The Gothic series.

The game world wasn't as big as in TES games, but it felt very immersive.

I want to say such a huge part of the modern open world game is how modifiable the environments are from a first person perspective. It's something that never really existed 15 years ago.

But there were definitely games that evoked a lot of the same feelings of exploring a world. I remember Quest for Glory games always felt very wide open to me. And while you never physically built anything, there was a sense of building a community as you met and befriended assorted characters.

Midtown madness for me. What made it believable for me was that cars sped up on the freeways and tried to obey traffic laws. I must have spent much more time just driving around than actually racing, as a car obsessed 10 year old.

Darklands is a prime example of an open-world RPG, and Betrayal at Krondor.

Although most of the early RPG (ultima series, fallout series, magic candle/legacy of the ancients/etc. etc. ad nauseum) were very open-world to be honest.

Beyond Good & Evil (2003) implements many open-world concepts, although, unlike GTA, that world is designed to be futuristic/dystopian, not believable.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-07-28, 14:03:

The Gothic series.

The game world wasn't as big as in TES games, but it felt very immersive.

I really liked gothic 1 and 2, they were extremely buggy and used outdated graphics engine but it was amazing to be a le to see from one end of the map to the other and you could actually walk there. It wasn't until oblivion I got the same experience. Morrowind was very nice but draw distance was not that high as from what I remember.

Sim Copter, Little Big Adventure 1,2, Syndicate, Syndicate Wars, Magic Carpet, Ultrabots

The Terminator (1990 PC game by Bethesda). Big open city.

Midwinter?

keenerb wrote on 2021-07-28, 14:57:

Darklands is a prime example of an open-world RPG, and Betrayal at Krondor.

Although most of the early RPG (ultima series, fallout series, magic candle/legacy of the ancients/etc. etc. ad nauseum) were very open-world to be honest.

Seconded. The main appeal of Ultima (specifically 7 tho) was always the open world, where you could go anywhere and do anything—though of course the plot itself was quite linear. This probably was most true of U7, where you could actually have fun doing completely ridiculous things like going around baking bread, killing everyone in town, etc.

The Might & Magic series has always been open world. M&M 1-6 (haven't played 7-9) are truly open worlds, where you have access to nearly the entire world right from the beginning—but are "gated" by difficult encounters in dungeons. I really can't think of any other way of doing open world than this, other than level scaling all enemies I guess (which hardly ever works well). M&M1 is probably the best open world experience I've ever had in a game, simply amazing for a game mostly developed by a single person in 1986 but would even be impressive today with a bit of spit and polish imo.

I was going to mention Terminator. Interestingly it didn't get an Amiga release. Was that beyond the machine's capabilities?

Errius wrote on 2021-07-28, 18:48:

I was going to mention Terminator. Interestingly it didn't get an Amiga release. Was that beyond the machine's capabilities?

A 3D open world game from the early 90's on an Amiga... Nevaaaaar !!!!

Errius wrote on 2021-07-28, 18:48:

I was going to mention Terminator. Interestingly it didn't get an Amiga release. Was that beyond the machine's capabilities?

It's bethesda. i'd argue it's beyond the programmer's capabilities 😀
*gets into car while still looking in a scope*

Operation Flashpoint from 2001 (now ArmA cold War crisis) comes to mind. You can go anywhere on the island you're on.

Terra Nova (1996) had quite big open worlds to0, especially for that time.

Even older would be Seal Team (1993). Those maps were big too.

Carmageddon was an early game that I remember I enjoyed exploring... trying to reach places/platforms without totalling oneself, looking for big ramps etc. I played that before GTA.

hmm, probably not what you mean when you say open world. o.0

Gothic 1 and particularly 2 are a masterful example of open level design that focuses on detail and not size. I still find sneaky little areas in G2 and I’ve been playing that forever. It was a side effect of technical limitations I assume because they went with big and less detailed levels in Gothic 3, and it was worse for it.

I quite like Hunter from 1991 for the Amiga and Atari ST as mentioned by someone else earlier. Never actually figured out what the objective is, I just like roaming around the world.

if Midtown counts, then I gotta post about Vette!. Proto Midtown 2/Driver in a way, and you can choose to forget about the race part and drive around the best videogame San Francisco a floppy/286 could have.

Some great examples, thanks all

I remember Gothic, when it ran smoothly it did give that 'lived in' world feel. I always like RPGs, even old ones, for the impression that there were other 'people' in the world that could be interacted with, shops to go into and so on. Combine that with a huge open map and it becomes very immersive

it's that 'lived in' feel that differentiates some games from others

I'm missing out early MMORPGs here, because they tend to be 'lived in' by endless people shouting "free stuff plz" and so on!

Games like Midtown Madness, Driver, carmageddon I'd consider as a focussed open world, in that there is only the driving and no real interaction. Playing midtown madness makes the game feel very dated though, the driving physics, the movement of other cars and the sparse maps. From 1999 to GTA3 in 2001 is a huge leap just in driving and the feel of the city

I played Hunter on Amiga too, just to travel around!

Operation flashpoint is a great military simulator with very open maps, i used to create my own 'missions' in which i could drive vehicles to different places and attempt to defend places etc, but it still felt isolated - no NPCs, buildings were generic and so on