Cube World, Open-World Voxel RPG Heads Into Closed Alpha

It's rare that I've seen a closed alpha game as polished as Cube World. The game looks good, real good. A new 20-plus minute video has even surfaced showcasing gamers what's been added, what's been fixed and what the general gameplay mechanics are like.

YouTube personality Dave Chaos dropped the new footage of the closed alpha build on subscribers and YouTubers alike, giving gamers a full-on view of what it's like to start a game of Cube World and venture about a procedurally generated game world. I was very impressed with the game's diverse cast of playable classes, as well as having some minor character customization features that I think really fleshes out the game's diversity and the originality of the player avatar.

Now, despite the game using large 16-bit style voxels to generate and populate the game world – which unsurprisingly gives the game a Minecraft-esque look – Cube World is not actually a world-crafting emergent game. Yes, you still have to survive, yes there are still monsters to fight and items to craft, but no, the game is not a first-person craft-anything-anywhere kind of experience.

Cube World's utmost design is a mix of N64 era gameplay fluidity with a voxel graphic art aesthetic fused with elements from titles like The Legend of Zelda, Mario 64 and a bit of Wild Arms.

While many first-time viewers will draw obvious comparisons to Mojang's Minecraft, I think once you begin to see the way the world unfolds and the design becomes apparent, it's quite a breath of fresh air as far concepts go and it has such a airy and light atmosphere about it, making it quite inviting for both casual and hardcore gamers.

Cube World has been in the works for quite some years, but unlike Minecraft the game's goal is slightly different and required far more refinement before being released to the public. Why? Well, because it's procedurally progressive. Yeah, that's right... you actually progress and adventure and gain abilities and equipment upgrades just like other free-roaming RPGs. Don't let the graphics fool you.

The general feedback on the game is that it definitely has sleeper hit written all over it and once the multiplayer gets implemented so friends can journey, adventure and explore the world together, the game will reach all new levels of awesome.

You can learn more about Cube World by paying a visit to the game's official website. We'll keep you posted on when additional info and release dates come into the picture.