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Wide Open Sandbox: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"A bad sandbox is one where you speed disinterestedly from plot mission to plot mission like the [[London Underground]] but a good sandbox makes you go 'Well there's the next story mission, but...Oooh, [[Gotta Catch Em All|collectables]]! Oooh, [[Random Encounters]]! Oooh, [[Rewarding Vandalism|an intact thing]]!'"''
|'''[[Zero Punctuation]]''', ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]] 2'' review}}
There's [[Take Your Time|no time limit]]. No restraints, other than the occasional [[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence]]. No objectives, no requirements. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want.
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Contrast [[No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom]], [[Railroading]].
Not to be confused with the
{{examples|Notable games in this genre:}}
* ''[[Alundra]]''
* ''[[Animal Crossing]]''
* ''
** ''[[Assassin's Creed
** ''[[Assassin's Creed
** ''[[Assassin's Creed:
** ''[[Assassin's Creed:
** ''[[Assassin's Creed III]]''
* ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]''
* ''[[Black and White]]''
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* ''[[Borderlands]]''
** ''[[Borderlands 2]]''
** ''[[Borderlands 3]]''
* ''[[Brütal Legend|Brutal Legend]]''
* ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]''
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* ''[[Carmageddon]]''
* ''[[Chibi-Robo!]]'' (Well, a house is wide open when you are 4 inches tall)
* ''[[
* ''[[Cortex Command]]'' (for now)
* ''[[Cosmic Osmo]]''
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** ''[[Dead Rising 2]]''
* ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]''
* ''
** ''[[
*** ''[[
*** ''[[2027]]''
** ''[[Deus Ex:
** ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution]]''
* ''[[Dragon Quest]]''
** ''[[Dragon Quest II]]''
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** ''[[Fallout 3]]''
** ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]''
** ''[[Fallout 4]]''
** ''[[Fallout 76]]''
* ''[[Far Cry]] 2''
* ''[[Final Fantasy]]''
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** ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City]]''
** ''Grand Theft Auto Advance''
** ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]''
** ''[[Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories]]''
** ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories]]''
** ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]''
*** ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV:
*** ''[[Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony]]''
** ''[[Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars]]''
** ''[[
* ''[[G-Police]]''
* ''[[Growlanser]]''
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* ''[[Harvest Moon]]''
* ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]''
** ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous
* ''[[Jak and Daxter]]''
** ''[[Jak II Renegade]]''
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* ''[[Jaws Unleashed]]''
* ''[[Just Cause (video game)|Just Cause]]''
* ''[[Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning]]''
* ''[[Kirby]] Air Ride'' (City Trial Mode)
* ''[[Landstalker]]''
* ''[[
* ''[[Legend of Mana]]''
* ''[[
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]''
* ''[[Little Big Planet]]''▼
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild]]''
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom]]''
* ''[[LittleBigPlanet]]''
* ''[[The Manhole]] ''
* ''[[Mario Paint]]''
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* ''[[Minecraft]]''
* ''[[Mount & Blade]]''
** ''[[The Last Days (of the Third Age of Middle Earth)]]''
* ''[[Naev]]''
* ''[[Need for Speed]]'' (select titles)
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* ''[[No More Heroes]]''
* ''[[The Precursors]]''
* ''[[Postal (video game series)|Postal]]
** ''[[Postal
** ''[[Postal 3]]''
* ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]''
** ''[[Prototype 2]]''
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** ''[[Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare]]''
* ''[[Red Faction]] Guerrilla''
* ''[[Republic:
* ''[[Roblox]]''
* ''[[Rune Factory]]''
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** ''[[Saints Row]]''
** ''[[Saints Row 2]]''
** ''[[Saints Row: The
** ''[[Saints Row IV]]''
* ''[[Scarface the World Is Yours]]''
* ''[[Second Life]]''
** ''[[
* ''[[Shenmue]]''
** ''Shenmue II''
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* ''[[Starbound]]''
* ''[[Starfarer]]''
* ''[[Starfield]]''
* ''[[Starflight]]''
* ''[[S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (series)|S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' - any of the three games: ''Shadow of Chernobyl'', ''Clear Sky'' and ''Call of Pripyat''.
