Games that could work as a sandbox

Extra sandy for your pleasure.

    There are a good amount of open world games out there that nail the idea of the sandbox game, e.g. Red Dead Redemption, Assassin’s Creed, and Fallout. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about., a sandbox game is a style of game that has no linear way of playing it and you are left to your own devices.  Now that there is news of Dead Rising entering the sandbox realm, this got me thinking:  “Wouldn’t it be great if [insert game here] was a sandbox game?”. Then that idea flies away into space never to be heard from again. Now I’m going to put these ideas to paper. Digital paper. Here is a list of games that should at least take a stab at sandbox style gameplay.  If any of these ideas are put to use, you know where they came from.

1) Left 4 dead 

GTA. But with zombies!

    Left 4 Dead already relies on heavy cooperation from your fellow survivors,  but in an open world, it’s going to be an essential element. The Left 4 Dead series was already a rail shooting zombie fun ride, but adding the sandbox mode to this game will really give it the spicy kick it needs. What I see happening is you already have the safe houses but there’s multiple ways to get there. You get to each safe house, and pick up a certain part in order to escape the city, rebuild the phone line to call for help, or rebuild the generator to signal the army. Along the way, you can choose to run over rooftops but risk being detected from the ground. You can keep yourselves hidden by running building to building, but risk getting trapped in a hallway by the horde. Last option: you take the quickest route, the streets, and deal the horde directly. If they can make it happen, then there can be great zombie killing times ahead.

2) Call Of Duty

What? Stop the nuke? Again? Yawn.

   This may be a little harder to pull off, it’s all in the execution. It can basically be Grand Theft Auto IV in the first person perspective. They already have the vehicle sections, why not put them to good use? Although driving in the first person view will screw everything up. But the things you already do in the Call of Duty series such as underwater swimming, rappelling, drive-bys, zip-lining, and helicopters can be good options in getting around in the city. If Black Ops was set up like this, instead of rehashing the Modern Warfare campaign over and over again, then it would launched it to a whole other level. The concept would be, that you go around picking up mercenary missions from Frank Woods or any commanding officer while doing it all on the down low. A real black op.

3) Dead Space

Incoming call from your cousin. NOT NOW ROMAN!

    It would be nice to have another sci-fi space sandbox other than Mass Effect. Dead Space already has a really good zero gravity mechanic, it would amazing to use that to travel from space port to space port. It would be a real exciting experience having Isaac Clark zip around like Iron Man in space. Since Visceral Games loves killing Isaac in as many ways as possible, sandbox mode can triple that amount. Such as; You can try entering the back end of the spacecraft, but get burned to a crisp from the engine’s thrusters, Isaac tries to hack in to a door but gets it wrong and get’s acid sprayed on him. The necromorphs never looked more terrifying when you don’t know which vent exactly they’ll come out of. Also, it would be very haunting to travel around an abandoned floating city instead of the same spaceship over and over again.

4) Splinter Cell

Sam, you didn't wash your hands! Now that's torture.

    If there’s something the world needs, it’s a spy sandbox game. Having Sam Fisher use his gadgets to get around would be an essential feature to make this game stand out. I already see people dubbing this Assassin’s Creed with gadgets. But as for the set-up, Sam Fisher accepts the missions from HQ, and from there, Sam can choose to climbs walls, zip from building to building, interrogate the terrorists Jack Bauer style, or hack computers to get that hot information. Espionage is a genre that really isn’t getting that good of a treatment by video games. Having it work this way can really bring a penultimate experience. We already know that sneaking and sandboxing already works together with Deus Ex, so why not Splinter Cell?

5) Resident Evil

Kinda like this.. but you're not stuck in a statue pose

    Set in Raccoon City, this would be a great addition to the MANY Resident Evil video games out there. I know this would kind of be like Left 4 Dead, but to differentiate from that, they should emphasize on civilian rescue missions. That’s how I see this working out: the Special Tactics and Rescue Services to actually go out and rescue people. This game would work best in co-op mode by having your members specialize in different types of weapons. One person is the explosives expert clearing huge hoards out of the way, one is the sniper watching your back from the adjacent building, one is the frontlines man with all the assault tactics, and the other is the herb specialist sitting in the back mixing the red and green herbs. Yeah, I know this sounds like Team Fortress, but if you mention any game with a class based system and people immediately point the finger. The boss fights can also be elevated by having the people do different tactics by distracting the boss and having the other members work on specific body parts to slow it down. Or... everyone can just all shoot at him with the infamous rocket launcher.