The supposed spiritual successor to Gmod S&box has released on Steam!
Facepunch studio the guys behind Rust and Gmod cooked this one up.
But is this the sequel we have all been waiting for or is it missing some textures?
S&box
In brief currently S&box is a little bit lacking compared to Garry’s Mod.
Firstly, this spiritual successor was created by the developers of the original Garry’s mod. The original Gmod was released all the way back in 2004. This runs on Source 1 and is the go-to RP and TTT game of PC gamer’s choice.
However, 2 decades later the developers at Facepunch thought it was time for a Source 2 upgrade. However, the developer Garry himself is adamant that this is not Gmod 2. But then that leaves this game in a funny spot as really what else is it meant to be then.
Because as a lot of fans are finding out this seems to be a move to Source 2 without a ton of features.
Firstly, the whole sausage man style thing does suck. Garry has this issue with his game being associated with Half Life and created these sausage freaks for the iconography. Also, you can pick the skins from Rust but they look just bland and forgettable. The Citizens of this game look ugly and Fanboy Chum Chum esc in a way that is unappealing and garish.
But the developer does not like being associated with Valve for some reason so you get to choose these freaks as avatars.
Secondly this game is more akin to Roblox than Gmod in a bad way, The sandbox part of S&box is lacking compared to 2004 Gmod. Sounds are missing, textures are gone, items do not work.
Thirdly and this is a big one. The abundance of AI made content is ruining the game mode storefront and takes away from the custom game aspect.
Shi&box
Although this game boasts a lot more accessibility and expression when it comes to custom games you will not see that on the store page. Instead, you will be greeted by literal AI slop taking up the page along with many others.
For every interesting unique game mode there is an AI clone next to it hogging the stage. But to make this worse the developers have not really dealt with the situation and do not plan to. Instead, they believe dead internet theory is not real and that gamers will vote the good modes to the top.
This approach will not fix the S&box AI problem and instead encourages more bloat on the store. Even without the AI issue this game really just feels like a lacklustre Roblox. Sure, the capacity for good visuals and feels are there but I do not see them currently.
Although this game may improve in the future or even in a year or so right now… It’s not looking great.
There was a lot of potential with S&box but there was no drive for it from Garry himself. Dude did not need to make this with all the Rust money and it shows in the final product.
Currently the reviews are mixed for a reason but give it a go if you think you will like it.
