Questlines in the open-world genre are one of the most important aspects in keeping players invested in the world over a long period of time. It’s no good having a compelling world without reasons to explore it, and hence, it is important to give players a sense of meaning and purpose in the midst of all the action and chaos. However, as engaging as the main quests can be, in some situations, the side content actually provides an even more enjoyable experience, taking players on journeys across the landscape, following characters and clues that they may never have encountered if they stuck to the standard path.
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Some of these quests are one-offs, but still manage to be incredibly fun and memorable, while others are far more expansive, spanning several steps that often take hours to fully see through to the end. What makes them so great is their ability to feel deeply important on a similar level to the overarching goal of the narrative, allowing players to feel invested in storylines and characters that they had no obligation to care about in the first place. By filling the world with so many interesting quests, the environment feels more alive, and players can feel far more excited about exploring every minute detail, knowing that there may be an incredible adventure waiting for them just around the corner.
Skyrim
Curiosity Leading The Way
Details:
- Unmarked locations that can often trigger huge questlines
- The best stories have no relevance to the main path
Bethesda has always been known for cramming its games with a huge number of quests, and Skyrim is no exception. It is pretty hard to walk far into a city without finding a person in need of help, or even out in the mountains, where a lost traveler may be looking for someone to help them defeat a terrifying monster. One of the best examples of this is The Mind of Madness quest, where players begin by speaking to a seemingly harmless madman wandering around Solitude, but quickly find themselves journeying into a world of dark humor and insanity, with more than a few twists along the way.
Other quests, like the Forbidden Legend, can be completely overlooked, as the condition to begin is literally tied to reading a random book. From there, the mystery unfolds gradually, revealing ancient betrayals and plenty of powerful rewards for those who paid close attention to their surroundings. In all of these cases, the quests really feed into the idea of curiosity within a large open landscape, as, rather than explicitly showing players exactly where to begin, they must instead go out of their way to hunt and explore in the hopes of finding a new story to follow. And, because the map is so densely packed with these adventures, it is easy to get lost in the side content for hours, forgetting there is even a fearsome dragon waiting to be conquered.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Paths That Branch On For Hours
Details:
- Contracts quickly spiral into massive arcs
- Timing and obscure choices feed into which quests are available
The Witcher 3 is full to the brim with quests and narratives, both optional and compulsory, but as players journey across the lands in search of adventure, they will quickly find that a lot of the side missions are actually more enjoyable and interesting than the main one. Some, like Equine Phantoms, take players on a more strange yet intriguing path that couldn’t be further from the actual larger quest at hand, yet it still manages to be a short yet fun little journey to go on in between taking down camps of enemies and saving entire towns from collapse.
