Ever since the success of Grand Theft Auto 3, nearly every remotely action-oriented game has tried to be a sandbox game in some way. Why craft a linear narrative when you can let the player run around the map and give you some of that sweet, sweet GTA money? Sadly, few games actually pull off the sandbox gameplay well. It’s not enough to just let players run around; you have to let players run around and actually do shit. Side quests, pick-ups, easter eggs, and gorgeous sights all give sandbox games a reason to exist. You also need to make the running around convenient and entertaining. Walking around a city is like… well, walking around a city. In a video game. With very little shopping and nobody you can talk to. Let them climb, drive, fly, and teleport all over the place, and now you’re getting somewhere. Here are the top 5 sandbox games of the last few years. Spoiler: GTA4 isn’t on the list.
5: Mercenaries 2
Why you’re there: You’re a mercenary in Venezuela, caught between a whole bunch of different criminals, corporations, and governments who want the land’s resources for themselves. You’re out for money, revenge, and the sheer psychotic satisfaction of blowing shit up.
How you get around: Cars and helicopters. The vehicles range from sporty motorcycles and buggies to huge tanks, so you can choose whether you want to blaze all over the country side like a speed freak or just lumber around and blow shit up. Helicopters offer the best of both worlds, letting you travel around and blow shit up, but they can get shot down by anti-aircraft guns. You also have a helicopter pilot who can pick you up and drop you off at certain locations as a fast-travel system.
What you can do: I know I mentioned it before, but blowing shit up is pretty much the be-all, end-all of the game. You can also partake in races and conventional gunfights, but the main satisfaction comes from destroying nearly every building on the map with rocket launchers, tank shells, rockets, and air strikes. The airstrikes are the best, particularly the fuel-air bombs and the tactical nuclear bunker buster. Boom, flash, bigger boom, and pretty much everything comes crashing to the ground. There’s also the obligatory handful of collectible pick-ups scattered around the countryside, which can unlock certain special vehicles that… make it more fun to blow shit up.
Why it’s great: Blowing. Shit. Up.
4: Assassin’s Creed 2
Why you’re there: You’re Ezio, an assassin in Renaissance Italy. You’ve been wronged, your family members have been killed or hurt, you have to deal with a huge conspiracy of Templars who want to control the world. You’re also Desmond, a slacker in the near-future who’s being torn between two secret organizations that want his genetic memories, but nobody really gives a shit about that aspect of the game.
How you get around: In the cities, you use parkour to climb buildings, jump along rooftops, and acrobatically leap from point A to point B. In the countryside, you can ride horses or employ a fast travel system to get to the cities so you can go back to parkouring around. You can also fly Leonardo da Vinci’s glider, but it’s only available for one mission, and you only fly around for maybe two minutes before it’s gone forever.
What you can do: Well, you’re an assassin, so you’re mostly killing people. Throwing knives, backstabbing, shoving people off buildings, it’s loads of murderous fun. Every main mission and most side missions involve killing something, usually offering a choice between infiltration or outright run-in-and-start-stabbing. There are also six optional mini-dungeons that have less fighting and more Prince of Persia-style parkour lines and offer a refreshing change of pace. There’s also a light city-building section where you can develop your uncle’s villa and village from a ramshackle ghost town into a flourishing little commercial center. Of course, there are the usual sandbox pick-ups in the form of bird feathers and glowing glyphs, the latter of which unlock cerebral mini-games that expand the series’ plot.
Why it’s great: As fun as the killing is, the cities themselves are the big draw of the game. Like the first Assassin’s Creed, Assassin’s Creed 2 offers amazingly gorgeous vistas of historical cities. Florence, Venice, and even Rome (for the short time you’re there) look beautiful, and the flexibility of parkour lets you see the sights from any angle.
3: Infamous/Prototype
Why you’re there: Yes, this is a twofer, because they’re very similar games. You’re a nobody in a major city who suddenly wakes up with super powers. Different factions are out to get you, and you have to figure out how you can save the suddenly ruined city you’re responsible for. In Infamous, you’re an electrical message boy fighting psychic hobos. In Prototype, you’re a grumpy hoodie-wearing Venom analog fighting soldiers and genetic freaks.
