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I want to explore - what game that doesn’t hold your hand have I missed?

Scheris

Scheris

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,383
If you have a 3DS, Etrian Odyssey fits the bill. You chart your own map on the touch screen and outside of the initial explanations you are on your own. And while it will punish you for being greedy, it's kinda like the Souls games where if you screw up it's because it's your own fault.
 

Deleted member 13645

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,052
Others have mentioned Outward but it's my answer as well, the first game that came to mind. It drops you in that world and shoves you on your way to figure things out yourself.
 

Deleted member 2317

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,072
FEZ!

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Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,369
Breath of the Wild is the game you're looking to play. It's pure, unfiltered exploration. Everything from enemy encampments, the developers' environmental constructions, the strength-creep ammunition-style weapons economy, the locations of the four main challenges, the 120 unhidden, semi-hidden, and fully hidden shrines that control the health & stamina economy to the bite-sized challenges that control the inventory economy ... all of it. ALL of it is based on the natural tendency and desire to explore. It's a game for people who love the roots of what Zelda truly is and also enjoy going for hikes in real life. If the goal of a hike for you is to see new things and enjoy the journey & exploration ... this is your game. The game will ask nothing of you but your curiosity and innovation.
 
RedSwirl

RedSwirl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,058
Definitely agree on AC Odyssey. I feel like the "Discovery" mode or whatever in that game didn't go far enough in what it proposed to do.

Witcher 3 has a really customizable HUD and there are some good mods, but too many of the quests are designed around the full HUD. Some you can figure out without the waypoints, but that clearly isn't CDProjekt's intention. It'd be great if Witcher 3 had something like that "Better Quest Objectives" mod for Skyrim.

Kingdom Come Deliverance -- It's free on Epic as of right now. Supposedly directly inspired by Morrowind and Oblivion. You can customize the HUD and it's designed to actually be playable with waypoints turned off.

Deus Ex Human Revolution and Mankind Divided -- Both the recent Deus Ex games are like this, optional HUD but you don't actually need it because the environment and mission journal give you enough info.

All Dishonored games -- Same.
 
Villein

Villein

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
1,982
Red Dead 2 with the minimap off, is a pretty amazing experience if you don't want the game to tell you where to go and find your own way. If you are ever lost just tap a button and the minimap appears briefly and is gone again, just enough to get ur bearings.
 
Traxus

Traxus

Spirit Tamer
Member
Jan 2, 2018
5,197
They don't make them anymore. Just go play Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Fallout 1 and 2, Morrowind and be prepared to be lost like 90% of the time.
 
Igniz12

Igniz12

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,437
Divinity: Original Sin 1&2. The first one is a better example of "here are the clues, now go figure it out yourself" than the sequel but sometimes that can lead to some answers or solutions being too obtuse.

If you want a game that does not lead you by the hand and can deal with the issues that can come from that kind of quest and game design then they would be my pick. Not only does it have what you're looking for but the games themselves are fantastic RPGs on their own.
 
hydruxo

hydruxo

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,428
Outer Wilds. The game gives you a ship and pushes you out in the world. It's up to you to discover things and figure it out. They don't force you to go anywhere, you're free to just go to anywhere that catches your eye.
 

Ed.

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
650
The Witness has a lot of exploration. It teaches you some concepts gradually, but it doesn't really hold your hand and you're kinda free to explore wherever and solve the puzzles in whatever order you can. I really enjoyed it.
 
ScrewyAurum

ScrewyAurum

Member
Nov 3, 2017
476
Teggy said:
Hm, how so?
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Its a more organic approach where the game presents most quests as a problem to be solved by laying out the high level task and giving one or two hints as to how to approach it and then the onus is on the player on how to follow it up wherein there are always multiple routes that can be discovered in solving said problem only by exploring and social interaction that are never explicitly pointed out and are usually a case of examining the journal entries and the quest dialogs and other supplementary knowledge as maps, point of interest, knowledge players accumulate organically the more they explore.

