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What are the best Sandbox games on Steam?

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Jan 28, 2018

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The 3 must play gamesWhy?

10 Options Considered	Price	Genre	Platforms
Must Play Stardew Valley		Farming Simulation, Role-Playing	Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita
Must Play Cities: Skylines		–	–
Must Play Terraria		2D platformer / Minecraft-like	Windows
Starbound		–	–
Kerbal Space Program		–	–

Stardew Valley

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Top Pro

Deep customization options

There is quite a lot that can be crafted in the game, from fence posts to chicken coops. Discovering how to build these and then deciding where to place them is one of the best parts of the game as you can build/design a farm to your liking.

Top Pro

Catchy and relaxing music

For a game that is meant to have large amounts of time spent in it, the music is quite relaxing, which is nice as it does not get on the players nerves.

Top Pro

You have freedom to choose to play one aspect of the game or all of them

Such as farming, fishing, mining, forestry, exploration and meeting people. This allows for many elements to explore in the game that expands the gameplay but also allows for freedom of choice in what to do and when to do it.

Top Pro

There is always more to do

Just like in the real world, operating a farm is a lot of work, especially if one is set on expanding said farm. The game works just like this in that the player is always driven to expand on what they have, be it growing more crops, raising more animals or just improving ones house and equipment....

Top Pro

Long playtime

The game is reported to taking over 10 hours for one season in the game, of which their are four season in a year. Which means it can take 40 hours just to get though the first year in the game, of which there can be many. This means a user can easily sink in 100s of hours into the game, making for...

Top Pro

Convenient auto save feature

There is no manual saving in the game, it auto saves when sleeping or or moving on to the next day. This is convenient as the player does not need to remember to save, which could lead to accidental lost data. This system also prevents the player taking advantage of the randomly generated mines, as...

Top Pro

May get Mac and Linux port

Currently the game only runs on Windows machines, but the developer has stated that a Mac and Linux port are among their top priorities.

Top Pro

Good selection of game options

The games options see resolution support, controller and keyboard support, of which the controller support even has a rumble feature (for those that have controllers with rumble support). Keyboard support also has built in key-bind support, for those that do not have a separate key-bind support ap...

Top Pro

Weather system that forces the player to adapt

Each day in the game may feature different weather depending on the season in the game. From rain to snow to natural disasters, each forces the player to adapt their workload to that days forecast. This keeps the player on their toes and forces them to plan for events to make sure they have the nee...

Top Con

Large amount of grind

While it is the bread and butter of the gameplay, the amount of work that needs done from the start is quite a lot and so you will be doing the same thing over and over again. The whole farm is dilapidated, meaning everything needs cleaned up, weeds need cleared, rocks need cleared, tress need clea...

Top Con

Townspeople schedule is difficult to keep up with

The game asks the player to meet everyone in town, while there is mini map that shows where townspeople are, certain townsfolk are missing from this map such as shop keepers. This makes it difficult to keep up with who is where.

Top Con

Lacks polish in some areas

Menus feel odd in that some controls work in some areas while not in other such as item management when using chests. There is also a lack of information in the game on how to do things, which means the player must figure it out through trial and error. While this is much like an old school game it...

Specs

Genre:Farming Simulation, Role-Playing

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Cities: Skylines

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Top Pro

Lots of mods

The Steam workshop offers a vast amount of mods created by the community.

Top Pro

Large scale

At a total of 36 square kilometers of area to use (compared to Sim Cities 4), there is quite a bit of room to build and play.

Top Pro

Depth of field

There is a depth of field effect that will blur distant buildings, which mimics Sim City's diorama effect. It can of course be adjusted with a slider as to how much or little to use.

Top Con

Too many mods will slow your game down quite a bit

Top Con

Can be difficult to glean what one has done wrong in game

Cities: Skylines has difficulty letting the player know what they have done wrong, which results in a lot of head scratching.

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

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Terraria

Top Pro

2D retro-platformer style

Instead of building a deliberate feeling of suspense, Terraria uses bright palettes and arcade action to provide a fun experience outside of the survival elements. When those elements gradually appear one by one, each is all the more shocking from the contrast.

