Craft the World vs Project Zomboid
Craft the World
Craft the World is the game to play if you enjoy the survival, mining, and crafting aspects of Minecraft. The game's quite similar to Minecraft in many ways. You can plant and harvest crops. You can and will actually need to dig to find rare minerals as well. You can also craft a variety of tools, furniture, and, in general, items that will help your dwarves survive the periodic invasions of goblins, the undead, and other otherworldly monsters or will at least make your dwarves content.That said, there are a few very important differences between Craft the World and Minecraft that made the former so unique. Instead of playing a character, you get to become the omnipotent "god" of small dwarves who you can order to do your bidding or you could even control them individually if needed.
The crafting system is quite different too. Don't get me wrong - you still need to combine raw materials to create the stuff you need like in Minecraft, but similar to the crafting system in a standard MMORPG, there's a progression system in place that will allow you to unlock new "technologies" simply by crafting lower-tech items repeatedly...even if you don't really need that many of them. What can you do with the surplus of items then? Well, you can just sell them. There's a shop that sells resources that you may need in exchange for game cash. You can randomly earn game cash by battling creatures and monsters and you could also sell off your extra items for cash.
Craft the World may not be everyone's cup of tea due to the rather repetitive and slightly clumsy crafting system, but the game is still pretty fun and it does offer a challenge for fans of the survival genre.
Project Zomboid
Project Zomboid takes the post-apocalyptic zombie survival genre to the next level with one of the most realistic gameplay to date. After all, surviving isn't just blowing the heads off zombies or finding food - your mental health is as equally important! In many ways, the game feels a lot like Don't Starve when it comes to the more hardcore gameplay, though its persistent and ever-growing game map can be liken to that of Minecraft while its stats-based progression is somewhat similar to the old Runescape. There are so many skills you can level up, and which one you'd like to focus on is entirely up to you. Of course, you can customize your character's looks as well.Aside from the common Sandbox and Survival modes, the game even has fun and imaginative Challenge scenarios and action-packed "Last Stand" mode which frankly plays out a lot like Serious Sam albeit in isometric view.
Featuring a unique pixel-like visuals and an isomeric perspective, Project Zomboid is a really promising early access game that fans of survival games would really enjoy. It's full of content, be it exploring or crafting, and it's tough enough to keep you hooked.