The game only marks objectives that you have been explicitly told and usually has a narrative hook as to not break its immersion such as the npc stating that they are marking something on the map.

It also sometimes takes things too far on the other end though with quests having very esoteric instructions which make it difficult to discern the core objectives and can often result in fail states.
 
djinn

djinn

Member
Nov 16, 2017
15,751
Subnautica and Hollows Knight are ones that come to mind for me. Loved both of them.
 
RedOnePunch

RedOnePunch

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,628
RDR2 is great. you go off into the wilderness. Set up camp from time to time and have yourself an adventure. Amazing game
 
OP
OP
Teggy

Teggy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,892
Larrikin said:
This is like the 15th "what should i play" thread where the answer is Outer Wilds.
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jett said:
Play Outer Wilds immediately.
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already played, see the start of the thread


Optional Objectives said:
Maybe a bit left field, but have you tried Fe? It's often on sale for dirt cheap and is charming, besides. It doesn't do much handholding. It takes the whole idea of nonhuman communication seriously, so there's not a lot of text and no dialog. Most of the direction and storytelling is accomplished visually or through sound.

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I've played it. It was ok.
 
Wowfunhappy

Wowfunhappy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,102
You've almost certainly played it, but I have to ask because it doesn't appear to have been mentioned... what about the Metroid Prime trilogy?
 
GravaGravity

GravaGravity

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,230
The outer wilds.

in some ways it's a story about what you can do and what's out of your control, together it's a incredible experience of what it means to explore a technically finite existence
 
Shinobido Heart

Shinobido Heart

Member
Dec 23, 2017
8,123
Hello OP! I saw your thread earlier but couldn't reply until I got home.

As some others have already posted, my recommendation is also Kenshi.

www.resetera.com

Been playing a game called Kenshi, wanted to share my adventures.

So I took a chance on a game that I knew nothing about, and it's a genre I don't necessarily play very much but I do love games like Mount & Blade, Shadow Tactics, and Total War: Shogun 2. Apparently this game was in development for 12 long years, and came out of Early Access this month. Of...
www.resetera.com www.resetera.com
 

HockeyBird

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,587
Pascal said:
I have another suggestion OP...Hyper Light Drifter!

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Such an underrated gem.
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The one thing that annoys me about finding secrets in this game is that a lot of them are simply hidden because of your perspective and camera angle. Like if you saw things from the character's perspective, the item would be right in front of him but it's hidden from the player's overhead view. There was one annoying one where you had to move the character to the very, very edge of a platform and then the camera would pan to the right to reveal a hidden switch just a few feet in front of the character.

Other than those things, the exploration is pretty good. You can tackle any 3 of the 4 major zones right away. I even went through the hardest section first in my playthrough.
 
DigSCCP

DigSCCP

Banned
Nov 16, 2017
4,201
Divinity Original Sin for sure.
I honestly dropped it cause I don't have time to figure out things for myself on such a massive game lol
 

giapel

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,597
I mean let's be honest. There's nothing quite like Botw. The reason other games need the markers and the arrows is that the worlds are always confusing to navigate.
The way Botw guides you with subtle visual cues and promotes exploration is one of a kind.
 
Bjones

Bjones

Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,622
If you don't think ac odyssey doesn't offer exploring I don't know what to tell ya
 

Deleted member 17210

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,569
Another Elex vote here. It's not as extreme for figuring stuff out on your own as the old Gothic games but it's the closest to those for the current gen.
 
OP
OP
Teggy

Teggy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,892
Bjones said:
But there is so much more than just going point to point.
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it's not specifically about having a large world to explore, its about the game making it interesting to follow the quests. Making discovering the story and quests part of the gameplay, rather than just offering places to go.

you can find a cave in AC:O and pick up a quest item but you won't know what it belongs to unless you go and talk to a person with an icon on them. Compare to a game like gothic where you talk to a random person and they mention a cave in the woods where bandits have been rumored to be. It rewards talking to people and then going exploring in an area.
 
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