Neverwinter Nights 2 vs Ylands
Neverwinter Nights 2
Neverwinter Nights 2 is the brilliant sequel to the first Neverwinter Nights. This time around, you'll be playing as a farmer-turned-hero who set off on a quest to defeat the King of Shadows. Although the original campaign may be a tad bit cliche, the game truly shines once you get into the first expansion where you'll gain a unique spirit-eating mechanic that will affect your gameplay and change the path of your narrative. Not to mention, like the first game, Neverwinter Nights 2 has been endowed with loads of player-made mods and hence, adventures that you can explore at your leisure, adding to what is already a worthwhile purchase. The game even has an improved toolset which allow players to host their own solo or multiplayer adventures that they can also share to other players.However, being a pretty old game, there will definitely be bugs and glitches that you will have to content with along the way, but overall, Neverwinter Nights 2 can guarantee hundreds and maybe thousands of hours of gameplay (with mods), making it worth every cent you spent on it.
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!