Open World Hidden Gems on Steam
Unlike generic lists, our game recommendations use a rigorous analysis of Steam user reviews to identify and feature only the best, community-validated open world games.
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Underground Garage
Welcome to the world of high-stakes tuning and street racing! Welcome to Underground Garage! It's your playground where you can unleash your creativity and mechanical prowess. Fix cars, tune them up, and hit the road.
Duel Corp.
A Souls-inspired action RPG set in a sandbox open world with an MMO feel and challenging directional combat. Play solo or with up to 3 friends in co-op. Build friendships, master an unrestricted class system, and uncover the cause that darkened all eyes.
Halcyon Days at Taoyuan
Welcome to Taoyuan Village to heal your loneliness. Here, you can lead a carefree, self-sufficient life: farm, tame animals, raise livestock, fish, and build a prosperous homestead. Or, immerse in village life, meet kindred spirits, find love, and influence their destinies with your choices.
Big Hops
Tongue-swing, free climb, and build your own path forward in a new kind of 3D platformer! Plant veggie bounce pads, tightropes, hookshots, and much more. Find a way home through huge Desert, Ocean, and Mountain worlds and collect bugs, upgrade your backpack, and meet animal friends along the way.
Cozy Caravan
Grab your backpack and climb on in, it’s time to hit the road! Head out on a gentle journey in your reliable old caravan, crafting hearty meals, running market stalls and sharing goodies with local townsfolk. Spread kindness, share, and help prepare for the annual Whizz Bang Fair!
BULT: Hunting simulator
BULT is a realistic waterfowl hunting simulator made by experienced hunters. This is not an action game. Your success depends on skill: choosing the right time to hunt, accounting for the wind, camouflage, and calling. Birds are cautious and live by their own rules. Ready for the real challenge?
DuneCrawl
DuneCrawl is an open world action-adventure game, where you take to the sandy seas atop a gigantic crustacean festooned with black powder cannons. Play as a solo Crab Keeper, or with a crew of up to three other friends in local and online coop.
Drifter Star: Evolution
From stardust to cosmic sovereign! In this unique space game, evolve by devouring everything. Grow from a tiny rock into a massive galaxy. Each swallow brings growth, each evolution brings victory. Unlock the universe's ultimate secrets!
The End of History
A first-person history simulator where every NPC has a life. They don't wait for you—they ally, marry, betray, avenge, and die. Kingdoms rise and fall by someone's will. You are powerless in this world, sometimes influencing history, sometimes swept away—an observer of a once-in-a-lifetime story.
Winds of Valen
Winds of Valen is a free fantasy sandbox MMORPG. Experience old-school progression where every level, skill, and drop is earned through effort. Train your combat, mining, and smithing skills, and hunt for rare and unique items in a seamless open world filled with danger and discovery.
Cowboy Life Simulator
“Cowboy Life Simulator” is an immersive and relaxing ranching sim where you step into the boots of a failed businessman starting fresh on the frontier. Buy your first goat, meet the locals, explore vibrant lands, and build your dream ranch in a world full of stories and adventure!
SkyBrew: Entropic Strategist
Experience entrepreneurship in a floating cloud cafe. Manage your flying cafe, customize construction, train staff, handle random events, and uncover the secrets of the commercial empire, growing from a small shop to the sky's brightest star.
Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator
Do you have what it takes to be an astronaut? Reentry is a realistic space flight simulator based on NASAs space programs; from the first American human spaceflight in Project Mercury, the rendezvous and EVAs of Project Gemini to the Moon landing in Project Apollo.
Outbreak Island
Survive on a remote Island, where a mysterious Outbreak awakens bloodthirsty monsters at night. Craft, build and defend your base in the brutal world of Outbreak Island, an open-world sandbox survival horror game.
Yooka-Replaylee
Embark on an epic 3D platforming collectathon adventure with Yooka and Laylee! Yooka-Replaylee is packed with new moves, more story, exciting challenges, hidden secrets, and more than double the collectibles to uncover. Can you help them rescue the world’s biggest treasure?
Lost Rift
Lost Rift is a first person survival adventure shooter that blends cooperative base building with multiplayer PvE or PvP extraction expeditions. Journey solo or in teams of up to 5 players across a vast archipelago, craft gear, build bases, defeat raiders, and become legendary.
