Despite being over a decade old, Skyrim is still cited as one of the best open-world games of all time. But that acclaim doesn't come from its stellar storytelling, as many players found the pacing to be a bit poor, the main antagonist too mediocre, and critics have argued that an RPG of this scope should have much larger consequences for player actions and interactions with characters in the world.
The game's average plot hasn't put much of a dent in its legacy, yet there are still other open-world titles out there that manage to do a much better job at telling a compelling story. Over the years, players have been gifted heartbreaking adventures across historic landscapes, sci-fi journeys that explore the deepest parts of the mind, and even games within the Elder Scrolls franchise manage to achieve a greater level of narrative excellence.
Red Dead Redemption 2
An Emotional Journey Through The Wild West
Red Dead Redemption 2 is the gold standard for open-world storytelling, being revered as one of the most emotionally jarring and immersive video game experiences ever made. Its slow-burning narrative follows Arthur Morgan’s moral unraveling within the collapsing Van der Linde gang, placing a heavy focus on loyalty and tragedy, as the story builds to an incredibly powerful climax that is hailed as a hallmark achievement in the open-world genre.
Where Skyrim takes players on a broader journey, RDR2 places a significantly higher amount of narrative weight on individual characters. Every mission feels purposeful and not just filler to pad out the gaps between locations, and what truly elevates the story is the performances of the actors, who really bring the characters and narrative to life in a way that no other open-world game ever has.
Ghost of Tsushima
Fully Entering The Spiritual Realm
Ghost of Tsushima tells a deeply human story that keeps things grounded in an authentic Japanese setting that is just as beautiful as the narrative itself. Players follow Jin as he grapples with his internal struggle over honor, forced to choose between tradition and his people amidst the brutal Mongolian invasion, where many decisions will result in sacrificing either a part of himself or a person close to him.
Skyrim chooses to scatter its storytelling across a series of seemingly disconnected quests that coalesce at certain points, but Tshuhima manages to maintain a constant thread that ties every mission into the main story. And the story itself doesn't just unfold in a select set of tasks throughout the world, but in just about every action the player takes, where minor side-quests feel impactful even in a small way, and even the world itself seemingly plays a part in developing Jin into the character he becomes at the end of the game.
Death Stranding
Stuck With Your Own Thoughts
Death Stranding takes a completely different approach to storytelling that sets it apart from just about every other game in the open-world genre. Players enter a ghostly world and have to slowly make their way from location to location, dropping packages and learning more about the current state of humanity and the potential future that awaits them.
Where the game eclipses Skyrim is in how ambitious yet well-executed the narrative is. The story can get quite convoluted at times, but thanks to the acting, cinematic presentations, and creative world-building, every moment carries a sense of meaning, which means that the player's actions carry far more importance than a series of fragmented events.
Fallout: New Vegas
A Journey In The Middle Of Conflict
Fallout: New Vegas is widely considered one of the best examples of a true branching narrative in an open-world setting. Set in a wasteland full of moral greyness, players find themselves caught between warfare and political upsets, with all the freedom they need to control the outcomes of individual characters and the eventual fate of the world itself.
Compared to Skyrim’s more straightforward hero’s journey, New Vegas delivers a much more nuanced story that values ideologies and philosophical decisions over spectacles. Players can side with evil or good, or even take a route entirely unique to them, but no matter what decisions they make, the conclusions will always feel cohesive, even when things divert far from the typical beaten path.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Finding Meaning Through Others
The Witcher 3 takes players on a journey into one of the most impressively designed open worlds, which is paired with an equally impressive narrative. Geralt's search for Ciri provides an emotional backbone that remains throughout the entire story, underlining each quest with a sense of personal importance, but even when players venture out on side-quests, things always feel impactful.
What sets it above Skyrim is its narrative focus that keeps players on a constant path towards a set goal, regardless of whether they are deep in the woods or exploring a bustling town. Each and every path leads to a new branch of the same story, and as players progress, so does the world and the characters, allowing the game to feel more like a living storybook than a linear narrative experience.
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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
