Games can be the perfect tools for feeling all-powerful, emphasizing power progression, large-scale enemy encounters, and pure destruction with few restrictions. After all, switching your brain off for a while and going full “Hulk smash” mode can be incredibly fun, and open-world developers are well aware of that. There are numerous open-world titles where freedom outshines realism, and players are entrusted with various supernatural abilities, can wield powerful magic, or at times can even play as godlike beings or chosen ones, killing hundreds, if not thousands, on their journey.
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But what about more grounded takes that are less about destruction and superhero-like abilities, and more about being a one-man army akin to John Rambo or John Wick? Certain titles fully embody that unstoppable lone avenger vibe as well, delivering a combination of mighty protagonists, uneven odds, and exciting scenarios to truly test one’s limits. Let’s take a look at some of the best games that grant you the alluring freedom to embrace that power fantasy in an open world, facing hordes of enemies in combat, and enjoying the feeling of being almost unstoppable.
Crimson Desert
Just Bring Some Food With You
Crimson Desert approaches combat vastly differently from almost any other open-world game from the past decade, taking some heavy inspiration from the Dynasty Warriors series. As a result, players constantly find themselves on large-scale war battlefields across all of Pywel, facing literal armies of enemies as Kliff acts like a true one-man army, relying only on the Greymanes’ reputation as unstoppable warriors (and some grilled meat). In Crimson Desert, almost every confrontation features countless active foes attacking from all sides and angles, so it becomes vital to invest heavily in AoE skills and attacks granted by Abyss gear to control the flow of the battle effectively.
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Crushing hordes of enemies head-on, sending them flying off the cliffs, destroying watchtowers and other key structures like infirmaries or barracks with heavy blows, facing bosses surrounded by dozens of minions, and fighting swarms of mechanical robots of various shapes — this is just a fraction of the overall late-game experience in Crimson Desert. Even early on, players find themselves amid pretty unfavorable odds more than once and might not be prepared for some hot spots like the notorious Karin Quarry liberation in Hernand. Fortunately, the game grants more than enough tools and options for players who aren’t rushing things, gradually unlocking pretty exciting possibilities like taking a dragon mount in combat or using a literal battle mech (ATAG) to bend the battlefield to their will.
Ghost of Tsushima
Name That Instills Fear Into Your Enemies
While Ghost of Tsushima is a mostly standard open-world action-adventure game, and players rarely find themselves in truly overwhelming battle confrontations in-game, it is one of the best thematic examples of the one-man army concept in gaming. The game portrays its hero, Jin Sakai, as a solo protector of Tsushima Island and its people against the Mongol invaders. This premise is explored throughout the entire story, highlighting Jin’s unyielding bravery and dedication as his reputation and combat prowess gradually grow. Later, his name alone becomes a menacing omen for the invaders, allowing players to use fear and panic as tools.
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Early in Ghost of Tsushima, players quickly learn that it’s much more reliable to use stealth approaches, infiltrating enemies one by one while unlocking new moves, stances, and gear. However, later in the game and in some key story missions, players must face hordes of enemies head-on, liberating massive castles and forts and using their full arsenal to survive. Once players alongside Jin fully embrace their Ghost nature, they become truly unstoppable — dispatching enemies in standoffs like a true samurai, striking from the shadows and from behind as a shinobi, and combining all their mastery and tricks as a deadly Ghost who will stop at nothing to liberate his homeland, track down, and kill every last one of his enemies.
Just Cause 3
John Rambo’s Brother in Gaming
It’s hard to believe that one man with explosives and a wingsuit can be as lethal as Rico Rodriguez from the Just Cause series, but here we are. Starting with a more grounded original, the series gradually raises the stakes and mayhem with each follow-up, mastering its sense of havoc and physics-based sandbox fun. As a result, by the third entry, Rico has become a true legend capable of outshining John Rambo himself — single-handedly creating a full-fledged revolution in an entire country and eliminating literal armies sent to stop him. Whether it’s an armed soldiers squad, a heavy vehicle convoy, numerous helicopters and jets attacking from the sky, tanks, or anything in between, it’s just an ordinary Tuesday for Rico.
