Open world games where the best quests are hidden

Quests in the open world genre are one of the most important aspects of keeping players invested in the world for a long time. It's no good having an impressive world without reasons to explore it, so it's important to give players a sense of meaning and purpose amidst all the action and chaos. However, as engaging as the main quests can be, in some situations the side content actually provides an even more enjoyable experience, taking the player on journeys across the landscape, following characters and clues they might never have encountered if they had stuck to the standard path.

Some of these quests are one-off but still manage to be incredibly fun and memorable, while others are much more extensive and involve multiple steps that often take hours to complete. What makes them so great is their ability to feel deeply important on a similar level as the overarching goal of the narrative, allowing players to feel invested in stories and characters they never had to care about. By filling the world with so many interesting tasks, the environment feels more alive and players can feel much more excited to explore every detail, knowing that an incredible adventure can be waiting for them just around the corner.

Skyrim

Curiosity that leads the way

Details:

• Unmarked locations that can often trigger large lines of quests

• The best stories have no connection to the main road

Bethesda has always been known for cramming their games with a huge amount of quests and Skyrim is no exception. It's pretty hard to walk far into town without finding a person in need of help, or even in the mountains where a lost traveler might be looking for someone to help them defeat a terrifying monster. One of the best examples is The Mind of Madness quest, where players begin by talking to a seemingly harmless madman roaming Solitude, but quickly find themselves on a journey into a world of dark humor and madness with more than a few twists and turns.

Other quests like Forbidden Legend can be completely skipped because the condition to start is literally tied to reading a random book. From there, the mystery gradually unfolds, revealing ancient betrayals and plenty of powerful rewards for those who have kept a close eye on their surroundings. In all of these cases, the quests really add to the idea of ​​curiosity in the vast open landscape, as instead of explicitly showing players exactly where to start, they have to go out of their way to hunt and explore in hopes of finding a new story to follow. And because the map is so densely packed with these adventures, it's easy to get lost in the side content for hours and forget there's even a fearsome dragon waiting to be conquered.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Roads that fork for hours

Details:

• Contracts quickly turn into massive arcs

• Timing and obscure choices are put into which quests are available

The Witcher 3 it's filled to the brim with quests and narrative, both optional and mandatory, but as players travel across the lands in search of adventure, they'll quickly discover that many of the side missions are actually more enjoyable and interesting than the main ones. Some, like Equine Phantoms, take the player on a weirder but more interesting journey that couldn't be further from the actual larger task at hand, but can still be a short but fun little journey between tearing down enemy camps and saving entire cities from collapse.

Because the writing is so exceptional, even minor supporting characters can feel incredibly believable. Cat and Wolf Play is a good example of a quest that many players completely miss, yet it offers an incredibly complex story about the trauma and cost of survival in the world. It also presents a tough choice for the player that carries the same weight as any of the other big quests in the game, demonstrating the importance of a rich environment that doesn't feel empty but instead teems with life.

Fallout: New Vegas

Faction-driven stories that are easy to overlook

Details:

• Some groups are completely optional and cannot be skipped

• Dialog options can permanently lock content without warning

Fallout: New Vegas stands at the pinnacle of the RPG genre, and for good reason. Its characters and quest lines are some of the best in the business, and some of the best are hidden in less obvious parts of the map or places players would never think to explore the first time around. More importantly, many quests can actually lock and become inaccessible depending on the choices the player makes, forcing them to think carefully about their decisions from the moment they enter the wasteland. The Beyond the Beef is an incredibly infamous side story that is not only skippable, but also heavily influenced by the choices the player makes towards it.

After heading to the Ultra-Luxe Casino, players can speak with Heck Gunderson in hopes of finding his missing son. But this initial interaction quickly turns into a disturbing plot involving cannibalism and social decay, despite initially appearing to be a fairly basic missing persons case. There are many other similar examples, some including humor like Come with Me and Not Worth a Hill of Corn and Beans, which is much more grounded and focused on checking skills versus presenting a longer story. No matter where players are in the desert, there's always something new to see or talk to, so going the extra mile and actually checking out these hidden rooms is often a great way to find some of the best quests in the entire game.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Deep stories off the beaten track

Details:

• Each area hides a huge amount of engaging stories

• Some quests can unfold for many hours without you interacting with them

Red Dead Redemption 2 it tucks some of its most emotionally resonant content away from the main story, often behind obscure triggers or hidden in isolated locations. The Widow of Willard's Rest is a heartfelt quest where players teach a grieving woman how to survive alone in the world, creating a quieter and more human story away from the big adventures elsewhere. The quest takes place over multiple visits and encourages players to return again and again with no real incentive beyond helping a struggling soul, with many players finishing the game without ever realizing it existed.

Another highlight is the Veteran quest line, which begins with an encounter with a wounded veteran deep in the remote Grizzlies. The mission series focuses on companionship and healing on a much smaller scale, making it feel like a deeply personal set of tasks that contrast sharply with the game's larger story. A lot of quests like this revel in their isolation and simplicity, reinforcing the game's belief that the most meaningful stories are often the most human, and that in a world full of all kinds of people, even the most insignificant ones can matter the most.

Elden Ring

No quest markers to guide you forward

Details:

• Lack of clear steps for each NPC

• Unpredictable characters that can move unnoticed

Elden Ring is a game that's practically one long mystery scattered across a giant world. There are no real markers or ways to reliably locate individual NPCs, so players instead have to follow subtle clues or spend a lot of time Googling to actually follow these stories through. The biggest ones are actually tied directly to the endings, like Ranni and Fio's quests, which, without venturing into the furthest and deepest parts of the map, are very easy to miss on your first playthrough. It literally sends players into the depths of the earth and back, forcing them to face fearsome enemies and succumb to the Frenzied Flame again without explicitly telling them where to go next.

The DLC continues this theme by hiding entire bosses and quests in the tiniest crevices of the environment. Putrescent Knight is already off the beaten track, but even further lies the St Trina and Thiollier quest line, which is not only about as far from the main area as possible, but also tasks players with an adventure across the landscape that is very easily avoided. Metyr, Mother of Fingers, follows the same pattern, this time the quest is meant to be a harbinger of actual combat. Players must run through the Realm of Shadow, ringing bells and performing gestures before being rewarded with one of the weirdest bosses in the entire game. This philosophy of vaguely guiding players around the world is what makes the game so engaging, as many of the NPCs and stories wouldn't be nearly as interesting if they were shown to players right from the start.