As someone who grew up being nearly addicted to Little Big Planet 2, I’ve always had this draw to Sandbox and creative games. Being able to either destroy everything and anything near you or build your own worlds and creations to share with others is a type of game that I feel is extremely valuable.
Now I’m pulling the loose definition card of these games, as some of these may only have elements of a sandbox game, but I promise that all of these on this list are games that are worth trying out and worth sticking around to hear about.
Also, this article is a second part to an article we made last year so if you want to check that out I’ll link it here:
With that being said, my name is Caleb from Cubold Gaming, and here are our Best Free Sandbox Games on Steam
Ethereal Estate
I know I wanted to start out the list with Ethereal Estate, due to its true to sandbox form in that your job is to cause and create as much chaos and destruction as possible.
The game places you as a ghost in the Viotto’s Manor and your single objective is to do as much damage as you can.
You’ll have a list of objectives but you aren’t ever held to do those. You can also play this game Co-op either local play or with online remote steam play. Unfortunately it isn’t online multiplayer aside from steam remote play.
A lot of the appeal is the destruction of course but the ragdoll physics in the game is a lot of fun to mess around with too.
There are some NPCs in the game that you can terrorize too and actually you can even kill them in basically endless ways, Whether that be by fire or electricity or even throwing them out a window. It’s actually a lot of fun.
Honestly, the game won’t give you hours and hours of gameplay but it’ll keep you entertained, especially if you have a friend to play with.
Kill it With Fire: HEATWAVE
Yet another fire and destruction based sandbox game, Kill it With Fire: HEATWAVE is a free chapter from the full Kill it With Fire game that allows for a surprising amount of content for being free.
So as you can tell from the gameplay, this game's entire goal is to kill the spiders around the map with a ridiculous arsenal of weapons.
It’s actually a hilarious game because you’ll realize when playing that you’re running around trying to kill these tiny spiders with an m4 or TNT. It’s honestly an awesome game.
You can even use throwing start and or basically everything and anything you can possibly use to kill the spiders. I guess that’s really all I can say about this game.
It is just a chapter from the full game but I think it has enough fun to last you a while. It’s also only single player but if you are a person that likes sandbox games centered around destruction then I highly recommend Kill it With Fire.
MakerKing
MakerKing is actually a decently recent release, only having released in the late summer of 2021. The game is more of a level building sandbox type but it has a lot of promise and from what I can see with the developer blogs, the two man team behind it are really passionate about the game.
The game has a lot of focus on creating your levels and from what I had messed around with, the level designing engine was really easy to use and decently comprehensive for what it is.
You can create portals, movement routes for objects, and even animals and creatures.
You can also play levels that other people have made in the community either by yourself or with friends.
Some other details are that the game has leaderboard support, racing and mob modes, and a whole lot more.
I actually prefer these types of games when it comes to sandbox because it reminds me of the old Little Big Planet 2 days where I would just spend hours creating levels and experiences for me and the community to play.
Whether you are into creating levels or maybe you just want to play with your friends and experience what the community is making, I really think MakerKing is worth a try.
SuchArt: Creative Space
SuchArt: Creative Space may be for a specific type of sandbox player but if you enjoy these types of games then I think you can easily get unlimited hours in this game.
Creative Space is, well, exactly as the title describes, a game that allows you to have your own creative space to paint, create and design all types of things.
You have this sandbox area where you can use all the tools they give you at your disposal and create things.
You can also decorate your studio to look however you want and also sell your creations and art on the marketplace to earn credits which can then be used to buy items from the in-game store.
The store allows you to buy tools, furniture, new paintings from other creators, and a bunch more.
I really like the concept of this one and if you consider yourself a creative person then you can easily spend some serious time in this game.
Particubes
Although Particubes is in its extremely early open alpha state, the game offers a lot and has some serious potential for the future of the game.
This is a voxel based sandbox game where you and your friends can create, code, and make creations and worlds to interact with and in.
You don’t need to know code but if you are into that sort of thing then this game welcomes coding so you can make your minigames even more complex and refined.
The community isn’t huge but you can easily browse a ton of minigames that people have made and if that doesn’t interest you then you can jump into a world and start creating your own mini games to publish to the community.
I mentioned before that you can play with friends just not at this time. As of right now they needed to turn it off in order to refine it but depending on when you read this article, it could be added back in.
Regardless, this game really appeals to a lot of people. Whether you just want to play minigames from other people or make your own, you have those options. The game even goes as far as to let you write your own scripts for the game to make them more in-depth.
It has its issues and it has a ways to go but Particubes is something you should try and at the very least keep an eye out for when more features are added.
