Minecraft vs Ylands
Minecraft
Minecraft is the most wildly popular independent game that was ever developed! It is basically a voxel sandbox game, whereby you’ll ‘mine’ for materials in the world, gather it and bring it back to construct or craft anything you like, with some elements of MMOs. This game allows you to let your imagination loose so you can create whatever masterpieces or in general, objects you want! You can even build stuff together with your friends in Minecraft in the multiplayer mode.There are adventures to be had where you can battle mobs that come out at night, or work to reach the nether realm to fight the final boss and get the rarest substances. Best yet, due to the rise of interest in battle royale games, you can now play a special battle royale-themed Minecraft mode through the Brawl servers (http://www.brawl.com/games/battleroyale/)
Interested? Well, you can try the Minecraft demo out for free, so there’s no reason for you not experience the joy this game can bring!
Ylands
Ylands is a sandbox adventure game that has a gameplay that's a lot like a massively expanded version of Minecraft with a lot more resources for you to gather, items to craft, and amazing things to build. Instead of being "just a game", Ylands is more like a platform, much like Roblox is, where players are given the tools to create whatever worlds or games they like, be it a fun go-kart racing game that's inspired from Lega Racers or even a watery world where epic pirate-themed naval battles can take place. The worlds are completely interactive as well and every action you do will modify, no matter how slightly, the game environment of that segment of the world you happen to be in. In fact, if you change a terrain and populate it with an entirely different diversity of flora and fauna, you can basically change the climate system there.Unlike Minecraft though, Ylands has opted for a more polygonal appearance which gave it the extra leverage it needed to overcome the painful dismissal and degratory label of being simply a "Minecraft clone" - which admittedly, Ylands is most definitely not. The game has so much going for it and players truly have all the freedom within the game's pretty wide parameters to literally create anything they like. Of course, the game also supports sharing, so you can let other players in Yland enjoy that (for example) crazy maze-running game you've just made!
Ylands is most certainly impressive to say the least. However, due to its indie origins, not many players know about the game, let alone buy it on Steam. So, if you really like Minecraft-like sandbox games, you simply must give this game a try, and if you've had a great time there, be sure to recommend it to your friends or even buy it for them as their Christmas/ birthday gift!