Nowadays, money in games is often an afterthought, where the devs slap it over an already complete game with no real reason to strive for it. But occasionally, you come across a gem with a well-thought-out economy where making smart decisions and investing actually impact how the game plays out.
This often limits us to top-down strategy games where you play as an omniscient god with no capacity to explore the world you create. However, you can bypass that limit with open-world titles where you don’t have to be stuck in one camera angle to feel the impact of a well-functioning economy
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Games like Bannerlord completely change how you look at currency in open-world games. Its deep economy system practically adds flavor to its sandbox foundation, whereas games today just want to eat your wallet, offering nothing but overpriced cosmetics and hollow progression systems.
These open-world games deliver the same experiences without killing the freedom and immersion of the gameplay and let you explore, build, and scheme, making every coin feel like a real accomplishment.
10Dying Light
Scavenger Economy
Dying Light
Dying Lightis an amazing take on the typical Zombie Survival genre in an open-world setting by Techland. Now we all know the importance of resource management in such games, but there’s something special about how Dying Light deals with the whole economy system, somehow making sure that Money still matters in a world plagued with Man-eating Zombies.
I hopped into this one with the same expectations of gathering some blueprints and crafting myself a cool-looking weapon to bash some dead skulls, but fighting a zombie with a pipe in my first night run made it painfully clear thatwithout money to buy proper tools, the nighttime here will turn from a thrilling adventure to a boring wait out in the safe zones.
While you can loot blueprints, crafting parts, and weapons during your runs, some exclusives like Elegant Sycthe and Exceptional Heavy Rebar give you an edge over the craftable variants you’d find in the wild.
As you get into the end game, having enough cash to buy medkits and ammo can be the difference between living through an encounter. So, money never becomes something just cosmetic, and you are forced to constantly be mindful of your wallet as you trade with merchants for survival.
Blood Economy
Red Dead Redemption 2
Fextralife Wiki
Sticking to the main story ofRed Dead Redemption 2, I thought money was only for guns and ammo, but after doing a few reruns of the game and exploring the side content, it became clear that money can change storylines, unlock hidden events, and has a deeper layer of importance.
The essentials are all there: cosmetics, ammo, guns, and horses, which greatly alter how each encounter goes and how fast you can travel. Other things, like buying food for your horse or maintaining your gun, also require cash, which gives the economy a bit of life.
But missions like Thomas Downes' storylinetake a turn for the good if you have extra cash and pay off his debt. By the end, you’ll realise thatmoney is an addiction, in both the story and the gameplay.
Survival Economy
Developed by Nine Dot Studios, Outward throws you into a fantasy open-world RPG where you survive the harsh landscape by exploring, crafting, and managing silver, the in-game currency, but collecting silver isn’t easy. I’d say Cabal Wind Temple is the best if you plan on getting a few silvers early on, especially since everything from fast travel to learning magic depends on your pouch.
Food, gear, potions, and camping supplies will eat heavy chunks of silver. Traders offer different prices across towns, meaning buying and selling in different areas is a hustle on its own, but food and gear are not the only thing that requires silver; each house, skill, and even fast travel will cost you money.
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The game forces you to explore, to find stuff that you may use for that extra skill or a better bag, andif you don’t earn, you will end up cold and hungryin the middle of nowhere.
7Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Medieval Economy
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2is a medieval RPG set in 15th-century Bohemia, and after playing the game for the third time, there is something I noticed in each run, and that’s the weight of the coin in the dialogue and gameplay.
From haggling with the merchants to swinging a shiny sword, there is always a coin involved.Good horses, solid gear, and even learning new techniques cost groschen, but what I love the most is how the game forces you to keep earning even if you wear the best armor, by having to repair it constantly.
It’s a constant loop of killing bandits, selling their loot, and winning bets to survive till the endgame without ending up broke or dead.
6Days Gone
Camp-Based Economy
Days Goneis a post-apocalyptic zombie survival game developed by Sony, and the trust trade with each camp the game has is how I think a society would function if it collapses. I enjoyed how I had to do favors for even ego jerks if I wanted to survive the next part of the map.
