10 Games with DANGEROUS Yet REWARDING Exploration

10 - Subnautica 9 - Dragons Dogma 2 8 - Remant II 7 - Snowrunner 6 - Hollow Knight 5 - Enderal Forgotten Stones 4 -- Outer Wilds 3 - Outward 2 - Elden Ring 1 - Kings Field IV

Elden Ring had the best world design in any game I've ever played in terms of rewarding exploration. The amount of times you see something and think "haha I'm gonna see if I can climb up there just for the fun of it" and then not only can you make it but it turns into a totally secret path that leads to some unique item or a boss. Just amazing! I think this is emphasized for people who knew the previous games where something as simple as jumping wasn't so simple.

Outward is seriously underrated. Such a good survival, exploration game. It's combat is similar to Dark Souls as well. I'm happy to see it's getting more recognition.

I was glad to see Outward on here. I really like the combination of all the elements. One of the huge things for exploration is that the map has no position icon to show what you are on that level! You have to use landmarks to figure out where you are and plan out where to go. You also need rations to travel between areas. They even make it that during combat you often have to take off your backpack to fight well. The backpack slows down your dodging and walking but by dropping the backpack has most of your items like ammo and potions. So a lot of planning is involved. It’s nice because you are not some chosen one. You are just some person. There are issues but it is really good, especially for a development team of 9 people.

I love Snowrunner. The variety of vehicles, pathes, and terrain makes it challenging, but chill at the same time.

You showing off the Trebuchet in DD2. My brain went "Wait, you can use siege artillery to unblock passages?!"

The bird, the myth, the legend. 🦅

I love exploring the city area in Fallout 4. The verticality, so many neat little areas to discover. I never get tired of it.

Every time I see Subnautica mentioned anywhere I want to dive back in.

Outer Wilds is just a top notch game and will forever hold a special place in my heart. Its DLC (still yet to finish) makes it better and it's one of those games I wish I could play for the first time again and again. It's so good. And the soundtrack is the cherry on top.

Was playing Dragons Dogma 2 yesterday when a Griffen swooped down. Standard right? Well I’d been traveling for a bit and ran to avoid it only to turn the corner and see TWO cyclops casually chilling. Needless to say the next 15 minutes were an intense hell, but somehow we pulled through. That’s why this game is so fun

I am so suprised and happy that you mentioned Enderal. A standalone mod for free that is literally like a different and fully priced title in quality. Especially the voice acting in german which is the original is on professional level and perfect. My favourite game is Skyrim, and I regard Enderal as the better Game.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Played this game completely blind (no spoilers) when it came out. I was blown away by the reveal of the inverted castle; the game suddenly doubling in size. Plus finding amazing weapons like the Ruin Sword, made you go on a all out hunt for any enemies with "????" in their treasure drop data. I remember using the Jewel Sword to farm money, finding hidden paths, 60+ hour later after beating the game long ago. You'd get so sucked into the exploration, you would forget to save most of the time. Then there was stumbling across hard bosses all the sudden... excellent times.

Falcon really likes DD2. Same honestly. PC performance hasn’t been an issue for me on a mid build and feel bad for those who can’t experience the game as intended

I can't believe Enderal has gotten to the point where it's counted among actual video games. SureAI should be proud.

The metro series does this well, you can go through the levels pretty straight forward but there’s always interesting areas to find out of the way, especially in the third game where in order to get all the weapon attachments and equipment available you need to look around

Outward 2 is looking good as well!! I played it at pax East this weekend! Honestly outward has some of my favorite exploration in games, and the sequel does not feel as janky! They switched to unreal, and the combat is a lot more fluid

Been loving just how packed the world is in Dragon's Dogma 2. Original had some fun places to discover, but most of it was tied to the main narrative or at least a quest. Now, it's just wild how you can find a cave, and either spend a few minutes getting some loot, or wind up discovering so many branching paths it can almost feel overwhelming. I was trying to find parts of this one cave that had slopes you can't climb, and wind up wandering partway into the lands of the Beast people, including a tall cliff full of super aggressive gore harpies that kept chucking me and my party from great heights or into the waters below.

19 out of every 20 players drop Snowrunner after a couple hours of gameplay. It does require a lot of patience, but as you progress and get access to better parts for your Scout it does get incredibly rewarding as it helps you reach the necessary vehicles to then unlock the OP heavies to put an end to all Contracts. I remember almost crying when I was moving inches at a time on deep mud, to then get just in range of a tree to winch myself forward. Now I go by that same patch of deep mud as if I was driving on asphalt.

Dragon’s Dogma is such a great game and an incredible step forward. I can’t put it down!