20 Best PS3 Open World Games

Grand Theft Auto IV follows Niko Bellic, an Eastern European war veteran trying to escape his past while high-profile criminals lean on him. Liberty City has four boroughs across three islands, plus the neighbouring state of Alderney, which is based on New Jersey. Rockstar's team captured over 100,000 photographs of New York for research, and the budget climbed to over US$100 million. It earned US$310 million on its first day.

Critics praised the story and the open-world design, and it had sold over 25 million copies by 2013. It is the gloomier Grand Theft Auto, and it sits at the bottom here mostly because its own sequel is further up. Players still list it among the PS3 games worth owning, and one went out of their way to say so: "Grand Theft Auto IV (that's right, GTA 4)".

The Phantom Pain was Hideo Kojima's final work at Konami, and it came out on September 1, 2015 on the PS3 and the newer consoles at once. It follows the stand-alone prologue Ground Zeroes. Snake can sneak in or go in loud, with help from AI companions. Enemy soldiers and resources you find can be carried back to your headquarters, and this time you can walk around Mother Base on foot instead of only seeing it from the air.

Critics praised the gameplay and the open world, and it is considered one of the greatest video games ever made. The story and the changes to the series formula divided people. PS3 owners who played it there still name it among their favourites on the console.

Hideaki Itsuno came up with Dragon's Dogma in 2000. You play the Arisen, out to defeat the dragon Grigori in Gransys, a high fantasy world inspired by Sicily, and three AI companions called Pawns fight beside you. The big idea is the monsters. You can grab onto a griffin's legs, or climb all the way up to its head for a deadlier blow. Itsuno's complaint about other games was that with big enemies "the tendency is just to have you hacking away at the shins."

Critics liked the gameplay and were less kind about the story. An enhanced version, Dark Arisen, came out for the same consoles in 2013, and the two had sold 9.4 million units by December 2025. Players who like their RPGs with real action put it right next to Demon's Souls and Dark Souls.

L.A. Noire is a detective game set in Los Angeles in 1947. You play an LAPD officer solving cases across five divisions, searching crime scenes for clues and interrogating suspects, and how well you do changes how much of each case's story you get. The cases were drawn from real crimes reported by the Los Angeles media in 1947. There is even an option to play the whole thing in black and white.

It was the first video game honoured as an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival. Critics praised the facial animation and the interrogations, while the shooting and driving got mixed responses. That is about right. You are here to read faces, and the car chases are what happens between cases. Players still keep it on their lists of PS3 games worth playing.

Saints Row 2 picks up right after the first game. Your custom character wakes from a coma after five years to find the 3rd Street Saints disbanded, and their old turf split between three new gangs and a corrupt corporation called Ultor. The developers went for a more comedic tone to set it apart from Grand Theft Auto, and it shows. One of the new gangs is the Brotherhood, who are metalheads running guns.

Reviews liked the action and picked on technical issues and a lack of new ideas. The Windows port got it much worse than the console versions did. By September 2010 the game had sold 3.4 million units. Players still put it with the crime games they love on the PS3, often as the start of a run through Saints Row 2 to 4.

Mafia II takes place in Empire Bay between 1945 and 1951, and you play Vito Scaletta working his way up through organized crime. Work on it started in 2003, and it was first meant for the PS2 and Xbox before moving to the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2005. The game has 50 era-accurate vehicles, and they handle differently depending on the weather. Three in-game radio stations play licensed music with news and commercials between songs.

Critics praised the story and characters, but did not like how restrictive the world design was. That is fair. Empire Bay is mostly a gorgeous stage for a crime movie, and you will spend more time in the story than out of it. Players who want a good mob story on the PS3 still recommend it.

Just Cause 2 sends Rico Rodriguez to Panau, a made-up island nation in Southeast Asia, to overthrow the dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay. Avalanche Studios felt the first game was an opportunity missed and called this one a "sequel waiting to be made". Panau is an open-world paradise with no laws, and you use land, sea and air to cause as much chaos as you can. The ending involves a nuclear missile, and Panay's clothing snags on it.

