After a 10-year-long absence of new releases, GTA VI, the biggest open-world game, has finally been announced. We’re just as excited to revisit Vice City as the next guy. But what are we supposed to do until 2025, when the game is supposed to come out?
Thankfully,contemporary Android tabletsare home to some impressive open-world games, including older titles in the GTA series, such as Vice City, and San Andreas. In addition, some of them have the best graphics you’ll find on a mobile device. Let’s take a look at some of the best.
13Goat Simulator 3
In the landscape of open-world games, not many are as ridiculously over the top as Goat Simulator. If you couldn’t get enough of the shenanigans in the previous entries, then Goat Simulator 3 has your back. It’s the newest open-world addition to the open-world repertoire on Android.
Goat Simulator 3 brings all of the PC and console features to mobile, without sacrificing any of the content that makes the series so great. It boasts a ton of customization options for your goat, and an equally robust selection of quests to complete. Prepare to shell out a pretty penny, though, as the game will cost you $12.99 to purchase.
12Black Desert Mobile
When it comes to open-world games, no genre offers more content than MMORPGs. Being live services by their nature, MMOs receive a steady stream of new and exciting content on top of fictional worlds already bursting with things to do and explore. Black Desert Mobile is a portable version of the popular MMORPG on PC and consoles.
On top of an extensive story that explores the past of your amnesiac protagonist, Black Desert Mobile features a plethora of side activities, such as crafting, trading, and fishing. And that’s before you delve into the various PvP activities in the game. It’s not only chock-full of content but also looks exceptional, so long as you play on a sufficiently powerful device.
11Botworld Adventure
How much do you want to bet that Botworld Adventure has anything to do with bots? Each bot comes with unique abilities that you can further improve by collecting scrap around the world. More importantly, there’s a vast open-world setting for you to explore, ripe with different treasures.
The world is divided into multiple distinct zones, including lush green fields, thunderous plains, and snow-laden mountainscapes. To explore them effectively, you’ll need to outfit your team accordingly.
Botworld Adventure comes with a wide range of customization options, both for your characters and the bots. You can also join forces with other like-minded players and take on weekly quests together for rare loot.
10Crashlands
Welcome to Woanope, a planet for the whole family, filled with deadly flora and fauna. According to the local guide – aka the Play Store description – you’ll need both of your glutes to overcome the challenges it presents. Or rather, its hero, a galactic trucker by the name of Flux Dabes, will.
For $6.99, Crashlands transports you into an open-world setting of galactic proportion. As you explore planet Woanope, you’ll come across and defeat a variety of creatures, develop Flux’s repertoire of abilities, and even build him a suitable home base. Crashlands has rightfully earned a variety of awards for its wit, RPG mechanics, and extensive crafting system.
9EVE Echoes
It doesn’t get any more open world than space. EVE Echoes puts you in control of a space fleet as you traverse the perpetual unknown. Will you simply explore or mine for valuable resources? Trade or steal that which belongs to others? The game leaves these choices entirely up to you.
That said, Exploring these vast expanses becomes more manageable through multiplayer components. You can team up with players around the world, venture into foreign realms, or take on an ancient alien faction known only as the Sleepers. EVE Echoes introduces new content in the form of promotional events, new upgrade systems, enemies, and realms.
8Genshin Impact
Unless you’re a proud owner of a Nintendo Switch, Genshin Impact is the closest you’re going to get to playing Breath of the Wild. It combines the open-world setting of Zelda withvibrant anime-esque visuals. Genshin Impact takes you across the massive world of Teyvat.
In Teyvat, you’ll come across adversaries and treacherous dungeons but also allies and moments of respite. Your journey revolves around seeking out the seven Gods, each representing one of the world’s elements. They also play an important role in the game’s intricate combat system, as you must use them wisely against enemies with opposing elements.
But in case the going gets tough, you can join forces with other players online. Genshin Impact has received numerous content updates so far, adding more replayability to an already robust open-world experience.
7Goat Simulator
Consider this: the people at Coffee Stain Publishing thought that someone would genuinely want to play as a goat. Not just any goat, mind you, but a goat that is capable of wreaking havoc on the everyday lives of the common folk. That’s what Goat Simulator essentially boils down to.
Goat Simulator puts you in control of a goat and lets you do pretty much whatever you like. You can destroy public infrastructure, or harass innocent bystanders, and accumulate points as a result. Goat Simulator oozes with unadulterated humor. It also embraces the plenitude of bugs typically found in The Elder Scrolls Games, and turns it into a feature.
It just works.
6Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Rockstar Games has released many of its IPs on Android. These include Bully, Max Payne, and, yes, even Grand Theft Auto. You might prefer the neon-lit 80s atmosphere of Vice City or the classic top-down view in Chinatown Wars. But no other game in the series can compete with San Andreas in terms of open-world freedom.
From the gang-infested ghettos in Los Santos to the glamorous casinos in Las Venturas, these starkly differing cities are connected by dense forests, steep mountains, and deep waters. Every location is lovingly packed with content, be it an activity, a collectible, or a sasquatch hiding in the woods.
Even almost two decades after its release, San Andreas stands on par with many modern open-world games.
5LifeAfter: Night Falls
Did you know that the deepest known point on Earth is the Mariana Trench south of Japan? It stretches nearly seven miles below sea level and could easily conceal Mount Everest in its depths. The full extent of flora and fauna residing there is still largely unknown. LifeAfter preys on this fear of the unknown as it pulls you into a world almost fully covered by water.
What lurks beneath the water? The Kraken? A Megalodon, perhaps? Find out by taking control of a customizable sea vessel and setting out into the open seas of LifeAfter. Any upgrade could mean the difference between you returning from your voyage or not, as you’ll not only have to brave the dangerous sea monsters but also the unforgiving nature of the sea itself.
4Minecraft
Believe it or not, Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time. It substantially surpasses titles like Grand Theft Auto V and The Witcher 3 in terms of sales, with over 238M copies sold. Minecraft has become a cultural phenomenon, but what makes it so special?
Simply put - freedom. The game’s world is only limited by your imagination. You can choose to scavenge nearby to build a robust shelter or dig deep to discover treasure and monsters in equal amounts. Best of all, Minecraft allows you to build anything you want, be it an original creation or one inspired by other media or real-world structures.