Top Pro

Encourages creativity for all ages

Terraria is like a 2D Minecraft, so you can alter the world around you and craft things, which teaches creativity and critical thinking skills. This is great for children who enjoy building and discovering new ways to tackle ideas just as it is great for adults who enjoy the same things. It also ma...

Top Pro

Fun combat

It starts out simple, with you whacking away at slow moving zombies and flying eyes, gradually shifting to more fierce and fearsome enemies such as flying demons, agile lizardmen, and many more. To survive you'll have to be always on the move, dodge enemy attacks, and be accurate when you retal...

Top Pro

Large community

Terraria has a very large community as it is a very popular game. Released on just about every platform including mobile, PC/Mac/Linux, consoles, it allows for anyone to play no matter their prefered device. This also means that with many players comes many servers to play on as well as tutorials a...

Top Pro

Extensive crafting system

The vast majority of items in Terraria can be used to create other items, often requiring specific crafting stations (which themselves must be crafted). This is the core of character advancement, since gear defines nearly everything about your character.

Top Pro

Multiplayer also an option with up to 8 player online co-op

Up to 8 online players can be invited to join a shared Terraria world, including worlds that are also used in single-player mode. This allows for large co-op or PvP games to be played, for those that are interested, meaning you can choose how you play. Build something big together, or destroy the o...

Top Pro

Intriguing world

Terraria uses a bright color palette and an upbeat chiptune soundtrack to ease you into its world. However, once you start exploring and spend time in it you'll notice it's not as cozy as it first seemed to be. Blood Moons that rouse the dead from their graves. Goblin armies trying to destr...

Top Pro

Playing with friends allows for endless scenarios

Up to 8 players can join any Terraria world. You can progress through the game normally, build a race course and compete in it, or split into factions and wage war against each other. The scenarios are endless, you just have to let loose your creativity.

Top Con

Gameplay can feel slow

While there is little to show progress in the game over gaining many items and having many structures built, progress overall can be slow due to having to collect every item needed to craft the necessary tool, equipment and materials. This can be time consuming and may turn some people off.

Top Con

Low replay value for those who play it as an adventure game

Terraria is a sandbox platform-adventure game, so it partly hinges on beating various bosses. If you play it purely for the sake of defeating all the bosses, you might have little else to do afterwards. Restarting the game won't be as enjoyable either because you'll already know what to exp...

Top Con

No tutorial and un-intuitive menus

There is no tutorial to speak of and the menu system can be a bit cumbersome and confusing.

Specs

Genre:2D platformer / Minecraft-like

Controller Support:Android (MOGA / HID), Steam (Full)

Co-Op:8 Player Online / 8 Player LAN

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7 Other Games Considered

Starbound

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Top Pro

Informative and well paced tutorials

Starbound allows the player to go at their own pace while completing the tutorials. By the end of the tutorials the player will have the skills and equipment to succeed in the game and have fun doing it.

Top Pro

Incredibly deep gameplay

The exploration, crafting and combat are all both very polished and deep in terms of what you can do, especially compared to other games in the genre. This makes the sandbox very fun to play in as you're never really stuck doing the same thing over and over.

Top Pro

Boss levels

For what is a procedurally generated game, Starbound offers boss levels that once beaten unlock new sectors of space to explore.

Top Con

First few hours are boring

Initially the player needs to amass enough coal to fuel their ship, which is a bit of a grind. It's been in Early Access for an entire year.

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

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Kerbal Space Program

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Top Pro

Huge modding scene

There's a plethora of mods available that can change every single aspect of the game.

Top Pro

Construction sandbox for building and launching rockets

Kerbal at its core is a rocket building and launching sandbox.

Top Pro

In constant development

KSP is a shinning example of early release done right. The currently available game is fun to play, and the developers are constantly adding new major additions.

