When comparing Minecraft vs Salt and Sanctuary, the Slant community recommends Minecraft for most people. In the question“What are the best low-spec PC games?” Minecraft is ranked 36th while Salt and Sanctuary is ranked 79th. 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 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.
Pro Immersive storytelling through exploration
Salt and Sanctuary doesn't tell you much in terms of story, so it's up to you to explore and figure it out. You can do it by talking to NPCs, reading item descriptions, and observing the environment. You'll piece the story together bit by bit, filling in the gaps with your imagination. This makes it feel like you're truly exploring the world of Salt and Sanctuary, finding out what interests you, without having exposition constantly thrown at you.
Pro Deep combat
While the combat may seem simple at first, it's actually quite diverse. A lot of it depends on your equipment, where the weight and reach affects how you can play.
For example, heavy armor will make you slower, but you'll be able to take more hits. This enables a safer playstyle, where you're allowed to make more mistakes. Large weapons have a better reach, but swing slower, so you'll need to have good timing to combat enemies effectively.
During combat, you'll be alternating between a light attack and a hard attack. These can charged to alter the timing and increase the damage of each swing, allowing you to perform very varied combos.
As a result the combat stays exciting for the entirety of the game.
Pro You can make a character that fits your playstyle
Your character has a large skill tree with many branching paths. It contains most abilities you see in a fantasy game, including spells, martial arts moves, and many others. This means you can make a fast mage, a bulky fighter, a mix of the two, or whatever fits your playstyle, making it a more enjoyable experience as a whole.
Pro Creed mechanic keeps subsequent playthroughs interesting
There is a feature in the game called "creeds" that allows you to ally with a faction of NPCs. You can only ally one creed at a time, giving you access to their unique perks, items, quest givers, and access to fast travel points. All of this offers just enough variety to keep subsequent playthroughs interesting.
Cons
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.
Con Difficult to know where you are
There is no map in the game, making navigation quite difficult at times. Most of the locations look very similar, so you can't really use them for orientation either. Sometimes it might even feel like you're running through the same area multiple times. This can be especially confusing if you're backtracking towards a locked area. You might faintly remember it being somewhere, but you won't be exactly sure where, causing you to re-explore everything.
Con May be too niche
The setting of the game is quite morbid and the gameplay is rather difficult. This causes it to be mentally draining even during short play sessions. As a result Salt and Sanctuary won't be very appealing to players looking to relax while playing a game.