Video games can often be quite demanding of player abilities, which is true not just for competitive multiplayer titles but also for single-player action-heavy games, especially when players go beyond lower difficulty settings. It’s not uncommon to be expected to make decisions on the fly, understand every mechanic better than a school program, and shoot with pinpoint accuracy. Simply speaking, skill in gaming generally matters quite a bit, with strict basic rules that players need to follow closely to achieve victory.
Great Games Where Your Decisions Truly Matter
The following games stand out for forcing players to make tough decisions that can drastically change the story.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this, and many players welcome pressure based mostly on reflexes or timing. However, some titles are widely praised for bending the common rules to allow something different instead. By placing numerous options directly in players’ hands and offering hidden mechanics to experiment with, the games below reward creativity and out-of-the-box thinking far more than raw skill. Those who understand their systems deeply enough can benefit in unexpected ways that might not even be intended by the developers. Here are some of the titles that excel in flexible gameplay-driven scenarios that can’t be achieved through skill alone.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Not Your Average Open-World Game to Clear on Autopilot
Easily one of the first games to come to mind when thinking of rewarding creativity, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom takes a bold leap forward from its already creative predecessor. Building upon Breath of the Wild’s freedom-focused open world, Tears of the Kingdom introduces the unparalleled combo of Fuse and Ultrahand abilities to allow players to build almost anything imaginable, while also ensuring a far more unrestricted approach to puzzle-solving. This signature combination of abilities is so mind-blowingly flexible that, years later, die-hard fans still find new ways to crack the game’s puzzles in unpredictable ways.
Open-World Games With The Most Creative Ways To Kill Enemies
For gamers who like dealing with enemies in creative ways, here are some of the best open-world titles to check out.
But Tears of the Kingdom has much more to offer beyond that. Aside from Fuse and Ultrahand, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom includes other spectacular abilities like Ascend and Recall. Almost everything can be combined depending on player creativity, and the game never limits these systems to specific activities like puzzles or Temples. Instead, players are encouraged to continue experimenting even in combat, including boss battles, some of which might end almost instantly if players are clever enough.
Deathloop
An FPS Where Shooting Is the Least Useful Way to Play
Even by Arkane’s own standards in creating some of the best immersive sims available, Deathloop stands as a truly special offering. Thanks to the game’s unique timeloop structure that allows it to unfold through trial and error, almost akin to a roguelike, players are left to their own devices to gain a proper understanding of the game and all its interconnected systems, and then perform a creative chain of events to clear enemies at entirely new levels of spectacular.
Everything in Deathloop, from narrative to gameplay mechanics, is built with intentional gaps for players to fill in with their own creative solutions. To achieve that, the game’s unique powers, such as Shift (teleportation), Aether (invisibility), and Nexus (binding enemies together), come into play. Naturally, for a dynamic first-person shooter, skills matter almost as much, but the game becomes especially satisfying once players start to test their limits through powers and the unique weapon arsenal rather than trying to eliminate all enemies head-on. Add to that the unique invading mechanics to keep players extra tense through a layer of dynamic unpredictability, and it becomes clear why Deathloop is a fan-favorite among those who enjoy unrestricted gameplay at its best.
Hitman World of Assassination
Some Killers May Not Even Wish to Use a Gun Once
Unlike most other entries here, Hitman World of Assassination is pretty grounded, so players won’t have access to any out-of-this-world powers, weapons, or tools. However, that doesn’t mean that Hitman plays more restrictively – in fact, it’s almost the opposite. The game simply points 47 toward the next target in a completely sandbox level, leaving the rest to the players. Relying on sheer creativity, observation, and knowledge of the surroundings, pro Hitman players can pull off such impressive assassinations, elimination chains, and utterly complex personal challenges that it’s a pure delight just to watch them doing their work.
Best Open-World Games That Reward Creative Thinking
Open-World games already give players a great deal of freedom, and players who think creatively will enjoy these games.
