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Members rating for Minecraft

1
20.00% (3 votes)
2
0.00% (0 votes)
3
0.00% (0 votes)
4
0.00% (0 votes)
5
0.00% (0 votes)
6
0.00% (0 votes)
7
6.67% (1 vote)
8
13.33% (2 votes)
9
0.00% (0 votes)
10
60.00% (9 votes)

Total Votes: 15

Minecraft - Review
Posted:

Minecraft - ReviewPosted:

Skittle
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Status: Offline
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Release Date: May 17th, 2009 (Alpha); November 18th, 2011 (Official Release)
Developers: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] , [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Publishers: Microsoft
Platforms: Windows, OS X, Linux, Java Platform, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Amazon Fire TV, Raspberry Pi,
Genre: SandBox, Survival, Adventure
Players: 1 -
Rating: 9.5/10


Synopsis
Minecraft is a sandbox independent video game originally created by Swedish programmer Markus "Notch" Persson and later developed and published by the Swedish company Mojang. The creative and building aspects of Minecraft enable players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world. Other activities in the game include exploration, resource gathering, crafting, and combat. Multiple gameplay modes are available, including survival modes where the player must acquire resources to build the world and maintain health, a creative mode where players have unlimited resources to build with and the ability to fly, and an adventure mode where players play custom maps created by other players.


Gameplay
Minecraft is a 3D SandBox game where you can roam around, gather resources, kill mobs, farm crops & animals, and just do anything you could possibly want to do. This game has no limits, you can build the biggest buildings you could ever want, have the most efficient and fast farms, mob grinders and much more. The game has no goals, but there is an achievement system which many players would strive to complete as it would be a way to show progression and accomplishments on the game.

Survival Mode
Survival Mode is the main mode in Minecraft, the player has to collect resources to survive the night, to protect himself from mobs and to live on to expand their world. In this mode, mobs will spawn at night time (or in dark areas) and will attack you if you are near them. To survive you will have to fight them off, without being killed yourself. Minecraft has a hearts and hunger bar system (measured in half hearts/hunger points) which ranges from 0 to 10, when an entity is damaged, hearts will be taken away, when special food items are consumed, some hearts are restored. To regenerate health, the player must consume food which will fill up the hunger bar, when the hunger bar is 9+/10 full, the players hearts will start to regenerate. The hunger bar will slowly degenerate which will result in the player not regenerating health (at < 9 hunger points) and the player losing the ability to sprint (at 3 hunger points). This is one key element of Minecraft that is crucial to survival.

An important feature of Minecraft is Crafting; crafting is the means of using items and resources to turn them into new items that may not have been accessible otherwise. To craft items, you will need to build a crafting table (4 wooden plank in a 2x2 shape), this is a placeable block that when right clicked on, gives you a nice GUI with a 3x3 grid for you to put in the crafting patterns to make new items. Crafting also includes the use of furnaces, these are used to turn the Ores of metals and minerals into their pure, widely usable, ingot version. Furnaces use fuel such as Coal, Charcoal, most wooden items and some plants and organic materials to power the furnace to turn the ores into the purer materials. This process if known as Smelting. The furnace has many other uses than just smelting ores, it is used to make different versions of materials such as smelting Cobblestone into Stone, a smoother, better looking (in my opinion) version.

Interdimensional travel is another goal in Minecraft that the player can strive to achieve, there are currently 3 dimensions in vanilla Minecraft, The Overworld which is the regular, earth like world that the played starts off in, The Nether which is compared to hell in the sense that it is almost like a massive cave that is made almost entirely out of netherrack and filled with lava, The Nether is not infinitely expanding and has walls, a bottom and a top that are made out of bedrock (the only material that can't be mined in Minecraft) to give you the impression that you are trapped; to access The Nether you need to build a 4x5 portal out of obsidian and light it with a flint and steel. The last dimension in Minecraft is The End which is only accessible if the player manages to find a Stronghold that contains an End Portal; this dimension is end game.

