Asopen-world gamescompete to see who can bethe biggest and longest, many often forget that the best open-world games are ones with densely packed worlds rather than the largest. If a world feels alive and is full of things to do, fans are far more likely to connect with it than a map full of huge fields of nothing.
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This makes single cities the perfect candidates for settings in such games. Cities are, by design, full of life. They’re tightly packed with hundreds of citizens and loads of things to do, ensuring players are never bored. Their winding streets allow theworlds to feel biggerthan they truly are if designed well.
Updated July 19, 2025 by Ryan Woodrow:Open-world games are incredibly popular in this day and age, but it can be overwhelming to jump into a sprawling map that covers what feels like an entire world. Sometimes, a more contained sandbox is preferred, and there are plenty of games that use their solitary city to craft a setting that feels truly alive. While these types of maps might not be extremely common, there are quite a few games that fit the bill on the market. Consequently, this article has been expanded to include a few moregreat open-world gamesset in one city.
13Marvel’s Spider-Man – New York
One of, if not the most famous city there is, New York has been recreated in a multitude of different games. What makes the New York fromMarvel’s Spider-Manthe best is how lively and vibrant the entire world feels. This is helped in large part by the game’sbrilliant open-world game design, meaning there’s always something to do around every corner, and the interactions Spider-Man can have with the people give the whole thing an extra layer of fun.
Marvel always plays things relatively light with their worlds, and this game managed to capture that. There are dark moments, and bad things happen, but that signature Marvel charm and joy never disappears. That’s not even mentioning how great it feels to move around the city as Spider-Man. It’s been said all before, but Insomniac’s web-swinging is among the best movement systems in any game ever. The city is part of what makes it such a joy to play with.
12Infamous 2 – New Marias
When a game bases its original city on a real one, there’s always a tough choice for designers to make. Do they stick close to the real city? Or do they take some creative license and only keep a select few elements? New Marais is a unique case because it feels like the developers did both at once. New Marais is a diverse city in both culture and design.
Fewopen-world gameshave such an extensive array of memorable areas and locations out there in the world. It’s the kind of game that even a relatively new player could probably find their way around without a map after a handful of hours. At the same time, it has an atmosphere to it that is uniquely New Orleans (the city New Marais is based on). The swamps, the architecture. Even though the overall city design does hold true, it’s still obvious where this city’s identity comes from.
11Cyberpunk 2077 – Night City
Cyberpunk 2077feels almost like it cheated in making such a brilliant, living world because everything Projekt CD Red needed was right there in the existing literature. At the same time, there was a lot of pressure from the existingCyberpunkfanbase to make it accurate to how it’s been described in all the existing media, a job it did very well.
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Putting the game’s problems to one side, it’s undeniable that Night City feels completely and totally unique compared to any other modern open-world. It’s not just because of the overall setting, either. Night City manages to visually capture the divide between those with and those without in this dystopian society. The streets and skyscrapers are pristine and beautiful, but as soon as players go off the beaten path, the rot at the heart of the city comes into full view. It’s brilliant environmental storytelling.
10Sleeping Dogs – Hong Kong
A short-lived franchise,Sleeping Dogswent a somewhat unconventional route with its world. Despite being called Hong Kong, the map doesn’t follow much of the geography of Hong Kong at all. Instead, the city is more based on Hong Kong from a thematic standpoint.
It was the perfect place to setSleeping Dogs. Many martial arts trace their origins back to that region of the world, and while many games are set in Eastern Asia, it’s often in a historical setting rather than a modern one. It was a great novelty at the time to see a modern city of Eastern Asia in an open-world game.
9Mafia 3 – New Bordeaux
Mafia 3went the more well-traveled route for open-world games, basing their city off of a real one – in this case, New Orleans. However, they changed the name and some key parts of the geography for a bit more creative license.
New Bordeaux is a great example of how games can capture the feeling of the city they’re based on, without having to stick strictly to the geography. Some franchises struggle to make different American cities feel distinct from one another, but this city feels completely different from Lost Heaven & Empire Bay of previousMafiagames.
8Yakuza Series – Kamurocho
Featured in severalYakuzagames, Kamurocoho – based on a region of Tokyo – is one of the smallest open-worlds out there. However, it also ranks among the densest, especially inYakuza 0. Players barely have to walk around a corner to find some new or interesting activity to partake in ora surprising Easter egg.
This tightly bound city feels great for the narrative too. When spread across so many games like this, players can gather a real sense of familiarity with the city and see the subtle ways in which their actions affect it.
7L.A. Noire – Los Angeles
While a city like Chicago or New York might sooner come to mind for a game along these lines, Los Angeles was by far the best choice for this story. L.A. is an extremely diverse city, full of quiet suburbs, large industries, and glamorous downtowns.
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These different locations give huge variety throughout the cases inL.A. Noire. One minute players will be talking to someone in a quaint suburban home; the next, they’ll be chasing someone through a factory. Few other cities can give players such a variety in terms of both people and places.
6Driver: San Francisco – San Francisco
Driver: San Francisco’score mechanic makes exploring a big city essential. The entire game world is in the protagonist’s mind, as they’re in a coma. This allows the protagonist to float above the world and possess the driver of any car.
Naturally, a city with an interesting layout was necessary for a game all about driving, and San Francisco was a perfect choice. The game restricts how much of the city players have access to at first, which was a great touch. Each new area gave players something new and exciting to explore, and each felt different from the last. Players start in the city center with highways and grid streets, but soon they’ll be racing along the winding roads of the suburbs.
5Bully – Bullworth
This is another relatively small world, but one stuffed to the brim with character. In fact, it’s so full of content that it doesn’t even give players access to most of the world until about halfway through, yet exploring the small area doesn’t get boring.
Bullyexcels at pulling the joy out of the mundane. Running around the school of Bullworth is a lot of fun. The need to get to classes and other activities quickly forces players to learn the lay of the land. Once the full city does open up, there are more fun places to explore – the kind of places school kids would care about. There’s a comic book/antique store; there’s a cinema and a funfair. Every inch of the world is brimming with charmlike few other Rockstar games have ever done.
4Saints Row 2 – Stilwater
Saint’s Rowhas used a couple of different cities in its franchise; however, none have come as close to the mad fun thatSaint’s Row 2’sversion of Stilwater held. The landscape is far more varied than in other games, and each area feels quite distinct for the gang that’s controlling it narratively.
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What it does best, though, is provide a fantastic playground for all the wacky antics the game encourages. The highlight of these is undoubtedly the underground mall. This area features layers of open-plan shops filled with all kinds of unique vehicles waiting for the player to steal and mess around with.
