10 Games with DANGEROUS Yet REWARDING Exploration

(electronic jingle) - [Falcon] Exploration in video games can be a lot of different things. It can be time consuming, it can be tedious, but it can also be difficult but satisfactory. Hi folks, it's Falcon, and today on "Gameranx," 10 games with dangerous but rewarding exploration. Starting off with number 10 is Subnautica, which is, I mean, a really, really obvious choice. If we didn't start off with this, what would you say? You'd be like, come on. Subnautica, not mentioning that? You gotta me

ntion that one. You gotta mention that one first. It's the most obvious. If there's one game that springs to mind when you say that, dangerous but rewarding exploration, it's this. The premise is simple, you're the survivor of a crash. You're stranded on an alien planet, and if you wanna escape, you'll have to explore the furthest reaches and the deepest depths of the world. This is a survival game at heart. You'll be spending most of your time gathering resources and there's almost no conventio

nal weapons. So mostly you're avoiding enemies rather than fighting them. All this is going on while your oxygen meter is slowly ticking away. Every second you're underwater, you're in danger from something, be it oxygen loss, water pressure, or the dangerous creatures lurking everywhere. (dramatic music) (character grunts) It wouldn't be worth it if the exploration wasn't rewarding, but at least for me, this is one of, if not the most rewarding exploration mechanics, implementation, world, what

ever you wanna say, it's one of the best in any survival game I've ever played. There's so many interesting biomes and alien structures to explore, and it's all on you. You gotta find all of it. The game doesn't hold your hand at all. So the progress you make is your own, and that feels great. Few games have managed to capture the joys and dangers of exploration like Subnautica. Hell, its own follow-up couldn't even match it. And number nine is Dragon's Dogma II. Everyone should understand that

exploration is a key element of what has gotta be one of the coolest games that's been made in years. There's a lot of stuff that's unique with this game among RPGs. The pawn system, the simulation elements, the mysterious nature of it. And it can be frustrating at times in a fun way. There's so many little side areas and secrets tucked away in this world that you never actually have to find. Sometimes you just get an empty cave, other times you get a massive dungeon or a way to completely bypas

s a blocked path. (footsteps) - [Character] A hidden path. I suppose there will be monsters lurking beyond it. - [Falcon] Many of the game's, most interesting places are hidden or totally optional, and they're not just challenging to find, but to survive. The thing about Dragon's Dogma II is that it's a marathon, not a sprint. When you're at full health, things can go pretty smoothly, but if you're on the road for a while or in a deep dungeon, that max health might get slowly chipped away at and

suddenly everything becomes a lot tougher. Certain side areas are total gauntlets that will throw multiple monsters at you in a row. Sometimes you have to fight multiple beasts at once, and it can be brutally difficult. It's so, so satisfying, though, because there's no checkpoints. The quests rarely send you to specific dungeons, so almost everything that you find, it comes from just wandering around and finding stuff. Compared to the mostly barren, kind of dull world of the original Dragon's

Dogma also, the sequel's way more dense and interesting. All kinds of unique places to find if you decide to wander off the beaten path, and you're rewarded for it. And number eight is Remnant 2. This one's kind of unusual 'cause its exploration isn't exactly traditional, it's not an open world, and its world is randomly generated, but that doesn't stop it from being one of the most intriguing games of the last couple years. What makes Remnant 2 stand out are its secrets. There's just tons of st

uff hidden away, from armor to weapons to bosses, to entirely new classes to play as. And even though a lot of the environments are just totally random, the actual secrets themselves are unique. That doesn't make it easy to find them, and sometimes the game doesn't even generate them. One of the most interesting ways though, that Remnant 2 encourages replays is how it generates the world. Sometimes entire sections of the level, dungeons and even the story you follow can be completely different,

purely based on the role of the dice, which is interesting on its own. But the real thing that kept me coming back were all the secrets. Sometimes entire dungeons would be hidden away. There would be secrets within secrets, and the loot was always satisfying to find because in contrast to most games of this type, new weapons and armor are actually really rare in Remnant 2. It's not your standard open world type game, but few games like that that break that mold are as satisfying to explore as th

is one. At number seven is SnowRunner. How could a driving game have rewarding exploration, you might ask? Well, just make it really hard to get anywhere and you got a good starting place. The entire gimmick of this game is that you're navigating difficult terrain. In most games, driving through mud or snow is not that different from driving on concrete. Maybe a little different, sometimes not at all, though. But that's not the case here. In this game, getting pretty much anywhere is difficult a