Another piece of Minecraft is Mining, when a player ventures into Minecrafts naturally occurring caves, ravines and mines to explore and gather resources like Metal Ores, such as Iron, Gold, Diamond and Coal. Mining is a very important step in starting off a Minecraft world as it provides the player with the materials needed to progress further in the game, craft better tools and weapons and to be able to do more. The player will need to be equipped with tools, weapons and armor to mine and fight off enemy mobs that they come across. The tools range in quality, they go from Wood, Leather (Armor only), Gold, Iron, Diamond. The different variations of tools have different factors which set them apart:

Durability
The number of hits a tool/weapon can take before it is destroyed. With tools this is measured in blocks destroyed, with swords it is measured in number of hits given to an enemy or blocks destroyed (can be used for both, although is not meant for destroying blocks).
Durability Levels:

Tools
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Armor
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Speed of Tool/Strength of Weapon
The speed at which the tool will destroy blocks. Lower grade tools such as wood will take longer to destroy blocks than a diamond tool would. Same applies to weapons, wooden tools would take more hits to kill a mob than diamond weapons would.
Speed of Tools:

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Harvest Level
This only applies to tools and not weapons, this is the level that the tool can mine at. For example, a Stone Pickaxe can mine Iron Ore whereas a Wooden Pickaxe cannot, this is because the Stone Pickaxe has a higher Harvest Level than the Wooden Pickaxe. The same applies for all tools, the Gold Tools are a bit of an anomaly as Gold can only be mined by Iron Tools or higher, but Gold Tools can't mine Iron Ore.
Harvest Levels:

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Enchantability
The enchantability of a tool/weapon is the chance that the tool/weapon will gain a high enchantment. Gold Armor is worse than Diamond Armor, but Gold Armor has a higher enchantability which means if you enchanted both pieces of armor, there is a higher chance that you will get better enchantments on the Gold Armor than the Diamond Armor.
Enchantability Levels:

Tools
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Armor
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Structures
Minecraft also has a number of randomly generated structures in the game, these can be found by exploring the world, on top and underground. These range from NPC Villages to Strongholds. The player could find these structure completely out of the blue, or could be hunting for hours and hours to find some of the rarer ones. Here are a list of the different structures:

NPC Village
These are Villages that spawn across the world, there are many more of these than other structures so you will most likely find more of these. The Villages consist of houses (that vary in size), blacksmith buildings which contain a chest with loot, wheat, carrot and potato farms and water wells. The Villages are inhabited by NPC Villagers which are peaceful mobs which will not attack you even if you attack them first. They can be used to trade, Emeralds (another mineral found by mining) are their main form of currency and they will mostly trade items for emeralds in return, or emeralds for items in return. There are variations of villages, you can find regular ones, and sandstone villages in deserts.
Pictures of NPC Villages:

Regular Village
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Sandstone Village
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Desert Temple
The Desert Temple is another randomly generated structure that spawns in deserts. It is rarer to find than villages, and because of that the loot it contains is a lot better in most cases. The Desert Temple is different to the villages, it is a different shape and is different in the way you get the loot. In the middle of the temple, there is several pieces of stained clay which cover up a large 20ish block drop. At the bottom is a pressure plate which if triggered, sets off a bunch of TNT underneath killing you and destroying all of the loot. The best way to get the loot is to mine down the side, get to the bottom and mine up the pressure plate immediately.
Pictures of a Desert Temple:

Outside
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Inside
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Loot
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Jungle Temple
Jungle Temples are randomly generated structures only found in Jungle biomes. They are as rare as Desert Temples, if not rarer. They are different to the other in that they contain two different areas, you go into the temple and down the stairs in front of you, the two different areas are on the left and right. One of them has trip wires from the walls which when activated, will fire arrows at you from a dispenser. Once you make it to the end of this small tunnel and around the corner, there is a loot chest. The other area has three levers next to each other, press them in the right order (which is unknown) and a block in the floor above will be removed giving you access to the loot chest, and some redstone and sticky pistons.
Pictures of a Jungle Temple:

