Keplerth: Another World vs Ylands
Keplerth: Another World
Keplerth: Another World is a sandbox-survival game where you'll need to go out into the world to gather the resources you need and turn them into useful items via various the workbench and other crafting stations. If you have played Rimworld, you may quickly notice the similarities in terms of the graphics and the "feel" between those two games. However, the gameplay is slightly different since it resembles the game Don't Starve rather than Rimworld in which you control a main character and all you have to do is to make sure that you survive while exploring the vast world around you. There is no colony management involved!Being a survival game, you'll be expected to keep yourself nourished. Your hunger level drops pretty quickly in this game and if you're up for a quick advice - it's best to get a stove up and running asap, in addition to collecting every morsel of food that you come across. At the stove, you can craft a Big Feast which will fill up 25% of your satiety meter. Keep crafting these stuff and you'll never die of hunger even during your many expeditions away from your base.
The base-building aspect here is fairly simple and frankly, there aren't as many decor, unlike in games like Minecraft, that you can furnish your place with. Combat is very hack-and-slash too - just make sure you are facing the enemy when you hack at them. You can also opt for a bow if you like.
In short, Keplerth is truly an engrossing sandbox-survival game that successfully merged the artistic style of Rimworld with the somewhat intense (and hardcore, depending on the difficulty level you chose) gameplay of Don't Starve. There are some issues with the game still, such as having enemies randomly spawning within your base if that corner happened to be unlit, but overall, the game is definitely worth the cost and the time you'll spend playing 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!