I can’t put enough emphasis on how important ammo is, because even with a thousand bullets,you can find yourself running out of ammo when tackling a horde. Other than that, each camp comes with different weapons, sinceyour currency is not universal, and camps force you to do favors for themif you plan on buying better weapons or if you want to upgrade your bike further.
This forces you to explore the open world and its side content. By the time you reach the last camp, you’ll be ready for any enemies.
Scrap Economy
Set in the post-apocalyptic wasteland where every human is fighting for what little resources are left, I was being constantly shredded by Convoys inMad Max, and it slowly dawned on me how valuable scraps are. I wanted to just ram my way to the end, like I do in other games, but Mad Max said otherwise.
Everything you see runs on scraps: stronghold upgrades, Max’s armor, gear, and even his skills require in-game currency,but the important upgrades are for your car, which is the heart of the game.You will need better engines, tires, armor, and mounted weapons to stand at the top of the food chain.
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4GTA Online
Inflation Economy
GTA Online
To this day, every session I join inGTA Onlineis filled with griefers trying to ruin your fun.There is one simple way to solve this: buy better gear than theirs, but of course, nothing in GTA is free.
I’d say you even need money to have fun in GTA Online, because better vehicles, weapons, and evenhigh-paying heists require serious cash, but the inflated economy of the game doesn’t make it easy. You’ll need to invest in businesses like Arcades, Bunker, or Nightclubs, which can help you with a steady stream of cash to survive.
Sure, the economy sucks, but there are endless ways to rise above it; you just have to play it smart and grind.
3S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly
Zone Economy
In the unforgiving Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, survival was brutal in theSTALKER Anomaly. While it’s a standalone full-conversion mod, Anomaly has depth and aspects of a full-fledged game that warrant a mention here. It focuses more on survival and exploration, though if you do want to take a step further and try something harsher, then the G.A.M.M.A. mod is worth a shot.
In Anomaly, I couldn’t find enough ways to make rubles, which obviously made each encounter more dangerous, but the game’s economy system is amazing and pushes you to work around the limitations.
While exploring the wasteland, I came across all types of loot. Most of the time, I thought it was just garbage to make the loot system look alive, but I was so wrong. Everything you find has some use for your survival. I mean, yes, the perfect condition weapons can only be bought from the trader, andit’s easy to just buy meds and ammo, but getting cash isn’t. You survive by what you loot.
When getting radiation poisoning, one way to fix it is by drinking water or vodka, which can be bought but is expensive. The other way is to just use the hundreds of cigarettes you get when looting. In STALKER, surviving comes down to scraping by on whatever you may find.
2Pathologic 2
Starvation Economy
Pathologic 2
If you want to play a narrative-driven horror survival game set in a plague-ridden town, where inflation and lack of resources make living a challenge, then tryPathologic 2.
Trading my only defense for a moldy piece of meat was what survival was like in the game; it was a cycle of losing valuables, and I’ve rarely felt any survival game feeling this real. This kind of desperation shapes the whole economy.
The best way to get something is through trading, either by finding stuff from dumpsters and trading it to get what you want, or by giving something of value that you possess and bartering with shops. It’s a constant back-and-forth of trading with town folks to get maybe a piece of food or meds that can help you survive.
With every wrong trade and a waste of resources,you are a step closer to your impending doom.
1Mount & Blade: Bannerlord 2
War Economy
Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord
Running a stable empire in the open world sandbox ofBannerlord 2is hard. I’ve seen my kingdom crumble more than once simply because of not having the money to pay the soldiers or failing to invest in caravans and fiefs, but that’s what makes it more immersive and fun.
You want to wage wars? Then you’ll have tofund your army, buy food, mercenaries, and even keep your prisoners fed; all of this, of course, requires coin, which can be earned by investing in workshops, trading, or setting up caravans.
Without the essentials, no kingdom can survive, and the more you play, the more you realise the real challenge is to have a steady economy.
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