Top Pro

Fun sandbox mode to experiment with rocket designs

The rocket designer lets you experiment with as many different rocket designs as you can think up. The designer is based on components such as engines, fuel cells, structural elements and various other items such as parachutes.

Top Pro

You just can't get bored with it. And you will learn a lot.

A "physics" game about space. Build rockets, space planes, space stations, rovers, landers, probes. Explore planets, moons, capture asteroids. With the addition of mods you can even test warp drive, set up a communications network, colonize a planet, mine for resources and much much more....

Top Pro

Teaches orbital dynamics & rocket design fundamentals in an accessible manner

The physics engine does a reasonably accurate job of replicating the fundamentals behind both orbital dynamics and rocket design, so by going through the tutorials and experimenting, you're actually learning some real rocket science.

Top Pro

NASA working on a mission pack for the game

While not released yet NASA is working on a mission pack for the game.

Top Con

Steep learning curve

Kerbal Space Program is not really a pick up and play title. There is much to learn before grasping the core concepts of the game,

Top Con

Graphics are not the most detailed

The graphics of KSP are not the most detailed but they work non the less.

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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Top Pro

Huge variety of mods

Bethesda Softworks has upheld a tradition of releasing their internal content-creation tools to the public since Morrowind (2002). Many modders transition to new Bethesda games as they are released, bringing their experience with them and helping newcomers through forums and wikis. As a result, Sky...

Top Pro

Incredibly long gameplay

With 220 hours of story and hundreds more hours of gameplay, you can't simply get bored of Skyrim, or finish it too soon.

Top Pro

The longest-running RPG-FPS franchise, with world lore rivaling classic fantasy literature

The Elder Scrolls series stretches back 20 years and has always focused on providing a rich world to explore. Skyrim inherits the stories and world-building of over half a dozen previous games.

Top Pro

Unrestrictive skill-based RPG system

Skyrim has no concept of character classes, and there are no restrictions on what equipment or magic a given character can use or learn. A character's capabilities are defined by skills (e.g. heavy armor, marksman, enchantment) which automatically improve as they are used. Levels are gained by...

Top Pro

Moral choices that can affect gameplay

Things like stealing (and getting caught), fighting or killing in towns will change how the game plays as now those people or towns will be angry with the player, which makes things much more difficult. There are also many moral choices in game such as if one should betray the person who gave then...

Top Con

Combat is too simple

Fights within the game don't have very many options. "Headshots" don't matter, and most combat options in the game are poorly balanced. Few examples: Doesn't really matter if you go mace, sword or axe, fire, ice or lightning, or even two handed vs dual wielding. The opti...

Top Con

Immersion can be broken due to game limitations

While the game offers players many choices some of these choices are not reflected in the game accurately. There are instances where NPCs should know who your character is or what classes they belong to but due to the limitations of the tech used in the game it is unable to "remember" the...

Top Con

Buggy and crash prone

Skyrim, like all Bethesda in house game engines (GameBryo) is buggy and prone to crashing. Non modded games have plenty of issues, but to then add mods on top is just asking for a crash or corrupt game save. There are still many community mods for Skyrim that try to make the game more stable by ad...

Specs

Genre:Action Role-Playing

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Grand Theft Auto V

Top Pro

Online multiplayer

GTA V has included an online multiplayer mode where up to 30 players can play at the same time in the online world.

Top Pro

First person mode

The entire PC game version has had an engine tweak that allows it to be played in first person view, making for the first time in the series run that this option is available for the full playthrough.

Top Pro

Improved graphics over every other version

The PC version of GTA V is the optimal experience when it comes to graphic quality. Improved lighting and anti-aliasing make a big difference over the games XBox One and PS4 counterparts.

Top Pro

Game saves can be imported from console versions

Players that have game saves on their console versions can import the save to the PC version, this way they will not have to start the game over from scratch to enjoy it on PC. Rockstar has a support page specifically to transfer the saves.

Top Pro

Well optimized

There were many reservations as to how well Rockstar was going to optimize the game for PC, as some of their past games had a lot of trouble in this area. Luckily it looks as though the game has been optimized quite well with the specs being quite reasonable in order to achieve 60FPS in 1080p on t...

