Garry's Mod
Facepunch Studios · Shooter, Sandbox
YOUTUBE TRAILER EMBED — 16:9
Overview
Garry's Mod is a physics sandbox. There aren't any predefined aims or goals. We give you the tools and leave you to play.
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You spawn objects and weld them together to create your own contraptions - whether that's a car, a rocket, a catapult or something that doesn't have a name yet - that's up to you. You can do it offline, or join the thousands of players who play online each day.
If you're not too great at construction - don't worry! You can place a variety of characters in silly positions. But if you want to do more, we have the means.
Beyond the Sandbox
The Garry's Mod community is a tremendous source of content and has added hundreds of unique modes to the game. In Trouble In Terrorist Town, you can be a detective solving an online murder as criminals attempt to cover up their homicides. Be a ball, a plant, a chair, or anything else in Prop Hunt's elaborate, shape-shifting game of Hide & Seek. Elevator: Source is gaming's first elevator thrill ride, delivering players to airlocks and kitten dance parties.
We have one of the most vibrant Steam Community Workshops, with over 300'000 models, maps, and contraptions to download. It has everything from new tools to improve your builds, to guns that fire rainbow-tinged nuclear blasts from space. Take as much or as little as you need: it’s all free.
Please note: Some multiplayer servers and game-modes might require you to own other games - such as Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT10,000 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Twenty years after release, Garry's Mod still gets almost nothing but recommendations. It is a physics sandbox on Half-Life 2's engine, and players describe it as whatever the Steam Workshop turns it into. Mods, addons and the Workshop come up more than any other subject, often as a list of what someone downloaded and then did: weapon packs, NPC wars, horror maps, whole game modes. Players also praise the freedom to build and break anything, the physics gun and tool gun, ragdoll chaos, and community modes such as Trouble in Terrorist Town, DarkRP, Prop Hunt, Shinri Trial and Z-City. Dozens bought it after years of watching YouTubers play it and say it lives up to those videos, especially with friends. It runs on cheap laptops, and reviewers put the price at about ten dollars, less on sale.
Heavy addon collections crash the game or drag the frame rate down, and the engine's age shows. Public servers get the angriest reviews: toxic chat, strict or petty admins, many gigabytes of required downloads, and a server list that long-time players call thinner than it used to be. New players find the menus and tools confusing, Linux and Mac players need community patches, and some warn about unsafe Workshop uploads. Players disagree on whether the game is worth it alone or only with friends, and on whether the base game stands up without mods.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
The Steam Workshop turns it into any game you wantHigh
When reviewers explain why they play, mods are often the answer, and they list what they found: weapon packs like ARC9, NPC bases like VJ Base and DrGBase, cars, tornadoes, horror maps, Deltarune and FNAF characters, and whole game modes. They like that installing is one click on "Subscribe" and that the content is free. One reviewer put it as "the workshop is one of the best parts of gmod", and another said "Bought it on sale for $5 and came with over 1 billion free mods." The catches (crashes with big collections, broken or unsafe uploads, storage) are covered under frustrations below.
Total freedom to build, break and experimentHigh
Players praise the lack of goals: no story, no grind, just tools. Reviews describe welding thrusters to bathtubs, staging NPC wars, nuking gm_construct, or spending hours on a contraption that does nothing. The shortest reviews often boil it down to "you can do anything". A few longer reviews note the flip side: the game "depends entirely on you", so players without ideas can feel lost (see the split section on the base game).
At its best with friendsHigh
Friends come up in hundreds of reviews, usually as the reason the game is so funny: hide and seek from nextbots, blowing each other up, roleplaying, filming goofy videos. Dozens of reviews say little more than "fun with friends". One longtime player credits the game with friendships that lasted a decade, and another joked that "the real gmod was the friends we made along the way". Players who have no one to play with are more mixed (see below).
Community game modes: TTT, DarkRP, Prop Hunt, Shinri Trial, Z-CityMedium
Players name the modes that bought them in. Trouble in Terrorist Town and Prop Hunt are praised as the originals of genres others later copied ("Staples like TTT, DarkRP, PropHunt, and countless others all started here!"). Shinri Trial, a Danganronpa-style roleplay server, turns up in dozens of the 2026 reviews, with lines like "Worth it just for Shinri trial alone". Z-City and Homigrad, which reviewers describe as realistic combat modes, have a loyal following, and DarkRP and Star Wars or HL2 roleplay still pull long sessions. DarkRP also attracts some of the harshest complaints about admins and rules.
