Gamers always enjoy pushing the limits of what's possible. The more infuriating a game's trophy list is, for instance, the more determined many are to get that Platinum (if they're not literally and officially impossible to get, we'll try). The more ways there are to create a build in a given title, the more determined we may be to explore every single option and make ourselves as overpowered as possible.
Open-World Games That Make Sandbox Mayhem Feel Better Than GTA Ever Did
If you want to cause uncontrolled chaos, these games are better at making mayhem than even GTA 5.
Sandbox titles, more than any other games, are taken to extremes. The core concept of "do just about anything you can think of" is taken as a challenge. This is why, when titles give players the opportunity to freely make contraptions, the results are often something more elaborate, or more ridiculous, than the developers ever imagined.
7 The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
What Did Those Koroks Ever Do To Us?
Like predecessor The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom is a wonderful, liberating, and deeply atmospheric open world. It was crucial, though, to give the game its own identity, and not simply retread everything that the 2017 hit did so well. One of the primary ways of doing this was adding the Ultrahand mechanic, through which Link can fuse materials together. It seems simple enough at first glance, with the ability to put together a makeshift raft to cross a body of water, perhaps adding an engine to make the journey super fast. Some players quickly saw the true potential of the system, though, which was that, with enough dedication, they could make just about anything.
Soon after the game's release, social media was awash with footage of unfortunate Koroks being blasted across chasms in makeshift rockets, working mechs, and all kinds of hilariously creative things besides. Open-world games are well-known for allowing players to venture off for hours doing side content, but that content doesn't really tend to take this form.
6 No Man's Sky
Design Your Own Spaceship
Of the many updates No Man's Sky has received since its launch in 2016, some would say that Voyagers has been one of the most impactful. Alongside more low-key tweaks to players' suits, this update hugely bolstered the multiplayer aspect of the game. The arrival of the Corvette ships was a revelation, and not just because it kept groups together and allowed them to travel across the universe in a glorious new ship. The real draw is that said ship is designed and customized by the players themselves.
Needless to say, this quickly meant that fleets and fleets of Millennium Falcons, the Nostromo from Alien, TARDISes, and a range of other classic sci-fi ships were taking to space. It's a real blast to recreate them, but what's even more fun is to go for an entirely unique design all your own. Depending on the parts you've been able to acquire, there are almost endless options for ludicrous vessels of all sizes and shapes. Make sure you pick out the best Corvette upgrades to prioritize, too.
5 Minecraft
If You Can Imagine It, You Can Build It
From its very introduction, Minecraft has been an experience built around the concept of dig, build, repeat. Just like No Man's Sky, it has seen years and years of update that have added creative ways to continue doing just that. For those engineers and tinkerers in the fanbase, though, the most significant of them was perhaps the introduction of redstone. An early introduction to the game while it was evolving, redstone allows the player to provide power to things they've built, such as machines.
Minecraft: 35 Insanely Useful Redstone Contraptions
When it comes to crafting, Minecraft is pretty simple, except when it comes to redstone. Lucky for players, we share helpful designs for the game.
Mojang probably wasn't ready for the kinds of silly redstone machines players have developed in Minecraft. In a game like this one that can constantly demand resources, it's nice to have a machine that can automate the process of creating some. That sort of thing, however, is far too logical and sensible, and so players have repeatedly focused on creating fun distractions like bouncy castles instead. It's just another way that Minecraft ensures you're always working your creative muscles.
4 Trailmakers
A Ludicrous Vehicle Building Simulator
Trailmakers is ultimately what would happen if No Man's Sky expanded on its Corvette customization feature and made the whole game all about it. In the Sandbox mode, the core appeal for many, you simply choose a map and begin putting together your vehicle, from the full suite the game provides. You can then drive, fly, or sail it to explore the map and find collectibles. There's also a racing mode (which can get highly competitive) and a campaign for your little space explorer to play through.
One thing that sets Trailmakers apart, and which tinkerers will have to keep in mind throughout, is that the physics system is quite sophisticated and will ensure that vehicles act in a 'realistic' manner. They will tip if weight isn't evenly distributed in their designs, for instance, and water or flying through the air will affect them as you might expect them to. There are a huge amount of pieces to pick from and everything slots together effortlessly, but this is something additional to think about as you create away.
3 Besiege
Make The Deadliest Contraptions Imaginable
Besiege doesn't take the conventional vehicle-building route that a lot of similar titles do. Instead, the premise is a rather more vicious one: Constructing siege engines with which to overwhelm defenses and smash through strongholds. The game gives an awful lot of freedom with which to do so, which means that the rather conventional catapults and siege towers quick become great flaming, flying battering rams, multi-barreled machine cannons, and other such horrors.
There's something enormously satisfying about the act of creating, whether it's something physical or a project within a video game. There's something unutterably cathartic about destruction, though, and Besiege offers both. Crashing one of your lovingly-built machines into a tower full of knights and watching it slowly crumple to the ground never gets old.
2 Kerbal Space Program
Take Your Imagination To Infinity And Beyond
Humankind has long been fascinated by the concept of space travel, and it seems we aren't the only ones. Kerbal Space Program is a sort of blend of Trailmakers and No Man's Sky, in that it's all about building a spacecraft and contending with the game's very involved physics engine to ensure the voyage's success. Your creations are piloted by the Kerbals, a green alien race that wants to expand its horizons by seeing more and more of the solar system around it. Luckily for them, you're here to help.
6 Best Open-World Games That Let You Build Ships
Voyage through space or sea with these open-world games.
The system of 'snapping' spaceship parts together is endlessly satisfying, and you can tweak essentially every aspect of a craft to your liking. It's extremely intuitive, and a lot of players will surely stick with the sandbox mode and simply see how outlandish their designs can be while still making it to space. For a more structured experience, Career mode sees the player building up an actual space program, balancing their available funds to develop new technologies and developing relationships with different companies in the industry. There are surprising layers of depth to the game, and you're free to explore them -- or not -- as you wish.
1 Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
A New Direction For A Beloved Series
As we've established, then, a game that invites the player to build their own vehicles from a variety of pieces is usually asking for pure chaos. That's exactly the concept behind the franchise-killing Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts too. It was a controversial decision to completely change the genre of the series and radically redesign the characters, but you can't say that Rare didn't try something new and original here.
Banjo and Kazooie must compete with Gruntilda and her cronies in an elaborate series of racing contests, with the fate of Spiral Mountain at stake. Thus begins quite an elaborate collectathon, acquiring new pieces and augmentations for the bird and bears' own abilities and their vehicles. Experimentation is the name of the game, and however ridiculous your finished creation looks, it should be practical to control.
Open-World Games With The Best Crafting
Craft weapons, armor, and more in the best open-world crafting games on the market. In some cases, the options feel limitless.