Kinda blown away that there's 3 ubisoft games in the list but no AC Origins. Their recreation of Egypt was insane - the sense of scale was mindblowing, loved how the game wasn't afraid of utilizing the desert as negative space to convey scale and distance, the cities actually felt quite big, especially Alexandria which was downright incredible, and you could really see the cultural differences between the regions. Not to mention that you could actually explore the pyramids and they weren't just lazy copy paste dungeons, but actually quite different from eachother with some cool stuff to find. AC Odyssey may have been bigger but felt like such a massive step back - most of it felt auto generated from a small pool of assets whereas Origins had a much more handcrafted feel.
For the 2 rockstar games - I'd replace GTA 5 with San Andreas. GTA 5's map is really truly brilliant and I love it, which is why it annoys me so much how the story did such a poor job at exploring the whole map. Look at San Andreas, it's basically a 30 hour long road trip that takes you full circle across the entire map. Each region represents a chapter of the story -it's great. GTA 5's map has so many either insanely underused areas (the northernmost town for example, literally a stakeout mission and a heist and that's it) or areas that you NEVER go to... like how about the military base? It's a huge, interesting area yet.... nothing. And that's ignoring all the little settlements, camp sites and other industrial areas that could easily have been used for a few missions but, they aren't. And there is not even any side content. San Andreas also wins some bonus points for using tech limitations to its advantage in conveying a sense of scale - things were so close to eachother, but the road network design, and low view distance really sold the idea of it being a massive open world. Really smart design by rockstar.
RDR 2 is my favorite open world of the gen, though it does still have GTA5's issue when it comes to the southern part of the map. You have an entire desert, even a small town, and it's all used for... NOTHING. If you don't go out your way of "unfogging" the map, then the story has ONE single mission that takes you anywhere near close. Like, I see a potential chapter with its own campsite right there.... it's just frustrating! However, thakfully the rest of the map is well utilized, and the game has really fun exploration too. And, it's the most authentic feeling & reactive world I experienced in a game yet.
Honestly nothing about HZD or Sunset Overdrive stood out to me in terms of open worlds, kinda surprised by those picks. Kingdom Come Deliverance would definitely be one of my picks instead of them, if you live in Eastern Europe or ever visited you just know how well this game recaptures the feel of that region, especially the vistas and forests. It's almost magical. Plus, the world just feels really natural, in a way that may be "boring" to some people but I think given how much the game aims for immersion, it's very fitting. My other pick would be a driving game, but I'm kinda struggling to figure out which - I think Forza Horizon 1 has a very underrated map, it's a really really underrated location and fantastic road network design. However, I think Test Drive Unlimited 1's Ohau deserves the spot more: it's the first game where I could make actual "road trips", the scale is absolutely amazing, and to this day bigger than any of the Forza Horizon games. It also does a great job at capturing the Hawaii spirit, the game just feels like a dream summer vacation really.
