Creativerse

It's hard to remember, but the popularity of the survival genre on PC is actually fairly recent. While it's virtually impossible to scroll through a page of games on Steam without finding one now, there was a time when these games were quite rare. While Minecraft is probably still the gold standard in terms of success, it's important to look at its competition. Creativerse is a game that definitely asks for a comparison to Minecraft, though it certainly has its own devotees. Whether it's worth traveling off the beaten path to play this game, though, is something that merits at least a bit of discussion.

If you've played any other sandbox survival game, you've played Creativerse. It follows the typical loop of gather materials, craft items, and use those items to gather better materials. The big difference in this game is the tool usage - players have a glove that functions as the primary gathering tool, cutting out at least one of the usual game-play loops. Everything is instead about crafting progressively powerful power cells, which function in a manner similar to the usual high-end material tools. It's a small change to the formula, but one that's definitely enough to differentiate the game from Minecraft.

Perhaps the best part about this game is that it doesn't try overly hard to innovate on a proven formula. There are absolutely things that separate this game from the leaders in the field, but none of them are so far off the beaten path that they are going to confuse new players. In many ways, this game takes the survival sandbox and simplifies it. Not only is tool usage down to a single glove, but all of the recipes are essentially given to you and you'll never have to consult a wiki to keep moving forward in the game.

On the downside, there's definitely an argument to say that simplicity doesn't serve the game as well as one would hope. There's a real sense that one could have a better time playing a different survival game than this stripped-down entry. There's also the fact that this is a free-to-play game, which means that microtransactions will continually show up. This might not be an issue for those with deep pockets or with strong wills, but this can be a real problem for people who want to pay once for the game and never worry about it again. Creativerse wants your money, and you are not going to forget that fact.

So, is this a good game? It's certainly up there in terms of quality for the genre. It's never going to be king of the hill, but one gets the impression that the game isn't gunning for the throne. Instead, this is a strong entry in a field that has precipitously dropped in quality over the last few years. If you are looking for a new sandbox survival game and you don't mind the presence of free to play mechanics, you'll definitely want ot give this one a try.