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The best match is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom if you want to decide how to cross a world rather than simply follow map markers. Its Ultrahand vehicles, Ascend shortcuts, Recall manipulation and Fuse combinations can create routes that were not there before. Just Cause 4 is the clearest choice for wingsuit speed and grappling-hook stunts, Elden Ring combines a mount and map tools with dangerous discovery, and Death Stranding Director’s Cut is the adjacent option for infrastructure that makes later journeys easier. The right game depends on whether you prefer construction, aerial movement, risky overland exploration or shared route-building.
What makes an exploration tool worth recommending?
A traversal feature matters when it changes your decision about how to reach a place. A faster sprint is useful, but it does not necessarily create a new route. The games below stand out because their tools alter route choice in one or more of four ways:
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- New routes: construction or movement abilities let you cross gaps, bypass obstacles or reach previously impractical areas.
- Shortcuts: a tool removes part of a climb or journey without simply teleporting you to the destination.
- Different movement modes: flight, gliding, mounted travel or vehicles change the pace and viewpoint of exploration.
- Player-made infrastructure: roads, structures or shared objects can make future trips safer or more efficient.
These are editorial categories based on the documented mechanics, not an official scoring system. None of the publishers provides a comparable traversal-quality ranking, so the shortlist below is organized by travel style rather than a numerical “best to worst” order.
Quick comparison
| Game | Primary travel-changing tools | What the tools change | Exploration emphasis | Risk and improvisation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | Ultrahand, Ascend, Recall, Fuse | Build vehicles and bridges, create shortcuts through eligible surfaces, manipulate moving objects and adapt equipment | Vertical, aerial and overland travel across islands, the surface and the Depths | High improvisation; solutions are often constructed for the immediate terrain |
| Just Cause 4 | Wingsuit and customizable grappling hook | Links, launches and glides turn the landscape into a stunt route | Aerial movement over rainforest, desert and snowy mountains | Fast, spectacle-driven travel with constant momentum and experimentation |
| Elden Ring | Torrent, map beacons and markers, map fragments, updrafts and fast travel | Mounted movement reaches farther and higher while map tools support deliberate discovery | Overland and vertical exploration around connected landscapes and hidden dungeons | Combat danger remains part of travel; route planning can avoid or invite threats |
| Death Stranding Director’s Cut | Vehicles and Social Strand System contributions | Shared construction and resources can improve routes for you and other players | Infrastructure-led overland travel | Planning and logistics matter more than stunt movement |
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: build your route and bypass the terrain
Tears of the Kingdom is the strongest fit when exploration means inventing a way forward. Nintendo places Link in a world spanning floating islands, Hyrule’s surface and the underground Depths. The game’s four relevant abilities do different jobs, so travel is not one single system.
#1 Best Overall
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Ultrahand turns nearby objects into transport
Ultrahand lets Link pick up and move almost any object, then bond items into structures. Nintendo’s official description says: “Using the new Ultrahand ability, Link can pick up and move almost any object, and can even bond items together to create bridges, vehicles, and more.” A gap can therefore become a bridge problem, a vehicle problem or a problem solved with whatever materials happen to be nearby. The important change is not just speed; it is that the landscape supplies components for a route you design.
Vehicles are especially useful when the terrain is broad or inconvenient. A constructed machine can carry you over ground, water or open air, while a simpler platform or bridge can solve one obstacle and then be discarded. The system rewards experimentation, but it also introduces trade-offs: building takes time, parts may be awkwardly placed, and a contraption can be less predictable than walking.
Ascend creates vertical shortcuts
Ascend lets Link pass through certain solid objects above him and emerge on top. That can remove a conventional climb or let you reach an upper level from below. It is a shortcut rather than unrestricted phasing: the surface must be eligible and positioned above Link. Used well, Ascend changes how you read cliffs, ceilings and structures because the apparent route may be through the obstacle instead of around it.
