I'm looking for games that make me feel small and insignificant
Pretty much, I'm looking for a game where I'm not the hero, I'm not the protagonist, I'm just a pawn in the big picture.
Preferably a game with a big open world too, one that feels real and isn't just a predetermined path for my player.
I also like games where you aren't clearly stronger than all your opponents like you're some sort of God so they actually feel intimidating and there is a fear of dying
I do remember that in the beginning I thought I was just some corp quasi-slave pleb that was being left for the dead (I went in quite blind). But once I found out that the universe was pretty much mine to explore (I think around the time I left the first world) I began to feel that way. It doesn't help much that the universe itself is rather empty in terms of the characters and there's essentially no depth to most npcs you meet in single player.
Ah, must be client side then. Well, tbh the spoiler isn't even something from the game - it's something we only learnt about way back in the Waking Titan ARG
It's very much a game that's built around finding other people and building a community - that's why the various player made factions are given the official thumbs up and everything. Just a big ol' sandbox.
If you want something with more character and story, I'd go to the expeditions - they're unfortunately time limited (though HG usually reruns all of them at the end of the year), but they all offer a self contained story outside of the main plot that takes place in a smaller space and usually contain more characters and give your character a role that's actually integrated with the larger world (like for example, in one of them we were explorers with the cartography guild out to document a worm cult). Also they're usually full of interesting gameplay restrictions to use and abuse which is fun. Imo it's the most interesting thing the game has to offer.