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February 10, 2009 11:30 AM

Please recommend to me your favorite open-world/sandbox-ish third person shooters for the Xbox 360.

I've enjoyed playing Crackdown for a few months now and I'm looking to expand my experience beyond that. The open, beautifully rendered world and non-linear gameplay that still retains definite objective appeals to me. I also love the fact that it comes with a "Keys to the City" mode where you can manipulate your character's abilities and the environment to the limit to experience new aspects of the game.

If I had to pick a gripe, I would mention the fact that the combat wasn't really fluid: the shooting was fine, the driving was reasonably good, but the melee combat was awkard and limited.

In essence, I want a similar open world game (skyscrapers and climbing ability/jumping and driving are a plus) with improved melee combat, whether or not there is any actual shooting involved. Driving is also fun. The ability to go into a "god mode" and check out unexplored areas of the game, push the physics engine, etc. is a big plus.

Thanks!

posted by Inspector.Gadget to sports, hobbies, & recreation (19 comments total)

assassins creed sort of fits your climbing/jumping buildings requirement.
posted by zennoshinjou at 11:42 AM on February 10

Saints Row 2 seems to be right up your alley, rather than going the "serious narrative" route that GTA4 did, SR2 is all about having an enormous sandbox for your to mess around in.
posted by Oktober at 11:54 AM on February 10

Crackdown, yeah, it's a game that is way better than it has any right to be.

GTA IV hits all your points except for combat. Everything else is so awesome you won't miss it.

Oblivion and Fallout 3 aren't strictly sandbox games, but they have large (HUGE) worlds that you can explore via non-linear gameplay. Neither has the quick-fix "go to this area and we'll spawn an army of baddies to fight" aspect that Crackdown has, though.
posted by mkultra at 11:57 AM on February 10

Give Skate/Skate2 and Burnout Paradise a try if you'd like some more sandbox action. Of course they're not necessarily shooters but they give lots of opportunities to just screw around and try things out (I wonder how I can get up there...).
posted by neilkod at 12:14 PM on February 10

I'd also say that Assassin's Creed's climbing and exploring is quite a bit like Crackdown's. There's not much shooting exactly, but the melee combat is very much better. Unfortunately it suffers from the same repetitiveness that Crackdown does.

If you really liked Crackdown, it's definitely worth getting AC at today's used price.
posted by sevenless at 12:18 PM on February 10

I loved GTA IV, but found it a little constrictive. I'm waiting desperately for my local used game shop to get a copy of Saints Row 2, as every review I've seen or read of it says it's pretty much everything I'm looking for. So either of those.
posted by Science! at 12:20 PM on February 10

I haven't played Crackdown but I loved Assassin's Creed's sandbox nature. AC presented an open playground with opportunities to follow the story as you happened upon them.
posted by Silvertree at 12:21 PM on February 10

Mercenaries 2 isn't the best game, but has some fun open world shooting stuff.
posted by Nelson at 12:40 PM on February 10

Saint's Row and Saint's Row 2 look good; going by Wikipedia and the games' plots, they sound extremely similar to Crackdown. Keep 'em coming and thanks again!

I'll also check out Assassin's Creed, which I've had some exposure to but not played.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 1:05 PM on February 10

This is exactly what my partner is always looking for, and he just started Saint's Row 2 last night, and is having a blast playing it. He says it's not as polished as GTA, but less restrictive, and he's having a lot of fun with it.
posted by Stacey at 2:22 PM on February 10

This is pretty much what I'm looking for too, except that I'm not real hung up on the combat aspects. Personally, I think that GTAIV is a better game than either Saint's Row title. The Skate games, and Burnout Paradise, are both pretty great, though neither has the combat you're looking for.

This discussion has made me want to try Crackdown and Assassin's Creed, neither of which I'd've probably played otherwise.
posted by box at 4:33 PM on February 10

Crackdown, crackdown and crackdown !!
posted by olddogeyes at 7:56 PM on February 10

It's a little more Actiony-rpg, but Fallout 3 is very open ended and can be played from a 3rd person point of view.
posted by tylerfulltilt at 9:27 PM on February 10

Prototype doesn't come out until later this year, but it looks freaking amazing and should be right up your alley.
posted by juv3nal at 10:04 PM on February 10 [1 favorite has favorites]

I wish I could do otherwise (because, you know, Peter Stormare!), but I would recommend against Mercenaries 2. The vehicle hijacking is fun enough, but the combat mechanic is woeful, and the vehicle controls ignore the best part of the 360 controller - using the shoulder triggers for the throttle and break. But I would add my vote for AC. Fantastic fun.
posted by MarchHare at 4:06 AM on February 11

Prototype doesn't come out until later this year, but it looks freaking amazing and should be right up your alley.

Holy shit. It's as if someone took my ideal game and made a conceptual trailer for it. Thank you.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 1:20 PM on February 11

No mention yet of Dead Rising? No skyscrapers and not much climbing, but the melee combat is fantastic.
posted by roystgnr at 9:50 PM on February 11

New prototype trailer.
posted by juv3nal at 11:03 AM on March 27

I've recently acquired a few games from Goozex that fit your description.

Just Cause -- While by no means perfect, everything I've heard about the game sounds a bit insane and 'open-world'y. Plus, you can hijack helicopters!

Farcry 2 -- Much more ground based, but does fulfill 'open world' and 'shooter'.

Fallout 3 is a great open world shooter. If you get it, I highly recommend getting the Broken Steel DLC before you hit the level cap of 20, because you will, if you enjoy exploring and doing all the quests.

While it barely qualifies, I thought Gun was pretty great. It only gets really 'open world'y towards the end of the game, but it's a fun 3rd person western.
posted by graventy at 10:14 PM on August 3