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What are the best Sandbox games on PC?

9

Options
Considered

18

User
Recs.

Jun 10, 2020

Last
Updated

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9 Games Considered

Best Sandbox games on PC	Price	Genre	Co-Op
-- Terraria	$19.99	2D platformer / Minecraft-like	8 Player Online / 8 Player LAN
-- Kerbal Space Program	$39.99	-	-
-- Stardew Valley	$14.99	Farming Simulation, Role-Playing	Online and Local, up to 4 players
-- Minecraft	$26.95	Indie / Survival / Sandbox	8 Player Online / 4 Player Couch / 8 Player LAN
-- 7 Days to Die	$24.99	Survival / Open World	Yes

Terraria

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Top Pro

Allows for freedom of expression for all ages, all at your own pace

Terraria has all kinds of tools and materials you can use to build whatever you can imagine. From housing, to furniture, to weapons, to types of structure, the possibilities are almost endless. This is great for children who enjoy building and problem solving, and for adults who enjoy the same. It also makes for a great objective-less game, where you can do just about anything you want at your own pace. See More

Top Con

Progress can feel slow

Quite often you'll have to collect tons of materials to craft the necessary tools, equipment, and boss summoning items to advance. This can take a really long time, especially if you're unlucky with the items dropped by mobs. See More

Specs

Genre:2D platformer / Minecraft-like

Co-Op:8 Player Online / 8 Player LAN

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

Top Pro

Lots of community servers, tutorials, and streams

Terraria has a large community of players on every platform including mobile, desktop, and console. Because of this, there are many servers to play on, as well as tutorials and Let's Plays. Finding content or help getting started is quite easy. See More

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. See More

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Kerbal Space Program

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Diego Floor's Experience

I am a physics grad student and I shamelessly admit I learned more about orbital dynamics with this game than in my undergrad course in classical mechanics. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Stardew Valley

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Top Pro

Very fulfilling to play

Stardew Valley is a very simple game where you're free to do anything and everything at your own pace. This includes building your farm, planting and harvesting crops, and exploring the world among many other things. It will feel enjoyable no matter how fast or slow you do it. This coupled with the colorful/pleasing art style and the great soundtrack makes it an extremely pleasing experience. See More

Top Con

Losing Interest

Over time you can get bored and lose interest if new things aren't added See More

Specs

Genre:Farming Simulation, Role-Playing

Co-Op:Online and Local, up to 4 players

Top Pro

Great soundtrack

When you work on your farm, go fishing, explore or just walk around the town you'll be accompanied by a really nice soundtrack. It's sometimes upbeat, sometimes soothing, and sometimes even melancholic, with every track matching each location and season perfectly. There's also a wide variety of instruments used, including a piano, accordion, banjo, synths, and many others. This allows you to listen to the soundtrack for hours without getting tired of it. Sometimes it's very hard to believe Stardew Valley and its soundtrack was produced by just one person. See More

Top Pro

A great mix of genres

While Stardew Valley is primarily a farming simulator, it also has social interaction elements and combat elements. The social interaction elements allow you to interact with people around the town. You can befriend them, get quests from them, hang out with them, and even find a significant other to go out with and eventually marry. It can be very addictive to max out your relationship with everyone. The combat elements are introduced when you unlock the dungeon, allowing you to battle creatures such as slimes, golems, and even mummies. While the combat is pretty simple, having you just swing your weapon, it's very satisfying to whack away at enemies. If farming ever starts feeling stale you can try either of these to mix it up, allowing you to keep the game fresh for a longer time. See More

Top Pro

Great freedom in designing your farm

When creating your own farm you aren't just limited to plowing fields for planting crops. You can also dig wells, put down fences, and even build various structures such as barns or stables. This allows you to build a farm that firmly matches your goals and sense of aesthetics. See More

Minecraft

Top Pro

Online Servers for multiplayer

You can play with thousands of people online over servers, create things together for fun. See More

Top Con

Still involves killing other things

In order to progress through the game and craft items, players will need to kill other things such as skeletons, zombies and monsters which may not be seen as child-friendly or can result in frightening situations. See More

Raghu Ranganathan's Experience

Infinitely enormous, and boundless exploration. These define minecraft. There isn't much that is left out in this sandbox game, and there aren't too many people who haven't played this game. It's a masterpiece, and a well appreciated one. See More

