Kenshi

To sum up, the amount of freedom Kenshi gives you simply cannot be compared to the sandbox "freedom" of your Skyrims, your GTAs, your Minecrafts, your Witchers or your Elden Rings.

I've made a handful of different playthroughs, from citizens who rarely leave the city walls and make their living selling food, to lone wanderers maxed out on combat skills who solo the leaders of nations, and it continues to be fun to return and explore new ways of engaging with the game's world.

It is noted for its grueling difficulty, where you are thrust into the world with little to no instruction.

Kenshi has deep, gritty, dark lore, and interesting grind/levelling system that feels like lived experience once you get the gist of how things work. great sandbox (literally) game with tons of viable character builds. also Tinfist and the Anti-Slavers ROCKS. they're the real cool guys out there.

The soundtrack helps all of this along too, its reminiscent of the original Fallout games in the way it makes the scorched desert you're wandering feel not just alive, but a little scary, even though you can see that there's absolutely nothing near you for miles.