I have a deep fondness for sandbox games. In particular, I love sandbox games that let you do anything you want, with just enough structure and guidance to encourage experimentation, expression, and creativity. I also love voxel games with unique art styles, especially the ones that lean into fantasy. If you haven't guessed by now, Minecraft is my favorite video game of all time. So when I heard that Hypixel Studios, owners of the most popular online multiplayer server in Minecraft's history, were creating a spiritual successor to Minecraft from the ground up, I was beyond excited. Seven years after it's announcement, we finally have full (early) access to Hytale, and let me tell you: the wait was worth it.
Now you might be thinking, "almost a decade to put a game into early access? That's crazy talk!" You're correct, that is indeed crazy talk – in truth, the development cycle was even longer. The game began development in 2015 as the debut title from Hypixel Studios, an indie outfit looking to make the jump from hugely popular MMO-style servers and carefully crafted minigames, all within Minecraft, to fully fledged game dev. Hypixel announced Hytale on December 13, 2018 to an extremely positive reception, especially amongst Minecraft fans looking for something new but familiar.
This sudden popularity caught the attention of Riot Games, the studio behind juggernauts like League of Legends, DOTA 2, and Valorant. Riot was so impressed with Hypixel's progress and vision that they purchased the studio in 2020 and pledged to shepherd Hytale into a full release soon after. However, the acquisition led to a slew of development issues: creative differences, deadlines, and a ground-up engine rework proved to be too much for the project, and it languished in "development hell" for the better part of five years. After much uncertainty, Riot announced it was closing the studio in June 2025. After years of hype turned anxiety turned disappointment, it looked like Hytale was never going to release after all. But right when all hope seemed lost, in November 2025 Simon Collins-Laflamme, the founder of Hypixel, announced he would be purchasing the rights to the company, and game, back from Riot and wished to get Hytale into player's hands immediately. Finally, the game entered early access January 13, 2026, just over seven years after its announcement. It was undoubtedly a long and hard road to get here, but as we all know, good things come to those who wait.
I want to start by acknowledging that Hytale's parallels to Minecraft are undeniable, making comparison almost a necessity. The voxel world, biomes, progression, structures, buildings, mechanics, creatures, and in-game systems are all directly inspired by the Mojang title. Minecraft is an almost two-decade year-old game defined by piecemeal updates, years of community support, and a massive fan subculture. Hytale has the advantage of feeling like an immediate evolution right out the gate – no need for the years of preamble Minecraft had to endure. Everything in the game, from building, to combat, exploration, progression, movement (who know a block game would benefit so much from a mantling mechanic?), feels like a natural continuation of the Minecraft experience. I would go as far as to say if a "Minecraft 2" were to release tomorrow, it would likely be very similar to Hytale. All this to say that if you're a Minecraft fan, you will, without a doubt, be a Hytale fan.
In its early access state, Hytale currently offers two game modes: Exploration Mode, a survival-based discovery mode focused on resource gathering, adventure, building, and combat, and Creative Mode, a god-mode sandbox experience with infinite resources, flying, and world-editing tools like terrain paintbrushes and the ability to copy and paste your builds. A third game mode called Adventure Mode is in development, with the experience being more akin to an action-RPG, centered around gear progression, dungeon conquering, and an interactive story. Though Creative Mode (and building in general) is robust and generally very user-friendly, I've spent the majority of my time in Exploration Mode, exploring and adventuring within the blocky in-game world.
Hytale's world, which is called Orbis, is divided into four main procedurally generated Zones with more being contemplated for future updates. Each of the four Zones are unique, offering different biomes to explore, pre-fabricated structures to conquer, and creatures to fight, trade, or interact with. Zone 1 is where you first spawn upon creating a new world. It features lush forests, tranquil streams, and rolling hills, perfect for your first base. It is also full of friendly critters like the docile, tree-dwelling Kweebecs, and low-level enemies meant to serve as a sort of introduction to building, combat, and equipment advancement. Naturally, Zones 2-4 are a sort of progression of terrain and enemy types, going from desert themed biomes to arctic landscapes, finally leading up to volcanic islands. Environments get more difficult to traverse, enemies are more hostile, and the rewards for tackling higher Zones get better and better. There's more than enough depth in progression and exploration here to keep you entertained from Zone to Zone.
As you can probably tell by now, Hytale takes Minecraft's core DNA and splices it with RPG-like systems and atmosphere, namely through its progression systems and combat. When you enter a new zone, you discover new ores and materials, leading to better weapons and upgraded crafting stations. New gear opens the door to new challenges, allowing you to take on more difficult enemies and collect rarer loot from their defeat. Deadly creatures come out at night, but if you're looking for a fight during the day, you can head to a nearby dungeon or fortress to fight some structure-specific enemies. Note that I said nearby – though it's nice to have plenty of pre-fabricated structures to explore, I think their generation rate is currently a tad over-tuned. Sometimes it's hard to find a blank stretch of land for building without being within arms reach of an infested tower or ancient ruin.
Aside from more challenging fights, progression also opens up more advanced in-game systems. Systems like farming and husbandry, arcane magic (think teleporters and artifacts), potion brewing, and more are all possible through natural progression through Orbis and the four Zones. Progression can sometimes be vague, requiring external research in forums and wikis. Though, it's somewhat part of the fun, as figuring out what certain items do is rewarding since experimentation is encouraged.
While combat in Hytale certainly resembles Minecraft in many ways, I would say it actually more closely resembles Skyrim. Like the RPG, melee fights are a series of slashes, blocks, and parries with a wide variety of weapons, from daggers to warhammers to battleaxes. Archery and magic are reminiscent of Skyrim in that they're sort of simple and clunky. All weapons have special attacks though, which is new to genre.Though Hytale's combat can feel a bit stiff overall (especially since enemies don't currently use any strategy besides running straight at you), it's hard not to enjoy cutting through groups of enemies with whatever new weapon you just crafted or discovered.
Hytale runs like a charm. My RTX 4060 GPU never dropped a single frame throughout my 10 or so hours of playtime. Loading times are also fast, taking around eight or nine seconds to load into a given world, no matter where you spawn. I also didn't encounter any major bugs besides one where my world save got corrupted and had to be deleted. That sounds bad, but luckily, the game auto-saves your world frequently and creates backups, so recovering my lost world was easy.
As of the time of writing, Hytale has had three major updates since early access launch on January 13. Each update adds various new features, such as weapons, game systems, and environments, as well as quality of life updates, implemented community feedback, and bug fixes. It's so clear that Hypixel truly want this game to succeed and are willing to support the game using any means necessary.
So far, the burgeoning Hytale community appears to be in love with what's available, myself included. If developer support and player sentiment continue to harmonize the way they have been throughout Hytale's early access period, I'm confident that this game will succeed. For casual or avid fans of sandbox games, or those who wish to experience the feel of early Minecraft but with a newer, modern coat of paint, I can't recommend Hytale enough.
Hytale is available on PC in early access now.