Roman Triumph: Survival City Builder
At the farthest reaches of the empire, a new Roman city is born! Manage and grow your city, please the gods, and survive against barbarians and mythological threats to achieve Roman Triumph!
Superhero Simulator
Superhero Simulator is an open-world superhero game where you fight villains and save lives! But being a hero isn’t free! You’ll need to work, pay rent, and survive. Can you handle both sides of the superhero life?
Professional Fishing 2
"Professional Fishing 2" is the second installment of an exciting fishing game that takes you into the world of thrilling angling adventures. Step into the shoes of a novice angler, embarking on a journey with simple yet reliable gear.
DAVY x JONES
Command the skies. Crush the ground. Conquer The Locker. A grand action-adventure where you play as two halves of one legendary pirate — DAVY (Head) and JONES (Body). DAVY commands your flying ship in roguelite sky battles; JONES unleashes visceral first-person combat on the islands.
The Knightling
The Knightling is an open world, action-adventure where you play as an aspiring knight in search of their missing mentor, Sir Lionstone. Equipped with only a legendary shield, you’ll brave your way through the lands of Clesseia to become the unlikely hero.
Beyond the Map
Isometric Survival ARPG set in a procedurally generated fantasy world. Build a base, gear up, and fight to survive as you chase better loot and stronger enemies.
Firehawk FPV: Drone Fighter
Weave through gunfire, master aerial combat, and rain destruction from above in this high-stakes FPV drone roguelike shooter. Take to the skies and rise from amateur to pro to unlock an arsenal of weapons, against endless enemies with real drone physics and controls.
Island Notes
Shipwrecked on a mysterious island, choose self-preservation or alliances. Master base-building, farming, fishing, romance and pet taming in this morally-charged survival simulator that blends strategy with human drama. Forge bonds, conquer nature, and evolve your humanity.
Worldwide Rush
Worldwide Rush lets you experience passenger transportation and management on a global scale. Expand your company, meet the growing travel demand, compete against other companies, and discover new continents with its unique vehicles. The entire world is yours to control.
Noble Legacy
Noble Legacy is a medieval city-builder in which you rule the lands as a Noble. Build your kingdom, manage your people, defend your realm, and master a deep economy, alone or with friends in co-op, every decision is yours. What kind of ruler will you be?
Out and About
A cozy foraging adventure about the magic of real-life plants! Identify and gather wild plants and fungi, cook tasty recipes, master herbal remedies, and rebuild your community after a devastating storm.
CleanFall
CleanFall is a survival rogue-lite that prizes player freedom and creativity. Build mobile death machines to fight off ravenous hordes, craft and alchemize gun turrets, and tunnel through subterranean ecosystems crawling with nameless horrors.
Captain Bones : A Pirate's Journey
Captain Bones is an action-adventure game set in an open pirate world. You must have survival skills to make ship battles and treasure hunts with your crew.
MAVRIX by Matt Jones
The ultimate multiplayer open world designed by Pro riders. Discover mountains and trails with limitless control and build your own career. Pull huge tricks or race through the global rankings! Nail challenges to secure sponsorship deals with real world brands. Are you ready?!
Animal Shelter 2
Welcome back to the heartwarming world of Animal Shelter 2! Provide a loving home for every four-legged friend in need – play with them, pet them, even dress them up! Get to know them and find them a loving family. Play with your friends and manage your shelter together in co-op!
Wheel World
Dive into Wheel World as Kat, a rider chosen by ancient cycling spirits. Race elite teams, trick out your bike, and perform the long overdue Great Shift ritual to save a universe on the brink! Your bike is your destiny.
Descenders Next
Grab your board and master the mountain! Descenders Next is the ultimate extreme sports game, with sprawling snowy peaks, winding dirt tracks, and tons of parks to conquer. Will you and your friends become the Next Ultimate Descenders?
The Necromancer's Tale
A story-rich gothic RPG. Master the rituals of an ancient spellbook. Raise an undead army to march against your enemies. Commune with the realm of the dead & struggle with your descent into madness. Progress through secrecy, diplomacy, blackmail, coercion & seduction until ready to reveal yourself.
That One Otter Game
That One Otter Game is a mischievous co-op adventure where two young otters take on a wild rite of passage to prove their worth. Complete silly park challenges to fill up your stamp card—catch a panicked penguin, race a hyped-up zebra, or haul a stolen radio to a mountaintop.