The 9800X3D just came out, so I'm looking to upgrade my 2017 PC to join the modern era, which means I'm waiting to play Baldurs Gate 3 (runs, but not ideal), Dead Space Remake (poorly optimised), Space Marine 2, Cyberpunk, Metaphor etc when I build my new rig in a couple of months.

In the meantime, I've finished some indies like Rise of the Golden Idol, first run of Satisfactory, did the Elden Ring DLC.

Then, there's the gap from now till the next RGG game and Monster Hunter, which would really scratch that action, open world itch.

Any recommendations for action games that feels like you're doing some exploration? Trying to get into a flow state. I may actually take a break and go read a book instead.

all 19 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Witcher 3 for sure.

Control.

Dark Souls 3.

Bloodborne.

Not exactly action, but Shadows of Doubt has moments of action, lots of exploration, and amazing detective mechanics.

Valheim

Subnautica

The Little Big Adventure remake.

Metro Exodus

[–] delitomatoes@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Haven't heard a couple of these, will check out Shadow of Doubt

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

It's a little janky, and the blocky aesthetic may or may not be your thing, but it handles the idea of detective work better than any other game I've ever played. It's not just "Walk around in detective vision until you assemble enough clues for the character to tell you the solution." You have to actually think about things, examine the evidence, assemble a theory of the crime. Which is doubly impressive given that every crime is procedurally generated.

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Bloodborne

IF ONLY

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Huh, my bad. For some reason I thought there was a PC port already.

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That Mad Max game deeply discounted on steam RN, pretty cool action, in car and out, nice exploration, not BotW levels but good enough.

[–] specialseaweed@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Mad Max was way better than it had any right to be.

[–] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago

I just started playing Terraria again for the first time in a few years. TMODLoader is now a supported extension of it, so there's a ton of extra content and difficulty modifiers to play with. Having a randomly generated world with a mess of new and unknown stuff definitely scratches that exploration itch.

[–] Ashtear@lemm.ee 6 points 3 weeks ago

Did you ever play Divinity: Original Sin 2? Since you mentioned Baldur's Gate 3, it plays a lot like that, just minus the license and a much greater emphasis on environmental effects. It was super well-received at the time.

[–] missingno@fedia.io 6 points 3 weeks ago

Anything 2D should run on a toaster.

I'm legally obligated to shill CrossCode as the greatest RPG ever made.

[–] teft@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Have you tried the Star Wars Jedi games? Fallen Order should run fine on your machine and possibly Survivor too but that might be a little much for your rig. \

They're both wicked fun games that award exploration. I would call them souls-lite not soulslike since they are much easier than something like elden ring or sekiro (that doesn't mean they are easy though).

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

if i was planning to upgrade my rig soon i’d save these games for the new hardware.

[–] Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah these games are great, although clearly not perfect.

I enjoy them but some buggy technical aspects in the second one are quite distracting.

But you have a lot to explore in an interesting way.

They remind my of the first new God of War but in a Star Wars world.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

The Witcher series

The Metro series (Exodus is the most open-world)

The Assassins Creed series

The Far Cry series

All have plenty of titles that are playable on a 9800

[–] Damage@feddit.it 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

TYRANNY! It's an RPG from Obsidian that shares the Pillars of Eternity engine, very cool premise and story, main campaign is short so it shouldn't keep you occupied long, unless you decide to replay of course, the storyline changes A LOT depending on your actions (and even upon choices you make before even playing), so replayability is very high.

So you don't actually explore map, but lore.

[–] odium@programming.dev 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Metroidvanias have a blend of action and exploration but in 2d. Some recs: hollow Knight, nine sols.

Only play this if you have the self control to never spend any money on it, but genshin has some pretty good open world exploration.

You can emulate BOTW on PC.

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Second for BotW emulation, if you haven't played that yet. I took the emulation opportunity to set max_durability of all items at 400% with a helper program. Frick that noise, hahaha.

[–] delitomatoes@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago

Actually on Nine Sols now, but the amount of concentration it needs it's quite high, so I can't stay in a session too long. Thinking of doing a Hollow Knight replay