Best Open-World Games Where Different Regions Have Their Own Cultures

Open-world video games offer players the chance to explore strange new worlds, to meet different people and make new allies and enemies. Part of populating a large open world, brimming with life, is creating communities and societies that have developed their own unique cultures.

The cultures of open-world video games are often directly linked to their geographic context. The traditional dress of alpine civilizations will likely be tailored to colder environments. The rituals of desert communities might be tied to water conservation practices required for survival, and people within heavily forested areas may prioritize camouflage or agility over brute strength to make the most of their surroundings in battle.

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5

Fallout 4

Which Faction Will You Choose?

Released

November 10, 2015

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

The Fallout universe is dominated by groups and factions that control certain locations. Each of these groups and organizations has developed their own culture and social norms since the fall of civilization. Most of the cultural groups that have emerged are organized around military concerns, including the almost cultish Brotherhood of Steel. Some of these groups are huge and spread out in pockets across a large area, such as the anarchic, seemingly cultureless raiders, while others are unique to a particular location.

The open world of Fallout 4’s Commonwealth is a contested space with four factions vying for control: The Minutemen, The Railroad, The Institute, and the aforementioned Brotherhood of Steel. These factions have developed their own distinct cultures, including manners of dress and ideologies. They are distinct enough to allow the player to choose which to side with according to their values, playstyle, or narrative preference.

4

Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild & Tears Of The Kingdom

Exploring The Cultures Of Hyrule Past & Present

Released

May 12, 2023

Developer(s)

Nintendo

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

The shared open world of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom has some weird and wonderful communities littering the map. The cultures of Hyrule are diverse in political and social structures, traditions, ideology and practices. Many of these communities are organized around a hub town, such as those that live in and around the Japanese-inspired settlement of Kakariko Village in the Dueling Peaks Region.

Many of the cultures of these places are not only informed by quests that Link will undertake, but also by the peculiarities of the area in which they are located. Between the two games, many of the groups in Hyrule have experienced a change in fortune, with the Yiga, still hellbent on killing Link, cast into the depths.

3

The Witcher Franchise

The World Comes To Novigrad

Released

May 19, 2015

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

The Witcher franchise has a complex and detailed lore that has developed from novels, short stories, video games, and television series. As a result, the geography and history of the Continent is incredibly rich and multilayered. Exploring the open world of The Witcher games allows players to explore the diverse cultures of the land. The mingling of these cultures is perhaps best showcased in the free city of Novigrad, which is home to diverse groups of people.

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By contrast, many of the dozens of isolated settlements, such as Crow’s Perch and Fishing Village, have a smaller, less diverse citizenship with cultures based around farming, fishing and agrarianism. This, unfortunately, can lead to closed-off mindsets and hostility towards outsiders. There are also regional cultures organized around religious beliefs, such as the people of Downwarren, who worship the ladies of the wood.

2

Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West

From The Cradle To The West

Released

February 18, 2022

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

The open world of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West has very distinctive cultural groups and ethnicities that vary considerably from region to region. Horizon Zero Dawn establishes this very early, with Aloy navigating different groups with varying degrees of success. This includes the superstitions of the Nora tribe, who shunned her as a child, and their technology-worshiping enemies, the Carja tribe. These are fully realized groups with distinct traditional dress, beliefs, and societal organization.

Once Aloy heads west in the second game, Horizon Forbidden West, she begins to encounter the diverse tribes of the Tenakth. The Tenakth of the west were fierce warriors whose unique traditions and rituals around death meant that other cultures perceived them to be cannibals. Within this broader group, the Tenakth have distinct cultural differences based on where they live, which often leads to conflict.

Dense With High Fantasy Cultural History

Released

April 4, 2014

OpenCritic Rating

Fair

The Elder Scrolls series, in many ways, has set the standard for diverse, culturally rich open world games, with Tamriel being one of the most fully realized and complex continents in video gaming. There are different cultures, sentient species, and ethnicities that have become more nuanced as the games have progressed. Religion and environmental factors also play a role in creating the diversity of The Elder Scrolls, with cultural practices and dress adapting to a range of intersecting factors. From the Dark Elves of Morrowind to the High Elves of the Summerset Isles, the cultures of each region have evolved over the convoluted history of The Elder Scrolls.

One of the interesting things about The Elder Scrolls is that players not only experience pockets of diverse cultures isolated throughout the continent, but there are also significant diasporas. A diaspora, in this case, is the spread of cultures and groups of people from their homeland. Perhaps the most distinctive example of this is that players can encounter the cat-like Khajit throughout Tamriel when their homeland is Elsweyr, and lizard-like Argonians outside of Black Marsh.

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