Yes, I know most people nowadays are sick of the same old formula or the "ubisoft" formula. But I still like it. It's just the perfect example of dumb fun. Some of the games which I had the most fun with in the last few years were from this genre-

1. Horizon Forbidden west

2. Ghost of Tsushima

3. Spider Man 2018

4. Horizon zero dawn

5. Watch Dogs 2

6. My 3rd playthrough of Far Cry 4

7. Far cry 6

8. Assassins Creed Odyessy

9. Fallout 4

10. Assassins Creed Origins

All of these games at their core follow the same formula, but because of their gameplay, are so fun that I could play them all day long.

It's a pretty repetitive formula. It's the same thing. Go to an 'outpost'. Kill a bunch of enemies any way you like and then get some fine loot. It's just taking down a bunch of enemies, but it's fun because that's what I'm there for. I just want to kill a bunch of enemies and have a good time. It's a nice change of pace from following the story and waiting for actual gameplay chances. Somedays when I'm tired after studying or exercising, I don't wanna watch a bunch of cutscenes or explore a area trying to find something to do or read item descriptions to decipher the littlest piece of lore I can, I just wanna kill a bunch of enemies or do some random side quest.

The one game in that list which I would consider to be the most different from the others was Horizon Forbidden West. It kinda combines the whole exploration and outpost system to such a extent that it feels perfect. It's at a point where it doesn't even feel like a generic open world game. It's just so fun and engaging. It's the best of both worlds. Plus the side content like the side quests and outposts are just so much fun. It's one of my absolute favorite open world games and it shows that if you put enough time and love into the open world, people will like it.

I also played through Breath of the wild this jan which was very different from these games. The whole game is revolved around its open world. It was pretty engaging especially it's main quests. But sadly it's combat was pretty mid and the weapon durability system absolutely sucked so I didn't like the open world as much as I wanted to. Also it filled it's open world with "shrines" instead of outposts which was way less fun imo. It would have been nice for someone who really likes puzzles but other than that it's just ok.