Elden Ring's world was designed specifically for players who leave the marked path. Entire regions — Nokron, Mohgwyn Palace, the Consecrated Snowfield — are hidden behind non-obvious requirements that reward exploration and item discovery. The Siofra River, discovered by descending an elevator in an unremarkable part of Limgrave, opens into a vast underground world that stops players cold. These discoveries cannot be accidentally stumbled upon — they require the player to be curious.

Outer Wilds has no map, no quest markers, and no difficulty-gating. The entire game is a puzzle that can only be solved through exploration. Every discovery adds to your understanding of what is happening in the solar system. The game does not tell you where to go — it makes you curious enough to go everywhere. It is the purest exploration game ever made, in that the act of exploring IS the game, not a supplementary activity.

RDR2's exploration rewards are not primarily mechanical — they are atmospheric. Discovering a hermit's camp in the mountains, an abandoned town with a disturbing backstory, or a perfect wildlife interaction produces a feeling of genuine discovery rather than completion. The world is dense enough that 100 hours of play still leaves things unexplored, and the discoveries you make are genuinely surprising rather than simply located.