Games With Lots of Exploration....

[FlamingR1ft]

Having been playing through Demon's Souls, I've been reminded how much I love games were you can explore. Not necessarily open-world, but just ones where there's always something new or unexpected to find around the corner.

I'm now hoping that perhaps some of you can recommend me any games that feature great exploring. I won't list all the ones I've played, but a few of my favourite ones that jump to mind would be (in no particular order)...

- Demon's Souls [Lots of items and equipment to find + Interesting and varied locations to run around.]
- The Elder Scrolls Series [Requires no explanation :P]
- Shadow of the Colossus [Although there's not much to find, exploring the world is still fun.]
- The Legend of Zelda series, but specifically Ocarina of Time [The 100 Gold Skulltulas, magic bean spots, hidden locations etc.]
- Little King's Story [Quest-style exploration]
- Banjo Tooie [Damn there was a lot of extra stuff to find and explore in this one.]
- Katamari series [Though, admittedly, this is kind of crazy exploration...]

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of right now.

If anyone could recommend me some for PS2, PS3, PSP, DS, PC or Wii, I would be eternally greatful! :D But if any spring to mind that aren't on those platforms, I'd be happy to hear about them too!

[Raze]

Dragon quest 8 and final fantasy 12 both instantly pop into my mind for their huge worlds.

[dyeager]

Fallout 3? Although in fairness that could essentially fall under "Elder Scrolls" games. ;-)

[Rapturous]

Vice City.

[FlamingR1ft]

Dragon quest 8 and final fantasy 12 both instantly pop into my mind for their huge worlds.

I've got DQ 8, but haven't played much yet. FF 12 I have played and I really enjoyed the exploration (it was a pity the story and characters were not good).

Fallout 3? Although in fairness that could essentially fall under "Elder Scrolls" games. ;-)

Haha, yeah. I actually didn't like FO3. I found the world too bland.

Vice City.

The only GTA game I've played is IV. I didn't like it. Though I do hear the earlier ones are better. I might give it a look.

~ ~ ~

Any other suggestions?

[MeshGearFox]

Ultima 4 - 7, dammit ~~~. But mostly 6 and 7 and the Worlds of Ultima games. Also Ultima Underworld 1, at least.

Arx Fatalis would probably work.

Gothic 1 and 2 would REALLY work.

Star Control 2 would SUPER DUPER work.

Everblue 2, Aquanaut's Holiday, etc, though your mileage may vary about how well you like them. I personally adore them both although AH barely counts as a game.

Yume Nikki, Seiklus, Nifflas' stuff.

Uru, or the Myst games in general, really, although moreso Uru and probably Riven than like, Exile, or Myst 4, both of which were sort of linearish.

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat. Call of Pripyat is soooo gooooood.

Outcast.

I'd probably also toss in Omikron though I haven't played that in ages.

[Uru]

The Baldur's Gate Series was intense for how precise you could hover your mouse over the environments (literally like a pixel big).

Fallout 1 and 2 are way better than 3, depending on your luck you could find some crazy shit randomly wandering around the desert.

[FlamingR1ft]

Ultima 4 - 7, dammit ~~~. But mostly 6 and 7 and the Worlds of Ultima games. Also Ultima Underworld 1, at least.

Arx Fatalis would probably work.

Gothic 1 and 2 would REALLY work.

Star Control 2 would SUPER DUPER work.

Everblue 2, Aquanaut's Holiday, etc, though your mileage may vary about how well you like them. I personally adore them both although AH barely counts as a game.

Yume Nikki, Seiklus, Nifflas' stuff.

Uru, or the Myst games in general, really, although moreso Uru and probably Riven than like, Exile, or Myst 4, both of which were sort of linearish.

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat. Call of Pripyat is soooo gooooood.

Outcast.

I'd probably also toss in Omikron though I haven't played that in ages.

Tell you what I liked so much about this list? I wasn't familiar with about half the games! Haha. The only ones I'd played were Myst and Gothic. I liked Gothic 1, but as cool as the exploration was, there were a lot of problems with it. The ones I hadn't heard of I went and looked them up and there some awesome looking ones. Not quite sure how I could get my hands on them any more though...

The Baldur's Gate Series was intense for how precise you could hover your mouse over the environments (literally like a pixel big).

Fallout 1 and 2 are way better than 3, depending on your luck you could find some crazy shit randomly wandering around the desert.

Yup, got BG series. I haven't played FO1 or 2, but I know we've got them in stock where I work. Might take a look at picking them up.

[MeshGearFox]

The ones I hadn't heard of I went and looked them up and there some awesome looking ones. Not quite sure how I could get my hands on them any more though...

Most of them are on GOG or Steam. Several are freeware. The Ultima games are the hardest to find though which is a shame because they're great. Just avoid the shitty console ports.

[Fei]

I typically hate exploration, but the following games seduced me:

Strange Journey for DS - The exploration is confined to specific areas, and can be more of a maze than anything, but the auto-map and wealth of options to help you navigate gave me wanderlust.

I'm seconding STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl - This game left a better memory than Oblivion and Fallout 3 did.  I actually did optional missions in STALKER, whereas everything in the other two games felt like a chore.  You liked the Elder Scrolls though, so unless STALKER's setting grabs you, it might be too lean for you (it's an FPS too).

GTA usually doesn't do it for me, but fuck if I didn't play the hell out of San Andreas.  When GTA3 came out I had a (drunken) blast playing it chaotically with cheat codes, but when extremely casual gamers started pre-ordering Vice City, I thought "what the fuck is this trendy shit", not because I'm an elitist, but because I seriously couldn't comprehend the point of a sequel in that vein.  Run around like crazy and blow shit up- how do you build on that?  Long story short, I accepted GTA as a drunken party fuckaround game until I played San Andreas.  SA was actually interesting.

[Hoshino_Kid]

Had fun with Assassin's Creed 2. You should try that out.

I heard Red Dead Redemption was very good, in fact I heard it was better than GTAIV.

[Eusis]

I heard Red Dead Redemption was very good, in fact I heard it was better than GTAIV.

It's better partially for the same reason I found Bully superior to the PS2 GTAs, it's a fresher setting and a different type of protagonist. I haven't gotten too far in it, but it's definitely worth checking out.

[rpgseeker]

Etrian Odyssey (series)
Wild Arms 5
Skies of Arcadia Legends
Nostalgia

[FlamingR1ft]

Thanks for all the great suggestions guys! Gonna go check some of them out!