Top Pro

Rockstar editor

The included Rockstar editor allows for user to create their own Machinima and gameplay videos. The tools are very robust allowing for many different day, weather and character options.

Top Pro

Supports up to 4K resolutions

GTA V supports resolutions all the way up to 4K on the PC version.

Top Con

Forced Rockstar Social Club online registration DRM scheme

Rockstar Social Club is a forced online registration and DRM platform that will not allow one to play the game without first logging in to it. No internet connection, no play. Forget the password to the account three times, get locked out. All hindrances to paying customers that in no way will stop...

Top Con

Population density slider in the options does not make much of a difference

The population density option in the PC version does not make much of a difference in the game, while it does have more people and cars than the console counterparts, the increased number is not by much.

Specs

Genre:Action-Adventure

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Garry's Mod

Top Pro

Tons of community made add-ons

Garry's Mod has a wide variety of community made add-ons, which deeply extends the games content and versatility. Pretty much, if you can think of it, someone has probably already made it.

Top Pro

Ridiculously funny gameplay

You can do some really crazy things in this game thanks to all of the community mods available as well as the built in, in game tools. Pretty much any scenario can play out in the game, if you so desire. Of course the winning combination of funny tends to be when players are just goofing around.

Top Pro

Very affordable

It may not be free, but $9.99 beats many of the games on this list.

Top Pro

Many game modes to choose from

Sandbox, Trouble in Terrorist Town, Murder Mystery, Roleplay, DarkRP, Battle Royale, and Prop Hunt, to name a few.

Top Con

Previously free to download

Garry's Mod used to be a free download but it is now a paid game on the Steam store.

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Controller Support:No

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ARK: Survival Evolved

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Top Pro

Tribal aspects

Users can form a tribe with other online users to for a community. This community can now band together in order to build and grow as well as team up against other tribes. This makes for a fun experience with friends and other players as it requires teamwork in order to be successful.

Top Pro

Good character creation

When starting a new game the player is allowed to choose between a man or woman, from there is a plethora of option for making a character with a personalized or individualistic look.

Top Con

Early access

Ark is an early access game meaning it is basally in an Alpha or Beta state. Bugs are easily found and many areas of the game lack polish. While t may not cripple the gameplay this is something to consider when purchasing as there is n guarantee the game will ever be finished.

Top Con

Anti-cheat issues

ARk has started using an anti-cheat tool called Battleye, this has so far broken Linux and Mac support for using official servers. Battleye has also had some issues with banning legit users and does not have a very good reputation. These issues add up to many angry players who paid for the game but...

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

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Pixel Worlds

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62 Community Recommendations

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Recommended 3 months ago

Great bosses, reasonable grinding, and a whole variaty if building materiels.

HonestNehmetawy

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Recommended 3 months ago

Much more depth than Minecraft. Much more combat based however. Best game on steam. Would recommend. If you liked minecraft with mods, you’ll like terraria vanilla.

Extensive crafting system

2D retro-platformer style

Large community

Multiplayer also an option with up to 8 player online co-op

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Cities: Skylines

Recommended 4 months ago

Great fun to play.

ReasonableMelqart

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Cities: Skylines

Recommended 4 months ago

The most advanced City simulator ever. With Gigantic Workshop support, Unlimited options and gameplay awaits..

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Recommended 3 months ago

Extensive crafting system

2D retro-platformer style

Encourages creativity for all ages

Large community

Multiplayer also an option with up to 8 player online co-op

Playing with friends allows for endless scenarios

Intriguing world

Low replay value for those who play it as an adventure game

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Recommended 3 months ago

2D retro-platformer style

Encourages creativity for all ages

Gameplay can feel slow

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Recommended 3 months ago

MellowFuamnach hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

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KindDespoina hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

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Recommended 4 months ago

2D retro-platformer style

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Cities: Skylines

Recommended 4 months ago

Currently displaying 4 out of 62 total recommendations.

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