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Recall and Fuse support adaptive travel
Recall reverses an object’s movement. In exploration, that can restore a moving platform’s path or turn an environmental object into a temporary ride. Fuse attaches objects to weapons, shields or arrows. Fuse is primarily an equipment ability, but it affects travel decisions whenever a fused item helps handle an obstacle or makes a particular approach practical. Together, these abilities make the same location solvable in several ways, depending on the objects and equipment available.
Choose this game if you enjoy stopping to build, testing unusual solutions and changing plans when the terrain offers a better idea. It is less suitable if you want uninterrupted high-speed movement or a carefully authored route with little tinkering.
Rank #2
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Nintendo’s UK page lists the original Nintendo Switch release, physical game card and digital editions, and a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. Check the edition and your console before buying: Nintendo’s official Tears of the Kingdom page.
Just Cause 4: turn the map into an aerial stunt course
Just Cause 4 is the direct choice for players who want travel to feel like continuous motion. Avalanche Studios describes protagonist Rico’s wingsuit and fully customizable grappling hook alongside skydiving, base jumping and free diving. Instead of constructing a vehicle, you connect yourself to the environment, launch through it and keep moving.
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The wingsuit gives you an aerial route over terrain that would otherwise require roads or a long climb. Its value is not a single fast trip; it is the ability to chain jumps, dives and glides so that hills, buildings and valleys become parts of one line through the world. The trade-off is control: maintaining height and direction is a movement challenge, and a bad approach can end the glide quickly.
The grappling hook is a customizable movement system
The hook can pull Rico toward objects and connect objects to one another. Avalanche’s official page presents it as fully customizable, while a Square Enix development feature explains that the tool retains its earlier core functionality while adding customization and new possibilities. Those sources establish flexibility, not a measured ranking of freedom or quality. Treat the hook as a toolkit for launching, pulling and arranging stunts rather than as a guaranteed shortcut through every obstacle.
Avalanche describes Solis as a South American setting containing rainforest, desert and snowy mountain peaks, with an area of 1,024 square kilometres. That is the developer’s 2018 description, not an independently standardized map-size comparison. The varied biomes give the wingsuit and hook different visual and movement contexts, but the game’s appeal is speed and spectacle rather than cautious route planning.
Rank #3
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Pick Just Cause 4 if your ideal exploration loop is “spot a high point, launch, grapple, glide and improvise.” It is a weaker match for players who want construction, persistent logistics or exploration where combat danger is the main reason to choose one route over another.
Official platform links list PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam: Avalanche Studios’ Just Cause 4 page. Square Enix’s design context is available in its behind-the-scenes feature.
Elden Ring: mount-enabled discovery with real danger
Elden Ring changes travel without turning the world into a sandbox construction set. Bandai Namco describes connected open landscapes and hidden dungeons, while its guide explains that players can place map beacons and markers, fast-travel to discovered checkpoints and summon Torrent outside dungeon areas.
Torrent changes the scale of overland travel
Torrent is a spectral steed that supports faster movement and lets the player explore farther and higher than on foot. Bandai Namco’s guide states: “For faster traversal, summon Torrent – your trusty spectral steed – at any time, anywhere outside of dungeon areas.” The qualification matters: the mount is available outside dungeon areas, so entering a dungeon changes the movement rules again.
Map tools make discovery deliberate
Beacons and markers let you record a point of interest or a route you intend to revisit. Fast travel works from discovered checkpoints, making reconnaissance useful even when you do not complete every detour. PlayStation’s feature describes map fragments that reveal more terrain detail and updrafts that can lift a mounted player toward new areas or away from danger. These systems support a cycle of seeing a clue, marking it, approaching on horseback and deciding whether the risk is worth continuing.
Rank #4
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The mount does not remove danger. Enemies, cliffs and hidden dungeons still make route choice consequential, and an updraft can be an escape as well as an ascent. That combination suits players who want travel to support discovery while preserving the possibility of ambush or defeat. It is a different feeling from the uninterrupted aerial momentum of Just Cause 4 or the engineered solutions of Tears of the Kingdom.
