5 Best Open World PS3 Games You Forgot Were Awesome

The PlayStation 3 era was a great time for fans of open-world games. With the added power of the console, developers were able to pack much more into each game, giving players dozens of hours of activities, missions, and most importantly, fun. Great games like Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, and Assassin’s Creed II ruled the day, but a few other games are still worth checking out. These games might not be as fondly remembered by most, but those in the know will understand how great these games are.

Here are five PlayStation 3 open-world games you may have forgotten.

5) Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

Web of Shadows has largely been overshadowed by its more famous cousins. Anyone looking back at Spider-Man games of yesteryear will almost always point to Spider-Man 2 on the PlayStation 2, and nowadays, the Marvel’s Spider-Man series is the only real game in town.

That said, Web of Shadows is a quality game, regardless of platform. See, there are actually two versions of this one. If you were playing on the PS2, PSP, or Nintendo DS, you were treated to a solid 2.5D beat ’em up. Players on more modern systems, including the PS3, got a large open world to play in.

The storyline and a few technical issues kept it from becoming a major hit, but running and swinging around this version of Manhattan was always a blast. There’s plenty to do, including random events that help you unlock new moves for Web of Shadows‘ combat encounters. It’s not quite as good as Marvel’s Spider-Man, but it wasn’t bad for the era.

4) The Saboteur

The Saboteur has one of the best gimmicks of the era. You’re playing as a character trying to make it in Nazi-occupied Paris. When the game begins, most of the world is in black and white. As you take down the Nazis, color slowly starts to seep back into Paris, showing a real-time symbol of the French Resistance. It’s an effective mechanic that helped The Saboteur stand out in this crowded genre.

Unfortunately, developer Pandemic Studios was let down by an unpolished product. There were numerous visual, gameplay, and audio bugs, and the enemy AI was middling at best. Still, it was a unique take on the genre that had plenty of awesome ideas. It didn’t quite land the plane, which is why it didn’t sell as well as it should. Those who played it will remember The Saboteur fondly.

3) Just Cause 2

The Just Cause series has always been about excess. Developer Avalanche Studios wants to drop players into a massive world and let them go wild with all of the different tools at their disposal. That toolset includes the series’ trademark grappling hook, which lets you tether objects together to create some truly wild scenarios.

Over the years, Just Cause has had new games of varying quality, but Just Cause 2 is the peak for most players. Not only is the open world absolutely massive (coming in at 390 square miles), but the freeform gameplay is bristling with opportunities for players to cause mayhem. This is chaos personified, and if you don’t have a blast racing through the world with Rico Rodriguez, you just don’t understand how to have fun. If you’re looking for something completely over the top, you don’t need to look further than Just Cause 2.

2) Prototype

Prototype is one of the quintessential open-world superhero games of the era. That doesn’t mean it’s one of the best games; in fact, I’d argue it’s somewhat middling. However, it’s impossible to deny that developer Radical Entertainment did a great job hitting its potential. Remember, this game came out right alongside the first Infamous, which was a much bigger hit, and it had to compete with other superhero games featuring popular IPs.

So, while it wasn’t a showstopper, the first Prototype gave players a wonderful version of Manhattan to explore. Using your powers, you’ll zip around the town, laying waste to any enemy that gets into your path. While it lost the war to Infamous in the public consciousness, it might have a better open world and combat. If you just want to blitz through enemies while marveling at the sights of Manhattan, you can’t go wrong with Prototype. I’d just caution you not to bother with the sequel.

1) Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs isn’t just a forgotten open-world game; it’s one of the best in the genre. Developer United Front Games’ masterpiece started life as a True Crime, but eventually became its own thing when it was acquired by Square Enix. Somehow, the developers took on the incredibly successful Grand Theft Auto crime drama formula and, in many ways, beat Rockstar at its own game.

You play as an undercover cop named Wei Shen. This guy isn’t your normal cop either. He is one of the best martial artists in gaming history, and you’ll use his skills to gruesome effect in Sleeping Dogs‘ best-in-class melee combat. Seriously, anyone who has an issue with GTA‘s floaty combat needs to check out Sleeping Dogs. This is how you do it.

Beyond the combat, Sleeping Dogs features one of the most lived-in cities of the era. Hong Kong feels like a real place and is chock-full of things to do. Toss in a captivating story and an engaging progression system that lets you choose between being a good or dirty cop, and you have one of the must-play games of the PS3 era. It’s a shame we never got a sequel to expand on all of the phenomenal ideas United Front introduced.

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