Oh man Astroneer is so good — but I don’t think it’s up OP’s alley. There’s no quests to speak of, or even goals really, besides the 1. tutorial stuff, and 2. overall “reach the end” — besides that, it’s up to you to be self-directed.
Context: my breath-of-the-wild loving partners didn’t much get into Astroneer, unless I specifically set them goals and they didn’t have to figure anything out for themselves. :P (Well, one of them, at least …)
I think the “map marker check mark” dopamine game is a whole different thing from ‘true’ open-world … well, that’d unnecessarily exclusionary. Neither one is truer than the other. But they’re definitely extremely different.
Anyway, OP, my suggestion in that vibe would definitely be the Fallout or Assassin’s Creed serieses. Or Horizon: Zero Dawn! Great sidequest-driven, exploration-heavy, gigaaaaaantic games, all of them!
I haven’t actually played it yet, but HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed has been in my Steam library for ages. That looks like it may scratch your itch …
I really miss some “toy soliders” 3D shoot-em-up that I can just baaaaaaarely remember from the 1990s … does anybody remember the game I’m thinking about? (There was definitely a series, I distinctly recall the name ending in “2” …)
I absolutely adored Invisible, Inc (by Klei — yes, of Don’t Starve & Oxygen Not Included fame — what a diverse bunch!)
It seems a little different from your usual vibe (it’s not an first/third-person shooter-y thingie; iirc it’s isometric and pixel-art?); but it’s easily the best stealth game I’ve ever played. :D
I wish you’d recommended that commenters keep to “one extension per top-level comment,” making it easier to upvote the best ones 😅
Anyway, my “one pick” is definitely Tridactyl — a thorough, absurdly powerful poweruser-mode for FireFox based in Vi-like modal interaction.
sharpen the edges, and it’s a home defense weapon