The 35 Best Sandbox Games
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Tired of being told what to do in your favorite video games? Wish things could be a bit less linear? Then it’s time to sink your teeth into the best sandbox games. This genre is all about stripping away the limitations that hold you back from doing exactly what you want and opening up large worlds in which you can play—just like (you guessed it) a sandbox. Here are 25 of our favorites.
PLUS: More Pop Mech-Approved Video Games:
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The 30 Best Nintendo Switch Games
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The 25 Best VR Games
The 30 Best Video Games of 2019 (So Far)
Baldur's Gate 3
Even if you’ve never once rolled dice in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, this expansive Computer RPG is brimming with great characters, compelling stories that will keep you invested for tons of hours, and a staggering amount of ways to approach even the most basic interactions. Try to be a pacifist and talk your way out of clashes, or become the most ruthless killer in the Forgotten Realms. Oh, and did we mention that you can turn into a giant owlbear? Because you can. With Baldur’s Gate 3, you may discover a new love of RPGs if you create a character and try to dive into this excellent experience.
Ghost of Tsushima
Playing a samurai trying to defend Tsushima island from the First Mongol Invasion of Japan, Ghost of Tsushima offers a rich setting to explore, which was a huge departure from developer Sucker Punch’s preavious open-world Infamous series. Players can choose to face their foes honorably with a robust melee combat system, or go the way of the Ghost and take down whole strongholds without alerting a single guard. The game is a visual marvel, especially on PS5, and comes with cool graphics settings including a “Kurosawa Mode” that puts the game in black-and-white as an homage to the incredible Japanese director.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
If you thought Breath of the Wild was a sandbox, wait until you play what Nintendo cooked up with their near-perfect follow-up, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. With new powers that let you construct everything from a fan-powered glider to a giant, cannon-mounted warship (if you can piece it together). Even if you don’t touch the building, the world has been expanded so much even if it takes place on the same map as Breath of the Wild. New cave systems, floating sky islands, and a massive dark underground area mean you’ll never get tired of exploration.
Starfield
Having a whole world to explore is already appealing, and then Starfield ups the ante with a massive galaxy full of moons, planets, and human settlements to immerse yourself in. You can be a slick-talking space pirate, a gun-for-hire, an expert ship mechanic, and much more with tons of interesting traits to choose from in character creation. You’ll love getting lost in this fictionalized Milky Way galaxy, and it’s a whole-new huge Bethesda game to sink tons of time into if you can’t play another hour of Skyrim.
Deathloop
From the studio behind the excellent Dishonored series, Deathloop is a stylish, nonlinear action game where players control Colt, an assassin who has to take out eight targets within a single day trapped in a time loop. The game features highly detailed environments where you can take a variety of strategies to dispatch your enemies, enhancing player expression and allowing for a ton of replayability.
Tchia
If you’re looking for a refreshing spin on an open-world sandbox adventure, Tchia from developer Awaceb is such a delight. The setting is based on the island country of New Caledonia, giving players a chance to explore a couple of lush islands as well as the blue oceans between them. You can get genuinely lost in this game, as the map doesn’t automatically track your character, but you’ll start to feel comfortable exploring this environment. That’s due to great movement mechanics like the magical ability to possess animals and some objects, or getting to launch yourself from a palm tree, and breaking your fall with a glider.
Mad Max
This post-apocalyptic action-adventure debuted in 2015 to mixed reviews, but it has since gained a lot of fans and achieved cult status due to its well-designed world and emphasis on vehicle combat instead of just melee or shooting desert raiders. Your vehicle, the Magnum Opus, is your prized possession, and you’ll get to slowly upgrade it to become even more deadly as you make your way through the story.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man is one of the most video game-friendly superheroes, with even the more mediocre Spidey games having some inherent fun in them. However, the Insomniac-developed series beginning with Spider-Man in 2018 brought the standard even higher with a slick web-slinging system and super fun beat-em-up combat. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 brings Peter Parker and Miles Morales together for a great story that brings the team up against classic villains like Kraven The Hunter, Sandman, Venom, and more.
Valheim
If you want to check out a unique sandbox game with great survival elements, Valheim is inspired by Viking culture, with players taking control of dead Vikings trying to prove their worth in the fictional purgatory realm of Valheim to be welcomed into Valhalla. You’ll certainly die and restart many times as you get a sense of gathering resources, making a base, and defending yourself from enemies. Valheim is great to embark on solo, but the experience is even better when you have a few friends to face the challenge together. The game was released in early access in 2021, but it’s still absolutely worth checking out if you love survival games.