* ''[[Startopia]]''
* ''[[Subnautica]]''
* ''[[Tail Of The Sun]]''
* ''[[Terraria]]''
* ''[[Terminus]]''
* ''[[The Saboteur]]''
* ''[[
* ''[[The Sims]]'' (includes ''The Sims 2'', ''The Sims 3'' and ''The Sims
** ''[[My Sims]]''
* ''[[Steambot Chronicles]]''
* ''[[Survival Crisis Z]]''
* ''[[Test Drive]]: Unlimited''
* ''[[Toy Story
* ''[[True Crime: Streets of LA]]''
** ''[[True Crime: New York City]]''
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* The gamebook series ''[[The Fabled Lands]]'' (''Fabled Quest'' in the US) was based around this idea, with hundreds of different side quests, some stretching across multiple books each of which represented a geographical area. If your character walked (or sailed) to edge of the map in one book he would end up in another, and there was no need to start the books in any order. Unfortunately, [[Too Good to Last|only six of the planned twelve books were published]] leaving the world incomplete. Rumours of a ''[[Lone Wolf|Project Aon]]''-style online revival with all twelve books remain unconfirmed.
** What has been confirmed however, is that the first 6 books are being re-released on the iphone sometime in 2010, and if interest is high enough, the other twelve will also be written and released
* Some of the [[The Lord of the Rings|Middle-Earth Quest]] gamebooks also managed this. Notably, ''A Spy in Isengard'' let you go anywhere on the map, and let you revisit the same location as many times as you liked (although, granted, there were a finite number of events that could happen at any location. There was a time limit, but only if you used the advanced rules, and even if you blew it, you didn't lose, you just got a less optimal ending; in the basic rules, [[Take Your Time]] was in full effect (that could actually be a minor problem, since it forced you to show up early for certain critical events). There was a goal, of course, but you could choose among multiple possible ways of accomplishing it. All in all, this was a very high degree of openness for a gamebook. Some of the other books in the series managed comparable levels of openness, but at least one, ''Treason at Helm's Deep'', thoroughly averted this trope.
** The first book in the series, ''Night of the Nazgûl'', used the same game mechanics to achieve a similar Wide Open Sandbox feel, although with some wrinkles. As with ''Spy'', there was a time limit in the advanced rules, although that again only determined the optimality of the ending. More peculiarly, many locations were functionally identical to other locations. For example, almost every map hex within the Barrow-Downs contained tombs that you could explore and loot. Each location text entry for the Barrow-Downs, however, referred you to one of maybe two or three encounter text passages, so if you thoroughly explored the entire Barrow-Downs, you would run into effectively the same monsters and the same loot, and the same text passages describing them, over and over again. So in effect, you were playing in a Wide Open Sandbox in which many places were completely identical to many other places.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The highly successful [[Half-Life|Source mod]] ''[[Garry's Mod]]'' is nothing but the sandbox. While there are game modes included, they came later.
* ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' subverts this sort of game: there's a giant, open world and ''nothing'' in it at first glance (and not much at second, actually).
* ''[[Steambot Chronicles]]'' is a Japanese video game take on this, piloting a mecha, riding a bicycle, playing music or pool for money are just a few of the things you can do.
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* ''[[Jaws Unleashed]]'' for the [[PlayStation 2]] and Xbox was set in the wide open ocean, based off of the ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' film series. [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks|You played as the shark]]. Unfortunately, the idiotic controls made it a lot less satisfying than it should've been. Still, you get to fight an Orca Whale. In the middle of an ocean park. And ''tear it in half''. And there's a fight with a giant squid inside of an oil rig. And did I mention the swimmers are all [[Made of Plasticine]]?