With an array of detailed, vast, and layered levels that cover almost the entire globe, Hitman World of Assassination is brimming with targets and covert operations to tackle, easily capable of occupying devoted eliminators for hundreds of hours. Players can become masters of disguise, deadly snipers, invisible infiltrators, or puppeteers finishing off their prey through someone else’s unsuspecting hands – almost everything is possible in World of Assassination, and the game just keeps getting better with new seasonal additions like the newest Slim Shady elusive target.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Finding New Ways to Outsmart This Game Is Always Fun
Larian already proved themselves masters of creative RPG systems like flexible quest design and combat with Divinity: Original Sin 2 years ago, providing a dynamic playground for turn-based encounters where every occasional spell cast could lead to totally unpredictable outcomes. With Baldur’s Gate 3 bringing dice-roll mechanics straight from a tabletop, it’s unsurprising that the game boosts its predecessor’s chaotic nature to new heights, fueled by players’ own creative solutions. The price, however, is that the game can feel quite overwhelming, especially for newcomers, requiring plenty of learning and understanding of how its mechanics work first.
Best Sandbox Games for Creative Players
Sandbox games are great for creative gamers as they allow for a maximum amount of flexibility when it comes to developing the world around them.
Benefiting from years of honing in early access and an expanded scope and budget, Baldur’s Gate 3 packs layers upon layers of possibilities, free-form multiclassing with a ton of build variety, and an abundance of paths to take, all to ensure that players can play as they see fit. From creative quest outcomes few players would ever uncover and hundreds of spells and abilities to use and combine to dynamic battlefields with realistic physics, all sprinkled with unpredictable dice rolls that can turn any winning or losing situation upside down in an instant, it’s easy to see why so many players keep coming back to Baldur’s Gate 3, constantly discovering new gameplay twists.
Players Are the Directors of Their Own Experience
The grand finale of the long-running series, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, needs little introduction, standing as the best espionage stealth-action game of the past decade. Even today, no other open-world title has managed to surpass The Phantom Pain in terms of its flexible systems and versatility, allowing for incredibly creative ways to infiltrate enemy outposts. Even the most mundane mission can be cleared in MGS 5 in dozens of ways, and that’s not an exaggeration. So if players find the classic aggressive stealth boring in The Phantom Pain, it could be a sign to simply try a different approach.
10 Most Creative Weapon Systems in Open-World Games
Some open-world games allow players to get incredibly creative in combat because of the unique weapon systems they provide.
Numerous methods of camouflaging and distracting, such as decoys, countless ways to go lethal or non-lethal, each offering its own set of right tools for the job, air or companion support, vehicles, horses, even robot walkers, techno-arm prosthesis upgrades, various types of grenades, and a rich arsenal of upgradeable weapons with different attachments — there’s truly no shortage of options MGS 5 throws at players to toy with. Given the game’s immense scope, however, players first need to spend quite some time upgrading their base to unlock all the best tools and gadgets needed to fully tackle the tactical possibilities available in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, but it’s totally worth it.
Prey
True Icon for Immersive Sim Fans
Prey is another Arkane title that’s impossible to ignore when talking about creativity in the immersive sim genre. Rich in setting and themes, as well as choices and consequences, Prey is a more narratively driven experience than Deathloop but no less unshackled in terms of gameplay. After all, there are some quite special alien abilities (Typhon Powers) that players won’t see anywhere else, including the game’s signature Mimic Matter perk. With it, players can disguise themselves as any item, which can be used both for stealth and exploration to reach otherwise locked areas.
On top of plenty of unique and powerful abilities unlocked through neuromod mechanics, Prey packs no less than unmatched weapons and tools. The fan-favorite GLOO cannon is a definite standout, serving less as a weapon and more as a versatile platforming tool with endless potential. Coupled with excellent level design that complements the game’s rich array of abilities and the countless ways to interact with the environment, NPCs, and enemies, Prey has long cemented itself as a must-play for fans of creative gameplay situations, and it still can’t be recommended enough.
5 Open-World Games Where Ignoring The Main Quest Is The Only Right Way To Play
The main stories in these games aren’t bad, but it’s often more fun to take a detour, enjoying freedom and endless activities along the way.
