


The snowy hills of Anglo-Saxon England are gorgeous to explore, and you’ll be rewarded for turning over every stone. Valhalla is not a unique game, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great game. Valhalla doesn’t pull any punches with the storied franchise, adopting the same AnvilNext 2.0 engine that Ubisoft has been using since Assassin’s Creed Unity. It also borrows the combat of Odyssey and the open-world design of Origins. Immortals Fenyx Rising is Assassin’s Creed with a little Breath of the Wild thrown in, while Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is just, well, Assassin’s Creed. Aloy is a believable protagonist that you’ll want to sympathize with, and combat is excellent, with multiple paths to approach every encounter. It helps that Horizon: Zero Dawn is an excellent game outside of the world, too. From seeing machines of impossible scale overgrown with vegetation to traveling through settlements and witnessing the devolution of humanity, Horizon: Zero Dawn’s world tells a story without saying a word. Horizon: Zero Dawn has a beautiful world, but more importantly, it has an interesting world. However, it’s the game’s world design and overarching concept that keeps players coming back for more. Horizon: Zero Dawn, like most open-world RPGs, has unique loot, crafting materials, and currency hidden around the world. There aren’t many games that seamlessly encourage exploration quite like Horizon: Zero Dawn. Actually, the closest game that comes to mind is Breath of the Wild, but for a different reason. Genshin Impact is more than a Breath of the Wild clone, so much so that our own Tom Caswell actually thinks it’s better. Genshin Impact is free-to-play across PC, PS4, and mobile, too, and it even support cross-platform play (once you unlock co-op, that is). It’s a bonafide RPG, with a cast of unique characters and the Adventure Rank system, which improves as you complete challenges (and, in turn, unlocks new quests and challenges). In fact, Genshin Impact adds a lot more to the formula. Genshin Impact borrows a lot of Breath of the Wild, but no more than Immortals Feynx Rising borrows.
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It didn’t help that the game came from miHoYo, a company known only for developing mobile games before the release of Genshin Impact. The jump to a full-fledged console and PC release usually isn’t graceful, but miHoYo managed to pull it off. Genshin Impact‘s marketing pegged it as a Breath of the Wild rip-off and nothing more. Even with Assassin’s Creed Valhallareleasing mere weeks before, Immortals Fenyx Rising is Ubisoft’s best game of the year. Exploration is great, too, with Immortals‘ lush, mythical world calling players back each time they respawn at the Hall of the Gods. Combat feels like a proper action RPG, fit with screen-filling combos and massive AoE attacks. The combat - which is a big chunk of what you’ll be doing in Immortals - isn’t, however. Even the art style is similar to Breath of the Wild. The game borrows liberally from Breath of the Wild, from managing stamina while climbing to tackling small dungeons focused on puzzles and combat for upgrades. Even then, Immortals stands out, not only because of its lightweight approach to the open-world action RPG but also because it isn’t concerned with being realistic. It’s still an open-world game, and it still abides by the open-world tropes that Assassin’s Creed is known for. A change in setting and a generous dose of imagination pushes Immortals further than even the best Assassin’s Creed games. Immortals Fenyx Rising is Assassin’s Creed without the baggage.

The best single-player games of all time.The best games to play while stuck at home.In particular, we chose open-world games with a strong emphasis on exploration. Note that this guide is focused on Breath of the Wild, not just Zelda-like games (we have a list of the best Zelda games if you’re interested in that). To hold you over until Breath of the Wild 2 finally releases, here are eight games like Breath of the Wild that you should play. Since, there have been a few, surprisingly good, copycats. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildcertainly wasn’t the first open-world game, but it did make meaningful changes to the open-world formula.
