The Best Free Roam Games

by Seelyon

Looking for the best free roam games that let you run wild around a sandbox style game world? The free roam genre is definitely one of personal favourites and I've collected my fav

Looking for the best free roam games that let you run wild around a sandbox style game world? The free roam genre is definitely one of personal favourites and I've collected my favourites for other fans needing their next sandbox adventure.

What defines as a game as free roam? It requires an open world that players can explore at their pace, games of this type also generally have a lack of loading screens at least in comparison to other games. Not all games can achieve this though in their design as some areas do generally need to be locked from player access until certain requirements have been met.

I'm a huge fan of open world games because I enjoy this level of freedom and if you're like me you'll love the games listed below.

Images on this page are used for review purposes and are provided by game media departments for the purpose of review and critique.

Grand Theft Auto Series

The Most Well Known Free Roam Game

Leading the way in the free roam genre has always been the Grand Theft Auto series and the most recent game (GTA 5) completely blows every other game in this space out of the water. With Grand Theft Auto 5 offering a complete world within a game that lets you buy houses, trade stocks, play golf, drive around (or even fly) and so much more GTA is the definition of free roam.

The series started all the back in 1997 and while originally only had limited free roam and sandbox features the game series has continued to expand and innovate. It might have started solely as a game that you could drive around and unleash whatever havoc you had in mind but now it's a completely inclusive opportunity.

The games really aren't connected in any shape or form so the game you start with is completely up to you. In a game series like this I generally always recommend the most recent game in the series and this is especially the case in GTA as it's the best offering of the franchise yet.

Grand Theft Auto V - Xbox 360

Los Santos: a sprawling sun-soaked metropolis full of self-help gurus, starlets and fading celebrities, once the envy of the Western world, now struggling to stay afloat in an e...

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Fallout Series

Another One Of The Best Free Roam Games

I've been following the Fallout series since the original got me hooked back in 1997. I'm going to focus more on the recent games (Fallout 3 and New Vegas) as these are the ones that will attract most gamers.

If you want a free roam experience that focuses more on sci-fi and post apocalyptic setting as opposed to taking place in current times (like GTA) you'll love Fallout. The ability to walk around the world the way you want and how you want is what makes Fallout great, during this you'll discover small communities, quests and more.

I only hesitated to include this option on the top of the list because this exploration is quite combat focused, unlike Grand Theft Auto (listed number one) where you can walk around without engaging in combat and has more non-combat side activities as well.

With hundreds of hours in all the Fallout games it's free roam game that promises no shortage of combat.

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition

Sethesda Softworks Fallout 3 GOTY X360Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition X360

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Fallout: New Vegas - Ultimate Edition

Welcome Back to New Vegas!With the introduction of the Ultimate Edition, Bethesda Softworks offers you the chance to double-down and get the complete package of New Vegas fun. F...

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Assassinate Your Targets In This Free Roam Adventure

Assassin's Creed is another game in the free roam genre that I've enjoyed watch evolve over time. I always thought playing an assassin would be a fun (and dangerous) line of work but thankfully the series lets me live out this dream at home in the comfort of my house.

One part I really like about the game is the ability to explore some impressive historical locations and you get to freely roam around these as you blend into your surroundings. As someone who also has a side hobby love for everything historic the game has obvious appeal to people like me. Gamers that aren't interested in this element though it can be easily ignored if need be.

Just like Fallout though the game is very objective focused during it's exploration, with little potential to simply take in the surroundings as you follow a somewhat linear adventure (although that depends on the game). The most recent game (Black Flag) definitely has the most impressive free roam elements thus far in the series.

Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag [Online Game Code]

Assassin's Creed® IV Black Flag™ It is 1715. Pirates rule the Caribbean and have established a lawless pirate republic. Among these outlaws is a fearsome young captain named Edw...

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Far Cry 3

Island Based Free Roam Gaming

While my other options have focused on entire series of free roam games I'm going to restrict this one to Far Cry 3 as I don't believe the previous games had enough in the way of free roam elements to be placed here (I'd love to hear other opinions on that one in the comment section).

I really liked what Far Cry 3 did to the FPS genre, in a similar way to the many games before it I really felt like I was exploring a huge game world. The role playing features are also really refined with crafting and skills, but that isn't the focus of this page so I won't go too in depth on that front.

My favourite element was really the hunting (something I also liked in the Assassin's Creed series). I'm not interested in that sort of thing in real life and I'm generally against it but the ability to do it in a game is something I find really enjoyable.

Far Cry 3 [Online Game Code]

Journey Into The Heart Of Insanity Far Cry 3 is an open world first-person shooter set on an island unlike any other. A place where heavily armed warlords traffic in slaves. Whe...

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Updated: 08/30/2019, Seelyon
 
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