nd it requires major patience and skill to navigate the types of challenges that it throws at you. When I first heard about it, I assumed this was just some simple run based game, but it's not, there's entire open world maps you need to slowly navigate and explore. It's a game that requires tons of patience and the actual exploration isn't immediately as satisfying as the other games of this list 'cause it's mostly like a real-ish world. There's not really any fantastical elements that I can rem

ember, so there aren't really crazy surprises around every corner, at least not in the way other games on this list might have them. That doesn't change the fact that this is easily one of the most satisfying and difficult games in terms of exploration. There's just nothing else quite like it out there. It's not stodgy and simulation-like as you might first assume, it's still pretty gamey as far as these things go, and for me, that makes it better. I know that there are gonna be people that are

like, but simulations. I like simulations too, but I like the gamey stuff. It actually got a new extension this year called Expeditions: a MudRunner game, which you would think would have more satisfying exploration, but it's actually a little bit more guided and linear. At least at the time of writing, SnowRunner is pretty much the most feature-complete and fun game in the series. It manages to make getting stuck in the mud fun, which is kind of a minor miracle in of itself. At number six is Ho

llow Knight. May not be the most challenging game you're gonna find on this list, but easy it is not. And the exploration remains some of the best in the entire genre, in my opinion. A dirty little secret about Metroidvania games, they appear open-ended, but the vast majority of them have a single golden path to follow, so to speak. They're mostly linear and disguised with a lot of progress blockers and upgrade checks. I assumed Hollow Knight was like that too back when I first played it, and it

seems like it for the first few hours. You stick to the most obvious path, but it's not like that. Hollow Knight is actually one of the most non-linear games in the entire genre. There's so many different directions you can go right from the start. You can collect upgrades in a lot of different orders. You can encounter bosses at different times. (dramatic music) - Boss! (chuckles) (chuckling) (balls bouncing) (character grunting) (dramatic music) - [Falcon] It is crazy how open this game actua

lly is, and somehow works despite this. There are just so many secrets too. Bonus side areas, entirely new locations, hidden bosses, all this stuff makes the game so much more fun to explore because you never really know what you're gonna find around every corner. Sometimes you'll just get a nice view or a little bit of background information, but often it's something cool, like an entirely new area, a tough optional boss or some useful rewards. There's so much depth to the exploration here, and

while it's not brutally hard, it's pretty challenging. At number five is Enderall: Forgotten Stones. Bethesda Games have some of the best exploration in the business. Their worlds are huge, they're packed with detail. They're satisfying as hell to get lost in. If we're just talking about exploration, they're a perfect fit for this list, but we're not, we're talking about dangerous exploration. So the standard games don't quite fit, but something that does is Enderal: Forgotten Stones, which is

a mod you can download for free on Steam as a standalone game. You have to have Skyrim to play it, but it's otherwise completely free. It was built on Skyrim assets and it does show, but the entire thing was built from the ground up to focus on exploration and discovery. The the mod, it's set in an entirely new world, has a more difficult combat system and it makes exploration a much more dangerous endeavor than in Skyrim. You can't just go wherever from the start. Travel in certain areas means

certain death. In some ways it limits where you can go from the start, but the flip side, the exploration is much more important because you're desperate for anything you can get. Every piece of gold is a lifeline and every potion you find is a big deal. It completely changes the Bethesda Games experience and all the various locations you can explore in this huge world are highly detailed and carefully crafted. While we're talking about Bethesda, you could just play Fallout 4 in survival as well

. That makes exploration a lot more difficult. Fallout 4 is maybe the best open world Fallout game simply in terms of exploration. There's so many unique games and things to find, and while the base game isn't super difficult, survival mode basically changes the experience and arguably makes the exploration a lot more satisfying because of how much harder it is. At number four is Outer Wilds. Supposed to be a puzzle game. Don't know why I'm dying so much. The Outer Wilds is sort of like the Witn

ess if just wandering around was able to kill you, liable to kill you, likely to kill you. There's no combat in this game or really any survival elements at all, but it's still really dangerous and the exploration is second to none. Really, the entire game is about exploration. You're given an entire solar system in miniature, and it's up to you to figure out what's going on and what you should even be doing. There's very little direction here. It's mostly up to you to explore. You gotta find cl

ues, figure out what to do. As far as exploration and discovery go, it's one of the all time best. Even without any traditional rewards or surprises, this game still manages to be one of the most satisfying experiences out there. The entire solar system is this massive, interconnected puzzle. It's up to you to peel back the layers and figure out how this whole thing works. If there's no danger, it'd be fun. But the constant threat of death really keeps things exciting. Running outta oxygen, gett

