When comparing Unreal Tournament vs Minecraft, the Slant community recommends Minecraft for most people. In the question“What are the best LAN party PC games?” Minecraft is ranked 23rd while Unreal Tournament is ranked 93rd. The most important reason people chose Minecraft is:
If you prefer building, creative mode is the way to go. It immediately gives you unlimited blocks, the ability to fly, and immortality. This allows you to easily build anything you want without worrying about height or enemies. Things like giant castles, villages, roller coasters, and even unique builds such as the Enterprise from Star Trek. You can really let your creativity loose.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great chance to get involved in the development
This game is in such early development and has so many tutorials for helping people get involved in development that if you're able to create a good map (or mod), there are still few enough mappers/developers around to where if you can get that map noticed, it might end up sticking around for the rest of the game's life as a main staple. Your map has the potential to live forever.
Pro Great movement
You can run, sprint, jump, dodge, slide, wall run, wall dodge, lift jump, and lift dodge. That's a lot of movements for you to utilize. And once you master them, it feels like you're surfing around the map, just flowing.
Pro Lots of pro players to learn from at this early phase of the game's development
Because it's still early in this game's development (UT4), a lot of the players you'll run into are top players from previous UT's (UT99, UT2K3, UT3) and have been at the game for over 15 years. This means that yes, while you'll likely get dominated when you run into these veterans, it's also a great opportunity to better your own play. There aren't a lot of gaming communities out there where you can just jump in and immediately start playing with and learning from the best players in the world.
Pro Completely free, open, and mod-able
Pro The cleanest graphic representation of projectile/area of effect/hitbox
You will know just from a glance how big of an area each weapon will EXACTLY affect, how long it takes for a timed grenade to explode, how big each projectile is and so on. Graphics are made for competitive accuracy but it didn't sacrifice the amazing visuals and cool (but subtle) particle effects.
Pro Strong community
Members of the community are beyond supportive, and they generate some amazing content. Gametypes, Maps, Custom Weapon Sets, etc. there are also semi-frequent ESL cups that anyone can join.
Pro You get to have your say in the game's development and future
The game is not yet in Beta. It's not yet even in Alpha - it's currently in the "Pre-Alpha" phase. You have the chance to interact with both Epic and community developers to make a difference.
Pro Great creativity tool
If you prefer building, creative mode is the way to go. It immediately gives you unlimited blocks, the ability to fly, and immortality. This allows you to easily build anything you want without worrying about height or enemies. Things like giant castles, villages, roller coasters, and even unique builds such as the Enterprise from Star Trek. You can really let your creativity loose.
Pro Randomly generated worlds and distinct locations keep the gameplay fresh
Each new world is randomly generated, making for a different experience every time. There can be plains, rivers, beaches, ravines, giant mountains, hidden villages, and a lot more.
There are also 38 biomes, which includes snow, desert, forest, swamp among others. Each one has its own set of unique blocks, plant life, and creatures.
You won't get tired of exploring above ground or underground because every location will seem new and exciting.
Pro Amazing extended community
The community surrounding this game is huge due to its popularity. There are lots of servers and projects revolving around it that allow for so many different choices in how one wants to play and who they want to play with. From crafting guides/videos, themed servers and YouTube play sessions, there is enough out there to help one find what they are looking for.
Pro Local multiplayer option for when there is no internet
Minecraft can be played by 4 players locally via splitscreen. This makes it a great way spend time with your friends and family when you don't have access to the internet.
Cons
Con This game is abandoned and will never be finished.
It's been over 2 years since Epic Games did any work on Unreal Tournament, and the last communications they have had with the community is a few throaway comments on a stream or a Discord chat server. The game is dead and older Unreal Tournament games are more polished & populated, go play those instead.
Con Difficult to know how big the game will ever get
The Unreal Tournament franchise has been around for over 15 years and used to reign supreme above all the other FPS's. Today however, it's much harder to predict how well it'll do compared to other top FPS games. That combined with the fact that it's a very difficult game to learn, you might end up honing your UT skills for nothing at the end of the day.
Con Constantly changing game mechanics and balancing
Because the game is still in "Pre-Alpha," the game has the potential to change in both major and minor ways from build to build. The majority of your gained experience will transfer from build to build, however it can be a bit of an annoyance having to relearn balances over and over again.
Con Playerbase is a little small these days
Con Unbalanced weapons
As of writing this (8/19/2016) the flak canon is over powered, but it's not a big deal because they change the weapon balance with each new build (about once a month).
Con There's a huge skill gap
Many of the players currently involved in the community at the moment have been playing Unreal Tournament for over 15 years. If you're new to the UT franchise or arena shooters in general, there's a chance every time you boot up the game that you'll run into and get trucked by those vets.
Con Steep and time-consuming learning curve
Learning what items are needed to craft takes quite a bit of knowledge and time. There are guides and videos online that can help with this, but not much in-game that helps the player know exactly how and what to craft.
Con Lack of meaningful story mode
There is no story mode in Minecraft: there is only a create mode or a survival mode. Neither, however, supply any kind of story or background as regard what is going on in the game.
Con Still involves killing other things
In order to progress through the game and craft items, players will need to kill other things such as skeletons, zombies and monsters which may not be seen as child-friendly or can result in frightening situations.