Combine Roblox, a ton of crappy social browser games, and Terarria, and you get this absolute surprise of a sandbox.

I have received a key from the game developers for reviewing purposes. These normally don't affect my reviews.

Manyland is weird, complicated, but so compelling. The tools provided in this unique sandbox are some of the most powerful and unwieldy things ever in these kind of games. But it also does a poor job at explaining them, and while I think the game is freaking awesome, it does come short in really being accessible.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=622726708

The game is playable for free at manyland.com I have played the web version of the game before but the review will not be judging the differences between the two, despite basically being the same in most cases.

• The social interaction with friends and other players is basic but awesome. Got together with a few forum friends on here and it was fun. And weird.
  
• The tools to create objects are very powerful. There's a lot of objects you can make, and there's a lot of potential to be had. You can make all sorts of games, visual objects, and content for the game.
  
• A large load of community-created content. Most of the items/objects in this game were made by other users, and that's pretty rad!
  
• The community is pretty swell as well. Helpful developers, helpful players, and a world ripe of creativity.
  
• Versus Roblox, it's not a craptastic mess with it's business model. The game is mostly completely free, with some monetary items you can buy (like gifts and a subscription fee). The browser version is totally playable too.

• I wish the Steam version of the game could let you directly use links to send you to a world. Maybe embed it in the Paste?
  
• Adding objects in a area with a background tile is kind of problematic. You have to place the "Thing" objects in before placing the background objects. This could be remedied by allowing the player to tweak with multiple layers.

• The game, despite providing a lot of tutorials, still manages to completely make mechanics go over my head. It doesn't properly explain them, and are very easy to miss.
  
• Game's UI often gets cluttered with too many menus.
  
• Friend's list is really unintuitive. I want to add my friends no matter where they are, but I can only do that when I'm in the same world as them.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=622726682

Manyland isn't really a video game. It's a straight-up sandbox that lets players create objects and worlds. There's no real PVP or RPG mechanics, or survival; This is all about making things and showing it with other players. Perhaps you want to create a character skin? Or a mountable vehicle? Manyland has a lot of options for those kind of tools, but does put itself at a immense cost;

It's very, very difficult to learn. The game mechanics are explained in tutorials and a whole buncha texts/forum posts, but that's it. For a basic and new player, making things is about as daunting and scary as climbing a skyscraper. When I first played it, I had no idea what to do, because the game didn't boot me to a tutorial world. It gave me a welcome prompt and that was it. Game design wise, it'd be hella-lot more smart to place players in the isolated tutorial areas to start.

My other issue is that the friends list, while functional, didn't let me friend anybody directly. I had to first meet them in the same world in order to add them as a friend. I'd rather to directly add them via username, because I wouldn't want to force my friend online to add him if he wanted to be online later.

This issue can also go with the UI, which is while functional, hard to navigate. There's a ton of menus and buttons you have to click before you find certain maps to play, etc.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=618999008

But otherwise, it's a pretty dandy game. I've been making cool, social worlds for friends to go on and hang out. Once you understand how everything works, creation makes a lot more sense. Placing and making objects are very intuitive and very efficent; There's a variety of tools to creating objects, and building worlds is as easy as dragging-and-dropping.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=622726564

What about the community content in this game? It's actually very high in terms of quality. A lot of people have made awesome character skins that resemble pixel art from other games, a lot of the blocks, gamemodes, and objects are very well done. It's a fantastic community to interact with, and that's really the main highlight of this game. The game's hub worlds are filled with a lot of these items too, so it's hard not to explore the game, being amazed at the cool stuff you see. A lot of the folks on the forum are helpful as well, and the developers complement the community back by responding and answering to a user's many burning questions.

What this all leads to is a sandbox that's not perfect, but definitely noteworthy. If you don't want to put the money on the game, you can play it free online, but otherwise, there isn't much to lose if you're really into these kind of games. I expect myself to easily put more hours in this then I originally thought I did.

