Open world games allow players to explore the game environment independently from the game's main objectives. Games of this genre are sometimes called free roaming action adventure games. Both terms allude to the absence of invisible walls that are common in non-open world games, although many open world games still have such restrictions at some point in the game environment, either due to absolute game design limitations or temporary limitations imposed by the game's linearity.
Grand Theft Auto III popularized the open world design in 2001 with its 3D environment, but earlier games such as Metroid (1986) and Driver (1999) had already explored the concept in 2D and 3D respectively. With the success of GTA III, many open world games produced afterward such as Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven and Saints Row featured similar themes of urban crime. Other games such as Spider-Man 2, Bratz: Rock Angelz, Jaws Unleashed, and Bully showed other ways of implementing an open world beyond the familiar conventions of Grand Theft Auto and urban crime.
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