Suggestions for good "sandbox" games

[23skidoo]

Over Christmas I got a PS2 as a fun present. Yeah I know they're dinosaurs, but I've never really got into recent console gaming (the price of PS2 when it first came out and the decision to make Wii's hard to find turned me off). One of the games I got with it was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

I actually find I don't enjoy the game itself so much as the ability to just wander around and explore the cities. I found a cheat code that allowed me to enter areas that hadn't yet been unlocked*, so occasionally I'll just ignore the game itself and go wandering around, especially since the game doesn't require you to go from A to B to C in any set time. I once spent 2 weeks between missions just familiarizing myself with the area and looking for bonus stuff.

I know there are online "environments" like Second Life that offer similar experiences (though restricted). I thought I'd ask if there are any other open-ended, sandbox-style games out there (preferably for PS2 but I'll take any suggestions) that, like GTA: SA, can be played as "explore the environment" games instead of having to follow set missions and time limits? (In GTA: SA the only "time limit" I'm aware of is the character has to eat every couple days or start losing health.)

I've played Assassins Creed and I suppose some of the missions come close, though you're still restricted to a certain area. Paradise in Postal2 (boy, I sound like a psycho mentioning all these ultra-violent games) is very much a sandbox-like environment once you get to a certain point and all the areas unlock, as long as you stay away from spots that trigger missions.

But I'm looking for "whole-city" environments like GTA. And San Andreas is, what, 7 years old now so I'm sure the newer games must offer immense "sandboxes."

Alex

* GTA: SA penalizes you for cheating, so I can't save games when I use this cheat. In the game, if you try to enter areas before they're unlocked, the police come after you. I found a code that makes the cops ignore you, so I'm able to check out the game's version of Las Vegas, for example. Not everything's accessible yet, but I can enjoy the scenery and a few places like casinos are still open.

 

[Rincewiend]

Well, there are 4 other GTA games on the PS2...
GTA3, Vice City and the 2 PSP ports, Liberty City and Vice City stories...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_III
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_Vice_City
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_Liberty_City_Stories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_Vice_City_Stories

Gun is set in the Wild West days...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_(video_game)

The Driver series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driv3r
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver:_Parallel_Lines

The Godfather:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather:_The_Game

Mercenaries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenaries:_Playground_of_Destruction

Scarface
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarface:_The_World_Is_Yours

And those are the ones available for the PS2/PC...

 

[TheGodBen]

GTA is the premier sandbox franchise as GTA3 pretty much defined the direction of the genre over the last 10 years. GTA3 and Vice City are both excellent games with a great atmosphere, especially Vice City, but both worlds are rather small compared to San Andreas and if you don't like the gameplay then you might not find much to do in those games.

Bully, also made by Rockstar, is a great game set in a boarding school and the town around it. Don't let the title put you off, you don't actually play as a bully but rather as a kid that's fighting against bullies. Carjacking is replaced with bicycles and skateboarding.

There was a version of Just Cause released on the PS2, which is a pretty fun game to mess around in. The world is massive but it lacks detail (you'll see the same 10 shacks over and over again) and the gameplay is quite repetitive.

True Crime: Streets of LA was a fairly obvious GTA-clone set in LA (surprisingly). It's not great, but the world is large and and pretty detailed for a PS2 game.

Spiderman 2 is a game I wasted plenty of time messing around in. It recreates New York and you get to swing around all over the city which is a very liberating feeling.


In my opinion, sandbox games in the PS2 era always lived in GTA's shadow and they only managed to emerge from it in the PS3/360 generation. Saint's Row 2 out-did GTA's craziness, Just Cause 2 out-did GTA's stunts, Crackdown and Assassin's Creed out-did GTA's feeling of liberation, Red Faction Guerilla out-did GTA's sense of destruction... Meanwhile, GTA decided to drop much of the over the top gameplay and focused on creating a believable, immersive world, and I think that GTA4's Liberty City and Red Dead Redemption's New Austin are the best game worlds around.

 

[23skidoo]

Thanks for these suggestions! I'm not glass-ceiling myself at PS2 - I do plan to get a PS3 in the near future.

And I can also play PC games, too but I have found myself getting increasingly annoyed at always having to mess about about systems and memory, and I spend too much time on the computer as it is. At least the PS2 gets me into my living room!

I forgot to mention that there was one other sandbox-style game that looked impressive, True Crime: Streets of New York. I got it for PC a few years back and I found it unplayable because the keyboard commands were so complex and finger-joint-breaking that I just gave up. And I'm an experienced keyboard-gamer. (I thought it was just me till I read reviews that described the same issues). But the reproduction of NYC looked quite good on that one. I don't know if you could actually full-sandbox that one, though. But then I could barely get the guy to move in a straight line without getting shot.

Incidentally, I'm not saying I dislike the gameplay on GTA: SA, though I found one mission where "I" had to murder a guy and an innocent bystander (his girlfriend) pretty disturbing, even for the genre. It's just nice to not have to always keep to the game's schedule. Besides, for me it's more fun trying to find where the secret weapons are hidden than actually using them (and besides, the game's easier if you can find the machine gun hidden behind a fence out in one of the small towns in the country).

Alex

 

[RoJoHen]

I played GTA3 a lot back when it came out and thought it was awesome. Vice City was good, too, but it was just more of the same. I'd say start with either of those.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Crackdown
Saint's Row 2
Assassins Creed 2
Far Cry 2
Fable 2
Oblivion
Fallout 3 (or New Vegas)
Red Dead Redemption

 

[23skidoo]

I haven't seen much talk about GTA IV. Is it also sandboxy like San Andreas or do they go a different direction?

