New God game on Steam essentially lets you create the worlds seen in Minecraft's seeds

There are all sorts of sandbox games—that is, games that give players a lot of tools with minimal or no set goals—but a new genre repost of Steam looks particularly valuable. The game is called Plentyand it's shaping up to be a balm for the countless dark, industrial, or otherwise artificial backgrounds of so many other modern games on Steam and elsewhere. If you start getting warm from, let's say, the dark and sour Saroswhen Plenty might just be the perfect palette cleanser.

Similar games like Minecraftwhere players are encouraged to gather resources, spend them on building and develop methods for greater resource gathering, Plenty is about growth and development. It gives players complete, bird's-eye control over a vast expanse of uncultivated land, allowing them to terraform with surprisingly robust and intuitive block-building mechanics; Plentys graphic style is similar Minecrafts, except that its rudimentary units are hexagons instead of cubes. Further distinguishes this game from such as Minecraft or even Subnautica and Valheim is the player's perspective, which is much more like a benevolent deity than a single, (incredibly) resourceful individual who wants to make lemonade out of lemons.

Plentiful is a satisfying natural sandbox

One of Plentys trailers describe its gameplay as creating the conditions for “your people to thrive,” which is a strong encapsulation of its core premise. The player is not physically manifested in Plentys sandbox world, but rather fills the role of a god-like being, presiding over a growing population of humans. The game is divided into over 20 levels, each of which gives the player a new goal, such as reaching a certain point of population growth.

Water plays a significant, transformative role in Plentys nature-based game loop. By removing and placing blocks correctly, players can divert water from natural sources such as lakes, create rivers, ponds and so on. This is important, as water is used to grow produce for the virtual humans to eat, which leads to population growth and provides extra resources for the player. Height and block placement are also quite important in a broader sense, as the player needs to create shelters, bridges and other practical tools with recycled terrain.

A good mix of chill gameplay and strategy makes plenty of promise

Although it is definitely more relaxed than Frostpunk, Civilizationand other “sweatier” city builders, Plenty is not a goalless game by any means. It actually surprised me how much it requires you to think about at times, as the different flora and fauna you can introduce have different characteristics, like the amount of water they require and how they spread. Resources are also finite: the water needed to produce food will eventually dry up, hence the need to create canals and connect other bodies of water. It's not hard to imagine how these factors could combine for an engaging, long-term game as much as a soothing, creatively satisfying one.

As previously mentioned, Plenty has a degree of structure, built around levels instead of a massive sandbox or a procedurally generated world, like those seen in Minecraft. You're also not free to construct whatever you want: a resource called “moves” is generated when an NPC consumes food, and it's used to both move blocks and buy new seeds and wildlife. These mechanics, combined with factors such as predator species, natural disasters and seasonal changes, all of which require flexibility and quick thinking, may just Plenty one of the best city builders of 2026. Hopefully, its system will continue to be honed through a fertile early access period.