ing ejected into space, getting eaten by a giant space anglerfish, all this stuff can happen and it will happen often. It's a dangerous universe out there, and that makes the discovery all the more sweet. At number three is Outward. It's an unusual survival RPG hybrid thing, I guess is how I would describe it. It's unrelentingly difficult though. It makes the expiration a lot sweeter, a lot more satisfying. Most RPGs just limit you with arbitrary roadblocks and high level enemies. But Outward ha

s disease, starvation, and so much more to keep you in line. This game can be relentlessly hard starting out because you're basically a total chump. You got almost nothing, and basic enemies like wolves can kick your ass, they'll drag you into a cave and leave you for dead in the middle of nowhere. (dramatic music) (sword slashing) Getting anywhere in Outward is an ordeal. You don't just need decent equipment. You need equipment to make camp. You need food, weapons, potions, and the potions prot

ect against various status ailments. And sometimes that's still not enough. Pretty much any progress outside of the starting town in a few hours feels like a huge victory. And while it never stops being difficult, you do eventually get to a point where you can actually explore the rest of the world. In most RPGs, exploration just means carrying a few potions and a sword, but in Outward, the level of prep and planning required for a long journey, it's crazy. It's totally unique among RPGs. And wh

ile it's still pretty janky and awkward in a lot of ways, I can't help but respect it. And number two is Elden Ring, an open world Dark Souls. So exploration, check, (bell dings) difficulty, check, (bell dings) and I think we're done here, right? You get it. Seriously. You gotta have a lot of time for Souls games. I have a lot of time for Souls games, obviously, right? I talk about them a fair amount, but it's not really the combat that grabs me in the games. It's the exploration, the sense of d

iscovery. All of these games excel at that in one way or another, but Elden Ring is at the top of the heap. Few games manage to capture the feeling of wonder and amazement this game instills in you when you take a wrong turn and you stumble into someplace that doesn't feel like somewhere you should be. A lot of games give you this feeling every once in a while, but Elden ring, I mean, it's all the time. There's so many breathtaking first in Elden ring that just blew me away. The first time you t

ake that elevator into the underground, the first time you discover the secret volcano manor, the hidden passage at the bottom of the sewers, the secret path to the giant tree. There's just so many secrets around every corner. Even stuff that's not exactly hidden feels like a big deal when you find it because the world's just really big and it's easy to overlook certain locations. A lot of these optional areas and side pads contain some of the toughest bosses in the game too. A vast majority of

the game is just fully optional, and that really specifically adds to the satisfaction of discovery. You could miss it and never see it and beat the game. And finally, at number one, King's Field IV: The Ancient City. Before Souls, there was King's Field. The 1994 original looks extremely archaic by today's standards. Hell, honestly, it looks pretty archaic by 1994 standards, but it's a pretty important part of From's history. King's Field is a series that's super clunky, super outdated, but the

ir form of first person exploration actually still holds up if you're the kind of person capable of playing something that looks like this, that is. I could talk about any game in the series, but if I had to pick one, I would say the fourth, The Ancient City. The PlayStation 2 graphics give a lot of its locations detail and personality. It's easily the most complex and interconnected game in the series. And no surprise here, it's a From game, it's very difficult. You can see a lot of the future

of games in Ancient City. The trolling depths start right from the beginning with this death trap with just a few steps right at the start of the game. (character screaming) I mean, even for From, though, this is an unfair and obtuse game. There's traps everywhere, progress can be very confusing, and the maps might as well not exist. They're almost completely useless. If you're crazy about exploration, though, this is both a dream and a nightmare. It's brutally hard, but uncovering the strange u

nderground city secrets is super satisfying if you're able to overlook the extremely sluggish combat. And the combat is, extremely sluggish is the right set of words. It is not a game for everyone. But if you're an explorer at heart who's a bit of a masochist, it might be a game that's for you, and you'll be enchanted by this strange underground world as much as I was. That's all for today. Leave us a comment. Let us know what you think. If you like this video, click Like. If you're not subscrib

ed, now's a great time to do so. We upload brand new videos every day of the week. Best way to see them first is of course a subscription, so click Subscribe. Don't forget to enable notifications. And as always, we thank you very much for watching this video. I'm Falcon, you can follow me on Twitter @FalconTheHero. We'll see you next time right here on "Gameranx."