Physics, ragdolls and the physics gunMedium
The Source physics are a big part of the appeal: flinging ragdolls, posing characters, building cars and planes, and Wiremod contraptions for more technical players. One review joked that "The physics engine has taught me more about engineering than school ever did." A few experienced builders say the old physics can also get in the way of precise builds.
Cheap for what you getMedium
Price comes up often, and several reviewers call it some version of "best 10 bucks ever"; some bought it on sale. Players weigh the hundreds of hours they get against full-price games, and point out that the extra content is free on the Workshop. A couple say it is only worth buying on sale.
Nextbots, horror maps and eerie empty mapsMedium
Dozens of reviews describe being chased by screaming PNG nextbots through backrooms maps, alone or with friends. Horror maps and the strange emptiness of gm_construct and gm_flatgrass come up too; some love the slow-burn atmosphere, others admit the game scared them more than horror games.
A childhood game finally playedMedium
A group of 2026 buyers say they grew up watching VanossGaming, Spycakes, VenturianTale or SMG4 play it and could not afford it or a PC at the time. Their reviews are full of relief that it lives up to the videos: "No longer looking through the screen, watching YouTubers have fun without me." Long-time players add that it was their first Steam game and still the one they reinstall on every new PC.
Runs on almost anythingMedium
A steady stream of reviews say it runs well on old laptops, school or work PCs and integrated graphics. "I like the fact that it is easy to run it on a crappy computer, still runs very smooth." The same players warn that this changes once you add hundreds of modern addons.
A creative tool for animation, images and learning LuaLow
A smaller group uses it seriously: for posing scenes, posters and wallpapers, stop-motion animation with Stop Motion Helper, and machinima. One wrote "Garry's Mod is my main tool for creating images, full stop." Others say it taught them to code: "I ended up learning basic Lua myself to build my own addon and publish it publicly". A few found the posing tools harder than the videos suggest.
Where players are split
Alone or only with friendsMedium
Players disagree on solo play. One camp says it is "fun with friends kind of boring by yourself", and a longer review notes that "playing on your own can get a bit boring after a while". Lonelier players say they have no one to play with and feel it. Another camp plays almost entirely alone, building scenes, running NPC battles and exploring maps, with lines like "I spent most of my time alone, and I liked it". Reviews that weigh both sides usually conclude it is better with friends but still good solo. Several also mention that empty maps feel eerie alone, which some enjoy and some avoid.
The base game versus the modsMedium
Several reviewers treat the vanilla game as a starting kit: "The vanilla content of the game feels like a tech demo until you add mods to the game". One is blunter, calling it "garbage without mods" before calling the modded game the best ever, and a few negative reviews say the game is just an empty toy. Others defend the base game's tools, maps and Half-Life 2 content, and point out that the free Workshop is the point. Either way, new buyers should expect to spend time finding mods.
Updates and long-term supportLow
Some praise that a twenty-year-old game still gets updates ("You know a game is loved by its devs when it keeps on recieving great updates even after 20 years."), including the 64-bit and Chromium branches. Others say updates break addons or compatibility, or that the game gets few updates now, and a couple of long-time players blame recent changes for crashes.
What frustrates players
Crashes and performance, especially with big addon collectionsMedium
Crashes, freezes and slowdowns come up more than any other technical problem, and in negative reviews they come up about as often as boredom does. Players describe crashes every half hour, freezes, memory errors and single-digit frame rates once they install hundreds of addons or spawn many props and explosions. "Fun when its not crashing every 30 minutes", wrote one. A detailed review that still recommends the game says "the performance can get really choppy for the most basic of things, even at high-end setups", and a negative one lists "constant Vram overflows into Ram, memory crashes, horrible mod injection." Some players shrug it off as the Source engine's age or their own addon count.
Toxic public servers, strict admins and a thinner server listMedium
Reviewers who play on public servers report slurs and harassment, adults behaving badly around children, and admins who ban over minor rule breaks on roleplay servers. "The different game types and overall creativity are fantastic but the community is absolute trash," wrote one. Another, who still recommends the game, called public servers "either chaos and unplayable or playable and break". Long-time players also say favourite servers have shut down, that the "server list is full of dead servers", and that "You're lucky if you find any open servers anymore", especially outside the US, EU and Russia. Several advise sticking to friends or peer-to-peer games. Others say the right server is worth finding.
