Minecraft

Reviewing video games is usually a fairly standard process; you play through the games main story, get a feel for it’s mechanics and try to figure out what the games trying to do. In this respect it’s not a terribly difficult process, save for when the game is a 100+ hour RPG epic. Minecraft, however, is something so utterly different that reviewing it is actually a little odd. Nevertheless it’s still a game, it’s still available to the general public and as such this is my take on it.

Mines, they're your friends.

The simplest way of describing Minecraft would be to call it the ultimate Sandbox game, though my personal favorite description is still Lego for adults. However you describe it though  you  probably haven’t done it justice, Minecraft is different things for different people. If you love survival then it’s got that, if you love creating things then it’s got that, if you love destroying everything then it’s got that. Honestly Minecraft does most things, and it does them pretty well.

The basic premise of Minecraft is that you are thrust into a world, no direction, no motive, simply tasked with doing as you please. Laid out before you, albeit slyly, are the tools to shape the world into however you see fit. By mining, chopping and crafting the the resources available you can do whatever your imagination is daring enough to come up with. There’s nothing in the way of exposition and less in the way of objectives, you simply do as you wish.

By turning trees into tools, the ground beneath you into buildings or by turning the precious minerals buried underfoot into cleverly crafted mechanisms you can do basically anything. A daunting idea really, but you get over it. Soon enough every player finds their purpose in their world and they’ll be lucky if they manage not to lose days in there.

My particular niche in Minecraft is to dig, I dig deep and i dig hard. The amount of time I’ve spent making elaborately designed and logically planned mineshafts is ludicrous —  I loved every single minute of it. Never have I enjoyed doing nothing as much as I have in Minecraft, the notion that ‘ultimate freedom’ is daunting is blown away the minute you think “I wonder if I could make a catle“. Probably a cliche thing to do, but then again you haven’t seen my castles.

The tools at your disposal are fairly simple; with them you can dig, chop, mine, sheer and craft anything and everything. The simple set of tools quickly give way to a wealth of incomprehensibly complex mechanics to play with. The more advanced players can genuinely build working circuit boards using redstone powder as wires and some levers as switches. Whilst the rest of us may not be so lucky, there’s still a world of pistons, doors, levers and railways to play with. Once you discover precisely what you can do it becomes difficult to tear yourself away, I spent hours constructing and filling an enormous pyramid of TNT just to blow it up and examine the ensuing devastation. Sounds like fun? It was.

Beautiful, right?

The best moments in Minecraft come from those unexpected events, whether it’s climbing over a hill to an outstanding piece of landscape or striking that all important diamond vein deep underground. Almost every moment of gameplay is filled with one-off moments that catch you by surprise and make you appreciate it all the more. I distinctly remember mining through the roof of one of my shafts only to unwittingly discover an underground lava pit. Clearly not the most welcome of surprises, but it stuck with me.

Besides simply creating and destroying whatever you desire there’s also a fun and impressive survival mode. This gives you exactly the same tools as normal only this time it pits you against a horde of unfriendly nocturnal friends. Creatures such as Creepers, Zombies, Spiders and Endermen will see fit to ruin your day anyway they can. In the midst of this lies a basic but fun combat and survival system. By crafting armor and weapons out of materials you mine you can put up a better fight against those that go “Hsssssssssssssssssss” in the night. Alongside this the non-lethal inhabitants of the world can be used to heal yourself enough to take another crack at whatever’s annoying you the most. Once you’ve managed to tackle the creepy, crawly and hissy foes above ground you can (and should) venture underground in search of strongholds. These almost mythical constructs exist in the map simply to await your arrival. These structures may contain treasure, or a hidden portal to the enderworld.

He just wants a hug, a nice exploding hug.

Deep stuff right? Well it gets deeper. Your usual sandbox game will have one all encompassing map to play with, Minecraft has an unlimited supply. You can either let the world randomly generate itself or use a specific ‘seed’ to produce a unique world every single time. This means that the intrepid explorer in you is free to discover countless worlds, each with their own stunning vista’s, caverns and landscapes. Each map is made up of biomes, thematically distinct environments that blend together to make the world seamlessly beautiful.

The gameplay, whilst simple, can offer more hours of enjoyment than almost any other game available. It can be difficult to get into at first as there’s nothing that tells you how to advance, but once you get your head round the way the everything works the world is literally at your command.

On top of the almost limitless solo fun to be had is the option for a multi-player server. This invites others to join in the revelry of doing whatever the group sees fit. Want to have a race to build the best castle? Do it. Want to make super-secret bases from which to launch attacks on your friends? Sure. Want to just explore the world together? That’s there too. Everything that can be done in single-player can be done with friends, this adds to the enjoyment to be had as it takes the world you’re creating and let’s you share your imagination with others. It can be a little tricky to setup a server to host and it may be a little bandwidth and CPU draining if your hosting said world, but it’s worth it.

Aesthetically Minecraft is beautiful and distinct. It’s clearly not going to win any graphical awards with it’s 8-bit esque style but it’s charming in it’s own way. It really is a testament to the idea of simplicity. Everything from the biomes to the way the square sun sets and rises is simply amazing. It’s probably possible to run Minecraft on a more advanced engine, something capable of higher-end graphics, but that just wouldn’t be right. Minecraft is special, in-part, because of the way it looks and how that makes you feel as the player. The soundtrack also lends itself fantastically to the games indie stylings. Simple yet hauntingly beautiful piano pieces will set the tone of your adventures in the most perfect way.

A HD texture mod that makes the beautiful even more so.

I couldn’t finish this review without discussing Minecraft’s history pre-launch. Minecraft appeared to the industry a while ago in it’s alpha stages. This invited the public to be a part of the games conception, to help the studio test their project and tell them what does and doesn’t work. As a result Minecraft is already a phenomenal success, selling millions of copies before launch and even hosting it’s very own convention. Minecraft has set the bar for what an indie title can accomplish, it’s become a cultural icon all it’s own. The greatest strength Minecraft gained form it’s open source approach is the sheer depth of user generated content. Players around the world have created countless texture packs, mods and adjustments that further the games appeal. With the wealth of community content out there Minecraft can be truly unique for every individual. There is already a vast community centered around every aspect of the game, whatever your particular role in the Minecraft universe is, you can bet there are others that you can go and share your experience with.

I’ve been with Minecraft since the early beta stages, I’ve seen it grow and transform into this final finished product. This is a game all it’s own, it bears no comparisons and even if there where any it would come out stronger. Minecraft, as I briefly mentioned earlier, encompasses all the joy, imagination and creativity of what I can only compare to how Lego made me feel as a child. Minecraft is many things to many people, all of them though are founded in the same unmitigated joy that Minecraft invokes. It can far outweigh most AAA titles for longevity, most indie titles for it’s charming appeal and almost anything in it’s unique approach. This is a game that can easily stand among the best and brightest, this is a game you absolutely need to play.