Seven Cities of Gold. That game was just insane amounts of fun.
Good mention of EQ. I got more enjoyment out of World of Warcraft’s Azeroth than EQ, though. I uncovered every area on every map long before they had anything called achievements in WoW. Made it up to the old airstrip, swam on the far shores of the Wetlands (nice little hut over there) and even tried for GM Island (though I couldn’t make it).
I also liked just wandering around and exploring in Everquest a lot, and have a whole pile of screenshots of stuff that I thought was interesting. I remember a group of us just poking our way around the outer edge of Lake Rathe, and finding things like a big obelisk (“What’s it for? shrug Who knows, let’s take a group screenshot in front of it!”), or a little house and boat dock tucked away in an out-of-the-way corner that we wouldn’t have visited otherwise. That’s a large part of why I liked the Enchanter class so much too, since the focus on support magic provided a lot of spells useful for exploration and avoiding danger.
That’s also why the later expansions’ emphasis on raiding was disappointing, since it meant there were large numbers of places that I’d never get to see without committing to hardcore raiding.
The Fallout Series…all these games allowed for an amazing amount of just wondering around.
Baldurs Gate…anyone who played the game and didn’t explore every area didn’t really play the game.
Quest for Glory…there was a great deal of exploring in these games.
I second Fallout 3 and Just Cause 2. I played the former for over 100 hours, and the latter for over 50. That, to me, is the single biggest indicator of a deep exploration game – you just don’t. want. to. leave. the. world!
I’m hoping Arkham City has a bunch of exploration-y feel in it – looks like it will. And Skyrim… well… enough said :-)
Wonderful thread!
In Conquest of the New World, how much did the battle system add to the game?
As for me:
Seven Cities of Gold, of course… Setting sail into the great blue unknown and encountering a random landmass was incredible. That and looking for the cities, encountering Natives of different levels of civilization, and of course discovering sources of rivers, large mountains, etc.
Starflight. Wow, what a phenomenal game. I don’t think I ever finished the story. I just enjoyed flying around and exploring various planets throughout the universe.
Ultima VII, while not my favorite Ultima, did offer the best exploration. Not only of landmass and such, but also discovering all of the things you could do with the items in the game.
Grand Theft Auto 3 series had wonderful exploration. Easter eggs all over, little quiet corners with interesting stuff to see, etc. GTA4 failed me a bit in this regard. Red Dead Redemption was also excellent in this regard.
Oh yeah, the battle system in Conquest was awesome. I loved how they let you play it outside of the main game. :-)
Surprised to see it took so long to get to RDR. For me the best game in recent memory for my explorer jones. Plus so gorgeous.
Yes!
Seven Cities of Gold My first great exploration game. Go to the new world, cruise along the coast, find a river, go up the river, and hope to find a big Incan city.
Fallout New Vegas with AWOP there are just a ton of places to explore. See a mountain in the distance. Walk to the mountain and check it out. Nooks, crannies, Easter eggs, little stories on computers, guns, ammo, meds, Quests out the wazzo, etc. etc.
Fallout 3 Notice a pattern here?
Far Cry 2. It was probably the purest of exploration for exploration’s sake, since the game itself was rather sparse (except for those verdammte checkpoints :P). The terrain and the various setups are (still playing occasionally!) always fascinating to behold … through a sniper scope, of course, and with one eye to the flame thrower.
Everquest for all the reasons other people have listed… There was never anything like it and there will never be anything like it, which makes me sad.
Unless I am mistaken, the ability to learn new spell from enemies is part of the more recent editions of D&D rules (and computer games based upon it that implement this particular feature). I think I’ve played at least one, although I am not 100% sure. Anyway I agree, it’s an interesting ability.
As for great exploration games - most of my favorites have been named here already. The one that hasn’t been named - Darklands. The exploration aspect of that game was fantastic - the game was dripping with authentic medieval atmosphere, and there were tons of encounters, locations and battles on the randomly generated map.
Another one for Knytt. It’s one of the very few games that made me fall in love with the environment. It’s a game purely made from atmosphere.
Daggerfall. The last Elder Scrolls to go anywhere with the open world concept.
Risen and Gothic II. The best balance of exploration and content in an RPG.
Piranha Bytes really are the masters of building a world that is both interesting and challenging to explore. Their level designers are really great, they’re especially gifted at using the space they have. For exemple the city in Risen is rather small, but it looks bigger than it is thanks to the way they put stairs or walls to mask the fact that everything is so cramped… In the wilderness they tease you by showing you places you can’t yet reach, but that look full of loot.
They design space like intestinal velli, in the sense that it’s full of small pockets of content.
The exploration is also pretty meaningful because it has a great risk / reward structure. If I go there, I’ll have to fight though monsters, but then maybe I’ll find a good weapon that will allow me to fight my way inside that cave over there where something good is waiting. And then I’ll be able to use that shortcut, and so on and so on…
Xenoblade is also rather nice, in the FF XII vein. The maps are huge, with a lot of sidequests. I think they should have put some loot on the map, because it makes exploring more gratifying, but rare creatures play that part.
I love the fact that some zones are populated by much stronger creatures, that fortunately don’t always aggro on sight.
And then of course they give you a big space to explore a few hours after the beginning, and not after 30 hours like in FF XIII.
Fallout 3 but for a different reason than what others have said: I loved discovering the culture of the post apocalypse and hearing stories from each character’s perspective. And discovering different settlements and their subculture often left me in amazement as well and even those ancient computers provided wonderful little anecdotes and insight.
7 cities of gold / Heart of Africa
Elite
Good times on the C64.
Kinda like what Bethesda did with Morrowind, only with fog and mountaineous terrain. I tried one of those graphical mods a few years ago that turned off all the fog and extended your view range and could not believe how close together those cities really were. But you wouldn’t know it since there were so many obstacles everywhere and not many straight paths.
Hm, I just realized that Dead Island is creeping up there on the “highly explorable” list. There’s a ton of (zombie-filled) nooks and crannies, enterable interiors, rooftops, alleys, shacks - and most of it rewarding. A good balance of terror and need to push farther out, kinda like Minecraft.
Bethesda just did it because Morrowind’s engine was horrible, though.