With each passing year, it becomes harder to impress players with graphics alone, as even during the last generation some titles have already achieved photorealistic visuals with stunning overall detail. In contrast, this generation was less about increasing polygon count (but not without it) and more about big changes in lighting, moving towards fully dynamic light simulations and leaving old tricks like baked lighting in the past. This means much more freedom and flexibility in creating fully dynamic game worlds that feel natural and alive.
The best open world games of the next generation with ultra-realistic graphics
These great open world titles really show what the current generation of platformers are capable of visually.
There are a lot of them today visually stunning titles of various genreseach of which has its own merits dictated by whether it's an open world, a carefully orchestrated linear experience, a character-driven story with lots of cutscenes, or a fast-paced dynamic shooter with real-time destruction and physics. Below are the games from this generation feel like the “next-gen” offering the best visual effects which show how far the gaming industry has come. To maintain diversity, we've tried to select titles from different genres and titles powered by different technologies, each offering spectacular highlights in specific areas.
Arrange the covers in the correct US release order.
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Arrange the covers in the correct US release order.
Easy (5) Medium (7) Hard (10)
7
Star Wars Outlaws
Snowdrop engine
As the first ever true open world Star Wars game, Outlaws it may not quite live up to fans' expectations, but there's no denying that it's one of the best-looking titles of this generation so far. Powered by Massive's Snowdrop engine (also used in Division 2 and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora), Star Wars Outlaws it's easily one of the most beautiful open-world games ever made, with each new planet more impressive than the last.
SW Outlaws it's equally strong in depicting diverse planets with untamed, stunning landscapes, bustling settlements with detailed interiors, massive space battles, and close-up character interactions. Unfortunately, the game was launched in a rather rough state, which spoils this impression for first-timers, but as the dust has settled, fans of beautiful-looking titles should no longer ignore it.
6
Alan Wake 2
Northlight engine
Even before launch, Remedy believed in itself Alan Wake 2who marketed it as the best-looking game of the year — and that wasn't an exaggeration in the slightest. Alan Wake 2 it's actually quite handsome, using its relatively small explorable spaces to its advantage, pumping the level of detail to new extremes and blurring the line between prestige TV show and video game.
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Players would hardly forget their terrifyingly unpleasant night runs through the woods Alan Wake 2gorgeous sunsets against the backdrop of small, atmospheric settlements and dark alleyways of a twisted, dreamlike version of New York. Another thing worth noting is Alan Wake 2 the perfect use of FMV (full motion video) in cutscenes and even in-game, which further enhances the cinematic look of the game like nothing else.
5
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Engine Engine (id Tech 7)
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle may use an older version of the id Tech engine (here called Engine for its extensive rework by MachineGames) than Doom: The Dark Agesbut that doesn't mean it's inferior – it's just different and almost as impressive. Instead of fast and continuous action, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is about an in-depth exploration of massive, stunningly detailed locations, peppered with unforgettable action sequences that give it an edge over any Hollywood blockbuster of yesteryear.
With its deliberately cinematic appeal, vivid characters that look and feel straight out of the movies, a wide variety of locations and countries to visit with their own distinct feel and layered maps, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle it deserves far more recognition, both for its technological and gameplay side.
4
Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2
Unreal Engine 5
Two years later, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is still the best showcase of Unreal Engine 5's capabilities, even if the title sacrifices a lot. Hardly a game in the traditional sense, it's an extremely tight and linear experience, with almost non-existent exploration and only a handful of fight scenes – but each one is as visceral as it is memorable.
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Hellblade 2 features the most realistic-looking characters ever to react in real-time, landscapes and environments that look and feel indistinguishable from real places, seamless transitions between cutscenes and gameplay without quality drops, and some truly spectacular sequences and effects that highlight Senua's troubled mind. Players are guaranteed to keep their hand on the shutter button throughout gameplay so they don't miss the next great shot.
3
Assassin's Creed Shadows
Anvil engine
Rivals Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin's Creed Shadows is an equally remarkable achievement in terms of the technologies used to bring its stunning open world to life. The latest version of Ubisoft Anvil, which is also used in almost every AAA game from Ubisoft, delivers stunning results in all areas: from characters and clothing details to landscapes with impressive distances when drawing, bustling cities with hundreds of NPCs, realistic matter and destruction physics, and convincing dynamic weather effects.
Assassin's Creed Shadows it's also the best game to deliver dynamic seasons on such a scale, dressing up its entire map in new colors for spring, summer, fall, and winter, essentially delivering multiple equally stunning versions of its massive world. For hours it is a simple pleasure just to wander this land and admire how natural and authentic every corner feels.
2
Doom: The Dark Ages
id Tech 8 Engine
Widely regarded as the most technologically impressive blockbuster of the past year, Doom: The Dark Ages delivers exceptional visuals full of flawless performance that delivers an endlessly dynamic FPS experience regardless of platform. One of the best examples of ray tracing and path tracing implementations to date, offering wild setup flexibility in the PC version, Doom: The Dark Ages is a modern technology benchmark that delivers something that very few other titles can compete with.
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Using the latest version of the id Tech 8 engine (no other game has used it yet), Dark time is a combination of crystal-sharp characters, enemy and weapon models and textures, layered maps, stunning visual effects such as explosions and magical attacks, and a wide range of physical destruction and bloody dismemberment – all set in a gorgeous, reactive world with an impressively massive scale.
1
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Decima Engine
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach it's currently in a league of its own in several areas, including the game's stunningly realistic visuals. Powered by a Decima engine (also used in Horizon Forbidden West — one of the best-looking games to run on PS4), developed by Guerrilla Games and Kojima Productions in close partnership for years, Death Stranding 2 is proving to be arguably the most realistic game of this generation, likely to impress for years to come.
From high-fidelity character models brought to life by actors through state-of-the-art photogrammetric scanning technologies, to desolate landscapes of incomparable beauty and spectacular draw distances, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a visual feast that will definitely impress. Very few modern games can provide a comparable “next level” feeling that keeps players and viewers literally in awe.
Open world RPGs that could define the next generation of consoles
Here's a look at some of the most promising open-world RPGs that are bursting with potential, even if they're still years away from release.
