5

Fun is often sacrificed for the sake of realism

Not every game has to provide an escape from the mundanities of real life. Papers Please is an excellent game whose entire mechanic is based around bureaucracy and red tape. However, when taken to extremes, it becomes the antithesis of the ultimate goal of sandbox games: to provide players the freedom of exploring a large world. Read Dead Redemption's wild west landscape is nothing short of breathtaking, but the chores that Arthur must complete are as dull as dishwater.