Summary
- Early open-world games long avoided swimming; today many treat water as a normal, optional surface.
- Many modern AAA games, like The Witcher 3, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Horizon Forbidden West, and GTA 5, offer swimming, underwater diving, as well as boats and other water traversal tools.
- Some games include swimming but limit its use; Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout 4 both feature swimming and diving, but it’s almost entirely optional in these games.
Ever since the first open-world games with 3D graphics, swimming has been a rare feature in the genre, often avoided by developers due to technical challenges. Following popular open-world games like Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City, open water was often associated with instant death for the protagonist, a common practice to control the player’s movement through the world. Even today, despite featuring large explorable maps, not every open-world game offers unrestricted swimming for players, at times avoiding water traversal entirely or relying on vehicles and other means, such as in Red Dead Redemption 2, rather than character swimming.
Luckily, in many great modern open-world games, players no longer have to fear water. The majority of titles treat water as another surface that players can freely traverse, with unlimited or stamina-based swimming and diving, and include mounts, vehicles, boats, and other options that let players navigate water with no issues whatsoever. Below, we explore some of the best open-world games where swimming is as simple and convenient as walking and running.
For this list, we’ll focus on games that feature swimming and diving largely as optional activities or mechanics, rather than titles built entirely around swimming, like Subnautica.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Geralt Can Swim, Use Boats, or Drink Potions to Stay Underwater For Longer
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt marked a significant step forward from its predecessors, introducing an open world with a multi-region map, horseback riding, as well as swimming and underwater diving to the series. Geralt can use various boats to travel on rivers, explore the sea between the Skellige Islands, and he can swim or dive to retrieve hidden treasures and loot. As a mutant, Geralt can also use a Killer Whale potion to significantly extend the time he can hold his breath underwater.
Interestingly, The Witcher 3 includes underwater combat, enabled by the use of crossbows. Though less effective in other contexts, the crossbow allows Geralt to shoot down flying monsters and easily kill underwater enemies with a well-placed shot.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
From Customizable Ships to Unlimited Underwater Exploration
The first Assassin’s Creed game lacked swimming mechanics, but starting with Assassin’s Creed 2, the protagonist, Ezio, gained the ability to swim. Since then, almost every game in the series has included swimming in some capacity, with the mechanic being most prominent in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, where much of the map is covered in water.
In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, players can command their customizable ship, the Adrestia, for naval combat, use smaller boats for quick traversal, ride mounts to cross rivers, and swim or dive freely anywhere in the ocean. Additionally, acquiring the Legendary Poseidon’s Trident grants players the ability to breathe underwater indefinitely, simplifying underwater sections and looting sunken ships.
Horizon Forbidden West
One of the Most Breathtaking Underwater Locales, Plus A Unique Water Mount
Like in its predecessor, Horizon Forbidden West enhances Aloy’s swimming mechanics, expanding on previous features with impressive underwater diving, detailed areas, unique machines to face, and secrets to uncover. Arguably one of the most beautiful open-world games with explorable underwater areas, Horizon Forbidden West includes the Diving Mask, a tool allowing players to breathe underwater indefinitely, similar to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s trident. Without the Diving Mask, players cannot even reach certain areas in Horizon Forbidden West.
Players fond of swimming and diving should also consider the Burning Shores expansion, which introduces the Waterwing, a rideable machine mount for diving patroling beneath the waves. After Aloy learns to hack and control the Waterwing, she can use it for both flying and swift underwater diving and swimming in Horizon Forbidden West, adding an exciting dimension to water exploration.
The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
Swimming Coupled With Creative Methods Of Water Traversal
Water traversal is a key part of adventure and exploration in both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Link’s swimming ability is stamina-based, so players must be cautious when crossing large lakes or rivers, though it’s always feasible. However, neither Breath of the Wild nor Tears of the Kingdom includes underwater exploration.
For open water traversal, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom takes things to entirely different heights with its robust crafting system through the Ultrahand and Fuse abilities. By mastering these abilities and gathering sufficient resources, players can craft a wide variety of vehicles and mechanisms for crossing the water, limited only by their creativity.
Grand Theft Auto 5
The Gold Standard For Swimming And Water Transport Options In An Open World
Following Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which introduced swimming to the series, every subsequent GTA game has allowed players to navigate water confidently, and Grand Theft Auto 5 is no exception. Setting a modern standardz for water traversal, GTA 5 offers various options for players to swim or dive and use an array of vehicles in both story mode and GTA Online.
Beyond various ships, boats, yachts, and smaller vehicles like jet skis, Grand Theft Auto 5 includes unique options like personal submarines, rarely seen elsewhere. Undoubtedly, Grand Theft Auto 6 will also feature swimming and diving, along with numerous water traversal vehicles, such as jet skis and various boats, as already seen in game trailers.
Cyberpunk 2077
The Ability To Swim And Dive Is Present But Largely Underutilized
While not as prominent as in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, swimming and underwater diving also made their way into Cyberpunk 2077. V can freely swim across any water in their path, dive to explore underwater areas in missions like the Pyramid Song quest, and spend time aboard Kerry Eurodyne’s yacht (though they cannot pilot it).
While it’s good to have swimming in Cyberpunk 2077, the feature feels underutilized, as there are no player-controlled boats or water vehicles and very few missions involve swimming. Interestingly, Cyberpunk 2077’s launch version included the notorious Commando perk, designed to boost players’ underwater effectiveness, but it was entirely useless, and was removed in subsequent updates.
Fallout 4
Just Don’t Forget to Take Off Power Armor Before Diving
Like Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, the vast world of Boston and its surroundings in Fallout 4 features numerous water areas, including lakes, rivers, and parts of the ocean. Despite many bodies of water being highly radioactive in Fallout 4, the game supports swimming and underwater diving for players who choose to explore them. Occasionally, swimming and diving are required to complete specific objectives, though such instances are rare.
Players looking to explore underwater in Fallout 4 should follow certain tips. For instance, swimming is only possible without equipping power armor, for obvious weight-related reasons. Additionally, despite the expansive world, there aren’t as many notable underwater secrets to uncover in Fallout 4‘s waters, which is somewhat disappointing.
