Sandbox games are known for their focus on player agency, often facilitated through expansive open worlds and tools that allow players to get creative. Games like Minecraft are obvious examples of this, but those games focus heavily on encouraging creativity, leaving little room for real-time action.

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Games such as Grand Theft Auto are often a well-balanced combination of action-adventure and sandbox gameplay, though even these games aren't entirely action-packed. These games, however, all feature sandbox gameplay that focuses on real-time action.

8 Teardown

A Fully-Destructible Sandbox

Teardown's various missions take place in fully-destructible environments, simulated with voxels. The game features a variety of vehicles, explosives, guns, and other gadgets. Players can then use these gadgets to complete a set of objectives in whatever way they see fit.

Teardown's missions are heavily focused on pulling off a variety of heists. In order to do this successfully, players will often have to set about destroying everything in their path. While not an action-packed game at all times, Teardown's high-intensity escapes and sandbox destruction make it an often thrilling experience that allows players to get creative.

7 Destroy All Humans

Sandbox Missions In 1950s Suburbia

This science fiction action game puts players in the shoes of an alien invader attempting to destroy 1950s suburbia. Destroy All Humans gives players plenty of tools to accomplish their various objectives, and allows them to freely explore the various open environments.

This results in a diverse action sandbox that's full of vibrant colors and ridiculous weaponry. Despite being a mission-based game, rather than a full open world, each level features its own open environment that players can explore as they attempt to complete their objectives.

6 Batman Arkham Knight

A Remarkable Power Fantasy

This sandbox Batman game features a fully open world that depicts Gotham City with a great deal of respect and loyalty to its source material. Batman Arkham Knight's open world is packed with criminals to take down using a variety of combat moves and gadgets, turning Gotham City into an action-packed sandbox.

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Gliding around Gotham City and cruising through its streets in the Batmobile provides a remarkable power fantasy for Batman fans in particular, allowing players to explore the City with ease. The game's combat isn't the most challenging, only adding to the power fantasy, but many encounters ask the player to use their tools creatively.

5 Mount & Blade: Bannerlord

A Sandbox RPG With Large-Scale Battles

Although Mount & Blade: Bannerlord does feature elements of diplomacy and trade, much of what players do in the game leads to violent, large-scale battles. These action-packed fights, often with an abundance of combatants, make up most of Mount & Blade's gameplay.

Outside of combat, players are free to explore and build their army as they see fit, recruiting soldiers from all across the land. Mount & Blade allows players to command their troops from the ground and get in on the action simultaneously from the perspective of their own character. The sandbox elements of Mount & Blade largely take place outside of battle, but many of those decisions impact the action directly, and there are still plenty of ways to go about fighting each and every engagement.

4 Far Cry 3

A Combat-Focused Sandbox FPS

As with many games in the franchise, Far Cry 3 is an open-world action sandbox game that puts players in an open environment and allows them to explore, taking out enemies in high-octane gunfights often packed with explosions.

Due to its variety of weaponry and open areas, Far Cry 3 allows players to approach each combat encounter in their own way. This includes light stealth mechanics, sniping enemies from a distance, or blasting their way in with heavy weapons. This combat-focused sandbox is ideal for fans of first-person shooters and sandbox games alike.

3 Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

A Sandbox Combination Of Stealth And Action

This entry in the Metal Gear Solid entry gives players open-world missions that offer a great deal of player agency. As a result, The Phantom Pain is a sandbox combination of stealth and action gameplay. The amount of high-octane action that players experience is somewhat dependent on their play style, but the stealth gameplay is equally engaging.

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Metal Gear Solid 5's open missions allow players to approach encounters however they see fit. While it's generally best to begin encounters in full stealth, all-out gunfights aren't uncommon in more hectic situations. Fans of the Metal Gear Solid franchise will likely get more enjoyment out of The Phantom Pain's sandbox than the average consumer, but this impressive entry in the series is remarkably accessible to newcomers.

2 Ghost Recon: Wildlands

An Expansive Open-World Action Game

Ghost Recon: Wildlands features an expansive open world with plenty for players to do, allowing them to take out swathes of enemies in a sandbox environment. Wildlands has players completing missions, most of which involve killing a variety of enemies across several regions.

Thankfully, players are given plenty of tools with which to do this. Weapons, gear, and vehicles, as well as the game's open areas, allow players to take on several unique play-styles. Similarly to games such as Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, Ghost Recon: Wildlands encourages stealth gameplay. However, it's almost always viable to go in guns-blazing, if players prefer that style of action.

1 Just Cause 3

A Visceral Action Game With Diverse Movement Controls

Parachuting, grappling, and gliding with a wingsuit are all available movement options for players in Just Cause 3. Players can take full advantage of this movement by exploring the open world, wreaking havoc with a broad arsenal of weaponry and a variety of gadgets.

Just Cause 3 is solely focused on its visceral, action-packed gameplay, giving players an ensemble of ways to take out the various bad guys. Just Cause 3 is essentially a destruction sandbox, giving players a tremendous amount of power that allows them to approach combat in creative ways.

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