Whether you are hanging off the crenelations of a 13th century crusader castle in Acre, wall running along mudbrick walls of a persian palace, or just grabbing some stars and green mushrooms for a 1up, there is something to be said about the open world, sandbox games that are slowly consuming and contending on the video game market. Although many have marked games like Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time and Grand Theft Auto as the first great sandbox games, we have to remember the definition of what this means.A Sandbox game is based on an open world and concept system in which the environment and capabilities of the avatar or character you play do not limit them to one linear objective or route. Instead, sandbox games allow you several possibilities and maneuverability throughout the atmosphere. For example, one game brought to my attention as a sandbox game was Mario 64! This shocked me when I read this but upon further explanation the game allows you not just platform jump through a level, but even choose several different routes and choose which world you want to enter whenever you want (for those who remember, the paintings on the wall).
Recently, the cool factor to sandbox games has taken a great leap, especially towards the idea of using accessible atmosphere and architecture as props and holds in the many parkour-based games like mirrors edge, Assassins Creed, and Prince of Persia. These have raged through the market as the ''must-play'' games of their respected years and have remained my favourite video games for the most recent consoles.
This growing popularity in the concept of adding malleability to gameplay also makes me wonder about a possible genre mixing pot now that these games have given a 'be there or be square' attitude to most game developers who have added many of these features to once untouched genres like first person shooters and arena combat games. Now games like Modern Warfare 2 give airstrike capabilities and camouflage options, and others like Sould Calibur give armour deterioration details and downgrades when an opponent has been hit.
Are changes like these just a closer step to video game realism? Or are we ruining the true-beating heart of nice simple linear games and their genres?
Christian A.V. Petrozza
http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/12/gambit.html
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2008/01/assassins-creed/
http://www.giantbomb.com/sandbox/92-453/
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