6 Games Minecraft Fans Will Love

Minecraft might just seem like silly emotes, pixels, and blocks to non-players, but real Minecraft players know that there’s a lot more nuance to the game than people think. With a procedurally generated world, discovery, crafting, fighting, survival, and competition at play, no gaming session in Minecraft is ever quite the same. The game essentially revived the sandbox genre, giving players a brand-new sense of freedom with no inherent goal.

While it’s unlikely that you’ll ever get bored of Minecraft, a variety of other games have managed to capture its essence, letting you venture into new territory and add another title to your roster. It’s a bit like when you claim a slots bonus at casinos.com—you might be initially intrigued by the art style and features but discover real magic once you really start playing. Let’s take a look at six games you might love as a Minecraft fan.

Vintage Story

Vintage Story is a stripped-down sandbox survival game that was once a mod for Minecraft. While Minecraft offers a full-on creative experience, some people crave a greater survival challenge, which is what fans say Vintage Story is. The game focuses much more on survival, with more complex mechanics (like finding proper climates for crop growth) and a slower pace. The environment is harsher; every decision comes with more consequences, and thus, it’s not for everyone. But if you’re itching for a more realistic, taxing experience in a Minecraft-like world, you shouldn’t miss out on Vintage Story.

Terraria

Although Terraria’s graphics lean more towards a sprite pixel style, the premise of the game is a lot like Minecraft. With the world as your canvas, you can explore the expanse of the world and dig, fight, and build. As a sandbox game as well, there are no fixed goals in Terraria, which makes it a game that never runs out of fun. It’s the type of title you can get lost in and play for hours. The modding community keeps the game alive with fun extras, and a dedicated development team is always on top of updates. Instead of being a 3D procedurally generated world, Terraria takes place in a 2D procedurally generated world reminiscent of the Super NES.

There are tons of similarities with Minecraft, including character appearance customization, randomly spawning enemies, player-created houses, and an incredibly detailed realm of crafting.

Eco

British video game site Rock, Paper, Shotgun once described Eco as a “pretty Minecraft.” With its more vivid colors and smoother graphics, it’s easy to see why. This simulation game has shades of the sandbox genre in that there are no inherent goals and objectives, but there are consequences that result from the player’s actions and a riveting plot. The idea behind Eco is that players need to improve the technology available in order to destroy an incoming asteroid. They can explore different biomes like forests, hunt animals, study plants, and gather materials like dirt and stone.

In contrast to Minecraft, Eco emphasizes the multiplayer aspect of the game, where players need to work together to create civilization on a planet. It was initially designed as an educational tool for middle school students that was heavily financially backed by the U.S. Department of Education. Despite this intention, non-middle-schoolers fell in love with the game, and it garnered plenty of positive reviews.

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is more of a farming simulation game, with interactions and dialogue with NPCs, but to many people’s surprise, there’s also combat involved, a fun mining component, and plenty of hidden secrets. The game exudes a sense of adventure, freedom, and creativity, like Minecraft, that’ll have you playing it until the sun goes down. What’s even more impressive is that it was entirely created and developed by Eric Barone under the name ConcernedApe over four and a half years.

Players take on the role of a customizable character who inherits their grandfather’s old farm in Stardew Valley, with an open-ended format that involves crop growing, foraging, fishing, raising livestock, socializing, and participating in town events. The authentic tenderness of the interactions with NPCs, atmospheric soundtrack, and pixel art style of the game attract many gamers looking for a charming and immersive title.

Starbound

There’s no right or wrong way to play Starbound, which is what many people love about Minecraft. It’s an action-adventure game made by Chucklefish, the same video game developer that helped ConcernedApe publish Stardew Valley. Like Terraria, it’s a 2D procedurally generated game that allows players to fight enemies, terraform, and explore the world, but it also includes story-driven missions and quests that give the game extra depth.

Starbound brings players on an intergalactic journey, where the player starts in a spacecraft after Earth has been destroyed. The spacecraft later becomes the player’s home base and mode of transport around the galaxy. During their exploration, they can teleport down to different planets, discovering different environments, resources, and life forms.

No Man’s Sky

When No Man’s Sky was released, it developed a bad reputation for its lackluster gameplay and for not delivering on its promised features. The game didn’t live up to the hype, as people were looking forward to the exploration and survival aspects and being able to play both in single-player and multiplayer modes.

While the game had the sci-fi theme and an attractive low-poly art style, it wasn’t until base-building, space fleet management, multiplayer components, and other major content updates were implemented that it began gaining traction as a worthy game. With a procedurally generated open-world universe, players can explore 18 quintillion planets, discover new ecosystems, engage with alien species, build planetary bases, and participate in the plot to uncover the mystery of The Atlas.