TOP 15 Minecraft clones: GTA made from cubes, analogue of Dark Souls, voxel MMO

Minecraft is truly a popular game. This year she will turn 12 years old, and her popularity is only growing. It is not surprising that hundreds of developers are eager to grab a piece of fame, creating all kinds of mods, clones and parodies. We have collected 15 of the most interesting and memorable projects that can supplant the creation of Mojang Studios.

If you cross The Legend of Zelda and Minecraft, you get Craftopia. This is an open world multiplayer game with survival elements. The basis of the gameplay and visuals are pure Breath of the Wild. Chinese developers just need to add a pinch of Minecraft, and voila — a new game is ready.

There are dozens of familiar mechanics here: we have to mine resources, explore a vast world, satisfy needs, grow food, hunt, cast spells, fight and, of course, build. You can erect not only buildings and farms, but also entire factories, which greatly simplify the daily routine. Craftopia, despite the obvious plagiarism of mechanics from well-known series, provides so many possibilities that your head is spinning. This includes breeding pets, exploring dungeons with friends, raiding bosses, and even creating vehicles. And the customization of the appearance and development of the main character is richer than in some role-playing games.

The only significant drawback is the lack of Russian language.

Cube World is a voxel-based MMO with an emphasis on exploring vast areas. Like Minecraft, the huge world is created through procedural generation from cubes. Scattered throughout it are tasks that are no different from the usual kill-and-fetch MMO quests.

In addition to the appearance and procedural generation, Cube World took over from Minecraft the ability to craft items, tame pets, and destroy the game landscape. The basic mechanics of an MMO are also in place: raiding bosses, earning gold, flying on an eagle and studying the lore.

However, be warned: Cube World is insanely difficult for beginners. For example, due to procedural generation, it can easily draw powerful opponents right at the starting location.

PixARK is a combination of ARK and Minecraft. The game world is filled with dozens of species of dinosaurs and other fantastic creatures. We need to tame evil creatures and use them to fight other players. From Minecraft, the game inherited the visual part, the ability to build and extract resources.

The world, tasks and adventures in PixARK are procedurally generated: the developers promise that all passages will be unique. In fact, the game was created for ARK fans who miss the opportunity to build mud castles and craft everything.

The project regularly receives thematic updates and hosts all sorts of events, but players have long been asking for changes to the balance and increased client stability.

Raft is difficult to compare with Minecraft. The game does not have the usual cubic style, but it does have a plot. At its core, this is a unique sandbox, where the usual shelter for the genre takes the form of a raft. In less than an hour, it will have its own vegetable garden, a field kitchen, a pen for animals, machines and other items necessary for survival. All resources are located in the littered open sea, and sometimes there are small islands with unique things. It is these islands that need to be explored in the story mode, which can be completed either with a friend or alone.

Players appreciated the gameplay and unique setting, which is fun to explore with friends. The project is still developing to this day, which is undoubtedly important for a good sandbox.

Boundless is another MMO sandbox with voxel graphics and endless possibilities. The project looks very good and expensive. A colorful picture, dozens of well-thought-out mechanics—you can feel the scale.

At its core, Boundless is a mix of No Man's Sky, EVE Online and Minecraft, focusing on social interaction. In the world of the game there are dozens of planets with hundreds of cities and villages in which thousands of users live. The developers give players unprecedented freedom: here you can build economic relations with other communities, put together an expeditionary force and go to conquer other continents, explore the world and complete quests. Wide range of resources and hundreds of craftable items available.

New players are often put off by the high barrier to entry, but it's definitely worth overcoming.

Dozens of games are being released based on Minecraft, but only Stonehearth was able to unleash the potential of the original source in the strategy genre. This is a real RTS with all the features of the famous sandbox, from a procedurally generated landscape to endless possibilities for construction. The main difference between Stonehearth and other strategies is that here you can first build whatever you want, and only then give the new building a role in the settlement.

The construction and management of settlements takes many hours. Add to this enemy cities, raider attacks and other features that prevent the game from slipping into a monotonous routine. But the developers also gave fans every opportunity for comfortable modding. Now the game is supported by the community, which adds new content to it and holds events. We strongly recommend that you read it.

ECO is an attempt to refresh the gameplay of the classic sandbox, adding a huge number of unique details to it. The game world is a detailed simulation of an ecosystem in which everything lives according to the laws of nature. Our goal is to save this world from a collision with a meteorite, but not to destroy nature. And all this in MMO mode.

Here you need not only to build buildings, extract resources, go hunting and learn new technologies. You will have to interact with other players, introduce bills to preserve nature, and find a balance between personal needs and the needs of everyone else. This world exists by its own rules, and player intervention can greatly affect it. Destroy all forest areas and say goodbye to wild animals. If you pollute the rivers, you will lose healthy soil and the entire harvest. Fortunately, thanks to the user-friendly interface, you can always predict the consequences of your actions.

After ten hours, ECO turns into Boundless. Cities begin to live a real life: with a tax system, trade relations and presidential elections. The game significantly refreshes the usual Minecraft gameplay and gives a genuine feeling of the living world.

Portal Knights is a role-playing game with sandbox elements, targeted combat in a minimalistic Souls-like mode and a hybrid visual style. Game islands are generated randomly, and you can travel through them through portals. Each location is rendered in a unique setting, which adds variety.

Here you can upgrade your character, select equipment for him, complete quests and go to bosses in the company of friends. The perspective switches to first-person or third-person—choose whichever you prefer. In addition to battles, you will have to obtain resources, arrange your home, care for pets and create unique items.

