As in past years, one of the things that’s always stuck with me from a chat I had with Myst creator Rand Miller was that game developers don’t just make games, they make worlds. The environment you play in is just as important as the characters, gameplay, and narrative, being the container for everything taking place. The game’s world doesn’t just need to be believable, it needs to be engaging. It needs to intertwine with the rest of the game. A lot of games gave us open worlds to play in this year, but only one can be the best. Here are the PlayStation LifeStyle nominations for Best Open World Game in 2020.
- Immortals: Fenyx Rising
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Assasin’s Creed Valhalla
- Genshin Impact
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Best Open-World Game 2020 Winner
Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima’s open world was an incredible environment that felt beautiful, threatening, and always in motion. It seemed the secrets lurked around every corner, and each and every vista was picturesque and stunning (also earning it our Best Art Style of 2020 award). While Ghost didn’t break the open-world formula, or even entirely innovate on it in a big way, it managed to integrate the open-world of Tsushima into the game’s story, gameplay, and quests perfectly, making it almost irresistible to explore. Ghost of Tsushima didn’t feel like an open-world game for the sake of being an open-world game, but rather because it’s what best supported the experience Sucker Punch was trying to capture.
Reader’s Choice Winner
Ghost of Tsushima
PlayStation LifeStyle readers are big fans of Ghost of Tsushima, which once again garnered overwhelming votes. You were just as enamored with the beautiful open-world as we were, thrilled at how it integrated the beauty of the environment with the gameplay. It also really helped that there were blazing fast load times (on last-gen even!), so on the rare occasion you didn’t want to gallop through the stunning landscapes, you could get where you were headed quickly.
Don’t miss our full lineup of nominees for the PlayStation LifeStyle Game of the Year awards. We’re just getting started with the winners and we’ll be revealing more all throughout the week, leading up to the Game of the Year on Friday January 1.
