Life is Feudal: MMO vs Stonehearth
Life is Feudal: MMO
Life is Feudal: MMO is a medieval-themed sandbox MMORPG that offers you a pretty hardcore survival gameplay where death and bad behavior are both severely penalized. You can also craft a wide variety of tools and items, build amazing forts and other structures, and explore a huge world and see other people’s creations.All of these sound great and all, but what truly makes this game stand out is its iconic, karma-like system called the Alignment system. Players who break common sense norms, like not stealing other people’s harvest, destroying people’s homes, or even killing another player unprovoked, will get marked with a negative alignment. The punishment from this system isn’t instant or swift, but if the bad-behaving player dies with negative alignment, he may risk losing all that he has worked hard for. He may potentially lose all of the skill points he had painstakingly grinded for.
On the downside, the combat in this game still feels a tad bit clunky and many players have mentioned that the cosmetics in-game shop are sold at ridiculous prices. The game is still currently in early access as well and thus, the game does have its fair share of bugs.
Although many have drawn a comparison with Wurm Online, those very same players would probably unanimously agree that Life is Feudal simply looks much better and plays out a whole lot better as well. The dynamicity of its world is astounding and the alignment system serves as a great deterrent to bad and toxic players. Life is Feudal may not be the ultimate medieval-themed sandbox MMORPG, but it’s pretty close.
Stonehearth
Stonehearth is the game you'll want to play if you enjoy playing Minecraft because you can build your very own city. Although the game is basically a sandbox game like Minecraft, it has a building aspect that's much more similar to Craft the World... except that in Stonehearth, everything's in glorious 3D. In this game, you play as the leader of a small handful of adorable-looking pioneers who are looking for a new place to settle down. There isn't a lot of digging involved in Stonehearth though you still need to get your pioneers to collect resources from the environment or to plant and harvest their own.Like in Craft the World, you'll need to provide shelter for your people and equip them with the necessary equipment so they can fend off attacks during the night. However, when it comes to crafting, Stonehearth has a much more diverse and in-depth crafting system. The building system in this game is also pretty unique though it can be rather restrictive when compared to Minecraft since the most "building" you'll be doing is mainly houses for your villagers. Of course, let's not forget about the game's much better-looking graphics!
In some way, Stonehearth is more of a survival/town-building game than a pure sandbox game like Minecraft. However, it is perfect for players who enjoy having an entire town of minions to order around, and the satisfaction of leading and developing a tribe. For a price tag of $24.99 (on Steam), Stonehearth can be a bit on the costly side, but if this is the sort of game you're into, the game will always be worth the price. You can show your support to the indie developers behind this game as well... so there's that!