One of the best things about video games is that they offer more immersion than music, TV shows, comics, and even movies, as the player is quite literally at the controls. Because of this level of accessibility, game worlds are often a sandbox for gamers to enjoy and carve out their own path in. There are multiple ways a video game world can change throughout its story. There are more immediate elements, like different factions taking over certain areas, and more subtle ones, like the widespread disease and corruption in Dishonored, right up to the more overarching parts of the narrative, where characters throughout the world are born, age, and die.

Some of these changes and alterations can be cosmetic or used for context, while plenty of others have a crucial effect on both gameplay and story. Virtual worlds being susceptible to various changes is a brilliant use of storytelling that can show the current state of affairs visually and more immediately, rather than just through cutscenes or random notes found throughout the world.

Fallout: New Vegas Shows a Dystopian Version of Nevada

New Vegas Has Countless Warring Factions

The Fallout series is well known for the post-nuclear war world it has created, as well as countless factions of varying sizes all fighting for survival, power, and status throughout the wasteland. Fallout: New Vegas, a title considered by many to be the best in the entire series, offers game-changing choices that can impact every faction across the ruined state of Nevada and can turn the tide of war.

Just like in Fallout 3, the protagonist has a say in the final outcome of the conflict raging throughout New Vegas, either siding with the old-world-like government of the NCR, the ancient imperial Caesar’s Legion, or by taking matters into their own hands and unleashing a horde of Securitrons to fortify the city. There are also certain areas throughout the map, like Helios One, that can shift control. If, for instance, the NCR suffers high losses in an area like Camp Forlorn Hope, the next time the protagonist visits the science station, it will have been overrun by the Legion.

Kenshi Attempts to Offer Players Full Control In Freedom

Kenshi Is an Underrated RPG That’s Incredibly Ambitious

Image via Lo-Fi Games

Kenshi is a true hidden gem. Released seven years ago, it’s one of the most ambitious games ever made, or even conceived. There are many games that let players do ‘anything’ and create a life from the ground up, but none have gone to the lengths Kenshi has, as it allows players to quite literally do anything in the world. Kenshi is described as an open-world role-playing game with real-time strategy elements and is set in a large post-apocalyptic sandbox where all elements can be changed or altered. There’s no linear campaign, so players have full freedom to go in any direction they choose.

Kenshi was crafted by a one-man team over the space of 12 years.

The game is rightfully very difficult, as each player starts out in this dangerous world with no skills at all, and no matter how good the gamer is, they’ll struggle in the early stages. All of the available skills in Kenshi can be obtained through activities like consistent combat encounters and practicing things like stealing and medicine. Throughout the game, players can recruit various other people from any faction in the world, and even some alien species. Two of the most standout and interesting features in Kenshi are that certain important characters can die, creating a real-time power vacuum, and if a player sustains a bad enough injury, they could lose a limb and need to replace it with a prosthetic.

Death Stranding Lets Players Take Control of the World Around Them

A Hideo Kojima Game With a Strong Following

Image via Sony

Hideo Kojima is one of the most well-known and popular names in video game development. He’s had incredible success as the creative mind behind the majority of the Metal Gear franchise and the hugely inspirational horror game playable trailer P.T. Since his departure from Konami, he’s created Kojima Productions, with its first game being Death Stranding. Set in a post-apocalyptic United States after a cataclysmic event of invisible creatures ravaged the world, a freelance courier, played and voiced by Norman Reedus, is tasked with delivering a variety of packages.

The vast majority of Death Stranding sees the player traverse a barren and desolate landscape with dangers both natural and supernatural, but this can be made a little easier with the introduction of certain infrastructure, which can be anything from roads to bridges or even ziplines, This transformation not only alters the landscape but also fundamentally changes how Death Stranding is played, turning it from a challenging trek into a more streamlined and efficient journey.

The Mass Effect Series Is One of the Best RPG Series of All Time

Each Mass Effect Game Shapes the Future of the Galaxy

Image via Bioware

Up until Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the Dragon Age series often allowed players to import their previous saves so the world they had carved out in earlier games lived on, Bioware’s epic sci-fi series Mass Effect did that just a little better. The choices players can make in Mass Effect, either as a renegade or a paragon, hold so much emotional weight and impact that they surpass those in similar games.

All of the games in the Mass Effect franchise truly feel like one continuous story spread over multiple installments, all centered around the enigmatic and special Commander Shepard. There are a plethora of relationship-focused decisions that Bioware and the Mass Effect series are known for, and these help reinforce the level of immersion, with the player building real relationships with the ragtag crew of the Normandy.

Crusader Kings III Is the Ultimate Empire Building Sim

In Crusader Kings III, Players Have a Huge Sandbox to Play With

Crusader Kings III is one of the finest empire management and strategy games out there, with each edition getting better and better with every release. Other games similar to it, like Civilization and Mount and Blade, don’t focus on the smaller-scale elements the way Crusader Kings does. The recent Crusader Kings III DLC now allows players to hold court and witness debates about the various problems that could arise in a medieval setting.

It’s not just the smaller elements of ruling that Crusader Kings III lets players take control of. Players can completely change the political, cultural, and even religious themes and control of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. They can decide whether to disband the Papacy, realize the dream of Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great and conquer the world, or have the Norse take over England.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Is One of the Most Immersive Games Ever Made

RDR2 Is the Ultimate Wild West Simulator

Red Dead Redemption 2 is easily in the argument for the best game of all time and is one of the most immersive sims ever made. The gameplay, which ranges from six-shooters to authentic hunting and fishing, is incredibly smooth, and the two protagonists are portrayed with Oscar-worthy depth. However, all of these elements would be nothing without the deeply immersive world the game has created around them.

The world in RDR2 is ever-changing, and many of those changes are directly related to the player’s actions. For example, if players help a logging team with supply runs and wolf issues, they’ll return to find the entire area deforested. The world also changes in RDR2‘s epilogue with John Marston, with much of the construction completed and camps taken over by other gangs.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Offers Nearly Full Freedom

In Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, the World Is Constantly Changing

Image via TaleWorlds Entertainment

What Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord has over other games of the same style, like Crusader Kings or Civilization, is the level of input the player character actually gets in the world. There isn’t just point-and-click strategy like in the other games. Players can actually step into the shoes of their characters and have a far more hands-on experience.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord can be paused during times of strategy, but other than that, the days go by quickly, and the world and empires carry on around them. Depending on the settings chosen at the start of the game, any character, named or otherwise, can be killed in combat or even die of old age after enough time has passed. Entire empires can fall without the player having any say in the matter.

Fable 3 Offers Opportunity to Save or Destroy Albion

In Fable, Players Can Be a Hero or a Villain

Image via Microsoft Game Studios

Fable is set to have a fantastic-looking reboot that’s been pushed back to 2026, but in the meantime, players can still enjoy classic titles in the series, like Fable 3. Fable 3‘s protagonist was the younger child of the hero-turned-monarch from Fable 2, who goes on a quest to build an army to stop their tyrannical brother Logan before uncovering a literal darkness set to destroy the land.

Every Fable game lets characters be good or evil, and there are many visual changes to represent this. Evil characters look almost monstrous, while good characters have a near-angelic appearance. In Fable 3, these changes also spread to the rest of the world. In the later stages of the game, after ascending to the throne, players can make choices that affect the world around them.