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HomeGames & QuizzesThe Best Open-World Games On Every Playstation Console, Ranked

The Best Open-World Games On Every Playstation Console, Ranked

Ever since we PlayStation fans were afforded the luxury of having our own home console to play engrossing, high-quality games on, I’m pretty sure we all dreamed of one thing. A seamless world where we could explore, roleplay, and cause chaos in a sandbox playground built with our interests and fantasies in mind.

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10 Best PS2 Open World Games You Need To Play

The halcyon days of the open world genre.

Today, not only has that dream been realized by many games across several console generations, but the open-world genre is now saturated with wannabe big-shots trying to cut off a slice of the open-world profits for themselves.

It’s easier said than done, though, as the gaming collective knows a good open world when they see one, and only the best of the best end up leaving a lasting legacy. So, we want to check in on which games serve as those high-water marks for each console.

The PlayStation offers a lineage of stunning titles, but today we rank the finest in the open world genre once and for all.

We will be choosing the game with the highest OpenCritic score within the Open World category on each console. With the only exception being if we have already included that franchise on the list. We will only include one game per franchise, with the highest score being selected. Also, due to the primitive nature of early and handheld consoles, we will be a little lenient when it comes to the label ‘open world’. Lastly, we will rank the chosen games based on personal preference.

7

Midnight Club LA Remix

Best of the PSP

Midnight Club LA Remix

Due to the limitations of the hardware and the fact that the PS2 had only really just established the open-world genre, you have to look pretty hard for a genuine Open-World game on the PSP. But there are still a handful of options, and Midnight Club is the pick of the bunch.

This game effectively offers all the bells and whistles of a classic Midnight Club outing, but on a handheld device. This means free-roaming exploration of various cities with no load screens, fast-paced racing with an arcade feel, and plenty of car customization to make your whip fast off the starting line.

There is a trade-off when playing this compared to, say, its parent game, Midnight Club 3, but what you get as a result is a game that defies the limitations of its hardware and offers high-octane thrills, intense police chases, and so much more.

It’s the weakest of our line-up to be sure, but all things considered, it’s still a marvel and a top-tier racing game.

6

Driver

Best of the PS1

Best Boss Fights Of The PS1 Era Tutorial Driver Car Garage

Again, much like the PSP, you’d be hard-pressed to find enough open-world games on the extensive PSX catalog to even get into double digits. However, we can only rank what’s in front of us, and in our eyes, the Driver series is the best candidate. Provided you can get past the notorious tutorial, that is.

If you manage to clear that nefariously tricky opening gambit, you’ll be dropped into a series of open and expansive maps where your time is yours, and how you progress through the game is up to you.

You can simply cruise around Miami, LA, New York, or San Francisco to your heart’s content, or you can hone your craft as a getaway driver extraordinaire and complete a series of tough but rewarding missions.

It’s primitive, and that tutorial still leaves a sour taste, but it’s also the seed that sowed the entire open-world racing scene. So, for that alone, Driver deserves our respect.

5

Gravity Rush

Best of the PS Vita

Kat changes gravity in Gravity Rush

The PS Vita could have been the home of many an exciting open-world adventure, as the hardware was deceptively powerful and the genre was popping off during the era that this underrated machine arrived on the scene. But, much to my disappointment, Sony killed this little handheld before it even got going.

However, in that brief window, we were treated to a staggeringly cool and experimental title that views the laws of physics as mere suggestions.

The open-world steampunk setting in the sky is drop-dead gorgeous, and exploring by simply turning off gravity and free-falling to your next destination is a thrill that pretty much no other game can emulate.

I’ll grant you, the story is a little plain, and the combat is finicky, which is a very generous description. But, for the unique take on the genre that this one provided on a handheld device no less, it still holds up as a wonderful experience, and one of the best the PS Vita had to offer before its untimely demise.

4

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Best of the PS5

death-stranding-069

While the PS5 era is still rumbling on, we still want to try and pin down which open-world stands tall as the best at the time of writing. Which, by some distance, seems to be Kojima’s latest weird and wonderful outing, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach.

I’ll admit, if you weren’t a fan of the original DS game, this one won’t appeal to you any more than the last, as it’s effectively all the mechanics and features of the original dialed up to eleven, with some added bells and whistles to keep things feeling fresh.

But, if you did love the original, this one offers that, but with more combat and action focus, more varied traversal, brand new narrative twists and turns, and, of course, the asynchronous multiplayer that makes this world feel like a living, breathing entity.

The PS5 likely has more to come that will more than likely oust this one and claim the throne. But, for now at least, we think Kojima is sitting comfortably.

3

Red Dead Redemption

The Best of the PS3

red dead redemption 1 john marston

The PS3 may not have been the console where the seeds of the open-world genre finally began to germinate, but it was definitely the console where the genre blossomed into the industry behemoth today. A lot of games played their role in this, but it’s hard to look past Red Dead Redemption as the standout of the bunch.

It’s a game that uses the classic Rockstar open-world sandbox blueprint, but unlike GTA and the others, this game takes away all modern conventions and places you in the wild west, where riding horseback, slinging from the hip, and making use of a lasso are how you make it as a gangster.

It’s not only a stunning open-world with rewarding exploration and oodles to do. It’s also one of the finest gaming narratives ever woven, with an ending that would bring a tear to even the most stoic gamer’s eye.

It’s not like we needed proof, but this game showed that Rockstar was far more than just a one-trick pony, and holds up today as one of the finest open-world games ever made. Just don’t bring up Red Dead Revolver. We don’t talk about that one.

2

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Best of the PS2

GTA San Andreas from IGDB

It was very hard just to have one GTA representative on this list, because, in all honesty, this franchise could easily occupy every single slot on this list. Well, aside from the PS Vita, because they never even got the chance to try.

Digression aside, GTA San Andreas is the game that represents the monolithic gaming franchise, mainly because it was the first fully-realized open-world game within the series, with GTA 3 being more of a proof of concept, and Vice City being just a little too small in scope and retaining a few kinks that needed ironing out.

Whereas, in the case of San Andreas, you had a world that was massive among its competitors, offered a sandbox playground that felt amazing just to exist within, and also offered one of the most compelling storylines that GTA has conjured before or after.

It was a game that had everything you could have dreamed of back in the 2000s, and was the peak of what the PS2 had in its locker in terms of open-world design. Sure, following the damn train is still a pain, but that aside, it’s a masterpiece.

1

Elden Ring

Best of the PS4

Elden Ring protagonist on a horseback on top of the cliff

If you thought that San Andreas was an ambitious game, then buckle up, as Miyazaki’s magnum opus blows it right out of the water.

For the longest time, we had assumed that a truly open-world Souls game was impossible, as there were so many core design factors that actively went against the principles of a good open-world game. Yet somehow, Elden Ring came along and blended the two genres seamlessly.

It’s a Souls game that doesn’t have you bash your head against the wall until you break through in a linear fashion, but rather one that encourages exploration, following alternate paths, and maybe coming back to a punishing boss later, better equipped.

Elden Ring is essentially everything that the Soulsborne catalog was building towards, and FromSoftware managed to pull off this mammoth task with aplomb, with memorable bosses, beautiful areas to explore, and mountains of content to get through.

It’s a contender for best game of all time, and as such, it will make it a very difficult game to one-up. But who knows? Maybe Miyazaki already has his sights on another grand venture that will make this one look pedestrian. Fingers crossed.

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