Games That Focus On Exploration

[Aeolus]

Any Metroidvania worth its weight should do you.

Oh, a very good idea! I've played a number of Metroid games over the years, but not all of them. I shall go hunting!

You'll want to skip Metroid: Other M as it is the exact opposite of exploration focus.

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It is very much bad anime: the movie: the director's cut: the game-like?. Skip like the plague.
I don't know how exploration focused one could call it, but I've always felt that the first Megaman Legends had an interesting element of exploration to it.

[MeshGearFox]

I like these too. I'll list some of my favorites, grouping them into three categories

Normal game that still has a lot of exploration:

Dragon Quest VIII

* Might and Magic 4-6

*Deep Fighter (I pretty much bought a Dreamcast after buying this and discovering that you couldn't emulate DC games from the original discs. At that, though, I hear Shenmue is pretty explorationy, Ecco has a lot of exploration, JGR has fairly open levels in a sense as well...)

* Space Ranger 2: Reboot (Reboot is bundled with the expansion).
* Hardwar (Dotemu sells it. Have fun digging through the fan patches).
* Outcast
* Arc the Lad 2 (Caveat: Very open ended. Not really exploration themed in the traditional sense but CAN feel like that at times).
* Ultima 4-8. 6 and 7 are the best. 7 especially for exploration. I really like 8 a lot in spite of its flaws.
* Ultima Underworld, especially 1.
* Gothic. Probably 2 moreso than 1 in some regards, less in others. They're both good, though.
* Rings of Power for the Genesis. Shadowrun sort of works too. And Landstalker if you like Zelda though it's not quite as open. I'd also assume the Buck Rogers game that got a genesis port would work, though I never played it much.
* Distant Worlds (Real time 4X; actually places a lot of emphasis on exploration).
* Star Control 2 (You could buy it from gog or get the freeware version that's been around for years and runs better anyway ((hint: get the freeware version)).
* STALKER. Especially Call of Pripyat. So fucking especially Call of Pripyat.
* Anything King's Field, really. Probably KF4 and Shadow Tower more than the others.
* Starflight 1 and 2 (Recommend the Genesis version of 1; PC versions are a lot cheaper and easier to get thanks to gog).
* Realms of the Haunting (Adventure Metroidvania FPS thing. Not exactly open-ended, but I think you'd like it).
* Omikron: The Nomad Soul (I am the only person that liked this).
* System Shock 1.
* Less explorationy per se but Vampire the Masquerade: bloodlines gives a similar feel. You'd probably like it.
* Raw Danger and Disaster Report might be to your liking.
* Contact, sort of.
* Powerslave is a metroidvania FPS, but only for the PSX and Saturn versions.
* Exile, which is an awesome Metroidvania for the Amiga/C64/BBC.
* Alien Logic: Skyrealms of Johrune (I keep thinking I'm not entirely sure where my copy is. Hm. Need to confirm location of it).
* Unreal World - Finnish survival RPG. Shareware for PC. Focus IS on survival, but exploration plays a big role in not dying.
* Sub Rebellion - Apparently sort of a prequel to Deep Fighter in terms of gameplay but the story stuff is majorly different. A lot more open-ended and trading based.
* Captain Comic 2 is an old PC Metroidvania that I like a lot. I BELIEVE it was released as freeware but you'll have to search yourself.

Exploration-themed gameplay:

* Everblue 2
* Yet to play it, but apparently the first tomb raider game/the remake of it are exploration platformers more than anything.
* Pikmin 1, 2 (borderline -- 2 is more explorationy than 1, 1 is more RTSish in some regards).
* Jak and Daxter 1. Haven't played the others; apparently they're more shooty.
* Metal Saga (It's an RPg but the main thing is almost entirely the exploration).
* Shadow of the Colossus.
* An Untitled Story - http://www.mattmakesgames.com/
* This freeware thing: http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/treasure_adventure_game/
* This other freeware thing: http://mercenarysite.free.fr/merce.htm
* The original colossal caves text adventure actually does this really well. It IS archaic in a lot of ways, but it's kind of refreshing compared to more modern IF which is either really literary or... really linear puzzle-oriented stuff.
* Myst series. I especially love Riven and Uru.

