Review: Minecraft

The Gamer's Model Train Set

        To call Mojang's independent hit, Minecraft, ambitious is an understatement. A game that allows the player to create and build his own world is a huge concept that we've all dreamed of experiencing. Thankfully, Minecraft has come along to help bring out our creativity and fantasies to life while giving us limitless fun and content.

        The premise of Minecraft is to survive in one of the game's randomly generated worlds. Gather materials to build a shelter and craft tools to protect yourself from the monsters that come out at night. This requires the player to go out and explore the world of all that it has, without setting any objective. This allows for people to progress at their own pace and pretty much lets them do whatever they want to do. There is no quest menu or goal post, just go out and have fun. 

        
         The biggest appeal in Minecraft is the exploration. Since every world is different, there is always a reason to go out and see the sights. There is a surprising amount of variety that comes within these worlds. It offers anything from deserts to oceans and swamps to tundras. And with each area, there is something unique to find that isn't in any other region. Beneath the surface lies caves and caverns that offer even more exploration and resources to find. One could find underground lakes, and lava pools along with abandoned mines and secret dungeons. Adding to the variety is the hell-like world, The Nether, which features zombie pig people wielding golden swords and giant ghost octopuses that shoot exploding fireballs.

        

        Minecraft offers a unique and simplistic crafting system that requires the player to put resources found in the world together to create different tools that allow for easier progression. If punching down trees is taking to long, put some stones and sticks together to make an axe. Is that skeleton archer to far away to hit with a sword? Combine sticks and string together to make a bow and sticks, flint, and feathers to make arrows. Anything can be combined with something to make something new. 

       The graphics showcase the worlds of Minecraft as cubes. Everything is cube shaped which allows for a simplistic, Lego-esque building structure. The three-dimensional 8-bit style may be too bland for some, but another great thing about Minecraft is that there is a huge community revolved around the game that offers up mods and texture packs that add even more depth and style to the gameplay. Also, if someone wants to show off their accomplishments or needs some help, all they need to do is join or create a server and play with all the other fans. 

        If there is a problem with Minecraft, it would be the addition of an endgame. Boss fights and experience points don't seem to really fit in with the open-ended style. The adventure game aspect doesn't come in until later after certain items are found. The experience points seem useless until diamonds are discovered, and the boss fight seems unnecessary due to the lack of focus on combat. Considering that there are already three modes to choose from, it would make more sense if an adventure mode would come separate from the main survival mode.   

        At the end of the day, you'll have discovered that you've been playing Minecraft since noon. There may be some pointless additions added on to appease some players, but there is no reason to let that get in the way of the big picture. The limitless gameplay and universal appeal assures that people will be playing this for years or decades to come.

Final Verdict: 9.5/10