It sold over six million copies, more than anyone had planned for. Players are honest about this one. The story is thin and nobody minds, because the island is huge, you can go anywhere on it, and blowing it up is endless fun.

Assassin's Creed II moves the series to an open world based on late 15th-century Renaissance Italy, with a new hero, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. You get the rooftops and canals of Venice to climb. Leonardo builds you specialized weapons like dual hidden blades and a hidden gun, and the family villa in Monteriggioni works as Ezio's headquarters. On PS3 you could unlock six extra weapons by connecting a PSP that had Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines on it.

It sold more than nine million copies within six months and is considered one of the best video games ever made. Two chapters were cut for time and came out later as downloadable expansions. When players argue about which Assassin's Creed to play, this is still the one that gets their vote.

The Saboteur puts you in 1940s Paris under Nazi occupation, as a saboteur named Sean with a long list of enemies to hunt down. Where the Germans are strong, soldiers are everywhere and getting spotted is easy. Pick a fight with them in the right part of town, though, and the French Resistance and even passing French civilians step in against the occupiers. It was the final game Pandemic Studios made before the studio closed in 2009.

Reviews were mixed to positive. Critics liked the setting and the amount of content, and complained about repetition and a general unpolished feel. Players call it an underrated gem, and it comes up whenever they talk about the PS3 games people missed.

Infamous was Sucker Punch's change of pace after the Sly Cooper games. Cole survives a horrific catastrophe and finds he has superpowers, in a city inspired by New York and spread across three islands, each with its own elevated train system and power grid. The Karma system tracks what you do with your powers. You can stop to help injured citizens, or drain their health to restore your own. The cut scenes look like comic book panels, like the ones in Sly Cooper.

Reviewers found the combat and enemies repetitive. Prototype came out the following month with a lot in common with it, and the two were compared constantly. Players almost always name it in the same breath as its sequel, as a pair to play back to back.

Sleeping Dogs is set in contemporary Hong Kong, where you play Wei Shen, an undercover cop who infiltrates the Sun On Yee triad. It started out as a True Crime game until Activision Blizzard canceled it in 2011. Six months later Square Enix bought the publishing rights and gave it a new name. The team at United Front visited Hong Kong for field research on the look and sound of the city.

The fighting is what sets it apart. It is mostly martial arts, with counters that have been compared to Batman: Arkham Asylum, and firearms are scarce: you can normally carry only one gun at a time. It had sold over 1.5 million units by September 2012. Players keep recommending it, and they do it with real affection.

Far Cry 3 drops Jason Brody on the Rook Islands, a tropical archipelago in the Pacific controlled by pirates and mercenaries. You can approach missions in a variety of ways, and the team avoided creating distinct levels. The villain is Vaas Montenegro, played by Michael Mando, whom the team compared to Darth Vader. Development was partially restarted in 2010 after several key creative staff left.

Despite weak pre-order sales, it sold 10 million copies. Critics singled out the characters, Vaas most of all, and were less fond of the multiplayer. Players still recommend it often, and for a lot of them it is the Far Cry they think of first.

New Vegas is set in the Mojave Desert, 204 years after a nuclear war. You play a courier who is robbed, shot and put into a shallow grave by a New Vegas mob boss, and then sets out to track the robbers down. Obsidian had 18 months to make it, which journalists noted is a very short time for a game this size. Project director Josh Sawyer wanted the story to focus on greed and excess.

Critics praised the writing and quests, and criticized the numerous glitches at launch. It went on to sell an estimated 11.6 million copies. Players who loved Fallout 3 almost always tell you to play this one right after, and plenty of them like it even more. Both games have a lot of desert to cover, so pace yourself.

Arkham City sends Batman into a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City that has been walled off as a prison for its thugs and gangsters. Paul Dini wrote it with Paul Crocker and Sefton Hill. Hugo Strange knows Bruce Wayne is Batman, and releases him into the prison's criminal population before Alfred gets his gear to him by airdrop. Later the Penguin keeps the monster Solomon Grundy locked up in a fortified museum.

