iLands is a no-cost game for iPhone and iPad that is available for iOS 4.3 or later. However, iLands Premium is available as an in-app purchase for (US $3.99.) If you're not looking to drop $6.99 for Minecraft - Pocket Edition, then this is the game for you. You start with a new block world which you can build upon and customize how you want to.
The graphics are decent in comparison to Minecraft the Pocket Edition, but they could be much better. The D-pad is located on the left side and allows strafing, forward and backwards. Sometimes the D-pad may be a bit difficult to use. The sensitivity requires a bit of getting used to at first, but it's bearable for the most part. The control on the right side is solely for jumping up and has worked quite well. When navigating the terrain, the experience was a little jerky when hopping over obstacles. Sometimes, the touch targets would not respond unless I tapped them a few times. It would take more than two taps to break up dirt, grass, or blocks with the X button. While I was building and exploring my Solo world it crashed frequently.
You're provided with the building materials that include grass, sand, bricks, and sand. The steel skeleton blocks are unique to iLands since I've never seen anything similar to them in Minecraft - Pocket Edition. The steel skeleton blocks are awesome because you can construct solid structures and have a view and daylight unlike building with solid blocks. I really enjoyed building with the cobblestone to build roads and houses. The materials with locks can be unlocked by purchasing the full version. In this review, I only played the trial version.
If you're looking to play the survival mode, which is similar to Minecraft - Pocket Edition, you will not find it in the free version of iLands. I don't know if survival is available in the premium version. Minecraftservers I tend to play in creative mode all the time in Minecraft - Pocket Edition anyway, so I didn't find it a problem in iLands.
Overall, iLands is worth the free download if you enjoy building with blocks in a virtual environment like I do. I'd love to know what the paid version of the game lets the user to do, aside from unlocking building materials. I loved building buildings and whatever else my imagination was able to imagine.
ILands is a good alternative for Sandbox games.
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