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Some Just Cause 3 (and Just Cause 4) missions are so ridiculous in this aspect that there are hardly any competitors in the open-world genre at all. For instance, one sequence sees Rico chasing a massive explosive missile, climbing on top of it, and redirecting it into an enemy base to destroy dozens of soldiers, vehicles, and strategic supplies. Not to mention that it’s possible to hijack fighter jets mid-air and then go full frenzy. Realistic? Hardly. Spectacular and effective? Undoubtedly. Compared to that, Rico’s routine solo storming of heavily guarded bases throughout the game is nothing more than child’s play.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Dynasty Warriors 9
At Least No One Can Deny the Scope of Battles
I know, I know — given its reputation, it’s hard to call Dynasty Warriors 9 the “best open-world game,” but that’s not the point here. Given the series’s focus on truly massive battles while playing as a one-man army, it just feels unfair to omit it entirely. Dynasty Warriors 9 blends the series’ signature large-scale musou combat encounters with a seamless open-world environment of China for the first time. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that such a genre shift works perfectly with the classic Dynasty Warriors formula (especially given how Dynasty Warriors: Origins proves that), but it definitely allows us to include DW9 on a list like this.
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As fans expect, Dynasty Warriors 9 lives up to its promise of thrilling battles on a massive scale, featuring one-versus-thousands confrontations in a seamless world rather than a set of separate missions. One of the biggest differences is how players can now approach battles more freely — using new strategies to attack foes head-on, launch a surprise attack from higher ground, resort to tactical infiltration at night, or take advantage of the surrounding terrain. Still, it’s a pretty popular opinion that as a series entry, Dynasty Warriors 9 is an okay game at best, where the open-world map hardly adds to the excitement of the combat flow as much as one would imagine.
Cyberpunk 2077
Unstoppable Even on Death’s Door
One of the most flexible open-world games when it comes to combat possibilities and character builds, Cyberpunk 2077 secures its spot as a must-play contender for feeling like a one-man army. While it’s possible to play through the game with minimal augments, mostly as a first-person shooter — and even in that case, hardly anything can stop V or Johnny Silverhand going full guns blazing — there is almost no benefit to ignoring the more interesting layer of fully embracing various cyberware to enhance V’s body, and the game’s signature “magic” system in the form of netrunning.
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After the opening hours, Cyberpunk 2077 allows players to quickly reach unfathomable levels of power, becoming literal digital gods, bending reality around them. It’s possible to build your character to enter a room and see everyone dead in seconds. Players can feel truly all-powerful in Cyberpunk 2077: frying enemies’ brains, sneaking fully undetected behind their backs, or using cyber enhancements to literally freeze time. Adding to that, one of the game’s final mission options even allows players to leave all allies behind and storm Arasaka Corporation’s main building alone, facing unrelenting odds, armed-to-the-teeth guards, and destroying one of Night City’s legends, Adam Smasher, on their own.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
The Mightiest Protagonist in the Series
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is probably the closest to what we are looking for in the series, thanks to the addition of the least traditional Assassin’s Creed character ever — Yasuke. Ubisoft decided to separate the shinobi and samurai playstyles with two playable protagonists rather than blending them into one character like, say, Ghost of Tsushima. The result is pretty great, given how distinct Naoe and Yasuke feel to play and how each one represents their own approach in its most definitive form. Yasuke in AC Shadows is a truly one-man army warrior, capable of clearing enormous forts and castles in open combat single-handedly, tearing through massive closed gates, beheading mighty warriors with ease, activating his own “rage” mode (Samurai Stand skill), and even healing upon defeating enemies.
Yasuke’s sheer might is constantly highlighted by the game, including in his very first introduction mission after hours of playing as Naoe. There’s also a rather fun Yasuke moment in the Claws of Awaji expansion, where players need to track down and eliminate 14 elite captains (essentially bosses) one by one across the entire island before facing Tomeji. Alternatively, if players have mastered combat as Yasuke, they can simply go straight to Tomeji’s castle and face all the bosses simultaneously like a true samurai, resulting in one of the most fun and brutal fights in the entire game.
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