15 Open-World Maps You Could Wander For Hours

Some game worlds are built for quick quests, while others practically invite you to lose track of time and just roam. The maps below are packed with regions to learn, routes to master, and systems that reward curiosity at every turn. You can crisscross mountains, coastlines, cities, and strange frontiers while the world quietly reacts to how you move through it. Each entry notes the developer so you know who crafted the space behind the scenes.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Nintendo EPD built a seamless Hyrule where climbing and the paraglider let you chart your own path from the start. The map spans snowy peaks in Hebra, the sands of the Gerudo region, and the wetlands and forests that link it all together. Shrines, stables, and towers serve as gentle anchors that turn exploration into a steady rhythm. Weather, stamina, and physics combine so every shortcut or detour comes from your own decisions.

Elden Ring

FromSoftware designed the Lands Between as a layered world with surface regions like Limgrave, Liurnia, and Caelid and vast underground zones such as Siofra and Ainsel. Horseback travel with Torrent encourages you to read terrain and find safer lines through enemy patrols. Legacy dungeons branch off the open fields and tie discovery back into classic level design. Map fragments, minor dungeons, and spirit springs steadily turn empty space into learned territory.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar Games shaped a frontier that moves from snowy highlands to bayou lowlands with states like Ambarino, New Hanover, and Lemoyne. Rail lines, rivers, and dirt roads make navigation feel practical as you plan rides between camps, towns, and ranches. Random encounters and law response systems keep long trips unpredictable without forcing detours. Hunting, crafting, and satchel upgrades add reasons to revisit familiar valleys and plains.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

CD Projekt Red split its world into large regions such as Velen and Novigrad with the Skellige archipelago offering a separate seafaring space. Notice boards and points of interest pull you toward side paths that connect to contracts, caves, and guarded treasures. Sailing, horseback riding, and fast travel signposts give you flexible pacing during long sessions. Weather, day and night cycles, and monster habits make routes feel different on repeat rides.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda Game Studios built a province divided into nine holds with cities like Whiterun and Solitude anchoring the map. Mountain passes, barrows, and rivers create natural corridors that teach reliable pathways over time. Standing stones, shouts hidden in word walls, and guild halls give exploration clear payoffs. Carriages and discovered markers keep the loop from turning into backtracking once you learn the lay of the land.

Ghost of Tsushima

Sucker Punch Productions modeled Tsushima Island across zones like Izuhara, Toyotama, and Kamiagata with fields, bamboo groves, and cliffs that guide movement. Fox dens, hot springs, and Shinto shrines create small navigational goals that dot every ride. The guiding wind system points you toward objectives without cluttering the screen. Enemy territories and farmsteads shift the map as you liberate them, opening safer routes as you progress.

Horizon Forbidden West

Guerrilla Games placed deserts, jungles, and coastal ruins into a single contiguous map that stretches from inland canyons to tidal shallows. Climbing tools, a glider, and mounts let you string together vertical and horizontal routes smoothly. Tallnecks reveal regions and highlight machine sites, cauldrons, and salvage opportunities. Workbenches and settlements punctuate long treks so resource gathering folds naturally into travel plans.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Ubisoft Quebec laid out a wide swath of the Aegean with islands, peninsulas, and deep channels that encourage both sailing and on foot exploration. Your ship acts as a mobile base that turns the sea lanes into fast highways. Regional forts, caves, and leader houses create a steady set of micro targets across every coastline. Engraving and gear systems reward detours to hunt cultists and clear contracts along the way.

Forza Horizon 5

Playground Games mapped a varied Mexico that includes a living city, a jungle, arid plains, beaches, and an active volcano. Road, dirt, and cross country routes interlock so you can chain events while free roaming between them. Seasonal playlist changes shuffle traffic patterns, collectibles, and photo spots across the same roads. Festival outposts and houses add new fast travel and tuning access as you expand the map.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Kojima Productions split operations between Afghanistan and Central Africa with broad hubs connected by ridgelines and roads. Patrol routes, outposts, and sandstorms make timing and approach angles part of navigation. Buddies like D Horse, D Walker, and Quiet transform how quickly and quietly you move. Mother Base growth feeds into exploration by unlocking tools that alter infiltration paths and extraction options.

Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt Red built Night City as stacked districts such as Watson, Westbrook, Heywood, Santo Domingo, and Pacifica with the Badlands circling the urban core. Fast travel points, ripperdoc clinics, and vendors create a dense network of stops that make free roaming efficient. Vertical shortcuts, alleys, and elevated highways let you rethread familiar blocks in new ways. Vehicle handling updates and police responses keep street level travel active rather than passive.

No Man’s Sky

Hello Games generates a universe of planets where biomes, weather, and fauna vary widely while following clear rules. Starships, exocraft, and portable bases turn planetary surfaces into long form routes with dependable resupply. Waypoints, archives, and trade posts form light infrastructure that gives purpose to detours. Frequent updates add new traversal tools and mission types that expand reasons to cross old systems again.

Xenoblade Chronicles X

Monolith Soft assembled the planet Mira into five giant regions named Primordia, Noctilum, Oblivia, Sylvalum, and Cauldros. Early game exploration on foot teaches safe corridors around high level wildlife. Later, Skell mechs unlock rapid ground travel and eventually flight, which rewrites how the map fits together. Probe placement and division tasks give structure to scouting and resource tuning across continents.

Death Stranding

Kojima Productions designed terrain as the main puzzle with rivers, scree, and snowfields shaping every route. Ladders, ropes, and bridge placements let you turn difficult paths into reliable highways for later runs. The shared online system leaves useful structures from other players that alter the landscape over time. Zip lines and roads gradually stitch regions into a connected network that supports heavier deliveries.

Starfield

Bethesda Game Studios spread activity across the Settled Systems with city hubs like New Atlantis, Akila City, and Neon linked by planetary surfaces. Outpost building and ship customization let you set up resource lines that influence where you roam next. Points of interest, caves, and facilities appear as you land, creating repeatable but varied routes for scanning and looting. Faction quest hubs and mission boards seed new reasons to revisit familiar star systems.

Share your favorite worlds to get lost in and tell us which maps you still wander for the fun of it in the comments.