The sandbox gaming phenomenon that is Minecraft has finally lured a new legion of gamers to its charms via its Xbox 360 edition version. Does it live up to the deafening hype?
Video games are good for killing stuff. Space marines, bears, faceless black ops and the odd Nazi with even the most casual gamer?s body count averaging more than two world wars combined. That?s before we get to cutesier stuff with all manner of animals getting stomped on by portly plumbers.
The Xbox 360 is a peerless killing machine in this respect, with more shooters hosted on the venerable console than just about any other format. So, after many, many years of massacres and psychopathic gameplay, why have I become addicted to a game that simply asks me to mine and craft?
At first glance, Minecraft is easy to dismiss. It looks like a Fisher Price video game; all blocky bitmaps and primary colours. Your cuboid avatar has no special powers or backstory to speak of and his only notable skill seems to be the ability to destroy the Lego-esque environment one cube at a time and all the while, an ambient soundtrack lets you know that this is a safe, gentle game for the casual crowd.
This first impression is easily to make but it's a colossal mistake as before you know it, minutes turn into all-night sessions as the game ensnares you with its twin pleasures of survival and unbridled creativity.
The set-up for the game is simple: build to survive and survive to build even more. Stating a new game deposits you on a randomly generated island, like a digital Crusoe with nothing to help you other than the natural resources the island has to offer. All that is missing is Wilson.
The game quickly informs you that night is on the way and you had better get yourself some shelter. This is no idle piece of advice because as soon as the sun goes down, a variety of monsters come out and swiftly murder you, if you don't take the necessary precautions.
Luckily, the resources are plentiful and soon you are building your first shed to hide in for the night. You do this through the games ingenious crafting system. Trees make lumber, lumber makes planks and sticks. Burn the sticks to make torches and build you shed one block at a time.
The game encourages experimentation through the primary tools at your disposal; the workbench and the furnace. With these tools you can fashion almost anything you want. Tired of waiting through the night? Build a bed and skip through till morning. Sick of the four walls of your shed? Build an extension with windows by putting sand through the furnace.
What is first a necessity for survival quickly becomes and all-consuming addiction as you begin to explore the limits of what is possible. Soon your little shack will seem unsuitable for your aims of a Dr Evil lifestyle and you will set your sights on a massive volcano lair complete with vast underground mines and minecart track systems.
There is a catch to all of this world building and that is once you start, it becomes very hard to stop. Be warned; even the mighty Skyrim is less of a timesink than this.
For the more sociable builders out there, a local multiplayer exists which is great for getting work done at speed. Sadly the persistent world creation from the PC version is absent, so you can forget about exploring other peoples worlds and the multitude of user generated games (google ?Minecraft + Hunger Games) that have become popular within the original game.
However, Minecraft has been synonymous with constant improvement and updates on every format, including a hugely impressive iOS port from last year, so features missing from this 360 version could well be patched in later.
Completely original and enthralling in ways that you could never imagine just by looking at it, Minecraft is the antidote to the endless parade of Call of Duty titles and their legion of imitators. Buy it, live it, but don?t start complaining when your social life disappears block by block.
Format: Xbox 360, PC
Developer: Mojang, 4J Studios; Publisher: Mojang
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