Minecraft is a sandbox type game where there is no purpose but just to experiment (and survive) to build and advance your world as far as you can. The basics are that you start on an island, find some trees, make a temporary (or permanent) shelter and then find some coal to make torches to light up your home. There are 4 difficulty modes:

• peaceful, where no mobs (enemies) will spawn that will attack you,
•  easy, where all the mobs spawn but they have less health and deal less damage then the other difficulties,
• normal, the average mode  where the mobs are have slightly more health and damage then in easy, and of course
• hard mode where the mobs are the most difficult to kill (deal the most damage and have the most health).

 

There is no actual storyline or anything that you are trying to do besides survive and advance to higher technologies such as pistons and mine carts.

Minecraft is still in beta and is scheduled for release on the 11th of November this year.but is updated quite frequently(the next update, to version 1.8, is on the 12th September 2011). This is a highly addictive game to play especially if you find a good server(I have found that dyncraft.us is excellent). The multi-player is slightly buggy but not to the point where single player is better(unless your ping is horrible).

I have found that playing on a public server instead of hosting your own private server is much better as it will have many more people.

The only downside (and it is a small one) is the graphics. The graphics are not excellent but if you do not like the default quality it is possible to get a high-definition texture pack. The great thing about minecraft is its ease of modding and simplistic design(until later stages). If you want to try out minecraft (the old mode without mobs) for free then click here. The pre-release version is 15 Euros and entitles you to all updates and the final version when it is released.  Minecraft can be played offline using the launcher or in-browser online. Please note that Minecraft requires Java to play.

Kaedon Williams

kaedon33 (at) gmail.com

Tags: game, minecraft, Review

Categories: Fun things to do

---