While playing an Open-World game, there’s almost always some kind of HUD or guidelines to help players gather their bearings and indentify POIs and such.
But not all Open-World games have a mini-map to help players orient themselves in the wilds. In those cases, these games place a great emphasis on the survival/exploration part of the adventure, and force their audience to think out of the box or become survival experts. These titles will allow you to roam freely, without the guide of a Mini-map as an aid.
6 Most Relaxing Side Activities In Open-World Games
When players get worn out by the intensity of an open-world story campaign, these relaxing side activities are there to give them a break.
Dying Light 2
Lost in The Streets of Old Villedor?
Dying Light 2 is a brutal experience, so for those expecting a joyride of a zombie-slaying game, look to the other side of the road. Here, everything can kill you as fast as you drop your guard, and to make things worse, it has no ‘mini map.’ Players need to rely on a rudimentary compass to guide themselves around Old Villedor and the surrounding zones of this post-apocalyptic European city. Funily enough, it is not getting lost that kills you most of the time, but failing to watch out for the passing of time.
As with all games of the franchise, when Night Falls, the infected become absolutely vicious. The unstoppable Volatiles and Virals will crawl out of their hidey-holes and plague the streets until the sun rises. Without a minimap, the immersion increases, but so does the danger.
Green Hell
In The Jungle, No One Will Hear Your Scream
Green Hell is the ultimate jungle survival simulation, there’s no arguing that, and those looking for a game where you can get lost in a huge Open-World map will find in it more than what they bargained for: Wild and dangerous animals, poisonous critters, and aggressive natives that will hunt you until you’re too exhausted to fight back. It is a vicious survival experience, with tons of cool mechanics.
Not cleaning a wound properly will end up with a fever. The fever leads to hallucinations, and resorting to bad survival practices, like eating raw meat, because you are too exhausted to hunt and cook a proper meal. This is a slippery slope, where the tiniest mistake, like scraping an arm and smearing it in mud, can kill you faster than the Piranhas (or the Crocodiles). And all the time, players will need to make do with their sense of orientation as there’s no mini-map, and in the hardcore mode, not even a compass HUD to guide them. The smartwatch can still be used as a reference, but players need to orient themselves without markers and such.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
For All Ye Who Are Lost And In Need Of Guidance
The first Kingdom Come game was already a masterpiece and a candidate for GOTY before other Open-World games without HUDs and Compasses became popular. It combines deep immersion with medieval combat (even mounted combat) and tons of cool realistic RPG mechanics that are great for those who want to avoid the typical fantasy setting.
Historically accurate to a fault, there’s no easy way out of poverty or dangerous situations, and KCD proves it with a merciless AI that will resort to everything to chase you down and murder you, and also tons of interesting encounters that make the life of Henry of Skalitz something to behold and play for the ages to come. It’s hardcore more is one of the toughest combat and exploration experiences you’ll ever find.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
You Either Learn The Lay Of The Land, Or End Up In A Wolf’s Den
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is all about exploring the beautiful (and also scary) medieval Bohemia, with all its forests plagued by wolves and bandits, and high probabilities of getting lost in the process. Of course, if players are foresters or marksmen by nature (and have a cool bow to prove it), visiting these lush places can be considered a treat and not a challenge.
The game’s scenario and world design are incredible, and there’s plenty to see in two enormous Open-world sandboxes. With the addition of the Hardcore More, which suppresses everything on the HUD to make the experience even more intense than what it already is, there’s not even a compass to guide players around. And that adds even more to the beauty of this enormous title.
No Man’s Sky
So Much Tech To Unlock, And No Minimap!
No Man’s Sky is the perfect example of a fully immersive exploration game done well: It has everything that a space sim needs, plus in-depth customization features like fleet management and ship building. But when players decide to finally go out of their farming spree and explore for a bit, they’ll notice something important is missing: The Mini-map.
In NMS a small compass HUD and some markers that you can place manually is everything that you have in order to orient yourselves in the vastness of space. And we are talking not just planetary scale here: Star charts, galaxies, entire star systems, everything is included in the navigation HUD of the spaceships, frigates, and corvettes, but a mini-map is something you’ll never find in No Man’s Sky. And to be fair, the game doesn’t need it either!
6 Best Medieval Open-World Games, Ranked
Often with a tinge of fantasy on the side, these medieval open-world games do the best job of delivering a fun, immersive package in one spoonful.
Generation Zero
Generation Zero is a game that made fighting giant robots with primitive and makeshift weapons something cool, even before ARC Raiders even existed. A bunch of teenagers fighting an invasion from an evil AI in a North European setting is something you might not know even existed, but this is a game you absolutely must play if you love survival open-world games.
The concept and the narrative of the game are brought through a series of small lore dumps and environmental clues, and players need to assemble the puzzle by themselves. And even though robots have advanced guidance systems, in this game, the freedom fighters trying to liberate their homeland barely have a compass to guide them. So: no Mini-Map here to save your face.
The Long Dark
No Mini-Map, Only The Cold And Wolves To Keep You Company
Have you ever had that dream where you are lost in the woods, and it starts snowing, wolves start howling, then you wake up, and you are in your cozy, warm bed? Well, The Long Dark is like that, only that there’s no cozy bed, only a very realistic, very ruthless wake-up call about what it means to face the wrath of winter alone.
In this survival game, players will have to solve the mystery of why winter has been going on for an awful lot of time, plus, find their estranged ex-wives while dealing with tons of wild animals and hypothermia (if they play the Campaign mode). There’s also a Survival, Free-Roam mode, and in both cases, there’s little to no HUD to use as a reference, and that also means no mini-map to guide yourselves in the frozen wilds. One of the best games to learn how to survive.
Only A Compass, And Dragons Falling From The Sky
If you need to look for a great Open-World game to enjoy, then Skyrim comes to mind right away. It has everything a good RPG needs to be an eternal classic, plus a thriving modding community that keeps it alive, adding quality of life, improved graphics, and also evil flying Trains but that’s a different kettle of fish.
The thing is, Skyrim doesn’t need a mini-map for players to enjoy endless hours of exploration. Much less, with the enormous sandbox (roughly 15.5 square miles) to roam in search of loot, treasure, and adventures. But, there’s something that might rain on the Dovakhin‘s parade from time to time: The absolute randomness of non-scripted events in the game. You never know when a bandit wearing full Daedric Armor will try to mug you (sometimes they can even find you at the highest peaks, and come out of nowhere). Plus, the dragons, those things are scary and come out of nowhere.
7 Open-World Games That Mastered The Art Of Slow Exploration
There have been some truly breathtaking open-world games over the years, and these titles let you explore at your own pace.