Outside
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Inside
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Abandoned Mineshaft
These structures spawn randomly underground, they are not that rare but still carry some very interesting rewards. They can have many chests throughout them, on the ground and in minecarts. In these mine shafts there are also wood blocks, so if you are stuck underground without any wood for a pickaxe or crafting table, these can be your saviour. The loot you can get from these chests can vary from buckets to diamonds, and you can also get melon seeds which were previously impossible to get any other way.
Pictures of Abandoned Mineshafts:

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Dungeons
Dungeons are unlike any other structure as they contain a Mob Spawner block. These blocks will spawn a certain mob in a set radius, depending on the light level. If the light level is low enough, it will constantly spawn the select type of mobs (unless there are too many mobs in the radius). The dungeons also contain Mossy Cobblestone which are not found accessible any other way but Jungle Temples and crafting cobblestone and vines, and a chest or two which contain average loot. Dungeons can be made into mob farms as they will constantly spawn mobs which can be farmed for XP and their drops. The spawners can either spawn Zombies, Skeletons, Spiders, Cave Spiders, Silverfish (only found in the Stronghold), Blazes (only found in the Nether).
Pictures of Dungeons:

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Strongholds
The Stronghold is the rarest naturally spawning structure in Minecraft. There are only a few in the whole world. To find a Stronghold, the player could stumble across it completely by chance, or they could throw an Eye of Ender in the sky which would move towards the Stronghold. Strongholds contain the End Portal, 12 End Portal Frame blocks that all need an Eye of Ender placed in them to create the portal. This portal will take you to The End, an Enderman filled Dimension where you can battle the Ender Dragon, this is basically the end game thing to do in Minecraft. Strongholds also contain several other rooms, such as a Library which is filled with cobwebs and bookshelves.
Pictures of Strongholds:

Portal Room
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Library
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Ocean Monument
The Ocean Monument is a structure that spawns naturally in deep oceans. It is made primarily of prismarine, prismarine bricks, dark prismarine and sea lanterns. This structure houses the Guardian and Elder Guardian mobs. These mobs when killed drop some items that are unique to this structure and cannot be obtained by any other means in Survival Mode.
Pictures of Ocean Monuments:

Outside
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Inside
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Creative Mode
Creative Mode in Minecraft is one of the alternates to Survival Mode, in Creative Mode you are invincible, you can fly and you have an additional inventory. This inventory has every item in the game (and ones added by mods) and allows you to take an infinite number of anything. In this mode there is no survival aspect, it is more for players to build and create anything they want without having to go through the whole Survival scenario and having to spend time mining and farming resources. Creative Mode take away your Heart and Hunger Bar so you don't lose either when playing in this mode. You are invincible to mob and environmental damage so you do not have to worry about dying in this mode.

Creative Mode is used widely by many people, some use it on Superflat worlds (worlds that spawn completely flat), with other customizable features such as trees, dungeons, fortresses and villages. These Superflat worlds are used to build massive structures and buildings without having to worry about the need to clear out natural obstructions, oceans and water pools. Another thing people use Creative Mode for is making redstone contraptions. Redstone is an ore found underground that when mined drops several Redstone Dust. Redstone is the main in game Minecraft logic, this dust can be placed on the ground and connect with many devices such as pressure plates, buttons and switches. There are a huge number of applications for this, from farming to mob grinders and secret doors.


Graphics
The graphics in this game are seen differently by many people; some say that they are bad, some say they are good. Minecraft is a 3D game that projects 2D image textures to make the world 3D. By default, Minecraft uses 16x16 resolution textures to make the game feel like a memorable, old computer game. Some people don't like how the game is 'blocky' as the items and blocks don't have as much detail a they could, but I like it the way it is and it is like this on purpose. If the graphics which are a very big thing in the game (as it is the first thing you see) were changed, it would have a gigantic effect on Minecraft as a brand. There is merchandise, books and other physical products which mimic the style of Minecraft which is one of those instantly recognisable things. Making any sort of big change to the graphics of this game would negatively affect it in my opinion.

