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15 Games With Fake Open Worlds

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Open world, closed doors.

Nazarii Verbitskiy

Gaming - November 4th 2026, 20:30 GMT+1

Sonic Frontiers Steam — 15. Sonic Frontiers (2022)
Five islands, one recurring problem. Sonic Frontiers hands you open fields to run across, then locks the actual platforming into floating puzzle boxes that might as well be separate levels with extra steps. The cyberspace stages are pulled straight from old linear games, dropped into the world like side quests instead of built into it. Running fast across a field means nothing when the real challenges live somewhere else entirely. | © Sega

Mass Effect Andromeda — 14. Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)
Andromeda had a galaxy-sized pitch and a checklist-sized game underneath it. Every planet in Mass Effect: Andromeda hides the same scanning tasks, the same outpost busywork, the same enemy camps copy-pasted across terrain. BioWare built the openness first and seemingly worried about content second. A new galaxy should not feel this familiar by the third planet. | © Electronic Arts

Borderlands 3 — 13. Borderlands 3 (2019)
Borderlands has always loved the word "vast," and Borderlands 3 leans on it hard while quietly fencing players into separate instanced maps. Fast travel exists because the planets never actually connect, just link through menus and loading screens dressed up as a galaxy. Pandora feels enormous until you notice every zone is its own sealed box. That's not an open world, that's a level select with better scenery. | © 2K Games

Metro Exodus — 12. Metro Exodus (2019)
Three big regions sit between a string of corridors, and that's the entire structure of Metro Exodus. The Volga and the Caspian look like freedom after the tunnels of the earlier games, but the campaign funnels you back into scripted chapters the moment the plot needs to move. Nothing about the open stretches changes how linear the story underneath actually is. It borrows the shape of an open world without handing over the substance. | © Deep Silver

Cropped The Evil Within 2 — 11. The Evil Within 2 (2017)
Union feels different for about an hour, right up until The Evil Within 2 shows its hand. The suburban sprawl lets you wander between houses and side objectives, but every major story beat pulls you into a tight, linear horror sequence identical to the first game. The open sections end up functioning as padding between the parts the developers actually cared about. Freedom here is just a waiting room for the next scripted scare. | © Bethesda Softworks

METAL GEAR SOLID V THE PHANTOM PAIN — 10. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)
Nobody expected a Kojima game to feel this lonely in its own sandbox. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain hands you Afghanistan and Africa, two enormous maps full of guard outposts and not much else between them. Helicopter rides eat up real minutes just to reach the next checklist of a mission. Scale became the selling point, but repetition is what actually fills the hours. | © Konami

Pokémon Sword and Shield — 9. Pokémon Sword and Shield (2019)
A fenced-in meadow is not the same thing as freedom. The Wild Area in Pokémon Sword and Shield gets paraded around as this huge leap for the series, letting you see Pokémon roaming in real time for once. Step past its borders, though, and you're right back on the same straight paths the franchise has used for twenty years. One good idea surrounded by the old formula doesn't make the old formula disappear. | © Nintendo

Mirrors Edge Catalyst — 8. Mirror's Edge Catalyst (2016)
Momentum is the whole appeal, so it's strange how often Mirror's Edge Catalyst stops you from using it. Faith can sprint across rooftops and vault through Glass's skyline, but invisible walls and mandatory story beats keep yanking her back onto one approved route. The city looks open from a ledge three stories up. It plays like a track meet with a fence around the field. | © EA

L A Noire — 7. L.A. Noire (2011)
Cole Phelps drives through a recreation of 1947 Los Angeles that took years to build, right down to period gas stations and streetcar lines. L.A. Noire spent an absurd amount of effort on that city, then gave players almost no reason to actually explore it. Side content is thin, and every real case snaps you onto a fixed path of clues and cutscenes. The map is a diorama you drive through on the way to the next interrogation. | © Rockstar Games

Mafia II — 6. Mafia II (2010)
Empire Bay looks like a city built for wandering. Mafia II spent real money recreating a 1940s and 50s American metropolis, with period radio stations and detailed storefronts lining every block. But there's no real reason to stop the car, because side activities barely exist and the story keeps Vito on a short leash. A beautiful backdrop isn't the same as a world you're actually free to live in. | © 2K Games

Hogwarts legacy — 5. Hogwarts Legacy (2023)
Broomstick flight in Hogwarts Legacy sells the fantasy of a living castle grounds, right up until you notice every field hides the same three chest puzzles. Side quests repeat their own structure within the first ten hours. Merlin Trials dot the map by the dozens, and most boil down to one of four interchangeable mini-games. Scale got mistaken for content here, and the seams show once the novelty wears off. | © Warner Bros. Games

Starfield — 4. Starfield (2023)
A thousand planets sounds like a pitch meeting that got out of hand, and that's basically what happened with Starfield. Most of those surfaces are empty rock dressed up with a handful of copy-pasted outposts. Fast travel between zones breaks any illusion of a connected galaxy. The scope became the headline number, but it's hollow once you land on your fortieth identical crater. | © Bethesda Softworks

FINAL FANTASY XV — 3. Final Fantasy XV (2016)
Road trip energy carried the early hours of Final Fantasy XV, four guys and a car cruising through open fields that looked endless. Those fields end fast, boxed in by invisible walls and story gates that funnel you back onto rails. Chapter 13 drops the open structure entirely and turns into a straight hallway. A game sold on freedom spends its second half taking that freedom away. | © Square Enix

Dragon Age Inquisition — 2. Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014)
Thedas looks massive on the map screen, and that's the problem with Dragon Age: Inquisition. Each region is really just a big enclosed arena, sealed off by loading screens the second you try to leave. The Hinterlands alone eats ten hours before the story even remembers it exists. Bigger zones just meant longer stretches of fetch quests between the cutscenes that actually mattered. | © Electronic Arts

Cropped The Board The Outer Worlds — 1. The Outer Worlds (2019)
Separate planets give The Outer Worlds an easy excuse for small spaces, and the excuse works better than it should. Each colony is tight, handcrafted, and done exploring within an hour. There's no galaxy map to wander, just a ship that shuttles you between glorified levels. Calling it an open world mostly just means nobody wanted to say "linear" out loud. | © Private Division

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Some games sell you a huge map, then fill it with locked doors, invisible walls, and copy-pasted content. The freedom looks real in the trailer, but you hit the edges fast. Here are 15 games with fake open worlds.

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Some games sell you a huge map, then fill it with locked doors, invisible walls, and copy-pasted content. The freedom looks real in the trailer, but you hit the edges fast. Here are 15 games with fake open worlds.