similar open world games with good combat systems,
This might be a tall order. Most of the “open world” games I’ve found either fall down in the open world department (lots of restricted areas or nothing varied/interesting enough to make exploring fun) or fall down in the combat department (awkward, unresponsive, or annoying in some other way). Some high-profile games even manage to suffer from both these problems despite being great in other ways (I’m looking at you, Geralt).
I hoped for quite a while that the next Elder Scrolls game would keep the good parts of Skyrim (beautiful environments full of unique things to discover) and overhaul the combat into something good, but recent showings from Bethesda make me less than optimistic.
Some people praise the Dark Souls series (including Elden Ring) for both openness and combat. However, if you loved Breath of the Wild, I wonder if the Souls style would be a bit too combat-focused for your taste, leaving the world feeling cold and empty. I haven’t played them enough to have a strong opinion about this; perhaps someone else can chime in.
I look forward to the suggestions you get in this thread.
Edit:
I just remembered Subnautica! I recommend this game, but there’s caveat in the context of your question: The way it avoids bad combat is to give the player reason to avoid combat as much as possible.
Yours is the only praise I think I’ve ever seen for their approach to conflict resolution. I suppose there’s always someone who hasn’t been bitten. :)
no gamebryo means modding is likely gone with it
Mod support as good as (or better than) Gamebryo’s is always possible, assuming the studio is willing and competent.
Bethesda surely understand how much they have benefited from modding over the years. Skyrim’s Anniversary Edition content is built mostly of mods, after all. So it’s reasonable to think they would at least consider making it a priority in a new engine.
Finally digging themselves out of the Gamebryo hole in favor of a modern engine.
Bringing in inspired talent to replace their long-stale game design and direction.
Character art that doesn’t look like Bethesda hates humans. (To be fair, they might have addressed this in Starfield. Humanoids in past Elder Scrolls games look ugly as hell, though.)
Maybe neat from a technology perspective, but one of the reasons I buy from GOG is to play my games without surveillance. Making Amazon a middle man would be antithetical to that.
That’s the ideal, but not always the case. Last time I read the PCI rules, merchants could (still) handle/store card details just as they could before the hands-off approach existed; it just required someone to attest that precautions were taken. I’m sure you can guess how foolproof that is.