Garry's Mod vs Ylands
Garry's Mod
Garry's Mod is a sandbox game that brings back the hilarity and joy of being able to simply experiment and have fun. There aren't any objectives in this game; you are simply given the tools you need to play with... just like that time when you get your first Lego set. Being a purely community-driven game, Garry's Mod is quite the multiplayer game. You can hop into any of the created content or game modes and have fun with your friends, except for buy-to-play games in which you'll need to own the base game first. You can also opt to spend time to create new content that you can then share with the community. If you'd rather play in peace, you can play Garry's Mod offline too.Garry's Mod is definitely the sort of game that creative players would enjoy. The amount of stuff you can play there is astounding and of course, you are given absolute freedom to express yourself through your creations if you choose to do so.
Ylands
Ylands is a sandbox adventure game that has a gameplay that's a lot like a massively expanded version of Minecraft with a lot more resources for you to gather, items to craft, and amazing things to build. Instead of being "just a game", Ylands is more like a platform, much like Roblox is, where players are given the tools to create whatever worlds or games they like, be it a fun go-kart racing game that's inspired from Lega Racers or even a watery world where epic pirate-themed naval battles can take place. The worlds are completely interactive as well and every action you do will modify, no matter how slightly, the game environment of that segment of the world you happen to be in. In fact, if you change a terrain and populate it with an entirely different diversity of flora and fauna, you can basically change the climate system there.Unlike Minecraft though, Ylands has opted for a more polygonal appearance which gave it the extra leverage it needed to overcome the painful dismissal and degratory label of being simply a "Minecraft clone" - which admittedly, Ylands is most definitely not. The game has so much going for it and players truly have all the freedom within the game's pretty wide parameters to literally create anything they like. Of course, the game also supports sharing, so you can let other players in Yland enjoy that (for example) crazy maze-running game you've just made!
Ylands is most certainly impressive to say the least. However, due to its indie origins, not many players know about the game, let alone buy it on Steam. So, if you really like Minecraft-like sandbox games, you simply must give this game a try, and if you've had a great time there, be sure to recommend it to your friends or even buy it for them as their Christmas/ birthday gift!