Playing video games is fun, there’s no doubt about it. After all, we’ve dedicated an entire website to our love of video games, and intend to build a strong community around them. And while some people judge Minecraft for being “too simple” and “a game for children”, we disagree. The number of adult streamers who play the game religiously and amass a large audience proves the opposite. But it is also possible that you sometimes need a break, or to scratch a creative itch with a similar game. In that case, you are in luck – there are plenty of games like Minecraft, which are also often free.
1. Eco
Among the games similar to Minecraft, you won’t find a better contender than Eco. The game looks nearly identical, only with much better graphics. But don’t worry, it isn’t a copycat, it merely takes the best ideas Minecraft has presented and improves upon them significantly. You start bare, with nothing to your name, and you need to build an entire civilization. This will send you scrambling to chop trees, acquire recipes, craft items, and make sure everything works to progress. Unlike Minecraft, you have to worry about eroding soil, waste byproducts of the population, elements, and water and air pollution. This adds a layer of difficulty, but also makes it more fun.
2. Roblox
Roblox isn’t a game, per se. It is more of a toolkit that allows users to create their iterations of games, and choose a game mode and its rules. The platform is free to play, unlike Minecraft, and has millions of active players across popular and lesser-known game modes. It is extremely hard to explain Roblox to someone who hasn’t tried it, though. Let’s just say it stimulates your creativity in a similar way Minecraft does. There’s plenty of crafting, but other game modes also allow you to drive vehicles, build, design, and purchase houses, fish, hunt, fly, own and develop businesses, and much, much more. You’ll stretch your roleplaying muscle, that’s for sure.
3. Trove
Trove, available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, is a voxel game, just like Minecraft. But it also has elements of fantasy, and magic in particular, and can also be classified as an MMO. And although it draws from an RPG element, the focus of Trove is on slaying creatures, entering dark caves, collecting loot, and building your character up, rather than building. And when you remember that there is a game named Minecraft Dungeons for smart devices, Trove will be even more similar. If you love strategy, character progression, and have a few friends to play with, this game will amaze you with its dungeon bosses and challenging content.
4. Cube World
To the untrained eye, the game looks like a Minecraft rip-off, only less eye-pleasing. And while there is a strong focus on exploring a randomly generated world and character progression, it’s more than that. For one, you can customize your character’s wearables and armor in a way that makes it stand out and show off your personal preferences. Oh, and unlike Minecraft, you can choose a class for your character, which turns it into an RPG that also has missions, dark caverns, bosses, and a lot of challenges to survive. If you ever played The Legend of Zelda, you’ll notice its influences on open-world explorations.
5. Terraria
On the topic of Minecraft like games, Terraria often comes up as the “Minecraft in 2D” game. And it’s true, somewhat. The first step after you start is to start chopping trees and go through the night dreading your survival. Furthermore, there are certain unique supernatural elements added to the game, a greater focus on fighting and wearable items, and a sense of progression. There is also plenty of fun to be had in conquering dungeons and the world’s bosses and claiming the loot you hoped for. And, Terraria is available on all major platforms – PC, Xbox One, PS4, iOS, Android, and even Nintendo Switch. You’ll never be separated from it for too long.
6. Block Fortress
Have you ever wondered what Minecraft with guns would look like? Well, you won’t have to wonder anymore, since Block Fortress is a mix of James Bond, military, and Minecraft. The game, available for Android and iOS, is a last-man-standing type of game. Build barracks and strongholds, improve your walls, armaments, collect resources, and prepare for a near-infinite horde of enemies. It is much more than a time-killer, the game stimulates the military general in you. Its best feature – it gives that desired sense of accomplishment when your stronghold keeps standing.
7. Terasology
We’ve delayed mentioning this Minecraft alternative because some people get slightly angry when it is mentioned. Terasology, available for PC, looks nearly identical to Minecraft, only more graphically intensive and eye-pleasing, compared to Minecraft without HD mods. But it is also free-to-play and open-source, which means you and everyone else across the globe can contribute to its development. It has the familiar feel of Minecraft and the set of features you expect. But also adds an option for hiring a personal army to defend your in-game creations, which sets it apart.
8. Dragon Quest Builders 2
As you could’ve guessed from the name, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is an RPG with a strong emphasis on survival, slaying dragons, crafting, and building. The game, playable on PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch drops you and other flayers into a very alluring world ruled by a malicious cult. Their goal is to destroy the world and see it fall to disrepair. Yours and other players’ goal is to ignite creativity and help the people reconstruct their land and architecture. We were enchanted by the retro soundtrack, creatures that exist in the world, and challenging quests.
9. Rust
Rust is exactly what would happen if Minecraft wasn’t based on blocks. This PC game is a 3D realistic representation of what happens when you are dropped into a world gone crazy with no preparations, instructions, or equipment. You’ll die a lot, there’s no doubt about that. But eventually, you’ll start crafting weapons, shelters, armor, and protect yourself from harsh weather and even radiation. You also get to either collaborate with fellow players or invade their shelter to steal their hard work. But be careful, while you are gone scavenging or attacking, someone might raid yours.
