Summary
As gaming evolves, so does the potential of what players can do within gaming worlds. Open-world games are fascinating and give players far more opportunity than most games to roam freely and see what else there is to find within the large confines of these fantastical settings. But sometimes this comes with possibilities, characters, and places that players cannot possibly imagine.
This goes further than simply introducing silly aspects, although that is one great part of it. Some of these games have gone even further, though, and let players freely roam within worlds so strange and original that they could hardly have been anticipated, from colorful alien worlds to insane dreamscapes, and worlds that players can hardly comprehend, open-world games really do just keep getting weirder.
One of the most bizarre settings for a survival game,Subnauticadoesn’t set players in space or on a deserted island. Instead, players begin the game crashing onto an alien planet covered in water, where they receive very little instruction about what to do next.
Survival is the key inSubnautica, and the vastopen water world contains plenty of terror, but also many possibilities for base-building and exploration. Between the giant monstrous creatures hiding in the depths, the secrets of the planet, and the nature of such a huge open-world game being set almost entirely underwater,Subnauticaends up feeling like a very strange survival game.
Initially, the idea of a zombie game with an open-world set in a shopping mall isn’t all that bizarre. However, there are a few particular details that makeDead Risingand the setting of Willamette Mall particularly strange. This comes from the fact that thezombies and the entire mall completely changefrom day to night, to the absolutely crazy cast of characters that players are charged with saving over the course of their stay.
Of course, there is also the fact that Frank West can take photographs to gain XP and the bizarre main journalist narrative running throughout the game.Dead Risingcontinues to get wackier and weirder with every entry, and the variety in weaponry on top of the weirdness of the cast and the crazed lunatics chasing after players help make this an especially bizarre game, and the rest of the franchise is just as crazy.
Initially,Dredgeappears to be a fishing game, and it is, but with a totally bizarre twist. Players can go out on the water when they wish, watching the day and night cycle closely, and as they venture further out into the open world in which they’re able to fish, they begin to realize something else is going on.
That something is Lovecraftian horrors, which surround the island the player is based on and can attack their boat. If the player is out for too long at night, their panic meter begins to rise, and they will see hallucinations and reality changes that can actually damage their boat. This fun and scary open-world survival game is brilliantly weird.
One game that can definitely be considered unique,Maneateris another open-world game that takes place in the ocean, but instead of playing as a person trying to survive in the water, the player takes control of a deadly shark trying to continually evolve.
The premise ofManeaterinvolves a fisherman who disfigured the player’s shark when she was young and killed her mother. This leaves the shark wanting revenge, but it must first evolve and become strong enough to fight the fisherman.Maneateris a very strange game, but one of the best games that allows players to control an animal,with plenty of surprising things to do.
Usually, players will find that an open-world RPG will feature a lot of combat, so one of the most jarring and unusual things aboutDisco Elysiumis that it features almost no combat. Instead, this dialogue-heavy game where playerstake on the role of a detectiveforces them to really think their way through a murder case.
Disco Elysiumis very unlike other games that involve mysteries, as there are various endings depending on what kind of detective players choose to be. Players also argue with their various personality traits inside their own heads throughout the game, and have an inventory system for thoughts, makingDisco Elysiumone of the most bizarre but excellent open-world games around.
If other games that allow players to take control of an animal seem strange,Goat Simulatoris totally unconventional. Players take control of a superpowered goat in an open-world town filled with people, and the goal is generally to ragdoll people in various ways.
Not only is the player being a goat that attacks people pretty strange, but this goat is also able to lick things with an incredibly long tongue and jump much higher than a regular goat. This all makes the game seem highly unusual, particularly since it comes with a scoring system comparable toTony Hawk’s Pro Skater.
TheSaints Rowfranchise has always been pretty bizarre, butSaints Row 4took this to another level with theleader of the Saints becoming presidentbefore everyone was placed into a realistic simulation of a city where they can gain superpowers to try and fight against the aliens that created the simulation.
The most bizarre idea for an open-world game, and one of the most completely strange games of all time,Saints Row 4is a hilariously over-the-top parody game, as most entries in the series are, that comes with some incredibly weird mechanics and choices.