How you get around: Parkour and gliding, mostly. In Infamous, you hop and climb up buildings, and can grind along rails and power lines to get around a bit faster. In Prototype, you dash up buildings like Spider-man on PCP. Prototype gets a bit of an edge, since you’re much, much faster, can glide much further, and can hijack helicopters and tanks (but sadly, your blowing-shit-up capacity in them is significantly less than in Mercenaries 2).
What you can do: Both games have a selection of different side missions. Infamous often lets you go on raids against enemies, escort prisoners, disable listening devices on buildings, and pose for photographers. Prototype lets you slaughter everyone in different locations, and jump off buildings onto targets like you’re playing David Cronenberg’s Pilotwings. And yes, both games have pick-ups; Infamous has power-enhancing blast shards and plot-expanding dead drops, and Prototype has people you can kill and eat to get a better idea about what’s going on.
Why they’re great: Unlike the other games where you’re just a skilled guy with toys, Infamous and Prototype give you some superpowers for enjoying the sandbox. Blasting people with lightning, hacking apart tanks with giant axe-arms, and flying around on (literally) blood and thunder let you enjoy the games’ respective cities with all the fun of a murderous superhero.
2: Fallout 3
Why you’re there: If you haven’t played Fallout 3 yet, shame on you. You’re a wanderer in a nuclear wasteland, trying to find your father and somehow make the ruined world a little bit better.
How you get around: Walking and fast-travel. Fallout 3 really doesn’t exactly shine in the “getting around” part of the sandbox game. Fortunately, while walking around you’re likely to find tons of interesting stuff, from ruined monuments to abandoned factories to crashed space ships.
What you can do: It’s a Bethsoft game, so you’re looking at about 10% main plot and 90% awesome side quests. There are tons of quests, from rescuing mercenaries to exploring ruins. You can fight (or help) zombie hordes trying to take over an apartment building, take sides in a conflict between a costumed superhero and supervillain, and enslave hapless passers-by for cash. If that’s not enough, there are tons of little touches, like unique weapons and locations, that you can simply stumble across without any quest or direction.
Why it’s great: There’s so much to do, and so many ways to do it. The wasteland is huge and looks amazing, and its open-ended style lets you go about the main or side quests in pretty much any way you want. Once you leave the Vault in the beginning, the sky’s the limit, and you can explore to your heart’s content and actually find action and adventure without even touching the main plot.
1: Saint’s Row 2
Why you’re there: You’re a sociopathic gangster who was blown up and locked up in the last game. A few years after the first Saint’s Row, you wake up from a coma and break out of prison to retake the city of Stilwater.
How you get around: Cars, boats, planes, and helicopters. You can drive, sail, or fly nearly any vehicle in the game, from sport bikes to monster trucks to APCs. You can also invite your fellow gang members to ride shotgun with you and provide some much-needed support. If you can’t find your vehicle of choice, you can call up one of your buddies and have him drive it over to you.
What you can do: Races, car theft, territory control, drive-bys, hosing down neighborhoods with raw sewage… there are plenty of things you can do in Stilwater outside of the main plot. Each side mission has several tiers, and beating all of them grants you a unique bonus.
Why it’s great: It has all of the chaos and none of the melancholy bullshit of Grand Theft Auto 4. There’s tons of variety, and you can customize yourself and your gang to your content. I played a 6-foot-tall Leprechuan leading an army of purple ninjas in my APC. And did I mention you can spray buildings with poop, and get rewarded for it?
Runners-up:
Red Faction: Guerilla
Why it comes close: It features the same destructible environments the Red Faction series is known for, in a sandbox video game. Tons of vehicles and weapons offer you plenty of variety for destruction.
Why it doesn’t make it: The destruction engine feels very uneven and artificial. Entire buildings might stand upright due to a single corner pillar, and certain indestructible aspects make the game feel like you’re tearing Styrofoam off of rebar. Mars also feels very desolate, which doesn’t suit a sandbox game (which should have plenty of things for you to do) very well.
Grand Theft Auto 4:
Why it comes close: It’s Grand Theft Auto. GTA3 defined the modern sandbox game, and GTA4 improves on it and its expansions/sequels in nearly every way. Better graphics, better combat, better story.
Why it doesn’t make it: There isn’t nearly as much variety as Saint’s Row 2, and the (admittedly more powerful) somber storyline seriously puts a damper on the fun. The DLC campaigns improve on this, but still don’t quite meet the gleeful cartoon havoc of Saint’s Row 2.
