This time round I'm reviewing the ridiculously popular (given its still in beta) Minecraft. Last time i reviewed Batman: Arkham City which was an easy choice, an excellent game that i had been playing for days before writing the review. It wasn't such a clear choice for this review though, currently i have a stack of games in my room that are begging to be played and i struggled to single one out to play and review but thanks to today my mind was made up for me.
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| It's not much at the moment, but it's my home. |
After seeing the landmark post from Markus "Notch" Persson on Twitter last night telling everyone that the 4 Millionth download of Minecraft had been completed, i felt the sudden urge to start playing it again. Like most adopters of the Lego-like game, at first i was confused about what to do and it seemed as if there was nothing to do, just roam around and arbitrarily collect minerals and create items to get more minerals. Of course at a basic level that is all you do but therein lies the greatness of this game. Minecraft does to video games what Lego done to plastic toys decades before, it gives you the basic materials to build something and then lets you do whatever you want with it.
Minecraft can be very dull if you are coming into it thinking it's going to be this amazing game that can rival the most popular game franchises and I'm sorry to say this is what i thought of it at first. I initially thought that it was nothing more than a boring blocky game that had nothing to it, luckily i soon saw the light. After a few hours frustratingly wandering around looking for my first coal vain i decided to just start digging into a nearby hill in the hope i would find something. It was then that i started imaging how i could open up the small space i had made into a large room, possibly with windows and doors (at this point i was unaware that you could actually make doors and glass for windows) and that is Minecrafts greatest strength, the players imagination. Thanks to the seemingly limitless scope of Minecraft you can use your imagination to build ANYTHING you want. My first run around in the world had me making a small room in the side of a mountain, my second had me building an evil lair in a skull shape and now that I'm getting back into it again I've decided to build a lake-side modern cabin with the hopes of building a fully working tower with elevators and penthouse suite.
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| Like Lego, but more WIN |
But using you're imagination is only half the fun of Minecraft. Although i still think that the players imagination is the biggest factor in making the game work, there is also the sense of adventure and wonder you get as you travel around the randomly generated world. In order to craft whatever you want you first have to mine the right resources (see what i did there?) and this requires finding blocks of ore that you can mine that can then be smelted into usable materials such as iron. I know it doesn't sound like much but unless you are prepared you could easily be ambushed by one of the games monsters which, despite them being made of blocks, can be a harrowing experience.
Of course, these monsters don't come out until night time so as long as you have a safe place built by nightfall you should be safe. On long journeys, however, when you are in search of more coal or iron you can easily be caught out by the setting sun and then face a deadly run back to you're house/safe area. This has happened to me on occasion and somehow it has quickly become one of the most stressful experiences i have had in a game. Having to get back to my semi-built house as fast as i can, trying to remember how to get back (there are no maps for guidance unless you make one yourself) and having to be ever watchful for mobs (Minecraft's monsters) hiding behind the next tree is both exciting and terrifying.
To start with i was sceptical of Minecraft, as are most people still, but I'm glad i gave it a chance. Although it doesn't seem like a very complicated game and it certainly isn't going to be winning awards for best graphics anytime soon, Minecraft is as amazing as your imagination makes it, you can build your dream home, you can construct working models of your favourite cars/planes/spacecraft if you get to grips with the pistons, levers, buttons and switches. There are people that have made 1:1 scale replicas of famous vehicles or buildings, one person made a working 16-bit computer (they made a computer within a game within a computer!). My advice is to by this game before it comes out of beta later this month and you miss the chance for the beta discount.
Minecraft gets:
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| 4 and 3 Quarter 8-bit Gold Bars! (Out of 5) |
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