An open world RPG where you can accidentally destroy entire regions

For a long time, choices and consequences were considered the core of any decent role-playing game, including an open world RPG. When you enter a huge living interactive world, it is natural to expect that it and its inhabitants will react to the player's actions. Easier said than done. With rare exceptions, very few consequences in an RPG matter outside of the specific quest and the NPC that gives them to the player. Only a handful of open-world RPGs fully embrace this concept, creating lasting effects this can sometimes hold the player up for the duration of the game.

Even better, some open-world RPGs allow this player errors and bad choices with surprising depthoccasionally dooming key NPCs, locking players out of entire questlines or endings, or even creating permanent consequences for the world state and permanently destroy entire areas of the map. Returning to such places after one fateful choice can become a truly special moment for the player, highlighting how meaningful their own actions can be. Below are some of the best examples of open world RPGs where players it can actually destroy entire regions at random or at willtogether with the most memorable examples.

Warning! For obvious reasons, the text below contains spoilers for the mentioned games. Proceed with caution.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Players can randomly destroy the entire starting region of Kefalonia

The Assassin's Creed a series that first ventured into a true open-world action RPG Assassin's Creed Originsbut it wasn't until Assassin's Creed Odyssey that the series was a fully RPG, featuring a player choice of two playable protagonists and featuring branching, choice-based quests and dialogue rather than static cutscenes. Despite all that, few expected any real depth from it AC Odysseywhich actually worked to the game's advantage, catching some players by surprise and providing a spectacular display of player-driven consequences in the opening hours.

All players choose either Kassandra or Alexios and start on the small island of Kefalonia, where they spend the first hours of the game solving quests and errands for the locals. During a quest called “The Blood Fever”, players will encounter a family quarantined due to the plague, with the option to either kill them or save them in hopes of finding a cure. If they choose to show mercy, players will inadvertently destroy the entire island, which will be consumed by an off-screen epidemic. Some players may never know the consequences. However, if players decide to return to Kefalonia later in their story after sparing the sick, they will be greeted by a desolate graveyard full of skeletal corpses and abandoned houses. Subtlety works wonders here as it is a completely optional side quest Assassin's Creed Odyssey players can miss or skip, and the game never forces them to come back to witness the consequences.

Dragon's Dogma 2

The hidden Dragonsplague mechanic can turn the game into hell

Known on the surface, Dragon's Dogma 2 it approaches many typical open-world RPG mechanics differently, including its own view of companions (known as pawns), no ability to instantly fast travel, and a distinct separation of day and night, which impacts gameplay and exploration. Dragon's Dogma 2 she doesn't reveal all her secrets to players, so many are likely to be taken aback by her Dragonsplague mechanic. This pawn-exclusive disease is picked up randomly from dragon fights, and players can even unknowingly hire infected pawns with no obvious signs. Over time, more symptoms of the disease appear, but they are quite easy to miss. If players don't pay attention to their companions, they risk unleashing the Dragonsplague in all its horror, which will result in their pawn turning into a rampaging dragon that will slaughter entire cities or settlements while the player rests.

Many players report being shocked when they first encountered Dragonsplague, turning bustling hubs into corpse-strewn ghost towns, with all NPCs and their quests gone. With the game's autosave mechanic, it's impossible to reload and avoid shocking consequences, which adds to the memorable nature of such events. At the height of Dragonsplague, Dragon's Dogma 2 Endgame is also special, throwing players into the dark Unmoored World, where monsters constantly attack settlements and cities and are able to permanently destroy them and all their inhabitants in time. All area side content will disappear if players are slow to help or are busy exploring elsewhere.

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 entrusts the player with a lot of agenda. Its reputation system allows them to do good or bad deeds, each with their own benefits for certain roles. In keeping with the game's twisted world, players can do some truly horrible things, including wiping out entire cities and settlements. As with many of Bethesda's open-world RPGs, players can choose to kill almost every NPC in the game, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are many bigger twists available for evil geniuses. One of the most memorable moments in Fallout 3 is undoubtedly the optional side quest “The Power of the Atom”, which allows players to detonate an atomic bomb resting in the center of the city of Megaton, one of the first nodes encountered in the game.

Although it's hard to argue that players can trigger Megaton's destruction at random, since the game reveals all the cards before that point, this world-changing event still stands out in the genre. After a bomb explodes, an entire town disappears from the map, turning the once-bustling settlement into irradiated ruins, vaporizing dozens of NPCs alongside their quests, and even triggering specific random encounters if players choose. Some major Fallout 3 the characters, when they learn about it later, will also give their perspective on the player's actions. Hey, at least the explosion looks pretty good. That is, from a safe distance.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Geralt is supposed to kill monsters – not trust them

Creative Charmer the series always values ​​choices and consequences, even going to extremes The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. The game delivers a completely alternate part of the game for much of Act 2, all depending on early player decisions. As a result, players end up in different areas of the world, surrounded by hostile allied forces. Due to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's a true open-world structure, the trilogy's grand finale doesn't offer a comparable non-linear sequence, but almost every quest has more than one solution, constantly painting moral dilemmas where only a player like Geralt chooses what is right to do. what's more The Witcher 3 it pushes the complexity of its world through ambiguous situations where players rarely anticipate how their immediate decisions will backfire or how significant the consequences will be.

IN The Witcher 3players can rebuild many small settlements, free them from bandits and monsters, and then watch people return to their homes, but the reverse is also possible. During the quest “The Whispering Hillock”, players find a tormented, seemingly innocent spirit trapped in a tree, promising safety to orphaned children. If the players think compassion is the way to go and choose to free him, the ghost will go on a rampage that massacres everyone in the nearby village of Downwarren, leaving it a smoldering ruin of corpses and destroyed huts for the rest of the game. Additionally, this bug can significantly affect the outcome of the larger Bloody Baron quest The Witcher 3. After all, Geralt is supposed to be killing monsters, not helping them, so there's a valuable lesson here.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl

Everything and everyone can be lost in the danger zone

While STALKER 2 it has some decent RPG elements, it's still not a full blown open world RPG. However, his example is too strong not to be included in such a list.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl is primarily an open-world FPS game, but still features some decent RPG mechanics such as branching quests, dialogue choices, a faction system, multiple endings, and far-reaching consequences for many of the player's decisions during their gameplay. Playing as Skif, players can choose their allies and enemies at almost any moment, and there are several opportunities to switch sides entirely or even betray certain factions. In addition, several major events occur throughout the story that dramatically change large areas of the game, such as Wild Island, SIRCAA, and Duga.

While the majority STALKER 2 key world-shaping events are inevitable, there are also instances that depend on player actions (or inaction). One of the most impressive and memorable events occurs about halfway through the story, when the brainwashed Monolith returns to the Zone while simultaneously attacking the stalker and military camps and bases. Players receive a request for help from the very first friendly center in Zalissya, where Monolith unleashes a full-scale assault on the positions of rookie stalkers. The game doesn't directly specify that this quest is very time sensitive, and if players decide to go somewhere else first rather than rushing to Zalissya's aid, the attack will soon end and almost every friendly member of the camp will be killed, leaving the once peaceful village a grim graveyard for the rest of the game. Turns out too much STALKER 2 players learned this lesson too late and lost one of the better bases in the game as a result.