take on the role of a mercenary named V, involved in the power struggle for the chaotic Night City.

The game’s neon-lit, gritty streets capture the allure of the cyberpunk genre, alongside the heavy technology usage. The art style is aesthetically pleasing and ties well into the story, with its themes that are equally fitting within cyberpunk stories.

3 Elden Ring

A Traditional Fantasy Journey With Expansive Lore

Elden Ring’s dark fantasy style pulls players into a long, engaging journey that is filled with mystery, exciting combat, and complex lore. As they embark on a quest to reclaim fragments of the Elden Ring and reinstate order throughout the world, players can work alone or with friends.

This game is a classic example of the fantasy genre, with an intricate and surreal open-world setting full of cryptic details that reveal lore gradually. Players get the opportunity to engage in conflicts with cosmic consequences.

2 Horizon Zero Dawn

Combines Various Speculative Genres With Mixed Aesthetic

Earth has been reclaimed by nature, with tribal societies living in the ruins of a bygone civilization. Players work as Aloy, an outcast who fights for survival among humans and machines as she tries to find out what led to the collapse of society.

Horizon Zero Dawn combines several speculative genres, including cyberpunk aesthetics, science-fiction, and dystopian elements to explore numerous themes, like artificial intelligence, technological development and ecology. The gorgeous open world is designed to intertwine the organic and synthetic succinctly, creating perhaps a perfect post-apocalyptic setting.

1 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

High Fantasy With A Focus On Exploration

A popular recent iteration in the Legend of Zelda franchise, Breath of the Wild takes place in a stunning, vast open-world version of Hyrule. Link awakens to find the world in ruins and must work to defeat the malevolent enemy who is threatening the world, which involves puzzle solving, exploration and some combat.

While Breath of the Wild is largely a fantasy tale, it has some elements of post-apocalyptic storytelling too. The once glorious kingdom of Hyrule exists in ancient ruins. Modern technology and mysterious secrets that can be explored at the player’s own pace, with little guidance and maximum freedom.