Broken addons, Lua errors and missing texturesLow
Addon conflicts, Lua error spam and pink-and-black missing textures frustrate both newcomers and veterans. "sometimes you get errors or have to figure out what mod is causing something to explode for the 15th time." Some addons rely on content from other Source games; one reviewer reports that Counter-Strike: Source and Episode 2 content now ship with the game, but missing-texture complaints persist. One player asked for a way to reset problem mods without reinstalling.
Confusing for newcomersLow
New players often say they do not know what to do or how to use the tools. Complaints cover the spawn menu, tool gun, finding mods, small text on high-resolution screens, and holding E to rotate props. One review that walks newcomers through subscribing to mods warns "do be aware you gotta deal with its crappy looking ui", and a long review says the interface "feels like professional game-creation software, not something just anyone can pick up and use comfortably." A few negative reviews say they want a refund because they could not work out what to do.
Huge downloads and storage useLow
Addons pile up fast. Players report collections of 40 GB to 180 GB ("i installed around 450+ addons and this game was taking up 180 GB of storage for me."), long load times, and servers that require gigabytes of content before you can play. "i have never seen a server that has atleast one player and doesnt have 4 bajilion mods installed", wrote one player with a small drive, and another asked to stop waiting "for 20 minutes downloading my friends addons".
Linux and Mac need workaroundsLow
Linux and macOS players report menus that fail to load on the 64-bit branch, crashes with custom shaders, and needing the community GModPatchTool. "PLEASE facepunch for the love of god fix menus and html on linux." Mac players mention the lack of a native Apple silicon version and high memory use. Others say it runs fine through Proton or on an M1 once set up.
Unsafe or unwanted Workshop contentLow
Some players warn that not every upload is safe: "don't blindly install mods there is malice in every corner". Reviews mention viruses, screamer addons that flash gore, and broken uploads, and advise sticking to well-rated items ("download 3 to 5 star ones"). A few also object to how much sexual content the Workshop and some servers carry, given how young many players are.
Small quality-of-life gapsLow
A few recurring requests: proper DPI scaling ("merge the GMod Patch Tool fixes and add proper DPI scaling."), an in-game search for addons, mod keybinds and a better crash handler, native controller support, multi-monitor selection, and lag-free play with distant friends ("150 ping is going to completely freeze your game").
3. The player conversation
Most reviews are a few words ("peak", "garry", "Who is Garry?"), and many others are absurd scenario stories, sexual jokes or memes, written with obvious affection. Some thumbs-down reviews are jokes too, such as "4000+ hours in. This is the worst thing that has ever happened in my life." The sincere negative reviews cite crashes, toxic servers, broken addons, Linux or Mac trouble, or boredom without mods or friends.
New buyers, some of them young and drawn in by YouTube, TikTok and specific servers like Shinri Trial, write about mods, friends and the thrill of finally owning it; their complaints are confusion, lag on weak PCs and loneliness. Long-time players are just as fond of the game but more critical of the multiplayer scene, the shrinking server list, updates and performance under heavy addon loads.
Review volume jumped at the start of August 2026, from a handful a week in July and stayed high through September. The share of positive reviews barely moved from week to week through that rise.
4. What the developers could do
- Make the game stable under heavy addon loads. Crashes, freezes and memory errors with large collections come up more than any other technical problem, in positive and negative reviews alike.
- Show which addon broke and let players reset safely. Players spend hours hunting conflicts and Lua errors; one asked for a way to clear problem mods without reinstalling, and others want a proper crash handler.
- Shrink the cost of joining servers. Gigabytes of required downloads and long loading screens put newcomers and players with small drives off multiplayer; clear download sizes and lighter content delivery would help.
- Fix the Linux and macOS builds. Players report broken menus on the 64-bit branch and need the community GModPatchTool; one asked to merge those fixes, and Mac players want a native Apple silicon build.
- Give newcomers a gentler start. A short tutorial, DPI scaling for high-resolution screens, and simpler prop rotation would address the confusion that leads some players to refund early.
- Make the Workshop safer and easier to search. Players want an in-game addon search and better protection from malicious or screamer uploads, and some want clearer filters for sexual and gore content.
- Surface good servers in the browser. Reviews describe dead or hostile public servers and poor options outside major regions; a browser that highlights active, well-moderated and nearby servers would help players who have no friends to play with.
