Salem vs Terraria
Salem
Salem is an old-school and somewhat obscure (but fun) sandbox MMORPG that unlike Wurm Online has a stronger emphasis on its in-depth crafting system and survival aspect rather than building.Similar to Wurm Online though, Salem is not a voxel-based game, but you are still able to mold the game environment through resource gathering, mining and digging in a way that reminds me of the currently-shelved MMORPG, EverQuest Next: Landmark. Of course, although not exactly the focus of the game, you can still build your homestead and the process is quite similar to Wurm Online except that it occurs at a much higher speed.
Not to mention, the game world in Salem is simply humongous to the point where it feels like an actual world. Salem also borrowed some features from ArcheAge where open-world PvP is the norm, so you'll need to be vigilant at all times, but players who kill and steal for no reason will be labelled as criminals and can be punished.
However, as good as it is despite being an indie MMO and all, Salem does have its fair share of flaws due to its low development budget. So, we'd recommend you to take a look at Salem without carrying along any high expectations. It's a pretty good MMORPG like Minecraft, but if you're expecting a Minecraft clone, you may end up disappointing yourself.
Terraria
Terraria is one of the biggest breakout indie game of 2011 and, like Minecraft, is still incredibly popular until today. However, despite the many similarities between Terraria and Minecraft which is mainly because they are both sandbox games, Terraria is a definitely much more fleshed out version of Minecraft without all the 3D voxels but with 2D pixels instead. The great thing about Terraria though is that it has more of everything that Minecraft has - more recipes, more enemies, more pets, more bosses... well, like we said, more everything. The depth in Terraria is simply astounding!Combat also feels action-packed in spite of being 2D and interestingly, the game provides an immersive storyline that you can follow... again, unlike in Minecraft where you literally have to create your own story if you want all of that. The game is cross-platform game and supports multiplayer as well.
In short though, we'd say that Terraria is more suited to adventure-based RPG gameplay rather than Minecraft but unfortunately, not everyone likes its 2D looks. So, if you're a fan of Minecraft and you don't really mind 2D games, you should definitely check out Terraria. You'll be blown away by the overwhelming size of the content!