DualShockers published its best open-world games list with a clear filter: these are the 10 games where you do not play a set character. Ronald, the contributor behind the piece, frames that choice around role-playing mechanics and open worlds, not franchise familiarity or a fixed hero.
Ronald says “one of my less-examined, but more consistent, opinions over the years is that no video game manages to be more immersive and interactive than those that combine role-playing mechanics with an open world,” and adds that “nothing compares to completely surrendering to a fictional world where you can shape it to your will.” That is the standard the list uses: games built around player agency, not scripted identity.
Ronald’s 2013-2015 path
2013 is where Ronald says his games writing started, through public forums, reviews, news, and opinion pieces. He moved into professional games writing in 2015, and now says he has more than a decade of experience covering video games. The byline matters here because the ranking reads less like a nostalgia exercise and more like a working critic sorting games by how much control they give the player.
Ronald also says his work focuses on games as an artistic medium, which fits the list’s emphasis on form over familiarity. The point is not just that these games are open world; it is that the player is allowed to build a presence inside them instead of inheriting one.
Absolver and The Outer Worlds
Absolver gets singled out for letting players shape an avatar like few others in the interactive entertainment industry, then build a personal arsenal of melee moves from hundreds of options. Its stance and stamina management system, plus parrying and dodging, give the player a toolkit that feels authored by choice rather than handed down. Ronald even calls its combat one of the most fascinating, complex and satisfying systems he can recall, and says it is worthwhile for the campaign alone.
The Outer Worlds lands on the same list for a different reason. The game is not Obsidian’s best work, and it is not the one where you most fully feel like you are starting from a blank canvas, yet Ronald still calls it a perfect fit for this ranking. That contradiction is the point: it is the most cohesive across the wide variety of structures it uses, it excels in nothing and is great in everything, and it offers ample room to explore among the last decade’s most captivating open worlds.
Terraria and the blank canvas
Terraria broadens the list beyond the usual role-playing frame. Ronald treats it as one of the clearest examples of a different kind of open-world adventure, one shaped by sandbox design and mechanical freedom. He says mechanical limitations are practically nonexistent, and that the player’s avatar has a vast array of options to become and do anything.
That is the useful takeaway for readers scanning the ranking: this is a shortlist for people who want control first and a preset hero nowhere near the center. Which ten games made the final ranking is not listed in the provided source text, so the practical next step is to use the three named examples—Absolver, The Outer Worlds, and Terraria—as the clearest signals for the kind of open-world play Ronald is rewarding.
