There's no witchcraft in mining!

Review

Played on: Xbox 360
Released: 2012

I know, I know, Minecraft is a PC phenomenon and I should've played it there first. Apart from being shown the game at a friend the first year it appeared, not understanding anything, I finally jumped in on the experience with the Xbox 360 Arcade version.

I recall downloading the trial and trying it out for about 10 minutes. Not really "getting" the idea of it all, I quit the demo and played something else. The following week I started thinking about it again and tried the trial version for a second time.

This time it just "clicked". I was addicted, learning to build things and understanding how to progress. Gathering material source, upgrading tools and building my own little shelter. I bought it straight away when the trail ended after an hour of play. Since then, I've spent hours in Minecraft's simplistic, yet so addictive world!

Trying to explain why Minecraft is such a good game is actually a difficult task. It's a strange idea. Think of it, if you wish, as a cross between a sandbox game and a RPG. Or to put it in a real life situation; being a Neanderthal with absolutely nothing available in your hands, in a uncharted and dangerous world, having to build everything from the ground up. Surviving, eating, exploring and mining for building materials. Visually, built up in blocky, Lego-like, graphics.

If you throw away Minecraft because of it's visuals you're missing the point. This is 100% about gameplay. There are no cutscenes, there's no story and there's no overall goal. Simply create and build your own world and story.

It's represented in a minimalist fashion, because it works best this way. It's easy to build and create when everything can be measured in blocks. It allows modern hardware to make huge worlds and endless alterations of the environment, storing everything you alter, add or remove.

The game auto-generates almost everything. You set a few, simple parameters for the world creation before beginning to play. It then generates a huge landscape, full of snowy mountains, dense forests, deep seas, rivers, lakes and massive underground caves.

Minecraft actually evolves a lot around the latter. Caves give easy access, without digging, to what lies underneath the ground. Mining is key to getting resources, thus giving you materials to build better tools, weapons, ovens, beds, appliances, stronger buildings and so on.

Every Minecraft session begins somewhere random in a auto-generated landscape. Here, your first goal is to build yourself a shelter for the night. Daytime lasts only so long and it's a rather pleasant experience. With sheep, pigs and cows strolling around in flower fields and between trees.

Nighttime, however, is a different story. Zombies, spiders and skeletons with bow and arrows, begin to emerge from the dark. Even worse, are creeps. Green, zombie-like monsters that blow up when they get near you. They make a horrible hissing sound too.

These enemies disperse when morning arrives and the sun kills them. But once you realise you need to dig underground to find better materials for more powerful tools and weapons: be it iron, gold diamonds or other valuable resources, you need to be aware that monsters are down there. You often come across huge, natural caves that spawn enemies. The trick is to place torches in every dark corner to prevent monsters from spawning.

You wouldn't think I'd say this, but at times it's scary as hell. Even with it's simple, block based, graphics. Exploring dark caves scares the shit out of you at times. The key to this is that you feel vulnerable underground, like you would in real life and even more so when you've mined lots of valuable resources. You want to bring these to the surface and store them in your, ever expanding, home.

In your home, or multiple homes depending on your ambitious side, usually ends up being a palace when you get comfortable with the controls and building skills. Complete with storage boxes, beds, weapons, staircases and rooms. Your Lego skills come back to you from childhood!

The guys behind this build of Minecraft have done an excellent job at converting it to the Xbox 360. The controls are simple and the menus are easy to navigate. Sure, the worlds are smaller and the draw distance is pulled back compared to the PC version, but it doesn't really hamper the essential experience and enjoyment in any way. It's a great way for console gamers to try out what all the hype is about!

I really appreciated the drop-in/drop-out multiplayer splitscreen in this version too. It lets up to four people explore together, or if a friend drops by they can simply join in and the screen splits up to accommodate, without loading or stopping the game. Same is for online sessions.

I strongly recommend the multiplayer experience. There's so much fun in collaborating; be it mining, exploring or building massive structures together. It's a quicker way to tons of resources too.

This is probably on the best games you can get on Xbox Arcade and it's well worth it's higher asking price. It's addictive, creative and offers a new scenario and experience each time you play.

It may not have an overall goal, fancy story or shiny visuals, but what Minecraft has, is hours and hours of creative and addictive fun. Warmly recommended!