The only big complaint I have about SA (other than some of the missions as I detail above) is the 3rd person view. Although it is easier to drive in 3rd person (I tried 1st person and I think I'll save that for when the 360-degree VR port comes along), it would be nice to get down to CJ's level for walking about. 3rd person view tends to go against the whole "immersive" thing (even looking at Lara Croft's butt got old after a while). Even when I'm messing about in Second Life (which isn't very often anymore) I tend to go into 1st person when I can, and I lost interest in Postal3 when they moved to 3rd person. Do any of the games discussed so far offer a 1st person option (discounting occasional mission or action-specific sections like driving)?

Alex

 

[Sparky]

here ya go.

http://gprime.net/game/thesandgame.php

 

[judge alba]

gta San Andreas was the only game of the gta series I couldn't complete. couldn't get past the flying plane through the loops part.

not sure if it's of any use but saints row 2 is available on the pc got mine through steam. But I think it';s a port from the 360 or something, not that I used it very much as I've already got it on the ps3 which I've almost played to death.

 

[TheGodBen]

I haven't seen much talk about GTA IV. Is it also sandboxy like San Andreas or do they go a different direction?

GTA IV is still a sandbox, but it annoyed a lot of fans by removing many of the side-missions and crazier aspects of San Andreas. Instead, Rockstar chose to make the game more detailed with more of a focus on realism (well, as much realism as you can have in a game where you murder 50 cops and are back on the streets 6 hours later). The world is incredibly detailed, so much so that you could spend days just watching Liberty City's TV stations, reading the internet or hanging out getting drunk with friends. If you really enjoy getting lost in a game world, Liberty City is the place to go.

They also released two DLC packages that you can buy separately called The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony and they bring back some of the crazy stuff that was present in San Andreas, such as a gold-plated assault helicopter. When you play them all as one game, as I am doing now, playing the missions from each game in chronological order, it brings a better balance of fun and realism.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Bully, also made by Rockstar, is a great game set in a boarding school and the town around it. Don't let the title put you off, you don't actually play as a bully but rather as a kid that's fighting against bullies.

I must not have played it right.

I haven't seen much talk about GTA IV. Is it also sandboxy like San Andreas or do they go a different direction?

It's the same, just on next gen hardware. I liked not having to eat and workout and whatever in San Andreas but was surprised at how much I missed having more clothing options.

 

[Guitarded]

I still prefer San Andreas over GTAIV. SA has much more variety in, well... everything. GTAIV just seems stale to me, even with the graphical improvements.

The biggest thing that bugged me about SA was the fact that cars would change lanes much faster than what is "normal" and cause me to wreck.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

I actually find I don't enjoy the game itself so much as the ability to just wander around and explore the cities.

Then you already understand the art of the sandbox game. Nine hours of wandering should be followed by twenty-five minutes of storyline development. This is the way of the sandbox.

 

[6079SmithW]

I actually find I don't enjoy the game itself so much as the ability to just wander around and explore the cities.

Then you already understand the art of the sandbox game. Nine hours of wandering should be followed by twenty-five minutes of storyline development. This is the way of the sandbox.

I wish I could post this to everyone complaining that Far Cry 2 is boring or that there is nothing to do. The point is to wander around between missions. They even give you side quests with the buddies and trying to find all the diamonds. Plus the scenery is gorgeous. I was never bored.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I actually find I don't enjoy the game itself so much as the ability to just wander around and explore the cities.

Then you already understand the art of the sandbox game. Nine hours of wandering should be followed by twenty-five minutes of storyline development. This is the way of the sandbox.

I wish I could post this to everyone complaining that Far Cry 2 is boring or that there is nothing to do. The point is to wander around between missions. They even give you side quests with the buddies and trying to find all the diamonds. Plus the scenery is gorgeous. I was never bored.

I played through Far Cry 2 twice last year - it may have replaced Saints Row 1 & 2 as my favourite 360 game...

I tended to play it with Alan Silvestri's Predator scores, and his score for Tomb Raider Cradle Of Life streamed from the PC, and it was brilliant. Got all the diamonds. The only thing that would have made it more perfect would be if I could have got my character into bed with some of the female characters...

 

[6079SmithW]

^I got all the briefcases (Some were really hard!) but somehow managed to screw up a radio tower mission at some point so I didn't get the achievement. I've beaten it twice and am going on a third time. I found it odd that in character selection you can only choose from the male buddies and can't be one of the women. Its such a great game, though!

 

[Lonemagpie]

did you kill your buddies at the bar at the end of the first game like ISTR suggesting to you in an earlier thread? Or did you do it the hard way?

 

[6079SmithW]

I never kill my buddies (until the very end). They are too helpful to get rid of.

Speaking of sandboxes, I am thinking about getting Red Faction: Guerilla. I saw some youtube gameplay demos and it looks pretty good.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I never kill my buddies (until the very end). They are too helpful to get rid of.

The very end in that game is a lot easier if you do...

Speaking of sandboxes, I am thinking about getting Red Faction: Guerilla. I saw some youtube gameplay demos and it looks pretty good.

It is indeed pretty good, with lots of fabulous ways to destroy things, but the all-desert terrain means it's visually a little bland. Worth it, rhough!