Hytale
From Minecraft adventure map, server and modpack to full-fledged game.
Hytale
it’s finally here! We’ve only waited for about a decade, no biggie.
Introduction
Starting out as Hypixel, a Minecraft server that hosted custom minigames on handmade custom maps, which gained a lot of popularity and - after a lot of hoops and hurdles that the devs themselves explain here infinitely better than I ever could - became Hytale, a Minecraft-inspired game I already love to bits.
Just like Minecraft, the world exists of blocks that you can individually mine, reshape, use to craft objects and build structures. It’s open-world, it’s survival, there are monsters, you have to eat to regain health, you can sleep to pass the day - you know the concept.
But so much more than Minecraft, Hytale focuses on rpg elements, sending you on an epic adventure with gorgeous structures to discover, loot treasure from and optionally completely disassemble to use the blocks in your own creations.
There will be mild spoilers in this review, obviously.
Storyline
At this point, Hytale is early access, which of course means that the game is far from finished and the story far from told.
From what I gather, it won’t be a railroad-y kind of linear RPG storyline where you set out to save the world, but instead will give you the freedom to explore the world and its history and lore through ruins, dungeons, caves, etc. at your own pace and with your own priority. Run into a monster you can’t slay? Go elsewhere, gear up, try again later. A lot of freedom, but also a lot more stimulation than a Minecraft world that feels kind of empty in comparison.
At this point, there are some structures in the world that look gorgeous from the outside and then, somewhat disappointingly, open up to show a WIP sign. Which I actually think is great practice! It has me super invested in what will come, all while showing us immersively what they have build so far in terms of structures and environment. I also hope they make the WIP sign a collectible / craftable item later on, as a throwback to the early access players. I would love to have this in the museum of collectibles I inevitably build in all games of this type.
Gameplay
If you’ve played Minecraft, you more or less know how to play Hytale.
The world is built from blocks, meaning everything from the terrain, the buildings, the trees, the caves, etc. is made of blocks that you can destroy, mine, manipulate and place, to build and rebuild the world as you see fit. This, of course, opens a LOT of possibilities, endless combinations of things you can create. Your imagination is your main limit.
Mechanics-wise, it behaves more or less the same as Minecraft, with a few differences. There are still specific tools for specific things (pickaxe for blocks, axe for trees, weapons for combat, hoe for gardening, etc.) but a notable absentee from this game is… the shovel. Whereas in Minecraft, all “soft materials” like dirt, sand and gravel would have to be mined with a shovel over a pickaxe, Hytale leaves out that tool altogether and has you pick all the blocks with a pickaxe. Which is… a little weird, honestly. I keep pressing 4 to select my shovel out of habit and end up shooting arrows into blocks of sand. It’s a bit of a learning curve, but I’m sure I’ll manage.
I am looking forward to discover more of the Hytale story, which I honestly cannot say much about at this point because there simply isn’t that much to tell yet (at the time of writing this, I’ve been playing it off and on for three days, most of the time spent restarting my save after learning new things, as I usually do).
I can say that, what is there so far, has been really cool. Hytale has a memories mechanic, which is a clever way of keeping a log of all the creatures (cute forest dwellers and hideous monsters alike) that you come across, which you then have to “deliver” to the Forgotten Temple.At certain amounts of memories delivered, you unlock more things to craft and build, giving you a proper incentive to explore and discover more things in the world.
It takes on a few of the elements I’ve seen in other games that I would have loved to see in Minecraft - like the forever seeds, NPC interactions, lore dives - and to be honest, I think that is just the summary of this game. It hits home the things that we would want in Minecraft but just aren’t in the scope of that game. Which is fine, Minecraft focuses on a more accessible, open experience that allows a lot of mod makers to do their thing, which only works exactly because Minecraft doesn’t force any lore, whereas games like Vintage Story and now Hytale fill that void we feel of wanting a bunch of mods to be their own game. I’m still impatiently waiting for someone to turn the Thaumcraft and Millénaire mods into full games, but that’s a post for another time.
Atmosphere
I have already mentioned the beautiful structures in Hytale, and I just have to reiterate that everything in this world is just so gorgeous!
There are structures, currently unfinished, that I can’t wait to further explore, the design just so beautiful and the eye for detail so very obvious.
I love the entire earthen, natural style imbued with magic that they went with, and even though I initially went for a pirate/steampunk girl avatar, I couldn’t help but change to a moss goblin of sorts just to fit into the moss cave I’d accidentally been building with the pretty blocks I found.
Which brings me to…
Character creation
I am happy to report that Hytale went a completely different route from Minecraft in this regard.
Minecraft works with one skin you can edit outside of the game and import. Granted, character creation in Minecraft has come a long way since the first, barebones type of hacky edits, and is now more accommodating in terms of saving skins to your account and allowing some more 3D space for them.
Hytale does none of that, and instead has a proper character creator.
it’s not bound to a save, so you can access your avatar from your main menu and edit to to your heart’s content any time you like.
There are a LOT of options, some of which locked behind higher tiers of support packages and, undoubtedly, paid DLC in the future. That, however, doesn’t prevent the customisation stuff included in the base tier from giving you an incredible amount of options to choose from.
There is some work to be done, in terms of optimising the brightness on some clothing sets, matching the colours on separate pieces so that they match with their counterparts for other body parts, and an option to save your outfits (for those of us who want to change it up every once in a while or play a different character on different servers).
Tutorial
At this point, it’s very “discover it yourself” but I’m confident they’ll add a good onboarding tutorial when everything is finished up in 1.0.
Modding
As expected, being a game that essentially originated as a Minecraft mod, Hytale is built with modding in mind. And as equally expected with a game like this, the modding community is already up and running, even in early access.
I’m not playing with mods myself yet, for two reasons:
I want to experience the game vanilla first; but also
I don’t want to get too into modding and start making mods myself, haha!
For the sake of this review, though, I went over to CurseForge and had a look at what’s there, and I can honestly say I’m impressed!
The typical quality of life mods (that I hope will be obsolete soon enough, as these things should really be base game), like being able to delete items, better sorting options, higher tier chests etc.
I was surprised to NOT find a “rename chest” mod yet, which is something I really miss in any game like this. How is a goblin supposed to hoard stuff and neatly sort it in chests that have no labels?! Throw a girl a bone, please.
TL;DR
Hytale is a Minecraft-inspired, block-based sandbox RPG that keeps the familiar survival and building loop but adds a much stronger RPG system encouraging exploration, with a deeper lore, more interactive NPCs, and a gorgeous visual style. You’re free to play at your own pace, uncovering the world’s story through ruins and discovery rather than a linear questline. Even in early access, it’s gorgeous, lovely and a great game.
“It hits home the things that we would want in Minecraft but just aren’t in the scope of that game.”
TL;DR Hytale feels like a more adventurous, story-driven evolution of the block-building genre, without losing the creative freedom that we know and love.
