While the act is illegal in real life, picking locks and looting chests is often something that every player will do in video games. Sure, some games will punish players by putting a bounty on their heads based on their trying to steal others' stuff, but only if they get caught, while in other games, picking locks is required toprogress in the story.
Top 13 RPG Games like Skyrim
These select games shine when it comes to picking locks, and while they may or may not be good games on their own, developers need to take a look at how these games tackle the lockpicking minigame.
8Dust: An Elysian Tail
A Simple But Rewarding Minigame
Dust: An Elysian Tail
InDust: An Elysian Tail, lockpicking is straightforward but effective. In what can also be called a slightly more forgiving quick-time event, to pick a lock, players will press a random series of buttons that show up on the lock one by one. The factor of tension comes from the time limit, which isn’t shown in numeric form, but in the form of the lock closing in on itself, which is more than enough to push players to the edge and either bring out their quickest reflexes when pressing the buttons, or their worst performance as they witness themselves fumble under pressure.
Lockpicking in Dust feels like ashort puzzle breakfrom the action-packed side-scrolling gameplay without overcomplicating the mechanic.
7Risen 3: Titan Lords
A Throwback to Manual Skill
Risen 3: Titan Lords
Risen 3 takes an old-school approach to lockpicking, requiring players to push pins into place in the correct order. Instead of a slower, deliberate approach that many other games take, where players have to raise or lower the pins to a fixed point at a snail’s pace, Risen 3 requires players to find the correct pattern of raising the pins in a lock.
This means that more difficult locks will have a larger number of pins, making it difficult for players to find the correct pattern. Despite that, expert lockpickers will be able to unlock even the harder locks early on in the game, which shows that the game emphasizes and rewards actual skill rather than requiring players to invest in some skill tree.
6Sleeping Dogs
A Short Timeout From the Action-Packed Gameplay
Sleeping Dogs
Lockpicking in Sleeping Dogs hearkens back to how a lock actually works. The minigame shows the players the inside mechanism of a lock, along with their lockpick, its position, and how it raises each of the tumblers inside the lock.
To complete theminigame, players have to raise each tumbler slowly until it turns green. That’s when they have to press a button to lock the tumbler in place. Do this for each tumbler and the lock will be unlocked.
How a Master Thief Breaks Locks
Thief puts players in the shoes of Garrett, a master thief, and naturally, lockpicking is integral to the experience. The game uses a tactile system where players rotate the pick and feel for the vibration in the controller, or see the white circle at the bottom to fill with color, which indicates that they’ve hit the sweet spot for each pin. Once the sweet spot is found, players have to press another button to lock the pin in place. In essence, it’s very similar to the lockpicking found in Sleeping Dogs, but there is no looking inside the lock in this game, making it feel more like the real deal.
Review: Thief
Success requires both careful observation and a steady hand, as lockpicking in high-stakes areas can alert nearby guards. The mechanic perfectly complements Thief’s stealth-heavy gameplay, forcing players to plan their moves carefully. With the added pressure of guards patrolling nearby, every lock feels like a test of nerve and skill.
4Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
Typical Bethesda Lockpicking
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The lockpicking mechanic inSkyrimis almost the same as the one Bethesda introduced in Fallout 3. Players use a tension hook along with a breakable lockpick, which they have to rotate between 180 degrees to find the sweet spot. There is no tactile or visual cue to indicate whether the lockpick has hit the sweet spot. Instead, they have to try rotating the lock at the risk of breaking the lockpick. The closer the player is to the sweet spot, the more the lock will rotate until it finally opens after some additional trial and error.
As the locks get more difficult, the rotatable area around the sweet spot reduces and lockpicks receive more damage when the player rotates the lock when the picks aren’t at the sweet spot. By investing in the lockpicking skill tree, players can make harder locks easier to unlock.
Lockpicking in Skyrim was extremely satisfying. Even though I had put so many hours into the title, I still vividly remember how nervous I used to get when picking a lock with only a few lockpicks at hand. And when I managed to unlock a chest with a higher difficulty than my character’s skill, it felt so good.
3The Order: 1886
Victorian Elegance in Mechanics
The Order: 1886
TheOrder: 1886blends immersive, X-ray visuals with its lockpicking mechanic. Players use a tool to rotate the inner mechanism of the lock, waiting for the appropriate vibrations and the indication that the pins inside the lock are raised, making the experience feel tactile and period-appropriate.
The minigame is visually stunning on top of being extremely fun, with the X-ray vision showing intricate details inside the locks from the Victorian era.
2Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Stealthy Lockpicking
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Often considered the best Splinter Cell game, Chaos Theory takes lockpicking to the next level by making an entire 3D model of the lock, including its inside mechanism, but it’s way more simple than it looks. The key to opening these locks is pressing any one of the W, A, S, or D keys on the keyboard if thegame is on PCuntil one of the buttons manages to raise the pins, or rotating the analog sticks until the controller starts to vibrate, and then keeping the stick in the same spot if the game’s on a console.
Players can also break the lock using a knife, but doing this makes a noise that can alert enemies nearby. So apart from the minigame itself, players have to pick between spending precious time picking the lock or saving time and breaking it at the cost of alerting enemies.
1Kingdom Come: Deliverance
A Polarizing but Immersive System
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Featuring arguably the most unique lockpicking minigame,Kingdom Come: Deliverancerequires players to simultaneously rotate the lock with one joystick while using the other joystick to make sure that the cursor remains in the same, sweet spot. Any major deviation of the cursor from the sweet spot during the rotation will reset the lock, which is why picking locks is much easier with a keyboard and mouse.
While it can be extremely frustrating for some players, it can’t be denied that the game simulates the difficulty of picking a lock in real life extremely well. Just like how everything else is in the game, lockpicking is unforgiving for beginners but rewarding for those who master it.
Review: Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Visually, technically and mechanically sound its foundation is, Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s performance is an unruly and occasionally unpredictable beast.
