Five great games like Minecraft

Minecraft may be the most popular game to have ever come from the voxel-based genre that it invented, but it is far from the only game out there offering block-building fun. Whether you’ve grown tired of running red stone throughout your house for lighting or you’ve decided you’ll never be as creative as the people who replicated Game of Thrones on their Minecraft server, there are plenty of options available to you if you’re looking for a change of pace.

We took a look at some of the lesser known but still incredibly fun games like Minecraft, and broke it down for you to check out for yourself.

Synthetic World

The open world feel to Minecraft is part of what makes it so much fun to play. Knowing that you could wander for days and create an entire world if you had the time is what keeps skilled creators playing day after day. Voxel games like Synthetic Worldby StaudSoft, which add an whole new layer of realism to this style of game was bound to happen eventually.

Synthetic World is an open environment game with build rules that are vaguely similar to Minecraft. You have a base inventory on the bottom of the screen, and you use that in constructing objects all around you. Just like Minecraft, you can cut down trees and change the landscape to suit your needs. Where the big difference comes in for first time players will be the look of the game itself. Unlike the blocky Minecraft, Synthetic World has rather realistic textures and landscapes. On top of this, the shadows and lighting are all incredibly realistic compared to the more popular Minecraft.

You can find Synthetic World on IndieDB on for Windows and Linux, as well as a forum for users to submit bug reports and feature requests. Synthetic World is described by the creator as a0.1 release currently, but the game is already very interesting and visually appealing.

FortressCraft

FortressCraft may look a lot like Minecraft, but it’s only available on the Xbox 360, and supports multiplayer via Xbox Live. It ditches the 8-bit pixelated textures for smooth surfaces, and while the objects, blocks, and buildings still have that familiar blocky appeal, they’re more detailed when you’re close to them.

FortressCraft was built by ProjectorGames, and has many of the same elements that Minecraft does: you can build anything, harvest resources from a huge, open world, set up a home for yourself, deck it out in items that you’ve created or objects you’ve encountered, and of course, battle enemies bent on taking your resources.

FortressCraft is available for 80 Microsoft Points, or the equivalent of $1. Though MineCraft is now available on the Xbox 360, FortressCraft provides a cheaper alternative.