Users praise the co-op mechanics, random events and boss battles. Portal Knights is criticized for its low difficulty, fast completion and paid DLC, but in general, there are much more positive reviews than negative ones. A good alternative to the «diabloid» in the Minecraft setting.

This familiar sandbox with construction is complemented by carnivorous zombies, which do not allow you to relax for a second. Naturally, it would not be possible without dozens of gameplay mechanics and opportunities for varied interaction between players.

The main gameplay is little different from the usual DayZ. The basis of the game is a huge world where you need to look for supplies, monitor biological needs, communicate with other players, avoid zombies and bandits, grow food and hunt animals, travel across vast spaces with or without transport. Add to all this the construction and extraction of resources from Minecraft, as well as the absolute free nature of the project. Players spend hundreds of hours in Unturned, exploring new locations, participating in role-playing servers and going through story campaigns with non-player characters.

The developers work closely with players, adding custom updates and improvements to the game. Hundreds of modifications, all kinds of servers with their own rules and gameplay make Unturned almost the main Minecraft clone.

Lego Worlds is essentially a regular sandbox without a survival simulation. The game gives the user an extensive toolkit that can be used to create any building. Change the landscape, populate the worlds with animals, travel on dragons and helicopters, decorate the hero, explore dozens of unique worlds and create wonders of the world in co-op with friends. By exploring locations and completing simple tasks, you will unlock new functionality and items for customization. And the story mode will tell you in detail and show all the available functionality.

Lego Worlds managed to gather a lot of positive reviews, but it failed to outshine Minecraft. Players complain about the high price for the project, the lack of an online mode and the story campaign, which at the beginning noticeably slows down the gameplay. But with such a big name and a lot of themed sets, Lego Worlds could compete with famous sandboxes for the title of the best!

Total Miner is hardly distinguishable from the usual Minecraft. The area of ​​the voxel world is smaller, but it is more than three thousand blocks deep. The main goal in Total Miner is to dig deep and explore the underground world. Moreover, burrowing underground will take a long and painful time: after an hour of playing, you feel like a real miner who has forgotten what the sky looks like.

The project developers never added multiplayer to PC, so players have to be content with the creative mode. To do this, we have access to hundreds of blocks, more than 300 items, and crowds of enemies roaming the mines. Total Miner has a built-in scripting language and a huge editor, which allows you to create your own game with quests, bosses, NPCs and branching dialogues. First of all, this is a platform for creative ideas, and the digger mode is here, rather, for show.

So we got to the Minecraft variation GTA. In Voxel Turf, players do not build miserable shelters from blocks, but entire cities with full-fledged infrastructure, like in SimCity. Resources in the game are obtained in the best traditions of Rockstar Games projects: robberies, murders, gang wars, car theft and shooting cops. You can go street racing or become an assassin, a bandit or a peaceful architect in a detailed sandbox.

The project supports multiplayer with different game modes. There is always something to do at Voxel Turf, either alone or with friends. You won't get bored with role-playing, team battles, races, joint city building, clan battles, and usual Minecraft features like learning new devices, schemes, and materials.

The developers provide users with all available resources to create modifications and optimize unique gameplay features. If you have always dreamed of building megacities, stealing cars and are not afraid of cubic graphics, then this project is perfect for you.

In Scrap Mechanic we take control of an engineer who will build not only houses, but also something more technologically advanced. There are three modes to choose from: challenge, survival and creative. In survival mode, we explore a world filled with hostile robots, look for treasure, build large-scale bases and team up with friends to exterminate hordes at night. In challenge mode, you need to complete assigned tasks by creating mechanical buildings in the spirit of Bad Piggies. The creative mode does not need any description: it is hardly distinguishable from other well-known sandboxes.

Scrap Mechanic follows all the gameplay laws of Minecraft. We extract resources, build, research and kill opponents, but inventions seriously refresh the creative process. You can build any car, plane, or even robot. Everything is limited only by imagination. The world, taken over by farming bots, makes you want to explore, and the colorful graphics will suit those who are put off by the cubism of Minecraft.

At the moment, the project is in early access and is actively developing. The game is praised for its creative mode, realistic vehicle physics and regular content updates.

The key difference between Creativerse and its analogues is its bright and colorful graphics, at the level of the best graphic mods for Minecraft. The game world, of course, remained cubic, but everything else received much more polygons. The standard free version of Creativerse only offers a survival mode, which can be explored either alone or with other players. But the creative mode is available for a fee.

The world of Creativerse is huge and exists according to all the canons of Minecraft: day follows night, trees grow, and animals live their own lives. Of course, all the usual Minecraft features are available here. With a beautiful wrapper, the game can boast of decent optimization. But you will have to do without localization.

From a visual point of view, the isometric Project Zomboid has nothing in common with the cubic Minecraft. However, this is a distinct sandbox with the search for resources, construction, survival and communication with other players in a world affected by a zombie epidemic. Moreover, local zombies are distinguished by a sophisticated system of vision and hearing, which does not allow you to relax for a second.

There's always something to do in Project Zomboid. You can become a loner who will rob houses, build defensive structures, create items, grow food and not have contact with other players. Or unite with them into a large community, organize raids on other people's settlements, explore the surrounding area and travel by car. The project also allows four players to play on a split screen.

Over eight years in development, the game received vehicles, a system for combating boredom and depression, weather and seasons simulation, farming, fishing, carpentry, cooking, several scenarios, and complete freedom for modding. If you've been looking for hardcore sandboxes and want to test your strength in the zombie apocalypse, then Project Zomboid is perfect for you.

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Minecraft is not just a popular sandbox, but also the main source of inspiration for many projects. In our top, we only talked about a small part of the copycat projects. What Minecraft clones do you know? Share in the comments!