I’m looking for any games on PC (preferably Steam) that plays like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Mainly, I’m looking for large, open-world games, with lots of things to do, with an over-arching narrative/destination available. Think Minecraft, with but an actual definitive objective to complete.
I’m aware of Fromsoft’s work (Elden Ring), but I’m looking for non-soulslike games.
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Horizon Zero Dawn is on steam. Amazing game. Open world. I haven’t played the second one yet but I need to.
I really don’t get the appeal of Horizon Zero Dawn. I made it more than halfway through and then I quit.
It just felt like I have played the exact same game before just with another coat of paint. It felt completely uninspired gameplay-wise.
You shoot dinosaurs with a bow. Also, the storytelling.
The story gets really dumb at the end. Plus, the final boss is a type of robot you kill about a dozen of on the way to it, yet for some reason it’s super powered
Agreed, Horizon: Zero Dawn is a truly excellent game. It’s saddled with the usual Ubisoft design elements (map full of things to tick off, towers to unlock areas, etc), but none of that gets in the way of how fun the gameplay is and how good the story is.
It’s one of the few video game stories that has really, really stuck with me. Some moments in that game are genuine gut punches that will leave you reeling.
They both check the boxes here. First one I got near complete. The second one I’m still working through. Lots to do.
I believe it’s the first 3D game I ever got all of the things in. All the little items and collectathon stuff. Germany I don’t do that I don’t really care enough but I just enjoyed walking around the world and sniping and setting traps enough that it was worth it. Even the DLC was great and worth it
Slowly working on my newgame+ run. This game is 10/10
The Outer Wilds
All due respect to the other recommendations in this thread (The Witcher 3 is in my top 3 favorite games ever), but I get the sense you’re looking for a similar vibe - that self-paced, quiet, almost lonely exploration where, though you do have a goal, the point of the game is to wander the world and discover things. While most of these recs (and most open world games in general, so it’s understandable) have a strong story focus, The Outer Wilds will give you that quiet, unguided exploration BoTW does so well.
(And I know explicitly turned down souls-likes, but Elden Ring also hits that vibe super well. If you’re really stuck for something to play, it might be worth a try with one of the magic-focused builds that significantly reduce the skill needed)
Seconding this. Regardless of what op is looking for everyone should at least give outer wilds a try. Beautiful game.
I personally could not get into the gameplay loop of that game. Not a fan of the whole groundhog day thing. Also, the game is nothing like BOTW lol.
I see you got down voted but I completely agree. It’s absolutely nothing like a Zelda game (Majoras mask, maybe? But barely). And I also couldn’t get into it. It’s the kinda game you need to write down everything you discovered and then slowly piece together the puzzle - and one mess up and you need to start all over. I didn’t find it relaxing at all
3rd this,
Great game don’t look it up just play it. It’s awesome
Exactly, Shadow of the Colossus is a better recommendation than Genshin Impact because of this. I’d also like to give a shoutout to some metroidvanias that fit the vibe and have big maps and lots of abilities like Aquaria and Knytt Underground.
If they are looking for what you just described, then I would have to recommend Animal Well
I’ll definitely look into this. Thanks!
I kind of cringe at suggesting this, but Genshin Impact is if Breath of the Wild used a gatcha payment model instead of $60 up front.
But with a lot more yapping
Immortals: Fenyx Rising
Have you tried Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for PC? They even have it for Steamdeck. I love my Nintendo Steamdeck. I even got a Nintendo Steamdeck 2.
Please provide every link needed to make this possible. Thanks!
Nice try, Nintendo…
Enshrouded
Enshrouded and Palworld feel a lot like BotW/TotK to me, but better overall gameplay and worse dungeon puzzles!
I went straight from BotW to Elden Ring and ER was like exploring BotW but every part of the map had interesting things everywhere, made BotW feel really empty in comparison.
This game keeps on giving.
Ugh I got to the last biome and loved it sooo much, then got HEAVY (like 80+ hours a week, recovering from almost dying irl lul) into modding Valheim after playing 200 hours of vanilla. I’m now almost 1000 into Valheim and taking a lil break.
Waiting now for Enshrounded to go 1.0, and starting over. Sooooo psyched!
dude, glad you made it! 🤘
Thank yoooou! <3 It was very interesting!
Never tried an opiate before (by choice—I’ve tried everything else!) but they asked me if I wanted something for pain, and after my partner chastising me a lil bit about me minimizing my pain (“oh, I’m at a six or so” “RAI, you’ve been curled into a ball crying for two days. YOU’RE IN HOSPITAL!” “…okay, maybe a nine. I’m still conscious so it’s probably fine”) I said I’d love that. They injected me with morphene which was neat, then a later nurse was like “oh strange, they marked you down to get (other type of thing with morphene in the name but more words before it), do you want to change or stay with what you’ve got? It’s quite a bit stronger.” I figured I’ll proooobably (and very hopefully) never have that chance/option again, so I happily agreed. That was a very floaty week.
Crimson desert. You’ll never finish it.
Probably because you’ll just get tired of it. After the initial whiz bang faded, the HUGE beautifully rendered world was not enough to carry the absolutely dogshit story, repetitive unvaried encounters, and overwhelming plethora of shallow, poorly explained systems.
Sable
It’s like Breath of the Wild without combat.
Morrowind, Fallout, and Dragon Age are all quality contenders.
The oft forgotten
Gods and MonstersImmortals Fenyx Rising is a shockingly good BOTW-like. Booted it up the other day because I noticed I had it from when they gave it away for free some time ago, and it was such a pleasant surprise. In some ways (combat, traversal, dungeon design, writing) it’s even better than Zelda. Do yourself a favor though and remove most of the HUD and puzzle hints via the ingame options and pirate it if you can so you don’t have to deal with Ubisoft Connect and Denuvo.Skyrim
Admittedly it’s a bit older
older? it just released like 5 years ago, and 8 years ago, and 12 years ago
I just tried to mod Skyrim earlier, but doing so on Linux is really painful.
Mod Organizer 2 (MO2) runs fine under Proton, but it doesn’t support collections, so I would need to manually install hundreds of mods, which is not worth my time.
As for Vortex, I couldn’t even get it to install.
So, I gave up on modded Skyrim. For comparison, on Windows: It’s click, install, done. I wish it was the same on Linux under proton.
Palworld full release is coming next month
Honestly. Try Dragon Age Inquisition. It isn’t “open world”, but it has MASSIVE regions (that people complained were too big). Lot’s to explore, plenty of side quests and puzzles. A base you can customize. Armor too.
Edit: Honestly, play on easy if the combat is too annoying.
Crazy that I didn’t see anyone else mention this one, but you should check out Cloudheim. It has a free demo on steam.
It’s not exactly the same because of the turn-based nature of it, but play Baldur’s Gate 3 if you haven’t.
It’s a massive world with a shitload of things to do and a definite objective (or rather 3 as each act has a major one)
