Latest: Hytale's Developer Warned Us The Adventure Sandbox 'isn't Good...

The early access crafting adventure has a long road ahead, but it's taken a big first step.

It's pretty incredible that Hytale launched into early access today. It's a miracle it even exists at all, really: games canceled by major studios typically vanish forever. Remember Blizzard's survival game Odyssey that was canceled after nearly eight years in development? Poof. Gone, tragically leaving behind nothing more than a handful of leaked screenshots.

So it's genuinely great news that Hytale, which was cancelled last summer by Riot, beat the odds and had what sounds like a massive launch today, with preorders securing enough funds to support several more years of development. No matter what, that's a remarkable achievement for a game that was all but dead and buried just a few months ago.

And after spending some time today in Hytale today, I can already see the years of work that went into it. I can also see, as the devs warned us before launch, that it's got a long way to go. Back in November, Hypixel Studios CEO Simon Collins-Laflamme said the adventure sandbox 'isn't good yet', but it already feels pretty good to me.

As you'd probably expect from a game that looks like Minecraft and acts like Minecraft and is made by former Minecraft modders—it sure is a lot like Minecraft in Hytale. You bash blocks and smash rocks and craft gear and build a base and fight fantasy monsters like skeletons and spiders. There's a big blocky procedurally generated world to explore and deep, dark caves to spelunk. If you've ever even dipped a toe into Minecraft you'll find most of this completely familiar.

And as we were warned, it's very early access. One of the first things I encountered was a vendor who can't vend anything because he's not finished yet, and the first location I reached, a village of friendly NPCs, had a whole bunch of WIP signs where a number of unfinished features will hopefully someday stand.

But what's here and working works well. In true Minecraft fashion, I started gathering sticks and rocks and crafting tools, then had a nice surprise when I chopped a tree down and it completely collapsed into a pile of blocks instead of just hovering there in space with a chunk missing. I had a few fights with some skeletons, killed a few innocent sheep for food and hides, and then hurriedly put down some crafting benches and built myself a box to live in because I assumed at nightfall, as in Minecraft, the monsters come out.

No monsters, though, at least no

Source: PC Gamer