Though it’s by no means the best type of game out there, there’s no denying that open-world games are some of the most popular at the AAA scale. Just about every major game seems to have one, creating a massive world that you can explore at your own pace. It can be pretty hard to make a world that big feelrealthough.
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Now a pretty damn good way of making it feel a bit more lifelike is with some animals! They just exist for themselves, trotting about the world. They give a reason for the areas between towns and outposts to exist. Plus, they can look great.
8Elden Ring
Coming from a series of games that undeniably are home to a bunch of interesting creatures, it wouldn’t quite be far to call the denizens of the many Souls games ‘wildlife’. Nor open-world, really.Elden Ringrectifies both of these, giving us an acclaimed open world with a variety of wildlife, both tame and feral.
Most people wouldn’t typically class wildlife as being some of the primary enemies in a game, but Elden Ring likes breaking conventions. Taking a stroll along the beach and a terrifying Sea Octopus may make you dinner.
Walk the plains of the Altus Plateau and a lighting ram will roll at you with a bit too much fervour. Then there’s Blaidd, who may not take kindly to being called wildlife, but he kinda is anyway.
7Metal Gear Solid 5
Now your first thought when seeingMetal Gearmight not be to think of wildlife. Stealth games typically set in industrial areas subject to intense espionage aren’t exactly teeming with animals, are they?
But then the many protagonists are already named Snake, which is indeed one of the more deadly in the animal kingdom!
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Being more literal, of course, Metal Gear Solid 5 literally has wildlife. In fact, Snake makes a pretty big point of removing animals from endangered warzones into safe captivity aboard Mother Base.
Finding these animals is like a little challenge of its own, and rescuing them lets you both see them back at baseandfeel good about yourself. A win-win scenario.
6Breath Of The Wild
It’s in the name, right?Zeldagames have always been known for their…fascinating creatures. There’s the Cucco that will always find a way to massacre you, the Octoroks, and their annoying rock shooting. Then there’s Ooccoo, which is a travesty that no one should have to lay eyes on.
Breath of the Wild, having it right there in the title, has plenty of wildlife that’s a bit more normal. Getting to experience deers and boars, birds and fish all just existing in the world around you gives ita liveliness that’s missingwithout humans. Learning which ones you may ride is a fun challenge too (it’s most of them by the way).
5Final Fantasy 15
One of the mascots ofFinal Fantasyis the beloved Chocobo, a feathered companion and mountable creature across the series.
They’re a bit like horses in that they’re domesticated and bred mainly, though a good number of them still exist in the wild in plenty of the games. Many of the monsters of Final Fantasy are wild beasts that aren’t quite friendly either, scattered across the world.
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Final Fantasy 15 is the first game in the series, despite many missteps, that really lets you see these animals both to scale and just existing.
You’ll pick up hunts to exterminate them a lot, sure, but it’s still beautiful seeing them travelling in packs or having to park your car just to let some animals cross the road. Gives them a place in the world that earlier games never afforded them.
4Horizon: Forbidden West
Most post-apocalyptic worlds have a tendency to show the few lingering bits of humanity struggling to thrive in a decimated world where next to nothing is left standing. TheHorizongames go in quite the opposite direction, showing a lush world covered in ruins and packed with animals littered amidst a bundle of human settlements.
Now when you think of the Horizon games, you probably forget the actual flesh and blood little guys running around. Rabbits and squirrels and all that. They’re cool and all, butthe Thunderjaw is immensely more hilariousto look at and think it was spawned from an AI that aimed to heal the planet.
Because yes, the robot T-Rex with lasers will heal the Earth, somehow.
3The Witcher 3
It would be pretty unfair to talk about wildlife in games without mentioningThe Witcher, a series of games that, once you get past all of the murderous monarchs, are squarely about hunting monsters. Not all of those monsters are wildlife per se, a Doppler is a kind fellow that just wants to blend in, but giant bears are a pretty wild form of life.
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The Witcher 3 exemplifies this style of life the greatest. The feeling of walking into a village and picking up a new contract and then slowing tracking what boils down to a magical, feral animal is always a joy.
But even when you see them in the world normally, like a Griffon soaring across the sky, it makes you realise that this is a world shared by many more than just humans, and all of them call it home.
2Pokemon Scarlet And Violet
With over 1000Pokemonto choose from, it’s fair to say there’s quite a bit of wildlife in the Pokemon games. With over twodecades of history and countless games, plenty of Pokemon have become iconic in their own rights, and encompass everything from bugs to ice cream.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, performance and visual issues aside, achieves something that Pokemon fans have been begging for - a truly open-world Pokemon game. The region of Paldea is teeming with life, and all these Pokemon exist logically, grazing fields, soaring across the sky, and plenty more.
They even have their own personalities with some running with you, others cowering in fear and some willing to cruelly take your life.
Rockstar has established a reputation for creating exceedingly detailed games. Their Grand Theft Auto games have always been seen as some of the greatest city simulations there are, with neighbourhoods, wealth disparities, and evidence of cities actually being lived in all to be expected.
TheRed Deadgames jump in the complete opposite direction, instead creating a large world of wilderness and everything that encompasses.
Short of dedicated hunting simulators, you would be hard-pressed to say any game has animals with quite the same depth and variety as Red Dead Redemption 2. They all exist in their own habitats, have specific methods for hunting them, and even hunting styles of their own.
They actreal. Hawks will swoop down on their prey, cougars will stalk, and beavers will swim around dams. It’s a frankly absurd degree of detail that you’re guaranteed to miss plenty of unique interactions.
