An open world game with the best hidden quests

Questlines in the open world genre are one of the most important aspects of keeping players invested in the world over the long term. There's no use having a fascinating world without a reason to explore it. So, amidst all the action and chaos, it's important to give players a sense of meaning and purpose. But as engaging as the main quest can be, in some situations side content actually provides a much more enjoyable experience, sending players on a journey across the landscape, following characters and clues they might never have encountered if they had stuck to the standard path.

Some of these quests are one-offs but can still be very fun and memorable, while others are much more extensive, spanning multiple stages that can take hours to fully complete until the end. What makes this game so great is its ability to feel very important on a similar level to the overarching goals of the narrative. This allows players to feel invested in storylines and characters that they initially had no obligation to care about. By filling the world with tons of exciting quests, the environment feels more alive and players will feel much more excited to explore every minute detail, knowing that an incredible adventure awaits just around the corner.

Skyrim

Curiosity Leads the Way

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• Unmarked locations that can often trigger huge questlines.

• The best stories are not related to the main path

Bethesda has always been known for filling their games with tons of quests. Skyrim is There are no exceptions. It's pretty hard to walk into town without finding someone in need of help. There's even a case where a traveler gets lost in the mountains and is looking for someone to help him defeat a scary monster. One of the best examples of this is the quest The Mind of Madness. Players begin chatting with a seemingly harmless maniac roaming Solitude, but quickly embark on a journey into a world of dark humor and madness with a few twists.

Other quests, like Forbidden Legend, can be overlooked entirely because their starting conditions are literally tied to reading a random book. From there, the mystery gradually unfolds, revealing ancient betrayals and numerous powerful rewards for those who pay close attention to their surroundings. In all of these cases, the quests actually spark curiosity within the vast open environments, as instead of explicitly showing the player exactly where to start, they are forced to hunt and explore to find new stories to follow. And because the map is so densely packed with these adventures, it's easy to get lost in side content for hours and forget that there's a fearsome dragon waiting to be vanquished.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Branching paths over the course of several hours

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• The contract quickly spirals into a massive arc.

• This determines when quests are available and what ambiguous choices they have.

The Witcher 3 is filled with quests and narratives, both optional and required, but as players travel through different regions in search of adventure, they will quickly realize that many of the side missions are actually more enjoyable and interesting than the main missions. Some, like Equine Phantoms, actually take players down weirder yet more interesting paths that can't be further from the larger quest, but it's still a short but fun little journey between taking down enemy camps and saving entire cities from collapse.

The writing is so excellent that even minor side characters can feel incredibly unbelievable. Where Cats and Wolves Play is a great example of a quest that many players completely miss, but it offers an incredibly complex story about trauma in the world and the cost of survival. It also presents difficult choices for the player that carry as much weight as any of the game's other big quests, and demonstrates the importance of having rich environments that don't feel empty and instead are brimming with life.

Fallout: New Vegas

Power-centered narrative that can be easily missed

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• Certain groups are entirely optional and may be missed.

• Conversation options can permanently lock content without warning.

Fallout: New Vegas It's at the forefront of the RPG genre for good reason. The characters and questlines are some of the best in the business, and some of the best are hidden in inconspicuous parts of the map or in places players may never intend to explore in the first place. More importantly, many quests can actually become locked or inaccessible depending on the player's choices, forcing you to think carefully about your decisions from the moment you enter the wasteland. Beyond the Beef is a very infamous side story that is not only impossible to miss, but is also greatly influenced by the choices the player makes.

After heading to the Ultra-Luxe Casino, players can talk to Heck Gunderson to find his missing son. But that initial interaction quickly turns into a disturbing plot involving cannibalism and social corruption, despite what initially appears to be a very basic missing persons case. There are many other similar examples. Some involve humor, such as Come Fly With Me and Not Worth a Hill of Corn and Beans, which are much more grounded and focus on technical checks rather than presenting lengthy storylines. Going the extra mile and actually checking out hidden rooms is often a good way to find the best quests in the entire game, as no matter where the player is in the desert, there's always something new to see or someone to talk to.

Red Dead Redemption 2

A profound story off the beaten path.

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• Each area has many exciting stories hidden within it.

• Some quests can take place over several hours without any interaction.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Some of the most emotionally resonant content is hidden away from the main story, often behind vague triggers or in isolated locations. The Widow of Willard's Rest is a heartfelt quest in which players teach a grieving woman how to survive on her own in the world, creating a quieter, more human story as a departure from the larger adventures elsewhere. Quests unfold over multiple visits, encouraging players to return again and again with no real incentive other than helping struggling souls, and many players complete the game without even realizing it exists.

Another standout is the Veteran questline, which begins by meeting a wounded veteran deep within the Grizzlies. The series of missions focuses on camaraderie and healing on a much smaller scale, making it feel like a very personal set of tasks that stand in stark contrast to the game's larger narrative. Many quests like these thrive on isolation and simplicity, reinforcing the game's belief that the most meaningful stories are often the most human, and that in a world filled with all kinds of people, even the most insignificant stories can be the most important.

Elden Ring

There are no quest markers to guide you forward.

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• Lack of clear steps for each NPC

• An unpredictable character who can move without warning.

Elden Ring It's effectively one long mystery game spread out across a huge world. Since there are no real markers or ways to reliably locate individual NPCs, players are forced to either follow subtle clues or spend a lot of time Googling to be able to actually follow these stories to the end. The biggest of these are tied directly to endings, such as Ranni and Fia's quest, which can be very easily missed on a first playthrough without actually venturing into the furthest and deepest parts of the map. The latter literally sends players deep underground and forces them to come back, taking on fearsome enemies and succumbing to the flames of madness without explicitly showing them where to go next.

The DLC continues this theme by hiding entire bosses and quests in the smallest crevices of the environment. The Corrupt Knight is already far off the beaten path, but further along is the quest line of St Trina and Thiollier. This quest requires the player to not only get as far away from the main area as possible, but also to venture across an entire terrain that can be very easily avoided. Metyr, Mother of the Fingers, follows the same pattern, only this time the quest is a precursor to the actual battle. Players must run across a shadowy realm while ringing bells and performing actions, and only then are they rewarded with one of the strangest bosses in the entire game. This philosophy, which draws players vaguely from around the world, is what makes the game so compelling. Because a lot of NPCs and stories wouldn't be very interesting if they were shown to the player right from the beginning.