Recent reviews by Fergus d'Letum

Infuriatingly limited engine with rage-inducing quirks (looking at you, slider constraints), but with regards to engineering games in a league of its own. Incredible moddability with freeform physics and contraption design is what makes Garrysmod far surpass any "modern" engineering games that sacrifice build freedom for physics optimization and simplicity.

Don't let the screenshots on the store page fool you. Garrysmod is FAR deeper than gamemodes, halfassed contraptions, and ragdoll posing shown. Using the mod "Wire" opens up a whole new way to interact with the game world, as it adds a powerful, robust programming element to the freeform physics. Real programming, not just scripting with limited, curated interaction with the engine. For example, the source engine physics doesn't have aerodynamics to fly planes with. No problem, you can write your own aerodynamic physics model and apply those forces to a plane you created, and have realistic flight even though source doesn't inherently support it. Not only that, but you could design the aerodynamics program so that it procedurally accounts for the geometry of aircraft you make, such that different designs handle differently.

There's a reason I've logged over 10,000 hours on Garrysmod, and still going strong.

Highly recommended if you liked Diablo 2, and far better than diablo 3 in my opinion. There are no pre-defined classes; instead you define the class you want to play. Picking a character merely determines how you look and where you start on the passive skill tree, which is shared by all characters. Abilities are obtained with skill gems, which are socketed into armor. You can also augment skill gems with support gems, allowing you to create some pretty crazy abilites such as: melee splash damage + extra fire damage + enemies explode on death, which can cause entire packs of enemies to chain explode.

That being said, there are currently some issues with getting desynched from the server. Maps are also instanced and expire after being unvisited for 5 minutes, meaning that boss fights may reset if you die without a portal, and have to waypoint back and travel through 2 or 3 maps which themselves have already reset. They will also reset if you're in town for more than 5 minutes, meaning you lose all progress since your last waypoint if you stay in town too long.

Good shooter with smooth gunplay and great hit reactions, though the flow is interrupted constantly with cutscenes. Expect several minute action sequences separated with just as much cutscene in-between. Abandons the graphic novel storytelling of the previous games for a 'drunk' image flicker and shifting effect during cutscenes, which though it is sometimes appropriate, is used far too much. Checkpoint system is adequate, though the quicksave of the previous games is preferrable. Graphics are great; able to run on high settings with smooth framerate, with a midrange gaming rig.