Batman: Arkham City
Even at over a decade old, Batman: Arkham City plays like a dream and set the standard for open-world imitators to come. Players are set loose in a huge segment of Gotham City, converted to an open-air prison, that you can explore as the Caped Crusader and either tackle the main missions or follow fun side threads including the brain-teasing Riddler puzzles strewn everywhere. The icing on the cake here is a compelling story featuring incredible performances by Mark Hamill as the Joker and the late Kevin Conroy as Batman.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Hit the ground running in this tale of Ancient Greece as a male or female mercenary fighting during the Peloponnesian War back in 431 BC. Fall in love, commit crimes, and train as hard as you possibly can while taking in the picturesque sights of sand dunes, lush greenery, and, well, group love sessions. The world is your oyster, and what a wide world it is, even if you’re just exploring your ancestor’s memories by way of the Assassin’s Creed story’s mainstay plot device, the Animus.
Astroneer
Space: the final frontier. It’s also the best possible place for you to build your own custom base, explore a massive solar system, and shape the terrain stretching out before you any way that you want. Dig into rich soil, create huge structures, check out several different planets, and carve out your own little place in the universe. Astroneer lets you do it all, really.
Don't Starve
You may be trapped in the wilderness looking for a way to survive, but as scientist Wilson, you’ve also got the run of the land. Create your own resources to combat the creatures and dangers that await you at every turn. There are no instructions, no tooltips, and essentially no rules. It’s just you, trying to figure out where to go and what to do in a harrowing 3D world. Sandbox-y enough for you?
Elite Dangerous
This massive multiplayer space game gives you the chance to explore the outer reaches of the Milky Way. All you need is your modest ship and your credits to head out to check out the uncharted space out there. With 400 billion star systems, you’re free to go where you want, connect with who you want, and do it all in style as you work on upgrading your ship and its components.
Fallout 4
You’re the sole survivor of Vault 111 following a nuclear disaster, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun. As you fight for your survival out in the vastness of the Wasteland, you can collect items, loot corpses, find new companions, and blow away the bad guys all at your leisure. Just make sure you watch that pesky radiation sickness and don’t forget your main goal: figuring out where your son has gone.
Fortnite
If you’re not as excited by squaring off against friends to emerge victorious as the last player standing in this ridiculously popular online shooter, you might consider Creative mode instead, where you have free reign over everything you do. Just build structures to your heart’s content. You have all the supplies you need, so just go crazy.
Garry's Mod
Garry’s Mod is less of a game than a massive stage on which you can live out your wildest fantasies with your favorite characters across various games. Pose the protagonist from Silent Hill 2 with Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman. Film short vignettes with a selection of props you can download from a nearly-infinite selection of different items. You can do just about anything you’ve ever wanted with Garry’s Mod and its intuitive toolbox. The only thing potentially limiting you is your imagination.
Grand Theft Auto V
Cruise the streets of Los Santos in a souped-up sportscar as you live the life you’ve always wanted. Whether you’re just wasting time trying to find a helicopter to travel around the map or harassing people on the streets, Grand Theft Auto V has plenty of venues for you to explore, including a robust online mode that you can live your own fictitious life in. Hang out at the casino, open up a nightclub, go bowling—do whatever you want! Just remember you have a real life, too.
Hitman: World of Assassination
Agent 47’s main goal is to dispatch his targets by any means necessary. That means you have a world of choices to take out the designated person to be assassinated in each and every mission. Explore each area thoroughly and find intriguing ways to ensure your enemy meets their end, whether that’s pretending to be a barber or walking around a race wearing a flamingo mascot costume. It’s really up to you. Enjoy all three Hitman games in the new World of Assassination bundle that also includes the challenging roguelike Freelancer mode.
Just Cause 4
This third-person adventure throws you into the shoes of Rico Rodriguez, who has the run of the open world of the world of Solis. Snowy mountains and treacherous deserts mean you’ve got to face off against blizzards and sandstorms as well as tornadoes out of the blue. Luckily, with Rico’s grappling hook, you can do just about anything you want, as long as you’re fighting back against the Black Hand gang.
Kerbal Space Program
Do you think you can build a functioning rocket? You may change your mind after the billionth failed attempt, but you’re free to make any kind of craft you want to in this lighthearted sandbox game. The goal is to get the diminutive Kerbals into space, which means you can spend as much time as you need to get them in a ship that won’t immediately fall back to Earth, and you may need all that time. It’s pretty difficult.
Kingdom Come
Travel back to Bohemia in 1403, where you’ll take on the role of a warrior, bard, thief, or any other class you believe fits you while you carve out a life. You’ll have to tend to every single one of your needs: eating, sleeping, tending to your wounds, and even learning to read. Throughout it all you can travel wherever you want, but just make sure you’ve got the weapons, armor, and know-how to tackle everything when you get there.