Bandai Namco lists PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC in its platform information. Read the official Elden Ring guide and PlayStation’s explanation of its map and traversal innovations for the documented systems.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Death Stranding Director’s Cut: make routes better through infrastructure
Death Stranding Director’s Cut is an adjacent recommendation rather than a direct substitute for the three movement-focused games above. 505 Games describes it as an open-world action adventure with additional weapons and vehicles. Its Social Strand System lets players contribute resources toward structures in their own and other players’ worlds.
Travel is shaped by networks, not just movement abilities
The central appeal for this list is the idea that a route can improve because players invest in infrastructure. A difficult journey can become more manageable when construction and shared resources support later trips. The official page does not detail every structure or traversal item, so this recommendation should stay at that system level rather than promising a specific bridge, road or machine.
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Best Value
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- Powerful Pass-Through Charging: Supports up to 85W pass-through charging so you can power up your laptop while you use the hub. Note: Pass-through charging requires a charger (not included). Note: To achieve full power for iPad, we recommend using a 45W wall charger.
- Transfer Files in Seconds: Move files to and from your laptop at speeds of up to 5 Gbps via the USB-C and USB-A data ports. Note: The USB C 5Gbps Data port does not support video output.
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The official page reports that Death Stranding had captivated “over 20 million players worldwide” as of 2025. That is a publisher-reported reach figure, not an independently audited current sales total or a quality score. The reviewed page is the PC Director’s Cut page and also records an Xbox Series X|S availability announcement; verify the current storefront listing for your platform at purchase: 505 Games’ official Death Stranding page.
Which exploration style should you choose?
Choose construction and vertical shortcuts
Choose Tears of the Kingdom when you want the terrain to function as a box of parts. Ultrahand addresses gaps and distances, Ascend addresses vertical barriers, Recall addresses moving objects and Fuse expands your equipment options. The cost is a willingness to experiment and occasionally rebuild.
Choose aerial speed and stunts
Choose Just Cause 4 when the joy is maintaining momentum. The wingsuit and customizable grappling hook make launching, gliding and connecting to the environment the core travel experience. Expect spectacle and improvisation, not a shared construction economy or careful survival route planning.
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Choose Elden Ring when you want a mount and map tools to widen exploration without making the world safe. Torrent improves reach, map fragments and markers improve orientation, and updrafts add vertical possibilities, but hostile areas continue to shape every decision.
Choose infrastructure and shared progress
Choose Death Stranding Director’s Cut when the idea of improving routes for future journeys appeals more than instant mobility. Its documented Social Strand System makes player-supported construction the distinguishing concept, while vehicles provide additional transport options.
Platforms, editions and buying checks
| Game | Documented platform or edition information | What to verify before purchase |
|---|---|---|
| Tears of the Kingdom | Nintendo Switch; Nintendo Switch 2 Edition; physical game card and digital editions listed by Nintendo UK | Whether you need the original Switch release or the Switch 2 Edition, and whether you want physical or digital |
| Just Cause 4 | PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam links on Avalanche’s page | Store availability and edition contents on your chosen platform |
| Elden Ring | PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC in Bandai Namco’s guide | Current platform storefront, edition and any hardware requirements |
| Death Stranding Director’s Cut | Official PC Director’s Cut page; Xbox Series X|S availability announcement recorded on the page | Current platform listing and whether you are buying the Director’s Cut rather than another edition |
No accessory is required to use the traversal systems described here. Nintendo’s page also presents optional themed hardware and compatible amiibo, but those are extras rather than prerequisites for exploration.
Bottom line: match the tool to the kind of journey you want
Tears of the Kingdom is the most complete answer to “Which open-world game lets me change how I travel?” because it combines built vehicles, vertical shortcuts, object manipulation and equipment adaptation. Just Cause 4 is the specialist pick for aerial movement and grappling-hook stunts. Elden Ring is best when a mount and map tools should expand discovery without removing danger. Death Stranding Director’s Cut belongs on the list for players who see exploration as a network that becomes more usable through shared infrastructure.
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