The Best Sandbox Game Around
Garry’s Mod is a sandbox game based in the Source engine, originally created by programmer Garry Newman as a mod for Half-Life 2 and released in 2004. Garry’s Mod (often referred to as GMod) is arguably not a game; it has no preset aims or goals and play is simply based around manipulation of the objects and physics in the world. Garry’s Mod comes with all the weapons, props and vehicles you’ll find in Half-Life 2 and almost all of the NPCs as well meaning that right from the get-go you have hundreds of pieces of high-quality content to work with. However, any maps, NPCs, vehicles, weapons, props (including ragdolls) and entities that work with the Source engine can be spawned in Garry’s Mod. This means that not only can you import content from such games as Counter-Strike: Source, Portal and Team Fortress 2 but it lets amateur developers create their own content as well.
The ‘weapon’ you’ll be using most in the game is the physics gun, a tool which allows you to move and rotate objects and freeze them in space. The game also has a wide variety of tools to manipulate objects with; to describe everything you can do with these tools would be an article within itself but the tools packaged with the game can be broken down into four specific categories. Constraint tools bind objects together in some way, whether it is through simply welding one object to another or creating such systems as winches, pulleys or elastic. Construction tools can create light sources, remove objects, apply wheels to objects and perform similar tasks. Poser tools are used to manipulate ragdolls by changing their facial expressions, inflating them and turning them into statues among other things. Finally, render tools can perform such tasks as re-colouring objects or adding new cameras to the world. Of course programmers can also create and distribute their own tools but the tools provided with the game already provide endless possibilities.
As with any advanced sandbox experience it requires a certain amount of time to get to grips with all of the tools in the game, however an explanation of what each tool does appears when you equip them and individually the tools are all simple to understand. You have easy access to the content and tools in the game via the spawn menu, a menu that can be accessed by pressing a single key at any time and provides you with a sleek-looking and easily navigable interface. There is also a smaller context menu that can be opened to edit the settings of tools without opening the spawn menu. Three tutorial videos are included in the game to teach you the basics of the spawn menu, how to build a simple car and how to pose a ragdoll. While you’ll have to be rather proficient with the game to create a physics-based masterpiece anyone can create something fun and the game does a good job of getting you going in the right direction.
In addition to straight-out creation and manipulation tools there are also a number of post-processing filters that can be added to alter the look of the game, adding such graphical changes as motion blur and bloom. Performance settings and similar options are available such as physics iterations, shadow quality etc. Players can access the console at all times to input commands on the fly and review what has been happening in the game. While most of these are minor features they are a positive addition to the game and help to further expand Garry’s Mod’s philosophy of making your experience as open as possible.
The game can be played either in single player or multiplayer mode and it’s easy for those who wish to set up their own games, join friends and manage their games to do so. Due to different players and servers often having a wide range of different custom content, connecting to a server almost always involves downloading files can be a very lengthy process, as can starting any game when there is a large amount of content on your system. However this is an inescapable problem with running this type of system. Sadly there is no official online content distribution system for the game and all custom content downloaded must be manually extracted and placed into the right folder/s. However, garrysmod.org provides a massive resource of user-created content for download. All of this management of content can feel like a bit of a chore but the Garry’s Mod community has created some amazing content and there are more than enough files out there for even the most content-hungry player.
If you do want to pick up Garry’s Mod for yourself you need to have at least one game that uses the Source engine and it must have been a game that was purchased, so Alien Swarm and the free version of Portal won’t work. There are some special deals you can currently get on Steam to buy Garry’s Mod and Counter-Strike: Source or Team Fortress 2 as a package but none the less if you’re not a big player of Valve games this will probably mean an extra purchase for you. The somewhat controversial choice was also made at one point to upgrade the Source engine used in Garry’s Mod from the Half-Life 2 version to the Half-Life 2: Episode One version, which improved the engine but did lead to some of the content created for the old Source engine not being completely compatible with the new version, so take that as you will.
Most games try to present you with structure and at least some kind of linearity, and even when you are playing a sandbox game there are often at least some limitations to try and control the quality of your experience. By removing all constraints on the player, supporting a large library of existing content, utilising a brilliant physics engine, providing the player with a collection of excellent tools and supporting just about any piece of user-created content possible Garry’s Mod makes itself the absolute king of sandbox games. The game may require you to have purchased an extra Source game and make installing custom content a somewhat clunky process but whether creating a simple rocket-propelled chair or an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine Garry’s Mod can be incredibly fun and provides limitless creative possibilities.