L.A. Noire
Head to 1940s Los Angeles in L.A. Noire, while you’re tasked with investigating a series of cases across several divisions, from homicide to arson. While on the job, you can cruise around the city checking out landmarks, questioning those potentially involved in each case, and doing so on your own time. If you just want to spend a whole day checking out the city, you can. That’s one of the coolest things about the game.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The final entry in the Metal Gear saga lets you traverse the whole of Afghanistan and the Angola-Zaire border in a massive, cinematic adventure that finds Punished "Venom" Snake working to take revenge on his enemies. You can travel throughout the world, recruit new members of your team, and check out the whole of the living, breathing world while completing your mission, as bleak as it can be.
Minecraft
Minecraft is the ultimate sandbox game. You can go anywhere, create anything, and do it all on your own time. You can do it while being assaulted by critters or opt to be left alone to your own devices. Mine for diamonds, create a gate to the Nether, or just make enormous statues if you want. You can be as creative as you wish, as long as you’ve got the resources to make it happen.
No Man's Sky
Soar through the galaxy and discover new planets, hang out with alien flora and fauna, and make uncharted space yours. This explosion of color lets you make friends with local alien life, take part in space combat, and document a luscious space journey that you’ll want to come back to time and time again.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Ever wanted to live the life of a cowboy? Head to the wild west in Red Dead Redemption 2, where you can git along, little dogie, at your own pace. Whether you stick to the lengthy campaign as Arthur Morgan or spend time in Red Dead Online making your own cowboy legend to roam the countryside. Whatever you choose, there’s a ridiculous amount of stuff you can do, from hunting game to settling down in a bubble bath before hitting the ol’ dusty trail again.
Rust
Rust may be a cruel multiplayer survival game, but you can eke out your own existence in it as you manage hunger, thirst, health, and other important needs for your character. Roam around a massive environment with dangerous creatures ready to pounce on you. As long as you’ve got the supplies, you can survive on the force of will alone, but what you’ll really want to do is find others to form clans with so you can survive together. It’s a free-for-all out there, and that’s part of what makes Rust so exciting.
Saints Row The Third
Join the Third Street Saints and you’ll be king (or queen) of the world. Hit the town, head to costume shops to parade around in a gimp mask and swimsuit, or roam around singing Sublime’s “What I Got” with your homies in the car. There may be rival gangs around to pick a fight, but you can do what you want, when you want when you’re part of the biggest, most powerful gang in the city. You own this turf, so head out and explore the wide, wide area of Steelport to ensure things stay that way.
Scrap Mechanic
Scrap Mechanic gives you endless tools to create the machines of your dreams. Head into this multiplayer sandbox to cobble together a vehicle or even a moving house out of over 100 building parts. You can build without any limitations, then take your creations for a spin. You can even work together with friends to make even more amazing creations—it’s all about collaborating in a wide open world in which you’ll have plenty of fun.
Skyrim
Pretty much everyone has a copy of Skyrim at this point, but if you don’t, it’s available on just about every platform ever, including Nintendo Switch. Walk all over Skyrim tussling with dragons, looting treasure chests, and Fus Ro Dah-ing your way around the world. You are Dragonborn, and you can travel far and wide without a care—and spend hours and hours in this lengthy RPG. Getting around is only half of the story.
Terraria
Like Minecraft, Terraria gives you plenty of options to explore, build, craft, and mine your way throughout the world. Each world is procedurally-generated, and it’s up to you to make your way through it. Think of it as 2D Minecraft, with bosses to fight off, goals to complete, and the opportunity to see what’s out there in a vast, vibrant world.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
This entry in the long-running Zelda series gives you the most freedom out of any of the previous titles. The world of Hyrule is open to you as you traverse the kingdom. Jump from a mountain and fly down into the valley using a paraglider. Collect supplies to cook your own meals and resources. Complete puzzles throughout challenging dungeons. But through it all, marvel at everything there is to do in the largest Zelda game yet, as nowhere is off-limits to you, as long as you have the tools to get there.
The Sims 4
The Sims is the ultimate sandbox game in which you can live out your wildest fantasies involving original characters, people you know in real life, or even celebrities. Create your own Sims, build them houses, give them occupations, and even turn them into vampires. The choice is yours, as long as you have the expansion that offers the activities you’re interested in letting them partake in. You can do just about anything in The Sims, and The Sims 4 is the latest and greatest of them all.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Who wouldn’t want to be Geralt of Rivia? Set out on a journey throughout the Continent as one of the most powerful monster hunters the land has seen. Along the way, complete missions for just about everyone in need of your supernatural skills, but take in the fresh air and see what’s out there. There’s a gorgeous, wide world to see, and you’re able to tackle every bit of it, if you want to, anyway.
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