Some games have you walking around exploring, finding new things, etc., and some let you take over. Hi, it’s Abrar Khan, and today on game ranks, 10 games let you conquer areas. Now, before we get going, just to clarify, we’re going to avoid Forex games, strategy games, and RTS games because that’s basically what those games are about.
10 Open World Games in 2023
Now, what we’re doing here is listing games that are in genres you wouldn’t normally associate with conquering, which makes them a little bit more unique because they stand out among a field of other games that just have nothing to do with that. Let’s start out with a pretty good example.
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10. Satisfactory
Like few games let you impact the natural world as much as this one, it sounds pretty basic on paper, like it’s a factory building game. Where you start with pretty much nothing, you’re in an unexplored alien landscape, and you build up your base, it’s a survival game like Subnautica, except building your base is the primary goal, and it can very quickly spiral out of control.
At first, you have a tiny little shack and some simple automation, but you play the game for a few hundred hours, and this once-untouched world is covered in conveyor belts, roads, walkways, and well, factories just everywhere. satisfactory is all about taking a wild and dangerous world and making it your own; look at the massive bases. You can build in this game if that’s not conquering; I don’t really know what is, and I think this provides a pretty good example of what to expect.
9. Dying Light 2
Tons of open world action games have some form of territory control in them, like Far Cry games, a lot of Assassin’s Creed games, Fallout 4, Mad Max: The Ghost of Tsushima, and the list pretty much goes on. Any of these games would work for a list like this, but to me, Dying Light 2 is probably one of the more elaborate and interesting versions of this. What makes TWO different is that you’re not just taking abandoned camps and turning areas red or blue, and that’s it.
It’s a process that’s a little more involved depending on where you are in the game. Different territories can be controlled by different factions. The three main ones are the peacekeepers, the survivors, and the hostile renegades. When you take over territory, it doesn’t just become friendly; you also get to decide which faction gets it. which affects what kind of faction rewards you get and also drastically changes what the area looks like when you’re with the peacekeepers.
then the place becomes a more militarised area with soldiers and metal walls, where if you hand it over to the survivors, it becomes more green. There are traders, there’s traversal equipment littered around, etc. These changes really make it feel like what you do has a direct impact on the world and the environment, and the world really does look a lot different. when you end the game compared to where you started, and you actually have input.
It’s not just that these areas change; it’s that you make decisions that change them. Not everything about the game is great, but when it comes to conquering, it’s probably one of the best open-world games out there.
8. Red Faction Guerrilla
Destruction and Conquest Basically, the name of the game here is that the entire game revolves around going into enemy-controlled territory and literally tearing down all of their structures and storming bases. basically the opposite of factorio or satisfactory: instead of building it up, you’re smashing it all down, and even now it’s incredibly satisfying watching some of what you’ve carefully built come crashing out after you’ve carefully destroyed it.
all the support beams and load-bearing walls, it’s satisfying, but all that destruction actually serves an in-game purpose too once an enemy base is reduced to a pile of rubble. It’s gone for good. Destroying EDF property also builds up the resistance meter, and once that’s full, you can trigger a mission that pushes the enemies out of the region for good.
where you can clear out territory and make it safe, but the fact you’re literally destroying bases and sabotaging things with explosives makes active conquest feel a little more hands-on than it does in a lot of other games. Like, take a moment and look around after clearing out a particularly tough base. You can actually see how much you affect the world with your actions.
It’s simple, but it’s one of the most entertaining open-world action games out there, and I really don’t think anyone has matched this game; the closest I can think of is Teardown nowadays, but you’re not really conquering any, you’re doing specific stuff there. I would love to see a spiritual successor to Red Faction Gorilla with the kind of destruction that it has or better.
7. Dragon Quest Builders 2
An underrated game that at first glance doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with Conquest but is actually one of the best examples out there. The premise is very simple: it’s Minecraft. But with like Dragon Quest and a story, how the game plays out is that you go on an island covered in miasmas where everything’s corrupted and ruled by monsters, and you slowly but surely transform the environment to take back the town and transform what starts out.
as a nasty-looking dump into a beautiful place filled with happy townspeople. The way you eventually transform the world of the game is really impressive too, especially your main base on the Isle of Awakening. Where you take place is pretty much nothing, and you build rivers, forests, lakes, farms, and all kinds of stuff, and it’s all part of the story.
It’s not just something you can do if you want to; it’s one of your main objectives; you literally want to change the world and make it look nicer. In general, the game has a lot of quality of life improvements that would be nice to see in Minecraft as well, and while it’s less of a sandbox in that game, the way you can transform the world to your liking is nonetheless very sad and is fine.
6. Overlord
Less of a building game and more of an unusual RPG/RTS hybrid, the Overlord games are all about generating a small army of goblins and rampaging around these idyllic fantasy environments until you eventually transform them into blasted, hellish places fit for an evil Overlord. Basically, the world is Hobbiton, and you eventually turn it into your own personal Mordor.
The second game is especially good about this. So the world literally changes as you slowly take over the first game, which is mostly just about destruction. The second, you can see how the environment becomes more and more evil as you destroy enemies and smash anything in your way, and yeah, by the time you’re done, you’re done. A lot of these plays are almost unrecognizable.
