Sandbox Games That Aren’t Open-World (But Should Be)

Summary

The potential of sandbox games is limited by segmented levels, hindering scale and interconnected open-world experiences.
Transitioning sandbox titles to open-world formats can unlock emergent complexity, deeper player agency, and genre-defining status.
Games like TABS, Teardown, and Oxygen Not Included could benefit from expansive open-world designs to enhance gameplay depth.

Sandbox games primarily revolve around imagination, trial and error, and objectives set by players, but not all sandbox games completely embody an open-world concept. Some maintain a more structured approach with separate levels or enclosed settings. This limitation can curtail their full potential, particularly when the game mechanics cry out for expansive, interconnected landscapes.

Transitioning from structured designs to open-world frameworks can significantly amplify focus, refinement, expanse, emergent complexity, and player autonomy. Several games currently provide impressive levels of freedom within constrained spaces. Therefore, broadening their horizons to encompass open-world formats might elevate them to iconic, enduring masterpieces that will continue to captivate players for years to come.

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (TABS)

A Physics Playground Begging For The Open Plains

The game named Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (TABS) offers an entertaining and chaotic experience with its exaggerated physics and AI-controlled unit conflicts. In this game, players can create their own armies using a variety of units and then engage them in small-scale battles. TABS emphasizes on the unpredictable nature of combat and humorous results. It encourages endless experimentation through mod support and a custom battle editor, ensuring almost limitless fun!

Despite its modular design limiting broader aspirations, transforming it into an open-world war game scenario could elevate its comedic battles to unmatched heights. Enabling players to traverse expansive battlefields, uncover concealed units, construct fortresses, or observe evolving conflicts on a continuous map might further enhance the overall enjoyment, surpassing the current level of satisfaction.

Teardown

Destruction With No Limits But The Level Itself

Disassemble merges voxel-based destruction with heist-style objectives, requiring players to tactically dismantle buildings and escape intricate layouts. The level of destruction is unparalleled, as walls fall realistically, fires propagate, and surroundings crumble according to physics, making each mission a sandbox puzzle tailored by player creativity.

Instead of a mission-based structure that ties creativity to predefined paths, shifting to an open-world city or island setting where missions emerge naturally, structures develop dynamically, and damage has lasting effects, could transform Teardown into the peak physics simulation experience, significantly enhancing the main gameplay mechanic.

Oxygen Not Included

Colonization That Needs Expansion

Oxygen Not Included is a game that puts players in charge of managing a deep space colony, guiding their inhabitants, known as duplicants, to survive underground. The game shines due to its intricate and interconnected systems, including oxygen circulation, temperature regulation, plumbing, automation, and resource distribution. It’s an impressive example of how system-based gameplay can be effectively implemented within a 2D representation of a planet.

Unfortunately, the vertical shaft restricts the game significantly. An expansive, globally connected open-world setting with diverse biomes, hazards, and competing colonies could dramatically broaden the game’s horizons. Although the DLC incorporates some of this style of gameplay, there’s still potential to explore more than just a handful of planets, reaching instead the entire universe.

LittleBigPlanet 3

Infinite Creativity Within The Confines Of Basic Levels

LittleBigPlanet 3 shines as an innovative playground for creativity, providing players with the necessary tools to construct elaborate platformers, puzzles, and even mini-games. The user-friendly editor, sharing options within the community, and charming art style inspire experimentation and collaboration, making it feel more like a hidden game engine within a side-scrolling adventure.

In simpler terms, the current structure with grids and distinct levels limits the feeling of immersion. Transforming it into an open-world version like an “open-world LittleBigPlanet,” where creations coexist in a single, continuous world, could significantly boost its creative possibilities. This change would allow players to stumble upon community-created towns, mini-games, and platforming challenges spontaneously, instead of jumping into separate levels. Essentially, it would make Sackboy’s universe feel more like an interactive metaverse filled with user-generated wonders.

Poly Bridge 2

Roads Cut Too Short

The game titled Poly Bridge 2 is essentially a puzzle-based engineering simulator where players are tasked with building bridges to tackle physics-based transportation problems. The creative aspect shines during the design phase as players must devise smart solutions for factors like structural strength, budget limitations, and vehicle behaviors.

Instead of standing alone, each puzzle presents its own unique challenge. Consequently, an open-world construction game, where bridges link towns that adapt with time and confront factors like weather or traffic congestion, could turn the experience into a living civil engineering simulation. With real-time logistics and structural durability, building bridges would feel much more impactful than just solving a series of puzzles.

Besiege

Medieval Mayhem Within A Compact Arena

Release Date: 18 Feb, 2020
Developers: Spiderling Studios
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S and X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, macOS, Linux
OpenCritic: 75% Recommend

Siege encourages players to construct siege machines and cause chaos among medieval armies and castles. Its versatile construction features, destructible environments influenced by physics, and extensive modifying options make it a favorite among creative gamers. The campaign offers mission structure, while sandbox mode permits freer design choices.

Even though Besiege boasts a strong creative aspect, it’s limited to small-scale tasks and divided territories. An expansive, open-world version of Besiege, allowing players to explore a vast kingdom, attack castles, protect villages, and collect parts, would turn it into a dynamic war simulator that preserves its essential qualities. The fundamental mechanics are geared towards conquest; they just need an open world to truly shine.

Instruments Of Destruction

Pure Mayhem That Still Feels Restricted

As a game enthusiast, diving into “Instruments of Destruction” feels like being handed the keys to a demolition dream! Each level serves as my personal playground for wreckage, where I craft machines, tear down structures, and tweak designs to create the ultimate mayhem. The physics and damage modeling are so realistic that every structure’s collapse is a satisfying explosion of chaos, providing an exhilarating feedback loop that keeps me coming back for more!

Despite its tiered structure limiting the game’s long-term appeal due to mechanic limitations, introducing an expansive open-world setting with corporate objectives, mobile convoys, and environmental hurdles could make destruction more meaningful. By incorporating elements like logistics or territory control into the destruction, the engineering systems would have a broader impact over a longer period, potentially leading to more thrilling and dynamic gameplay experiences.

Hitman World Of Assassination

Open Areas That Could Use Even More Freedom

The Hitman World of Assassination is constructed from intricately designed sandbox stages, providing players with immense flexibility to carry out assassinations through stealth, sabotage, or disorder. Each mission presents a world akin to a finely-tuned clockwork mechanism, brimming with strategies and tactics for players to complete their diverse objectives in the most efficient manner.

Although each location in the game is separate, with no transitions, travel within these boundaries, or persistent connection between them. Transforming Hitman into an expansive open world, where targets can shift between areas, actions have lasting effects, and strategic planning plays a crucial role, would elevate it to a genuine assassination simulator. This evolution could potentially propel both the series and genre to unprecedented heights.

2025-08-13 01:48