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★★★★★★
Garry's Mod is barely even classifiable as a game. First of all because it is a Half-Life 2, or Source engine, mod, but second of all because there are no objectives, ways to win, or even goals. When you open the game you are presented with the main menu, where you choose Multiplayer or Singleplayer, then the question of map and gamemode. The most common three gamemodes currently are Sandbox, Roleplaying, and Trouble in Terrorist Town. These three are vastly different from one another, and you can find even more variety with the other gamemodes, including Murder, Jailbreak, Zombie Roleplaying, and many, many more, all with their own custom scripts, weapons, textures, skins, & other content.
Sandbox is the original gamemode Garry's Mod got it's popularity from, and for good reason. I have over 1,000 hours logged on Steam in Garry's Mod, and I'd wager that at least 80% of that is in sandbox. As soon as you join a sandbox server (or start your own singleplayer sandbox game) you are dropped into a map with a physgun (physics-gun), a tool gun, and an arsenal of weapons. You use what is called the qmenu (the menu that appears when you hold down q) to create (spawn) items (props), npcs, vehicles, ragdolls, and to choose which tool your toolgun uses. Some of these include the rope tool, the nail tool, the weld tool, ball and socket tool, and tons more. You also have the ability to download mods to expand your collection of tools and stuff to spawn. You will never, ever run out of content with this game. Sandbox has no objective or goals, you use it as exactly what you would imagine - a sandbox. Create, destroy, build; your choice. Anything you can think of you can do in sandbox mode, from catapults to castles, sex scenes with Alyx and Gordon Freeman from Half-Life 2, to giant robots capable of spraying flame and having mounted weaponry, racecars, and airplanes. The physgun is used to manipulate physical items; it can move them around, push them, pull them, rotate them, and throw them. In sandbox mode, noclip is generally allowed, meaning you can fly around the map at high speeds with no regard for gravity or physics, going through the map even! And damage and death are usually disabled, meaning other players can not grief you by killing you, and many servers have what is called PropProtection, meaning only you can use the toolgun and physgun on things that you have spawned.
Roleplaying seems like an entirely different game when compared to sandbox. On roleplay servers (roleplaying is almost exclusively played multiplayer), you appear in this world full of hustle and bustle, and must make your way from the bottom of the chain. You start out jobless, but look around and you'll find a niche market to start your 'career'. Some occupations include gangster, mob boss, mayor, police officer, gun dealer, chef, delivery boy, hitman, body guard, and more. All the players on the server (sometimes in the hundreds!) play together to create a world that feels almost as real as the one we live in, with everyone performing jobs to get money for themselves while providing goods or services for others, forming friendship along the way. Roleplaying is not one of my favorite gamemodes, but I will admit that when I was younger there were entire days dedicated to playing it. Certainly a vital part of the Garry's Mod community.
Trouble in Terrorist Town (commonly known as TTT) is the most rule-centric gamemode. Most of the players are 'innocents' and two per dozen or so are known as 'traitors', with two per dozen or so others known as 'detectives'. The traitor(s) must eliminate all innocents and detectives before time runs out, the innocents must determine and eliminate the traitors and stay alive, and the detective must help the innocents with 'purchased' items, while performing the same duties as the innocents. This gamemode is much newer to the scene than Sandbox or Roleplaying, but has very quickly gained popularity among both newcomers and long-time fans of Garry's Mod. Two great features of this gamemode are the 'store' available to traitors and the 'store' available to detectives. Traitors can buy, using in-game currency, Servers often have custom scripts, skins, weapons, textures, server commands, and more, that can really accentuate the gameplay nicely, making the experience slightly different on each server you play on, but never confusingly so as the premise remains the same. This is my second favorite gamemode of the three most popular, playing as any of the three classes is always fun, so you never are waiting to be randomly chosen as the traitor.
The graphics are good, sounds are good, and gameplay is where this game really shines. The cooperation with strangers that this game catalyzes is really breathtaking, I have made many good friends through this game, and with over 1,000 hours, I would recommend this to anyone. Garry's Mod is definitely a platinum tier PC game.
1. "Gmodlogo" by Garry Newman - http://www.garrysmod.com/.
Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
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