[b]Combine Roblox, a ton of crappy social browser games, and Terarria, and you get this absolute surprise of a sandbox.[/b] [quote]I have received a key from the game developers for reviewing purposes. These normally don't affect my reviews.[/quote] Manyland is weird, complicated, but so compelling. The tools provided in this unique sandbox are some of the most powerful and unwieldy things ever in these kind of games. But it also does a poor job at explaining them, and while I think the game is freaking awesome, it does come short in really being accessible. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=622726708 [quote]The game is playable for free at manyland.com I have played the web version of the game before but the review will not be judging the differences between the two, despite basically being the same in most cases.[/quote] [h1]Pros:[/h1] [list] [*]The social interaction with friends and other players is basic but awesome. Got together with a few forum friends on here and it was fun. And weird. [*]The tools to create objects are very powerful. There's a lot of objects you can make, and there's a lot of potential to be had. You can make all sorts of games, visual objects, and content for the game. [*]A large load of community-created content. Most of the items/objects in this game were made by other users, and that's pretty rad! [*]The community is pretty swell as well. Helpful developers, helpful players, and a world ripe of creativity. [*]Versus Roblox, it's not a craptastic mess with it's business model. The game is mostly completely free, with some monetary items you can buy (like gifts and a subscription fee). The browser version is totally playable too. [/list] [h1]Nitpicks:[/h1] [list] [*]I wish the Steam version of the game could let you directly use links to send you to a world. Maybe embed it in the Paste? [*]Adding objects in a area with a background tile is kind of problematic. You have to place the "Thing" objects in before placing the background objects. This could be remedied by allowing the player to tweak with multiple layers. [/list] [h1]Cons:[/h1] [list] [*]The game, despite providing a lot of tutorials, still manages to completely make mechanics go over my head. It doesn't properly explain them, and are very easy to miss. [*]Game's UI often gets cluttered with too many menus. [*]Friend's list is really unintuitive. I want to add my friends no matter where they are, but I can only do that when I'm in the same world as them. [/list] [h1]The Review[/h1] http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=622726682 Manyland isn't really a video game. It's a straight-up sandbox that lets players create objects and worlds. There's no real PVP or RPG mechanics, or survival; This is all about making things and showing it with other players. Perhaps you want to create a character skin? Or a mountable vehicle? Manyland has a lot of options for those kind of tools, but does put itself at a immense cost; It's very, very difficult to learn. The game mechanics are explained in tutorials and a whole buncha texts/forum posts, but that's it. For a basic and new player, making things is about as daunting and scary as climbing a skyscraper. When I first played it, I had no idea what to do, because the game didn't boot me to a tutorial world. It gave me a welcome prompt and that was it. Game design wise, it'd be hella-lot more smart to place players in the isolated tutorial areas to start. My other issue is that the friends list, while functional, didn't let me friend anybody directly. I had to first meet them in the same world in order to add them as a friend. I'd rather to directly add them via username, because I wouldn't want to force my friend online to add him if he wanted to be online later. This issue can also go with the UI, which is while functional, hard to navigate. There's a ton of menus and buttons you have to click before you find certain maps to play, etc. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=618999008 But otherwise, it's a pretty dandy game. I've been making cool, social worlds for friends to go on and hang out. Once you understand how everything works, creation makes a lot more sense. Placing and making objects are very intuitive and very efficent; There's a variety of tools to creating objects, and building worlds is as easy as dragging-and-dropping. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=622726564 What about the community content in this game? It's actually very high in terms of quality. A lot of people have made awesome character skins that resemble pixel art from other games, a lot of the blocks, gamemodes, and objects are very well done. It's a fantastic community to interact with, and that's really the main highlight of this game. The game's hub worlds are filled with a lot of these items too, so it's hard not to explore the game, being amazed at the cool stuff you see. A lot of the folks on the forum are helpful as well, and the developers complement the community back by responding and answering to a user's many burning questions. What this all leads to is a sandbox that's not perfect, but definitely noteworthy. If you don't want to put the money on the game, you can play it free online, but otherwise, there isn't much to lose if you're really into these kind of games. I expect myself to easily put more hours in this then I originally thought I did. [h1]TL;DR - Although daunting to learn and play around with, Manyland is a game that delivers a sandbox that's as insane as it is unwieldy and dastardly sinister fun. [/h1] [h1][i]Recommended[/i], but not recommended for those who aren't a huge fan of social/sandbox-only games. [quote]For more reviews on all sorts of games, follow [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/LotsOGiveaways#] Lots' o Giveaway's[/url] group curations and reviews [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/LotsOGiveaways#curation] here[/url]![/quote]