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Breath of the Wild and Bethesda’s Skyrim and Fallout 4 are built to make early detours feel worthwhile, through self-directed discovery, landmarks, dungeons, and useful materials. Elden Ring also invites wandering, but its director explicitly warns that exploration comes with danger. The key difference is not simply whether a world is open: it is whether you can choose your route, retreat from a hard encounter, and find rewards that matter to you.
What makes early exploration rewarding—or punishing?
An open map can offer freedom without making every route safe or every detour useful. To judge how a game treats early wandering, consider five questions:
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
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Open World: Video Games and Contemporary Art | $53.58 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Ghost of Tsushima - PlayStation 4 | $22.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Mad Max - PlayStation Hits (PS4) | $18.64 | Buy on Amazon |
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Just Cause 4 - PlayStation 4 | $11.80 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Elden Ring - PlayStation 4 | $33.15 | Buy on Amazon |
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- Access: How soon can you choose your own destination rather than follow a fixed route?
- Retreat: If an encounter is too difficult, can you leave and make progress elsewhere?
- Payoff: Do discoveries offer equipment, crafting materials, story, environmental clues, or memorable places?
- Signposting: Do landmarks and entrances invite exploration, and does the game give you cues about danger?
- Player skill: Does exploring help you learn the world and improve your decisions, or is the main benefit simply stronger gear?
The available evidence supports comparing these design features, not ranking every game or route by a shared difficulty or reward score.
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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: freedom after the tutorial
A 2018 Game Developer design analysis describes the game opening up after its tutorial, which the article estimates takes roughly an hour. It says the final quest becomes available alongside player-directed exploration, so wandering can be a goal in itself rather than a delay before the “real” game. That estimate belongs to the analysis; it is not a guaranteed playtime for every player.
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The analysis identifies several kinds of possible payoff: weapons and consumables, but also story and environmental discoveries. It argues that exploration can develop the player’s skill as well as their inventory. That distinction matters: a detour does not need to produce a powerful upgrade to feel valuable, and the analysis does not claim that every route guarantees one.
Skyrim and Fallout 4: follow the landmark, investigate the entrance
Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard has described a design principle of building worlds that pique curiosity and reward exploration. In examples reported by Game Developer, a player might notice something over the horizon or spot a small entrance that leads into a much larger dungeon in Skyrim or Fallout 4. These cues make it natural to stray from the obvious route, but they do not mean every encounter is tuned to your current strength. Howard also notes that open systems can produce unexpected chaos.
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Fallout 4 gives some seemingly ordinary finds a practical purpose. Its official game page describes optional settlement and crafting systems that give players a reason to search for components. Howard’s summary is: “You rip apart the world, and then you can build what you want.” If you engage with those systems, materials can make a detour useful even when it does not uncover a new weapon or story beat.
Elden Ring: freedom to roam, with danger in the bargain
Elden Ring is not an example of carefree early exploration. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki described it as “a world full of danger and threats, as well as many areas ripe for exploration” in a 2019 Xbox Wire interview. The warning is part of the design tension: a route may offer discovery and still lead into a serious threat.
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That does not mean a difficult encounter must block all progress. In a later PlayStation.Blog interview, Miyazaki described balancing exploration, boss fights, progression order, and the pace at which players move through the world. He said that someone facing an impasse can return later and try a different approach, and that he did not want newcomers to feel forced into a particular route: “I don’t want to enforce any playstyle or particular route because I’d like them to experience that sense of freedom.” In practical terms, a wall can be a cue to explore elsewhere and come back; this flexibility does not establish how difficult every early area will be.
How the games differ at a glance
| Game | What invites early exploration | What a detour may reward | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breath of the Wild | Player-directed exploration after the tutorial, as described by a 2018 Game Developer analysis | Weapons, consumables, story, environmental discoveries, and opportunities to build player skill, according to that analysis | Not every detour is established to give a powerful upgrade |
| Skyrim | Distant landmarks and small entrances that may lead to larger dungeons, examples described by Todd Howard in Game Developer | Dungeons and discoveries; specific early-route rewards are not stated in that source | Unexpected outcomes are possible in open systems; the source does not say every encounter is tuned to current strength |
| Fallout 4 | Landmarks and dungeon entrances, plus a wasteland to search for crafting and settlement components, according to Game Developer and the official game page | Components that can support crafting and settlement systems | The source describes optional systems, not guaranteed rewards for every detour |
| Elden Ring | Freedom to explore without a forced particular route, as Miyazaki explained in a PlayStation.Blog interview | Exploration and a chance to approach progression differently; specific early-route rewards are not stated in the cited interviews | Miyazaki explicitly pairs opportunities for exploration with danger, and says an impasse can be revisited later |
Which one fits your preferred kind of wandering?
- Choose Breath of the Wild if you want the post-tutorial world to open up for self-directed discovery, with a mix of item, story, environmental, and skill-based payoffs.
- Consider Skyrim if you enjoy following a distant landmark or investigating an unassuming entrance without knowing what it leads to.
- Consider Fallout 4 if collecting useful materials and putting them toward optional crafting or settlement systems makes exploration satisfying.
- Choose Elden Ring if you welcome danger alongside exploration and are comfortable leaving an impasse to pursue another route before returning.
These are design-based distinctions, not a universal verdict about which game is easiest or has the best early rewards. The cited sources do not establish a comprehensive guide to early routes, difficulty scaling, or objective outcomes for every player.
Quick Recap
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- ELDEN RING is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki—creator of the influential DARK SOULS video game series; and George R.R. Martin—author of The New York Times best-selling fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire
- Danger and discovery lurk around every corner in FromSoftware’s largest game to-date
- HIDETAKA MIYAZAKI: President and Game Director of FromSoftware Inc. Known for directing critically-acclaimed games in beloved franchises including Armored Core and Dark Souls
- GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: the #1 The New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire—A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast For Crows, and A Dance with Dragons
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