For all the nay-sayers (such as myself) who spend much of their time critiquing the works of others, complaining about ship designs that are “ugly” or weapons and vehicles that don’t handle right, there is a common saying: “Put your money where your mouth is.” Literally translated, the common argument is that people out there should prove they can make something better before complaining. And if there’s ever one release that’s made me have second thoughts about some of the harsh criticism I’ve given the industry in the past, it’s the aptly-named Garry’s Mod.

Let me first say that by this time, anybody who has come into contact with Half-Life 2 and the Source engine in general should have heard about this mod – and that this article is directed towards those few that either haven’t, or are still on the fence about putting $10 down for the newest versions of it (though older revisions of the mod can still be downloaded for free, and even still have some servers going). Originally designed as a novelty ‘sandbox’ mod to freely play around with the physics abilities behind Valve’s Source engine, this mod has evolved into one of the most significant releases for the engine in existence. If you’re the kind of person who spent more time stacking stuff up in Half-Life 2’s crane segment than actually progressing through the game, you’ll definitely get enjoyment out of this mod.

The mod is based around three core components: The “Physcannon” (a modified version of Half-Life 2’s “Gravity Gun”), the ability to spawn objects in real-time, and the overwhelming variety of tools available to manipulate and interact with said objects (such as tools for welding objects together, attaching them by ropes or hydraulics, creating winches, applying custom physical properties and skins, and more). These components unlock an amazing world of creativity and enjoyment with near-infinite replay value, made all the more pronounced by the mod’s multiplayer capabilities. Thanks to this, it’s incredibly easy to waste an entire day by getting some friends on a server and either working together on a single colossal project, or competing together to see who can build the best mismatched contraption in some kind of hilarious parody to Junkyard Wars. Some have even taken things to the extreme and turned the mod into a kind of role-playing game, although I recommend watching the cleverly-scripted War of the Servers before getting into that side of the community. You can thank me later.

And despite the limitations of the Source engine, there really isn’t a hard limit on what can be accomplished with the mod when you set your mind to it. Want to build a gigantic sea-borne battleship, with several independent rotating cannons and a fully functioning radar mast? Or re-create your favorite full-sized ‘Mech from Battletech? How about a pimped out sports car that transforms into a jet-powered airplane at the push of a button? These concepts might sound cheesy and difficult to implement, but are very enticing and fully possible to implement once you start working on them. Admittedly however, things aren’t always as simple as “connect tube A to traffic cone B to create a mega-cannon”, and it takes a good deal of time to figure out the little nuances necessary to make contraptions that don’t flop all over the place or fall apart when moved. Conversely, this kind of scaling difficulty can also be very rewarding when you’ve mastered the basic tools and can create some truly stunning masterpieces (and then take then online to show off to your friends), but ultimately just goes to show how much of a challenge it can be creating something original to show off.

As much fun as the core release of the mod is, things really come into play when you take advantage of the mod’s custom LUA-scripting capabilities and start importing custom addons and maps. There are two add-ons in particular that are considered “must-haves” for maximum enjoyment – Spacebuild and WireMod . "Spacebuild" provides a number of new features to add a novel space exploration twist to Garry’s Mod (when combined with the right maps), requiring players to kit their spacecraft out with life-support gear for survival in space. “Wiremod” is an even more important add-on which unlocks an insane number of additional control possibilities for your contraptions. This can result in something as simple as a vehicle that has all of its controls wired into a single chair with custom keyboard inputs (rather than having to rely on the limited numeric keypad defaults the mod ships with), to something as advanced as a wheeled robotic servant that will roam a map independently, seeking out other players and throwing exploding watermelons at them when in range.