For people who do, or don't like the textures of this game, they are able to change that completely with Texture Packs. Texture Packs are add-ons to the game which can be made, and used by anyone. They are just a new set of 2D image textures to be used by the game when rendering the blocks, changing how the game looks entirely. Texture Packs are also used by Minecraft map makers, people who make adventure maps (maps made which have a specific set of tasks set to challenge the user to complete them) can use texture packs to their advantage, I have seen a Star Wars adventure map which requires a texture pack that is nothing like Minecraft textures, it is made so that the blocks used to create the map look like blocks that you would see in Star Wars.


Audio
The audio in this game is one of the most memorable features of the game altogether, most people who have only played the game a little bit could guess the game if they listened to the music with their eyes closed. The Minecraft soundtracks are made by German sound designer [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] . The music in this game is very peaceful and relaxing, it suits the game so very well. The different tracks in the game are all played at different moments, and these work very well with the atmosphere of the game. Other than the music, Minecraft has its large share of sound effects, each of the different blocks have a specific sound that plays when you mine it, that stops the game getting boring and makes it more detailed as mining grass for example would have a higher pitched, textured crunching sound rather than mining a harder material like stone which would have a low pitch, dull sound. I really like the audio in Minecraft because everything has a sound to it, going through portals, fighting mobs, taking and receiving damage; everything in the game has a matching sound that will stick in your head.


Controls
The controls on this game differ per platform, but for some platforms it is the same (Xbox 360 and Xbox One, PS3 and PS4, PC and OS X etc). For the controls on Computer platforms, you use the WASD layout to move around and the mouse to look. You use a few other keys to crouch, jump etc but those are almost a given once you start playing. The controls on the console will be the same as almost every game using the joysticks to move and look etc. I think the controls in this game are good on all platforms, but on some they are not as easy to use as they are on others. On PC & OS X, using a mouse to look around is very useful in some situations, if you are mining for example and you hear the inevitable hissing sound of a creeper, then being able to turn around as quick as you possibly can could save the house you have been working on for hours, or stop you from flying to lava and losing all of your inventory that you mined for so long to build up. Little things like the controls have such a huge impact on the game. Playing on console is by no means bad even though the controls can be a bit annoying at times, and has some advantages to playing on PC. Some peoples computers may not be able to run Minecraft at a very high FPS and with very high texture detail on, which would put them at a disadvantage if playing on a multiplayer server and would not be fun to play on at all. Playing on a console doesn't put anyone at a disadvantage as the specs of the console would be the same for everyone.


Facts
  • Over 20 million people have bought the PC/Mac version of Minecraft since release
  • In 2014, Microsoft bought Mojang for 2.5 Billion Dollars!


Rating
Gameplay - 10/10
Graphics - 9.5/10
Audio - 9.5/10
Controls - 9.5/10
Overall - 9.5/10


Last edited by Skittle ; edited 3 times in total

The following 11 users thanked Skittle for this useful post:

TOXIC (12-29-2017), Grown (12-10-2015), pi (08-24-2015), Sky (08-23-2015), Vauxhall (08-23-2015), TwistedDesigns (08-23-2015), Craig (07-16-2015), Gavin- (07-16-2015), Adam (07-11-2015), Ache (07-10-2015), DeluxeHazard (07-09-2015)
#2. Posted:
Derivation
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This is a very good review. You have included many good details which I can relate to just by remembering the last time I played Minecraft (which was 20 minutes ago ).
This game is so special; you just feel completely relaxed when playing it.
#3. Posted:
Fidel
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Wow you put a lot of work in to this. I really love minecraft it's a game I love to play a lot especially if I am playing with my friends. I Look forward to more reviews.
#4. Posted:
SundownsSun
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Great work! Keep it up with your reviews.
#5. Posted:
Gavin-
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Very good review man with a lot of detail, loved minecraft back in the day.
#6. Posted:
Pro
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Very good review with a lot of detail

I used to love this game like 4 years ago aha
#7. Posted:
Decy
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ALOT of detail used in this review nice man!
#8. Posted:
NoisyLobbies
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Great work! Keep it up with the reviews.
#9. Posted:
ITA
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Minecraft gets boring too quick for me.
#10. Posted:
TOXIC
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Motto: TTGS #1 SHIT POSTER!
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One of the best reviews ive read on here so far i think.
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