Minecraft Review
By Candace Werner
Gameplay – 8
Sound – 4
Graphics – 9 (even though its 8-bit, it works well)
Customization – 10
Overall – 8
Minecraft is not the best game in the world. Yet.
Minecraft has become a sensation all over the net and within the gaming community and has already been featured in PC Gamer and Penny Arcade. Though it’s only a year old, this game has reached one of the top slots and has been called “the best game in the world”.
The basis of the game is to build and survive; building is rather easy. The simple game play makes building some of the most spectacular things easy. Time consuming, yes. Aggravating, yes. Architecturally difficult, yes but still easy. Clicking a single button to place a block, simple! Not only are you creating buildings, you can make armor, food, and little tidbits to put in your new structure(s). Meanwhile, while everything that you can create is impressive how you customize in this game is out of this world. It is possible to customize every minuscule detail of your character to your specifications, what else is there in life? Given, you have to use a different program, but in retrospect it will be well worth the extra effort. Should you not feel like doing this, go to the Minecraft forums and get one there. Simple!
Now that we’re off that tangent, back to gameplay goodness. Then comes nightfall, and the entire world makes a 180 which causes zombies, skeletons, creepers and spiders to spawn and begin to stalk you. They want your soul, your brains, or to simply smash you into dust. In order to properly obliterate these guys, by all means, make a sword to defend yourself which normally works well (if you’re lucky). However, the smartest course of action for those of you terrified of boo gags, (myself included), is to build a safe haven. From there, just wait until morning and the sun will burn the bastards, except the spiders who are bigger bastards. Regretfully or preferably (whichever you prefer) the spiders you will have to just stab to a bloody pulp of nothingness. Basically, Minecraft is like Legos on the computer with a zombie trying to eat your brains.
Now that we have knocked out every possible reason you might interest yourself with this game, I feel obligated to mention some unpleasant things to consider. Firstly, can I just say its buggy and go from there? Single player has fewer issues than multi and most of the bugs have been worked out. Multiplayer, that is a completely different, tragic story. In the interest of time, let’s start with the biggest quirk, health does not work. Ick. Unless you want to stay alive and have tons and tons of creepers blocking your view, all the while building, the server needs to be set to peaceful (a mode of play where there are no mobs). let us hope this is fixed on the big Halloween update because it has yet to be fixed on the weekly Friday updates.
Now for another and probably the most annoying of the bugs is multiplayer goes completely down. Out of nowhere, without warning, it will just go haywire and it is impossible to play online. It is still possible to play single player, but that is about it. The fun fact in all of this is, it is a complete mystery how long this game will be down, 16 minutes, 16 hours, until the second coming. For those of you who enjoy intrigue this is the best part, for the rest of us, all I have to say is “Booo” and “mercy please”. Granted I have never witnessed more than a 24 hour down period and normally expect in the neighborhood of 5 hours, but still. . .
Some last housekeeping issues now, as far as glitches go. There are small problems like: throwing your tools and picking them back up will return them to full,mine carts don’t work properly, smelting has issues once in a while and this is the only insight I have left to provide, not-withstanding some other little basic glitches.
These ‘issues’ are hardly conducive to what is called ‘the best game on the net’ however, it is still in Beta. As far as Betas go, this game has far less issues that many i’ve seen before.It is an addictive thing and regardless of its annoying shortcomings, It is a fantastic game and the creator, known as Notch, has definitely created a sensation with high potential.
Last and final point, because it must be said. . . The 8-bit graphics are charming, leaving the pigs and sheep looking more adorable than should be allowed. Especially, when you’re about to slaughter them for their meat.
Price €9.95 In USD it differentiates depending on how the currency exchange dance is doing.
Below is a video of Rapture recreated using Minecraft.