Pure Exploration (No real gameplay per-se, just virtual tourism if you will):

* Aquanaut's Holiday (I didn't like the sequel as much. It had separate seven seas, but they were all fairly small and felt smaller because they weren't nearly as connected as the original games huge, open sea).
* Anything Nifflas does, really.
* Tr3s Lunas. It's freeware but idk if Mike Oldfield is still hosting it so you might have to prod around to find a download mirror.
* Noctis. Also freeware. Pretty cool space game. Wonky to get running properly. http://anynowhere.com/bb/layout/html/doors/local/frameset_noctis.html

[John]

* Omikron: The Nomad Soul (I am the only person that liked this).

False.

I am all about games starring a virtual David Bowie.

[Andrew]

Mesh, I freaking love you. That is an amazing list.

I've played everything on your 'Exploration-themed gameplay' part of the list, but all the rest (aside from Vampire the Masquerade, Treasure Adventure Game and Gothic), I haven't played. Most I hadn't even heard of. Some of them look amazing.

Going to go find somewhere I can get Might and Magic VI, Ultimate Underworld, Realms of Haunting, and that weird Finnish indie game. They stood out for me above the rest.

Thanks!

[Yoda]

I'm angry I can't give a name, but there's a new FPS game coming out, PC, where you explore an island and story gets revealed to you slowly through in game events. I guess there's no "gameplay" except for exploring. anyone know what this is? indie... talked about in similar conversations as Journey

[Yggdrasil]

^Are you talking about this game called Dear Esther? Though, Dear Esther is not much of a game really, and it doesn't really have any "events" besides whatever happens in that ending.

[Yoda]

Yeah that's it.

Thanks for the assist. I agree it's not really a game, but there is exploration :)

[MeshGearFox]

Mesh, I freaking love you. That is an amazing list.

I've played everything on your 'Exploration-themed gameplay' part of the list, but all the rest (aside from Vampire the Masquerade, Treasure Adventure Game and Gothic), I haven't played. Most I hadn't even heard of. Some of them look amazing.

Going to go find somewhere I can get Might and Magic VI, Ultimate Underworld, Realms of Haunting, and that weird Finnish indie game. They stood out for me above the rest.

Thanks!

GOG.com has all of the M&M games and most of the Ultima-related stuff, as well as RotH.

http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw.html URW is here.

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ Freeware Star control 2 port is here. It has a time limit. There are mods that remove it. I would recommend using those.

http://rpg-exploiters.com/uncategorized/mike-oldfields-tr3s-lunas-and-maestro/ found a DL link for tr3s lunas here.

Oh and if you've never played any Myst games, I would really recommend Riven and Uru.

[Yoda]

The freeware I played was The Ur-Quan Masters for Star Control 2. Is that still around? That had both the 3do music and the original PC stuff. And there was no time limit.

[insertnamehere]

Red Dead Revolver if you end up liking Redemption?
People seem to forget about it, or have no idea it exists.

[Andrew]

Thanks for the links, Mesh. Gonna go search GOG.

[Eusis]

Might be a pain to get into some of those games now, unfortunately. I'm not sure I can stomach pre-VI or VII Ultima, hell I might not be able to stand THOSE now either. I intend to load the PDFs on a tablet and try sometime though.

Actually, now that I think about it Deus Ex may be worth looking into for exploration. Both the first and third (no experience with the second) are better at it than almost any other FPS, especially in 1 where I can poke around and just find small areas that are easy to completely ignore.

[Prime Mover]

How about Okami? I thought that game had a lot of great exploration, similar to Xenoblade in a way. Like Zelda, but far more expansive (even then Twilight Princess). The sequel is good too.

Many modern Action-Adventure games focus on exploration in a decent way. It's just infortunate that RPGs fell off the wagon there for a while. But now with the popularity of Xenoblade and FFXIII-2, it seems that developers are starting to get a clue again. Maybe we'll even see the return of the world map (shock!)

[MeshGearFox]

I intend to load the PDFs on a tablet and try sometime though.

What do PDFs have to do with anything..?

[Yggdrasil]

Many modern Action-Adventure games focus on exploration in a decent way. It's just infortunate that RPGs fell off the wagon there for a while.

Don't you remember that there were a lot of developers saying in interviews and what not how their game had "RPG elements"? Haven't heard that in a while now.

But now with the popularity of Xenoblade and FFXIII-2, it seems that developers are starting to get a clue again. Maybe we'll even see the return of the world map (shock!)

Final Fantasy Type-0 has one... and it came out last year.