10. Lego Worlds
Lego video games and Minecraft are very similar, wouldn’t you say? That’s because Minecraft was influenced by the LEGO creations, and Lego Worlds draws some inspiration from Minecraft. It made both games successful, so we’re not complaining. With that in mind, this game allows you much more freedom than just collecting and slowly building. You can run a campaign, gather unique collectibles, and build massive structures and entire environments and biomes. You can even flatten them down at once to start anew, which isn’t possible in Minecraft without mods. Plus, the gameplay is narrated and immerses you into the game beautifully.
11. Craft the World
Craft the World’s worldbuilding is reminiscent of Terraria, only with advanced graphics. Available for PC and iOS devices, it puts a group of dwarves under your command. They start by building shelters and slowly progress to crafting items using recipes you acquire while you play. This includes weapons, ammunition, armor, and much more. Instead of being alone like in Minecraft, it’s refreshing to have an army of hard-working men who obey your orders. They’ll also serve as your defense guard and can also set up traps for the invading enemy. Talk about feeling like a king.
12. Colony Survival
This game, available on PC, is a mix of Minecraft, Roblox, some open-source projects done by college students. But just like Craft the World, although less impressive than Minecraft in the graphics department, adds a personal army. You start from scratch, with a colony struggling to survive. Build it up from the group up, whether personally or by tasking guard colonists under your control. Defend your borders against monsters that come at night, and make sure your farmers and miners are safe and productive, and you’ll succeed.
13. Robocraft
Although the game has nothing to do with Minecraft, you can easily spot the inspiration, as it has block-like graphics. This game, available for Xbox One and PC, can be described as a robot battle online. You start with a bare robot and construct the components to your liking. The robot can resemble a spaceship, an aircraft, a vehicle such as Batmobile or Ferrari, or something that was never seen before. Add to that the possibility of weapons, shields, cloaking devices, and allowing you to develop a playstyle, and you’ve got something valuable here. The only “downside” – the game is complex and not exactly a good starting point for beginners in the genre.
14. InfiniMiner
InfiniMiner shares a lot of things with Minecraft, primarily aesthetics. First, it consists of the well-familiar dirt blocks and the sky consisting of white and gray squares. Second, it has a similar inventory and is played in the first person in a procedurally generated world. Even its core component, competitive mining, is reminiscent of using a pickaxe to collect dirt, stone, or iron blocks. But unlike Minecraft, it is free to play and open-source. It’s time we share the secret – it gave Notch, the creator of Minecraft, an idea of how to develop his own game just a few weeks after InfiniMiner was discontinued. Luckily, you can still play the game that started it all and experience it for yourself.
15. No Man’s Sky
What would Minecraft look like if had a hyper-realistic graphic and multiple worlds/planets to start the survival on? A completely different game, of course, but one similar to No Man’s Sky. Although the game didn’t have the most successful launch, the updates brought well-needed fixes. The worlds are randomly, procedurally generated as you keep exploring. And not only the land itself – its flora and fauna are unique and just stunning. Plus, you get to shoot different weapons and ride spaceships and land on planets that you like, which is amazing. You have to see the gameplay to believe it, words are not enough.
16. Fallout 4
One of the most popular RPG games from the king of RPGs, Bethesda, Fallout 4 doesn’t have similarities with Minecraft at first glance. But think about Fallout 4’s settlement system. You start over after a worldwide disaster and are assumed the sole survivor. Then you are forced to explore the world and fight your way to securing resources to survive. As you progress, you dismantle other bases and invest those resources toward the building, improving, and furnishing bases of your own. You can also fight numerous creators, craft drugs, explosives, weapons, armor, and have almost complete player freedom of choice. Sounds familiar?
17. Blockstorm
Going back to the games that are reminiscent of Minecraft visually is Blockstorm. As the name suggests, the game is a voxel-based and the world is made out of blocks. And although not a survival game, you can still destroy anything you see, loot blocks, and build things out of them, similar to Minecraft’s Creative Mode. A great feature that is the game editor that allows you to customize the entire game, as well as your character, and ultimately share it with others on the Internet. The game is simple enough not to tax your mind and allow you to get your creative spark back when it seems close to fizzle out.
18. ARK: Survival Evolved
We have to warn you, when played with a group of friends, ARK: Survival Evolved is very addictive. It transports you millions of years into the past when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Even worse, you are spawned on a random place on the island. The game immediately gives you the chance to experience what co-existing with dinosaurs would have looked like. And not only that – you can tame dinosaurs, collect resources, build bases, fight massive dinosaurs (T-Rex among them, no less), and fend off other players on the server from killing you and stealing your loot. You can later travel the world by flying, riding on a dinosaur, and uncover underlying mysteries of the island because there are many.
19. The Forest
Here’s a game that has the same sense of mystery. You are put in the position of a sole survivor of a plane crash, and end up on a mysterious island covered in a thick, lush forest in all directions. Scavenge the baggage for useful things, start gathering tools, weapons, and resources necessary for survival, and begin building a base. Spoiler alert – you aren’t alone on the island, and the native group of people has many members. They are also cannibalistic and extremely dangerous.
20. Fortnite
We know this might sound like a stretch. Isn’t Fortnite a battle royale, third-person shooter game? It is, but it also has different game modes. Have you heard of Fortnite: Save the World which is a sandbox game just like Minecraft? It is how Fortnite started in the first place. You can collect loot, spawn weapons, and build as high and as wide to your heart’s content. This is a breath of fresh air, letting you enjoy the co-operative PvE (Player vs. Environment) campaign instead of the fast-paced PvP (Player vs. Player) content for a change.