History Main / WideOpenSandbox

* The Original ''[[BattleTech Mech Warrior]]'' PC game had a storyline about restoring your family to a throne. But the rest of the game was so open ended many players never even knew there was a storyline in the first place.

* ''VideoGame/JawsUnleashed'' for the PS2 and Xbox was set in the wide open ocean, based off of the ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' film series. [[ThreateningShark You played as the shark]]. Unfortunately, the idiotic controls made it a lot less satisfying than it should've been. Still, you get to fight an Orca Whale. In the middle of an ocean park. And ''tear it in half''. And there's a fight with a giant squid inside of an oil rig. And did I mention the swimmers are all MadeOfPlasticine?

* ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity''

* The gamebook series ''TheFabledLands'' (''Fabled Quest'' in the US) was based around this idea, with hundreds of different side quests, some stretching across multiple books each of which represented a geographical area. If your character walked (or sailed) to edge of the map in one book he would end up in another, and there was no need to start the books in any order. Unfortunately, only six of the planned twelve books were published, leaving the world incomplete. Rumours of a ''[[LoneWolf Project Aon]]''-style online revival with all twelve books remain unconfirmed.

* Some of the [[LordOfTheRings Middle-Earth Quest]] gamebooks also managed this. Notably, ''A Spy in Isengard'' let you go anywhere on the map, and let you revisit the same location as many times as you liked (although, granted, there were a finite number of events that could happen at any location. There was a time limit, but only if you used the advanced rules, and even if you blew it, you didn't lose, you just got a less optimal ending; in the basic rules, TakeYourTime was in full effect (that could actually be a minor problem, since it forced you to show up early for certain critical events). There was a goal, of course, but you could choose among multiple possible ways of accomplishing it. All in all, this was a very high degree of openness for a gamebook. Some of the other books in the series managed comparable levels of openness, but at least one, ''Treason at Helm's Deep'', thoroughly averted this trope.

* ''[[MetalSaga Metal Max]]'' / ''MetalSaga''

* VideoGame/RuneFactory
** VideoGame/RuneFactoryFrontier
** VideoGame/RuneFactory2
** VideoGame/RuneFactory3
** VideoGame/RuneFactory4
** RuneFactoryOceans
* ''{{SaGa}}''
** ''{{Makai Toshi SaGa}}''
** ''{{SaGa 2}}''
** ''{{SaGa 3}}''
** ''{{Romancing SaGa}}''
** ''{{Romancing SaGa 2}}''
** ''{{Romancing SaGa 3}}''
** ''{{SaGa Frontier}}''
** ''{{SaGa Frontier 2}}''
** ''UnlimitedSaga''

* ''[[VideoGame/RyuGaGotoku Yakuza]] (VideoGame/RyuGaGotoku)''

* ''DotFlow''

* ''VideoGame/{{StarMade}}''

* The gamebook series ''TheFabledLands'' (''Fabled Quest'' in the US) was based around this idea, with hundreds of different side quests, some stretching across multiple books each of which represented a geographical area. If your character walked (or sailed) to edge of the map in one book he would end up in another, and there was no need to start the books in any order. Unfortunately, [[TooGoodToLast only six of the planned twelve books were published]] leaving the world incomplete. Rumours of a ''[[LoneWolf Project Aon]]''-style online revival with all twelve books remain unconfirmed.

* ''{{Vangers}}''

** ''MySims''

* ''VideoGame/JawsUnleashed'' for the PS2 and Xbox was set in the wide open ocean, based off of the ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' film series. [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks You played as the shark]]. Unfortunately, the idiotic controls made it a lot less satisfying than it should've been. Still, you get to fight an Orca Whale. In the middle of an ocean park. And ''tear it in half''. And there's a fight with a giant squid inside of an oil rig. And did I mention the swimmers are all MadeOfPlasticine?

* ''TrueCrimeStreetsOfLA''

** ''TrueCrimeNewYorkCity''

* The ''Literature/WarriorCats'' fan game WarriorCatsUntoldTales is nothing ''but'' this. There is no plot or set objective. You can explore the map, hunt, find a mate, train an apprentice, and more.

* The [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames surprisingly good]] ''Film/{{Spider-Man}} 2'' movie tie-in game gives you free rein in Manhattan after the tutorial. You can go anywhere, do anything, and generally do whatever a spider can, enjoying how fun it is to control Spider-Man in the process. Want to set the record time for crossing the island end to end? Sure! Want to perform some epic-level LeParkour? It's almost required! Want to swan dive from the Empire State Building or Statue of Liberty, only to save yourself at the last moment? ([[VideogameCrueltyPotential Or not save yourself at all?]]) As many times as you want! Oh, sure, you have a little white marker pointing you toward the plot, but you can go there any time. Besides, to finish chapters, you need Hero Points, which are earned doing just about everything you do wandering about the city: beating up thugs, solving crimes (which involve beating up thugs half the time), locating Hint Markers to contact the snarky narrator (BruceCampbell), completing speed challenges, and... delivering pizzas.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' (well, most of the second half, anyway)

* ''VideoGame/RuneFactory''
** ''VideoGame/RuneFactory3''
** ''RuneFactoryOceans''

->''"A bad sandbox is one where you speed disinterestedly from plot mission to plot mission like UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground but a good sandbox makes you go 'Well there's the next story mission, but...Oooh, [[GottaCatchEmAll collectables]]! Oooh, RandomEncounters! Oooh, [[RewardingVandalism an intact thing]]!'"''

** As well as its sequel, White Gold: War in Paradise (originally released under the titles of Xenus 2: War in Paradise).

* ''[[VideoGame/G-Police G-Police]]''

* ''[[{{Burnout}} Burnout Paradise]]''

* ''ChibiRobo'' (Well, a house is wide open when you are 4 inches tall)

** ‘’VideoGame/DragonSlayerIIXanadu''
** ''LegacyOfTheWizard''

* ''{{Golems}}''
* ''{{Gothic}}''

* ''{{G-Police}}''

* ''HarvestMoon''

* ''JakAndDaxter''

Modern games increasingly lean towards having a central goal and an incredible amount of optional material, all set up in a massive, open world. The term to describe this sort of world is "sandbox", after the child's toy of the same name, and when the open world and optional material outweigh the actual, goal-oriented gameplay, you've stepped into a WideOpenSandbox. You may have mission triggers you can set off in order to advance the storyline, if that, but otherwise you can run around and do whatever you wish.

Another flaw that could potentially cause the player to lose interest is a sense of where the character ''is'' in the game. A good WideOpenSandbox would know that sometimes, a player might have to put the game down and pick it up a long while later, and by then they might have forgotten where they were not only in the game world but also the narrative. A common way to avoid this is to put a label on the save where you are (ie, a particular chapter of the game) or an internal journal feature that [[CompletionMeter tracks the player's progress]].

*** ''TheNamelessMod''