Specs

Genre:Indie / Survival / Sandbox

Co-Op:8 Player Online / 4 Player Couch / 8 Player LAN

Controller Support:Yes

Top Pro

Local multiplayer option for when there is no internet

Minecraft can be played by 4 players locally via splitscreen. This makes it a great way spend time with your friends and family when you don't have access to the internet. See More

Top Con

Lack of meaningful story mode

There is no story mode in Minecraft: there is only a create mode or a survival mode. Neither, however, supply any kind of story or background as regard what is going on in the game. See More

Top Pro

Amazing extended community

The community surrounding this game is huge due to its popularity. There are lots of servers and projects revolving around it that allow for so many different choices in how one wants to play and who they want to play with. From crafting guides/videos, themed servers and YouTube play sessions, there is enough out there to help one find what they are looking for. See More

Top Con

Steep and time-consuming learning curve

Learning what items are needed to craft takes quite a bit of knowledge and time. There are guides and videos online that can help with this, but not much in-game that helps the player know exactly how and what to craft. See More

Top Pro

Randomly generated worlds and distinct locations keep the gameplay fresh

Each new world is randomly generated, making for a different experience every time. There can be plains, rivers, beaches, ravines, giant mountains, hidden villages, and a lot more. There are also 38 biomes, which includes snow, desert, forest, swamp among others. Each one has its own set of unique blocks, plant life, and creatures. You won't get tired of exploring above ground or underground because every location will seem new and exciting. See More

Top Pro

Great creativity tool

If you prefer building, creative mode is the way to go. It immediately gives you unlimited blocks, the ability to fly, and immortality. This allows you to easily build anything you want without worrying about height or enemies. Things like giant castles, villages, roller coasters, and even unique builds such as the Enterprise from Star Trek. You can really let your creativity loose. See More

7 Days to Die

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Top Pro

The conditions of the scenario can be changed

If the current scenario that has been created is discovered to be too easy or too hard, or not enough loot is being dropped, the next time it is loaded up, there are options to change the settings, such as difficulty, zombie spawn rate, loot drops as well as others. See More

Top Con

Can be frustrating at times

This con is a bit dependent on RNG. Your character might end up starting in the middle of the snowy mountains with no clothes or the desert with no water, making it hard to survive at the start. Other times the area could be resource poor, making it hard to build a base and tools and weapons. Or, you could end up spawning in an area filled with some of the hardest zombies in the game with no weapons and poor fighting stats. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Survival / Open World

Controller Support:No

Top Pro

Constant sense of vulnerability, which keeps the player alert and on edge the whole time

As the player makes progress in the game by interacting with the environment, killing zombies or building things, they are rewarded with skill points that can be used to unlock new skills such as combat strength, higher stamina or new crafting options. But even though the skill system can seemingly make the game easier, the severity and size of the zombie hordes will keep increasing with the time spent in game and the progress made by the player, keeping them on the edge and making them feel a constant pressure that an attack may come at any time and that they should be prepared. See More

Top Con

Sometimes there will be a fog that never goes away

The weather in 7 Days to Die can change, adding a nice touch of realism. Typically, foggy weather will occur close to every 7 days, which is when a zombie swarm will hunt you down. Sometimes though, this fog doesn't go away for the rest of the game, leaving reduce visibility, even more so at night with rain and fog. See More

Top Pro

Great replayability

No matter how many times you start a new game (random gen) you will never get the same experience. The crafting is the same, enemies are the same, game mechanics are the same but the gameplay is not. If you add the mods available for this game then you will have a whole new experience with added/altered crafting, different enemies, more quests etc... See More

Top Con

Currently in Early Access

While the game is currently selling for $24.99, it isn't actually finished yet, so there will be bugs. Be sure to adjust your expectations accordingly before making the investment. See More

Top Pro

Creative mode gives the player a section to just trial things out in, for fun

The game allows players to make custom maps without zombies attacking to set up scenarios or make player made game types. See More

Top Con

Randomly generated open worlds has no generation options

Randomly gen has no option to customize how it is generated (like in minecraft for example) and could make it quite problematic if you want to have a good map, as there is no way to know how good or bad the map will be. Random gen also make unrealistic hills and road that almost go up/down vertically with vehicle spawning in such way they seems to be floating. See More

