One of the greatest things about modern games is the inclusion of a lot of extra side quests to go along with the larger worlds the games put forth. Typically, these side quests are just small things with no real impact on the overarching story at work, though some occasionally put in a quip here or there about them. Some even will essentially require side questing to be done in order to progress, making the player have a little more exploration and picking out their own way of doing things.
Then there are some games where their side quests are more fun to do than the actual storyline. Players spend hours of additional time running through different side quests, mini-games, and other sorts of features deemed extra by the game itself.
10 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla Basically Requires It
There's plenty to do in the new, Open World Assassin's Creed games, and Valhalla is no exception. The newest installment basically forces the player at multiple points to go about and complete side missions in order to progress their skills and carry on with different parts of the game.
However, the story itself is a little less interesting than some of the side quests, especially at every single one of the Animus Anomalies. At least those are more interesting than modern inclusions from some of the other games, but they still take away from the heavy exploration and questing of the rest of the game and thus feels a bit more forced in. Which seems a little odd, considering those are part of the overarching plot.
9 Destiny 2 Can Accidentally Complete All The Side Quests First
The side quests in Destiny 2 are so seamlessly put into the world that they have a tendency to suck in players for long enough that they forget when they broke off of the main story. They are highly engaging and never really feel like they should really be part of the main story.
Then rolling back to the actual quest is a little lackluster in comparison, leading to many players just running around, completing all of the side quests, and then restarting the game.
8 Dragon Age Inquisition Builds On Itself
The best part about the side quests in Dragon Age Inquisition is that they build upon each other and are often intertwining. Oftentimes, a choice made in one quest affects another, especially after the player makes it to Skyhold and can pass judgment on key characters they have met throughout the game.
They don't always flow together seamlessly, but the fact that there was such an effort to make the quests link here and there makes for a great time exploring, hunting, bothering, and completing as many quests as possible to see how things change.
7 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Has More Interesting Faction Questlines
Skyrim may be one of the biggest Open World juggernauts of the modern-day gaming scene, having set the stage for numerous other games and still having a decade's worth of staying power. Part of that is due to its extremely rich side quests and impressively long and detailed faction quests.
Some of them even link together a little bit, such as how Delvin reacts based on where they are in the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines when he becomes relevant. Outside of the faction quests and some other tasty, but much shorter, side quests, the whole plot of Skyrim can be left to the Nords.
6 Fallout: New Vegas Doesn't Allow Post-Game Exploration Anyway
Fallout New Vegas filled its world up with so many side quests that it could have been the point of the game from the start. What bothers some players is that after following the main story, the game is done. There is no going back post-game to pick up some of the missed quests.
The game forces players to run through the first time and be careful about what they do and do not accomplish, leading to plenty of players just running around completing as many side quests as possible well before actually going through with the intended game, if they get there at all.
5 Fallout 4 The Second The Jetpack Is Is A Game Changer
Fallout 4 introduces a jetpack that allows for the player to temporarily fly at the expense of AP. The side quests were already fun to do, but then having a jetpack makes them so much easier, fun, and makes for less time between them.
Once the jetpack is picked up, the game might as well be handed over to the side quests. Many players stop proceeding with the actual game and use the ease of movement to just slam through all of the side quests.
4 God of War Allowed Both Kratos & Atreus Development
The side quests in the original God of War games makes it so that the player actually gets to see some development behind Atreus. The character development between Kratos and Atreus can actually get explored in good detail, something that the main story is lacking on.
Unlike most games, the side quests don't make for just Kratos getting good bonuses and that's really appealing to some players. There's not even a whole lot of them, but it really helps add some depth to the characters and hones their skills effectively.
3 Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Has So Many
Breath of the Wild is a massive Open World game that has changed the genre rapid-fire. It is filled to the brim with side quests, exploration, and all sorts of menial tasks, all of which are completely optional.
Players can sit down with a copy of Breath of the Wild and do nothing but side quests for entire days and still not run through them all. It's a good thing that they are a lot of fun and more engaging than the majority of the main story.
2 Red Dead Redemption Side Quests Ups The Difficulty
Something later installments of the Red Dead Redemption games failed with was their side quests and additional content. In the original, they scaled with the player, making for them continuing to be difficult no matter how much work the player had put into the game at the time.
That attention and drive to keep things a challenge really worked in the game's favor and made it so they never lost their spark for the player. It helps too that some of the side quests are some of the most memorable parts of the game, leading to them being more fun and interesting than the rest of it.
1 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's Gwent Spawned A Standalone Game
Just because a game is an Open World and full of side quests doesn't mean that those are going to be enjoyed by the fanbase at all. They are additional, entirely optional for the player. Typically, the addition of little card minigames is pushed to the side too and only slogged through to get the good rewards at the end.
The Gwent card game got so popular within The Witcher 3 that CD Projekt Red ended up making a standalone game just for it, with some small alterations in 2018. This little card game was full of gorgeous art and its own little story. Most players could have even cared less about any rewards and instead would put the entire story on hold for just one more round of cards.