S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Developer GSC Game World brought the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series back into the limelight with the recently released Heart of Chornobyl, which undoubtedly represents the peak of the series. It takes what worked in prior entries, and creates something that’s bigger and better in almost every way. It blends a modern gameplay framework with the brutal survival mechanics of past entries, and that culminates in an experience that’s sure to stay with you long after the credits roll.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Developer Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 is an unforgettable adventure that can easily take up to a hundred hours even if you are rushing through the campaign. But the essence of the game lies in experimentation and seeing how your choices in not only the story but also the combat encounters play out in the long run. It’s a truly ambitious game with tons and tons of different possibilities, and there’s plenty of incentive to explore the game in depth which can take up to 1000 hours if not more.

Monster Hunter World

Monster Hunter World has established its reputation as a top tier action RPG that consistently delivers years after its launch. While the gameplay loop essentially revolves around collecting the proper gear before diving headfirst into a battle with a monster and doing it all over again, the sheer variety of the enemies and the engaging progression loop is what keeps it all enjoyable right through to the end. In addition to an already meaty base game, you also have plenty of DLC and the Icebourne expansion to extend your playtime even longer.

No Man’s Sky

No Man’s Sky might not have started life on the best foot forward, but Hello Games was able to turn the game’s fates around with a steady stream of meaningful content updates through the years. No Man’s Sky currently features an insane amount of planets to explore, wildlife to find, and bases to build which can easily eat up thousands upon thousands of hours thanks to a strong procedural generation system underpinning every moment of the gameplay.

Fallout 76

Talking about games that turned their fates around for the better, we have Fallout 76. Through its consistent efforts, Bethesda has turned this live service game from a massive failure to arguably the best way to experience the franchise. There are just swaths of content available at your disposal to keep you entertained for hours and hours upon end, and a constant slew of new updates make sure that Fallout 76 is a game worth sticking around with in the long term.

Terraria

Re-Logic’s Terraria offers players a sandbox filled with virtually unlimited possibilities, and its tagline of the world being your canvas stands true in every sense. You can explore the randomly generated worlds at your leisurely pace, craft all sorts of things with the many resources at your disposal, and fight a wide array of bosses peppered among a whole host of other activities. It’s not a really complex game but the engaging gameplay mechanics make you want to keep playing for hours and hours on end.

The Elder Scrolls Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was released well over a decade ago, but it continues to serve as a shining example of how to really capture the sense of thrill and adventure in an open-world setting. Set against the backdrop of a large kingdom adorned with mysterious caves, towering peaks, and lush jungles, Skyrim presents a compelling opportunity at every turn with loads of quests peppered throughout the map. In addition to the staggering amount of content itself, the game offers plenty of choices in terms of the gameplay ranging from different weapons to different skills and builds, and experimenting with that can easily eat up a ton of time.

Forza Horizon 5

Playground Games’ latest Forza Horizon 5 is a virtual playground for fans of car lovers. It’s a really enjoyable game on even a basic level with its quality driving mechanics and huge open world, but what makes it worth sticking around till the end is the quality and the variety of content on offer. You can take part in all sorts of events and races scattered across the map, and the progression systems always make sure to generously reward you for the effort – which can become a driving motivation to spend hundreds upon hundreds of hours.

Elden Ring

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring is the game that has catapulted the Soulslike genre to the mainstream with its impressive open world, and it’s precisely the reason why the game is on this list. The Lands Between is chock full of secrets ranging from hidden dungeons to abandoned fortresses to an entirely optional underground realm, and the fact that none of it is presented to you on a silver platter makes the exploration all the more engaging. Beating it alone can take up to a hundred hours, but seeing all the game has to offer while experimenting with different weapons can cost you more than a thousand hours without an inch of boredom.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t an extremely long game in terms of content; beating the main story will only cost you a hundred hours at maximum. But the beauty lies within the immaculately detailed open world, exploring each nook and cranny at a leisurely pace. Rockstar has employed a bunch of subtle design tricks and systems to reduce the pace of gameplay, and the game becomes all the more rewarding when you take every opportunity to smell the roses and soak in the sunsets – and that alone can skyrocket your playtime by an exponential margin.

RimWorld

RimWorld thrusts players into a sci-fi world inhabited by colonists and space pirates, and tasks you to forge your own destiny in a world wrought by all sorts of dangers and threats. At the heart of RimWorld lies an intelligent AI storyteller who carves out a tale based on the decisions that you make throughout your journey, and that level of unpredictability is what ultimately makes it hard to put dow

Stardew Valley

Eric Barone’s Stardew Valley is an innately therapeutic experience where the fun comes from seeing your farm transform from its humble beginnings to a full-blown mechanized magnum opus, and that journey can take you anywhere from just a few dozen hours to hundreds upon hundreds of hours depending on your personal goals.

Factorio

Factorio is a game about building Factories, and while it doesn’t sound all that exciting at first glance – it is anything but. You start out simple by building humble manufacturing plants, but the game soon ramps up the intensity by tasking you to build towering monuments of capitalism and use your intelligence to optimize the manufacturing flow and cut down costs wherever possible. It has a steep learning curve to its many aspects, but Factorio is definitely worth a try if you are looking for an engaging game to really sink your teeth into.