* ''[[The Sims]]''. The game manual itself mocks the reader for asking how to win! You can't win. There is no "win," just endless torment of your immortal pixel people. In the later installments of the series, however, the introduction of aging and Lifetime Wants allowed the players to create goals for themselves and their Sims. You still can't actually win though. Just play ''forever.''
* ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'' for the [[
* ''[[Infinity the Quest For Earth]]'' fits here like a glove. It will have over 200 billion star systems, and everything (stars, planets, moons, asteroids...) is life-sized.
* The Original ''[[BattleTech|Mech Warrior]]'' PC game had a storyline about restoring your family to a throne. But the rest of the game was so open ended many players never even knew there was a storyline in the first place.
* ''[[Red Faction|Red Faction: Guerrilla]]'' takes place on Mars: a literal and figurative sandbox. There are numerous side missions to help in the [[La Résistance|liberation of Mars.]] Interestingly the game will actively start optional side missions when you are out driving through the badlands and settlements, as well as allowing the player to choose specific missions. Completing side missions provides resources which help in the unlockable core story missions. The story missions are generally more elaborate and spectacular.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' (first title) is considered to be a very early interpretation of the genre, being that you can access (almost) any dungeon from the start (on the proviso that you can find it) whether you have the new weapon/PlotCoupon from the prior dungeon or not- later titles are much more restrictive and linear by comparison, despite still allowing you to bomb around the overworld more or less at will.
* The licensed video game of ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 3'' features a Toy Box mode, which basically lets you mess around with the characters however you want. It's intended to simulate playing with toys in [[Real Life]].
* EA's ''[[Skate]]'' series gives you a city and a skateboard. Especially improved after the first, with the addition of on-foot controls to ''Skate 2'' and improvement of said controls in ''Skate 3''. You can get some amazing footage for Skate.Reel just messing around. Not to mention the Film/Team Film and Hall Of Meat challenges, which you can do by skating up to any location and just pulling off the requirements. It becomes a challenge of seeing where and how the challenges can be done.
* ''[[Midnight Club]] Street Racing'' and its sequel had a "Joyride" mode where you could simply drive all over town, exploring, with no time limit or objectives - even with a friend in split screen!
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* The ''[http://chir.ag/stuff/sand/ Falling Sand Game]'', in which sand falls and you... draw things for it to fall on or into. Among other things. Also a literal example. It being a Wide Open Sandbox is mocked in the song ("Don't know how to win at all...")
** Turned [[Up to Eleven]] with ''[http://powdertoy.co.uk/ The Powder Toy]''.
* ''[[Mabinogi (video game)|Mabinogi]]'', a free Korean [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] is far more of a sandbox type game than is typical for the genre. There is an overarching story, and several major side stories; but the majority of the game's content can be accessed outside of the storyline.
* The ''[[Arm A]]'' series sets its missions on "islands," which are huge yet fully rendered terrains (in the style of games like ''Grand Theft Auto'' or ''Assassin's Creed'') with no separate loading times, but in turn the editor allows for an incredible variety of what the player is actually to do within these 'islands', and there are several player-created missions that are essentially ''Grand Theft Auto: The MMORPG''.
* The mainland in ''[[Ryzom]]'' is so exceedingly huge that some new players, upon completing the tutorial, will delete their character, make a new one, and stay on the tutorial continent for a while longer this time.
* Spectrum Holobyte's ''Vette!'' may have been the very first open sandbox driving game, and was one of the first true 3D driving games.
* The tie in games for ''[[Harry Potter]] and The Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Order of the
* While ''[[Subnautica]]'' is "officially" considered a [[Survival Horror]] game (mainly because of scary [[Sea Monster]]s that lunge out at you from the depths if you're careless), it meets all the criteria for a Wide Open Sandbox, with all the biomes, creatures, and [[Precursors|Precursor]] stuff laying around. Even though you're supposedly infected with an inevitably-fatal disease, [[Take Your Time|it doesn't seem about to kill you any time soon]] and you can explore to your heart's content.
== Western Animation ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Simulation Game]]
[[Category:Rule of Fun]]
[[Category:Older Than the NES]]
[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Wide Open Sandbox]]
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