I've never played Minecraft but when I saw the game, it really reminded me of the Clonk series. Just instead of 2D and a lot of material (sand, gold, clay etc) being circles, it's 3D and it's blocks. There is sandbox, AI controlled monsters and objects can easily be added by players to the game. Same with maps, of course. The series is a German one and started in 1994, though, I myself only played Clonk Planet (1999) and Clonk Endeavour (2004) with at least one friend, mostly on the same keyboard but also at times via LAN IIRC (don't think we ever tried via the internet).
To build things, you generally need material, so you go out and gather it...chopping trees, taking explosives to the iron vein etc. Of course, the trees need to be made into wood first, so you need a sawmill. Some buildings need energy (like a pump), so you need a windmill and connect both buildings. Different weather exists as well: rain, lightning, snow and volcanic eruptions can take place. In the case of snow, lakes and seas freeze over, making you able to traverse those while previously, even while your clonks are able to swim, they can easily be nibled on by sharks and die. And not to mention, one can't jump off the water but it's possible with ice. Material like clay and metal make you able to build makeshift bridges or weird platforms which you can use to get somewhere. What's interesting is that the game was also in a way realistic that more clonks were stronger than a single clonk. Can't get the stupid tree over the bump or the mine cart is stuck? Ask your friend, or alternatively, use all your own clonks at the same time (possible but it's easier for something to go wrong). The base game has different scenarios with different goals, like collecting money, mine all of X, killing all monsters, defeating another player etc. Apart from the standard scenario, there was the medieval one which was pretty big. It made you be able to build proper castles, get appropriate weapons etc etc. Player-made stuff was really, really good too. Like there was a Stargate pack with functioning Stargates and AI controlled opponents IIRC. The Stippel pack was extremely great too. Stippel are some organic mass (kinda like Zerg) where their "base" grows over time. At first, they only produce small Stippels which slide over the ground and show teeth and jump at you if you get too close (with a great sound). The next step of evolution are...spider things which are faster and hit really, really hard with their legs. The last step are flying insects which makes it really difficult to get away from, however, it fails great shooting them with a machine gun. Honestly, the player packs were great and, in my opinion, the Clonk series were the best games you could play together on the same PC. It's a shame it eventually fizzled out. I think part has something to due with them being ahead of their time. My friend bought the game online back in 2000 which was probably iffy and I don't think too many people had the means to do so (no clue if the games got physical releases, I never saw any at least). So them being shareware made it more difficult. I also don't think pack compatibility was really a thing between different games. So if you spent a lot of time doing something for Clonk Planet, it was incompatible with Clonk Endeavour and I'm pretty sure that bugged a lot of people.
Meh, so difficult to find good screenshots, especially of the two versions I played. Can't even find a good Stippel one. But yeah, packs could get crazy. Look at Clonk Rage (2007):
