Open World games are, rather unsurprisingly, games that take place in vast, open settings. Usually boasting densely packed maps with loads of regions, biomes, and cities to explore, which can be daunting to say the least.
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The halcyon days of the open world genre.
It’s easy to suffer from a form of paralysis due to the infinite paths and wealth of options at your disposal, but in most cases, open-world gamesuse a fast-travel systemthat makes exploring and bouncing around the map much less of a burden.
That said, a handful of open-world games are brave enough to go without fast-travel, and rely on good map design, solid traversal mechanics, and immersive world-building to keep players engaged as they travel from A to B.
It’s bold design, but it can pay off big time, as these open-world games prove.
We will potentially include a few games that have very limited teleporting and fast travel options, but we will only include games that can, and arguably should be played without engaging with these features at all.
9A Short Hike
A Mountain to Climb
A Short Hike
A lot of these games make the calculated decision to avoid including fast travel within worlds that are big enough to warrant such a feature. But we will kick things off here with a game that takes place in such a pocket-sized open world that there is simply no need for this function.
Playing as Claire, a little bird just trying to climb a mountain to get cell phone reception, you’ll start off on foot with few traversal mechanics at your disposal.
However, as you collect feathers and help the NPCsin this teeny little world, you’ll soon be able to soar around the map in seconds flat.
It’s proof that, if your map design is on-point, and you make use of the space, less really can be more. A Short Hike remains one of my all-time favorite cozy games for a lazy Sunday afternoon, and it’s one of the rare open-world games out there you could beat in one sitting.
Sun, Sea, Soul Jumping
This one is a little bit of a wildcard entry, as if we are being truthful, there is technically fast travel in Tchia. However, I managed to play the majority of the game before I actually found out about the rather limited fast travel options, which shows just how little the game warrants this function at all.
Players can technically stop in at a handful of ports around the island of New Caledonia to sail to another destination in seconds flat, but due to the fact that traversal is so fun in Tchia, you would be doing yourself a disservice.
You see, thanks to Tchia’s soul jumping mechanic, you can become a bird, a bug, a fish, or anything sentient in your eyeline, allowing you to chain jumps and use nature to traverse the world in ways you could only imagine.
So, if you find yourself stopping at a port to save time, let me tell you this: You’re playing the game wrong.
7The Forgotten City
Mod Turned Masterpiece
The Forgotten City
While this game may be a product of a game rife with fast travel points, this Skyrim mod turned fully fleshed-out experience proves that there isn’t always a need for quick teleportation, especially when the pocket-sized world is so intricately designed and interesting.
The Forgotten Citypresents a time loop conundrumwhere the player will need to explore this Roman city, solve a series of deductive puzzles to reveal more pieces of the puzzle, and avoid breaking the golden rule.
It has some of the finest writing and worldbuilding we’ve ever seen within the medium, and the fact that this was a humble mod once upon a time is baffling. So, if you want to give this one its flowers, there is no time like the present.
Lovecraftian At Sea
We include another minor wildcard here, as Dredge includes a fast travel adjacent feature in the form of Manifest. But it’s still a game that is largely absent of traditional fast travel, as players will only be able to unlock a spell that allows them to teleport back to a central area of the map.
This means that the entire rest of the archipelago needs to be explored manually, and each corner of the map has its own dangers, gimmicks, and puzzles that are brilliant and Lovecraftian-horror-fuelled in their own right.
This requires players to fish, gather resources and upgrade their boat to get further out from the starting area.
But, you also need to stick to your curfew, or endure the wrath of the monsters that lurk below the depths. It’s an indie gem of the last few years, and a twisted tweak on thecozy fishing game sub-genre.
Fantasy Minus Fast Travel
From limited fast travel back to none at all. Outward is an Elder Scrolls adjacent open-world that pulls no punches, and that extends to the game’s exploration.
To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail in Outward, as it truly lives up to its reputation as ‘Dark Souls for Couples.’ Offering next to no tutorials and guide rails, yet punishing players for underestimating the gravity of their adventure.
Considering the size of the world, Outward would arguably benefit from fast-travel, but the decision to omit this feature makes this game into a survival RPG where only those that engage with the world fully will survive.
Which, again, makes this game a Marmite game. But, if you’ve been dying for a fantasy RPG that truly trusts the player and leans into traditional RPG ideals, there are few games on the market that can match this one for quality.
4Pathologic 2
Brutal In The Best Way
Pathologic 2
Pathologic is a game that is straight up not fun. It’s a game that wants to go out of its way to break your spirit, crush your resolve, and drive home the fact that everything is hopeless. So, it makes sense that the game wouldn’t be all that keen to give you an easy, breezy way to bounce around the map.
Instead, you need to get everywhere on foot, which is a pain due to the limited time you already have to save everyone in your hometown. This usually leads to impossible decisions or, worse, a brutal encounter along the way that takes the decision out of your hands.
The decision to omit fast travel goes some way to making this game such a heavy, harrowing, and brutal experience. But as someone who has championed this indie gem for as long as I can remember, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
3The Forest
Timmy, Where Are You?
The Forest
Speaking of tough survival experiences, there are few games that epitomize dropping you in the deep end quite like The Forest. Only in this case, the deep end is less a pool of water, and more a remote island occupied by hungry cannibals who have kidnapped your child.
If your paternal instincts do kick in, you’ll need to explore the island, carve out an existence with what little scraps you’re able to find, and navigate an intricate underground cave system, which you’ll have to do entirely without the benefit of fast travel.
This means if you get lost in the dark, you’ll need to tough it out, and if you’re face to face with a cannibal, you might need to make a Sunday roast out of them to survive.
It’s this lack of fast travel that gives each expedition from your base a risk, and these stakes make The Forest a gripping game from start to finish.
Brilliantly British
Atomfall is a game that does a lot of bold things in terms of open-world game design, breaking convention at just about every turn. Quests are replaced with leads, skill trees are tweaked to reward exploration over XP grinds, and most importantly, the game features absolutely no fast travel.
Players will need to navigate this enigmatic slice of the Lake District without the powers of teleportation, making this game as much of a mystery to solve as it is a survival slog to endure.
Couple this with the tight combat that feels reminiscent of what you would expect from fellow Rebellion series Sniper Elite, and you have a diamond in the rough that does away with traditional fast travel, and is all the better for it.
It will be a bit of a marmite game for some, as it’s not one that holds your hand at all. But personally, I love that, and chances are that you just might as well.
1Outer Wilds
A Monumental Metroidbrainia
Outer Wilds
If there’s one game on this list that is a champion of natural player discovery and not treating the player like an idiot. It’s Outer Wilds.
This game gives you just enough guide rails to understand the basics, and then lets you loose in a literal solar system, tasking you with finding the pieces of the puzzle needed to break the time loop you find yourself perpetually stuck in.
However, every decision in the vacuum of space is given more weight due to a lack of fast travel, as one ropey landing could prove fatal, and one optimistic jump could lead to you drifting endlessly among the stars.
It does make this game a slow burn, and one that demands that players fully immerse themselves in, as knowledge is powerin this metroidbrainia. But if you give yourself to this one fully, it will pay you back tenfold.
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