Currently playing a new Alpha release game called Life is Feudal. It's a survival sandbox type game similar to Minecraft or Rust, but it's in a medieval backdrop with no magic or anything, more realistic. Weapons include bows, swords, polearms, unarmed, spears, etc. You can terraform the land, mine, experiment with herb combinations ala Elder Scrolls. You can build all kinds of walls for a settlement, as well as all kinds of houses, city buildings, keeps, etc.
It's rather hard to achieve anything in the game by yourself, unlike some other survival type MMOs. It takes a large amount of resources to make some of the larger structures, so teamwork is very helpful. In some respects the game is much more slow paced as well. When you terraform the ground, you don't remove a whole square block of dirt at a time ala Minecraft, you only remove a few inches off the top instead. You can only carry so much on you at a time too, so after digging up so much dirt or other materials you have to find a location to dump it off.
It's been a pretty fun game so far. I tried running solo for awhile, but it really was difficult to get anything done. I joined a server with some old gaming buddies though, and we've got a nice little settlement going. There's a faction of "bandit" players on our server that have tried attacking us a few times, but lately we've gotten good enough that we've been able to turn them away. Adds an element of excitement and strategy, keeps you on edge waiting for an attack to occur, and it forces you to find ways to hide your goods.
The game is very much driven by player created items, there are no pre-existing towns or NPCs to buy anything off of. You start with nothing essentially and create everything you own. Characters are given a pool of skill points to use however they wish, but most servers give each player a fixed number of skill points, so it forces you to specialize in just a few areas to help your settlement: blacksmithing, bowcraft, mining, leatherworking, herbalism, healing, hunting, farming, masonry, carpentry, construction, siege engines (coming soon), horse breeder (coming soon), etc. It gives each player a designated role in the town with responsibilities and ways to contribute.
Some screenshots:
