Witcher 3 is one of the best action RPGs ever released, with a big and beautiful open world that players can explore. Players who have completed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt can try out these similar games if they want to go through another action-packed experience.
1. Elden Ring
Elden Ring, while imperfect, is the best implementation of an open-world action RPG that I've ever played. It feels like the culmination of every iteration of FromSoft's 'Souls games into one truly amazing experience filled with intrigue, struggle, and eventual triumph.
Elden Ring is basically Dark Souls 4, or Dark Souls but now you can sneak, jump, and ride a steed around the open world areas. You start by creating a character and choosing a class to determine your starting gear and stats (e.g. Astrologer to be a spellcasting sorcerer, or Samurai to be a katana-wielding DEX melee build). You progress through the game by traveling around the map and finding items/gear to upgrade your equipment setup and defeating enemies to gain 'runes" that you can spend to level up or buy items from shops.
'Sites of grace' are the bonfire equivalents in Elden Ring, and most of the time they visually display a path of light that indicate the direction you need to head to progress the main story through locations of major bosses. There are plenty of these grace sites littered everywhere in the open world and within dungeons so it is easy to fast travel to where you want to go immediately.
Elden Ring is an open-world game and there are various mini dungeons/secrets hidden away in every corner of the map. It is to your advantage to seek out these locations to find rare materials and unique weaponry that may or may not change your play style altogether. The open world feels like there is always something waiting for you to discover, such as powerful enemies that drop unique weapon arts (ashes of war) or an NPC standing around waiting to offer you a quest. With the introduction of a day/night cycle, there are even some bosses that only spawn at nighttime in specific locations waiting to ambush you but offer unique drops as well.
2. Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a part of this new trilogy of AC games that focus more so on gameplay and time era than its roots. Being more focused on weapons, fighting, abilities, world, and characters more so than stealth, hidden blades, and hoods like were used to. The game world is beautifully designed. I loved Origins' game world, but I have to say that Odyssey's game world is a lot better. It is a lot more vibrant, and it is incredibly easy to get lost in it. There are plenty of things to do and plenty of places to explore.
The story in Odyssey is surprisingly quite good for the most part. You have the choice of playing as Alexios or Kassandra. It doesn't really make too much of a difference which one you play, so for my playthrough, I chose Kassandra. Either way, you play as a mercenary in ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War, a time of great struggle between the Athenians and the Spartans.
Just like Origins, the combat is really entertaining. You can fight using a variety of different weapons and the introduction of combat abilities makes these fights a lot more exhilarating. You gain a skill point each time you level up which can be used to invest in these abilities. Executions aren't as impressive in this game as they were in previous titles. Sometimes the animations don't exactly line up, resulting in the whole thing looking goofy. Assassination executions can sometimes screw you over and get you spotted by other enemies, which can get pretty annoying.
3. Monster Hunter: World
I’m not a fan of coop games and I really hate grinding but the goal of this game is grinding in co-op. After seeing lots of positive feedback I decided to jump on this game and I was very pleasantly surprised.
For those who don't know what this game is about, it is what the name tells you – a monster hunter game. You hunt monsters, gather resources, and craft new gear to hunt stronger monsters to get better gear. That’s it, very simple formula, but the gameplay is really amazing. Hunting is not as simple as it sounds. First, you need to track the monster by finding its tracks which could take some time if the monster is completely new to you. There are lots of weapons to choose and you need to learn the weapon you choose because they all are different and can change your play style completely.
It plays like an action game where you attack and dodge. But the fun part is different monsters. They have different moves which you need to learn, you need to read their moves and prepare for their attacks. You can’t just run to the monster and mash the attack button to kill it. This tactic would only work on monsters below your level. First, you need to choose the right gear with the right stats for each monster. You need to avoid strong attacks and find a window to hit the monster and use healing items.
You can also use other items like traps to capture the monster, but first, you need to weaken it. You can cut off and break various parts of monsters, like cutting off the tail for example. After you finish the monster you can collect its parts and use them on crafting weapons and armor. Oh, and one more thing – you can use the environment to your advantage, like shooting a huge rock that falls on a monster. Or another monster could wander into the same place and attack the monster you’re fighting.
4. Red Dead Redemption 2
Rockstar Games is known for setting benchmarks when it comes to its open-world titles. Red Dead Redemption 2 is their best work to date, without a doubt. Unquestionably beautiful, vast and detailed. It breathes life. From the tiniest toad to the scary Grizzly bear, everything feels alive and convincing. It's an environment so well crafted that it makes you wonder whether it isn't real-world within your own computer. Non-playable characters have their own lives, with a routine that they follow religiously just like we do. Some do hard work, some drink all day, some mourn their loss(es). It's hard to believe it's just a video game.
The plot is built in such a way that we can see how slowly the relationship between people changes throughout the game, like in real life. We don't understand that we were betrayed at once, do we? We need time to realize it. So we have a lot of time to understand who is who in RDR2. Admiration, misunderstanding, doubt, disappointment, loathing— we can feel such emotions with Arthur Morgan.
I have experienced such warm feelings as for Arthur in no game. The ending encouraged me to mull my life over. It's really made me think about how I want to live my life. It's so emotional, strong and powerful. I would never regret playing this game, though I used to think that Wild West is not my cup of tea.
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