Garry's Mod Review (Hooked on a feelin)
This game got me into PC gaming. I was around 10 years old when I saw people on youtube like Venturiantale and later VanossGaming play this. I watched people play this game for 2 years until finally I got my own laptop and after a while of figuring out how to install steam (and getting a virus in the process) I bought Garry's Mod
with a steam gift card I had asked for that Christmas. My dream had come true. I played sandbox, multiplayer servers, installed a couple mods, etc.
I was hooked for a couple months, sinking hours into the dumb shit you could do in this game. Every video game I had ever played up to this point had no freedom compared to this game. I would think about all the things I'd do in this game when I got home from school, then spend hours finding something else to do in it, falling into a rabbit hole of creativity in the process.
Slowly over time the feeling died down a bit. Like most source games, this game acted as a gateway into other games on steam. I installed TF2 because of Garry's Mod, and although I wouldn't seriously play tf2 for years after installing it, it became my most played video game of all time. I've been living in a cycle with this game for over 7 years. I'd be completely obsessed with Gmod for a month then for a couple months I'd rarely play. Then I'd be driven back to this game. Back to 500+ mods and no objective.
In my mind, this quality gives this game immortality. The sandbox which relies on people to keep building it further, unhindered by developer updates making mods obsolete or any expectation that the game has for you. This game changes constantly through modding, and the life and death of individual multiplayer servers and gamemodes, but it will never truly change. It wants nothing from you when you boot up the game. It has no qualms about your choices.
There is beauty in a game never changing. So many modern developers and customers want video games to be new and exciting, to such a degree that it becomes absolutely obnoxious. Such is the case with battlepasses and open beta titles which start out great then become so much better through constant fucking updates that nobody even recognizes the title anymore and they refuse to play the game.
Garry's Mod will never change though, it will always be the same experience you had when you played the game 7 years ago. It won't let you down because its different than it was, it expects nothing of you when you return. The only thing that does change the experience is completely optional through the workshop.
I'm very happy to see Garry's Mod getting updates and bug fixes after all these years. It truly warms my heart that undoubtedly the greatest sandbox video game ever made is still being looked after. Just don't change the identity of this game or the innate experience of total freedom that this game provides.
TLDR
If you want a brilliant sandbox which will never let you down despite the state of modern gaming, buy this masterpiece.