Garry’s Mod: The Source-based Sandbox. Started as a mod for Half-Life, now it’s got its own full life. Building and editing maps turned out to be no less fun than killing each other on premade maps. So now this mod is a game by itself, encouraging more and more players to use their creativity. Built on a modified version of Valve's Source engine, Garry's Mod (or GMod for short) is a physics sandbox game. One of the great strengths of Garry's Mod is that it is incredibly modder-friendly. This has lead to a thriving community that is always coming up with new addons and gamemodes for everyone to enjoy.

Garry's Mod is a sandbox title for PC. In GMod you have total freedom at sculpting worlds, arenas, games, scenarios and cutscenes. Unleash your imagination, pick an idea and try yourself at game design. Or you can goof around in absurd and ultra-violent add-ons created by other players. Download Garry's' Mod if you hate limits!

Graphics and Sound – 4/5

Originally Garry's Mod was made on the Source engine. Ever since GMod was heavily influenced by it. It's filled with 3D buildings, NPCs and items. They are slightly rough-edged but quite responsive. All in all, GMod's graphics are reminiscent of early Counter-Strike games.

The best part of GMod is its physics. There are explosions, fire, shooting, plane crashing, etc. They all leave quite a satisfying impression thanks to particle, smoke and other effects. Objects in GMod act exactly the way you expect them to do. Water is sprinkly and splashy, weapons get hot-red from overheating, destructible buildings nicely collapse, and so on.

Besides, GMod has an excellent sound design. You'll find a whole caboodle of premium acoustic SFX: from a fiercely roaring motorboat to a speedily stuttering heavy M134 machine gun.

Gameplay – 5/5

Garry's Mod has no rules or limits. You have an extensive repertoire of NPCs, vehicles, buildings and decorations to tinker with. Not to mention a weapon arsenal from the likes of Half-Life, CS, Team Fortress, etc.

For example, Garry's Mod features such addons as:

• Jet-piloting simulator.
• Admin Gun. Destroy everything you see with a ridiculously powerful pistol.
• ZParachute Redux. Parachute like a stuntman.
• Air-to-surface missile. Learn what's it's like to be a missile.
• Sig-Wolf's Tank. Massacre NPCs with a tank.

And many others. You can either download these add-ons or design your own. All you need is a good idea and scenario. The rest is provided by the GMod. Zombie apocalypse, gang wars, alternative history of WWII — Garry's Mod can do it all.

Besides, you have an option to make a real movie. GMod supports scripted cutscenes and cinematic effects. So, if you've ever dreamt of making your own trash feature, like Grindhouse diptych, GMod is exactly what you need.

Controls – 5/5

Both sandbox and its add-ons are easily controlled with mouse + keyboard tandem. Although you will need a firm hand and a good eye to align NPCs in symmetrical lines or expressive poses (if it's needed, of course). As for playing the addons, it has classic FPS controls.

Lasting Appeal – 4.5/5

GMod is a whole universe. You can easily spend 1000+ hours playing it, and there are still will be new things to discover and try. Share your game design genius with others, invite a friend to complete a horror-quest filled with jumpscares or go berserk in one of the mass slaughter mods — there's plenty to do.

Difficulty Level

Your imagination is the only limit here. And you don't need any special skills to design a great add-on. On the contrary: the more strange, foolish and grotesque details your mod has, the better it will turn out!

Started as a mod for Half-Life, now it’s got its own full life. Building and editing maps turned out to be no less fun than killing each other on premade maps. So now this mod is a game by itself, encouraging more and more players to use their creativity. It can even be called “metagame” because creating new add-ons and item collections for it has become a self-sufficient art.

Builder’s Paradise

Looking very close to Valve games like Half-Life, Garry’s Mod is not about passing through with a mission or reaching a certain goal. It’s about building your world using the game’s physics.

Your main tool is Physics Gun. It is used to create the object you select, position it, rotate if necessary, and place on the map. Select it from the list and then aim and shoot to place it right there. Beware: if you place an object in an inappropriate place, it may behave unexpectedly, but according to physics. For example, put it in the midair, and it will fall down.
Another tool has a simple name of Tool Gun. It’s used for the transformation of objects or creating combinations. You can create interactive buttons, so the scene you build becomes more interactive.

The list of objects you can insert is really enormous. Some are imported from games based on the Source engine, and some have been created by players’ community and organized into collections. There are NPC’s, ragdoll objects, various items or actions (like explosions). All of them can interact considering their parameters, and sometimes it’s very unexpected and even funny.

Like the original games. GMod supports multiplayer mode. No wonder Garry’s Mod has become a platform for creating its own inner games and contests. The most prominent are Trouble in Terrorist Town (a Mafia-like game), Prop Hunt (virtual hide-and-seek), Hunger Games (a tribute to the famous series), and different role-playing game modes, from serious to parody, including DarkRP, PoliceRP, StarWarsRP and so on. There are more and more of them, so you can easily combine the joy of creation with traditional game modes.

There are even add-ons and secondary mods developed by the community. One of them (Wiremod) adds a lot of electronic devices you can construct and use right within your GMod scenes. It’s hard to imagine how long Garry’s Mod review would be if mentioning them all.

Though the developer of the original version, Garry Newman, has mentioned the potential sequel, it probably will never be released, or (if it ever is) will have no common base with the current GMod. So the original one is here to stay. In 2018 the community is still growing, and the add-ons are available in Steam where Garry’s Mod download is available as well.

Looks and Sounds Half-Alive

Garry's Mod Add-ons

There’s no surprise the environment in Garry’s Mod looks much like that of Counter-Strike or Half-Life: it’s been built upon the same engine. In 2018 graphics may seem a bit dated, but after Minecraft, it shouldn’t sound bad.

By the way, on sounds. The game has a lot of different sounds for different modes, and some of them are too funny to be taken seriously; others intend to copy real events or objects but are way too simple, not even cartoonish. They do their job, though, and sometimes make the game even more surrealistic.

Garry's Mod Free

You can create videos from this game for different purposes. It may be the simulation of some famous movie, show or real life episode; a model of an incident made without real filming and acting; some funny standalone video. Yes, it takes some artful approach, but it’s the place where your creativity is wanted.

Garry’s Home

Being initially made for Windows only, by 2018 Garry’s Mod has been ported to Mac OS X and Linux. Any mobile or console ports are not even expected.
Not being standalone, Garry’s Mod game requires at least one another Source-powered game. In fact, you’ll have to buy two games, and chances are that the additional one will be left and abandoned soon, used only as an object base for GMod. And not even the only one: there are various downloadable collections.

So What’s That

Garry’s Mod is a perfect place to unleash your creativity, and it’s not so expensive, even keeping in mind that you’ll have to have one more game to provide the engine and the first objects. It’s infinitely replayable, and if you like construction games, it will bring the endless fun.

Garry's Mod Five Nights At Freddy's

The fun gets even bigger if you’re a designer or a programmer. Then you can create your own objects (or objects set) and make them available for other users. This is a subject of some contests around GMod. But even if you’re not, you only benefit from this option by accessing more good and miscellaneous content.
Garry’s Mod is more a lifestyle than the game. It’s the perfect variant for those who as a child preferred disassembling toys to simply playing. This is the toy that only gets better being disassembled and reassembled with creativity.