Top Pro

What you build is not only for creativity, but also for gameplay purposes

In 7DTD players don't build their homes only as bases or places to sleep in, or build cool looking things just for the fun of it and to test their skills. Every 7 days, a large horde of zombies will attack the player wherever he or she is, trying to destroy them and what stands in the way of the player and the horde. This is why the player needs to think about how to build traps that will help them kill a lot of zombies and how to make a strong enough house that will not be destroyed easily. See More

Top Con

People who dislike Minecraft will dislike this game

If you like Minecraft, you might like this game, a lot actually. But if you HATE Minecraft, you'll quickly realize this game is basically Minecraft with better graphics. It just downright sucks. See More

Top Pro

Randomly generated open worlds makes for a ton of replayability, as each playthrough is never the same

Recently added in the Alpha 9 release, randomly generated worlds allow the player a new play experience every time they open up the game. This means every server will have a different dynamic based on their layout of the world. See More

Top Pro

Single, co-op, and multiplayer gameplay modes give plenty of choice as to how one would like to tackle the game

Three different play modes including solo, with friends, or competitively over the internet gives a lot of choice as to how someone would like to play the game. Be it with friends or solo, the options are there. See More

Top Pro

Robust crafting system that allows the players imagination to run wild with possibilities

Create everything from a chainsaw to various guns to defenses for your fort - the crafting system lists what you can make with the materials you currently have in the player's inventory. See More

The Forest

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Genre:Survival / Open World / Horror

Controller Support:No

Conan Exiles

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Top Pro

Extensive crafting system that encourages player interaction

Crafting in Conan Exiles is essentially the name of the game. There are hundreds of items available to craft, and even though it may seem a little daunting at first, the process is very intuitive. You're able to do most things right from your inventory screen with no added help, and other things are deliberately pointed out as needing other amenities to be able to craft them. As you level up, you acquire "knowledge points," allowing you to learn how to craft new things. However, one person can't possibly know how to craft everything in the game. This system is perfect for making players either raid others for the goods they need, or team up and work with people to get further in their quest for survival. See More

Top Con

Not suitable for younger players

Conan Exiles contains nudity and a lot of gore. See More

Specs

Genre:Survival, Sandbox

Top Pro

Exploring the world is fun

There are several different biomes in Conan Exiles. Barren wastelands, harsh deserts, sparkling rivers, and haunted forests are just a few of the ones you'll encounter, but you'll want to get out there and really explore the environment. Every biome holds different secrets to discover and, more importantly, different materials so you can craft new stuff, which is always satisfying. Exploring also lets you scout out enemies that you plan to attack, find new areas you want to settle, or even make new friends to cohabit the area with. You'll have to explore whether you want to or not, but Conan Exiles makes it very enjoyable by making sure it's a rewarding experience. See More

Top Con

Joining a server for online play can be problematic

If the multiplayer servers are full, then you're out of luck. So far, there's no user-friendly functions like queues or notifications to help you out. You're stuck with spamming attempts to join a server or rejoin if you get kicked out for whatever reason. It would have been nice to have some helpful features to ease this process along. See More

Top Pro

The developers are very interactive with the community

The developers of Conan Exiles do their best to maintain regular and transparent communication with the players, actively seeking feedback, requests, and ideas in order to make the game better. See More

Top Con

The game feels unfinished and unpolished

Even though Conan Exiles is no longer in early access, there are a lot of flaws here and there that add up over time. You have plenty of freedom to roam around, but there's no real sense of progression or a focused storyline. Some areas in the open world just have a bunch of enemies to kill for the sake of killing them. You may also lag a lot, with your character warping around as you try to move. On their own, these things wouldn't be such a big deal, but they really do become a pain as the problems start to stack up. See More

Top Pro

A great deal of fun to play with your friends

In Conan Exiles, you're able to team up with people and build cities, or even empires if your group is large enough to make it happen. You're also able to do things that simply couldn't happen as a solo player, like waging war on enemy cities, pooling resources to expand your territory quickly, or making group expeditions to find rare resources. As much fun as the game is by yourself, it really shines when you've got a few friends to team up with to take on the world. See More

Top Pro

The combat is fast-paced and brutal

In Conan Exiles you play as an exiled warrior, so it's no wonder that you know how to fight. You play in first-person and wield a large array of weapons in order to destroy your enemies. Combat often ends quickly, with decapitations, limbs flying everywhere, and blood spattered on the ground. You can even sacrifice your enemies to the gods in order to gain power if you want to. If you like brutality, Conan Exiles has it in spades. See More

Planet Explorers

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Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Negative

Evospace

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