There are plenty of games where you can destroy stuff, but not a whole lot about being an evil mastermind invading the world with goblins. It’s a fun and unique concept that would be pretty cool to see return in some way in the future too, but we’ll see.
5. State of Decay 2
The base’s conquering mechanics and Dying Light to her are cool visually, but in practice there’s not really a lot to them. In comparison, State of Decay 2 is a lot more complex instead of just being your standard open world zombie action game. Instead, Decay 2 places a lot more emphasis on base building logistics instead of just playing as a single survivor.
Here you play as a whole group, and you have to think about things like food and water to keep people alive, as well as entertainment and maintaining your base. You can assign people jobs in your base and send them out to collect resources, and yeah, you gotta fight off zombies fairly often.
There are other survivors as well, and depending on your choices, they can be friendly or hostile, which should come as no surprise. At a certain point, it’s possible to conquer enemy territory and take their base by force. This is all but necessary if you want to keep expanding your group of survivors eventually.
The base you’re in is just too small to accommodate everyone, and watching your group of survivors expand and thrive is probably one of the best things about the game. It’s one of the more unique entries in an overstuffed zombie game genre. I’m interested to see how developers move on and develop stuff further in state of decay 3.
4. Viking: Battle for Asgard
Another relatively unknown game from 2008 that I think deserves a little recognition was created by the creative assembly guys behind Total War Games. It’s kind of like if you took a total war game like Dynasty Warriors and combined it with Breath of the Wild, a strange combination I know that works way better than it has any right to. and it actually feels like it was ahead of its time when you look back at it.
The basic gist is that you start off with this huge map, and it’s your goal as the titular Viking to explore the map, destroy enemy outposts, free captured soldiers, and build up your army to eventually take on a gigantic fortress. At the end of the level, what makes it unique is that you’re basically playing an open world game, but you’re in a massive battlefield a lot of the time.
You’re tasked with opening gates and lowering bridges, which takes you behind enemy lines, and in this situation, you pretty much have to sneak because there are entire regiments of enemy soldiers marching around. If they catch you in debt, the most memorable moments are definitely the big Siege battles. Being just one soldier in these giant fights really gives you the feeling of conquest that few games capture.
Just seeing this many soldiers running around this previously empty open world area is impressive; most new games can’t create battles this big or impressive looking, and it leads one to ask why the actual world doesn’t change that much. But few third-person action games really make you feel like a conqueror than this one.
3. Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories
They took it a little bit further in Vice City Stories, where you had to buy land plots, develop stuff into businesses, and occasionally defend them with a team of gunners. It came out on the PS Ponand iPSP, kind of one of those forgotten GTA games.
Vice City Stories has a really large amount going for it, and tit, and main feature that makes it stand out isf into businesses and occasionally defend them with a team of gunns even though. it originally came out of the PSP and it’s kind of one of those forgotten GTA games.
Vice City Stories has a really large amount going for it the main feature that makes it stand out. Instead of just being a basic thing where you can buy a few properties like in Vice City, the gang warfare mechanics in this game greatly expand the concept and turn it into an entire empire.
In management mode, you can take enemy territory, upgrade existing businesses, and occasionally even defend your properties when they get attacked. It’s interesting, it’s fun, and it’s not too complicated. So it’s enjoyable to play around with being able to upgrade your properties and convert them into different businesses;
this is also a lot of fun, and it’s cool to see how much the interior changes depending on how much money you put into it. It’s not the most complicated thing. Conquest mode in video games is one of the most fun while really making it feel like you’re taking over in a tangible way.
2. The Saboteur
Set in German-controlled Paris during World War II: the game is all about taking back the city one Dead Nazi at a time. It’s kind of similar to the Red Faction Gorilla, not necessarily in destruction, but the world is covered in checkpoints, spaces, and depots that are just waiting to be destroyed.
In that game, you could go nuts with explosives, but in this one, you got to be a little smarter and more careful. It has a kind of almost hitman-like approach where you need to slowly and carefully dismantle an enemy base with explosives while never getting caught, which is challenging but also very satisfying to pull off.
When you finally clear out an enemy disc, the colour of the world changes from black and white to color, and the entire demeanour of the place changes. It’s simple, but it’s also a very effective way of showing how your actions affect the world, and conquering areas has this huge effect on gameplay too.
When you first find a Nazi-controlled area, it’s covered in AA guns, tanks, and checkpoints that make the simple act of getting around a pain, but once it’s been cleared, it becomes super easy to explore. The Saboteur can be a little rough around the edges, but when it comes to Conquest, few games are as satisfying as this.
1. Mount & Blade II Bannerlord
These are big strategy games with one major difference: instead of issuing commands in the abstract, what if you literally played as the leader and commanded armies on foot? It’s a small change that makes a huge difference in what these games are and how they play.
Mountain Blade 2 is a game that’s actually still in early access, but there’s enough content there to easily land it at number one. Where you literally are a conqueror on your own terms, that means you can be a simple vassal, a mercenary, or a full-blown leader in your own right, storming castles and bringing kingdoms to ruin under your iron boot.
It’s a really cool game with some of the most immersive and exciting sieges ever seen in games, and you have direct control over how they play out.
If you want to be a real conqueror, games don’t get much better than this, and that’s all for today, leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
