After years of delays and setbacks, Hytale, a blocky, Minecraft-inspired video game, has finally released to the public as an early access title. Plugged In rarely reviews unfinished, early access material, but due to the massive, widespread interest in this game, we thought we’d give you some feedback—and then review the full game when it releases.
Hytale was designed to be the next step beyond Minecraft’s exploring and building experiences. To that end, this new game will offer three modes of play: Exploration Mode, focused on open-ended exploring, building and surviving in randomly generated worlds; Creative Mode, focused on designing, building and editing your own worlds, block-by-block; and Adventure Mode, focused on a story-driven RPG experience.
I say that this new game will offer all those modes of play because, at this juncture, Hytale’s promised campaign-driven adventuring side is not yet available. So, instead of a distinct Minecraft 2.0 experience, early players get something closer to Minecraft 1.2.
Gamers familiar with Minecraft will immediately feel at home in this Hypixel Studios creation. As you thump down in the block-based, colorful landscape of Hytale, you’ll quickly note that the graphics are more detailed, the lighting appears enhanced and the animations feel more fluid than the Minecraft original that it’s mimicking. (Some have described this new game as a “glow-up” of the older title.) And that makes sense since Hytale was reportedly developed by former Minecraft modders.
Gameplay in Hytale’s Exploration Mode is also very familiar. You start by collecting basic resources by hand (plant fiber, wood, fruit, stone) and then crafting simple tools to chop down trees and smash boulders. And as the tools and gathered resources advance in quality, the crafting recipes can become more complicated and advanced as well.
Oh, and the Hytale world is very physics based. For instance, if you chop at a tree trunk and take out a chunk, the whole tree of resources tumbles down and becomes yours for the taking. This quick-and-easy influx of materials helps streamline the building process.
Crafting is another area where Hytale has improved things. Creating basic items in the game’s inventory tab is very intuitive. And then building and upgrading various workbenches (for items such as furniture and farming tools) opens a plethora of easy-to-access possibilities. Before you know it, you’re building a house of your own or forging a stone sword to take into battle against zombies.
That leads us to the second aspect of Exploration Mode: Survival. You need to keep your avatar—which you can design down to the style of blocky bodied underwear you prefer—alive and healthy. There are zombies, huge spiders, weapon-bearing orcs and other sharp-toothed beasties to be wary of. If they hit you, your health points quickly decrease to the point of death. Early solutions are to run away as fast as you can and eat some gathered fruit to restore your health. After that, weapons and armor become a priority.
It should be noted that there are also a larger number of enemies in Hytale than you might expect.That can be a negative for younger gamers just trying to get their footing. But it can also be a positive, because Hytale institutes a Memory system that doles out rewards for the varied encounters you have. Each new critter or creature can, for instance, open access to valuable crafting recipes. So, you’ll soon be searching far and wide for every new growling beastie you can find.
Can you play Hytale with friends? Yes. Hytale features some fairly robust multiplayer options. Players can connect with random players online or send share codes to friends and invite them to their own individual worlds.
Once downloaded and logged on, players can play Hytale offline, if they choose. In the near future, Hypixel will offer gamers some online, Hypixel-run minigames (such as build battles, paintball contests and PvP battles) that they can play with others.
Currently the game is only available as a purchase through the official Hytale website.
As it stands, Hytale plays much like a slightly boosted version of Minecraft. It feels a bit more dynamic and offers a larger variety of abandoned buildings, monster-filled towers, mines and other landscapes to explore than the older game.
If Hypixel Studios follows through on all its promises, the finished game will also offer RPG adventures, in-game scripting, in-game cinematic tools and other gaming features that will offer players a variety of ways to creatively plug in.
It should be reiterated, however, that Hytale is only available as an early access game at this point. And though the game’s website promises to make some “Smart Parental Controls” available in the future, there are no such controls now.
As mentioned above, there are quite a few dangerous creatures and wild animals to contend with in this game. The total number of in-game creatures is said to currently be 130. But the more dangerous variety includes raptors, yeti, zombies, skeletons, orcs, a Cave-Rex and some attacking animals (such as bears, snakes, sharks and piranha). Some of those attackers can gather together in one location—like a tower full of zombies—that swarm the gamers. (Though there’s no bloody mess.)
There’s also a temple-based mystic portal that can be discovered with a bit of searching. This device sends players to a “Forgotten Temple” in another dimension where they’ll find a statue called the “Heart of Orbis.” There’s no explained spirituality in the mix, but interacting with the statue unlocks the game’s Memory feature. This allows you to record creatures, flora and entities encountered in the world to gain rewards. Players can later learn to create similar transportation portals of their own.
Parents should also note that inviting friends to join a young player’s individual world comes with a concerning early access wrinkle. Currently to invite friends to a game, you provide them with a “share code” that includes your IP address. That could become an accidental security risk if the wrong person receives it.
Fans of Minecraft will either find the new early access Hytale to be totally unnecessary or a nicely tweaked upgrade. But the two games aren’t all that different at this point.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