It tied with Skyrim as the highest-rated video game of 2011 on Metacritic. Critics praised the world design along with Batman's combat and navigation. Players rank it with the very best games on the PS3, never mind the open world ones.

The first Assassin's Creed came out on PS3 and Xbox 360 in November 2007. You play Altaïr, a 12th-century Assassin during the Third Crusade, who botches a mission at Solomon's Temple and has to earn his honour back one assassination at a time. The twist is that it is all a memory. His descendant Desmond Miles relives it through a machine called the Animus, and now and then the game pulls you out to play as Desmond.

Critics praised its story and art design, and most of the complaints were about how repetitive the gameplay got. It won several awards at E3 2006, a year before it came out. Players often recommend the whole run of PS3 Assassin's Creeds, and this is where that run begins.

Infamous 2 takes Cole to New Marais, a Southern city inspired by New Orleans, after he is blamed for the destruction of Empire City. The music was inspired by New Orleans as well, and the band Galactic is among the composers. Eric Ladin took over as Cole's voice, because Sucker Punch wanted someone who could also do the motion capture. The Karma moments are back: the action pauses and you get a Good or an Evil option.

Critics praised the city design and how it felt to move through it, and criticized the Karma system and the camera. A standalone expansion, Festival of Blood, followed on October 25, 2011. Players recommend it constantly, and they rank it above the first game.

Fallout 3 was the first Fallout Bethesda made after getting the rights to the series from Interplay. It is set around Washington, D.C., 200 years after a nuclear war, and lead designer Emil Pagliarulo wanted it oppressive and bleak. Todd Howard wanted the combat to mix real-time and turn-based play, so shooter fans and RPG fans would both feel at home. The Cold War dread comes wrapped in kitschy 1950s nuclear propaganda.

It shipped almost five million copies in its first week. Critics praised the open-ended gameplay and flexible character-leveling, and it is considered one of the best video games ever made. Players name it among the PS3's best games, full stop, and plenty of them have lost whole weekends in its wasteland.

Skyrim came out on November 11, 2011, the fifth main game in The Elder Scrolls series. The team opted for a rugged, largely sub-arctic world after the Imperial Province of Cyrodiil in Oblivion. You can play any type of character you can imagine, and you build that character by completing quests and improving skills. The Legendary Edition from June 2013 bundles the game with all three add-ons, and it is the version to get.

It shipped over seven million units within the first week, and by July 2026 its total sales had reached 65 million copies. Critics praised the world design and the dual-wielding, and complained about the melee combat and the technical issues at launch. Players keep it close to the top whenever they list the best of the PS3.

Grand Theft Auto V came to the PS3 in September 2013, late in the console's life. You roam Los Santos, based on Los Angeles, and the open-world countryside of San Andreas around it. There are three lead characters, and outside of the missions you can switch between them at will. Franklin Clinton starts out working for a corrupt car salesman, which is how he meets Michael. Rockstar drew on its own Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3 to build it.

It earned $800 million in its first day and $1 billion in its first three days, which made it the fastest-selling entertainment product in history. Players name it with the very best on the console, and only one open world game gets recommended more on the PS3.

Red Dead Redemption follows John Marston, a relic of the fast-closing time of the gunslinger, as he hunts down his old gang mates for the government, who have taken away his family. Development lasted over five years, and the team took field trips to Washington, D.C. and studied classic Western films. Dead Eye lets you mark targets and then fire at all of them in quick succession. Your Honor changes how people treat you, from store discounts to doors closing in your face.

Bill Elm and Woody Jackson composed the original score. It won Game of the Year awards from several publications and is considered among the greatest video games ever made. The Undead Nightmare add-on sends Marston after a cure for a zombie plague, and players say it is worth playing too. Players recommend Red Dead Redemption more than any other open world game on the PS3.