Recently, I played System Shock. And there's something quite interesting you can do.

See, Shock has a very granular difficulty system. From 0 disabling most elements of a setting to 3 being the extra option.

This means you can literally switch off the plot, turn the enemies off, remove the puzzles, and make the cyberspace suck...less.

But doing all these, essentially allows you to wander Citadel station freely, as if you were a tourist. I even tested this from going from the Hospital to make a beeline to the Security level. (Which normally requires several plot events to occur.)

It was fun, imagining the reactions a tourist would have, since Shodan's threads are limited if you don't touch the nodes; so it'd just seem like something happened, but what? (Remember, there's no plot to spell this out.)

So, do you know of any games, intentionally or otherwise where you can simply wander the levels with nothing pushing you around?

I can only think of a few projects even like it, much less whole games.


There is Proteus, but that feels like a cheat since that's the entire point of the game. (And it's all procedural generated in an ethereal dreamlike state.)

That's a nice experience. I remember doing things like that years ago with the old GTA's, just walking the maps, searching for details, exploring, etc.

Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild comes to mind...
But then, Wii U and Switch only.

Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen...
But then the map is not 'that big' and you're in fact limited in many ways...

Outward...
But then I never played this one and I can't say how much this kind of exploration is allowed.

Just Cause 2... map is good for exploration as it is big, really big.
Since this game is also just chaos, you can go anywhere you want from the start after the 'tutorial mission'.
But then, Steam only...

Maybe, if you have any 'vania' games, you could try to play with randomizers, they're really fun if you like to explore.

...Sorry If Im missing the point of your post though. :P

Doom engine games have a 'monsters off' parameter, so you can just spend time exploring a game like Hexen and admiring the architecture.

You can do this too in Saints Row the Third. I love it to simply drive around thru the city in a stolen car and listening to the music. It`s also funny when you park your car somewhere without leaving the car. Often the people who walk by just dance to the music blasting out of your car. :-D

Never noticed that, neat detail! :)

Just a bit.
You can't exactly switch off the Guardians in Breath of The Wild, you cannot have true free reign; same is applicable for other games.

Yes, true. What about "Flower" and "ABZU"?

...The Witness, Shadow of the Colossus.. Great focus in map exploration and non-linearity, with limitations too though.

There's also two games based in this tourism mentality... I can't remember the names.
One was about exploring an art gallery... First person perspective.
The other, also in first person perspective about exploring the evolution of technology, if I remember correctly.

Ubi-soft has "Discovery Tour" versions of Assassin's Creed Origin and Odyssey which allows you to explore the world freely and learn more historically accurate information.

This is however a separate game so it's an additional charge.

Subnautica is definitely my most favorite game to be a tourist in. In fact, once you "beat" the game for the first time and the credits are rolling, you realize you were better off not leaving the location the game takes place in. The game kind of makes it clear that you would be better off being an eternal tourist.

Still, that's an interesting concept. Shame; (though slightly understandable) about the charge.

AER: Memories of Old is essentially an open world game without combat.

VVVVVV and Celeste allow you to switch off the difficulty; just go into accessibility options (VVVVVV) or assist mode (Celeste) and turn on invincibility. (For Celeste, you can also give yourself infinite dashes and stamina to guard against non-fatal challenges.)

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark isn't exactly a game for tourism, but it has a nice granular difficulty system, where you can separately configure things like the injury system (the effects of death on your characters), enemy stats, enemy equipment, enemy skills, and even how many revives the enemy AI is allowed to use. (Yes, enemies have access to revive abilities, unless you disable that entirely in the difficulty settings.)

Terraria has a Journey mode, provided you're playing at least version 1.4.0.1, which allows doing things like turning enemy spawn rate to 0.

Pier Solar HD allows you to turn off random encounters, though that won't let you trivialize bosses.

Both Ikenfell and Ara Fell have an option that, if enabled, adds an "I Win" button to the battle menu allowing you to trivially clear any encounter (and you still get the rewards for doing so).

I believe Civilization 3 allows you to start the game with no opponents (though you should disable Conquest victory so that you don't immediately win). You might still encounter barbarians, but they're not nearly as much of an issue as other civilizations would be. (Do later Civilization games allow this?) (By the way, disabling Conquest victory doesn't prevent a Conquest defeat, which happens if you have no cities or settlers; that's highly unlikely to happen if there are no opponents, however.)

sounds like a walking sim game , horrible

Apropros of you reminding me, there's also accessibility modes in V Five Times that allows you to toggle an invulnerable state.

Civilization IV also allows no opponent and no-barb modes, which is often how I zen garden it.