The Best Open-World Games With No Main Quest

Summary

• Many open-world games have a main quest driving gameplay, while others offer total freedom without a specific goal.
• DayZ and 7 Days to Die offer zombie survival experiences with different levels of realism and tension.
• Games like Palworld, ARK, and Rust provide unique open-world experiences involving pets, dinosaurs, and survival challenges.

Many open-world games, while being vast with lots of secrets to uncover, also have a main quest or goal to accomplish that guides you in a certain direction. Skyrim has you fighting dragons, Grand Theft Auto has you committing crimes, and Red Dead Redemption had you dying of tuberculosis.

While some other open-world games may have a hint of an overarching plot or some story to be found, there is no main quest or specific goal to drive you forward; you are allowed to simply do whatever you wish with pure freedom.

12

DayZ

DayZ is an open-world zombie survival game, with a focus on realism. For those that want to live out their Walking Dead fantasies, this game is a great simulation of a world overrun by the living dead.

Scavenge for weapons, run into other players and negotiate your way out of a firefight, or scrounge around for a tin of beans at the local abandoned supermarket. Whether you work together to survive the apocalypse, or trust no-one and live as a Lone Wolf, the choice is yours.

11

7 Days To Die

If you were to take DayZ and combine it with Minecraft, you’d get 7 Days to Die. If DayZ is a little too hardcore and realistic, 7 Days to Die is a perfect alternative, being a bit less tense and a bit more comforting.

In this zombie world, not only will you be scavenging for supplies, but you can build up bases and defenses, do small quests for NPC’s and trade goods, explore various biomes, drive around and customize your vehicle, and more. The old world we knew is dead, so tear it down and build a new one, one block at a time.

10

Palworld

The Pokémon-inspired game that took the world by storm, Palworld is an open-world survival sandbox, with pets as the main focus. You can either chill out with your furry pals and build up your base, or go to war with them equipped with guns for maximum cute slaughter.

Palworld is a great time, especially with friends. Whether you want to battle your friends and their pals, go dungeon crawling, or use your pals to build a factory and farm for you, your options are varied and…wild.

9

ARK: Survival Evolved

If you’re a fan of dinosaurs, you’ll know there aren’t too many big dinosaur-based games to play. If you’re constantly looking for a game to let you pal around with those ancient birds, ARK: Survival Evolved is perfect.

In ARK, you’ll create your character and then spawn on one of the various biomes in the ARK world, in which you’ll find yourself surrounded by all manner of wildlife. From Dodos to Dinos you’ll be crafting tools, building bases, and taming dinosaurs to explore the world and discover its secrets.

8

Rust

Have you ever wanted to run around naked, scrounging for clothes, tools, and building a base to stop other people from taking those clothes and supplies you so desperately need in order to remain decent?

If so, Rust is the game for you. Rust is an open-world sandbox game that will see you spawning into a server with nothing to your name: no tools, no supplies, and not even any clothes. From there, you work your way through the wilderness gathering supplies, crafting weapons, guns, structures, and more in order to survive against wildlife and, more importantly, other players.

7

Forza Horizon 5

The Forza series is based around the love of cars and racing, and Forza Horizon 5 is the perfect game to get lost in as you explore a beautiful open world with nothing but the wind in your hair and foot on the pedal.

The graphics are incredibly realistic, both with the car models and the open world environment of the Mexico landscape. You can also team up with friends, or just chill out and drive solo, and even set up a whole driving simulator station to get the ultimate immersive experience.

6

Valheim

Everyone loves Vikings, and with Valheim you can live your best Viking life. Similar to the other games on the list, Valheim can be played solo or with friends, and spawns you into a procedurally generated world based on Norse mythology.

You’ll be able to explore the world and slay monsters, craft items and weapons, and gather supplies to build longhouses and other bases. Valheim shows that there really is a niche for every type of fan, and if you like open-world sandboxes and Norse mythology, Valheim is perfect.

5

Total War: Warhammer Series

While there may technically be some objectives that you can accomplish in order to “complete” different campaigns, there is no actual main quest in the Total War: Warhammer games. If you’re a fan of Warhammer, military strategy games, or maybe want to dip your toes into the genre, the Total War: Warhammer series is perfect.

With Total War: Warhammer 3, the map is absolutely massive and combines all of the factions and maps from all three games, allowing you to conquor the Warhammer world in any way you desire, whether it be by allying yourself with rat-men wielding nukes, or playing as walking, talking Aztec dinosaurs.

4

No Man’s Sky

Originally launching to a lukewarm reception from players, No Man’s Sky has redeemed itself countless times over, and is one of the most consistently supported games on the market, with new, huge updates often. In terms of pure scale, there is nothing quite like it.

No Man’s Sky is all about space. You’ll find yourself crashed-landed on a random planet, and you’ll need to scavenge for materials in order to craft the replacement parts in order to fix up your ship. Once you do that, the whole universe is your oyster. You’ll be able to seamlessly travel through galaxies and planets, meet alien NPC’s, build bases, fight hostile life-forms, research the local flora and fauna, and much, much more.

3

Terraria

The war of Terraria versus Minecraft has been a long and brutal one, but at the end of the day, they’re both great games with endless hours of fun to be had. In Terraria, you have a 2-D pixelated world to explore in a side-scrolling manner.

This makes Terraria a pretty unique blend of genres. It combines open-world sandbox elements, of building, harvesting and crafting, with action-adventure side-scrolling elements of battle, exploration and freedom of movement.

2

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is the ultimate cozy game. With beautiful pixel graphics, a town full of interesting characters, and a number of daily activities to put your time into, you will easily find yourself sinking hundreds of hours into this gem.

You find yourself the owner of your late grandfather’s farm in Stardew Valley, and you leave your boring office life to live on your new property. From there, the choice is yours. Grow crops to become rich, or just enough to sustain yourself. Go dungeon-diving, mining, discover forest magic and make friends with the townsfolk. Heck, you can even get married and take down an evil corporation!

1

Minecraft

Minecraft is arguably one of the greatest open-world sandboxes of all time. Originally developed by one man and released in beta in 2010, this game has captured the hearts of all ages and continuously provides new and exciting updates for the playerbase.

With Minecraft, you spawn into a randomly generated, blocky world where the world is your oyster. While there is a path of objectives you can follow to win the game, these objectives are never presented to you in any sort of quest log or journal, and you can do anything you want.

You can go mining to craft armor and weapons and hunt monsters, chop down a forest to build your dream house, or simply take a boat out onto the water and go fishing. Minecraft is truly an endless game with possibilities only limited by your imagination.