There are a few features in modern gaming that are absolute godsends, and fast travel is definitely one of them. However, despite how nifty it is to be able to zip across a vast open-world map in seconds, every now and then, a game comes along that makes you not want to do just that.
The kind of game where you start heading to a quest marker and find yourself distracted by the sheer beauty of the world, and the journey itself becomes the real reward. It’s actually a testament to some fantastic art styles and visual design, or just the sheer, breathtaking beauty of some open-world games that, as players, we’re openly willing to not use fast travel and instead slow down to take in every bit of these worlds as we can.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
The adventure lies in the road to the quest
Fast travel in The Continent, especially when it came to The Witcher 3, has always felt wrong. You never know what you’ll miss on the road. It could be a wandering merchant, a hidden treasure, or even a monster hunt you didn’t expect. Above all, though, the one thing you absolutely will miss out on is the beauty of the world CD Projekt Red crafted so painstakingly for the finale of Geralt’s trilogy.
Riding Roach through rain-soaked roads, or watching some of the most amazing sunsets over Skellige’s cliffs is half the experience that made the amazing game that it is. Every detour in this game is a story in and of itself, so you’ll never know which ones you skipped if you fast travel.
Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018)
Swinging through Manhattan is the real reward
Marvel’s Spider-Man by Insomniac was the first game I ever got on day one, and even though every single LED on my TV at the time had begun backlight bleeding like it had been gutted by The Scorpion, I played the heck out of that game. We’d never seen Spidey like this before in gaming, and no digitized version of New York even came close to what Insomniac achieved with the first Spider-Man game in 2018. Sure, you could take the subway in the game, but where’s the fun in that?
The fun lay in swinging across Manhattan at sunset with the wind whistling past your ears as Spider-Man flew through a flock of pigeons high up in the Financial District, reminding you just how alive, dynamic, and worth experiencing the world in this game was. Traversal is the gameplay in the Spider-Man games, and fast travel, despite the cute cutscenes it gives us of Spidey in the tube.
This held even truer for Spider-Man 2, the 2023 sequel, which added gliding and more traversal abilities to both Spider-Men, along with expanding the map and adding wind tunnels all over New York and Queens to aid swinging and practically flying through the entire map at breakneck speeds. The fast-travel was still there, but Spider-Man 2 was one game where I never even thought of touching that feature.
Ghost of Tsushima (2020)
Manually traveling in this game felt like meditation
Despite having come out on the PlayStation 4, which, today, is a decade-old console, Ghost of Tsushima remains one of the most gorgeous games we’ve all ever seen. It made me ride in silence for endless hours, with the wind gently nudging me toward the next destination, golden leaves swirling in the air, and the sound of the beautifully-realized Tsushima Island caressing my ears.
The best part in this game was how developers Sucker Punch made traveling the old-fashioned way in this game a gameplay mechanic. Almost every time you chose not to hit fast-travel to go to an objective, riding your trusted horse instead, the game made sure the experience was rewarding. Sometimes, you’d run into a fox trying to excitedly lead you to a shrine, or a golden bird leading you to a collectible. Jin, the protagonist, would even talk to his horse, promising it of more peaceful rides once the Mongol invasion was over, and it only served to strengthen the players’ bond with their horses, and, in turn, the game.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
Curiosity is the only compass you need
Breath of the Wild is inarguably one of the greatest games ever made, and here, you could either fast travel to every shrine, or you could just glide off a mountaintop, spot something weird in the distance, and just go there. Breath of the Wild rewards curiosity like very few other games do, because the world practically begs you to explore it your way.
You could stumble your way upon a dragon soaring over Lake Hylia or end up finding a hidden Korok puzzle on a cliff, but in Breath of the World, Hyrule feels alive in an incredibly impressive manner. Fast traveling in this game almost feels like denying yourself the childlike wonder that defines it.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2025)
Japan deserves to be walked, climbed, and breathed in
Say what you will about the middling state of the Assassin’s Creed franchise over the past years, especially since it made its turn into RPG-lite territory, but their latest, AC Shadows, is downright breathtaking. The true ‘next-gen’ Assassin’s Creed game of this generation, much like Unity was back in 2014, AC Shadows may have fallen short of greatness in more ways than one, but the fidelity and art design aspect isn’t one of them.
In Shadows, fast traveling through Japan’s gorgeous landscapes feels like a crime. From mist-covered shrines to bustling castles under cherry blossoms, this setting deserves to be walked through, climbed all over, and horse-ridden across. Shadows, built on the Anvil Next engine, is a work of art through and through when you’re playing it on superior hardware, and I promise you won’t sooner think about fast-traveling in this fantastic game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
If you’re fast traveling, you’re missing the point
This entry should write itself, at this point. We all know that Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the greatest, most astounding open-world games ever made. Rockstar rarely misses, if ever, when it comes to creating some of the most lived-in, breathing, and dynamic open-world maps, and the epitome of their craft is clear as the Mojave sunrise in RDR2.
Every muddy trail, smoky saloon, and awe-inspiring sunset in RDR2 is hand-crafted to pull you in. In a game where every frame is wallpaper-worthy, riding across its beautiful landscapes while
I refuse to ruin these 9 incredibly beautiful games by using fast travel