Destiny 2

Bungie has been doing a fantastic job with Destiny 2, and it’s one of the very few live service games that have managed to not only survive but consistently thrive in the modern AAA gaming space. And a lot of that could be credited to the immensely satisfying gameplay, a compelling progression loop, and interesting world design that will keep you coming back for more with each new expansion. It’s a game overflowing with swaths of content to the point that the developer is vaulting off old content, but what’s here will serve you well for thousands of hours and well beyond that.

Escape From Tarkov

Escape From Tarkov is a first-person shooter with some pretty brutal shooting mechanics, and despite the game having a rather simplistic suite of game modes – the fun comes from dynamically creating strategies for and applying lessons from past runs to make it to the finish line. There’s quite a steep learning curve to Escape From Tarkov, and add up an even higher skill ceiling – and it becomes a game that’s worthy of your undivided attention.

Kenshi

Lo Fi Games’ Kenshi is a really ambitious RPG where you get to create a custom character and forge your own destiny in an open world that spans over 800 square kilometers. Kenshi offers a ton of freedom to build out your character how you see fit, make critical decisions in quests, and much more. The primitive graphics hide a ton of depth beneath them, and fans of flexible RPGs should definitely give this one a try.

It is worth noting that Wube Software has a relatively-strict no-sale policy for Factorio, which means that the game rarely, if ever, goes on sale. Sales figures for the game despite this policy seems to have vindicated the studio’s decision, according to the blog post.

The Nintendo Switch release of the game has also been relatively successful, according to the blog post, coming in at over 40,000 copies sold so far. The studio has also revealed that the game seems to be quite popular in Japan, with around 40% of the game’s Switch version sales coming from the region.

The developer also talks about how popular mods have been for the PC version of Factorio, and has revealed that the next update will focus on bringing controller support to the PC release, as well as keyboard and mouse support for the Nintendo Switch version.

Wube Software recently released update 1.1 for Factorio, its highly-rated factory builder on PC, and it’s served to add a number of quality of life features. This includes a revamped GUI for trains, allowing Spidertrons to follow each other and the frequently-requested Blueprint Flip. What’s next for the studio though?

In a new blog post, it noted that the 1.1 release was the final update for the base game. “It will be maintained, so bugfixes, simple modding interface additions, or minor tweaks can happen, but that’s about it.”

In discussing various ways that Factorio could be extended, it eventually settled on an expansion pack. Currently, it’s “too early to show any of the plans, and since we want to keep the iterative process of expanding things that prove to be the most fun, the plan is quite loose anyway.” In terms of when it can be expected to release, Wube Software says it won’t take “less than a year to develop.”

Finally, the developer announced that Factorio has sold over 2.5 million copies till date. From its crowd-funding campaign in 2013 to launching for early access in 2016, it’s been a long journey for the title. Version 1.0 launched last year and included a number of major new additions, including the aforementioned Spidertrons. As for what the expansion will entail, stay tuned for more details in the coming days.

Addictive factory builder Factorio finally released out of early access last August after four years but Wube Software continues to update it. Version 1.1 of the title is now available and adds some much needed quality of life features and changes. The most significant new addition is Blueprint Flip, which allows players to flip a complete design and copy it.

Though the development team decided against it for a long time – due to problems that could arise with non-flippable entities – it managed to resolve this. Now, any blueprint parts that can’t be flipped simply won’t be. Other new features include improvements to Spidertron control. They can even follow certain entities, including Spidertrons, making it much easier to manage your army of mechanical creepy crawlies.

If all of that wasn’t enough, the development team also revamped the GUI for trains. There are now two tabs to follow – Trains, which lists all trains by schedule, and Stations, which lists all train stops by name – allowing players to more easily manage the same. For more details on how it works, head here.

Factorio is currently available for PC.

Our primary consideration while formulating and ranking this list hasn’t been to judge these games as complete experiences, but rather to focus primarily on their sandbox mechanics, and their strengths as sandbox games.

Kerbal Space Program

What happens when you need to not only build your own spaceships and rockets but also fly them, while training a crew of Kerbals in the process? That’s only the beginning of Kerbal Space Program as players embark across the universe, touching down on different planets and creating bases. Or they could remain in space, creating huge stations and locating anomalies. With three different modes, like Science Mode for discovering new technology, and Career Mode for managing your very own space program, Kerbal Space Program has it all.

After starting development in mid-2012, being crowdfunded in 2013 and entering early access in 2016, Wube Software’s Factorio has finally hit its 1.0 release. The factory builder/OCD automation title has exited early access for PC and is now available in completed form. To celebrate, the developer released a launch trailer showcasing the game’s development progress through the years.

With the 1.0 launch, Factorio receives a very cool new feature – the Spidertron. It can be remote controller or driven, crosses small bodies of water with ease, places blueprints and even has an equipment grid. There are also four rocket launchers attached. Long story short, the Spidertron is awesome, though it must be researched very late into the game.

Despite finally exiting early access, Wube Software isn’t done. It’s currently planning for update 1.1 with 150 bugs and roughly 80 “internal tasks” to solve. It won’t add any major new content but will serve to further polish the game. Stay tuned for more details on Factorio in the meantime.

Cities Skylines

After what seemed like a long, long time, Cities Skylines arrived and delivered a city-building experience that truly succeeds old-school SimCity. The sheer joy of getting your city up and running, watching it buzz about as you beautify it, manifests excellently in Cities: Skylines. Throw in Steam Workshop support for mods, tons of support from the developer and plenty of content updates for even more long-term replay value.